31 July 2007

Week 9 - Thing#21 Podcasts

After attending the WEMA conference this past spring I decided that I needed an ipod or mp3 player. I had gone to several sessions about podcasting and then did some online research when I got home. (In fact I already had the Yahoo podcasting tutorial saved as a favorite.) My laptop already had iTunes installed so I started there after I purchased an ipod. I subscribed to several series and have been listening ever since. (Mainly, when I'm cleaning or taking a long walk with the dog.)

I explored most of the directories included with this exercise: Educational Podcast Directory

PodcastAlley


Yahoo Podcasts



I discovered an RSS feed and added it to this blog: David Warlick & 21st century learning. I haven't checked in iTunes to see if this podcast is available there, but will. It's so easy to get new programs and synch up the ipod that I would prefer to access them from there.

Week 9 - Thing#20 YouTube

I have already explored YouTube at great length when I was trying to learn how to embed a video earlier. I've already saved a bunch of videos as favorites. So now I'll have to figure out how to create folders to organize those choices.

I thought that I'd explore TeacherTube. It has many videos that could be used in the classroom, for professional development with staff, examples of student productions and is a location to upload videos produced by students. I was looking for a "beginning of the school year" video, but I selected this video instead bacause it makes one think. It's kinda long but worth it.

ShiftHappens Added on 17-05-2007 by hsullivan.

29 July 2007

Week 8 - Thing#19 LibraryThing

Wow!! What a great site LibraryThing is. Only added 8 books to start. (I may have to upgrade my service a-c I have more than 200 books in my personal collection.) My favorite task when I was working was cataloging. Now I can continue with my own collection and my sister's. When I visit her once a year she always has me update her collection's database for her.

Here's the link for my library thus far. I was able to add a LT chiclet, though, I removed it after adding the LT blog widget. See it below.

LibraryThing is very easy to use and I was able setup "my library" the way I like. I'm going to have to go back and actually look at the editions I have, but editing appears to be easy too. Easy to navigate.

Social side of LT is intriguing. The Zeitgeist provides lots of interesting info about users of the site and books. There are a variety of groups. And it's easy to explore other users and their library's. It's like del.icio.us in that regard. I don't get the discussions yet, but I'll check those out after I add all of my books to "my library". I'm gonna be busy after I have completed SSL2.
Only 4 more things left!

Zoho publish to Blogger (WORKS now)

Received a comment from Ranjith and he says the problem with Blogger is fixed. So, I'm trying again.

This is a test of the Zoho plugin for Microsoft Word/Excel. It’s supposed to save in Zoho from MSWord. Let’s see.

smile

I clicked on the save button in the Zoho toolbar. Message told me to save locally before saving to Zoho. After saving locally, when I selected Zoho’s save button a popup asked if I wanted to save online. I’m going to see if it’s at Zoho. Yes, it is. Zoho has three versions of this document saved. It automatically named them based upon the name within Word. Only thing is I'm not sure if I'm in MSWord or Zoho, unless I actually login to Zoho. When I'm using Zoho from within Word is when I'm confused. I'll have to play more to better understand what's happening and when.

I have imported a couple of word documents into Zohoo and most of the formatting came thru. I thought that I'd try out Google Docs since I already have a Google account. I didn't like how documents were imported, the formatting did not come thru as well. And when I tried to correct the formatting it only got worse. I like Zoho Writer better. Although, I've been trying to change the font and size without success.

Now I'm going to try to post this document into my blog. frownWell, of course, it didn't work. First I gave it my login name and password and then the blog name and it's url. Keeps on telling me it can't find the blog. Have to try to find help in Zoho, though, there isn't a "help" choice, just FAQ's. Found the instructions, but I think that is what I already did. I'll try again, step-by-step. Only make it thru a few steps Unable to connect your blog. Username or password may be incorrect. Have tried several times still not working. 7/28/07 5pm

I've been looking thru some of the other SSL2 blogs and I'm going to try some more things

Next, trying to insert a link, article on LibraryThing, BibMe, & Zotero. That works, however, when I save it as a Word document the emoticons and anchors don't come thru. PDF, emoticons and link-yes, anchor-no

I have tried ZohoSheet too. Works great.

Now I'm going to try and share with Liz. Said that she wasn't registered. Sent to school rather that home. Will try at home too.


Technorati Tags

28 July 2007

Week 8-Thing#18 (cont.)

Well, as you can see from my previous post that I was able to publish from GoogleDocs. I'm still going to continue trying from Zoho, though. Liz did you get it to work?

