Thing #8 RSS and Reader

Okay first of all, I do like RSS and Reader. I have a question though. How much time will it save you to instead put these in your favorites and go to these with just a click of a button. I am just not sure how much I will use this because it seems like a lot of maintenance.

I found the folders easy to organize and the expand and list easy to toggle between. If I found a site, I thought it was easy to subscribe. I also found it easy to delete if I got a bundle. I am not happy that I cannot get facebook to add. Not sure why but I bet someone will tell me...please!

In my library I think I could use this to access quickly when trying to find book reviews of information that I might have a question about. Same with my personal life. However as I said before, not sure how much time this will save me.

Teachers/administrators can do the same as I have. Maybe using this more will help me realize the positive in it.

When listening to the man from OPAL and having him tell us that a RSS feed can go on our home catalog page, I think that will be beneficial. Will it only be one or several and will you be able to categorize them in folders like on Google Reader?

I started this project 3 hours ago...not that difficult but lots to mull over and think about therefore taking up lots of time!

Thing 7 Web 2.0 Likes and Dislikes

First of all...I could have been working on this for lots more time than I did. I looked through this list for about 3 hours. It can be very addicting!

The first site I went to was Docstoc. I think I would use this site because it had lots of different kinds of letters on here, references, cover letters for resumes, thank you for interviewing me, along with many many others. They had templates for disputing credit card charges, a wedding planning tool with budget, an online calorie counter, a contract for a private sale, and wills and living trusts. Believe me this is just the tip of the iceberg! There were tons and tons and tons of documents to look at and get ideas from!

The second site I liked was called Urbanspoon. It is the most popular neighborhoods and types of food in the area you live. I am always looking for a new place to eat so this will be perfect. It is kind of like Guidelive but this seems to have more information such as more complete menus.

The third site is not really anything I would use in the library because it is cooking. But I loved it. It is called IM cooked. I liked this so much because it is little videos and I am such a visual learner! Each video is about 2 minutes long so easy to watch. Anyone can post their videos on here. This one guy "Cooking with Carlos" was making a drink and he said "put a chot of this" and a "chot of that" then you do the "shaker dance"! Hilarious! One guy does all the cloning of foods, for example the grilled KFC chicken. I will use this site for personal use...

The next site I looked at would be really cute to use at school but it was not real friendly. It is called Comiqs. It is taking pictures, either yours or theirs and putting captions over them and making your own comic strips. I tried to do it but it would not let me register or upload my own pictures without registering. So, I will try it again but was disappointed that it kept coming up with an error message.

The last one I looked at was Kayak. This was for travel and I thought it helped save time because it allowed you to chose several sites at once to compare airline prices. For instance I chose travelocity, hotwire, and priceline without having to go to their individual sites for comparing prices. This would be good for kids to choose a place to go and make the best trip plans according to prices and stops etc...

For the most part I was very successful in my searching and most sites were user friendly. I will go back again for lots more fun!

Thing 6 Flickr mashups

I loved the cards that the class made for national parks...took a picture of a national park and then put information about it on a trading card. I also like the app that on Big Huge Labs that took many pictures and made a collage' of them. Maybe students could each have a picture taken of them and combine the class in a collage'. Had lots and lots of fun with this. I will explore this more to see what all is available...could take awhile! Wasn't sure how to use this old woman's face without giving credit to the photographer...

Thing 5 Flickr

This picture of a Westie is by "Randy son of Robert". I chose it because of my sweet Westie, Zoe!

Wow, I did not know Flickr had pictures you could use. I like the tags that they had for you to choose from. You could spend lots and lots of time on this site!

I went to the Creative Commons site and liked how they separated the ways you could use pictures, however I still found it hard to understand.

I looked at how libraries are using Flickr and again was astounded by the amount of information on there. One particular example was that someone needed a picture demonstrating the "shhh" and another person put up many many pictures of people saying "shhh".

I was confused when looking at just pictures in general ....if I could use them. So, I figured I was safe in using the Creative Commons site and using the one that said I could use it if I gave the person credit. I know this legal business with copyright and so forth is very complex and hairy. Since I am in an elementary school, we emphasize to our students to always give credit to the person who the shot belongs so. Kids and teachers don't get it though. They think if it is on the internet that it is theirs for free. It is a difficult task.

Thing #2 Lifelong learner

In viewing this video, I agreed with the statement "View problems as challenges". That however does not make it easier to do. I have a hard time not looking at problems as obstacles. I need to remember to take the steps one at a time and work through them rather than feeling like I hit a wall! Definitely this is one of the habits that I must work on!

Thing #2 Lifelong learners

I believe that I will always be a lifelong learner. It is just a natural phase for me...maybe that is why I am a teacher. An easy thing for me to do in the 7 1/2 habits of lifelong learners is to use technology to your advantage. I am not afraid to learn new programs or software. I learned a long time ago that the likelihood of deleting everything at once is pretty small. That helps me have the confidence to keep trying.

Thing #1 Creating a blog

Well, I have gotten this far and everything has worked out okay. I guess I will post this and see if it works!