#21 Podcasts

I am excited about these podcasts search tools. I used PODCAST ALLEY, chose "News & Politics" and found the NY TIMES FRONTPAGE SUMMARY. I have several NPR podcasts on iTunes so I copied the URL, opened iTunes and subscribed to this podcast. This is great for radio shows and political and news shows. The great thing about PODCASTS is once you have subscribed to the podcast, it will download automatically. An easy way to get programs downloaded to your computer or iPod to listen to and/or watch at your leisure.

# 20 YouTube

This is the first time I have browsed YouTube. I have searched for certain videos when I hear about them but have not explored. What a hoot! I put in the word "library" and got a number of videos. While browsing through them, I came across one that was a Library Musical. A young guy who was seemingly studying in the library suddenly started to sing, got up and performed as if in a musical. A young lady joined him, they sang together, did a little dance then ended the song and left. The looks from the patrons were hysterical. This led to more and more spontaneous musical numbers in weird places - food court ("Can I get a napkin, please?").
I explored the CONTESTS and ran across a Kraft video that demonstrates how to prepare various dishes. I entered search words COOKING CLASSES and brought up lots of videos on preparing dishes. The teacher who teachs foods class might be able to use some of these.
Teachers have used bits of a news program or other program to illustrate a point.
Of course, teachers aren't able to download the videos so they would have to show them live streaming which could be problematic.

#19 Web 2.0 tools

Web 2.0 tools are web sites that allow some form of social networking and attempt to involve the web user, not just the web designer. Instead of the web providing information, entertainment and online stores, now web designers are building web sites that provide the capacity for web users to interact with other web users. Web users are involved in the information on the web site. Web users can communicate with others in the whole world who are interested in the topic. The web sites are much more complex than mere chat rooms used to be. Many different features on the web sites allow web users to configure their account page to suit their needs.
I looked at Library Thing for awhile. I set up an account but haven't done anything with it. Great resource for reviews, recommendations, keeping track of the books you read. Professional reviews of books are fine but reviews, criticisms, recommendations from normal folks who are reading the book is much better. Also I really like the feature that lists other books you might enjoy if you enjoy X book.

#18 Web-based applications

This is a fantastic tool! Like all of the rest of the 23 things, it is web-based which frees you up from being tied to particular software and allows you to do sophisticated wordprocessing, spreadsheets, etc. from any computer with Internet access. All of the features that Microsoft Word has - font, page setup options, bold/italics/underline, insert web link, image, HTML, table, etc. It appears to have all of the normal features plus perhaps some more - emoticons, add comments feature, strikethrough, tables, pictures, special characters. I couldn't figure out how to upload it to my blog, however.

#17 PBWIKI

I set up a PBWIKI for FreshmanSeminar committee. I don't know if I will actually use it but I would like to set it up anyway and play with the features. I tried to find Rocky Mountain 23 Things Wiki but don't have a clue how to find this. I looked at a couple of WIKIS for education - the Book Lovers Wiki looked rather interesting. I tried to join but I guess I have to be invited. I will try later to see how to get invited.

#16 So what's in a WIKI?

I can see the tremendous usefulness that WIKIS would provide when working on a collaborative project or collecting information, suggestions, etc. from people all over the world on a subject. At FCHS I am on the committee that is creating the Freshman Seminar (Advisory) for next year. We don't have a lot of time to meet together. When we do meet, we have to spend precious time to listen to everybody's comments and little time in the hour long meeting to ponder the comments and suggestions that are made. With the use of a WIKI, the members could post all of their comments, suggestions, criticisms, concerns, questions, additions... on one forum collaborative forum. All of the members would see the same "creation" of the Freshman Seminar. Members would be able to ponder and respond to suggestions, criticisms, concerns in between meetings. Therefore, during the meeting a lot of the collaboration would already have been done. Members would have time to consider proposals before meetings. I would like to try to set one up for this committee!

#15 LEARNER 2.0, WEB 2.0

I have been hearing 2.0 (Library 2.0, Learning 2.0, etc.) but I never knew exactly what it was referring to. Now I know that it is the use of web-based programs to do a variety of things - but basically it is some form of social networking. It is a transition to different ways that libraries serve their patrons. User-centered, focus on participation of patrons for content. Web programs that provide users the capability of communicating, collaborating, adding information, creating their own means of learning. Users are involved in the process and share information and content. Flexibility, bottom up philosophy rather than a top down approach.

#14 TECHNORATI

The new version of TECHNORATI looks like it has a lot of neat features. Of course it looks so simple on the demo video. But this is a powerful blog search tool that enables you to search in just about every possible way - search by word, by tag, by blog name. You can search the most popular - blogs, videos, tags, books, news blogs, etc. If you find a blog that you like, you can quickly link it to your blog list. This is really useful for those who want to "meet" some like-minded or like-experienced people and discuss issues. I have subscribed to two blogs that deal with the aging of parents. It is very nice to hear other people's stories and how they have dealt with issues. It is much easier to be open with a group of people who have had the same experience as you but who are not close to you.

#13 DELICIOUS

I set up an account on DELICIOUS and downloaded my favorites. I really like the feature of being able to access all of those who have the same bookmark as you do. Then it is possible to read what some of them have said about the site. It would help to see what those who have experience with that site say about it. Also the tags allows me to find those with similar interests and their web sites. Saves a lot of time exploring the Internet (which is not something I truly enjoy). I can use this site!

#12 Rollyo

After "playing" around with this site, I figured out how to make a rollyo? I used video vendors - it would be very advantageous to have all of the video vendors in one search engine so I wouldn't have to go to all of the sites to look for a film. I think the best use of this would be for teachers to insert good quality web sites for their discipline. The site would be cross-searchable and would keep the kids away from the junk on the Internet and focused on reliable sources. I think we need to do a lot more work with students to teach them how to critically evaluate sources and to make good decisions about which sources fit what type of information is being sought.

#11 LIBRARY THING

I like this "thing". A place to list the books that I have read, share opinions and comments with others who liked the book, get some insight that maybe I missed. And to be able to browse books that have similar themes. I don't belong to a book club - I don't like to read books that others have picked out. But this way I could be in a virtual book club and discuss books with others.

#10 Attack Ad Generator

I tried to make an attack ad using Sarah Palin as the target. I was not able to upload it or embed it into my blog. I guess this is kind of fun and some teachers might like to have their students make some kind of an ad as a project - history, art, government, special ed. This is probably the least interesting thing for me.

#9 FINDING FEEDS

Finding feeds was very easy once you knew what to look for. I used Topix.net and found a feed for Fort Collins news. I used Blogline's Search Tool to look up news feeds in NPR and Huffington Post. Both were very easy to use and easy to link to my Blogline account. Now that I know a little more about RSS Feeds, there are several that I am going to delete. They are ones that are not relevant for me every day. I want to focus on news and library issues, not movie reviews, etc.

#8 RSS FEED

I have heard about these for a few years but have never set up a BLOGLINE of my own. This is very handy and easy to do. There are several web sites that I would like to read daily, mostly editorial/opinion sections of a few news media, and this will make it so much easier to get to all of them in one place! What a handy tool! If I were still teaching Spanish, it would be so handy to have various Spanish websites to quickly read through every day. It would be much easier to bring current events into the classroom.