Thursday, June 26, 2008

Thing 6 --

Image Chef is so fast and easy to use. It will be interesting to find out if this or the trading card tool are blocked at school. I really could see using both of these tools for many different promotional items. It would be great to use the trading card tool at the beginning of the year to pass out to staff and students with the library's staff on them as bookmarks. So fun!
Even as a small banner, it looks like it takes up most of the width of the page.
I could also waste a lot of time on these tools. :)
Kids would have a lot of fun with ToonDoos. I'm not sure I'm that creative.

ImageChef Custom Images

Image Chef

Awareness Ribbons Customized - ImageChef.com

Thing 5 -- more Flicker


I used the color picture to find a photo. Wow! How easy . . . I could really see the use of this in the classroom, but I am guessing Flicker is blocked. I suppose there is no control of what pictures may come up.
Spell with Flicker was also very neat. Can definitely see using this again. It would be fun to use these tools to make some promotional items for my media centers -- posters, bookmarks, etc. I didn't really figure out how to save the images from this site.
If a person was really into photography, I could see sharing the photos online for others to use. Though I am still not comfortable sharing personal photos.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Thursday, February 6

Not sure if this is one of the "things" (I'll have to check.)
I happen to run across this program through my email and tried it out. For fun! I could really get into this on a personal side. :)

My boys.

Thing 4 -- Flicker -- Wednesday, February 6, 2008

I am beginning to become very frusterated with our school system. Everything is blocked.
I have explored Flicker at home and was amazed at what one could. And I had only begun to explore.
In the beginning I couldn't even access Flicker from school. Now I have been given access but the picutes are blocked. Acess doesn't do a lot of good.
I will continue to explore this task at home but do not see a lot of use for it if the school district will not allow it.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Thing 3 -- RSS Feeds -- Monday, February 4, 2008

The past few days I've been trying to figure out these RSS Feeds. I think they could be really useful. I often find a site that is updated regularly, bookmark it, and think I will go back to it regularly but that rarely happens.
I had a lot of trouble setting up my feeds. I continously received the message "Invalid Feed URL". I think I have it right now. We'll see.
I was able to get the feeds into my Google Reader, but I wanted them to show up on my blog and wasn't able to. Wondered if it was because "Bloglines" was blocked at school so I used the GoogleReader.
I haven't been able to add any of my fellow participants blogs except to the Google Reader.
I agree with many of the comments. As I too thought this was very confusing and am not sure if I would do it without be "compelled" to.
I just ran across an online book club for 5th grade students. It is ran through a RSS feed. What a neat idea to use this tool for.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Thing 2 Cont. -- What is Library 2.0? -- Thursday, January 31, 2008

Reflections on John Blyberg blog . . . I really liked Sarah Houghton's definition of Library 2.0. “Library 2.0 simply means making your library’s space (virtual and physical) more interactive, collaborative, and driven by community needs. Examples of where to start include blogs, gaming nights for teens, and collaborative photo sites. The basic drive is to get people back into the library by making the library relevant to what they want and need in their daily lives…to make the library a destination and not an afterthought.” I think it a great to begin the process of how changes in our "libraries" need to begin.
I also agree with the fact that we need to dramaticly change what we think our purpose is. It is the only way will we to engage our future tax-payers.
By participating in "23 Things on a Stick", I am hoping to learn what is Library 2.0. I am looking forward to learning about the various "things" out there and become a little familiar with them. Even to just have some background in to what others are talking about will be a great reward for doing this program. The question, "Where are you in your knowledge and use of Web 2.0 tools? How about your library?", is a very easy to answer. My knowledge of Web 2.0 tools is pretty much zero and that goes the same for use in my library and staff in my building. At least at my Middle School, I am sure there are many students that know more than I do when it comes to these Web 2.0 tools.
It is amazing how has the internet and it's vast resouces has change how I do things at home and work . Whatever I can do on-line, it is always my first choice. An example of this is shopping for anything -- I do as much shopping on-line as I can. Packages are always being delivered. Same goes for work. It takes so much less time.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Thing 2 -- What is Library 2.0? -- January 29, 2008

I just finished watching the video of Stephen Abram at Murdoch University Library in Australia. He provides many interesting things to think about. For example, he discuss finding the time to do "23 Things". He states that he used to be a smoker and he sure could find time each day to have his cigerette. Stephen Abram expresses that if one is passionate enough about something they will find time each day to do it, even if it is only 15 per day. He also discusses how in his opinion any professional development such as this one has only improved the way an individual does things -- no matter how large or small. I found it a little scarcy to listen to him talk about some of his favorite 2.0 tools as many of them I have never even heard of. This is one of my goals for this program is to at least expose myself to these tools and be aware of these tools when they are discussed.
Finding time is always a challenge. It was good for me to hear at the MEMO Conference that to plan on doing at least two "things" per week. Personally, I need these short-term goals. I know that if it gets to the end of the week and I haven't done my two "things", I will make the time.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Thursday, January 24, 2008 -- Thing 1 -- Creating a Blog

This morning I continued to create my blog by creating my avatar. What fun! I can see how people can really get into this.

Wow! I just add a list of some of my favorite blogs to read. I couldn't believe how easy this was.

I can see really getting a lot of use out of this. Number one I can access sites I use at school from home without forward the web sites through my email.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Wednesday, January 23, 2008 -- Thing 1 -- Creating a Blog

I have started the "23 Things on a Stick". This blog will document my progress as I accomplish the different "23 Things on a Stick".
When I registered for the program, I used a different blog name. During the actual creating of my blog I changed the name of the blog. Not sure if this will make things difficult to change or not. Actual creating of this blog was very easy. No wonder why there are so many bloggers out there. :)