Thing 23

Here I am beginning Thing 23 with 3o hours to go. When I started this course, I really had no idea what it was about. It has definitely expanded my horizons about what the Internet is all about.

My favorite discoveries were making the video, using Library Thing and developing my own search tools (Rollo). I feel like I am at just the beginning of learning how to use these tools effectively. Summer time was a great time to try these discoveries as I do not really see how I would have time during the school year. In grad school, I spent a great deal of time writing on my computer but this is the first time I have spent such large blocks of time using the Internet.

The skills I have learned from these discoveries have already affected my lifelong learning. I was diagnosed as being diabetic at about the same time I started the 23 Things. I used many of the skills I learned to access information, set up a steady flow of information on my reader and communicate with people through blogs. I had never used or read a blog previously.

For me, because I did not know what Library 2.0 was, all of the discoveries were rather unexpected. I did not realize how many ways there were to communicate or how many people were involved.

Even coming to the end of the discoveries, I still find Thing 10 to be the most frustrating. I returned to it several times and still feel like I do not get how to use or save many of the choices. Maybe it confused me because it was supposed to be the "fun" thing. Something like the directions that were given to help save the video might have helped.

I would participate in more discoveries. I had registered for 11 Things but obviously have run out of time. Maybe next summer.

To summarize my experience, I would say that what I experienced was "the tip of the iceberg". I know there is so much to learn about every discovery and many more things to discover. I would also have to say that because I was such a novice in this area that 18 hours was the "tip of the iceberg" as far as the time I put into doing the discoveries.

I know that their are many discussions about the future of libraries and how we buy books. Amazon is selling more ebooks than regular books and there are rumors about the viability of Barnes and Noble. Participating in these discoveries and spending so much time on the computer has made me realize how much it bothers my eyes to read from the computer screen. (Yes, I have been to the eye doctor and it is not my correction.) Personally, I could not use the computer or a screen as my main source of reading material. You will see me at the library weekly as usual.

Thing 21

This was much easier than anything I have ever tried to do with photos before. When I play the video on my computer or even connected to a large screen, the resolution is fine. The video uploaded to the blog is not as clear when made full screen.

As you can see, walking daily for exercise in Montana was a pleasure. Mall walking just isn't the same.

Thing 10

I moved on after getting frustrated with this discovery. I came back to this thing because I am almost finished with the other activities. Most of the time I have no problem creating something at the different sites but I am not successful when it comes time to save what I have made. Many of the sites seemed to require downloading something. Even when Flickr was listed as a possible hosting site, I could log on to Flickr but still was unable to save. The image I am including in this post was using Photo to Sketch in Dumpr. I used a photo of my grandson in his Halloween costume. I had no problem saving it to my computer. A larger image would have required payment. I thing it would be fun to have jigsaw puzzles made that showed children from the classroom.

http://www.dumpr.net/

Thing 22

I explored two of the educator nings. It was interesting to see how many people were involved. I explored some of the preschool blog entries. Some of the nings were developed for parent communication. It also seems like a way that a team could share and communicate.

Montana Summer

My postings will be soon be taking a break as I spend three weeks in Montana, my home state. I thought I would share some of my love of Montana by sharing this blog site with you that features Montana. I also encourage you to visit the Charlie Russell Exhibit that is currently at the MFA Houston. He has documented an important time in Montana's history in his art.


http://blog.bigskycountry.net/

Playground Safety

I found this video about playground safety on TeacherTube. I did it as a separate post so that I can add other videos about playground safety as I find them. Sorry about the ad that comes first.

Playground Safety

Thing 20

This is an interesting video about literacy that I found on YouTube. I think it would be possible to find videos that would be suitable for short trainings and that would be good to help educate parents.

Thing 19

I explored several of the award winners. I spent the most time with the Mango Languages. The Mango Languages site showed which libraries in my area were licensed to use Mango Languages. I went to the HCPL site and searched for Mango Languages. Once I was at the log in area for the Mango Languages I was able to use my Harris County Library card number to log on and select the language I wanted to study in Mango Languages. I really liked the program. I completed the Spanish lesson 1 and plan to return for more lessons. There are so many tools on the web that I felt the award list gave me a place to start.

Thing 18

I explored Open Office on my teacher laptop. I did not realize it was already loaded on our computers. I spent more time exploring the Google Docs. I like that I sign in to my Google account rather than have to download the software. When I visit my parents, my father has different software so I am not always able to work on things I would like to from my flash drive. I imagine similar problems could occur with students and their home computers. Both of theses programs would let them have access to something they could use at home and school.
My home computer does not have Microsoft Publisher so I explored calendars in Google Docs. There were many options available for calendars. Another use that would be helpful for parent communications was being able to translate documents.

Thing 17

I decided to use Rollyo to search early childhood education. There were not many searches but the one that was there had a great deal of good information. I did my own using a few of the sites I like to use. I did not anticipate that everything on the site comes up. I can see that this would help research topics because they are websites I trust. If I want people to find specific web pages and share with others I will need to do it another way.

