Thursday, March 18, 2010
Final Thoughts
The best thing about this course was finding so many cool sites that I would never have looked for before. The worst thing is knowing that every day there are hundreds of new sites being created, so you really can't keep up with it all. For that reason I would definitely sign up for another project like this one in the future.
Podcasts
Hopefully I will be posting some of the videos I make at school on TeacherTube at some point. Right now I'm not comfortable posting videos featuring students, and the ones with teachers use copyrighted music so we can only use them in school.
Unlike some others I didn't have any problem setting up a NetLibrary account. They must have fixed their "issues." I could read Anne of Green Gables at my computer or download it but The Lightning Thief was not available.
I am more a reader and a watcher than a listener, so audio podcasts are not my favorite thing. I still haven't gotten into audiobooks and don't even listen to music when I'm working, although I do listen while I'm driving so I can loudly sing along. I already had the KERA podcasts in my RSS feeds so didn't add a new one although I did find several very interesting ones.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Love YELP!
Experimenting with ZOHO Writer
This is a very special tree at our ranch in Clay County, Texas.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Social Bookmarking and Wikis
Moving on to wikis, I am very familiar with wikis and have always had a concern about the fact that anyone can edit anything on a true wiki. That is why I have a modified wiki on my school website where students can add to their classmates' comments, but can't change them. Kiera, go look at what your new second-favorite movie is on our HEB 23 Wiki and you'll see what I mean.
Friday, February 12, 2010
LibraryThing
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Playing around with image generators
I've explored many image and text generators today. Have had some great success with a couple and some frustration with others. My greatest frustration is clicking on a site that I think will provide a service and getting an ad-filled site with multiple other links posted and no indication as to which one does what I went to the site to do. When that happened I just moved on and found something less complicated to use. I'm posting my two favorite products from today's exercise here - my cartoon avatar and a book cover. I hope you like them. Be sure to read the speech bubble in the book cover. It reflects how I feel about all the cool Web 2.0 possibilities and the lack of opportunities to use them with students.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
RSS Feeds
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Flickr and 6th grade project
OK, I created a Flickr account for my professional development course which I am planning on using for family photos after this project is finished. That's why I gave it a personal name rather than a professional name. I figure I can make sets for Midway Park on it that anyone can view as well as sets for our family photos that will be private.
The first set I added has photos I use with 6th grade when we study world structures. They were taken at Machu Picchu, Peru. I brought my Midway Park backpack just to get these photos to use. As it turned out, the backpack was much more comfortable than I expected and I ended up using it every day!
I discuss Machu Picchu with the students after sharing the book, Talking Walls, with them and prior to the Big 6 research project we do on world structures. In that project I am able to include lessons on web evaluation, copyright and plagiarism, Word, PowerPoint, and, hopefully this year, Photo Story. I have the students randomly draw a structure from the 25-30 that I have in a hat. Usually they have never heard of the one they draw, even if it is Fenway Park or Neuschwanstein Castle, but they have a lot of fun learning about the structure they chose and then sharing what they've learned with their classmates.
My Flicker account is : http://www.flickr.com/photos/doylephotoshare/
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Welcome
I think it is important to stay current on the technology available today both for professional reasons and personal reasons. I will be able to use what I learn with my students and fellow faculty members, and will also be able to share them with my husband, mother and many siblings. It is my hope that other librarians will find ideas here that they can use in their own schools. Thanks for visiting. - - - BD