Thing #23

Wahoo! I did it! I actually did all 23 "things" and not only that, I had a lot of fun doing it. What a great way to learn about all the cool tools on the internet! What a great experience!

I had a lot of favorites, so I am only going to list my favorite favorites. First, my most favorite was Photostory. I have always envied these great picture slide shows I see at weddings, graduation parties, birthday parties, etc. Now, I can be one of those people who has a great slide show. I had so much fun making my photostory and sharing it with the class and also with my family. And, it was so easy! Some of my other favorites were Google docs, mash ups, widgits,and learning even more about wiki pages and how to use them in my library.

This course has affected my lifelong learning goals for the simple fact that I have so much more confidence in my ability to learn new things and things that are somewhat on the cutting edge. I have always felt like someone on the lower part of the totem pole when it came to computers and technology. Now, I actually feel like I know things that maybe others don't, and I am excited to show them so everyone can be in the know. With the right framework, I now know I can do what I put my mind to.

A definite unexpected outcome from this is that I plan on continuing my blog even after this class is over. Also, I actually plan on using a lot of what I learned in these 23 things out there in the real world. A lot of information you gain from inservice, continuing ed hours, or college classes isn't something you can or want to apply in your real life. This is definitely the exception to that rule. I have already started sharing what I know with others, and figuring out how my new knowledge can be utilized in my library.

I honestly don't think there is anything that could be improved on this program. I never had any trouble uploading things, following the given directions, all the links worked, all the information made sense, and it was all relevant. Those things that I might not think are relevant to me in my position, I can see how they would be relevant to another in a different position. This program fits all types of teaching and librarian positions and it was really a great experience.

I would definitely participate in future versions of this same thing, and I would like doing it, and I would encourage all I know to do the same. I am already going to my principal and telling her that all the teachers on my campus need to do this 23 things next summer.

To sum it all up in one word/phrase/sentence:

Life Changing!

Truly, thanks - I had a blast!

Thing #12

Commenting on blogs used to be very tough for me, and it still is to a degree. I always seem to think that my comments are pointless, or my questions are stupid. I know, I know...I'm a teacher/librarian, there are no stupid questions...(except for the stupid ones!). Anyway, I liked that the Cool Cat Teacher Blog says "Don't be afraid to comment". So true, and I find that with each comment I make, I feel more and more confident that I make some valid points. I also liked that she said to tell something about yourself in your posts/comments. I think that when someone makes a personal connection to someone else, the point that are trying to make resonates more clearly. If I know something about the person who is commenting to my blog, I then have more trust that their comment is genuine and that they might actually "get" me.

I had fun looking at so many of the blogs from this 23 things assignments. It was fun to see people who had just discovered something that I had just discovered and we were both excited about it. I ended up commenting on the following blogs: Aspiring Librarian, Angie's Library2Play Trials, The Library Window, In Rachel's Words, and Pepper's Place. I think earlier on I may have commented on others as well, but at some point I lost track. I'm glad commenting was a part of the project, because I do think it is a vital part to blogging.

Thing #22

I think Nings are an interesting addition to the social networking web sites. I just recently joined Facebook, and haven't decided if I like it yet. I was apprehensive to join simply because I feel like it is a tool for a younger generation than me. Finally, one of my cousins convinced me to join for the sole reason of sharing photos online with family. Of course, the people I want to share photos with also need to be a part of Facebook, and I don't see my Dad or my Mother-in-law joining FB anytime soon. I still just share photos with them through Snapfish, or now through Photostory.

I think I would join a Ning group that was appropriate for me. I did like the Teacher Librarian Ning. I looked at some of the postings and the information seemed relevant and worth my time to look at. It's not bogged down by all the "egg hatchlings" and "mafia wars" that I see constantly on FB. Maybe this is the route of social networking I need to consider.

Thing #21

I had an amazing amount of fun putting together this "photostory" of our summer vacation. I didn't even know this software existed and it truly is one of the easiest things I've done. I have sent it to so many people - I am so proud - and I know it could be better, but I'm just amazed that I did something like this and at the ease of the process. As I type it is still trying to upload to my blog, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will all work out, but it seems to be continuing to try to upload and it's just a long process.

