Thing #10

Ok. That was kind of fun. The final product wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but this definitely has potential.
I used Flickr to make a magazine cover for the book I just finished, Vampire High, by Douglas Rees. Now I can see all kinds of copyright issues with doing it the way I did, but students can have much more freedom with this. Even if you just get a cheap digital camera or a scanner, you can have kids do projects like these to use as visual book reports. This, in conjunction with programs like AR, can not only demonstrate that kids read books, but that they understood them... without the work of reading a book report!
This can also be a great way to highlight student achievements. Who wouldn't want to be able to have their face on a magazine cover to show off to their parents? People could use this as a way to reward the student of the month. This, along with other image programs (like the trading cards to name one), could really help to boost morale among students, teachers, staff, and parents.
And it's FUN!

Week #4 - Thing #9

I have to say it... I think this assignment is already out of date. While RSS feeds are handy, they are becoming unnecessary in light of iGoogle. Basically, with iGoogle, you can create tabs that contain items (or "gadgets") of your choice. Personally, I have a standard tab with a number of different items on it, and I have a blog tab that is exclusively blogs and my Google Reader. As I go through the reader each day to clear off the mess that comes in from sites I chose months ago, not realizing that there would only be 1 or 2 gems in and among the less quality things they put out, I find it cumbersome and annoying. I sometimes get 50+ items a day on my reader. But with iGoogle, I can create a gadget that links directly to the blogs I prefer. Then they are on my iGoogle page, they are organized however I see fit, and they show me only the titles. If I choose to go beyond that, I can click the title, link directly to the page, and see what's there. Then I can hit the back button and repeat the process as I choose. No more sifting through other items.
It's quick. It's painless. And it's much better for me than RSS. So, although I still have my RSS up and running, it's not where I spend my time anymore. However, it may still be the better way to get news on one topic, so it's still a viable option in certain contexts.

Week #4 - Thing #8

I had actually learned quite a bit about RSS feeds in my library tech class this past summer. In it, we even had a chance to sit down and subscribe to feeds on Google Reader. We discussed how this could be used in education.
For teachers, we can subscribe to an RSS feeder requesting information on only one topic. Example: we can subscribe to cnn.com and request only feeds that have "Iraq" or "Al Qaeda". That way, we don't get every single item that comes across the CNN site, just the ones having to do with specific topics. This kind of selective feed is very helpful for current events. If a government teacher wants to focus on the elections this spring, he/she can subscribe to certain feeds that will only give him/her information on the topic of choice. This eliminates sifting.
However, this also eliminates other information that might have been found on other topics that the person didn't even know he/she might be interested in.
For students, this can be used in similar ways to help with reports/research. However, this is a live feed and it won't back-date the feed information. So if they start the feed today, they won't get yesterday's articles. For some, this could be a problem.
Now people can use this as a "gadget" in iGoogle. So, since iGoogle is my home page on my internet explorer at home, every time I go online, I immediately see my reader. This has simplified my reader anymore, since I no longer have to log on to Google and then go to Google Reader. It's right there on the front page.
If students use this option, they can see this the moment they log on to iGoogle. They can also use Google Docs here as well, so now they can have information at their fingertips and then immediately put it in their notes/research for any assignment that they may be completing.
Streamlining information and getting it where it needs to go even faster.... wow!

Week #3 - Thing #7

Anything technology related? How about the wonders of the exercise video game. One of the hottest things out there this season is the SmartCycle. My son can't stop talking about it. If a commercial for it comes on, he goes nuts. If it works, we may have one of the healthiest video game addicts out there. Both a blessing and a curse I guess. Of course, the fact is that most of these things look amazing, but then they don't work well and are a pain to operate. Luckily for us, his grandmother bought it for him, so we didn't have to spend a penny on it. My hubby and I are going lo-tech with a real bike and a child-sized Black & Decker set so that he can pretend to build.
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The other technology thing to speak of is iGoogle. I learned about it at the CSLA conference and immediately created an account for myself. It's good... not perfect... but good. Maybe it's just my computer, but the gadgets kind of "freak out" on my screen when I load the page. I've even deleted a number of them to try and solve the problem, but it's not done much good. It has some amazing possibilities if it works, though.
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I'm trying to get email for the students at my school. It's taking time though because each school must have an email sub-administrator to create and assign the accounts to them. The admins at my school have agreed that it's ok for me to do it (yet another thing on my list to do), but they never have the time to wait on hold for the ITD guys. The principal must personally call and authorize appointing me to the position. So, for a couple of months now, I've been reminding and reminding them, but it hasn't gotten me far. I'm hoping that once we do get it up and running, we can teach the students to use things like RSS and GoogleDocs. Our school doesn't have a separate server for students to log on to and/or save their work, so they either save to the hard drive and hope that no one else deletes their work later in the day, or they buy a travel drive, which most either can't afford or their parents aren't willing to buy (since they don't know what they do/how important they can be). If I can get them accounts, I can get them the ability to safely save on GoogleDocs and maybe teach them to get organized using programs like iGoogle and Google Calendar.
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Dear Lord... Google's taking over!

Week #3 - Thing 6

Ok... that whole trading card thing is fun. I also got to make a letter from Santa for my son. It was very fun! And surprisingly easy.
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I find it fascinating the number of people out there who have created these things on their own, apart from the companies, without getting paid for it all. It's very generous and is definitely symbolic of our new world. Where before everyone was "I'll only build it if I can make some money off of it", now, at least in the internet world, we've become more sharing. Of course, it's not all sunshine and roses; there are still many who are a bit greedy. But the future looks bright in many ways. I'm really enjoying much of what's out there.

Week 3 - Thing #5

I have heard of Flickr before, but have never spent any real time on it. Heck! I even suggested another TL use it in class a couple of weeks ago when her pic couldn't be seen otherwise. So today I sat down and went through the tour. Most of it was fairly basic stuff that matched a number of other sites I've seen like ccMixter and Freesound in terms of tags and grouping. But then I went on to to see the "interestingness" and the interesting images from the last 7 days.
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I was blown away.
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I just kept reloading and reloading the screen to see new pictures... and they were all amazing. I've always loved photography and taking pictures, but I've never come close to what some of these people were doing. I know that I have a couple of pics here and there that I could hope would be considered "interesting" by the good folks at flickr, but there were a few pics that just bowled me over and kept me on the floor. The one I've added here, by Lee Seung Kye, is exquisite. Granted, it appears that he's a pro, but that doesn't make me any less in awe of him and his work.
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Of course, this just makes me more determined to save up for a decent digital SLR so that I can at least have the equipment to take pics that might someday be this nice.

Thing 2

I would say the most difficult thing for me to do with 7 1/2 habit of lifelong learners is setting goals. I set plenty of goals. I am the goal-setting queen. My problem is that many of my goals are long-term and are dependent on my state of mind at a later date. I don't often set realistic short-term goals.
Part of my problem is also that I tend to take on too much. I am not only the teacher librarian at my school, I run AR (so far without extra $$), I manage the LMC MacLab, as well as do my best to manage all the other macs on campus (oh, the joys of Apple Remote Desktop), I'm taking classes to get my credential and master's degree, and I have an almost 5-year-old. There is also the fact that, while I am desperate to get teachers to USE the LMC, I am sometimes frustrated when they're here because I can't do all the other things I need to and they often have difficulties managing their students, resulting in an LMC that looks like a tornado hit it by the time they leave. Admittedly, it is a very long LMC, creating management issues for any sane person.
So what I need to do is create more short-term, realistic goals that I can keep without stressing over. And if I'm late meeting them, that's ok... as long as I don't skip them altogether.