Friday, September 25, 2009

Week 4 Thing 8

So I learned about RSS feeds over the summer. I thought it was a great tool for me to use for my personal use. I thought about the time I would be able to save by having an RSS . All the blogs and all the information that I am always seeking would be found at one location. So that is what I created over the summer using Netvibes. I thought it was easy to use and it was compatiable with most of the things I read dealing with scrapbooking and parenting 2 little girls...so can you guess what I subscribed to?

I talked to a friend of mine who attended the same workshop I did and she said that she was going to use the RSS feed for her science classroom. She created a few blogs for the students to read, CNN student, and a few newsfeeds associated with topics that she will be studying. So before school began I created a Netvibes account for my library. I read on Netvibes and remembered from my workshop how to create a private and a public RSS feed. So I created an account for my library and called it PAHS Library...very original. I then thought about what would I want students to read and what do I want for my own professional development on an RSS feed.

I set up for my students a section that showed some of the latest in young adult literature and some recommended book lists through Booklist. I also added the student news report from CNN. I think what I would like to take this is asking teachers what they would like to see their students reading on the RSS feed. I have not had a great response except from some English teachers who suggest some writing tips or SAT tips.

For my professional development, I found a feed for a blog that I read every day...or when it is posted, Library Bytes. So I added that feed, then I searched out some feeds dealing with young adult literature and censorship thru ALA. I thought it was a well rounded feed. I then moved my private feed to my private professional development feed so I can have my scrapbooking and parenting tips.

I really like this concept! I think it is so easy to use AND I do not have to worry about finding the information. I think, besides the description listed above, I would like to introduce this concept to students who are researching. This could be a means to see latest research on specific topics like an email alert for the EbscoHost article.

This is my public RSS feed...http://www.netvibes.com/pahslibrary09#Home

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Week 3, thing 2


I attempted the mashups and LOVED the idea for business cards and I even thought for the top of memos that I have to send out periodically. I think I need to work with it a little more before I feel comfortable with using and sharing my image with the world.

I liked the purpose of Mappr. I thought about projects that could be created for international studies or even a basic elementary pen-pal program. The students could look for images to match with pen-pal communication.

I loved the poster mash up and using Big Huge Labs. I thought it was very easy and I was able to easily make a poster.

I thought using my friend's muppet in the photo would be great for my first project.

I think this would be great for creating those Read Posters for the library as well as other promotional items in the library.

I really like some of the tools because it is free and pretty easy to use.

Week 3, thing 1



Okay, I have been to trainings dealing with Flickr but I have not had a lot of success in making it work with me. So here is my image....

I thought that there is nothing so sweet as taking a picture of a dog doing something that is very human. I loved the title of this photo.."shhhhhh...let me read." Classic!!--wait strike that...I could not get the dog reading to work due to the "copyright" issue. So I found another photo dealing with reading. I was happy to be able to learn from this experience. I was getting frustrated. I am wondering how the link feature works. I tried that first with this photo and it also would not appear.


Something that is easy with Flickr is the fact that simple search terms are able to bring up what could cover the keyword search. I thought also that since the search is relied upon by tags I thought that the tags were established by the creator of the photo. I thought it was giving me the creator's perspective of the photo. Some of the photos were right on with the tag, where some I was left me scratching my head. So unlike clipart, I sometimes had to guess as to why a picture was tagged the way it was.

I like the use of Flickr in the classroom and providing this for teachers as a means to give a visual to what they are working on in the classroom.

I also liked the groups. I also did a keyword search for groups like "librarians", "moms" "vacation goers"--and I found a lot of worthwhile groups that I liked and the photos seemed relivant as well as purposful.

I think that Flickr is also different from other photo sharing sites. Snapfish appears to be more for "family vacation photos" where Flickr appears that it has almost an artistic feel to it. May be I'm wrong here.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Week 2 part II

I could not wait to create an avatar. I looked up and asked a friend about the rules of creating an avatar. She explained that the avatar should be what you want as well as what is me. I selected my avatar with casual dress which is a huge difference for me but I also gave a very different style from my own. It is still conservative but it is different. I decided to post my avatar to my facebook profile and I had a huge response from people who said they liked it! So I guess I did something right.

I may get daring and try to create an total alter-ego.

Week 2


I could not wait to find a reason to create my blog for my library. I have always thought that this was a great forum for me to share my thoughts and an easy way to have students share some things. I would like to see if I can develop a school-wide forum for this as well as some other areas of my life. I have jumped on the blog wagon this summer by subscribing to a few specific library blogs. I have found that at first I felt obligated to read every aspect of the blog and its links. It took me forever. But I listened a wise man explain to me that just like a newspaper or magazine I can and SHOULD filter what I read as it pertains to me. Just like a search engine I can find that blog later and read about what is written. I felt the weight of my reading world lifted. Since then I have been able to discern what I read thru the blog world.


Saturday, September 12, 2009

23 things

One thing I am not sure about is if I am hitting all my points...I am not sure if I am completing the tasks and answering what I need to answer for each of the tasks. Is anyone feeling like that too?

I am, however, very excited to go through the 23 things. I feel accomplished by the fact that I already have some of the tasks completed but since I am an avid learner, I look forward to new methods of the new tools. I am enjoying the Library 2.0 text for the course. I am also using Blogs-Wikis-Podcasts-and-Other-Powerful-Web-Tools-for-Classrooms by Will-Richardson. I like this book because it gives some practical means of using the Web 2.0 tools.