I have to admit I have a 28 year history of working with computers. My laptop is as powerful as the room full of stuff I used in the Air Force - that still amazes me. I carry more data storage capacity in my purse than some large drives we used. Amazing!
I don't have any fear of new tech but I do fail to see the need for some of it. I guess that's the non-creative side of me. I want an app that runs well, does want I want and I'm done.
I'm glad to try all these new things because I never would have found them on my own. It's fun to play sometimes. I don't think I'll ever keep up with it all but most of us feel that way. It's good stretch ourselves since we will all come away with some new idea or tool after we're done
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Image Genereators
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/deck.php
Here is a site I used to make a trading card of my media specialist. Since my daughter plays Magic:The Gathering I am somewhat familiar with cards so this was a fun site.
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/hqops/publishing/graphics/READ_Mini_Posters.cfm
I used the Mini-Read poster site to create a mini poster of one of our teachers in her Halloween costume to remember the event.
I think elementary kids would enjoy some of these image generators in conjunction their digital camera lessons. It could replace GarageBand as the favorite indoor recess computer activity.
Here is a site I used to make a trading card of my media specialist. Since my daughter plays Magic:The Gathering I am somewhat familiar with cards so this was a fun site.
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/hqops/publishing/graphics/READ_Mini_Posters.cfm
I used the Mini-Read poster site to create a mini poster of one of our teachers in her Halloween costume to remember the event.
I think elementary kids would enjoy some of these image generators in conjunction their digital camera lessons. It could replace GarageBand as the favorite indoor recess computer activity.
Flickr Fun thing #9
Despite problems with Flickr not loading I did have fun with Tagman. It would have been fun to see the pictures tagged with "poke with a stick" but I guess I'll have to wait for another day. Since Flickr is stopped by our filter there weren't any applications for us. I did see some for home use that might be fun such as calendar creators, captioning tools and background creators.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
You Tube
I chose the Marx Brothers because it never gets old. I like YouTube for locating these Golden Oldies. I don't play on it much but do like to look for how-to videos sometimes. I like to look for things from old movies and old tv shows with my daughter. The old Muppets stuff is fun.
the videos you have used to explain different 2.0 tools in Plain English are great. the clean visuals quickly explain the concept in true plain English.
thing 14
Thing #14
Delicious is a great tool for those who use multiple computers. Like Google bookmarks it travels with me from pc to mac and back at work. I like the portability of my bookmarks and the ease of converting my bookmark file to Delicious.
I can see a practical application after taking a workshop last spring and receiving the link to the presenter's bookmarks on the topic. It was a great resource to have his bookmarks as more than a handout. It gave us a usable tool during and after the workshop. It's a great way to share information between the members of a group or groups. I can find bookmarks on a topic and quickly share them with others. Delicious eliminates all that typing and making mistakes, organizes them with tags and make them easy to share. I am a fan of Delicious and foresee using it quite a bit in the future.
Delicious is a great tool for those who use multiple computers. Like Google bookmarks it travels with me from pc to mac and back at work. I like the portability of my bookmarks and the ease of converting my bookmark file to Delicious.
I can see a practical application after taking a workshop last spring and receiving the link to the presenter's bookmarks on the topic. It was a great resource to have his bookmarks as more than a handout. It gave us a usable tool during and after the workshop. It's a great way to share information between the members of a group or groups. I can find bookmarks on a topic and quickly share them with others. Delicious eliminates all that typing and making mistakes, organizes them with tags and make them easy to share. I am a fan of Delicious and foresee using it quite a bit in the future.
thing 7
Thing#7
I have tried all the search tools and still like Google the best. It is less overwhelming for me. I am familiar with look and feel of Google so my comfort level is much higher. I look for easy to use use tools when searching since it should be a tool not a challenge. When I need information I want it quickly and easily and the other tools are too busy for me.
I found feeds on travel, food, news from my home state, the offbeat and the unusual. It was fun too look and try some new feeds.
I have tried all the search tools and still like Google the best. It is less overwhelming for me. I am familiar with look and feel of Google so my comfort level is much higher. I look for easy to use use tools when searching since it should be a tool not a challenge. When I need information I want it quickly and easily and the other tools are too busy for me.
I found feeds on travel, food, news from my home state, the offbeat and the unusual. It was fun too look and try some new feeds.
bloglines
Thing #6
I do think Bloglines is a great tool to consolidate everything into 1 location. I find feeds that are relevant to my work and interests and I probably would click on them everyday. It's annoying to go after a blog and not find an update but the reader eliminates the wasted trip. The more I can consolidate things the more I'll use them.
I like to use a reader to keep up on new ideas in education, booklist resources for teachers and the adventures of speakers who have come to our school. It's faster than finding journal articles or news articles and more convenient. I've been using Google Reader for several years now and make it a daily stop for library information and a few fun things too.
I use google Reader because I found it first but I do like Bloglines. Google reader had less frills so I will probably keep using it. My problem is keeping my choices to a manageable number. There is only so much time to read blogs in a day.
I do think Bloglines is a great tool to consolidate everything into 1 location. I find feeds that are relevant to my work and interests and I probably would click on them everyday. It's annoying to go after a blog and not find an update but the reader eliminates the wasted trip. The more I can consolidate things the more I'll use them.
