Thing #13 Tagging and Discover Del.icio.us

Once again, someone thought of a great tool for managing and organizing the vast amount of cyberspace information that also incorporates sharing and community. I like the idea of not only putting all of my favorites in one list that I can access from any computer, but organizing the list so I can easily find what I’m looking for and view others’ lists, too. Installing the bookmarklets in the toolbar was easy (Yahoo! tried to get a freebie on my tool bar!), so I was able to start bookmarking quickly. It may take some time to learn how to tag so that I can find things easily.

Similar to our Librarians’ share folder, this site offers teachers and librarians the chance to easily collaborate online. For anyone doing research, this is the perfect tool for organizing web sites and online articles. Students in study groups or working on group projects can pool their resources in a structured, fast, and convenient way by combining their efforts and posting to a shared tag. If students/teachers have their own blog, they can track new entries by using the RSS feed feature as everyone shares . Teachers/librarians can also post web sites they want students using for a particular unit of study. By using the “popular tags” feature, suddenly users can tap into other peer-driven information directories and find resources they might have missed or overlooked when researching. Wow! The 2.0 playground just keeps getting bigger and more interesting!

Thing #12 Creating Community Through Commenting

Two points about commenting I thought were important:
· Contributing (from The Ten Commandments of Blog Commenting) by leaving a comment with more substance is important because usually the author of the original blog wants to know more about what the person commenting thinks and why. It can extend the discussion into new arenas of thought. Higher level thought/discussions?!
· Occasionally using humor in comments (also from The Ten Commandments of Blog Commenting) makes the learning process less daunting, and it is a great tool for keeping it light and having fun.

For students, I think one of the most important lessons to teach them about blog commenting is about being polite and showing respect for one another. As Brown mentions in the Ten Commandments article, "Just because you’re not interacting face to face doesn’t mean you can act like an idiot." Many students are used to quickly texting their feelings on a cell phone or on IM. They need to understand that commenting on a blog is not that same kind of intimate conversation and that their comments will be posted in a public forum.

Now that I am somewhat acclimated to this blogging business and I don't feel like such a bashful blogger, I am finding it fun to not only explore other sites, but actually comment. Having a few others suddenly posting on my site was helpful to jump-start the process. I like the way we are all linked, so that we can go to the sites of those who leave a comment to see where they hangout!

Thing #11 LibraryThing

I liked the tour on this site and the quick sign up (without lots of personal questions to answer!). I can see using this site as a way to remember books I’ve read when it comes time to recommend a good book to colleagues and friends. It was easy to spend an hour or two exploring all of the reviews, the groups, the blog, and cataloging some of my favorite books. I couldn’t stop at just five. I especially like the feature where the user can click on an author’s name in “Your Library” and view a picture of the author along with personal information and a list of other books (with reviews) the author has written. I linked my library list to my blog just for fun. When students eventually have their own blogs, they will enjoy sharing their favorite books in the form of this visual reader's advisory!

Fun Thing #10 Online Image Generator

#10 is definitely a fun “Thing” to explore! Images like this one from Comic Strip Generator could be used in a classroom as a brainstorming activity, a story starter, creative writing activity, or just for grins. I encountered many problems figuring out how to upload it to my blog, so I finally saved it to my hard drive (saved into Picasa) and uploaded it from there. Whew!

This image is from Kid-Friendly Generators. I once again encountered the uploading problem and had to save this image to my hard drive before uploading it to my blog. Students could use these templates to make covers or title pages for student-made books, reports, Power Point and Photo Story projects.

Students will like the animated images in Image Chef. This site conveniently lets you save your image directly to your blog.

Thing #9: Useful Library-Related Blogs and News Feeds

I’m bloggy-eyed after trying out the various blog search tools and looking at a myriad of blogs. No wonder someone created the invaluable RSS readers! No one person could possibly keep track of all that is posted daily on each blog to which they subscribe without organizational tools to put it all in one spot and alert the user to new posts. However, the important part of all of this is finding blogs and newsfeeds that are just right for you. I liked Cool Cat Teacher’s advice about how to select your “circle of wise:” people you know, blogs listed on their blogrolls, people/organizations who inspire you, and blogs you come across on your own (whose authors exhibit the "mindset of the lifelong learner/pioneers in the field") using the blog/newsfeed search tools.

Edublogs’ list of award winners was straightforward and the easiest to use, but limiting. Bloglines was another easy-to-use site once I figured out that I needed to search using “Search for feeds.” I like the clean look of Bloglines and I liked the results I got when searching for various topics related to education, libraries, and technology. One of my favorites is Technorati. I liked Technorati’s tag layout, the well done tutorial, and was pleasantly surprised with the quality and number of the pertinent search results. The most confusing was Topix. It’s just too much of a good thing. I will have to check back with Suprglu because it was not working when I tried the link.

Thing #8 RSS Feeds and Readers

What do I like about RSS and newsreaders? Most of all, I like the idea of having someone (something) out in cyberspace helping to organize my online life for me. I have noticed on several blogs that they have a list (or two) of favorite blogs, and there are notations beside some of the blogs that something new is available. I like that feature. Any timesaver is a bonus. So many blogs, postings, information…so little time!

