Week Five - Thing #10

This week was full of fun exercises. I liked http://www.imagechef.com/ I created the following image very easily and quickly. To post to my blog all I had to do was to click on a tab. The instructions there were simple to follow and now you too can see the results.



I really enjoyed exploring http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/ I can see that this site could be used to make library signs. I did a search under manga to find the following images which in made on my twenty fourth wedding anniversary. Check out my first attempts above.

Week Four - Thing #9

I enjoyed looking at http://libraryblogs.suprglu.com/ for ideas for promoting books and libraries. The archives section was useful to access past news. And I loved the Pimp My Bookcart contest photos - http://www.unshelved.com/PimpMyBookcart/2008/
Feedster was unavailable for investigation so I turned to Syndic8.com Syndic8 is an open directory of RSS feeds that contains thousands of RSS feeds that users have submitted.

Here I found Teen Reads at http://www.ccrls.org/woodburn/rss/teens.rss which has RSS feeds for new teen book recommendations.

I also checked out technorati.com where I found http://www.technorati.com/pop/books/ Of course not everything there was directed at a high school library but it did make for an interesting spread of information.

Google blog search was useful. I looked up high school libraries – and got lots of ideas. It was easy to use and quick to load.

Check out Stony Brook Library’s Research Guide where there are links to
http://www.stonybrook.edu/library/tutorial/

Blogpulse.com gave interesting feedback under searches for high school libraries.

Week Three - Thing #8

RSS and Newsreaders

This section on RSS feeds took a long time for me to explore, ponder and absorb but it was well worth the effort.


I have created a free RSS aggregator by using Google Reader. Google Reader is Google's web based feed reader. Google Reader constantly checks the news sites that I have chosen for new content which greatly simplifies my reading experience. Everything is in one convenient place. I can share my favorite items with my friends by sending them to the relevant links. The best part about Google Reader is that my account can be accessed from any computer with online access.

Week Three - Thing #7

Hmmm, a technology related blog post... so many topics to choose from!

In December 2009, my husband gave me a lovely Panasonic digital camera for my twenty fourth wedding anniversary. It has a lot of bells and whistles with which I am gradually becoming familiar. I’ve been learning the art of transferring photos to various applications.

Not only have I learned how to use the camera, but I've learned how to download the images into a card reader on my computer, how to resize them for web purposes or email and then how to add them to my blog.

Something else I've noticed since we've recently changed from satellite to cable is that one of the channels is Flickr. Would I have noticed this had I not been taking the CSLA Web 2.0 course? I suspect not. I'm going to investigate further but I think I will be able to upload photos to Flickr and then view them on the television screen. I also like the idea of using Flickr so that my family in Australia can see what we're up to here in California.

The advancements in technology are simply amazing.

Here are a couple of photos of a camping trip to Agua Caliente in the Anza Borrego Desert. The first is a view of the mountains from our camp site. The second is a view of one of the pools filled with water from the hot springs at Agua Caliente.

Week Three - Thing #6

Well I can see that my blog is woefully out of order but I can see how to straighten things up from now on. Experience and trial and error are helping.

I have been exploring some of the fun Flickr mahups and third party tools which are available.

Just what is a 'mashup'? The CSLA link sent me to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup_(web_application_hybrid) which was helpful. A mashup is a hybrid web application that takes features from one application like Flickr and mashes it up with another such as a map giving us Mapr. Another example is the use of cartographic data from Google Maps to add location information to real-estate data. The end result is a new and distinct web service.

A mashup that intrigued me was 'trippermap', or should that be 'tripprmap'? Trippermap allows you to put a flash based world map of your Flickr photos on your own website or blog. Trippermap will then automatically search your photos at flickr for location information and plot the photos on your own Trippermap, on your own website. Going traveling around the world? Trippermap will allow you to arrange photos according to the countries visited. Trippermap had a very helpful tutorial on its home page along with a tour and a blog.

Check it out!

Week Two - Thing #4

So far I've set up my blog, added my first post and an avatar.

Now I've registered my blog too. Upon registration I was kindly sent the following email which arrived very late on Christmas day - what a nice present...

Hello Erica,

Have fun working through the 23 Things - I know that you'll find many uses at home and at school for the fun applications you'll encounter here.

Enjoy!
Connie

Connie Williams
President
California School Library Assn
CSLA 2.0 Team

What a Journey!

For the past three weeks my husband and son traveled to Perth, Western Australia to vist family and friends for the first time in seven and a half years. I really missed them but it gave me a splendid opportunity to work through the 23 Things in the School Library Learning 2.0 program.
This was really exciting and I've learned a lot. I kept notes the first time around in Word. Now I want to work through the 23 Things again, blog about my experiences, and make sure that I have a thorough grasp of the new concepts.
Stay tuned...