Thing 13: Online Productivity Tools

Well it is high time I got back to this 23 Things - or another round is going to pass me by. I created a page in Pageflakes and customized it. I am not totally happy with it yet, but I will play around with it some more. If I was going to make this my home page on my computer it would be my home machine, just because I find more things for personal use than for school use that I would add to this type of page. I set up a Google calendar and found it very easy to use. If my Mac comes back repaired which I certainly hope it does, because I love iCal, then I would look into Spanning Sncy or Backpack because they work with iCal. Both programs looked interesting. I already use iCal for my to do list, so I don't think I would use the others. I did find Zamzar a very interesting site. I am waiting to see if it can convert a video file that I sent it. This looks like a very exciting site, because it seems like we are always trying to convert a file for someone.

Thing 12

I tried out several of the different news sites.  I posted a comment to one of the articles in Newsvine, which was very easy to do.  I also forwarded one of the news articles in Mixx to my husband.  I played around with Stumbleupon, but felt rather frustrated.  It doesn't work with Safari, which is the browser that I use the most and when I put it on Firefox I still wasn't able to get it to work the way I thought it would.  I can see using some of the news sites.  I find myself looking at news sites more often than watching the news, due to the fact that they repeat the stories so much.  When I go to a news site I can choose which ones I want to hear about and therefore save myself time.  I can see where this would make sense for media centers to link to these kind of sites for their users.  

Thing 11: Tagging & Del.icio.us

Wow!  Tagging is really neat and as a media specialist of course this seems really handy.  I just did some tagging on my blog and did some on a new photo site last night.  Del.icio.us is really neat - I could really use this when I go between buildings and I am on different machines all the time.  I will use this for a variety of things.  I think teachers as well as students could use both of these programs.  

Thing 10: Wikis

I tried both 23 Things On a Stick and the Wiki Sandbox.  Both were very easy to enter information or to edit info.  I just completed an online class and the instructor suggested that my final project might work better on a Wiki than a blog.  So I am now going to setup a Wiki for our staff to use to support one another and their use of projectors and Interwrite boards in the classroom.  I think it will be very useful and our teachers are so excited about their Interwrite boards that I think they will use the site to share ideas.  I think a wiki could be very useful for sharing policies and procedures in our media centers.  I am going to try to setup one for staff to use.  I think the ideas are limitless for staff to use wikis.  

Wikis for research - that is a tough one.  I don't think we do a good enough job of teaching our students to evaluate their resources - our English teachers tell their students that they can not use Wikipedia for a resource, but I know other content area teachers allow their students to use this resource.

Thing 9: Online Collaboration Tools

Both programs required me to login (create an account).  I thought Google Docs was a little simpler to use than Zoho Writer.  It seemed like Google Docs did not have as many options, which made it quicker to use.  Both offer some nice features that would be very handy to have for students.   I can't image what our founding fathers would think of these new applications.  What would they think of the Internet as a whole?

Thing 8: Share Your Creations

I tried Zoho Show - which was kind of neat, but seemed slow to work with.  It would be nice for students doing group assignments.  I then went on to Picture Trail, which I really enjoyed.  I ended up making a photo with some Bling and then a slide show of my dog.  I liked the neat slide shows.  I am going to try to do some experimenting for our webpage at school tomorrow.  The program was pretty easy to use and could add alot to webpages. 

Thing 7: Web 2.0 Communication Tools

Most of these tools I have actually tried or am currently using.  Where would life be without email.  I use email daily - I am not sure how I would even do my job without email.  The email hint article was good, although most of the ideas were not new to me, it was a good reminder.  In our school we do not allow IM, text messaging, cell phones or you tube.  I can see where IM might be a valuable tool for a media center.  It would even b e nice to have just for staff.  Web conferencing - I have been involved in quite a few different kinds of web conferences.  It is a nice option to have, although sometime scheduling yourself, internet access, and interruptions all cause it to be a bit more challenging.  In these days of small budgets it becomes a very valuable resource.  Earlier this week I was involved in a webinar for our library automation software and it was nice to learn more about that without a cost involved.