Buck's Blog

Thing 23

2008-05-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

Finally made it to Thing 23, and I can tell you it's been a HUGE learning experience. I considered myself "up" on most of the computer-technology out there, and this has shown that there's so much more out there that I never knew existed. I had no idea that blogging/podcasts/Library tools were so popular.

I've had many people at school ask me what I thought of the course, and I'll tell you what I've told them. It takes TIME---I could sit for HOURS and look at everything that's out there, but I had to make myself move on. Make sure you have a couple of hours each wk (usually took me 3 or 4) to look at everything. There's so much to explore, and I've only hit the surface.

I plan to go back over my blog this summer, looking at the sites, and REALLY delve into podcasting and upgrading my teacher website. I would LOVE to get some podcasts on my site!!

Loved the course...Loved the experience.. I'm telling everyone else about it.

Wk 9: Thing 22

2008-05-19T11:40:00.000-07:00

eBooks & Audio eBooks:

Great resource. I used LibriVox last year with my 6th graders...we were able to download one of our novels and listen to portions of it. The World eBookFair's site is a bit hard to navigate. I finally scrolled all the way down to find the "hint": Click on "Browse Collections" page. The Gutenberg Project has free downloads on their site, but it's linked to iBiblio.com. You can't view any of the books on WorldeBookFair unless you pay for access.

This would probably be most useful to Intermediate and HighSchool/College students.

Wk 9: Thing 21 Podcasts

2008-05-14T18:12:00.000-07:00

WOW! I found the cutest podcasts from an Elementary School in
Omaha, Nebraska! It's called WillowWeb, and on podcast #30, Second Graders are giving information on what they learned from their research on Volcanoes. They do a cute "radio spot" and even "hand off" the reporting to different kids.
Definitely an inspiration!

It's easy as pie to get the RSS feed onto your blog...Just copy and paste & it's THERE!

Some other podcasts I found interesting / useful:

GrammarGirl and Just Vocabulary --- Two of my favorite things!! :)

I really enjoyed this assignment....SO many things to listen to out there.

--Oh, The Places You'll GO! :)

bb

Wk 9: Thing 20

2008-05-14T13:25:00.001-07:00

I've seen YouTube MANY MANY times before this assignment. It's got SO many things to look at, but you really have to be careful in searching or you'll get something "that you didn't really ask for"...

One of the first things I remember seeing in YouTube was a skit on ComedyCEntral. Clean, of course. Now, we find things all the time to look at!

:)If I only had a digital video camera for the classroom....oh the possibilities!

:)

Wk 8: THing 19

2008-05-14T12:56:00.000-07:00

Library Thing!! VERY good site. I've added my books and plan to add more and more.

This would be a great place to add all those children's books--bluebonnet books, and more!!

Here's the link to my library: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/bbuck Right now, I just have the books that I've read recently, or the ones that I want to read soon! There's quite a lot of discussions about Evanovich---she's pretty popular! :)

--I like this site!!

Wk 8: Thing 18 ZOHO Docs

2008-05-14T12:16:00.001-07:00

OH COOL!!!! This is similar to Google Docs, but I think I like THIS even better. One of the BESTthings about this (and googledocs) ?? Any document/slide show, etc.. you create can be accessed from anywhere!! No more "wishing I'd brought my laptop home" (or to school) or worrying about saving a document to a Pin Drive/Vault.

I found the picture below when we taught "Cactus Hotel" in our Reader this year. I thought this cactus looked "human-like" because of the position of the arms.

I couldn't find the Font Color at first, but ah! There it IS!!

I can see using this A LOT!!! The program, I mean...not just the font-color.

Now, let's see if I can "publish" this document to my blog...hmmm...

:)bb

YEAH, it worked!!! :)

Wk 7: Thing 17

2008-05-14T11:52:00.000-07:00

It took me a little while to figure out "adding an entry" to the sandbox/teacher's lounge, but
I finally figured it out.

You have to look way down at the bottom of the wiki-page and view "comments".