Week 8 - Thing #18 Online App's

This is a test of the Zoho plugin for Microsoft Word/Excel. It’s supposed to save in Zoho from MSWord. Let’s see.

smile

I clicked on the save button in the Zoho toolbar. Message told me to save locally before saving to Zoho. After saving locally, when I selected Zoho’s save button a popup asked if I wanted to save online. I’m going to see if it’s at Zoho. Yes, it is. Zoho has three versions of this document saved. It automatically named them based upon the name within Word. Only thing is I'm not sure if I'm in MSWord or Zoho, unless I actually login to Zoho. When I'm using Zoho from within Word is when I'm confused. I'll have to play more to better understand what's happening and when.

I have imported a couple of word documents into Zohoo and most of the formatting came thru. I thought that I'd try out Google Docs since I already have a Google account. I didn't like how documents were imported, the formatting did not come thru as well. And when I tried to correct the formatting it only got worse. I like Zoho Writer better. Although, I've been trying to change the font and size without success.

Now I'm going to try to post this document into my blog. frownWell, of course, it didn't work. First I gave it my login name and password and then the blog name and it's url. Keeps on telling me it can't find the blog. Have to try to find help in Zoho, though, there isn't a "help" choice, just FAQ's. Found the instructions, but I think that is what I already did. I'll try again, step-by-step. Only make it thru a few steps Unable to connect your blog. Username or password may be incorrect. So, now I'm trying from within Google Docs.

25 July 2007

NECC 2007

Just had to include these links for webcasts, blogs, podcasts, etc. for sessions at NECC Atlanta. I didn't attend, but now I can still learn.

Steve Hargadon's NECC 2007 Session Tags and Feeds

NECC webcasts

Apple's NECC 2007 Podcast channel

19 July 2007

Photo mashups

Web Photos Now Have Zero Credibility - Now anyone can rewrite history, taking only seconds for each precious photo.

Just had to add this news article first seen in American Libraries Direct, July 18, 2007, to the blog a-c we covered flickr and flickr mashups. I think that the two programs described in the article above could be considered the "ultimate" photo mashups, however, I'm not sure that they are available yet.

18 July 2007

YouTube

Tried again to embed UTubeVideo and it worked!! (Just copy/paste embed code)

Who's Watching YOUR Space The 3-minute version of the most recent OCLC Symposium at ALA Midwinter 2007. More than 400 people attended this discussion of social networking practices and trends on January 19, 2007 during the American Library Association Midwinter Conference in Seattle, Washington.


Now here's the one I have been trying to embed and thought I was doing something wrong. I finally went to the developer directly, mwesch and guess what? His video looks the same as mine does with Blogger's Dashboard in the background.

The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)June 19, 2007
Web 2.0 in under 5 minutes by Michael Wesch

17 July 2007

Week 7 - Thing#17 Wiki playspaces

I went to the sandbox portion of the California Curriculum Connections wiki and proceeded to create three new pages. It was certainly easy to add those new pages which included text, links, and a video. However, after I had done that I went back and looked at the Discovery Exercises and realized I should have been in the Sandbox ONLY. After I used the PB Wiki tour and the other PB Wiki resources I went back and removed all of the pages that I had created since none had much to do with Curriculum Connections. I did practice editing in the sandbox. I also examined history, used the comparison feature, and liked looking at the recent activity.

I also used the Wikispaces tour to learn more about this wiki-host.

Good idea to create the California Curriculum Connections wiki to share ideas about using Web 2.0 tools in schools and school libraries. I especially liked the Online Learning section's "licenses" and the information ethics. A great resources for teachers and parents.

Wisconsin's Battle of the Books is managed in Moodle and I'm wondering how wikis work within Moodle. Yikes!!! just returned from looking at the Moodle site we used and the server has crashed and data was unrecoverable!

13 July 2007

Week 7 - Thing #16 Wikis

I have been listening to EdTech podcasts and I just listened to a NECC 2007 presentation, Using Wikis in the Classroom. (The EdTech link is a wiki , however, I didn't recognize it as a wiki until I began exploring wikis in this exercise!)

After listening to the podcast I was interested in learning more about wikis in schools and libraries. The examples in the Discovery Resources demonstrated a variety of uses.


  • I liked the pathfinder (subject guides) and how local community links were included. That would be a great way to include parents and community in the school library.
  • Another interesting use for a wiki would be for school resources and/or student handbooks.
  • A wiki for the school district's long range Information and Technology plan, which is required in Wisconsin every three years, would make it a lot easier to collaborate. And would save lots of "trees" because the wiki would be online for state evaluators. And the wiki could include graphics, pictures, etc.
  • Wiki Collaboration across the Curriculum by Victoria Davis is a great presentation about classroom wikis which benefits Teacher Librarians too.


Week 6 - Thing #15 Web 2.0/Library 2.0

The video, The Machine is Us/ing Us, was my first introduction to Web 2.0.

