Thing 9 - Useful Library related blogs

I have found that searching for blogs is a big task....there are so many out there to weed through. The search site for the edublogs award winners was by far my favorite! I found the best resources sharing blogs my favorite. There was a cool free technology blog that had a ton to offer( and I was able to add it to my RSS account), including mapping activities, I also enjoyed a blog called "Jane's E learning Pick of the Day". The site I found the most distracting was the Syndic8 site. This site had very small print, and alot of it. It was a challenge looking for information to use, and did not have much visual appeal.

Free Technology Resources for Teachers

Thing 8- RSS Feeds

Wow! What a cool tool these are! RSS feeds are a great time saver....its like one stop shopping. A teacher or librarian could use these in school to keep up with what is going on in the education realm, while keeping up with current events and personal interests all at the same time. Just thinking about how much time this will save me during this course is amazing...being able to see everyone's posts that I am following all in one place....how simple!

Thing 7- The world of Google

I have to admit, I am a HUGE google fan! I just think it is so user friendly, and it looks pretty too :-) One of my favorite Google aps is Google Earth. It is so cool to think that you can see something as tiny as a house from space! It is a wonderful tool, and has done a tone for geography instruction (not that I do much of that in the 3rd grade). I think Google Scholar will also come in handy during the course of grad school!

To be honest, I dont see a huge need for some of the other tools...but maybe that is because I already have my favorites with those. The calendar just seems like an extra step, especially if you are using outlook already. I also think there are better photo sharing sites. Flickr is great, and I also really enjoy Shutterfly. I like Shutterfly because you can send your pictures to Target to be printed, and you have the flexiblity to add your pics to a cute website. We have one if you would like to see our little one :-))

http://babyconnorm.shutterfly.com

Thing 6- Mash ups

I have to be honest, I hadn't ever heard of mash ups before. I think they are a cool idea, but are one of those ideas that seems so simple you think to yourself.."why didn't I think of that!" I really like the mash up bookr. It would be neat to have the kids write a class story and illustrate it with pictures from Flickr. You could also create a Flickr account, and create an online scrapbook of your year in the library; People could add commments, you could add pictures and use the Bookr feature to explain the events and pictures.

Thing 5 - Using Flickr

Flickr is a great photosharing website! It is great that you have the ability to use some pictures from Flickr's creative commons for free! I love the way you can join groups (where you share commonalities with others, and can share pics or info based on these commonalities). I also love that you can map where pictures were taken! This is a great tool if you are wanting to show your class something and need to give them some perspective on where it happened. I also learned that a Tag is when you identify a picture to fit in a certain group.

Librarians use Flickr to share ideas, have author and book discussions, and disperse information to other libraries(including public libraries) about their program. Here is a picture that I found. I was thinking of using it in a lesson about a hero we study, Jane Addams.