Next day...
While browsing other blogs, I found someone who successfully embedded their Zoho presentation. Back to the drawing board. This time I switched over to the Edit Html page and it worked. Duh.
Really... I hate to share my creations. I am sure there are others like me, who just aren't the sharing kind. Sure, I share with students in the library; I share with colleagues; I share with friends, but to share with the world? Oh, no. However, in the interest of progress with 23 Things and my desire to analyze the options available to kids in the educational setting, I have a link below to my brief book presentation created on Zoho. It must be public (UGH) to "share" the link. It appears that it can be embedded into my blog, but early attempts failed.
http://show.zoho.com/View.do?P_ID=283823000000004017&P_STIME=0&TP=true&displayall=true&THEME=colorful_chords&USER=gabrielsons&DOC=Summer%20Books%202008
It finally sunk in. Last year, a young and enthusiastic Web 2.0 colleague at school brought Zoho to my attention. We were talking about word processing. I understood, but lacked enthusiasm. Today, as I looked at Zoho Show, I got it. Students experiencing difficulty with transfer of documents between home and school, due to version or system incompatibilities, m ayuse online document resources. I tried Zoho Show and it worked!! It was easy to login (I had my login), easy to create and save a new presentation. My colleague has moved on to another online resource called Buzzword. We'll have to compare the two and decide what will work best for students. There is an art research project coming up soon; we may be on a roll before the end of the month!
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Thing 7 - Web 2.0 Communication Tools
In our school building, email has greatly improved communication. Each day a staff bulletin is distributed by email, giving me easy access to all teachers and staff for quick announcements. When I have more information to share, I have developed a format in MS Publisher that I use for monthly - or so - newsletters. I use it to promote our services, share new resources and keep staff informed on library/lab use. With live links, teachers are able to take a quick look at resources and move on. It seems much more efficient, as well as useful, than anything I have done in print. However, I have also experienced the frustation of email overload. I am committed to managing listservs and subscriptions more effectively this year.
I have also made my email available to students who need to transfer a document to school. Though the transfer of documents is easier now with student email and flash drives, some students and parents appreciate the option of email to my desk. When I receive a document, I save it to his/her student folder, so it is available when class begins. Certainly, I have learned to reserve time for this mission during particular projects where my services have been used heavily.
Email has become a great benefit to our annual Scholastic book fair. Our parent organization will email parents with information about the book fair, in addition to some of the more traditional communications avenues. We also used email to line up volunteers. This proved to be much easier than connecting with phone calls!
Web 2.0 communication tools, such as email, text messaging, instant messaging and web conferencing, are enough to make your head swim. In addition, the current school environment does not support the use of email (except in "scholarly" pursuit), text or instant messaging. So where does this lead? I am excited that our new library catalog upgrade to Destiny allows students to submit book reviews. Students write, then submit their reviews online. Each review must be approved before being posted. I would like to use this feature as soon as we better learn the program and address necessary logins questions. We may need to seek programs, like Destiny, that bridge the Web 2.0 communication abyss in education.
Increasingly, I have found text messaging an effective way to communicate with my own 20 year old son. It is less "invasive" and a great way to make a quick connection. What could be more effective than a personal communication device attached at the hip! I haven't used IM and have always believed that a phone conversation was just as effective. As much time as I am spending on a computer these days, I am beginning to see the advantage!
I have attended MINITEX webinars in the past couple years and found them to be very useful and easy to use. I have also attended web conferences for software promotion and training. This would a great tool within the district, especially if it were free. Having just adopted a be new software, it would be so nice to conference with others in an environment where we could all be looking at the same screen.
I have also made my email available to students who need to transfer a document to school. Though the transfer of documents is easier now with student email and flash drives, some students and parents appreciate the option of email to my desk. When I receive a document, I save it to his/her student folder, so it is available when class begins. Certainly, I have learned to reserve time for this mission during particular projects where my services have been used heavily.
Email has become a great benefit to our annual Scholastic book fair. Our parent organization will email parents with information about the book fair, in addition to some of the more traditional communications avenues. We also used email to line up volunteers. This proved to be much easier than connecting with phone calls!
Web 2.0 communication tools, such as email, text messaging, instant messaging and web conferencing, are enough to make your head swim. In addition, the current school environment does not support the use of email (except in "scholarly" pursuit), text or instant messaging. So where does this lead? I am excited that our new library catalog upgrade to Destiny allows students to submit book reviews. Students write, then submit their reviews online. Each review must be approved before being posted. I would like to use this feature as soon as we better learn the program and address necessary logins questions. We may need to seek programs, like Destiny, that bridge the Web 2.0 communication abyss in education.
