Thing # 14 Technorati

Technorati is a blog search engine. I found it to be too busy. There was not a category for education, so how do you find blogs pertaining to education issues only? When you type in a long item to search for like School library learning 2.0 and want to re-type it, it does not memorize what you have looked for before and I find this inconvenient. When I did search for School Library, the first search pulled up 182 listings. Next, I searched using filters and received 74 postings and they were not the Spring Branch blog.

This maybe a good starting point to search for blogs, but I did not like it. Listening to the video of the employees of the company, they have a grand idea of blogs being the "voice of the people", but there are a lot of voices to listen to and dredge through.

Thing # 13 Social Bookmarking

The social bookmarking concept is AWESOME! The ability to view websites you have saved and are interested in from any device with internet service is incredible. Also, to be able to tag (name) them how you believe you can find them again is great. Delicious is easy to use and navigate. This can eliminate having to e-mail websites to colleagues, they can look it up on their Delicious account. In Pasadena ISD, each new school year your favorites are wiped clean, so if you did not save them in a document or some other way, they will be gone.

I can see how in research, social bookmarking is a handy tool to have. I like the feature of highlighting a portion of the webpage you are looking at, because sometimes you only need a bit of the information and there is a lot of content on the webpage and after time, it is hard to remember why you liked the article. The highlighting will be there to remind you.

Furl is now diigo. You can produce shared reading lists with friends and co-workers.

Thing # 11 LibraryThing

WOW!! Where has this been all my life. I have always wanted an easy way to keep up with books that I have read. I use to be a romance novel junkie, and I went through so many, I would forget what I had read and ended up getting one I had already read. I do NOT like to pay full price, so I hit the library, used book stores, and e-bay for bargains. Of course, you can't beat the library, except they do not always carry the newest works.

I see this as being a very helpful tool I will use in my life. Last year my 5th grade students would recommend books and even let me borrow theirs. Now I have a somewhere to keep track of my reading. Also, I had a friend borrow a book and did not realize he still had it and now I can put a comment to remind me of who has a book, or who I borrowed it from. FANTASTIC! The recommended books on the website was an added bonus.

I looked at the what are you reading now group. I can see where this could be handy when I have more time to explore.

Thing #10 OnLine Image Generators

ImageChef.com Poetry Blender



This discovery activity was a lot of fun. You could make flowers spell out a message with a background of green. Big Huge Labs had a lot of different ideas to choose from. I used image chef to make the above images. On the right, I used mosaic maker to redo a photograph to look like a mosaic.

The uses in the school are many. Students could use this technology to be creative with writing, social studies, and any curriculum. In my class, we did a novel study on Tuck Everlasting, and students could use image generators to make an advertisement for the spring water, or use a template from Kid-Friendly Image Generators to liven up a summary for the book.

Thing #9 Blog Search Engines

I found Technorati to be a useful search engine for blogs. It was easy to use and easy to click on the blog and do a quick read to see if it was something I would want to keep up with. The Cool Cat Teacher blog’s post about your circle of friends was very informative. Unless I am your best friend, I am looking for information that will help me in the library or classroom. I am not interested in pages and loads of pictures of your personal life.

Google Blog Search reminds me of a regular google search where a lot of titles come up, but a majority of them are not what I am seeking. I felt the same way about Bloglines.

I found Topix.net to be appealing. It listed current events and you could navigate to the full story and you could read people’s opinions/comments and add your two cents in, if you were so inclined.

I did find a blog with recipes containing low glycemic index foods, a library-tech-classroom blog which looked motivating, and a celebrity gossip blog (guilty pleasure). I liked School Library Blogs on Superglu, it picked different posts from various library blogs and put them together.

Thing #8 RSS Feeds

Google Reader is a great way to keep up with a lot of things at once. I set up my five subscriptions and had 137 items right away to go look at. I see how this could be a terrific way to stay current on topics and websites you are interested in. It is a time saver and who wouldn't appreciate that aspect.

In my personal life, I see if I am interested in receiving updated information about live music in local venues or new recipes on my favorite recipe websites. For career purposes, I could remain aware of issues concerning educational issues.

Librarians could be alerted to new book information and updated blog information. It is a one-stop place for current information that you are interested in.

Thing #7 Calendar

Here is my Google calendar:

http://www.google.com/calendar/render



I can see many uses for the calendar. Students can use it to keep up with deadlines, parents can view it to see the assignments, and librarians can use it for teachers to schedule library visits.

Google Alert could be used in any class. Social studies could keep up with current world events. Science class can keep their eye on certain studies. Language Arts could be alerted when a book is released. It would save time searching if updates you ask for come directly to you.

Thing #6 Mashups

Big Huge Labs has a lot of fabulous programs students and teachers could use to create an educational product. I had fun with the trading card and the magazine cover. I can see a lot of uses for products such as these in the classroom. Students could look up information on different types of people, countries, animals, and plants (to name a few) and make a trading card. With Mappr, students could make travel brochures.

The trading card I made was about author, Kate DiCamillo. Students could easily look up information about their favorite author and create a card.

Thing #5 Flickr

Flickr and Creative Commons is a beautiful place for educators to feel comfortable sending their students to in order for them to find images they might use in an educational project. It would be easy to give credit to the people who took the photographs. The future is looking "rosy" for people to be comfortable sharing works.

Picure by Houstonian called IMG_0322 retrieved from http://farm1.static.flickr.com/32/64285588_e9341d6d07.jpg?v=0

Thing #4 Register Blog

I registered by blog and it was accepted.

Thing # 3 Set up Blog and Avatar

Blog

There was a lot of information to read about setting up the blog. It does take a lot of thought for the names. The reason behind why you want to set up your Blog definitely makes a difference on how you will name it. If you are catering to certain groups you want them to be able to find your blog on a search engine.

The avatar was a lot of fun making. My husband and I do a lot of motorcyle trips and that is why I chose a biker chick for mine!

Thing #2 Life Long Learners

Life Long Learners -

After viewing the video and powerpoints on life long learners, the easiest one is #7 1/2, Play. I have always been active in playing games, cards, sports, etc... I want to be the one on the field not the person in the stands. I feel this is one of the biggest ways I build relationships with my students is through play!

The hardest one for me is to view problems as challenges. When a problem occurs, it will upset me at first and I usually do not view it as a learning experience but yet as something else I will have to deal with. For the future, I will try to use this new perspective.

Thing #1

I am very excited to learn all the technology. I know this will help not only in my professional life, but my personal life as well.