Search This Blog

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Online Applications for Everything!

I started this week’s exploration into the world of Online Applications with Flickr.  While I had heard of Flickr, I had never bothered to sign-up for it.  I think I felt it would be a huge undertaking.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I found it very easy to upload all of my photos.  The hardest part for me was linking it with my blog.  Trial and error helped me figure it out.  I loved Richardson’s tip on GoogleEarth and geotagging.  It is an incredible feature and relatively easy to use.  While the photos didn’t have a great deal to annotate (and I didn’t want to use my children’s names), I decided to have some fun with what was in the pictures namely the reactions of my children to better understand the course of our trip.  

Once I was finished with Flickr, BigHugeLabs was a perfect transition to further play with my photos.  There were 15 effects that were available with the free package, but some required an image viewer.  I wished that they had more effects to offer, but I really liked the mosaic maker.  I used the same photos to make a lovely 4 by 3 mosaic of our day.  From there, Dumpr had some other neat features associated with photos, so in addition to linking BigHugeLabs with Flickr I also linked Dumpr with Flickr and took a photo of 2 sailboats and turned it into a pencil sketch.  The only negative was that the sketch was very light.  I found that even with the darker background photos, this was also the case.

Still playing with my photos, I enjoyed taking the same sailing ones and using them in an Animoto thirty second video.  I liked how I could pick the background and the music to better convey the feeling of the day.  It turned my 2D pictures into a 3D experience!  Before signing up for an account, I felt that the type of editing done here was something that was only available to professional photographers and videographers.  I can definitely see myself using this for other occasions.

Voki offered so many fun ways to incorporate its tool with learning.  I liked how you could personalize your visual image and then add your own voice.  I was surprised to find that the hardest part of creating a voki was to record exactly what I wanted to say and then not hit the cancel button out of habit.   My children saw my voki and wanted to create one of their own as well.  My only wish was that they had more creative capability to further individualize the image.  I would have liked to see historical figures as well.

Bubble.Us was exactly what it said it is…simple.  I liked how they did keep it simple to help organize complex minds.  I made a family tree with my 1st sheet.  I could see this being used in a science class to map out an element, a family tree project, in a foreign language for verb conjugations, storybook mapping, or to map out a food chain or food web.  The simplicity really does lend itself to many application possibilities.

Rollyo seems like a perfect introductory search engine when teaching children how to safely search the web.  I liked how you could chose what sources you wanted Rollyo to search and feel confident with children that the results would not reveal anything inappropriate.  This search engine also saved valuable search time and wasn’t as overwhelming and distracting as a Google search.  I did wish that there weren’t that many ads on this site.

My first two attempts to get on Doodle ended in an internal error.  The error page did offer some FAQ info.  While I did gain access the next day, that error made me question the availability of the site and its use.  A tool isn’t very good if you can’t use it.  The site is supposed to be fun and it offers group planning of events and scheduling.  I did like the example showing various time slots available for a meeting and each person specified which ones they could attend.  This tool seems like it would save some planning time but I think that there are other sites that would be able to do the same and even more. 

Survey Monkey was a very helpful site.  Feedback is so important whether you are planning an enrichment event, field trip, recital, or open house.  The anonymity of the responses and ease of answering the survey, I feel will give valuable feedback to the teachers and school.  It is a great way for a school to assess parent concerns as well.  I liked that there were templates available.  I am sure that this would be a helpful tool for someone who has never used this application before or someone who needs a little structure with their survey.

Zamzar was unique to me because I never realized that there were sites that could convert files to another format.  In the past if I received a file that my computer could not open I would let the originator know and ask to send it in a format that I was compatible with or I would just ask them to print me a copy.  This approach isn’t so bad for single pages but for extensive documents this site offers an invaluable service.  Immediately, I thought about an older computer that we have that doesn’t have Power Point.  I realized that this service could convert the Power Point PPS file into an html file so that I could still view the individual slides.  This was definitely a site I bookmarked.

