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.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
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.
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
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
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
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.
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.
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.
Monday, October 22, 2007
THING #3 - Avatar
Great little thing. I really had a lot of fun making this picture. Hard to choose what to make me look like though. Finally opted for a western theme at a school. This item really is a fun to create a picture of how we see ourselves or of how we would like to portray ourselves in some way. Probably spent most of my time creating this once Yahoo got its act together and let us in.
THING #5 - Flikr
Flikr is actually pretty fun. Great for posting pictures of various things. Could be personal or school related. Great for posting pictures of events in your library, school, etc. I could really have some fun with this when I take pictures of my students hard at work (or sometimes hardly working.) First picture used was one I found on the Flikr site. I didn't spend too much time on this as this "thing" at training, but stil had fun with it.
THING #6 - Mashups
Flikr mashups - fun little thing to create your own trading cards. This can be handy when wanting to give a basic synopsis of myself to others. Can be linked to various sites (ie: blogs). Very useful for general basic information. I did have a little trouble navigating this, probably because time was running short. Will hopefully spend more time over the next few days looking at these moer and coming up with ideas on what I can really do with this. So far, this is the one thing that has served the least purpose for me in this trainging.
Crikey!
Crocodiles are very misunderstood creatures. Thanks to men like the late Steve Irwin, crocs are more revered and understood. Thanks Steve!
THING #4
How could this technology (blog) be used in the library?
Book club information, general library information, book reviews, etc can all be posted on this blog. I figure once I sit down and look at these things more, I can come up with different ways to use all this information or at least a good portion of it. Today was a bit of information overload. Had to go home from training and update some of these entries after my head cleared some and could give it some thought. Blogs can certainly be useful for general communication between teacher/librarian and students, parents and staff.
Book club information, general library information, book reviews, etc can all be posted on this blog. I figure once I sit down and look at these things more, I can come up with different ways to use all this information or at least a good portion of it. Today was a bit of information overload. Had to go home from training and update some of these entries after my head cleared some and could give it some thought. Blogs can certainly be useful for general communication between teacher/librarian and students, parents and staff.
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