I like to use a reader to keep up on new ideas in education, booklist resources for teachers and the adventures of speakers who have come to our school. It's faster than finding journal articles or news articles and more convenient. I've been using Google Reader for several years now and make it a daily stop for library information and a few fun things too.
I use google Reader because I found it first but I do like Bloglines. Google reader had less frills so I will probably keep using it. My problem is keeping my choices to a manageable number. There is only so much time to read blogs in a day.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
final blog
What a fun trip this has been. i have taken it with a colleague so the office discussion has been as valuable as the 23 things online. We have tried many different things on the same journey and shared our favorites.
As a life long learner, I love this kind of opportunity. It's fun to try new things, successful or not. I've enjoyed stretching myself to try things I didn't think I'd like. I have found a few things I really love Library Thing, Zoho, some image generators. I found that I'm not ready for Twitter or daily blogging. But I have been glad to have the chance to try these things within a framework that had its own support group.
I would do something like this again in a heartbeat. It had been fun and just the right length of time to stay fun. If I didn't like the thing of the week the next week's was available to try to keep the momentum going. It was easy to stay caught up even with the holidays in the middle.
Thanks for the opportunity to have fun and learn something new.
As a life long learner, I love this kind of opportunity. It's fun to try new things, successful or not. I've enjoyed stretching myself to try things I didn't think I'd like. I have found a few things I really love Library Thing, Zoho, some image generators. I found that I'm not ready for Twitter or daily blogging. But I have been glad to have the chance to try these things within a framework that had its own support group.
I would do something like this again in a heartbeat. It had been fun and just the right length of time to stay fun. If I didn't like the thing of the week the next week's was available to try to keep the momentum going. It was easy to stay caught up even with the holidays in the middle.
Thanks for the opportunity to have fun and learn something new.
podcast blog
Podcasts are great for travel, they replace cassette tapes of books or radio shows I used to tape for long car rides. Now I down a podcast or two to my MP3 player and listen in the car with headphones or the cassette player insert that connects to my player. I can have the NPR shows I like whenever and wherever I want.
In our school the students podcast as a part of the curriculum. They have done advertisements they have written and history reports. They enjoy the writing, recording and editing of their group's work and the presentation.
I found a podcast, Storynory, that has stories for children. It would be a good listening center activity as well as entertainment in the car. I found lots of podcasts I'd enjoy myself if I had the time. My 5 minute commute isn't conducive to much listening, but I would use podcasts on a longer commute.
I actually think podcasts are one of the more useful gizmos we've tried. They are available on so many topics and are reasonably easy to create making them a useful tool to disseminate information on a website.
In our school the students podcast as a part of the curriculum. They have done advertisements they have written and history reports. They enjoy the writing, recording and editing of their group's work and the presentation.
I found a podcast, Storynory, that has stories for children. It would be a good listening center activity as well as entertainment in the car. I found lots of podcasts I'd enjoy myself if I had the time. My 5 minute commute isn't conducive to much listening, but I would use podcasts on a longer commute.
I actually think podcasts are one of the more useful gizmos we've tried. They are available on so many topics and are reasonably easy to create making them a useful tool to disseminate information on a website.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
2.0 award winners
I tried Zillow, Community Walk and Picnik. The kids at my school love Picnik after they shoot photos. I think some of these 2.0 award winners are fun, I did find one with a broken link to it's education features(dotdocstoc). Not very useful if you can't there from here. It's nice to see what is out there. I'm already using some of the winners daily, Picasa, IGoogle, etc.
I liked Community Walk - it would prove useful in creating evacuation plans, safe walks to school or field trip routes for a school. It was easy to use and the maps were from Google so they were familiar. I just wish they showed neighborhood trails too. I did map out a walk to school for myself. I had some trouble undoing things, I need and edit/ undo button for correcting misplaced path markers.
Picnik was a fun tool to play with photos. It would make it fun to label my Birthday Book Club photos next year. I make a bulliten board for the school showing all the members of the club. I could put their names on the photos easily.
I liked Community Walk - it would prove useful in creating evacuation plans, safe walks to school or field trip routes for a school. It was easy to use and the maps were from Google so they were familiar. I just wish they showed neighborhood trails too. I did map out a walk to school for myself. I had some trouble undoing things, I need and edit/ undo button for correcting misplaced path markers.
Picnik was a fun tool to play with photos. It would make it fun to label my Birthday Book Club photos next year. I make a bulliten board for the school showing all the members of the club. I could put their names on the photos easily.
first try
I have used Google docs to create documents ans spreadsheets before so I thought I would try ZOHO. I like the layout of the site. It is very user friendly and not hard to use at all. Since my Word has been updated to Office 2007 I almost feel lmore comfortable in Google docs or ZOHO. I can find all the things I need to create a document. It is intuitive for me. If I bought a Linux based notebook I would use either one for word processing.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Wiki-ing
I enjoy the wiki process and see a great use for it in education. It's a great way to work collaboratively on a project from anywhere. I can see a committee using it to eliminate some meetings. The members could share information from home, at work and on the road. It's like a conference call for your laptop.
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