The Light In My Attic

Week Nine, Exercise Twenty-three

2008-03-12T22:46:00.001-06:00

Well the LIGHT has come ON in MY ATTIC! This course was so insightful. I enjoyed all of the new learning. I will go to the sites more and more and use them. I especially like BLOGGING! I think I am ADDICTED! It is a great online journal! This is just the BEGINNING of my learning all about the great technologies out there!

Week Nine, Exercise Twenty-two

2008-03-12T22:31:00.001-06:00

Wow!!!! That is amazing! I have known about e-books before, but I had no idea of the amount of books and the collections that are available! What a great resource. I am sure in the future we will not use hard copy books....we will be all e-books! I hope that doesn't happen in my lifetime, but it is a possibility! I could spend all day and night and not get through all of the e-books there are! Wow!!!

Week Nine, Exercise Twenty-one

2008-03-12T15:07:00.002-06:00

Podcasts are pretty cool! I could see the students thinking these were great and creating their own for a fun project!

I liked a podcast about children's books! Here is the link!

http://www.podcast.net/play/86231/2

Week Nine, Exercise Twenty

2008-03-12T11:05:00.001-06:00

Week Eight, Exercise Nineteen

2008-03-11T22:13:00.001-06:00

This is so cool and helpful! I have been trying to figure out a way to organize the many, many books I have in my collection! Using Library Thing will help a lot! I am thinking of organizing my collection using the Library Thing! I also like the fact that this is a tool to see feedback from others quickly on books!

I know I am going to spend hours and hours and weeks and weeks organizing my own collection of books!!! I started some tonight......I have been on this one exercise for about three hours! So cool and helpful! I also want to search more out about Library Thing to see what other cool features are available!

Week Seven, Exercise Eighteen

2008-03-11T14:53:00.001-06:00

Zoho Writer!! This is a pretty cool thing and an interesting feature! I like the fact that you can access your documents from anywhere and you wouldn't have to e-mail them back and forth from colleagues when they proof read and make changes....it would instantly be right there!

I also thought is was cool all of the things you can do with your documents on the user friendly toolbar....from changing background color to fonts to linking to a web page! That is pretty cool stuff!

Week Seven, Exercise Seventeen

2008-03-11T13:00:00.000-06:00

Wiki continued...adding an entry to the "Sandbox" was kind of fun. It was interesting to see my text added to so many others. I did have the question as to whether or not what you add to the wiki or delete can be found again or if it is gone forever......that is what I added to the sandbox! Does anyone know the answer to that question?

Week Seven, Exercise Sixteen

2008-03-10T16:10:00.000-06:00

This exercise was very interesting! I like the Wiki for the fact that all of us have resources that others could benefit from.....many times they are on our own blogs or sites and others never see them or have access to them. Using a Wiki others can benefit from our great ideas as well.

It is also helpful that anyone can do it. You don't have to have super computer knowledge to be able to contribute and use a Wiki!

On one of the wiki's I was reading....there was a fantastic idea, "Books A' La Cart". The teacher librarian would move from class to class doing book talks and allowing the students to check the book talk books out right there on the spot...she would then go back to the library and input the checkouts. This was used in a high school, but I thought it was a great idea!

Week Six, Exercise Fifteen

2008-03-08T11:28:00.001-07:00

As I was reading many of the articles about libraries Web 2.0. This was interesting to me.....easier said than done! Wow, what a responsibility and challenge all of you teacher-librarians have!

"This librarian bases all planning and proposals for services, materials and outreach on user needs and wants. User-centered libraries breakdown barriers and allow users access wherever they are: home, work, commuting, school, or at the library. This involves users from the get go in planning and launching services based on their needs. This librarian asks what new technologies or new materials users need. This librarian proposes building projects and involves users in designing those places. This librarian does not create policies and procedures that impede users’ access to the library. This librarian tells users how resources and funds will be expended. Decisions and plans are discussed in open forums and comments are answered. This makes the library transparent." --Michael Stephens

How cool is that???? I feel so behind the times in all of this technology. You could spend hours and hours doing research and still feel behind! I am of the "technology age" meaning I have grown up using computers and they aren't scary to me, unlike my mother. But still, I have no idea about a lot of this stuff and the resources available! This is enlightening!

Week Six, Exercise Fourteen

2008-03-07T17:42:00.001-07:00

Watching the "Technorati Tour" and then "Discover & Popluar Features" was so interesting! When I was doing the exercise to search blog posts for "School Library Learning 2.0"....I came up with 22 results. So for kicks, I just did a main search for the same thing and came up with over 300,000. Wow! I was amazed when reading the intro to Technorati that there are over 175,000 new blogs each day! That is soooooooooooo many!!!

I like the fact that you can tag so many things...this is helpful for researching. But at the same time, I don't like it, in the fact that everyone and their dog can see the things I have on the internet or on my blog. I have some friends that have blogs who get weird comments a lot! That is scary to me as well, but we are in the "Information Age" and there is good that goes along with the bad!

As far as Flickr, delicious and now Technorati go.....I still like Flickr the best for being the easiest to use and understand!

Week Six, Exercise Thirteen...Continued

2008-03-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

Well after many hours and a struggle, I found that my browser doesn't support the buttons....so I had to create my buttons without buttons! Here is the link to my delicious account!
http://del.icio.us/heatellis

So, check it out and see if any of my links are helpful for you!!

Week Six, Exercise Thirteen

2008-03-06T21:29:00.000-07:00

After an hour, I gave up....I can't get the delicious tool buttons to load on my computer....they are not there....I went through the trouble shooting guide too. Any suggestions? The whole concept is awesome and I want an account to organize and add tags to all of my web pages! HELP!!!!