By the way, anyone else notice that the posting times are not correct (viewable on the blog page)??
I guess it's really no big deal...I just noticed it.

:)

Wk 7: Thing #16

2008-05-13T12:33:00.000-07:00

so THAT's what a WIKI is..:)

The sources on this exercise shows exactly what you need to know in order to understand what a wiki is, what it does, the pros and the cons...It's like a glorified web-page--one of the down-sides, tho, is that anyone has access to it and can change it. The examples of students/teachers using wiki were great! There are some "rules" that some wiki-owners have implements...like giving a password and making sure no one shares the password with an unauthorized user/read/contributor. I like that option...as long as you know that the people using your wiki will not share that password..

One teacher (on the teacherlibrarian wiki) put it this way (I thought this summed it up pretty well...
"....I'd be worried if the wiki was an only source...but as one of many...well maybe--why not. It also depends on the project too. Some content is so timely that a wiki may be one of the few places to find information"

This looks like a great opportunity for middle and high school students. :)

Wk 6: Thing 15

2008-05-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

Fair(y) Tale about Copyright Law... Pretty Clever...

Whew! The rest of this took quite a long time, but well-worth the time.

"Avoiding Icebergs" This is an interesting way of putting it. Libraries will have to avoid some pitfalls and the old ways of doing things if they're to keep up with the technological demand from their patrons. Students and patrons alike can and will be contributors to the vast knowledge base that Libraries provide. One of the "icebergs" remind us that everyone is going to want access to EVERYTHING---instantly. Library 2.0 is the way of meeting that demand. Not only are they going to want access, but they're going to want it where ever they are, and getting access to it without having to be physically AT the Library. That's a LOT of information at your finger-tips!!!

Wk 6: Thing 14

2008-05-07T19:36:00.000-07:00

Technorati--- WOW! Just when I find one thing that impresses me, the next item does even more...Who knew there were so many blogs out there. I had NO idea it was taking off like it is.
I've found some great bookmarks to finding fonts, and more!
There are TONS of blogs about politics---of course. :)
Off to explore even more..

OH HEY~ I just figured out that the "little pencil" next to the post automatically links back to the edit-post feature. ahhaha Glad to find that little "tool".

:)

Week 6: Thing 13

2008-05-07T19:32:00.000-07:00

Tagging and Del.icio.us--

Wow...feeling a little overwhelmed with all the "technology" out there. It's been VERY eye-opening...exploring and learning about these items. Del.icio.us has so much! I just spent an hour
just looking over it and searching different topics. Becoming a member is easy, too...

I'm gonna love this!

:)

Week 5: Thing 12 - Rollyo

2008-05-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

This tool is amazing!! All my favorite search engines in ONE PLACE...

Neato!! I set one up on "Sites for Kids" so that when we go to the computer lab, or when I need a place to reinforce Reading Skills, it'll be at my fingertips!

:)

Week Five: Think #11

2008-05-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

The Awards List is amazing. It would take FOREVER to go through them all, but here's the ones that I like from the ones I've looked at.

In the "FUN" link--I thought "FuzzMail" was funny. It lets you send emails that are typed out in real-time. If you back-space and change a word/mistake, it shows up ...it's pretty fun.

In the "Organization" link-- I like zoho.com....wow! SO much to do there...you'll have to go look at it!!

In the "City Guides and Reviews"---Yelp.com is really good.

Omnidrive.com is fantastic!!!

I like the Zillow.com, too!!
Can't wait to be able to peruse these more this summer, when I've got more time.

:)

Week 5: Thing #10 Image Generators

2008-03-26T16:22:00.001-07:00

I found this banner creator on ImageChef.com. It was pretty easy to work with...once I figured out that it had to be copied/pasted into a post, and not just into an added "element".