I plan on telling so many people about photostory. One of the things I like about it is how easy it is to use. I like that you can either add music or narration to the pictures. I think it would be a really cool class project to take pictures at the Houston Zoo, and then have the kids research the different animals and put it together with photostory with narration of the research they did. What a great project to learn about mammals and reptiles. Plus, there are so many animals out there, each kid could research both a mammal and a reptile. It could be like a virtual field trip, since our district has done away with field trips for the time being. It would also be fun to take pictures of each student in the class and then have them narrate about themselves. There are so many possibilites - and it's FUN!!!

Thing #20

First of all, I never knew there was a site like zamzar that would convert videos into different formats so quick and easy. I have been having trouble getting my videos to load to my snapfish account, and realized a few weeks ago it was because the videos were in the wrong format. Now, with zamzar, I can quickly convert them to the right format and upload them to my snapfish account. Thank you!

I had fun browsing through TeacherTube and looking at the different videos. I have never done this before, and there are a lot of valuable videos to view there. I found this one that is a song about the weather that I think could definitely be used in Kindergarten, but probably also PreK, and 1st grade, as well as music class with these age groups.




What I like about TeacherTube is that there are so many student made videos that a teacher could show as an example to students if the class was working on a video for a project. Also, I like how when browsing you can easily see what grade level most of the videos are for. TeacherTube is an asset to have and know about, and now that I know how to embed the videos into a blog (is it really this easy?) I think I can use it better in my job.

Thing #19

I had fun looking at the web 2.0 award winners and seeing which ones I was familiar with and which ones I wasn't. I decided to look at the Widgits award winners because I really like adding these neat little features to my blog. I added one for a 5 day forecast of the weather. I liked this because kids are usually learning about the weather, and I know if many of the younger grades they do calendar everyday and part of that is discussing the weather. I thought having the weather at your fingertips (or on your blog) would be helpful and keep you up to date on the changing outdoor situations. I also added a countdown widgit. For the time being, I put in a countdown to Christmas, because I love Christmas, but you could do all kinds of countdowns on there with kids, and it would be exciting to look regularly and see how much time remains until the big event, whatever it may be. There are so many countdowns kids would want to do, like end of school, spring break, birthdays, etc. You could have a classroom blog with a countdown to every students birthday. Really, the possiblities are endless. What a cool little tool!

Thing #18

Google Docs is a very cool "thing" that I had never heard of before this class. Several people in this class had mentioned Google Docs so I was excited to see that I go to explore it in my 23 things. I think there are numerous advantages to having this type of program. For one, you would almost always have access to your documents. Gone are the days of emailing things to yourself so you would have something you worked on at home when you got to school or work. Also, gone are the days of driving back home in a frenzy because you forgot your flash drive. I also like how you can upload existing documents in there and work with them. Sharing your documents is super easy, and you have many options to do so with. You can get a "link" to share, you can invite people to see your documents, you can email your documents out, or you can publish your document as a web page. And all of this is right at your fingertips.

I can see just a few disadvantages to using an online, free tool like Google Docs. First, I am not sure about the security of your documents. Ideally, you have to sign in and others also would have to be able to sign in to your account to get your documents, but I don't think I would put any personal or important information out there because it just seems like if it's out there, someone can access it. Also, another disadvantage I see is that even when you share your document with someone else, they will need a Google account in order to view it. This is a minor disadvantage because most people either already have a Google account, or wouldn't mind getting one, but this could pose problems.

Thing #17

Rollyo was a new experience for me, but I did like it. I created a searchroll on recipes because I like to cook and am always looking for new recipes to try. Usually I either do a general google search and get a gazillion results, or I pick one of my tried and true websites and start searching there. The problem is, when I just go to one site, I might not find something I like, so I then have to search a different site until I get what I want. Obviously, the problem with google is that I end up with more results than I even care to dream of and get bogged down with all the unnecessary items in the results. With Rollyo, I just listed my top 6 or 7 recipe sites that I like to go to, and then Rollyo searches all of those sites and only those sites. What a novel idea. I am definitely going to share this one with my staff. I am sure that in there professional lives as well as their personal they can use this tool and save themselves time.

