This is jolly good fun!
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
23 Things - Completed!
My favorite things out of the 23 were flickr, online productivity tools, youtube and mosaica screensaver. As you can guess - these are the things I believe that I will use in the future. I am anticipating that they will make several areas of my life smoother, things like.... sharing photos, keeping the family calendar up to date, and helping volunteer work be more productive and streamlined. Some things are just for pleasure, things like...mosaica (LOVE the variety!!), and youtube is a hoot (nice, quick laughs to lighten my day!!). I am sure there are many applications that are work related, things like...online productivity & wikis. Also, just knowing about these things (actually much more than 23!) will help me help customers.
I really liked the way the program was set up - self-discovery at your own pace. That is how I learn best. I also found that the more people that finished (before me) the more I was able to do - they gave encouragement and advise on details, both in person and online through blog advise. Generally I found it a bit rough getting started - it took doing 6-7 things before I figured out how to handle it all efficiently. The middle several things were the most time intensive for me - the "meat" of the experience. And it was very nicely planned that the last few things were more fun - not as time intensive. There were times when the whole thing was frustrating - mostly related to computer speed and lack of time - and there were times when I really played and found very useful stuff.
Thanks for the memories!!
I really liked the way the program was set up - self-discovery at your own pace. That is how I learn best. I also found that the more people that finished (before me) the more I was able to do - they gave encouragement and advise on details, both in person and online through blog advise. Generally I found it a bit rough getting started - it took doing 6-7 things before I figured out how to handle it all efficiently. The middle several things were the most time intensive for me - the "meat" of the experience. And it was very nicely planned that the last few things were more fun - not as time intensive. There were times when the whole thing was frustrating - mostly related to computer speed and lack of time - and there were times when I really played and found very useful stuff.
Thanks for the memories!!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
eBooks
I love audio books! My kids & I listen to them all the time - in the car, in our bedrooms, in the kitchen. I have never looked at ebooks to seriously because we still have dial up service at home, and until the web2.0 inititive, my understanding was that we should not be downloading books on our computers at work. I have created a netlibrary account and downloaded one book to use as a test run to seee if I like it enough to use it on a regular basis. I do not think I will use it after this test at work - because I am generally engaging my mind when working at my desk & would find an ebook distracting! As it should be.
Squirrel Inc.: A Fable About Leadership Through Storytelling by Stephen Denning is about the use of story telling in the business world. Unusual at best, boring at worst. The sound quality is great and user interface very good - windows media player is familiar and has fun graphics that move with the sound.
Squirrel Inc.: A Fable About Leadership Through Storytelling by Stephen Denning is about the use of story telling in the business world. Unusual at best, boring at worst. The sound quality is great and user interface very good - windows media player is familiar and has fun graphics that move with the sound.
Podcasts
Alright, I have listened to a few podcasts - and subscribed to 3 on bloglines. It strikes me as simular to listening to a radio talk show - but...you get to choose your topics. Cool if you like to listen. I find that I miss the visual of the screen. here is what I added to bloglones....
Mugglecast - seems to be an ongoing conversation with news flashes about everything Potter related. The cool thing about this one is the visuals - I downloaded it to RealPlayer and was able to watch the cosmic, funky light show moving to the music & words!
Helping Kids Get Smart About Money - I selected this one because it has recently come to my attention that kids don't learn how to establish and maintain their personal assets in school. Now that my kids are older, I wnat to make sure they get this information when it will still make a difference in their lives!
Libvib - is a news podcast about libraries and books. I will listen to this to keep up with news about libraries and how they do things around the world. Right now I am listening to a podcast about the children's book " And Tango Makes Three" why it was challenged and why it is an acceptable subject for children. Hot topic!!
Mugglecast - seems to be an ongoing conversation with news flashes about everything Potter related. The cool thing about this one is the visuals - I downloaded it to RealPlayer and was able to watch the cosmic, funky light show moving to the music & words!
Helping Kids Get Smart About Money - I selected this one because it has recently come to my attention that kids don't learn how to establish and maintain their personal assets in school. Now that my kids are older, I wnat to make sure they get this information when it will still make a difference in their lives!
Libvib - is a news podcast about libraries and books. I will listen to this to keep up with news about libraries and how they do things around the world. Right now I am listening to a podcast about the children's book " And Tango Makes Three" why it was challenged and why it is an acceptable subject for children. Hot topic!!
YouTube
Youtube is always fun! I've been surfing it off and on ever since HCPL Staff Day 2006 when some of the wacky decade skits were added for viewing. To find the one below I searched for "early literacy"...only 43 hits. I the looked at the 2 renners up from the 2.0 awards list - daliymotion and metacafe. Both were also easy to use, but had a lot fewer videos to offer.
Indigo Love of Reading Fund video
I wonder if anything like this ever really happens in a classroom??!!
Web 2.0 Awards List
I love this list! What a great way to narrow down and pinpoint the best web 2.0 sites to use - its all organized for us. Its a nice, concise way to compare what's out there and the categories help tremendously. What a great time saver!
I played around with Colorblender - see my colors at http://colorblender.com/?preloadblend=6531AB9448F78D76ABCCABF7545454ABABAB> Fun and useful for decorating a room.
I also looked at facebook, and decided to create an account. My son has one, and I think it might be a good way to contact him. I think he checks that more frequently than his email!
Lulu looks like a good site for publishing - I am working on a yearbook and a calendar for Harford Friends School. I will have to compare prices with other online publishing sites and local stores - staples and office depot both offer these services.
I played around with Colorblender - see my colors at http://colorblender.com/?preloadblend=6531AB9448F78D76ABCCABF7545454ABABAB> Fun and useful for decorating a room.
I also looked at facebook, and decided to create an account. My son has one, and I think it might be a good way to contact him. I think he checks that more frequently than his email!
Lulu looks like a good site for publishing - I am working on a yearbook and a calendar for Harford Friends School. I will have to compare prices with other online publishing sites and local stores - staples and office depot both offer these services.
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