Week Four: Thing 9

2008-03-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

Posting Newsfeeds and RSS items to blog.
I added a Google Newsreel (at the bottom), Webster's Dictionary Word of the Day, The Weather Channel and FoxNews ..
--

RSS Calendar

2008-03-25T18:12:00.000-07:00

Okay--I'm excited now. The copying/pasting of the code for the RSS Calendar worked, and now I'm bragging...yeah! I probably strayed from the assignments, but I wanted to see if I could get it to show up on my blog...NEAT! It worked!!

:)I'm so proud that I figured it out.

hee hee

Feeds added to Blog

2008-03-25T17:19:00.000-07:00

Yeah! I figured it out!! I actually figured out how to add Feeds to
this blog...Amazing what a little reading/studying/researching will do.
haha!

--later

Week Four: Thing #8

2008-03-16T19:12:00.000-07:00

Set up Google Reader account...

Subscribed to five and have been enjoying reading
all the news....just having trouble figuring out how
to put the feed on my blog...
guess I have to read/learn more about that...

Week Three: Thing #7

2008-03-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

Anything Technology related...well, I have a classroom website through Teacherweb.com. I've enjoyed putting it together, but lately, I've only had time to update the Spelling and Reading pages (just to make sure the site has the spelling words and the vocabulary words each week) Here's the link in case you'd like to see it:
www.teacherweb.com/TX/Frontier/Buck
I just wish more parents were able to take advantage of the site. Who knows, maybe there are more parents viewing it than I think. :)

The other thing I really like doing is sharing photos with friends and family. I try to take pics each month...especially of important things going on, but of course, I don't post pictures often enough.

With Spring and Summer coming on, maybe I'll have more time.

Week Three: Thing #6

2008-03-16T18:29:00.000-07:00

Cool Stuff! There's so much to do on Flickr.com

I liked the mosiacs and the posters!!

The mosiac that I posted here--to the right is mainly of photos
that I took from old slides that our family had. My sibling would
probably cringe if they knew I'd posted them here...hahah...some
are pretty funny. (and yes, the one with the SHORT brown hair, yellow
outfit is ME..hahah)

--later

Week Three: Add Photo to blog entry

2008-03-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

Oh cool! It worked. This is Pinehurst Golfcourse: One place where we'd love to be right now.

Week Three: Exploring Flickr

2008-03-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

I already have a Flickr account since I was using Yahoo Photos a few months back. I haven't used the online photo service in quite a while, and I'm surprised by all the free photos that are available for use.

Fun looking at all the shots! I'm already getting the "you've been on the computer a LONG time, MOM" comments... hee hee

--b

Week Two: Avatars

2008-03-15T18:55:00.000-07:00

Hmmmm...that was fun. I spent WAY-YONDER too much time exploring all those
"options" on the avatars. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they actually have a "classroom background"..

Searching through all the elements/options was fun....

Pasting the code was easy-cheesy, too!

Loved it!

I'm sure I'll spend a LOT of time on Flicker, too...that's next!

--bess

Week Two: Thing 3 & 4

2008-03-15T18:50:00.000-07:00

Set up the blog. I already had one that I used from this summer, but I'd only posted a couple of things on it. My sisters keep after me to start one. They LOVE theirs, but I haven't taken much time to see about them. I guess now is my opportunity to do so.

I hope registering the blog is just copying/pasting the link into an email (?)

I guess I'll find out soon enough...

Off to learn more.

--bess

Life-long Learning Thing #2

2008-03-15T18:46:00.000-07:00

The tutorial put the "lifelong learning" goals into such simple, easy-to-do
steps. I just hope it's as easy as I think it will be.

Better Late than Never

2008-03-15T14:49:00.000-07:00

Okay...I'm finally here. With TAKS behind me and Spring Break in front of me, seems like a good time to get this thing together. I'm a little behind, but this looks like it'll be easy enough to catch up to everyone else.
In the few minutes that I've been reading about the "things" to do, I realize, I don't know as much about what's out there on the web as I thought. Of course, that's one of the reasons I'm doing this..

Off to read more about the "things/assignments".

I'm looking forward to it!