Thing #15: the future of libraries

After reading the selections, the conclusion seems obvious to me... I'm no librarian but just like any other industry, libraries are going to have to keep up with technology. I don't know how to say it any other way; it's plain obvious.

One note though, I enjoyed the "Vision of Students Today" video from teacher tube. A lot of those things were true about me when I was a college student.

Thing #14: Technorati

Viewing the popular searches on technorati proves that I'm not interested in what everybody else is interested in. I did however learn that phweet was a new web application where you could use the phone with twitter friends and that some people who used to work for google are trying to start a new search engine of their own. It seems like the blogosphere consensus is that they released it before they were ready. I went and tried cuil myself and I admit I tried the same searches comparing it to google and I found google more relevant.

I digress though... I should be talking about tagging and technorati. I couldn't really compare the search of "school library learning 2.0" to searching the tags because there wasn't really a tag like that the closest one was web 2.0 and the results were totally different. So I guess you use the search tool when you're looking for something really specific. I would use the tags to browse more casually.

I think as far as tagging goes it was more useful in del.ic.ous because I could tailor the tags to what I want them for. In technorati the website seems to be there to show people what's popular in blogs so if I feel like looking for what's popular in the blogosphere I would check there.

Thing # 13: Social Tagging

Now that I'm going to be using and finding more websites, I'm going to have to remember where they all are. I think del.icio.us would be a good place to do it. The tags and everything make sense too. Bookmarks can become a long list of things you won't remember either. I think all in all social tagging is a great idea. The best part of this thing is the social aspect. When I checked other people's tags, I found websites that I never would have found before. I'm going to find it very useful.

Thing 12 revisited

So I went to post on some blogs that I searched about my personal interest and I was SO FRUSTRATED when I went to a blog by a young couple who enjoy Argentine Tango and blog about their dance experiences. When I searched lindy hop which is a dance that is one of my hobbies their blog came up because they blogged about their experience in a beginner lesson and how much they liked the style. I wanted to comment so that I could tell them about a national event in their area and to comment on something they said about a related dance style. All comments on the blog are off :( I am DYING to contact them but I couldn't find any way to get an email in a profile or anything. Their blog was on word press. Does anyone know how to find someone's information or is it just that they've made their contact information private?

Thing #12: Creating Community through Commenting

Thing #12 has shed a new light on blogging for me. Before this thing, I saw blogging as a means for dissseminating information. I now see that blogging is much more communicative than that. It is a two-way street and not one.

If I got anything out of the posts about commenting, it is post meaningful comments that add to the discussion and don't be rude!

Thing #11: Library Thing

Library thing seems great for librarians. I can see why a quarter of the site's members are librarians. At first I added some of just my favorite books: All the Harry Potters and some Jane Austen novels. When you add books you can see how many members also have the same books in their libraries as well. Then I added some lesser known books like some Texas History references and some comedy books. You can see how the list of people who share your interests grows smaller when I add less general books. I think this site could be useful to me in two ways, first in its suggestions based on what's in my library so I can find books I've never heard of but would be likely to enjoy and second, when I explored the groups there was a group for Social Studies teachers. I could join the group and read up on what's going on in my content area across the country. Feel free to comment on any more specific ideas on how this website could benefit me in the classroom. Neat website!

Thing #10: Online Image Generators

These are fun. This could be a memorable way to hook a student into something but you have to be careful because it's just fun to waste time on. This particular image came from the Comic Strip Generator. I played with some others that you upload a photo of yourself into but I have to spend some time looking for a photo that I want to put of myself on a magazine cover that announces me as teacher of the year. It's easy to upload the photos to these things but I just don't have any on this particular hard drive that I want to use.

Thing #9: Useful Library Related Blogs and News Feeds

I still don't find feeds useful to me personally which may lead to my unsuccessful feelings on this thing. I wasn't really sure what I was looking for in the first place. I'm not sure what blogs after regular reading will help me in the classroom. But here it goes... I found the Google Blog Search the easiest to use. This is perhaps because Google is already a search engine and I appreciated the organized manner in which my searches were presented. Maybe it doesn't count because it wasn't a search tool but browsing the Edublog award winners wasn't really helpful because everything seeemed too broad. I had been using the search term "social studies education" to search for blogs and maybe the issue is that Social Studies is behind Math, Language Arts and Science in all other aspects (i.e. spending, budgets, research literature...) and it including blogs. If I really want interesting things in my feed, it's easiest to just search from Google Reader itself.

Thing #8: RSS feeds

I'm not so sure about RSS feeds. I can see the argument that RSS feeds tend to save time. But honestly I think there is something to be said for atmosphere of visiting your favorite websites. When I signed up for the Google Reader I signed up for some of the packages they offer according to what my interests are. I signed up for three packages news, sports and celebrities. Once I signed up for those packages I had more than 15 feeds with more than 170 new stories. I guess I just need to get all these feeds under control because I do not imagine how having 170 new things to read instantly is going to save me time. I think the RSS feeds that are on you iGoogle or MyYahoo! are more useful and not so out of control. I also spent some time browsing websites looking for the little orange button to connect that website to my reader and I couldn't find it on any of the websites that I suspected might have it. I'm going to have to investigate further before I decide if the google reader is going to be useful to me. Like I said, I think there's soemthing about atmostphere that is lacking while using the feeder. The only redeeming factor is that the reader has a link to the actual website. I think I will always prefer getting my information from the actual website.

Thing #7: Google

Jeez, where would I be without google? I already have gmail and I've looked at a few other things they do, but now I've had time to just sit down and explore. It's amazing! I've created a public google calendar with the Spring Branch I.S.D. academic calendar if anyone is interested. I especially like how google will send me a text message to remind me about certain things.

iGoogle is also a good tool. I used to use a MyYahoo! page quite often and this is similar. I like being able to get the weather, traffic and news all in one place. It has funny things too like jokes, pictures and riddles.

Thing #6: Mashups and Third Party Sites

I love the mosaic maker. I know we're supposed to be keeping what we're doing in the classroom in mind, but I think I could use the mosaic maker to decorate my house. On a more professional note... I like the trading card maker because it's a creative way to make flashcards. I could definitely use that in the classroom. Look I made one myself.

Thing #5:

Flickr is neat. I already had an account because when Yahoo! gave up it's picture hosting they automatically moved everything over. I have never explored it like this though. I went to the commons and typed in "president" since I am in between being an American History teacher and an American Government teacher. I chose this image firstly because I was sure that it was in the public domain (it is from the National Archives by the way). I am still a little bit confused about which pictures are for fair use and which aren't. But mainly I chose this picture because it is a fascinating display of the personality of Lyndon B. Johnson.

Thing #4: Register Your Blog

My blog is officially registered and I am now a player. I was also pleasantly surprised this morning to find that someone has already commented on my blog! For an explanation on why there are penguins in my avatar, see comments in reference to thing #3.