Increasingly, I have found text messaging an effective way to communicate with my own 20 year old son. It is less "invasive" and a great way to make a quick connection. What could be more effective than a personal communication device attached at the hip! I haven't used IM and have always believed that a phone conversation was just as effective. As much time as I am spending on a computer these days, I am beginning to see the advantage!
I have attended MINITEX webinars in the past couple years and found them to be very useful and easy to use. I have also attended web conferences for software promotion and training. This would a great tool within the district, especially if it were free. Having just adopted a be new software, it would be so nice to conference with others in an environment where we could all be looking at the same screen.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Thing 6 - Online Image Generators
"Later" became "sooner" when Thing 6 took me back to the Big Huge Labs website. Soooo....my motivator poster seems more like an online image generator than a mashup. I'm back to my initial conclusion; mashups are just too darn random for me. However, I had great fun with the image generators. Though many are limited in flexibility, they do provide quick and easy options for using photos. Of the image generators that I tried, Map Maker, Matte and Calendar were selections to which I might return. Through color-coding, Map Maker allows the user to see the states he/she has visited. What a great introduction to this unit of study. Also, using image generators may be a novel way to draw attention to announcements on classroom TVs.
Trading card - this trading card illustrates the book, Twilight. Trading cards may be a way for students to share a synopsis of a book they have enjoyed.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Thing 5 - More Fun
At the website, Big Huge Labs (what?), I used Motivator to create this poster. Using a photo from a relaxing family vacation in Canada, this mashup was easy to use and upload. I could right-click to save the poster as an image file, then use the "add image" feature of Blogger to bring it into the page. Big Huge Labs appears to have several mashups that I will explore further including Matte, Movie Maker, Top Cameras, Calendar, Framer and Billboard. I'll have to come back to this one! What a surprise. When I first began exploring the Top 10 Mashups using a Google search, I felt like I entered the world of wasted time. Of course, on the Internet, you never know what you will find on the next page.
Along the Way
Today I began to develop a presentation to share with teachers at the beginning of the new school year. I think I will give them a quick overview of some Web 2.0 options I have learned in 23 Things on a Stick. I believe I will follow-up with a few after school mini-trainings for those who are interested. There are so many things to share! Our library is also upgrading to Destiny this summer. I am anxious to share this with teachers, as well!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Thing 4 - Flickr
Photography is not my strength. Not surprisingly, Flickr does not immediately capture my imagination. OK, I can certainly see the benefits of storing photos online, having the ability to share them with friends and family, even browse through photos posted by those more gifted that I. That being said, I am intriqued by the ability to search for photos by geographic location. (geotagged) I stumbled upon this photo, "London from the Stone Gallery" photographed by otrocalpe and displayed on Flickr. This photographer has received many accolades from others for this and other photos in his/her collection. At full size, this photo is magnificent. Anyone studying London today?
I really appreciated the link to Creative Commons licensing. We need to continually work with students to help them understand that photographs belong to the photographer, just as text belongs to the author. Creative Commons provides an excellent example.
Thing 11 - Del.icio.us
A media specialist friend mentioned the Del.icio.us website to me quite some time ago. I decided I would begin my summer by diving into Del.icio.us. It has been great! So to kick-start my lagging 23 things blog, I thought I would restart with Thing 11. I set up a Del.icio.us website several weeks ago. I have enjoyed having my favorite websites readily available at any computer I use. I've played with tags and find that one or two generally meets my needs. More often than not, I have deleted a tag, rather than adding another. I am anxious to share this site with teachers who might also enjoy the convenience of easy access to online favorites. I also added the minn23 website to my Blogline account to keep track of new tags as they are added., but I am not sure that is working.
Now, as I explore the website futher and read through Thing 11, I better understand the option of sharing tags with others. Though I am not ready to introduce De.licio.us to middle school students for research, I do believe it will be one of the resources that I will check when looking for online resources to support the curriculum. I think I might create a De.licio.us website for the media center to assemble the websites we use at school. In the past, I have tried a variety of ways to organize these sites; none of which have been completely satisfactory. Maybe it would make sense to create my own "minn23" website for the students at our school. I'll look into Pagemaker a bit more, too.
Now, as I explore the website futher and read through Thing 11, I better understand the option of sharing tags with others. Though I am not ready to introduce De.licio.us to middle school students for research, I do believe it will be one of the resources that I will check when looking for online resources to support the curriculum. I think I might create a De.licio.us website for the media center to assemble the websites we use at school. In the past, I have tried a variety of ways to organize these sites; none of which have been completely satisfactory. Maybe it would make sense to create my own "minn23" website for the students at our school. I'll look into Pagemaker a bit more, too.
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