I would like to use this technology to keep up with not only the blog postings of the SBISD Library Services kickball captains, but also other blogs about school librarianship and children’s literature by authorities in the field, other school libraries and their students, and personal blogs of friends. I find it interesting to look at and explore the blog lists of blogs I enjoy reading to find new favorites.

Teachers and students with similar interests to other bloggers could use the RSS to keep tabs on what others are doing and/or learning. For the reluctant or beginning blogger, using a RSS reader would be a way to get his/her feet wet with the technology without feeling “blogged down!”

Thing #7 Cool Google Tools

Google Alert
This is a smart tool for teachers and students to use to receive notification about new information as it becomes available. Students and teachers tracking news about a current event such as the current NASA Phoenix Mars expedition would be able to easily keep up with the most recent discoveries. As the search results change for a previous search, the Google Alert proactively tells the user when new information is available. Since students cannot have school email accounts or check their personal email accounts at school, using this tool may pose a problem for that learning group.

Picasa Web Albums
I was quite surprised when I logged in to Picasa Web Albums and found the pictures I had uploaded to my blog already in my web album! Even the title of my blog was imported as the new title of my web album. Kind of scary (how much privacy do we sacrifice for convenience these days?!), but very handy. It’s a similar sort of web-sharing that I found when using Yahoo’s Flickr and exporting pictures to my blog.
One interesting feature in Picasa is the Organize option, which lets the user see every picture/image on the computer/laptop hard drive. The feature lets the user rename and move pictures around for easier access later. I saw pictures and images I had forgotten I had saved over the past few years. What a great tool.
One drawback I noticed was that because Picasa and my blog are linked, if I delete a photo in Picasa, it automatically deletes it in my blog. Not a good thing for one who has a history of deletion blunders. Also, I found Picasa much less user friendly than Flickr when searching for community shared photos.

Note: I looked at several of the Atomic Learning videos for several of the Google Tools and liked the quick and easy explanations. Some were much better explanations of the tools than the Google web site tutorials!

Thing #6 Mashups and 3rd Party Sites

The possibilities for using fd’s Flickr Toys are endless. Here are a few ideas:

Science trading card, using Trading Card, with picture of insect/animal and interesting facts about insect/animal
Language Arts trading card with picture or Avatar of main character and character traits
Social studies mosaic, using Mosaic Maker, of famous person including birthplace, family, why person is famous or mosaic of a state with pictures of state symbols and/or landmarks
Badge Maker could be used to make press badges for interviewers to wear while video taping an interview; voting badges for Bluebonnet readers eligible to vote for their favorite book
Jigsaw might be used for making a jigsaw puzzle using the classroom group picture
Magazine Cover could be used for making covers of a story's main character, someone in history, or a student’s picture which would include titles of articles pertinent to that person
Motivator could be used by a school student council for making posters to motivate students to participate in school-sponsored activities and/or volunteer programs
Students could use CD/DVD Cover to make personalized covers for the CD/DVD case after their project had been burned to a CD or DVD.

Thing #5 Flickr

I got my first introduction to Flickr on a personal level. My daughter lives in Chicago and regularly posts pictures on Flickr for family and friends to view. When I visited her this summer and took way too many pictures (!), she kept asking when I was going to put them on Flickr. I finally did and spent hours trying out the web site by uploading, editing, and naming my slide show of 70+ photos. The attached picture is of the Chicago’s Cloud Gate (or as it is most commonly called “The Bean”) in Millennium Park, a 110-ton, highly polished steel monolith shaped like a kidney bean. It’s a fascinating marvel that reflects not only the people close to it, but also the entire skyline. I was able to upload my photo directly from Flickr to my blog. How cool is that?!

I can see many applications for Flickr to the classroom. A teacher could create a private classroom group and post student-generated pictures and videos. Also, a Flickr group could have pictures of students taken at school for the “author page” of a Power Point or Photo Story or for students to create a personalized trading card or an “All About Me” magazine cover. It’s a perfect resource for students to find public commons pictures for their multimedia and Big Huge Labs projects. Great tool for photo needs of any kind!

Thing #3 Blog/Avatar

Once over the hump of deciding on a blog title, setting up the blog was fairly straightforward. Creating my avatar was the best part when I finally got the hang of it. It was frustrating at first when clicking on the numerous 1,2,3,4,5,6… pages to see all of the selections (because I am one who likes to see ALL of the possibilities and ALL at the same time!), but when I discovered the “search” feature it was suddenly doable. I like the way each person's avatar gives his/her blog added personality!

Thing #2 Lifelong Learner

I find few things more exciting than learning something new and then sharing it with someone else. The habit of accepting responsibility for my own learning has been easy for me. Going back to school in mid-life enabled me to realize the dream of waking up to a job I love on a daily basis. Learn something new every day!

The habit of viewing problems as challenges is the hardest habit for me. I often view a problem as a crisis, and it paralyzes me for the moment. I then have to readjust my thinking as I begin gathering information about the problem. Once armed and ready, I can then jump in and turn the obstacle into a learning opportunity. Now that my paralysis over beginning 23 Things is past, I’m ready to play!