Cub Scout Calendar

Thing 23 FINAL THOUGHTS

What a super fantastic program!! The only thing I didn't like was - I didn't take time to finish the Things the first go around. I am continuing to learn and grow on the fabulous foundation the program gave me.

See the Google calendar to the right: I am still fumbling with how to embed this in my blog page.

CMLE, I can't thank you enough for this learning opportunity. Keep them coming!

Thing 22 CONTINUING LEARNING

I am so committed to keep learning. I haven't blogged much lately, and that is because I have been learning. I have the best job in the world, my job is half library and half technology, my two loves: books and computers.

The school already hosted a tech seminar, Tech Quest 3.0. There are even more fun, free things on the net. We did Twitter, Animoto, Wordle, Google Docs, Google Calendars, Google Sites and further explored wikis.

My biggest problem now is finding time to squeak in my books between work and all my computer stuff. I did manage to read Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, and The Host, all by Stephenie Meyer, this summer though. Currently I am reading "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" by David Sedaris.

So everyone Keep on Reading!!! and computing!!!

Still Loving the Things!!

Thing 21 BEYOND MYSPACE-SOCIAL FORUMS

I am having so much fun with this program. I hope the 23 Things sight stays active. I joined Web Junction and Ning. I am no longer freaked out about posting my picture online.
I am loving all the book sights and the library forums. I plan to keep current on all the Things I have signed up for. They will all apply when I get around to my master plan of going back to school for certification as Information Media Specialist. There is so much information and so many resources!! I am just lovin' it!



View my page on 23 Things on a Stick

Thing 20 FACEBOOK VS. MYSPACE

Another easy Thing for me. I just recently joined Facebook, one of my girl scouts parents created a group so she could post photos. I am not the most happening person, I only have 12 friends. I did join some of the library group though.

I also checked out MySpace, but I know a few young people on there and some of the pages are so unacceptable for viewing, to put it nicely.

I think MySpace does a nicer job displaying their pages, Hennepin County Library, for example. But since I am already a Facebook user, I won't be switching.

Thing 19 PODCASTS

I found another addicting Thing. I loved the Memoirs for School Library Media . I found myself listening for about an hour and bookmarked my page (with deli.cio.us). I provided the link for you above.

I plan on trying my own podcast, but right now I can think of any topics. Also, I think I am running out of time and want to finish the 23 Things first.

Thing 18 ONLINE VIDEOS

I checked out the instructions for embedding videos, which I obviously don't have a problem with. I did have problems with finding the share button on YouTube. I found myself wasting a lot of time looking at videos. I did find some funny, appropriate videos to share on my blog though. I was at first worried about not finishing the 23 Things, now I am wishing there were more.

Thing 18.1 GOOGLE ONLINE VIDEO

It is a little bit of a different format, but many of the videos are the same as YouTube. It will be interesting to see how things play out, if they will leave them as separate sights. Here is a video I pulled from Google Video.

Thing 18 YouTube & ONLINE VIDEO

Once again, a Thing I am a little bit familiar with. My new favorite thing is embedding videos. I love this help desk one, sorry for stealing the 23 Things idea.






And here is another one I liked.

Thing 17 ELM PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS

OK, :), another Thing I have experience with. I have used ELM, Gale, EBSCO and all those things and have them linked to the HS Destiny site. It was nice to learn some more features. I did the ELM challenge, went to Info Trac, searched child health, listened to the Podcast and added NPR RSS feed on child health to my reader. At last some time on the internet that I don't feel was a total waste of time.

Thing 16 STUDENT 2.0 TOOLS

I love when I find the Things I have already done. A few years ago, I took a class at the UofM and utilized the University Research Project Calendar. It is great, it sends you email reminders and deadlines of things you should have completed. You enter a start date and a finish date, then the RPC will send you reminders to be working on an outline, a draft, bibliography, etc...

Research Project Calendar does the same thing. This site I even have linked on our Destiny homepage.

High School Destiny Page

Thing 15 ONLINE GAMES & LIBRARIES

I checked out both games, Puzzle Pirates and Second Life. Puzzle Pirates is graphically geared to a younger audience and Second Life is geared to adults and teens. Picture Super Mario Bros vs. Grand Theft Auto. I am not real thrilled with this Thing, I don't have much interest in RPGs. In a work/school setting, this is not allowed anyway. I did the tour of Info Island and thought the authors Poe and Koontz were displayed nicely, but I don't think it would encourage anyone to read.

