Thing # 10 - or FUN, FUN, FUN!!!

WOW, so this is real meaning of "play"!!! My son and I have had a blast playing with all of the cool ways to create and use image generators! I posted one earlier about Favorite Presidents, and then shared it with his Social Studies teacher who absolutely loved it and wants to use in with his class! Too Cool!!!




Below is a Thank you message to my friends and colleagues at Spring Branch for nominating me for Employee of the Month! Although it totally embarrased me, I am so touched and honored that I am thought of so highly! So......here's a little thank you from me!

Thing # 9 - Locating blogs or how to navigate the ever expanding world of blog information!

Okay, I checked out all of the sites for locating blogs of interest to me and the two I liked the best were Google Blog search and Technorati. I liked Google Blog search because it was such a clean easy way to find what I wanted, most of the other sites I visited were so full text and options that it was difficult to navigate and find what I wanted. I like Technorati primarily because I already have a Technorati account and have done some playing around in it. Anyway, all of the tools are helpful in narrowing down the list of blogs out there and finding what specifically suits your needs!

Thing # 8, or how to read your favorite blogs without going nuts!

I have actually had a Google reader account for about 6 months, it started slowly because when I set it up I didn't really have to time to play with it, after about a month I went in and began to add some of the blogs I like to read. I have been a dedicated blog reader for over a year --- I am really a "lurker" in that I like to read blogs and comment on them, I am just not a really good blogger. Anyone who knows me will readily tell you that I am MUCH more of a talker than a writer, hence blogging is not my "preferred" form of communication, but I really LOVE reading what others write!

Anyway to recap the assignments for this Thing I need to answer the following:

1. What do I like about RSS and newsreaders?
I absolutely LOVE the fact that I can get all of the new posts and information from my favorite sites in ONE place! And yes, it is VERY addicting, I check my Google Reader account at least twice a day. I also love the star and share features, this allows me to mark the posts that I want to refer back to and it lets me share the posts that I think others might benefit from.

2. How do you think you might use this in your professional and/or personal life?
Well, that is simple!!! I am able to keep up with the new ideas and news that help me improve my professional abilities and knowledge this in turn helps me to be better at my job and to help other librarians that I work with. Knowledge is power and this helps me be a better systems administrator and librarian.

3. How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?
I think that as a librarian the first thing you can do is share this technology with others in your school or library, this will help others keep up with their interests both professional and personal. Recently I taught my Mom how to use Google Reader to keep up with the quilting blogs she likes to read, although we weren't in a library I felt like the librarian showing her a new way to accomplish something. In other words the librarian in me was able to pass the power of knowledge on to someone else, score!!! Also, there are so many great book review sites that would help any librarian keep up with what is new in literature, how can you miss with that?!?

Finally, I made my shared items on my blog, so if you look in the left column you will see the posts that I thought were worth sharing.

Thing # 7 Lions, Tigers, and Google ..... Oh My!

Okay, I titled this post with an altered quote from one of my family's favorite movies, The Wizard of Oz. I did that for a couple of reasons; first I really LOVE that line from the movie, next I think that this "journey" through Web 2.0 tools is a lot like the movie, we are all experiencing things we have never seen, heard, or even thought of before, and finally I think that many people (I am not one of them) consider Google the "big scary monster" out there! Well, they certainly are big, and at times it can be kind of scary to see all that Google has and can do, but they certainly are the monster that some think of them as! For me Google is kind of like being an extra on Star Trek (another family favorite), I am watching from a far a journey that is taking us all into the unknown! Going through all that Google has to offer is amazing, mind boggling, and at times totally overwhelming ---- but still FUN! I think after exploring some ( I am still not through it all) of the great tools that Google has to offer I found a few new "favorite things" that I am really excited about using. The first we actually get to a little further down in our "playground fun", but I am already using it and have been for the last 2 months, it is Google Reader and truthfully I am not sure how I got along without it!?! Being able to keep up with all of the blogs that I like to read in ONE place is totally AWESOME!!! I visit my Google reader at least twice a day and I'm not really sure how I functioned reading blogs before it.... although I guess my incredibly long list of "bookmarks" tell that story :) in any event, Google reader rocks! The other two things that I am now "Google addicted" to are the Google toolbar, and Google notebook they are both so useful. The Google toolbar has this great "AutoFill" function which fills in your name and address when you have to fill out forms and other great fun things! Google Notebook gives you the ability to copy and paste information from the web and keep it in a file to refer to later, you can have file folders for different things, like recipes, instructions for cleaning granite, information articles, and any other little things you want to have access to without having to find where they are on the web again! What a great tool! Okay, this post has gone on for way too long and I am sure I should be coving other things, but I think I'd better quit now and go "play" with Google some more!
That's all for now folks!