Here is the link to my Rollyo search page:

http://rollyo.com/index.html

Thing #16

I am somewhat familiar with participating in wiki discussions, but have never actually started one on my own. I am excited to learn how to do this and to try this out. I mentioned on the wiki page that I will definitely be using this in my personal life for a long distance book club I am in with my mother-in-law. How cool that I can add a link to a new page for every new book we decide to read together. Then, it's all in the same location. Also, adding new pages would be a great way for us to list upcoming books we want to read.

I think I will use a wiki with my 3rd and 4th graders this year for the bluebonnet books and see how it goes. I think this would be a great way to utilize technology, teach something new, get students writing more, and hopefully reading more as well. I am glad wiki pages was a part of 23 things, because now I am confident that I will use these in the future.

Thing #15

The first link I read was called "Away from the 'icebergs'" and this one really hit home. Why do we spend so much money and effort purchasing books when a good majority of the information found in those books can be found online and usually free? There is the mindset that we need to keep doing things this way because that is the way it has always been done. As my dad would say, "If it isn't broken, don't fix it." And, while I do agree with that theory, there should probably be another phrase that goes something like, "If it can be done better, do it." That is how I view the way libraries are right now. What is happening at my library works, but it could work a lot better. Maybe a better way to spend money is on the technology we lack.

I also read "Into a new world of librarianship" and I really liked what Stephens had to say about "technolust". I also think this goes along with the online discussion #6 about how you determine what non print items to purchase for your library. There is so much new technology appearing every day, and we as librarians have to remember that not only is it not all appropriate for the current position we are in, it is also not always what our patrons need/want. Stephens also mentioned that a 2.0 librarian listens to their patrons, shares the good and bad, learns from every situation, and continues to dream of the ideal library for everyone. How true.

Thing #14

Technorati seems like a very interesting site to be familiar with. I liked the video showing all the new features and how easy, user friendly, and time saving the new style is going to be. I will admit that I had never heard of Technorati before today, and if someone had asked me what I thought it was, I would never have guessed right. I can see where this would be very helpful to an avid blogger, as well as someone just starting in the blogging community who has a lot to learn. I like the various ways to search as well. When I searched "school library learning 2.0" in blog posts and blog directories, I had several things to look at. When I searched it in tags, I had no results. The tagging is interesting because while I might tag things one way, someone else might tag the exact information a completely different way. This is great because I don't need to be concerned with what I'm calling something, as long as it makes sense to me. However, it might make it difficult to search tags and get the results you are looking for. I can see the benefit to using tags unique to you, but I can also see the benefit of using predetermined tags or labels as well.

I did add a Technorati widgit - the 5 top news stories. I added this one because I know I never watch the news because I don't like to hear all the bad things happening in the world. This way, I can see the headline and decide to read about it or not. I liked this option, so I decided to give it to others who are viewing my blog.

Thing #13

I really like the idea of a social bookmarking site. This can be incredibly helpful to a librarian simply because we come across so many sites regularly that we want to share with our fellow faculty. If this type of social bookmarking was set up on the campus, or even in the school district, a lot of things would become easier. If a librarian did an inservice explaining the social bookmarking site of choice, and made the teachers not only aware that it was there but also familiar with how to use it, then the librarian could send emails every so often either reminding the teachers to check out the websites listed, or making them aware that new sites were added. The teachers can then access these on their own time when it is convenient for them. As a librarian, I try to keep the teachers up to date on the new and exciting things going on online, but most of this is through email, and there are always going to be those times when emails accidentally get deleted, or never get received. If the teachers know that this resource is available to them, they don't have to wait for an email to tell them to check the site.

This is also an invaluable resource for a team of teachers to use. If all the third grade teachers are using a social bookmarking site and they are all contributing to it for content/grade related information, they all benefit.

