Week 4, #8 and 9 Learn about and create RSS reader

I've always wondered how that little orange RSS symbol on web sites was used. Now, I have my own RSS reader. I used google and it was simple to set up. I searched for library and education related feeds and added a few. YALSA's blog http://feeds.feedburner.com/Yalsa is one I frequently read so that's part of my reader now. Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/rss/pao/web.xml has a "new on the web site" feed that I added to my reader.



It will take me a few weeks of reading to see which feeds I find most useful. I'm sure this will be a neverending process of adding and deleting. I think it will help to keep me more organized and up-to-date.

Week 3, #7 Technology Related post

Microsoft Office live workspace http://workspace.officelive.com/ is a tool that anyone can use to create, revise, complete and save office documents (word, excel, etc.). The documents created are available anywhere there is an internet connection. Students can set up accounts to store school documents and work on them from home or school. I would love to never have to see another floppy disk from a student!

I do not have experience using officelive yet. I think I'll ask a some students to try it and let me know if they find it useful. Hopefully it will help them be more productive ... no more excuses like "my printer is broken" or "I know I saved it to this floppy disk."

If Office live includes PowerPoint and Publisher it could be extrememly useful (and fun) to use with collaborative projects and peer editing.

If someone reading this post has experience using officelive I'd like to hear from you.

Week 3, #6 Flickr Fun, Mashups, etc.

I've quickly realized that to explore all the fun stuff with Flickr I need lots of time. I found a mashup that I wanted to try : Gickr - make animated gifs from Flickr (or any) photos. I wanted to animate some pictures that I took at the Patriot's rally but it took too long to upload the pics. I'll have to resize the images and try again later. Creating trading cards from Flickr images is another one I'd like to try.

Sunday, Jan. 26. New England Patriot's Rally

Week 3, Thing #5

Wow! Flickr has so much to look at it's kind of overwhelming. I did create my own account and added a couple of pictures that I took over the weekend. Next, I'll add some to this page.

I've used Shutterfly for personal picture storage, prints and photo items. It doesn't have the same capabilities as Flickr and seems to be more for the casual digital photo user.

Things #3 and #4 - Create a Blog and Avatar and Post

It was a bit frustrating logging into blogger to create a new account. There were too many passwords/accounts to set up. When I finally started to create my blog space I loved it. I spent too much time trying to come up with a name for my blog! The thought of putting something in writing for the world to see was daunting. I know my students don't have any issues writing on their blogs/myspace/etc. It's just not something I grew up with. When I was younger, I wrote in a diary with a lock on it!

Creating my Avatar was fun, fun! Although, when my son looked at it he said "It does look like you, Mom, just waaaaaay younger."

Flickr is my next experiment. I use Shutterfly for digital pictures all the time for personal use and find it easy and reliable.

Thing 2-Pointers from Lifelong Learners

The easiest habit of lifelong learners that I will be able to follow is to "Use Technology to Your Advantage." I've always liked learning by doing. If I have a need to learn a new piece of technology the best way for me to do it is to experiment and try things. Next week I am facilitating a PD workshop for teachers on "Classroom ideas using Inspiration." I have used Inspiration software a few times but now the pressure is on! Luckily, the Inspiration website is a fantastic resource.

The hardest habit, "View Problems as Challenges." I can easily be distracted by roadblocks. There is always something else that can be accomplished to complete one more item on my "to do" list.

Thing 1-School Library Learning "About"

As soon as I read about this course through MSLA (Massachusetts School Library Association) I knew it was something I wanted to complete. Taking the online course will force me to make time to learn (and use) web 2.0. In the past I've thought about beginning a blog but didn't know what to blog about! Now, I have a reason ... this class. I'm very excited about sharing what I learn with my colleagues and students.