#12: Roll your own search tool with Rollyo.
I tried the Chaos Kidsearch in Rollyo and typed in Internet safety as a search term. The results list includes a lot of links I recognize from the Internet safety initiatives in my school district. This link shows you what I found in Rollyo: http://rollyo.com/search.html?prevsid=475860&q=internet+safety&sid=475860. Rollyo is a site I plan to suggest to others. I've made a posting about it on my school library Web site. You can read it here.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Week Five, Assignment #11
#11. Explore Web 2.0 Award Winners and then blog about the sites I explored.
I visited yourminis, a widget site. I played with the BMI (body mass index) calculator, but I can't imagine wanting to place this on my blog.
While at yourminis I also looked at the Weather Channel widget. I have this on my computer's desktop, but I've noticed that I get a different temperature reading on it than my husband gets on his Weather Channel temperature gauge. The night we were checking for frost temperatures, my husband's listing was 29 degrees as a current temperature while my Weather Channel widget indicated it was 42 degrees. Consequently, I don't place a lot of stock in either of them being right.
I visited yourminis, a widget site. I played with the BMI (body mass index) calculator, but I can't imagine wanting to place this on my blog.
While at yourminis I also looked at the Weather Channel widget. I have this on my computer's desktop, but I've noticed that I get a different temperature reading on it than my husband gets on his Weather Channel temperature gauge. The night we were checking for frost temperatures, my husband's listing was 29 degrees as a current temperature while my Weather Channel widget indicated it was 42 degrees. Consequently, I don't place a lot of stock in either of them being right.
Week Five, Assignment #10
#10. Play around with an online image generator.
I made this Word Cloud at http://www.wordle.net/:
This is cool. I'd been trying to find a word cloud generator for the past several days, and I hadn't come across one that I liked until I found this one. I could have typed in the specific words I wanted, but I chose to have the image generate itself based on what was on my Library Threads blogsite. I did check the links it shows, to make sure there was nothing I'd be embarrassed to have show up if someone typed in the addresses.
I made this campaign button on http://www.imagechef.com/:
This turned out to be a very satisfactory image creator, too.
Here's a cute library card I made at http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/badge.php for our school mascot:
I made this Word Cloud at http://www.wordle.net/:
This is cool. I'd been trying to find a word cloud generator for the past several days, and I hadn't come across one that I liked until I found this one. I could have typed in the specific words I wanted, but I chose to have the image generate itself based on what was on my Library Threads blogsite. I did check the links it shows, to make sure there was nothing I'd be embarrassed to have show up if someone typed in the addresses.
I made this campaign button on http://www.imagechef.com/:
This turned out to be a very satisfactory image creator, too.
Here's a cute library card I made at http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/badge.php for our school mascot:
When I posted it to this blog, the default placement was at the top of the posting. I had to click on the "Edit Html" tab and cut the code from the top of the posting and relocate it where I wanted it.
Week Four, Assignment #9
#9. Locate a few useful library blogs or newsfeeds.
View my Blogroll and you'll see that I've found some good school library blogs. I've also subscribed to the American Libraries Direct weekly newsfeed. Just for fun, I added my own blog to my list:
View my Blogroll and you'll see that I've found some good school library blogs. I've also subscribed to the American Libraries Direct weekly newsfeed. Just for fun, I added my own blog to my list:
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Week Four, Assignment #8
#8. RSS & Newsreaders. Learn about RSS feeds and set up my own Bloglines newsreader account.
I use iGoogle as my homepage, and Google Reader is readily available there with a click on a drop-down arrow. While subscribing to at least 5 newsfeeds, I discovered I could pick up RSS feeds of a "news flash" feature on my school district's Web site. I like have school news come to me that easily.
Our library supervisor took the time to have all the librarians in my district learn about Google Reader and subscribe to RSS feeds a couple years ago. She did it in preparation for our district starting to use School Center to make classroom or library Web pages, because we'd have the ability to set us an RSS feed from our own sites and she wanted us to know what they are. At that time, I found it a nuisance to sign into Google Reader, and I found there was too much worthless information coming to me through the RSS feeds, so I canceled the subscriptions.
