Image Generators

Yes, generating and working with images/photos/graphics. What fun. I experimented with Flickr Toys and I love it. Every teacher knows the importance of digital photography. Its a great way to capture lessons, kid work, special resource speakers, field trips, etc. Kids love to take pictures and can share their knowledge of concepts and curriculum through digital images. Even little ones can make counting and alphabet books of their own with a digital camera. I make so many classroom books using photos. The students write about speakers and field trips and the images keep them alive even after the fact. I add photos all year to my timeline and days in school which also keeps the students remembering what's been taught and explored all year. Flickr is awesome. It's a great tool for uploading and organizing and sharing photos. Story starters, making cartoon directions for others to follow, generating images for newletters and bulletin boards, all great ideas for digital images. I had fun making a name badge and captioning one of my photos. You can also make calendars with your own images, (great gift for parents...), billboards, slideshows, art cubes, collages, mosaics, magazine covers (think about the literacy instruction there!) jigsaw puzzles, maps and much more. Check out
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/badge.php
which works directly with flickr and your account. Have some image fun!

Best research/resource site

When you have time check out this link on my blog on my favorite sites. It has so many resources, an easy click away, in one place for teachers, students, librarians, and plain ordinary people! It is organized by: dictionaries; teacher references, (math glossary, Mark Twain quotes); library references, (historical text archives, KidsClick which if you've never used is MOST AWESOME!); just for fun, (unique profanity, very very long words); health care, student references, (homework help, fact monster); niche sites, (highly specialized materials and facts, video conferencing, glossary of jewels with beautiful pictures); search engines, open source sites, (open library, user generated catalog of over 13 million books); internet computer references, (glossary of terms); consumer research and public info, (Kelly's blue book, seat guru for best airplane seats, Zillow for loan and mortgage info); and news and pop culture (Broadway database relating to actors, directors, shows and sports almanac). This and so much more! Save some time, bookmark this site! :-)

videojug: U Tube has met it's match

Wow! This is a wonderful place to visit, learn from, and keep returning to! Check out http://www.videojug.com/ and see more videos than you have time in your life to listen to. They have been in business since 2006 and have profiles of their experts, and reliable information in a "how to", "ask the expert" format. I saw "how to make a solar powered USB charger, how to secretly record a conversation, how to use iPhoto, how to create a DVD slide show" and there are so many more about any/every topic you can imagine:
Computers
iPods, Zunes & MP3 Players
Downloading
Viruses, Hackers & Spam
Make Your Own Movie
Gadgets & Home Entertainment
Mac OS: Programs & Tips
Text Messaging
Internet
Digital Photography
PC: Programs & Tips
Social Networking
Video Games
Create A Website
All About Emailing
Inventions
Cell Phones, PDAs & iPhones

On their website they claim: "VideoJug has grown into the world’s most comprehensive library of free factual video content online. Our professionally-produced, high definition videos cover every conceivable topic and the site is the definitive online 'encyclopaedia of life'." They search all over the world for their experts and professionals. They are based out of the UK and US and produce thousands of new videos every month. Their mission: "...to be the definitive source for credible answers and wisdom for every conceivable aspect of human life. No matter who you are, no matter what your problem may be, VideoJug is here to help, inform and inspire" is most altruistic. I learn so much better by watching and listening and trying and this gives me a multimodal learning tool for myself and my school. Check it out and enjoy learning!

Delicious isn't just for food!

What is del.icio.us?  I could equate it to food on the Internet!  It's a social bookmarking site, easy to explore, with many wonderful uses.  It reminds me of portaportal, which I use and share great links with my parents.  I can see me using del.icio.us to find the best sites, and using porta portal to share with my parents off my web page.

You store and share the bestt bookmarks on the web instead of in your browser with del.icio.us.  I like that I can share them with friends and keep my network private.  It makes sense to share great teacher sites with my teacher friends, great religious sites with my family, great exercise information sites with my gym workers.  I like that you can search other people's bookmarks which saves time.  Why re-invent the wheel?  If someone else uses/likes, why not use too?  This site is so easy to organize, tag the bookmarks, keep like together.  Its also a cinch to add tags to your own del.icio.us site using a click of a button.  That would definately help me if I was writing/researching an article.  I could see others using it like a "Christmas/birthday gift wish list!  Hey, check out what you can buy me!"    I can also see this site helping keep me organized when planning a trip.  It would keep all the information together as I research where to stay, what to see, how to get there etc.  And when I retire, and have time to cook, it would be very useful for cataloguing recipes!  What a great tool.  

