# 23 Yeah Me!

I feel like I've really accomplished something......giving birth, a mararthon, something major....
I will answer the questions.
1. discoveries - learning cool tools to help me professionally; Google docs. del. icio.us bookmarking, photosmart.
2. I will continue with this program, though at a much slower pace, with iHCPL - 23 Things at Harris County Public library & introduce this to our staff, starting with about 4 willing victims.
3. To work this program, I had to do a lot of unexpected things. I had to sign on for many accounts. I ended up just copying the sign-in page with password, user name & what it was for for my notebook. I also had to get my lap top back on line, & figure out my att sbc yahoo & yahoo mail account problem. These things were extremely time consuming. Also, since I am older, it took me several tries to accomplish anything.
4. The concept & format are great! I wouldn't change a thing. Everyone should know & learn about all of the content in the 23 things.
5. Yes, I would love to participate in another discovery program like this.
6. What an experience!
7. Going to comment.......
Thanks!

#22 Ning

Teacher Librarian Ning, Texas Library Ning , & Teacher Ning are social networks like MySpace or Facebook. Students are familiar with social networks & may find the experience of discussing topics another way to build connections or even learn. It may be an informal or non-threatening way for students and teachers to converse. I particulary liked the Teacher Ning. It looked like it had a lot to offer.

#21 My kid in Alaska

My husband & son went fishing in Alaska last week. These are a few pics of my 12 year old son, Brett. He wants you to know that he did not choose the music!

#20 You Tube & Teacher Tube

This is from YouTube. My kids love Halo videos, Halo glitches, & parody songs on YouTube. White & Nerdy from Al Yankovich is hilarious, yes, he is still alive & kicking. Will post my favorite from Teacher Tube when email glitch is resolved. It's called 1 Semester of Spanish - Spanish Love Song.

I almost forgot, I found this very valuable and "tagged" all of the Lee LeFever's educational tech videos for the technically challenged, which is why I like & understand them, on my del.icio.us bookmark so that I can share them with staff on my campus. I also loved the rapping math teachers......

#19 Web Winners

I like to look around before I buy or try anything, so I browsed Web Winners tonight, instead of just picking one & getting into it I tried the following:
Aprendiendo Español - 3rd best educational website winner for teaching spanish via podcasting, kinda racey for school agers.
Docstoc - legal, educational, buisness, technical documents to copy & use.
Hairmixer -chick site
PBwiki - just to see the background; business, educational uses to have open documents available for use.
Social - Ask what are you doing? in English or Japanese, social IM, which I learned about from a tech podcast I found when taking other tech course last summer.
Web Dev -mashups, but very cool, keep an eye on these things called YahooPipes which aggregrates, combines, & mashes tools from web to create something unique. Loved the winery one, would be great for a bike tour.

Saw del.icio.us, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Pbwiki, Rollyo all there!

#19 Open Office vs Google Docs

Open Office offers education & business documents in many different languages. It can be opened and worked on by more than one person at a time. It is free, fast and can be saved in different formats.
Google docs is also free, can be opened & worked on by more than one person at a time, and has a huge variety of templates for presentations, resumes, invitations, business stationary, labels, ect. It seemed to run pretty slow tonight, I'm not sure if that is always the case. It is not multi-lingual.
Microsoft Office 2007 is not free, not compatible with 2003, and not as easy to use as the 2003(however, this could be me). I am not impressed with Vista or 2007 as far as being user friendly due to different features.

#17 Rollyo

http://rollyo.com/michellemaxson/library_tech_tools/ Rollyo
I couldn't get the icon to come up, but I did make a really great list of sites we've played with on 23 things. I will try later to get the icon on my blog.

#16 Wacky Wikis

I now know why this is taking me so long, I have had to sign up for a ymail account to do the blogs, Google tools, Avatars, & continue to have my sbc account. Each time the computer has to reconfigure settings going from ymail to sbcglobal. AAHHHHH! I don't have time to waste my time! Okay, I'm done ranting & raving...

A wiki can be like a community newspaper where everyone can write or participate. I saw the example of a high school wiki complete with blogs. I wasn't able to open the PB Video gallery, but would have liked to have seen how to use the features & upload photos.

I think I will definitely try to use various wikis for Pre-K concepts; Science, math, language, Spanish for teachers to share their websites & ideas.

# 15 you know.....the library

I love Dr. Wendy Schulz's article on the future library experience. She calls library 1.0 the commodity, having books. Library 2.o the product, being able to have library information anywhere. Library 3.o service, 3D participation in customrer relationships thus creating a need for librarian "superstars." Finally, library 4.0, experience in a multimedia surrounding of entertaining information with relaxation component of a spa atmosphere; quiet comfortable chair with no distractions ...you know, like the library.

Also loved Teachertube video, you can catch a better quality video by clicking link, to show that education methods need to change to meet needs of technologically comfortable students.

What this all means for librarians is that they need to be the catalyst to help change an archiac education system. In leadership roles, librarians must guide teachers & students into learning 2.0

Photo courtesy of uncultured from CCflickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/uncultured/2499687367/

# 14 Tag....you're it!

Enjoyed Technorati video, great job explaining that Technorati is about searching blogs. Blogs being the voice of the people, as websites used to be before commercialization. The blogsophere is doubling every 6 months, which tells you it is a big thing.

I've noticed newspapers, radio stations, television stations all have blogs, which leads me to believe that blogs can't avoid commercialization.

I think teachers could benefit by reading other edublogs or writing their own. Older students could use Technorati to read what others are writing about & share their own views in a real world situation. (I am challenging myself by trying the linking feature)

As far as popular, recent, searches, and tag usage I seem to get a variety of results each time I try using a different method.

