Week 5 - Thing 12

Rollyo didn't impress me. Too many ads (sponsored links) and too little information. I did some very basic searches and expected to get instant results. Instead I got a lot of the same type of results but not the basic information that I should have received. I tried all the links and none of them seemed to be productive. I thought perhaps I was doing something wrong, but after the last link I just decided it was Rollyo and not me. It was also very slow to load the search results. My students wouldn't wait that long.

There's potential for this site but I feel it needs quite a bit of tweeking to make it more user friendly.

Week 5 - Thing 11

The short list was easy to navigate. I was surprised that I was already familiar with several of the sites that had won awards. I browsed through many sites that were new to me. One that really caught my interest was "Writeboard" - http://www.writeboard.com/. This would be a great site for students who come to the library and start working on a paper but don't have time to finish it. Having their work on this site would allow them to continue working from any computer on campus or from home. They can also use this collaborative writing program to work in groups. This is a site I will share with the staff members at the library orientation this year.

I joined Library 2.0 on Ning. Another log in and password to remember. I need a web 2.0 site that will keep all these sites and log ins straight. Any suggestions???? I will need a lot more time to explore Library 2.0.

That's it for tonight.

Week 5 - Thing 10

Many of my school library books need this title!

This was fun, as predicted and easy to do with instant results. It will be a hit with students. I created and saved to my computer. Found this on Image Chef under the work category - http://www.imagechef.com/ic/product.jsp?cat=work

Played around with the Comic Generator and fd's Flickr Toys. I tried to add the images here but they kept appearing at the top next to the book image. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Seems you should be able to select where the image will appear by placing the cursor on the area before selecting - add image.

Week 4 - Thing 9

I also did this "thing" in May, just didn't get around to posting to my blog. I think this "thing" got me confused and perhaps is why I sort of quit at this point. I'm not that into reading online - I still prefer print material so this was all quite overwhelming. At least I now know that there are many other search tools for finding feeds. Google reader was really simple and I'm comfortable with it. Perhaps I'll branch out of my comfort zone at another time.

Week 4 - Thing 8

I've been on a long summer break. Going to continue with this task, but may not make the 9-1-07 deadline. I'm learning so much that I want to complete all the THINGS.

I actually set up my RSS feed reader back in May using Google Reader. It was so easy to select feeds that I went really overboard and soon realized there was no way I could read all the feeds I was getting daily. Went back and refined my list so it was more manageable. I can see where this technology would be very useful, especially for keeping the reader up to date and informed on current topics. Having the information delivered to you is a real time saver.

Week 3 - Thing 7

Digital photography is wonderful. Since going digital I'm no longer reluctant to take another shot of the same moment for fear of wasting film. The digital camera has allowed me to be more creative and adventuresome. I love being able to crop photo and adjust contrast. I put my pictures on photosite.com and share with my children who have grown up and now live away from our home. It's nice being able to share our travels and events with them.

I have some concerns about students being able to access the technology we are learning in School Library Learning 2.0. School districts have many of the tools we are using blocked by firewalls and safety programs. There will need to be strong support from my colleagues to convince IT to unblock these tools.

Week 3 - Thing 6 - Flickr Fun

Flicker Fun with 2 capital Fs. Oh I loved this. As I was making my magazine cover and flash cards I kept calling every teacher who came through the library to come see what I had learned. They got so excited they all wanted the web links emailed to them. The use of these tools can be used across the curriculum. I've decided to send this information out to all the teachers so they can practice at home over the summer and find creative ways to incorporate it into next years lessons. We only have 8 more days of school! Recently went to Yosemite and had some photos on my computer so this was easy to do.

Week 3 - Thing 5 - An entirely different look

Just logged in to Flickr from home - WOW - what a difference. Something on the school system is causing the Flickr site to load without graphics - it looks like an old DOS set up.

I take back all the negative things I said in my previous post about Flickr. I've got to go now and Check It Out.

But this makes me wonder. What good would this be to students if they can't access the site fully? And my Avatar is being blocked because it is in the - game - category. Can IT be convinced to unblock these sites?

Week 3 - Thing 5 Continued

I now know why my photos were not in the Everyone's photos group -
According to Flickr:

When you sign up for Flickr, your new account is marked as "pending," until Flickr administrators review it to make sure you aren't posting offensive images or junk downloaded from the Web. When your account is pending, your photos won't show up in public photo lists, like Everyone's Photos, or pages that show all photos tagged with a specific tag (see examples).

I just need to read before I leap into these learning activities. Hmmm, isn't that exactly what I say to students!

Week 3 - Thing 5

I'm not very impressed by Flickr. The interface is very convoluted. It was difficult to navigate. I loaded 4 photos and used the tag "School Library Learning 2.0" for all of them and gave them each a title. I uploaded the photos and then did a search by photo > everyone's photos > School Library Learning 2.0 > tags only. The result was only two pictures and mine were not included. I did the search again using Your Photos instead of Everyone's Photos and all 4 of my photos were displayed. Is there a lag time from the upload to being able to search? I logged off and went in and did the search again and got the same results. ????

I usually use Photosite.com or Kodak Gallery when I upload photos to share with others. Both programs are very user friendly. When searching for photos in general I use Google Images.

I will continue to explore the site and perhaps my initial assessment will change.

These are the photos I uploaded to Flicker - well they wanted to go to the top of the page even though I had the cursor on this line. Another thing to figure out. This will be bug me.

Fixed the DRAFT problem

I finally managed to publish the last post, just took a while.

Help - my DRAFT is still a DRAFT

I thought this was going to be easy. I've already spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to change a post from a DRAFT to PUBLISH. I wrote a detailed description of my Week 2 experience. Saved it as a DRAFT. Read it over and went to publish and there is no publish button on the page. I have been to the HELP site and couldn't find an answer there. So if anyone on the teams happens to be monitoring I could use some advice.

Week 2 - Thing 3: create blog & avatar, Thing 4: register blog

Ok, I mananged to get the blog created. It wasn't too difficult. Had trouble with the profile. Wrote up all my favorites and when I went to save I got an error message and the entire profile disappeared - so I won't be posting that information again; unless I get lots and lots of comment requests to repost.

I registered with CSLA and had an almost instantaneous comment back. Thanks for the positive feedback and the reminder to make an avatar. I sort of jumped the gun on the order of the THINGS.

Went back and created my avatar - a very likeable resemblence - and when I'm feeling adventuresome I'm sure I'll get far more creative. Maybe something from the Tudor era - since I'm into the Showtime series right now. Did have some problems with exporting the avatar. The HINT steps on the School Library Learning 2.0 page didn't match with the blogger page I chose. Don't know if that will effect others too. These are the steps I did: copy the Avatar code from Yahoo, log on to blog site, select Manage: Layout, select Add a Page Element, select HTML/Java Script, select Add to Blog, paste in code.

I'm feeling pretty good about this first attempt to blog. Glad we can work at our own speed, I wouldn't be able to wait a week for Week 3.

Week 1 - Thing 1 and Thing 2

Read "About" and "Pointers from Lifelong Leaners." I'm proof that you are never too old to learn.