When I started to use iGoogle about a year ago, I set up newsfeeds from major newspapers. I occasionally click on an interesting headline that I wouldn't otherwise have seen.
I've subscribed to the Unshelved library cartoon feed. There are some good cartoons about librarians using social networking groups to reach teens, and about appealing to teens in Library 2.0.
I set up an account in Bloglines.
I use iGoogle as my homepage, and Google Reader is readily available there with a click on a drop-down arrow. While subscribing to at least 5 newsfeeds, I discovered I could pick up RSS feeds of a "news flash" feature on my school district's Web site. I like have school news come to me that easily.
Our library supervisor took the time to have all the librarians in my district learn about Google Reader and subscribe to RSS feeds a couple years ago. She did it in preparation for our district starting to use School Center to make classroom or library Web pages, because we'd have the ability to set us an RSS feed from our own sites and she wanted us to know what they are. At that time, I found it a nuisance to sign into Google Reader, and I found there was too much worthless information coming to me through the RSS feeds, so I canceled the subscriptions.
When I started to use iGoogle about a year ago, I set up newsfeeds from major newspapers. I occasionally click on an interesting headline that I wouldn't otherwise have seen.
I've subscribed to the Unshelved library cartoon feed. There are some good cartoons about librarians using social networking groups to reach teens, and about appealing to teens in Library 2.0.
I set up an account in Bloglines.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Week Three, Assignment #7
#7. Create a blog post about anything technology-related that interests me this week.
I'm finding that this Blogger site interests me this week. I tried to use it a long time ago and was utterly frustrated with it. Then I used it again last year and had better luck with it, but I didn't feel I had enough to say to justify having a blog. This time around, I'm actually enjoying this project. I'm amazed that I can post a blog to Blogger from another site such as Flickr and have it show up here. Or maybe I posted it through e-mail. I've done so much with this blog today that I'm not even remembering everything I tried. It was a day that my school connection with the Internet went offline every few minutes and none of the photos I uploaded showed at all while I was at school, but I came home and found the pictures all looked fine.
Week Three, Assignment #6
#6. In Flickr, explore mashups and other fun things. Use mappr, Flickr Color Pickr, & Montager.
I've figured out how to add my images to mappr. You can see my photo of our school mascot, the CAMS Cougar, sitting in my school library at http://www.flickr.com/photos/31815648@N03/2978641009/map/.
I used Flickr Color Pickr at http://krazydad.com/colrpickr/, and thought it was interesting. I tagged my photos with colors and "color pickr" to see what would happen. I can search my photos in Flickr by color now. You can see one of my blue photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/31815648@N03/2978714565/.
I tried montager, but I haven't found a way to get my own images uploaded to it or to select what picture is going to be used as a template. I haven't located an ID tag in my own photos. I tried using the number 404 that was on my photo, but it apparently wasn't the ID tag to use. The montager site that lets you search by tag is interesting: http://www.deviousgelatin.com/montager/image.php.
I explored a third party site called Trading Card Maker that let me turn one of my photos into a trading card. It was fun, but not something I have any need for. I tried it with a friend's picture, but I didn't want to post it online so I made another Trading Card with a picture of the Eiffel Tower.
I've figured out how to add my images to mappr. You can see my photo of our school mascot, the CAMS Cougar, sitting in my school library at http://www.flickr.com/photos/31815648@N03/2978641009/map/.
I used Flickr Color Pickr at http://krazydad.com/colrpickr/, and thought it was interesting. I tagged my photos with colors and "color pickr" to see what would happen. I can search my photos in Flickr by color now. You can see one of my blue photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/31815648@N03/2978714565/.
I tried montager, but I haven't found a way to get my own images uploaded to it or to select what picture is going to be used as a template. I haven't located an ID tag in my own photos. I tried using the number 404 that was on my photo, but it apparently wasn't the ID tag to use. The montager site that lets you search by tag is interesting: http://www.deviousgelatin.com/montager/image.php.
I explored a third party site called Trading Card Maker that let me turn one of my photos into a trading card. It was fun, but not something I have any need for. I tried it with a friend's picture, but I didn't want to post it online so I made another Trading Card with a picture of the Eiffel Tower.
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