StumbleUpon really tries to tailor their search information to their customer based on gender, age and previous preferences.  This can be a helpful tool for an individual but it could also waste a great deal of time with the sites presented that you have to wade through. It uses a thumbs up or thumbs down feedback to fine tune your interest level.  While my criteria had to do with hobbies, families, cooking, and computers, there was some content that was inappropriate for younger audiences.  This is a tool that will take a while for it to really be able to deliver sites and articles that are really relevant to a customer.  If you need something specific and quick this is not the site for you, but if you have time to meander, you could find a really neat paper folding project that might be a nice addition to a math geometry unit like I did.  

Google Docs makes collaborative projects much easier to create.  Unlike Windows, your document is no longer tied to a specific computer.  In my house, everyone wants to use the computer that is linked to the printer.  In the past when I worked on a different computer and my flashdrive was not available, I would have to attach my document to an email and then open the email on the computer with the printer.  If something were to happen to my computer, I would not have to worry about losing all of my files if I used Google Docs.  I liked the fact that Google Docs is a word processing tool that can accommodate images, videos, and comments while allowing you to choose the level of privacy you want.  I also found the template gallery feature helpful to get you started with a document.  Google Docs also features Google Translate that can translate words or a document into 57 languages.  Once you have a Google account, it is just so much easier to use the applications that come with it rather than using a different application.  

Zoho was another tool that allows for collaborative use.  This on-line word processing application allows the use of comments and tags.  The tags are a seen as a more convenient way to retrieve a document that could typically fall under two different categories or folders in the traditional sense.  Zoho like Google Docs allows the users to link the document to the blog.  While Google Docs is more appealing for this type of application, I could see the possible benefit of a foreign language student taking advantage of the 75 language spell check feature.  

Jing is a wonderful tool to further explain a website.  This tool is downloaded to your computer and a yellow sun is visible in the middle top of your screen.  This allows you to capture video or individual pages and record the information you want.  You can stop and resume recording and then preview your content.  Jing offers many ways to share your finished product such as through Facebook, Twitter, or your blog.  I chose to add a video tutorial with accompanying audio to my wiki that I embedded on the first page.  I feel that this tool has many classroom applications and that children of all ages will find it fun and creative.  This tool can also easily add value to a professional development workshop.  Along with Animoto, this was one of my favorite sites.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

MY VOKI



I am so excited to create my very own Voki! It was a really fun tool to "play" with.

Sailing Away

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.


These are the same picture but the music, background, and effects give you a better idea of the day.  It gives the 2D images a 3D quality. Enjoy!

dumpr.net

Photo Fun 
This awesome sketch was done from a picture that I downloaded from Flickr to Dumpr.  I chose the photo to sketch option.  While they did have limited other effects, this was by far my favorite.  The only negative that I found after playing with several photos was that no matter how dark the background, the sketches were light.

A Three Hour Tour


A Three Hour Tour
Originally uploaded by sails4fun
Big Huge Labs is really a fun way to present the photos in a mosaic arrangement. You can choose up to 36 photos to include and can have a 36 by 36 grid if you choose.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Single Sailboat


single sailboat
Originally uploaded by sails4fun
At times we were moving at almost 7 knots. (That's pretty fast.)  It was such an amazing day on the water that words can't even begin to describe it.

At the Mooring


Sitting at the Mooring
Originally uploaded by sails4fun
Everyone was all smiles, that is until we were under sail and the boat was heeled over and one child decided to stay in the cabin. Can you guess which one?

Getting Ready for the Sails

All those years of sailing really shows. We have one sailor in the making and another who likes the safety of the forward hatch.

Baker's Island


Baker's Island
Originally uploaded by sails4fun
Visitors are discouraged from the island. It looked very quaint.

Dave & Brant


Dave & Brant
Originally uploaded by sails4fun
We were in good hands. Unlike the SS Minnow, this 3 hour tour was a good one.

Hanging On & Hanging Out


Hanging On & Hanging Out
Originally uploaded by sails4fun
I don't know how we got one of the girls on deck. She even stayed there for some photos before jumping down the forward hatch. It took a great deal of coaxing.

2 sailboats


2 sailboats
Originally uploaded by sails4fun
We weren't the only ones enjoying the sun and open water!

"The sailor girls"


"The sailor girls"
Originally uploaded by sails4fun
We are a little more relaxed in this photo.