I have heard about delicious before, but I had some trouble adding links to my toolbar. I am going to continue to work on this some more, and I am going to also check out the bookmarking tool from Google and explore how that works. Either way, social bookmarking is a great resource for a school to be using.

Thing #11

This one was very fun and easy to use. I loved adding my books - it was so easy, and setting up the widget is easy as well. I searched through the different groups and found a few that I thought might be interesting. For right now I have set up to just watch them so I can then determine which ones I would actually like to join.

I am excited to share this with my dad for one. He is an avid reader, and he keeps this list (probably in microsoft excel) of all the books he has read, and then he has another list of books he wants to read, and then, when he goes to the bookstore, or the amazon.com, he doesn't buy a book he's already read. I think this will be perfect for him...and since he has his handy little iphone, he can access this info virtually anywhere.

I am also excited to share this with my mother-in-law. Last year for Christmas I gave her a book and a monthly book club with me. We take turns choosing a book to both read and then we pick a day in the month to discuss the book via email (she lives in Cincinnat). It is so much fun to hear her thoughts, and also, we have both read books that we would have never chosen on our own, and we've liked them. Her husband even joins in but he has yet to join a discussion. I am thinking it would be nice to have a private group on library thing where we can hold our little discussions, and that would make it easier for other family members to join. I am working on this right now.

Thing #10

Okay - this was so much fun. I created two pictures through fotoflix - one is a picture of my husband and my kids on a trail in Shenandoah National Park, and they all have light sabers and are pretending to be jedis...I superimposed an alien in the foreground...it's pretty funny. The only think I didn't like about this site was that my original images were too big, so I had to make them smaller, which took some time.

Then, I went to dumpr and uploaded a picture of my kids and made it into a jigsaw puzzle. Both were very fun. I did not have to change the size of my original picture on this site, so that was nice. I originally set out to make a comic strip, but I liked the other things I had to choose from so much more.

One of the things I liked from fotoflix was the ability to make a magazine cover...what a great Christmas present for grandparents. I am definitely going to play with this one some more.

Thing #9

This one took some time for me. I get so interested in what I am reading that I forget I actually have a task to complete. When I used the different search engines, the one I liked the best was Blogline's Search Tool. I found this one the easiest to use because you had the option to search for posts, feeds, citations, or the web. This was a nice way to have the information you are looking for filtered by certain criteria.

I also liked Edublogs award winners. This makes it nice to search amoung the best in a certain criteria to decide which one is good for you...and since all the blogs are among the nominees for award winners, you probably won't make a choice that isn't good.

None of the search tools were necessarily confusing, but I like topix.net the least. I guess I didn't like the "news" feel it had to it. While I was there I found a Mom's Night Out post that went on and on between two people, a man and a woman, about how unfair it was that they had a Mom's Night Out but not a Dad's Night Out. The man defending fathers was a little bit rude, and while it was amusing to read, it was just nonsense and a waste of time. I'm not big on watching/listening/reading the news, so this site was my least favorite.

Thing #8

I really enjoyed setting up RSS. This is one that could possibly get addictive. There are so many things out there that I'd like to read about and usually don't simply because I don't have the time. Having them sent directly to one location that I can access with quick clicks makes this more doable, but I can see myself reading instead of doing other things that need to be done. I set up my RSS to get several library related blogs and a blog on nonfiction books and one on elementary reading. I also set up my blogs to receive a couple of daily recipes. I love to cook and am always looking for new recipes to try. I haven't done it yet, but I plan on also adding some traveling sites to my RSS as well.

I think RSS is helpful in my career because it cuts down the time I might spend looking for something important and valid to read. Instead, the information is at my fingertips and I didn't have to do any of the leg work. I am sure there are some feeds I signed up for that I will end up discontinuing, and others that I haven't found yet that I will like; however, once it is set up the way I want it to be, I think it will be extremely useful. I think this is something I will show the teachers I work with also. Some teachers will really enjoy this feature. Personally, I love to cook and travel. Sometimes I will go on the internet and search for 20 or 30 minutes for a new recipe to try. This will definitely end that since I have signed up to receive 3 different daily recipes. Obviously, there will be some that I will not even consider, but if I even get one new recipe a week that makes it worth it. I haven't set up any traveling feeds yet, but my hope is to find something on traveling with kids or family traveling and be able to find new destinations and great deals that I would have otherwise missed.

