Not a THING, but a poll

I have inserted (hopefully) a poll I created using PollDaddy.com.




Click here to answer a short survey I created for the Web 2.0 TLA Conference summary.

THING #19 - Go with the Flow

Tried this Gliffy site for flowcharts. At the high school level, this can be helpful for classes coming in to do research. To do a good flowchart, the librarian would have to sit down with the teacher and go over exactly what the lesson is to be. After discussing the lessons, and everything that will go into the student work, preparation, etc, a flowchart can be useful inkeeping everything on task and a timely manner. What I found on this particular web site was it took some time to learn the functions of the flowcharts. The other cool thing was you could do a floorplan of your library. This can be used for studetn workers, partent volunteers who want to help, used for fire escape planning, etc. You can purchase this site for an upgrade or just use the basic site for free.

I also tried the mind meister. I didn't have as much luck with this site. Perhaps I'll go back and view the turtorial they give on the site. On this site, you have to sign up for a free trial. This site could be good for clustering thoughts before writing a research paper or before taking a TAKS test. It can help students formulate their thoughts, etc. The flowchart is more for structure of a set plan, and mindmeister is more for the creative writing aspect. I'll have to play more on this to see how useful this can really be.

THING #10 - Image Generators

I was having some fun with creating comics. This can really be helpful in a library for advertisements on events, to grab students attention on various things or events you have in the library. Could also be used to encourage reluctant readers to pick up a historical graphic novel and read it. May not give full accouont of events, but can highlight the main points and the students can begin to learn something about a topic. May be just information that they will want to learn a little more.


Made with free image tools @ TXT2PIC.com

I also played around with the sign generators. Basically this could be used for many of the same things. The drawback is that I noticed you had to pay to get things sent to you. the cool thing is that you could create magnets or postcards. This could be helpful in passing out information, giving as prizes for contests, etc.

The picture below I created using the sign generator with a frame around it. It is of Baxter, by former best friend. RIP buddy!

Made with free image tools @ TXT2PIC.com

THING #12 - MySpace/Facebook

Actually, I already had a Facebook account. This is very similar to MySpace. As like MySpace you can search by persons name. However, on Facebook, (at this point) I don't know if you search by email address. (I honestly havn't tried.) This facebook account is my personal site, not a school realted one. I may go back and create one with my school email address. Feel free to view my Facebook. There are alot of entries with my same name. Try adding the middle initial (M) and this will take a number of enties out.

I'm going to go back to Ning once I can get in and play with it.

Facebook, MySpace, etc, are great for staying in touch with people you don't see much anymore. For some people, this is their only source for keeping in touch, answering "emails", etc. As with anything else on these types of sites, you do need to be cautions as to how much personal information you put on them. I will probably use this source mostly to keep in touch with old college/high school friends etc.

THING #7 - GOOGLE Things

These items are things I have actually used in the past for personal things. Actually most of these items are very similar to what I have used through YAHOO.

Google Alerts are very handy to have. Possible uses for this could be working with teachers who are doing topics that spread over a period of time. Could be very handy to use with teachers who are working with a current affairs topic, government classes following the election process, business classes doing a stock project, etc. Having news articles, pictures, etc sent dirctly to me would allow me to stay up-to-date on information. I can then forward these articles, etc dirctly to the teacher for him/her to use in their class. I can tie this in with emial and send updated links to various groups (student groups, teacher groups, etc.)

Google Calendar is great for posting my library class schedule, meetings, important events (both personal and professional.) I can have ereminders sent directly to me from this calendar. I actually have something similar set up though one of my Yahoo accounts. I didn't play with the Google one too deep yet, but my yahoo calendar I can have reminder sent either to my email or my cell phone. This can come in handy during those times I'm not a computer.

iGoogle is nice for setting up a custom home page. Again, similar to Yahoo. You can set up a page of information that is specific to my needs. I can follow things like my stocks, sports teams I like and other personal things at a quick glance. For school, I can set this page up so that I can keep up with current events, news articles etc. Some of the gadgets are cool! World Clocks, satelite maps, etc. If a student is an exchange student, I can easily tell them what time it is back home. I can zoom in on structures, world landmarks, etc. Great for teaching students in history...they can see a satelite picture of the Great Wall of China, Eifle Tower, etc. Quotes of the day, calculators, etc. There are so many things to look at here. I could take days just learning what is on here. 15 minutes of playing just is a SMALL taste of what this has to offer.

Google Notebooks... I was a little confused on this one. I can see the benefits of somthing like this...Sharing info with school teachers, students, great way of communicating with parents, etc. I will need to go back and work on this part later on as to how to clip items to the notebook, videos, etc.

Picassa Web albums is very much like Flikr. Great promotional tool for the library. Sharing great things through pictures of what goes on in the library with parents, students, principals, etc., is very important for p.r. Half of working in a library is p.r. Google has a lot to offer. All these items I will have to revisit and learn more. It looks to be something that everytime I get on, there is a tendency to learn something new.