The tutorial is excellent and gives Mac users special places/programs to use to make it work well.  There are also dead bookmark checkers to help check automatically for broken links.  That is most useful.  I hate getting excited and finding that the link doesn't work anymore.  Want to tell the people who read your blog about your del.icio.us network?  Use the network badge to do that and they can link right up.  Another cool option is using subscriptions.  You can watch all your favorite tags in one place.  After you add a tag to your subscriptions del.icio.us watches for everyone else's bookmarks with that tag and automatically delivers them to your subscriptions page.  Wow!  Set it up and watch it work for you!  Can't wait to further explore and add to my del.icio.us network.

Podcasting

Well, I'm trying. I'm trying to understand podcasting and RSS feeds and audio files and video files and MP3! I couldn't get the PC directions to work on my Mac. Go figure...not everything is compatible. Though my friend says why even try? Mac's make it super easy! I do like easy, but I also truly want to understand what is happening and sometimes too easy doesn't explain it with enough detail for me. For my class assignment I did a book talk using GarageBand. I imported song, added my voice script, cut/pasted/moved/changed/did it again, and got my final product. It is in a file only those with Garageband can open so I understand saving it in iTunes and converting it to a MP3 file so many people can have access to it. What I created was an audio file. I could have added video and created a video file. I find these files a wonderful tool for book talks to students and other staff, highlighting certain text, authors, etc. I also think these audio files might help someone find things in the LMC, try a new AV machine, or use the card catalog. With GarageBand you can voice directions with screen shots and teach programs and technique on the computer. Many choices to help others. I think posting these audio files to my website might be useful. I can attach them so they can be downloaded or just post them to be heard. However....I understand to make a podcast, truly a real one, you have to subscribe. My friend subscribes to some tech podcasts and they automatically download into iTunes as updated or changed. I don't think I would ever need to post weekly changes to audio files, would I? If you have some LMC ideas to share, please do. I'm still not 100% about this concept. :-)

Second Life Education

Wow!  I can't believe I just saw several videos on "Second Life Education", a 3D virtual world just ready for students to engage in interactively and learn.  Evidently it's being investigated and adopted for use by some higher learning institutions (Ohio University has a second life campus).  I saw role playing on Renaissance Island, during Shakespeare's time, playing gladiators in Roma, and much more.  You are the 3 d character, going through the places and events.  Scavenger hunts can help with new vocabulary and working those problem solving skills.  There are replicas of places you only dream of visiting, like the Sistine Chapel or inside a Dell computer.  YOU ARE THERE, though virtually.  How cool!  There's a virtual sandbox where you experiment with building and creating 3 D objects and buildings.  You can even connect and communicate with people and feelings different than your own.  Imagine walking in a Schizophrenics shoes?!  There's no ESL problem, no language barrier, and it promotes using the interests and passions of others to learn about the world around them.  You interact and engage with their content.  You learn through this interaction.

I'm blown away.  I could never in a million years picture standing in the Sistine chapel, or watching a gladiator fight.  In this 3D world, you are there.  What a way to learn.  I do believe it's more fun than listening to a lecture.  Even more fun than watching a movie, since it's interactive and somehow you move, go, and do things in this virtual world.  It reminds me of the holographic rooms in Star Trek, where they would go relax, have fun and they felt like they were actually in the place of their dreams when they weren't.  This sounds like you might really feel like you are in Rome, though you are in your classroom with your computer.  I want to do more investigating into this new technology.  The impact in the classrooms would be fantastic.  I've always been a constructivist/hands on teacher.  This would take that approach even further, I think.  What a way of learning.  I hope to be able to try it some day. :-)

Let's begin

Well, welcome to my latest attempt at life-long learning: blogging. It's all new to me! I believe I attempt life-long learning frequently. I have to stay certified at the gym with classes, workshops, new choreography; I have to stay certified as a teacher with many classes, staff development, workshops, and I'm getting my masters in Library Science. Whew! Enough learning already! Sometimes I think my brain hurts but here I am again, trying to discover new technologies. This online tutorial I believe will be very helpful and I'm excited to try!