Liz's Bytes

Thing # 6 Part Two

My son and I played around with the trading card link from thing 6 and we came up with the attached trading card since they are studying the presidents in Social Studies. It was really fun and I can see LOTS of educational possibilities for this! Way fun!!!

Thing # 6

I went in and played with the fd Flikr toys and created the mosaic below. It wasn't easy, but once you signed up and using your Flikr account it was a little easier. I must say that the instructions were not very clear, but with a little poking around it worked. I might have to do another post on mashups as I play with some more of the fun options out there!




Till later --- Bytes from Liz

Thing #5

Okay, I loaded a "boatload" of photos onto to Flikr and it was pretty easy, it took a bit of time to get them loaded, probably because I did all 250 at a time! Anyway, the whole set of photos were from my family's 2 week vacation last summer, my husband, son, and I drove from Houston, TX to Barnegat Light, NJ (in a Ford Mustang), with several stops along the way. We went to Williamsburg, VA, Washington, D.C., and Knoxville, TN then finally the shore in New Jersey. The cool thing about Flikr for me was that I used the organizer tools to seperate my photos into sets to send to various family members, that was really cool! I haven't played with all of the Flikr tools, but so far it has been lots of fun and I can see it as a great way to share photos of family life here with our relatives in N.J.!

Test posting --- I am testing some new settings.

Thing 4

Okay, my blog is registerd, I am on PDLC for district credit and rarin' to go!

I did think about curriculum connections for blogs and as a librarian I think one of the best ideas for using blogging with students is having them express their views about books and reviews of books by using a blog. Two of our elementary schools are already doing this and it has been really fun to watch and successful for both the librarians and the students. Anyway, I would love to see that expanded, especially at the secondary level. I also thought about how you could use blogs in a classroom setting, and I think that the idea of posting and have students respond is a great easy way to use blogging.
How about this --- in a social studies class to study current events you could post a current article from a local or national newspaper and have students respond by posting comments that agree or disagree with the news/issues reported. You would be encouraging writing, analyzing, and forming opinions and expressive writing all in one assignment. I think the best thing about using blogs in an educational setting is that they would allow the student and teacher to address several educational goals with this one awesome tool!

Liz's Library Byte

Thing 3

Well I created my blog and avatar and it was really fun! My son helped me pick the template for my blog, but I decided how my avatar should look. I have used and avatar program before, it was Meez, I found it on a friend's blog and it was really fun to play with. Yahoo avatars was fun too, the only problem with any avatar program for me is that there are so many choices!!! It gets pretty confusing but I did manage to find an image that is somewhat close the the "real" me --- just add about 50 pounds and that would be a good representation of what I look like. Anyway, avatars are fun!
Choosing the title of my blog was the hardest part. Since I work as a library systems admin. for school libraries I wanted something that would reflect that, I think "bytes" does that, but of course my first choice "Library Bytes" was already taken, so I had to come up with another play on the "bytes" reference --- that took a while, but once I decided it was good to have it done!

One to the next "thing"!

Liz's bytes

Things 1 & 2

Well I have kind of combined the first two things in this post. I have set up my blog and gone through the seven habits, and I think the habit that I struggled with the most is "setting up your tool box" I have lots of tool boxes both at home and at work, but at they the BEST tools for the job? I think this is a question I will need to ponder throughout this journey. Recently I heard a fellow educator say that although she had better tools at home for minor repair jobs, she often used the same pair of needle nosed pliers for everything because they were handy and familiar --- I think that I do the same thing with technology, I often use a familiar program to accomplish my tasks even though they are better tools out there to do the job just because it is handy and familiar. SO I think my goal with this "playground" is to find new tools for my "toolbox" and become familiar with them.
On to more fun!

Liz's library bytes