Thing 16

I found the idea of wikis very interesting. I really thought the video helped explain the organizational benefits. I was able to post in the sbisd sandbox. I decided to start a wiki of my own through wetpaint. I am trying my hand at a wiki for a social group that I am part of. It seems more practical than e-mailing back and forth to organize events. If this works out then I will try it for my school or team.

Thing 15

I found this thing very helpful in my understanding of what we are doing. I have wondered what exactly Library 2.0 meant. I definitely have a strong identification with the Library 1.0 model. To me a library is a building with books and people to help me access what I am looking for. When no computers are available, I still long for an actual card catalog. The article "To a Temporary Place in Time" helped me understand how the role of libraries and librarians is changing. I am beginning to understand what Library 2.0 has to offer. I am also beginning to understand the fluidity of the concept and how our understanding of how to access and share information will be constantly evolving in ways that are hard for me to visual now.

Thing 14

When I tried using the keywords School Library Learning 2.0 in Technorati search in blogs, tags and posts and did not find anything. The popular tags section is under construction for now. I did look at some sites in the top 100 and from the tag list. I think Technorati could help in research. I have been researching information about diabetes and copied some information into a word document I was using to make notes. Later I was able to explore further an area that had been tagged in the sentence I had included in my notes. I clicked on it and was taken to an article that was helpful.
As I am reading articles, I sometimes feel like I should follow all the tags but that gets rather distracting.

Thing 13

I explored the delicious site and found a few things that looked interesting. I am not sure that I found more sites that fit what I was looking for than if I had done an internet search. I do like the idea of having a place where I can access my favorites from anywhere. I could not figure out how to add a connection to access my delicious tags as a gadget.

I have now figured out how to add the link to the sidebar.

Thing 12

This was a great deal of information to absorb. It was a little hard to think about commenting because I am finding it hard to find time to read the blogs let alone comment. There seemed to be such a range of viewpoints on commenting from the bloggers featured and the people responding to their blogs. I will have to think about should all comments receive a response and whether I will respond to blogs just to be encouraging. I had already been wondering about the whole idea of using your name or an alias. I thought one of the comments that encouraged bloggers to draw attention to the important things in their archives was a good idea. I'm not sure how you would do it but I can see how it would be useful.

I checked all the sb blogs and commented on at least five. Typing the code words to submit a post is challenging to me for some reason. I can't tell you how many times I miss out on buying tickets on line because of messing up the code words.

For the non Library Thing blog postings, I posted on one of the blogs about diabetes and on the blog about Montana.

Thing 11

I liked the Librarything website. I am always looking for ways of keeping track of books but I have never tried the internet. I entered some of the professional books I had set aside to read this summer. I sometimes lose track of books or forget what books I have and duplicate. I really like having the visual of my books to jog my memory. I looked at some of the members that had the same books that I had entered. I am looking for an emergent literacy group.

Thing 9

I liked Google Reader's search tool and Technorati. I could not get the School Library blogs to open. Mostly I was looking for preschool education information this time. I found it difficult to know what the Edublog sites were about without opening each site. I did not find one that seemed geared to preschool education. On Technorati, I found some interesting sites but found them through the family heading. I did add a blog subscription by visiting one of the websites I enjoy checking.

Thing 8

I have explored the RSS. I am using the Google Reader. I added some fun sites
(gardening, crafts and decorating) and some practical sites. I need to learn about diabetes so I subscribed to a bundle related to that topic. I subscribed to several bundles and will need to go through them to see what sites are really of most interest to me. I also subscribed to a blog to to follow the tropical storm in the Gulf. I liked how there was such a variety of topics to follow and how easily they were to add to the reader. I am sure I could find things pertinent to the classroom even though I focused on fun things for the summer. I like how it would not clog my e-mail with things I am interested in following.

Thing 7

I used the Google Scholar to look for information about language development in children. I used the Advance Google Search t0 look for powerpoints about concepts of print. I thought this link about technology use in preschool was interesting. I set up alerts for Preschool Education.

pbskids.org/island/brochure/powerpoint/Coiro_Presentation.ppt

Thing 6

I explored the mashups and third party sites. I never realized how many things could be done with a photo. I used the bookr site but could not figure out how to add my book (Ladybugs) to my blog. Another site Alphalearnr looked interesting for working on letter recognition. It did say not all photos might be suitable for children and they were right. It could be used to find photos to go with the letter but would not work for children to use independently.


Ladybugs by Linda


Now it worked!!!!

Thing 5

I explored Flickr using the topics covered in the PreK science units. There were many photos that would work well with the units.

Thing 3

Playing with the avatar choices was fun. I have never read or participated in a blog so I really do not have a feel for what it means to have a blog.

Thing 2

I believe that I have confidence in myself as a lifelong learner. I have always read and continued my learning whether it was about raising children, professional development or for pleasure.
I like to attend workshops and search for learning opportunities on the web. The thing that is probably the hardest for me is to just take the time to play. It is easy to feel like work is never done even in the summer.