Thing #23

I just realized that I listed Audio Books as Thing #23, but this is really Thing #23. I enjoyed this Web 2.0 program. It was nice to be able to work at my own pace and have someone to go to for help when I needed it. I learned a lot. There were many Web 2.0 tools out there that I did not know about and things that I will use in the future. My favorites were Flickr and Podcasts. I also was not aware of Zoho and feel like that would be a great tool in the future. I have already shared Zoho with a friend who doesn't have Microsoft Office, but needed to create a document. If another program similar to this would be available, I would be interested in taking that one too. This wasn't real demanding yet you were able to get as involved as you wanted to in the activities, and I like being in control of my own learning.

Thing #23 Audio Books

I love using audio books. I listen to them when I am walking or doing things around the house. I like the way the readers voice changes for each character. My favorite audio book has been Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. That guy did an awesome job keeping me in the story. I have always checked the CD's out of the library and am very glad to find out that the public library has Overdrive. I searched for The Graveyard Book and saw that it was on Overdrive, so that may be the book I start with.

Thing #21 Podcasts

I searched iTunes for Podcasts and downloaded one about the upcoming Harry Potter movie. I already have iTunes on my computer so maybe that is why it was so easy to do. There were lots of podcasts to look at about movies, books etc. I had a hard time adding the RSS to my bloglines account. I am not sure what I was doing wrong, but it did not seem to be working. I can see where podcasts could be very beneficial for instruction. It was helpful having the podcasts throughout this program.

Thing #20 You Tube

I like YouTube. You can find videos about everything from making balloon animals and learning dance steps to science projects and book reviews. There are so many videos out there because of the ease of using YouTube. Even very young people can put a video on there with ease. However, it is not a site that you would want your students to use at school. Even though there are good things on there there is also lots of inappropriate videos on there and they are easy to get to even if you are searching for something else. I saw that someone else blogged about TeacherTube. I have used that before as well and think there are some really good video on there also.

Thing #19

I went to the short list and picked books. The winner was Lulu. It was a great site that allowed you to create calendars, cookbooks, photo books and a few other things. I was very easy to use, there were only a few steps to follow. Picking out the photos that you want to use is probably the hardest part. You can just purchase one for yourself or you can make them publish and people can buy them from the site. As I was looking through the products, I was think about how it could be used in a library. It would be neat to create a calendar that featured a book each month. The thing that I didn't like was that I was not able to find out how much these products were. It looked like you had to create your product before you received a price. Some of the photo books could be up to 100 pages and that would be a lot to create your book and then find out that the price was way too high. Overall, I really liked the site, it is one that I would go back to and use for personal use.

Thing #18

Zoho Writer is pretty cool. It was easy to use and had a lot of features. This could be a very useful tool. I am always emailing lesson plans or letters or things like that back and forth to myself so that I can work on them at home and school. This would be so much easier since it can be accessed from any computer. I played around with the text and inserted a picture. I also checked out Zoho Show and found that it was also pretty easy to use. These applications would be good to introduce to students who may have internet access, but don't have Microsoft Office or don't have anyone to teach them how to use it. The teacher could demonstrate at school and then the student could use it at home, the library or at a friend's house. I think that would be very beneficial to some students. I had no idea all those tools were out there for people to use.

Thing #17

I visited our page from the new email link that was given and created an account. Adding comments was very easy. I am not sure how much I would use it. It reminded me of our Moodle page, but I need to play around with it a little more to see what else I can do with it.

Thing #16 Wikis

Wikis are a neat way to allow people to share what they know about a topic. I enjoyed looking at the different wikis, but my favorite was the Bull Run Library Wiki. I like the way they used it to announce what is going on in the library. It was in an easy to read format and I am sure that patrons check back to it on a regular basis to see what is happening.
I also like using Wikipedia for some things. It is a quick easy way to get a question answered. however, I had a hard time convincing my elementary students that it may not be a reliable source. Every time they search a topic, it shows up so they think that is what they should use. It was tough to make them understand that anyone can change, add or delete material on Wikipedia. We spent a lot of time discussing reliable sources.

Thing #15

In the article "Into a New World of Librarianship," MichaelStephens talks about how things will change in the library. I like how he says that Web 2.0 is a strategy guide for helping users find and gather information. I have found this to be true for myself. Through Web 2.0, I have been introduced to all kinds of things that I did not know were out there. There are many ways to search for information that I didn't use before. The article goes on to talk about librarians embracing Web 2.0 tools and using them to help patrons. The most important thing I read in this article is about how the librarian knows that things are ever changing. Things that we are using now, may not be what we are using in several months. Librarians have to be continually learning and changing with what is most beneficial for their patrons.

Thing #14 Technorati

I found Technorati to be one of those things that the more you use it, the more you will get out of it. It is an easy way to search for things. I have been really into to book trailers and would love to teach my students to do them, so I searched for children's book videos. There was one where Bill Martin was reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear which is my absolute favorite book for preschoolers and then there were interviews on there with authors that would be good to show students. It is not something that I would have my students use as a search, because when I searched children's books, a video came up where a guy was reading a picture book that was for adults...not something I would want to happen in class!

Thing #13 Del.icio.us

I like the idea of using Del.icio.us to have access to my bookmarks regardless of what computer I am using. There are many times when you find something at home that you would like to use at school and then can't remember when you need it. However, I don't think I would use this with my students. It is easy to use, so it would be very easy to get into someone's bookmarks that you do not want them seeing.
I enjoyed looking through the bookmarks, there are all kinds of things that would be useful in teaching and pretty much anything else you are interested in.

Thing #12 Rollyo

I see Rollyo as being very useful in the computer lab with students. You could have them only searching websites that you want them to. I am always worried about what they will find when they are researching topics. This would allow me to preview material and then add it to Rollyo for them to use.

It has been a while since I have worked on 2.0, but now that school is out, I am ready to jump back in. I just finished adding some books to Library Thing. That is probably the easiest "Thing" I have done yet. It looks like it is not only a good organizational tool, but a great resource as well. I really liked the quote I read about how library thing cares about books not selling books.

Thing #10

The online image generators were easy and fun to use. I checked out the cereal box, book covers and chocolate bar, but I thought I would use the chalk board for my blog. This is also the first time I have uploaded and image to my blog...very easy! I really am learning a lot doing these exercises.

Thing 8 & 9
RSS feeds seem like they would be very useful. I was able to set up my own Bloglines news reader account and subscribe to some news feeds and some library things. I started to do this "Thing" a few days ago and it seemed very difficult, however once I sat down tonight and just got through it, it wasn't bad.
I also found Merlin and tried to subscribe to it, and it seemed like it worked, but when I clicked on it from the blogline, it didn't really have anything on it. I guess I will need to work on that some more.

Thing 7
These blogs are really fun, but I am just now getting the hang of it. After looking at other peoples, I realize that I should try to organize mine a little better. So from now on, I am just going to name it Thing #. Hopefully, that will keep me on track and I won't miss anything.

Week 3
I love all of the things you can do with Flickr. I really like to take pictures and scrapbook, when I have time, so using a site like Flickr could be a lot of fun. I am not sure that I understand the Flickr mashups quite yet. I will have to go through that part again.

I have two habits that seem to be easy for me; the first is teaching and mentoring others, I enjoy helping others learn something new and the second is playing. I like playing around with new things especially with technology. The hardest of the habits for me is using technology to my advantage.

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