(I still can't figure out how to embed the video correctly. Always comes up with the Blogger Dashboard in the background, rather than the YouTube image. Tried after adding my blog to utube, tried copy/pastse of embed code, and then deleted my blog and tried to copy/paste embed code.)

Web 2.0, Library 2.0, School Library 2.0 seem to be synonymous terms used to describe tools available on the Internet which allow users to interact with others and create their own content.

I read many of the articles. I didn't like the articles that appeared in the OCLC Newsletter. They seemed too much like they were selling their product. I enjoyed many of the articles in the references list in the Wikipedia article on Library 2.0.


I really liked what Christopher Harris had to say in his School Library Journal article about School Library 2.0. I went to his blog, Infomancy and read all of his blogs tagged SL2.0. I think his thoughts are really on the mark for libraries and school libraries.

Here's my dreamclould with terms from Christopher's article&posts and many of the other articles I read:

Simple Interactive User-Participation Collective_Intelligence Self-Service Novel&RemixedContent Frequent_Evaluation User_Input Communication Information_Literacy Infomancy Read Write SL2.0 Collaboration

12 July 2007

Week 6 - Thing #14 Technorati

Searching for School Library Learning 2.0 in various ways on Technorati did give different results.

  • The Keyword, exact phrase, all blogs search yielded 131 entries, most of which were blog entries by registrants for the CSLA tutorial.

  • The Tag search without quotations gave results similar to an OR boolean search with over 1000 posts found. Many of the entries were not related to the CSLA tutorial. When I searched "School Library Learning 2.0" the number of posts found was 129, close to the first keyword search with all of the entries from CSLA tutorial participants. Photos also appeared with this Tag search. I found my flickr photo and Liz's too. I noticed with other tag searches that posts, blogs, videos, and photos might be found.
  • The Blog Directory search with and without quotation marks yielded the least number of results, 6 and 12, again all from CSLA tutorial participants.

I'm not exactly sure why the Blog Directory search turned up so few, unless one has to 'claim' one's blog to get found in the directory or the blog name is important. I did find my own blog and Liz's in the other searches, tho, they were pretty far into the results.

I discovered what the authority ranking is all about. At first I thought that it had to do with the number of comments a blog receives, but it's more than that. At this point in my life I really don't care if lots of people read my blog and link to it. I'm still more interested in reading what others say. Technorati doesn't seem too useful to me, unless I'm looking for videos or photos, but can't I just go to Flickr or UTube????

I do like tagging. It's easier to keep track of sites, blogs, etc. that interest me. I have tagged most of my favorites and continue to use del.icio.us to tag.

09 July 2007

Week 6 - Thing #13 del.icio.us & tagging

I've spent a lot of time exploring del.icio.us. At first I thought the only use would be another location for my favorites. I didn't see anything social about it and I liked rollyo better. I was hesitant about using the info I was finding a-c I didn't know who was posting and whether the source was accurate, authentic, etc. But after reading and using some of the Discovery Resources I began to be drawn into the "social" aspect. I've since added two feeds into my bloglines account. AS IF Authors Support Intellectual Freedom, a blog, which I found when looking at tags for IF. Then, of course, del.icio.us's sjlibrarylearning2 tag has an RSS feed. I see that del.icio.us is a way to keep up on the latest info for those topics that interest you or that you are researching. And I found WEMTA's president is also a user. One could really "stalk" someone if one has the time. Also, was able to add my tags to this blog.

Since I'm retired I am able to explore, but I'm not sure that if I was still working that I would use del.icio.us that much. I think that I could recommend it to teachers especially those taking classes. Not sure about students. I'm still planning on looking at how del.icio.us is used by libraries.

06 July 2007

Week 5 - Rollyo widget

I'm so excited!! I finally figured out how to add widgets when I was able to add my searchroll to the blog. Now I can go back and actually work with the Top Website Widgets. I really wanted to add a temp widget. (Note to myself on how to: Customize, Add page element, Add HTMl, copy code and paste.)

Week 5 - Thing #12 Rollyo

I explored rollyo. There are many different search rolls. I was glad to see a list of sites being searched since I didn't know anyone whose search roll I examined. By knowing the sites being searched I felt more confident in the results. Here's the rollyo I created http://www.rollyo.com/av_2.0_learner/intellectual_freedom/

02 July 2007

Week 5 - Thing #11 Ning


I checked out Ning and searched for various topics. I didn't think that there would be so... many groups. I liked what I saw at Teacher Librarian Network . There was a group for HS LMS, which I was. And the forums would be really helpful, sorta of like the listserv used by WEMTA members, only you can see all of the forums and responses. I haven't joined this network a-c I'm not active as a LMS.

However, I've thought of several networks that I could create (retired LMS, Class Reunion from HS or college, Lake Association group). I may just join the TeacherLibrarian network and add a group for retirees. Cool site!!!