I really liked tagging for Flickr because early childhood teachers are always looking for pictures to help develop vocabulary and language. del.icio.us tags will be helpful for different game & websites that promote our Pre-K curriculum so that teachers can access them quickly and effectively. Technorati is wonderful, but it is a tool that I will show teachers much later. I would rather get them comfortable exploring databases, social book marking, using copyright materials correctly, and finding pictures using creative commons Flickr, and using Google tools like google doc.

# 13 Social Bookmarking

I first started the 23 Things from the HCPL website, I found out about del.icio.us from them. I started bookmarking, or "adding new favorites." I did not realize the potential for use at the time. Now I can make a list of great Pre-K Science websites, Spanish websites, or letter recoginition games & share them with other teachers. I don't need my own computer, these can be accessed from any computer. If someone finds a great site for me they can send it to my del.icio.us account. I can add teachers, staff who sign up for del.icio.us to my network & they can share my sites for free! I can tag "Science," "Spanish," "Langauge" or professional sites and put as many sites into each of these categories as I want.This will be handy!

#12 Community Through Commenting

Thing 12 was by far the most educational. I had to slow down and read fellow students' blogs. I feel that I got to know these people much better by reading what they had to say and seeing the great things they are finding to put in their blogs. Some added their iGoogle calendar, some their books from Library Thing, and some have shared other great sites that correspond to what we are learning. This took me a while, but I now understand what is meant by a blog community.

Though there were many great ideas about commenting on blogs, the two I think that help establish community are leaving a comment when you connect with something someone says and if someone takes time to comment on your blog, acknowledge them. It is like having a conversation, give & take makes it more interesting.

I don't think reading & not commenting is a crime. Sometimes you don't connect with that particular idea. It's okay not to comment. There are times that I should just keep my mouth shut, or in this case, fingers quiet.

I really like Doug Johnson's webpage and Blue Skunk Blog . He is able to get his point across in such a uniquely humorous way. These are not on his blog, but below itI love his long list of favorite quotes, his t-shirt collection, and you know you are a librarian in 2005 when.....
I found he has been on the INKA (Inca)Trail, viewed the slide show http://www.slideshare.net/doug0077/survivor-the-inca-trail/ and commented, hopefully in a meaningful way.

I run, slowly, marathons & half marathons for who knows why; health, sanity, or just cheaper than therapy, any way I found this blogger who has finally noticed that more women than men are doing distance & it is usually in groups. Running News Guy: girls girls girls I appreciated his positive observations & support.

#11 LibraryThing

Really enjoyed LibraryThing. I registered and started adding books. I will trying reviewing & reviewing advanced copies in future. Also, check out http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/search to get ideas from other readers.

#10 Image Maker

My favorite image maker is BigHugeLabs where you can make posters, badges, magazine covers, trading cards, and lots of other cool stuff. I want to share one I think will be a huge hit with older elementary & middle school students where they create their own super hero at
http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heromachine/classic.asp

#9 Really Useful Blogs; finding new feeds

Well, I have already picked my "Circle of the Wise" when I chose Joyce Valenza's NeverEndingSearch, Kathy Schrock's Kaffeeklatch, Dr. Bishop's Librarian Philosopher, and two others from SLJ for Google reader.

I enjoyed the article by CoolCatBlogger on evaluating good blog sites to read for professional development. I did not find Technorati as easy as I thought just because there is too much information.

I found offbeat, quirky news from Topix.net; port-a-potty paradise, colorful news topics, which I loved.

BTW-I was able to teach another teacher about school databases & how to translate the info into Spanish & Mandarin for her students during my internship today. It was exciting.

Also, a computer tech showed me her moible modem. It looks like a flash drive and BAM! Internet access anywhere (practically).

1st Videocast

#8 RSS

Cool! Google Reader is great! I've added Joyce Valenza's, Kathy Schrock's Dr. Bishop's, and two SLJ; one for early childhood, one for books, to my Google Reader. How quick is that! Now when I get a second in the library I just click on that & I can keep up with the newest trends & tech stuff with one click! I finally am catching on to how easy this can become. Could kids do this? Yes, with MySpace & Facebook (at home).

#7 Google

Tried Google notebook & plan on putting all of the cool places I'm learning about during the 23 Things. Then, will go back to notebook to play with at beginning of school year. Want to try out Flickr for pics, BIG idea's slide show for displaying photos of husband/son's trip to Alaska & Dad/brother's trip to Switzerland for the Triathalon. Also want to make some posters.
Will try out Google doc for collaborating on lesson plans. As dept. chair I want to make lesson plan collaboration as easy as possible, so teachers will have more prep time.

# 6 Mash-ups

This was by far my favorite thing! I loved the posters, ID badges, and trading cards from BigLabs. I made a trading card of my kids.

Thing #5

Flickr is a really cool tool. I had a lot of fun looking up pictures of Cuzco, Peru. It has changed a little since I was there! Tags were in Spanish & saw very professional photos. Look forward to using pics from CC for science/library stuff.

Thing #4

Posted & registered blog with appropriate person. Registering with Yahoo screwed up my sbc e-mail account. I have no idea how to get it back! My brother's pictures of his Swiss triathalon & daughter's soccer coach info is lost!

Things 2 & 3

Started blog in June from HCPL's 23 Things, continuing for tech class. Took me 2 days & lots of caffeine to post the Avatar. Next time will ask kids for help! Posted a picture & kids' pics to blog.Will add music for full effect when I learn how. Need massage & sleep!

Technochallenged 1

Wow! I am trying the iHCPl Web 2.0 23 Things. I can do it! This is so exciting