Gotta Keep Reading

Final post

Unfortunately I've had to rush through my last few activities as June reports await. Sadly I didn't see a Web 2.0 gadget for writing them for me! I have been exposed to so many new applications. Indeed most of it was new to me. I see other participants seem to have been more familiar with some of these applications than I was. I spent far more time than I expected on the course but even with 4-5 hours in some weeks it was not enough to explore everything. Hence I think the advertised time allocation ought to be updated. I think some of the ideas got away from me in the end. I probably need face to face contact to really get into some of the applications but at least I know what may be useful and where to focus future learning. Thanks for the help Fiona and Felicity and the prompt replies. Once reports are over I plan to go back to this and see if I can learn some more.

Task 22 and 23 Ebooks and Audio books

Project Gutenberg was fascinating. I am amazed at the people who find time and interest to start such an involved and long term project yet it has clearly taken off. It would be an interesting activity for children to compare some of the older style covers with modern ones and reflect on why there are so many differences. I enjoyed the reading of one of the audio books and I have added it to my RSS feeds so I can be updated on the next chapter! I don't know if I would use these particular audio books at school though as we have access to illustrated ones which would have more appeal to most children. Sadly most of our students would be unlikely to remain focussed without the razzle and dazzle of visuals.

Task 21 Teachertube

I found the teacher tube videos very interesting. There were lots worth watching but once again there isn't enough time to keep going through them. I wanted to post Wikis in plain english but I had no luck trying to include it or others in my blog though. I keep getting a sign that says "Tag is not closed". I'm not sure what this means but I would like to be able to do this. Help please.....

I think such videos at school could be quite useful both for students and for PD for teachers. The one on cyber safety could have been placed on computers for children to view.

Task 20 Podcasts

I have added the ABC Radio link to my Google account. That was the most interesting one from those listed in the exercise. So many of the others were from overseas and not really of interest to me. I listened to an item about the new National curriculum which was relevant and of some value. They seem much like listening to the radio really and that podcast only contained information I have heard or read from other sources. The best part though was when Julia Gillard was interviewed and I was able to just move the control and skip her! You can't do that so easily on the radio. To be honest I probably won't tune into that one again as I'd rather listen to news on the radio while driving or read about it in the paper etc. I feel I spend far too much time on the computer and I'm not really looking for any ways to spend more time unless it achieves something not otherwise available.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/feeds/edp.xml

Task 19 Rollyo

Another amazing feat of technology. I created a searchbox including some library sites and linked to my blog but now I can't find the roll I created! However when I searched by name, many of the sites came up anyway. Oh well.... This would be useful for grouping websites for use by children for special research projects or even a group of author websites. I just need to master it!

Select...Whippets RuleSearch The Web

Task 18 Wikis

I have managed to create a wiki but it doesn't look nearly as interesting as all the others I have browsed. I am keen to create a wiki for children to use during third term when we study the short listed books. I'd like to start with children creating book reviews of the CBCA list. I was impressed with the way Princetown library had a collection of book reviews posted by patrons and sorted according to genre. Annotating the catalogue with a synopsis or cover of the book would be useful. I'm not really sure how to progress from my very basic wiki to one I could open up to students to use. I am finding that I am getting an overview of a lot of web 2.0 tools from this course but I am not confident to apply this knowledge and actually make use of most of them.

Task #17 Delicious

This is the first time I have had a look at Delicious and now at least I know what it is about. However once again I have spent more time than I should have exploring it without developing a working knowledge. The commoncrafts "How to" explanation was terrific again but something went amiss when I signed up and I don't seem to have the button on my browser. So where to from here? I don't really know how to use it. I did see some interesting sites but I don't understand how to tag sites or organise them.

#Task 16 Stay informed

MMMM I didn't actually find any of the suggested sites that I wanted to suscribe to. Am I lacking a sense of humour or are there others out there who, like me, failed to find anything amusing on the library comic strip site?

Task 15 RSS Feeds

I have set up my reader and subscribed to a site run by a friend who specialises in knowledge management. It was the only site I could think of to use but maybe when I am surfing around I will come across some others I can use. Most of the sites i use regularly didn't have a feed. I must say I love the Common crafts videos, they are so well done. I have seen a few now, such as RSS feeds and wikis and each one was so clearly explained. But whoever has the time to think up these things?

#14 Facebook

After looking over the tutorials, I've decided not to join Facebook. I don't have spare time to spend updating my profile or networking online at present and I am cautious about using it at all. I generally look over my son's shoulder when he is liaising with people I know so that will do for now.

Whippet Coco Task 12 Flickr

Whippet Coco, originally uploaded by Nisha und Coco.

Success at last! Well I couldn't manage to upload my own photos of my whippet onto my blog through Filckr but I am stunned to see there were 6880 others to choose from. Hopefully this one will find it's way to my blog. My whippets would never lower their dignity to chase a frisbee!

# Task 13 My Space

My word haven't libraries changed! The students at my primary school don't have access to My Space or Facebook from school so I would be unlikely to try to use these. I guess as a public library, librarians need to try whatever they can to draw in teenagers. I was concerned about the advertisements on the Yarra Plenty site particularly the one about finding a chinese woman for love and marriage! It seems inappropriate that these type of sites are put in the face of young people on a library site so for this reason also I wouldn't offer such a site unless ads could be blocked. I wonder too how the people who add their songs, comments etc to the space are monitored. Is this a free for all or are these sites vetted in some way? I tried to listen to one but needed to register with an email address so I decided against that.