Hanging on For Dear Life


Hanging on For Dear Life
Originally uploaded by sails4fun
Someone couldn't wait to step onto dry land.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Feeders, Bookmarks, and Library Sites……OH MY!

Bloglines versus Google Reader wasn’t even a contest for me.  I found Google Reader much more maneuverable and user friendly.  I liked how I could “star” items that I wanted to come back to later on Google reader.  I didn’t find a similar feature on Bloglines.  The only pro that I could find for Bloglines was the mosaic representation of images associated with the feed, when there was one.  Visually it did set the different postings apart and after looking at so much text, a change was nice.  The cons that I found for Bloglines were that it was extremely hard to navigate!  When I wanted to delete a feed there was no help button on my screen.  After clicking on every imaginable button and praying, I finally realized that when I clicked on the “go to Bloglines.com” tag there was a small help tab.  This tab directed me to the tiny gray area next to the title that had edit written in white.  White text on a light gray background didn’t exactly jump out at me.   At one point while adding a feed to Bloglines I was told that I had an “unhandled error.”  I SOMEHOW managed to notice that the URL address did not start at the left of the box.  Apparently there were two spaces which caused this error.  Ugh!   I guess I was spoiled since I had first set up a Google Reader account and found my way around without bursting any major blood vessels.  I learned my lesson slowly that while bundles of similar feeds sounded nice I spent an incredible amount of time weeding through a large number of them that I ended up deleting.  Starting small is definitely the way to go.  I had a few solid days of digital overload and after a while of looking at the text I found comprehending it even more of a challenge.  Good news, I have recovered!


I chose 5 blogs to follow in my Google Reader.  The first blog is Will Richardson's Blog because since we are reading his book for the course I thought that this would keep me current with his views on technology in the school environment.  I discovered an interesting tool while reading a Google reader feed from Will Richardson titled The Choices We Make.  In an effort to try to cut down on information overload, he uses a tool called Proxlet to sift out only Tweets with links for his Twitter account.  With all of the information streaming towards us, good filters are going to make our lives much saner.  The second blog is Tech & Learning because I liked how they offer a grade appropriate "site of the day" that support topics such as The Boston Tea Party and Kids for Saving Earth.  This can be used to help supplement the curriculum.  I chose Read Roger at first because he is a Horn Book editor.  I found that I also enjoyed his sense of humor and the books he reviewed as well.  I liked The Children's Literature Book Club because she uses the blog to post children’s books that her club will discuss along with thought provoking questions for those that can’t attend so that they can still participate.  (That and I liked her April 19, 2008 post on her visit with Jon Scieszka.)  Finally, I chose Joyce Valenza’s blog Never Ending Search because in addition to reading posts by her, in this class and my last one, her entries discuss everything from books and vokis to the library as a multimedia center in a positive way.  She is a great example of the librarian of the 2st century.  I like how she manages to cover tough topics such as “5 Reasons Why Library Aides Should Not Be Cut” and she combines it with a pop culture figure such as David Letterman to make the plea more appealing and memorable.

First came Diigo and then came Delicious.  I think if I had to choose my favorite it would be Diigo.  I really liked the fact that any bookmarks listed were saved as a snapshot in HTML and as an image in the “Diigo cloud.”  (It sounds like a pretty cool place.)  The fact that there would never be an unsupported bookmark was a huge plus.  The use of multi-colored highlighters and the ability to leave annotations or notes on sticky notes was an extremely interactive feature.  The tutorial was great on Diigo as well.  Once I realized that I needed a toolbar, it was very easy to install.  I also loved their recommended tags because sometimes I just needed a little help coming up with different words.  While Diigo focused on preserving content, Delicious was more focused on sharing links.  With Delicious, I did have a little harder time navigating, especially when it came to finding the small button on the lower left part of the screen to manage subscriptions.  Overall the look of the Diigo page was much more uncluttered and appealing.  While I am using the Delicious account for my professional bookmarking, I chose to keep the Diigo account as a great family bookmarking site.  I found that with both sites they are only as good as your tags.

