Thursday, October 29, 2009

Week 8 Thing 19

I once again enjoyed our activity this week. Library Thing is so easy to use and find books. There was more than I expected that fit my subject for my lesson. My Rollyo and WebQuest were about the Salem Witch Trials. This was meant for the history class that I team teach my 8th grade Learning Support students. Searches and tags are so easy to use in Library Thing. I like that you can set it up to search through Amazon as well which is one of my favorite sites to shop. I used Library Thing for the first time this past summer when we took Young Adult Literature. I performed tagmashes with Peer Pressure and Young Adult and found titles to read for my display assignment. I'm interested in checking out other classmates' Library Thing titles. Here is a link to the 5 books I chose:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/AlisonLS589 .

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Week 8 Thing 18

I played around with Zoho Writer and published from Zoho to the blog. That is my zoho document listed as Halloween post. It was pretty easy to use and definitely easy to post in the blog. I didn't realize it would look just like the other posts in my blog. I thought it might have a different appearance. Zoho was a little slower than I was hoping. I was originally going to create a simple document with pictures of my new house but it took a long time. Then there were errors uploading the images. So I instead just wrote about what was on my mind for this week. This was my first use of Zoho Writer. I can see the benefits of saving documents to one place. This maybe useful for people who are constantly emailing themselves documents to complete at work or home. I definitely hear people talking more about the use of Google Docs more than Zoho Writer.

Halloween

Kristen Will Celebrate 1st Halloween this Saturday

 

 

I now have the joy of Trick or Treating with my own child.  We have enjoyed nieces and nephews in past years, but now we have our own kiddo to dress up.  Matt actually allowed me to dress Scout up last year as Super Dog.  It's the only time he'll let me put clothes on Scout. 

 

This year we wanted to coordinate our dog and baby.  We decided  Scout would be a banana and Kristen would be a monkey.  Target didn't have his size, but we ordered from Target.com.   About 3 weeks later, I called Target to find out where the package was.  We found out the sad news that there are no banana outfits in stock in Scout's size.    It was available on Ebay, but the auction price got too high to justify to qualify a pet costume as an essential need. 

 

So Scout will probably stay home this year and Kristen will go solo in her monkey outfit.  Is it wierd to collect candy for a baby whose sole nourishment is from nursing?  Do people know it's just for the parents of the baby?  I know it will probably bring out the old feelings of my youth as I feel the victory of a Reeses Cup or Twix. 

 

 

 

 

Friday, October 23, 2009

Week 7 Thing 17

I enjoyed creating the Web Quest. It was so easy to use the template. The sandbox wiki was great to follow along with who had completed Web Quests. I also was able to see what others had done before me to upload my Web Quest correctly. I wasn't sure when I first saved my Web Quest link how to make the web address not based on my computer. The upload file component of the sandbox wiki was easy to use and now my link is through the pbwiki site to my Web Quest. It was really great to connect with everyone on the Tapped In session the other evening. There were some great ideas about using wikis in schools. I've been happy with my use of wikis so far in course work. Here is my activity about the Salem Witch Trials:
http://classroomlearning2.pbworks.com/f/Salem+Witch+Trial+Web+Quest.htm

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Week 7 Thing 16

I enjoyed looking at some of the sample Wikis that were included. The first time I had used a Wiki was in our first semester of LS classes last year. We worked together on the wiki to complete a budget. It was so easy to use and to collaborate to complete the assignment. It is so nice with a wiki to get to edit a web page without having any knowledge of HTML language skills. It was the first time I really felt connected to others in our cohort also by working together. I think there is a lot of potential of using wikis within education. Collaboration can happen when common planning time is not available. I could see good potential for students using wikis to complete a class project. A lot of students like to communicate more through technology. I hope to make it to the Tapped In session to hear other classmate's insights on wikis.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Week 6 Thing 15

This activity was interesting because it involved watching a few different You Tube Videos. The Disney copyright video was so well done. I know the dynamics of sharing information and copyright is so different in the digital social networking era we are now in. I watched the You Tube video about the Creative Commons website to get an overview. I haven't yet explored much of the website yet. It seems like a great plan to share creativity with others. I also watched the You Tube video "Did You Know 4.0". This was a huge reminder of the power and use of technology. It show how things have changed in just the last few years. I also read "Away from Iceburgs" about what libraries need to watch out for. It struck me how differently we will need to view library collections in the next years. It seems we are getting our training as media specialists but that is a highly changing dynamic of how we will view our jobs and roles in libraries. When I watch things like the Did You Know 4.0 video, it makes me so excited to approach my role as a librarian to use all the benefits of technology to enhance our students' education.

Week 6 Thing 14

I explored Technorati with blog searches and looked at the popular blog, searches and tags. I would be less likely to use Technorati than some of the other tools we have explored so far in the class. Currently I don't have as much time to read blogs. The only blogs I'm really interested in reading are ones from others in this class. I can see how easy this site is for those who want to find others' blogs. I also read more about Technorati authority ratings because I wasn't sure originally how that was determined. After this activity and the last activity I can see the benefits of tagging. The most I had used tagging before was with another project for our young adult literature class. I searched tags to find books with the theme peer pressure.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Week 6 Thing 13

I explored through Delicious bookmarks. I found it very easy to navigate and find related tags to main subjects searched. I think this would be very helpful in doing research to look through tags that are easily organized. I could see the potential that this could have in libraries to provide subject guides through Delicious. I looked up the Delicious tags from the Hilton Bulley Library. There was a Physic subject guide with the Delicious bookmarks provided. I liked seeing an actual example of the bookmarking in use to help students.