Thing # 11

Thing #11: LibraryThing

I really could get carried away with all of these useful sites and tools. I could seriously get lost in discussions with the other members in the groups I chose for LibraryThing. I chose three groups to start with in the cataloging site. My choices reflect my favorite genres. I chose the Crime, Thriller, and Mystery group. I always get drawn into the world of serial killer novels and the hero or heroine's quest to solve the murder(s). I also chose The Green Dragon group which is a fantasy, mythology, and sci fi group. I enjoy all of C.S. Lewis's books and Tolkien. My last group is the Read YA Lit group. I am a sucker for Young Adult literature. I think that that time in one's life is such an exciting and ever changing period. Everything seems so important to a young adult. Their stories reflect this excitement and zest for life. I know that LibraryThing will be a useful tool for me now. I will be able to start to learn about what other people find to be worthwhile books. I can eliminate the selection of books that may not be well respected. In the future, I believe that LibraryThing can help me to organize both my personal and school libraries.

Thing # 10

Thing #10: On-Line Image Generators:


This exercise was fun. I could play with this for hours, if I only had the time. I know for a fact that many of these generators can be used in the library or classroom. A librarian could set up her own glogster to demonstrate to students. She could have a trading card as we have already discovered. I know glogsters and wordles are fun for students as they are creating presentations to make the information more exciting and pop! I had fun with several, but I am only going to show two examples. There is not enough room for all of the images I would like to download or save. I played with Dumpr and created a picture from a shopping trip with my girlfriends in the Heights. We were just goofing around in a store and took a picture. I also had fun discovering ImageChef and created a picture of one of my favorite things, butterflies.

Thing # 9

Thing # 9: RSS Feeds

While searching for RSS feeds I stumbled upon several great blogs that I thought would be useful on my road to the access of information. I must say I can really relate to two blogs in particular. Though I am not a young adult anymore, I love reading young adult literature. The Crooked Shelf and the YA Addict review books that meet my love for this genre.

I can get lost reading books about the fantasy world of witches, werewolves, and vampires. Books are a great form of escapism for me. I absolutely love to read about the "unreal". I took the advice of Vicki Davis of The Cool Cat Teacher blog. She mentioned that one of the best ways to begin your search for RSS feeds is to search the blogs of those you do admire. For example, I enjoy the Serpentine Library. This blog reviews many different books and shares insight on up and coming authors.

I searched on Technorati and Bloglines and appreciated their streamlined approach to organizing blogs. They make it easy for someone to find subjects by inserting key words in the search bar. It eliminates the dead time of looking up information like a search for the old needle in the haystack. In today's world of quick and easy, we need information and we need it now. Who wants to wait? It was interesting to find a quick reference to the award winning blogs in Edublogs. I was surprised to not find some of the blogs I have often found in my search for library news. For example, I do not think Doug Johnson's blue skunk blog was mentioned. I have read several articles by him while reading information for my discussion question posts.
I was not impressed with the layout of Topix.net and Syndic8.com. It was hard to even look at the format of these two sites. I would not consider either of these as very user friendly.
Thanks to this activity I now feel like I have started my very on extensive library catered to my tastes, with all the information in one location.

Thing #8

Thing #8 :

RSlS feeds are like one stop shopping. They are to technology and information acess what Walmart is to shopping. It is all on one page and in one place. I love this. This will save me so much time once I have subscribed to all the news sites and blogs I want on my Google Reader, I will be thrilled to have all my information at my fingertips! Literally.

I believe that this will be great for me to personally use at home. I tend to get lost on the internet when searching for information. Sometimes I loose valuable time searching the web. Hopefully now I can eliminate the extra searching and find most of what I need on my Google Reader.

I know that as a librarian RSS feeds can provide an organized page to place many different sites that could be used to help one's students. A librarian can check other librarian blogs to find out the latest news in the world of information science. They can stay on top of the latest local and national news and information that they can share with their students and teachers. I am sure the list of possibilities is endless.

Thing #7

Thing #7
I really enjoyed this activity. I have used Google for years to search the web, but never realized how many applications Google had created. I set up an iGoogle page and customized my page to personalize it to my interests.

I was surprised to find out how easy it was to find educational presentations to use in a classroom. I decided to look up a power point presentation on snakes and found plenty of material I would be able to use in a classroom if studying this subject. For example, I looked up ppt and snakes and found several power points to view. I always get lost when looking at the reptile exhibit at the zoo. I find snakes fascinating.

I did not realize that I already had Google docs and Google calendar. My husband and I share the same e-mail account and he is already using these applications. I added several dates to our calendar and will continue using this for my calendar. I love the fact that like Outlook it can send reminders for upcoming events. I explored the Picasa Web Album, but was not sure how it works when it comes to copyright. There was no creative commons to share pictures, so I was not sure if all of the pictures are free to use.