The award for “Best Final Line in a Terms of Use Statement” goes to (insert long drum roll here)…..LibraryThing.com for posting the following:

BY USING LIBRARYTHING.COM DIRECTLY OR THROUGH A MEDIUM LIKE A COMPUTER WITH A KEYBOARD AND MAYBE A MOUSE ATTACHED YOU AGREE TO TAKE THESE IMPORTANT AND CONSEQUENTIAL TERMS OF USE SERIOUSLY EVEN THOUGH, OR EVEN BECAUSE, WE HAVE ONLY ONE SENTENCE AT THE END IN CAPITAL LETTERS.

That statement alone shows that these people that run this site are truly interested in the social aspect of cataloging and bookmarking and they are creative.  I thought that the Local feature was really neat.  Being able to find local events or even post local events takes the on-line social networking off-line as well, thereby creating the “face to face” interface.  I like how they allowed for various sorts and offered recommendations along with offers to receive free books in exchange for a review.  I was impressed with the large scope of this site.

Goodreads also had its appeal and therefore I opened an account there as well.  At first I was a little annoyed that I couldn’t immediately get started but instead had to take a “book compatibility test.”  I did like that they saved my responses and ratings and added them to my library.  Unlike the other two sites, I liked how within my library it was very easy to see, based on the shelf feature, which books I had read versus the to read or reading books.  I also liked that I could shelve a book under more than one shelf on Goodreads.  Under the Goodreads goups tab, I also liked that there were suggested book clubs that were also reading my book at the same time.    Like LibraryThing, Goodreads had giveaways and local events.  

Shelfari, in comparison, seemed lacking in its toolbar and choices.  While choices similar to those found on Goodreads and LibraryThing were available from dropdown menus, they weren’t as easily found.  I am sure Shelfari is as good as Goodreads and LibraryThing, but I found myself gravitating to the latter two just by visual ease.  The final reason that I found myself gravitating more towards Goodreads was that LibraryThing had a maximum of 200 books per year on their free account while there seemed to be no limit on Goodreads.  Overall, I was impressed at these 3 social bookmarking sites and can see why many people found them addictive.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Awesome Vimeo

This video is sung to Michael Jackson's Beat It.  I loved the lyrics and thought the message was great.  Some favorite lyrics were, "maybe your craving digital text." and, "research, share it, and tweet it."  Very current of them and it looked like they had fun too.  I know this isn't technically until week 6, but I just couldn't help myself.  Great way to make a library experience enjoyable and they mentioned a large amount of the technology needed in the lyrics.  Enjoy!

Read It! from Joyce Valenza on Vimeo.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Creating A Wiki!


This week playing with my NEW WIKI has been just as exciting as it sounds!  I first looked at PBWiki but it looked so “business like” that it didn’t seem very inviting or easy to navigate.  I liked the larger storage capacity and password protection on the free teacher wikis that were offered on Wikispaces in contrast to the basic page on PBWiki.  Wikispaces made me feel much more confident that this was a task that I could easily accomplish.  I enjoyed playing with my wiki this week and learned a great deal about what worked and what didn’t.  I also realized that sometimes you need to step back from it and approach it fresh at another time to solve a problem.  This was definitely the case with changing the fonts and centering.

My Wiki (http://readingatgloverisfun.wikispaces.com) is an attempt to bring a wiki to my school library.  I see this wiki as a place where students in addition to teachers can comment on books (K-3) that they liked in order to stimulate student interest in various books.  It is also a place where kids, parents, and teachers can request books that they would like to see in the library.  The parent resources page is meant to be an ongoing site for parents to reference various links and post new links that they wish to share with other parents in their community.   There is also a “meet the author” page by grade, a gift book program page, and a link to the Glover School library book catalog.  

I was surprised to find the school web site information page relating to the library resources so out-dated that a large number of the links no longer existed.   I spoke with the both the librarian and the principal to see if this Wikispace would be a helpful tool.  The principal was totally supportive (both financially and creatively) and the librarian was eager to hear more about it.  In the past, there had been a book club and when I mentioned this wiki to the principal she offered some money to buy additional books to fund a new book group!  Look out Oprah's book group, they'll just have to read about our success in the wiki.