Thing 14 LIBRARY THING

I found another Thing I already have been using a little bit. I can't believe I actually remembered my log-in and password. I took the opportunity to add some of my titles to LT.


So now I just need a time machine to create some extra time during the day to enter all my books into LT.

Thing 13.4 BACKPACK

I like the BackPack suite of tools, but alas it is not the magic amount; FREE!! Working at a school with no budget can get kind of tough sometimes. BackPack is part of 37 Signals, which I am utilizing Campfire and now TaDa Lists for free. So you can worm around the cost, but it would be nice to have all the features rolled into one place.

Thing 13.3 ONLINE LINE LISTS

I went for the Ta-da list because it is part of the 37 signals group, which also does Campfire (an online chat room) we have been trying out at work. I can already think of uses for this. I created a list of books I have been buying for the HS. I can see creating wish-lists of books, assignments, tasks.

I make lists all the time, so this Thing is right up my alley.

Thing 13.2 CALENDARS

I can't just seem to say Google Docs enough. I have created a calendar and shared it already with my fellow Cub Scout leaders. It works great! I put in important school dates and Cub Scout events and then shared it with the other leaders so they can put in their data. I just love iGoogle.

Thing 13.1 ONLINE PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS

I am always so excited when I find Things I have already done. I am already a user of iGoogle and My Yahoo!. I have never heard of PageFlakes, but I went there and it does the same thing as iGoogle and My Yahoo!. I use iGoogle more, because I like there Google Docs. I create and upload a lot of them. The Google Doc calendar is my favorite right now. You can create a calendar and invite collaborators to provide input, make changes, or edit existing information.

I do like the Countdown timer. See below!!!

Created by OnePlusYou

Thing 12 DO YOU DIGG IT?

Social media sites: hmph.....I am kind of torn, I checked out all four of the recommended sites; Digg, Reddit, Mixx, and Newsvine. The most legitimate looking one was Newsvine. All the other sites had a lot of junk, not worth looking at. In a high school setting the social sites are not allowed. They can be a huge time suck. I just wasted probably about 2 hours checking them out. I would like to say I only looked at the worth while sites and news stories, but I found myself just surfing crap.

Thing 11 TAGGING & DEL.ICIO.US

I already had heard about del.icio.us at a tech conference I went to that was hosted by Apple. I loved the idea of having my bookmarks on any computer I was at. There are so many times when I am at home and I want to just click on my favorites from work and get to the web address I want without typing it in. Del.icio.us does that for me. Del.icio.us is acting goofy today, I can't seem to get on their website.

I like the potential of sharing bookmarks. I have referred a couple of people to this sight to try this already. I even went back and added more tags to my existing bookmarks. The key to doing this right, is to add the tags right away. It is so easy to say/think "later" and then it never gets done.

Thing 10 WIKIS

I like wikis. I never quite understood what they were and how they worked. The Common Craft Video explained it all very thoroughly. Now I just need to explore which website that offers free wikis would work best for me.

I am thinking this might be the perfect tool to set up a High School Class Reunion. Everyone can edit their own information.

Thing 9 ONLINE COLLABORATION TOOLS

Zoho vs. Google Docs.

I may be a bit biased, I have already been using Google Docs extensively for sharing documents with colleagues.

I have uploaded Excel documents to share with my Friends of the Library. I have created an online Google calendar for Cub Scout events. I created a sample presentation for online sharing. The Google presentation was easier to use than the Zoho one I thought. But, Zoho does have more editing features. I think I would still stay with Google, I am pretty engrained with them for iGoogle, Google calendar, Google Docs, Google Reader. So just for ease of not having another log in and subscription, I will opt for Google.

Click on the link to view my sample presentation.

Thing 8 ONLINE PRESENTATION

I like the Zoho idea creating an online "powerpoint" presentation. It has a few glitches I couldn't seem to work out. I put in a time for the slide show and wasn't able to clear it. So now the embedded video gets cut short. If I could just extend the days and have more time to figure all this out!

Thing 7 WEB COMMUNICATION

EMAIL: This one is not a problem for me. I am a heavy user of email at home and work. I have a Yahoo! account, Outlook at work, and gmail. I have had hotmail, I am not a real big fan of the hotmail format. I stopped using it, I thought the spam filters were inadequate and you got hit with too much extra junk.

IM: We are already utilizing AIM at work. I am ok with it. I feel a little tied to my computer sometimes. The tough thing about IM is there are so many different ones. I hate having so many subscriptions/accounts/passwords/etc...