Week Five, Exercise Twelve

2008-03-05T18:41:00.000-07:00

Rollyo was super interesting. I found a lot of rolls others had already created. I especially liked one that was research sites for kids. This would be great help for homework. In the URL or search site, I typed in kid friendly and came up with a whole bunch of options that could and would be helpful not only at home but in the libraries helping kids with research.

Week Five, Exercise Eleven

2008-03-05T16:24:00.000-07:00

I went and explored http://wufoo.com/ This site was really pretty cool. It is a site that can help us all get organized. I thought of it to help out with creating surveys, that kids always like to do. As well as organizing and building documents for classes, quizzes, tests. And for me right now being a Mom.....great way to organize finances, create invitations,address books, mailing lists etc. etc. etc.

Very interesting and cool site!

Week Five, Exercise Ten: Fun Cartoon Link

2008-03-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

mickey-mouse-disney parody

This was fun, check out my cute Mickey Mouse!

Week Five, Exercise Ten....Again, fun stuff!

2008-03-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

I love this....it is so cute and fun!

Week Five, Exercise Ten...THIS IS NEAT

2008-03-05T14:00:00.000-07:00

ImageChef.com Flower Text

Week Four, Exercise Nine

2008-03-04T23:49:00.000-07:00

I think I found some useful links!!!! Check out my links on the side of my blog (Fellow School Library 2.0 Blogs)! If you click on them....it will take you to the others blogs!

Thank goodness I am not working at school like the rest of you....I am working at home being a Mom. I have been able to take advantage of nap times to come work more on the Library 2.0 stuff. It is addicting....I am broadening my horizons and finding so many new technologies that will be so helpful and cut down on wasted time!

Happy Learning!

Week Four, Exercise Eight

2008-03-04T21:59:00.000-07:00

Cool beans! This is awesome! I just saved myself tons of time...in the future! It has taken me quite awhile to figure it all out. That seems to be the theme with all of this. It is a learning curve, but well worth the time now! I loved learning about the RSS feeds. I set up an account in Blogline!

I know Blogline will be useful for me! I could see it used in the Library at school to help update information on different subjects that you might have different classes researching. Or for that matter update you on all of your fellow bloggers!

Fun Stuff!!!

Week Three, Exercise Seven

2008-03-04T20:19:00.001-07:00

I had fun today exploring Blogger a little bit more! It was interesting to see how many different things there are that you can do and add to your own blog! I changed my template and imported this "teacherie" one from another site! Yet, again intergrating something else from the web! I think kids would have a blast with Blogging and all you can do! To do this I had to change the delete the HTML and paste in another one. I thought it was pretty interesting!
Do you like my template?

I also spent a lot of the day exploring Flickr more, Photobucket, Picasa, and Slide. Here is a sample of the fun I have had learning new skills with technology! Check out my Field Day at Alton Darby Slideshow in the Week Three, Exercise Seven Continued!

Week Three, Exercise Seven....continued

2008-03-04T19:25:00.000-07:00

Week Three, Exercise Six

2008-03-04T12:33:00.000-07:00

Above you will see my trading card! It was fun to create something so simple and unique to your own person! It was interesting to see how many different sites I could pull things from to create this trading card! Every quote is from a different site. The picture is from yet another site! Pretty cool that you can mesh all of this stuff together into one project!

Week Three, Exercise Five

2008-03-04T01:33:00.000-07:00

I was going to set up the link to post my pics using Flickr, so I spent a good hour figuring out how to do that and then I decided I didn't want Flickr to have access to my account....so after all that, I know how to do it and then decided not too......oh well, check out my pictures from when I taught in Ohio. Here is the link to Flickr!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24343676@N02/?saved=1

I guess I better get to bed.....my kids will be up early. I have been working on this all night! This is so addicting! What fun stuff!

Week Two, Exercise Four

2008-03-03T23:40:00.000-07:00

Do I need to register my blog? I didn't....I don't think I need to.....correct me if I am wrong!

Week Two, Exercise Three

2008-03-03T23:30:00.000-07:00

Setting up the blog was not too hard. It just took me a little bit of time. I really enjoyed creating my avatar: "The life of a stay at home mom!" That was pretty fun!

Week One, Exercise Two

2008-03-03T22:23:00.000-07:00

After listening to "The 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Effective Learners"

I found the habit that is the easiest for me would have to be habit #5: Create Your Own Learning Toolbox! I have multiple resources that I use to my advantage. For instance, Laura and Christina told me about all of the cool things they were learning in this online class. I search the internet daily to help me find answers to things. Today I searched looking for some supplementary activities to help me with a child I am tutoring. These are just a couple of good resources I use in my toolbox!

The habit that is the hardest for me is # 7 1/2 because I seem to always have so much on my plate that I don't take time to just have fun for me, not the kids or hubby or others, but just me! Something I need to work on!

** This was fun finding pictures online to insert using the toolbar in the posting section! **

Week One, Exercise One

2008-03-03T20:43:00.000-07:00

Reading about this program made me excited to learn more. I haven't ever used a lot of the technology items out there that look like fun. Avatar, Flickr, Podcasts, Wikis will all be new to me just to name a few. This should be fun and informational!

Welcome to.....The Light In My Attic

2008-03-03T20:13:00.000-07:00

This is so much fun!!! I am looking forward to learning a lot more about the things I can do with technology! One of my favorite books is A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein...so the name of my blog came from that! Hopefully through this program of "23 Things", I will be able to make the light in MY attic grow brighter! Wasn't that profound?! Not really, but hopefully catchy!