As part of this week's discovery, I went to Technorati. I had a difficult time doing a key word search in Blog posts, in tags, and in the Blog directory. I could only find the Blog directory and a general search box at the top of the page. I watched the tutorial but it was small and the speaker went very quickly over the information without showing the entire page that she was talking about. The tutorial did not even match the home page I was looking at. In short, I was underwhelmed by Technorati. It would not be a tool that I would use. I set up an account thinking that would take me to a more user-friendly page, but that wasn't the case. I couldn't even find where to end my membership. I would not use this in the library.
As far as tagging, it is useful for finding items that have the tags you are looking for, but if a blog hasn't been tagged it won't be easy to find with a tag search. Tags are general tools to help with searches but the librarian in me says the casualness of the structure of the tagging is going to become a problem at some time in the near future.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Week Six - Thing # 13
I spent the afternoon exploring Del.icio.us. The tutorial by the Santa Cruz Public Library helped get me started. As a side note, as I have worked on the 23 Things I have noticed how often YouTube is used for video tutorials. This site is blocked in my district. I understand why it is blocked but I wish there was a solution to using the best of YouTube and blocking the worst of it.
Del.icio.us has great potential as a tool for research in the library, and perhaps students would use it because it is associated with the web and not the library. We have great material already available on our library website but most students prefer to use Google and Yahoo. Using Del.icio.us would make it easier to link news articles with student assignments. It also could be used for specific classes and assignments. Having a Del.iou.us account for the library would be a way to teach students new ways to find better material for their papers rather than settling for what Google and Yahoo throws out in gigantic and not necessarily accurate numbers. This would also give students and teachers the opportunity to interact with the material by posting to the account. I plan to try this in some format with my bookclub this year. Rather than meet every week, one of the weeks will be online.
Del.icio.us has great potential as a tool for research in the library, and perhaps students would use it because it is associated with the web and not the library. We have great material already available on our library website but most students prefer to use Google and Yahoo. Using Del.icio.us would make it easier to link news articles with student assignments. It also could be used for specific classes and assignments. Having a Del.iou.us account for the library would be a way to teach students new ways to find better material for their papers rather than settling for what Google and Yahoo throws out in gigantic and not necessarily accurate numbers. This would also give students and teachers the opportunity to interact with the material by posting to the account. I plan to try this in some format with my bookclub this year. Rather than meet every week, one of the weeks will be online.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Week Five - Thing #12
Today I explored Rollyo. I created an account and a search roll for digital scrapbooking sites at http://rollyo.com/fvaughan/scrapbooking_sites/ .
A teacher would find this tool useful for sending students to preselected sites for specific assignments. In the library it would be helpful for those sites needed quickly; for example, books in a series. For my personal use, however, I am content to use Google bookmarks. I have access to them wherever I log on to my e-mail.
A teacher would find this tool useful for sending students to preselected sites for specific assignments. In the library it would be helpful for those sites needed quickly; for example, books in a series. For my personal use, however, I am content to use Google bookmarks. I have access to them wherever I log on to my e-mail.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Week Five - Thing # 11
Tonight I explored Web 2.0 award-winning applications and Ning. I chose to explore eSnips, one of the award-winning site for digital storage and access. eSnips allows its members to store, share, and exchange music playlists, artwork, jokes, poetry, spiritual ideas, photography, videos, as well as other tags or categories. There is a forum for posts. Playlists and widgets can be used in user's blogs. Students and teachers would find this a useful tool for storing items that they want to add to other projects.
Next I explored Ning. I checked out Library 2.0, but decided not to join at this time. I am barely keeping up with reading everything on my Bloglines account. Library 2.0 or something like it will be my next step as I shift into web 2.0 as part of my online life.
I played Travel IQ and I definitely need to brush up on my geography.
Next I explored Ning. I checked out Library 2.0, but decided not to join at this time. I am barely keeping up with reading everything on my Bloglines account. Library 2.0 or something like it will be my next step as I shift into web 2.0 as part of my online life.
I played Travel IQ and I definitely need to brush up on my geography.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Playing "Go Fish" at the Beach
Although I am learning 23 Things for school use, using the applications with my family is also fun.
Week Five - Thing #10
Yesterday I was discouraged because I had a difficult time with the assignment. Today I received a comment on my blog from Cathy Nelson. I had shared a link to her blog and she wrote to thank me. She suggested that I search the "blogrolls" on the blogs that I like to find more blogs to follow. This is good advice because it is a timesaver. Blogs you like are going to link to more blogs you like. Thanks, Cathy.
Tonight I played around with image generators. Here is the link to my image: http://www.imagechef.com/ This would be fun for students to use as suggested in the Curriculum Connections section; however, my security software was warning me about the Comic Strip Generator site and, if I ventured too far into Image Chef, I was warned also. FD Toys seemed to be okay. This leads me to believe most of these tools will probably be blocked at school. A teacher could probably use this but would have to prepare in advance with technology specifically what site would be used.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Week Four - Thing #9
Overwhelmed would accurately describe how I feel after using the search tools to find feeds. I truly had no idea there were so many blogs out on the www. I enjoyed searching the "edublog" award-winning blogs and school library blogs. There were several I added to my Bloglines account so I can follow them. One I enjoyed was "Cathy Nelson's Professional Thoughts" http://technotuesday.edublogs.org/. She blogged about a neat application using a webcam.
Leon Hale, columnist for the Houston Chronicle has a blog: http://blogs.chron.com/leonhale/ which contains interesting technology information.
Jessamyn West's blog http://www.librarian.net/stax/2330/accessibility-of-google-books/ has an interesting blog about google books for special ed students.
I tried to use Blog Pulse but I was unsuccessful. The other search tools were nice but Bloglines does a good job of searching as well. Perhaps Hurricane Dolly's visit to my house pealing back part of my roof and causing the ceiling in my dining room to collapse has more to do with my feeling overwhelmed than this assignment. I will come back to this assignment later and use the search tools when I am not feeling so pressured. It's good to have these listed in the assignment for future use. I hope the site stays up for a while after the course is completed.
(We are okay. All the furniture was moved before the collapse and we now have a temporary roof in place until we can get the roof repaired. There are people whose homes flooded and people who still don't have electricity. My problems are small compared to theirs.)
Leon Hale, columnist for the Houston Chronicle has a blog: http://blogs.chron.com/leonhale/ which contains interesting technology information.
Jessamyn West's blog http://www.librarian.net/stax/2330/accessibility-of-google-books/ has an interesting blog about google books for special ed students.
I tried to use Blog Pulse but I was unsuccessful. The other search tools were nice but Bloglines does a good job of searching as well. Perhaps Hurricane Dolly's visit to my house pealing back part of my roof and causing the ceiling in my dining room to collapse has more to do with my feeling overwhelmed than this assignment. I will come back to this assignment later and use the search tools when I am not feeling so pressured. It's good to have these listed in the assignment for future use. I hope the site stays up for a while after the course is completed.
(We are okay. All the furniture was moved before the collapse and we now have a temporary roof in place until we can get the roof repaired. There are people whose homes flooded and people who still don't have electricity. My problems are small compared to theirs.)
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