TEXT MESSAGING: This is just not applicable at work. Right now use of cell phones is not allowed during school hours. With teenagers nothing else would get done! It would be useful at the college level where the student/patron is more responsible for the work getting done on their own.

WEB CONFERENCES: I have participated in some web conferences before for training on our new Destiny Card Catalog. They work out very nicely. It is still a bit of a hassle, scheduling it into the day and making sure all the technological aspects are in place and working and getting everyone in the conference. One new thing Kevin found is "Campfire". It is like IM, only more people can get in on the chat. I think it will work great for ongoing projects.

Thing 6 TRADING CARDS

Big Huge Labs is temporarily down, so I guess I will not play with Trading Cards right now. Onto Thing 7!!!!!

Thing 6 IMAGE CHEF

Thing 5.4 PUZZLES & FLICKER

OK, so you can make your photos look like jigsaw puzzles. I can't think of any practical applications for this at the HS Media Center.

Thing 5.3 Splashr

My Presentation

Create your own slide shows and post them on your blog page with Splashr!!!!

I am lovin' 23 Things!

Thing 5.2 SPELLING WITH FLICKER

Spelling with flickr is fun!!

Thing 5.1 BIG HUGE LABS

Big Huge Labs is kind of fun. Still trying to figure out how to get to all these pages without using the link from the 23 Things website. The best idea I can come up with is to bookmark them on deli.cio.us.

Thing 5 COLR PICKER

I am fumbling around with Thing 5 today. I couldn't figure out what to do with Clockr?

This beautiful, blue jellyfish photo was selected from the color wheel on Colr Pickr. It is from Flickr. I had a few problems actually getting it on my blog page. I am not sure if that is my bad or my inexperience on my MacBook. I have been encouraged by colleauges to "come to the Dark Side". As an original PC girl, I am still a bit resistant.

More posts to follow. Thing 5 has a lot of sub-things.

Thing 4 FLICKR

Flickr was kind of a tough one for me. I am working on a Mac right now, usually I am a PC girl. I had to find a photo uploader that actually worked. Once I did that, I just grabbed some photos from iPhoto.

I already had a subscription to Flickr from when it used to be Yahoo! Photos. I really like the ability to post and share photos via the web.

This is one thing I will continue to use.

Thing 4 FLICKR

Well, I finally figured out how to get the photo uploader for work on a Mac. I was already a member of Flickr, grandfathered in from Yahoo! photos.

Now I am figuring out how to actually use all the features. I want to scan in all my grandmothers old photos and be able to share them with the whole extended family.

I am so excited to finally be doing the 23 Things. I am learning so much stuff!!

Thing 3 RSS

Summer is flying by!!!

I figure I better get moving on my 23 Things. So Thing 3 is RSS. I started a google reader account. Which was easy, because I have already discovered igoogle and absolutely adore googledocs.

I subscribed to my own blog!! I hope that counts. It was hard finding blogs in the CMLE list that have been kept current.

On to Thing 4.

Thing 2 WEB 2.0 PERSPECTIVES

I also redid Thing 2. I watched the online video of the Murdoch University guy. First time around I didn't have the interest to watch the whole thing. It is worth 6 minutes of your time though, I recommend watching the whole thing.

Still Tryin'!!

I did Thing 1 again today. I really want to learn all this stuff. I think I already made a mistake on my blog though. My blog name "Live to read. Read to live." is different than my blog address. I will keep researching and maybe have to change something down the road.

23 Things on a Stick: TAKE 2

Well, here goes again. I was too busy the first time around to finish the 23 things. I think I only got to Thing 2 or 3. But my learning curve has been off the charts. I am constantly learning new technology things at work....and I just signed up for Facebook. So I will be able to see if that is useful or not. Most of the the 23 things are blocked at school, so when I am home this summer it will be nice to do this stuff with no internet filters at home.

AVATAR

You can now see what I look like in avatar form. It is pretty accurate, except maybe I am not that slim! As you can see, I have always loved libraries. I created this long before I worked in a library.....oops I mean Media Center.

President's Day

You just gotta love working at a school. The biggest bonus is you have the same schedule as your children. So as the rest of the world is working, I am at home, well....working. All of you stay-at-home moms know what I mean (It is not a picnic sitting on the couch and eating bon-bons and watching soap operas).

I don't know if anyone is actually reading this, but the only way to learn, is practice. OK, you can read the instructions too. See the name of the blog!

HAPPY MONDAY

Thing 1

Well, this is my first attempt at creating a blog.......OK, well 2nd attempt, but we won't go there. I am eager to learn and apply all about technology and its application to the media center.