#12 Flickr

I 'll have to put Flickr down as a failure. I have connected my blog to Flickr and loaded my own photos but can't get them from Flickr to the blog despite help from Fiona. I give up!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Task 11#

I found Library thing useful for finding information about my books, particularly the media used which is frequently not listed on other book sites. I was surprised to see that one of my favourite titles "Are you my mother?" had been listed by far more members than "Possum Magic". I assume this reflects the American member base? I'm not sure how I would use the list I've made except it did help me locate covers and book reviews which were helpful. I'm not really into sharing my favourites, comparing it to other people or finding out who else has a similar book collection. I couldn't find the cloud tag in Fiona's library but i did note again that Are you my Mother has lots of tags where as Possum Magic has none, at least the copy I checked had none. I think the widget would be handy on my library web page , if I had one!

Task 11# Librarything

Task 10# Image generator update

I discovered that my image was too big. A smaller image did the trick and I have created a magazine cover. That could be useful but to remove all the tags it is necessary to pay. So I'll check out a few other covers and see if there are some I could use at school. Lots of fun!!

Task 10# Image Generators

I had trouble with the Fake magazine image generator and wasted quite a bit of time there although I see others have been successful. For some reason the image would not load. I kept getting the message "Internet Explorer cannot display the web page" no matter how I tried to do it. That was disappointing because it looked great. However I found the image chef easy and created a few different things. I know how to get them into the side bar but not sure how to include in this post. I'll keep fiddling around and see how I go. I did it!


http://www.imagechef.com/ic/make.jsp?tid=Neon+Sign

Task 8 Working at Google

The Google workplace was amazing. I had never realised it was such a huge undertaking but I suppose that stands to reason. All the staff seemed very young. Is that saying something? I'm sure I don't have the aptitude to work there. Clearly the staff are very creative, risk takers. I'm surprised that they said the number of positions exceeds the applications. It looked like a highly sought after work place.

Task 8 iGoogle

I created my home page tonight. I added the inspirational quotes, book search and a few other gadgets. I found searching for them easy. I liked the To Do list best as that is something I can use everyday. I liked the book mark idea too as that would be useful but I've had trouble adding book marks to that. I was also put off by comments people had made about losing their book marks. Perhaps I can try again later. I think a hands on lesson is needed for me to make better use of iGoogle. I have searched around for as long as I can spare but I have only skimmed the surface. I guess one step at a time is good enough. I'll use my to do list and modify the rest at a later time.

Task #9 Virtual Worlds

At first I was totally confused by the information. Then I had a look at the list of activities for younger students. I visited Disney's Toon Town and could see great educational value. Lots of reading, decision making, problem solving and fun. The site allowed me to create and name my character. So Professor Bubbles Weaselsnout was born. I was quite hooked in at that stage. Just as I was getting into the adventure, the only choice I had was to become a subscriber if I wished to continue. This would be very tempting for children who were sucked in by then. All these sites which require downloads to your computer and gather information concern me. It's not what I would be encouraging children to pursue, no matter how educational. I am sure I wouldn't be unable to access it at school anyway. I think similar outcomes would come from other software already in the school which don't require a sign it etc. We have many other ways to thrill children without virtual worlds. It was an interesting exercise and possibly useful at tertiary level and no doubt entertaining for many but I won't be including it in my repertoire at this stage.

Task 7 Google Books

I've had several goes at this and thanks to Kathryn the quotation marks worked well to get a more relevant list. I'm focussing on Terry Denton books at present and I found a Wombat and Fox book of his which was there in its entirety. That was a great find because I don't have it in the library at present. Google books will certainly be useful for assessing books before I buy and even for students to read online in some instances eg Wombat and Fox

Task 6 Google maps
I've used google maps lots of times before but never used Whereisit until today. I think I'll stick with google maps. I put 5 or so locations at Torquay in at Whereisit, but none were recognised. I used churches, bus stop addresses, and supermarkets but none could be located. All work in google maps so I'll stick with that. I didn't know you could edit google maps and add locations. The mind boogles. I wonder prevents inappropriate addresses from being lodged?

Task 5
Well I managed to create a google document and to upload one from my computer. I have created two folders and colour coded them. For some reason there was a web based document I couldn't upload. I just kept getting a server error message. Oh well one is good! Enough for tonight.

Task 4
When my 23 year old son came home tonight he found his way to my blog because I had neglected to sign out. "What are YOU doing with a blog?" he jeered as he rolled around laughing at my first attempt. No doubt I'm the laughing stock of Facebook now! Undeterred though, I waded through the task 4 readings and now I really know for sure I'm a dinosaur. I felt like I was trying to read a foreign language as I went through those readings. Has anyone published a dictionary for Web 2.o yet? I don't even know the web 1.0 jargon. I thought a double click was performed with the mouse and akamai vs bitTorrent was probably a natural disaster. Anyway at least I've widened my vocabulary tonight. Onward and upward!

Task 2 Create a blog

This is my first ever blog. I've spent over an hour reading the links and feel way more informed than before I started, but no more enthusiastic about writing my own blog. Anyway here goes. Let's see if I get it right.