Teachers/administrators/librarians, and really any professional can and should take advantage of RSS. I know that my husband will probably start using this in his line of work as well. How helpful to have the news about topics you pick sent directly to you without you having to scan entire magazines, blogs, newspapers, etc to find it. Also, if several people in your related field are all trying it out, when one person finds something good, they can share it with others that will also find it important or useful. Again, there will probably have to be some discerning to find the feeds that have the information that you want, but once you've figured out which feeds are the best for you, why wouldn't you set this up? I definitely still have some tweaking to do on mine, but I know in a matter of days it will be set up the way that is best for me.

Thing #7

Google has some amazing things that I never even knew about. First, I made a calendar. I am not sure exactly how to make it public. The way I think it is working right now is it is public as long as you have a google account...I could be wrong about this. Anyway, the link is http://www.google.com/calendar/render Hopefully this will work, it did with my trials, but often you never know. The other thing I started playing around with on Google was Picasa Web Albums. I uploaded some pictures to a photo album from our summer vacation and was going to edit them and see what I could do there when I found this application called photo locations. This is the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. This gives you the option to click and drag your photo thumbnails onto a map at the location where the picture was take. So, for some of our trip this summer we were in the Smokey Mountains in Gatlinburg, TN and we took a drive through Cades Cove. So, I dragged the pictures from this and placed them on the map right along the road we drove on...so cool! I am pretty sure my husband is hooked on this and will be doing this with all our photos. I would probably spend more time here too if I didn't have to move on to Thing #8. The link to my photo album is http://picasaweb.google.com/maddiegleeson/SummerVacation?feat=directlink

Full-screen

Thing #6

This was a fun thing to explore with. The third party site that I thought was really great for me and my family was called PicMarkr. This application lets you add a watermark to your photos. You could add either a picture or text, and you had the option to have it be in a specific location on your picture or have it be tiled over your entire picture. I uploaded a picture of my kids from our summer vacation, and then I added a watermark to the bottom center that says "Gleeson Family Vacation 2009". I thought this application was soooo very cool!

I definitely think is a tool that I will be using frequently!

Thing #5

I enjoyed looking at the Flickr site and viewing the multitude of pictures that are available to use. I really liked the "geotagging" option it offers. It was interesting because just a while ago my husband and I were talking about how cool it would be for a digital camera to have a GPS feature in the same way that it has a time and date feature so you could know the exact location where you took a picture. Then, you could go back to that same location at a different time of year, or a different time of your life, and see how it has changed. I thought the geotagging was similar in nature. Best I could tell you were just given a location and not GPS coordinates, but it did seem like the same idea.

I chose this picture because it reminded me of a debate I often hear about reading books versus listening to them. It is by: suchitra prints(Away for a few days)'s photostream.

Thing #3

Well - this one was a lot to do, but fun and challenging and new. I first had to figure out my blogger password since I used this one two years ago for another class. Creating the blog was fairly easy and making my avatar was interesting. There were so many options to choose from, and so many ways to make her look like me. I will definitely have to go back and change her on a regular basis to fit my many personalities. I have not posted comments or questions to anyone else's blog at this time. I am hoping that will happen when I do Thing #4 and register my blog. We'll see!

Thing #2

For the 7 1/2 habits of a lifelong learner, habit #1 (Begin with the end in mind) is definitely the easiest for me. I do this in many aspects of my life, and I always find reaching my goals easier if I actually know the final product I am attempting to get to. The habit that is the hardest for me is #4 (Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner). I have never had much confidence in myself when it comes to learning things that are entirely new to me. I need to be more willing to take risks and know that if I fail I can always try again. I enjoyed this video and was able to relate to a few of the habits mentioned.