Congratulations

I think I am now "officially" finished. However, I know that I will continue popping back into the site for as long as I can as there are lots of great tips and links. I will go through it again as I know that I will continue to find something new.

I was surprised at how much I already did know and use or have used, however, I learned something every time I logged on. I have set some goals as I found what areas I need to learn more about. So thanks for that. It was good to be "forced" to use some of the Web 2.0 tools as I am a creature of habit and tend to stick to the same things.

Thanks very much!

#22 Ebooks & #23 Audiobooks

Ebooks and audio books both have a place in education as they can allow teachers to differentiate by providing another way of sharing information!

Audio books are great for long drives! Audio books have been used in education for a while now.

Isn't Kindle a tool for downloading ebooks? Amazon is banking on ebooks as the next big thing. I think they have 90000+ titles to choose from and are building their collection. I can see me using something like kindle because you can store a lot of books in it.

Right now I think that there are some issues regarding International Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights for ebooks (with the EU) that I think need to be ironed out but once they are addressed, then I think ebooks will be used mainly when reading for pleasure. I think that an interactive tool will need to be developed before students can use ebooks like they would normally use a textbook. One such tool - Kindle failed to win students over during a recent test at Princeton University.

#21 Online Video

Students love TeacherTube and YouTube. There are some great videos on there but also some rubbish.

I picked this video because I love picture books and Patricia Polacco is one of my favourite children's book author/illustrator.

"Listen, Learn, And Grow": Liz Shanks Reads GINGER AND PETUNIA By Patricia Polacco.

BTW - Not sure how to place the video inside my blog using the copy and paste code for the "Embeddable Player." so hyperlinked it!

**Update - When I viewed my blog, I noticed that I embedded the

video without meaning too. It was so easy!

For some reason, when writing this post, I had quite a few

problems with the font!

#20 Podcasts

Podcasts are a great tool to use with students. They love them and are easy to use.

We used to do a lot of these in my former job but then we moved to vodcasts.

A little different but sort of related - We also used Marvin to make sharing information a little more interesting. It was fun. Not sure if schools can use Marvin now as we were just trialling it and it wasn't open to all schools. I haven't worked the place where we used Marvin for over a year so am not sure what the latest is.

#19 Rollyo

Now this one was completely new for me. I had not even heard or thought that it was possible to create your own search engine.

It was incredibly slow to load or do anything. Took forever! Tried other sites and they were working fine. It must use a lot of memory or something and as my computer is so old a message telling me that my virtual memory is too low came up.

I have bookmarked this site and definitely will check it out on a different computer (if I can). I was able to look at one other persons Rollyo - the Food and Dining one. Found some shopping lists and recipes using mushrooms!

It would be important to keep updating your Rollyo with the latest and best websites otherwise it would become old and stale.

It is a great idea but was disappointed at how slow it was.

#18 Wikis

The Commoncraft video is great for explaining what a wiki is and how to use it.

I also really like the BookLovers Wiki. It shows how to use it with maximum collaboration and the reviews seem like they were high quality too! What a great idea.

I have bookmarked many of the items we were asked to look at as there were many great ideas on how to use wikis in education. Not sure about Curriki - I think it would take a bit of time to sift through everything to find something suitable.

#17 Delicious

I used Delicious for uni. It was great because I could easily find links to other papers etc on the topics I was studying.

I do need to get better at tags. I am a bit slack and at organising my bookmarks.

I like Diigo because you can highlight and add sticky notes.

#16 Stay informed - Subscribe to some blogs

I just added a heap of blogs etc to my Google Reader page. So quick, so easy! Now I just need to time to read them all!

The How to make your RSS feeds pop! will be interesting reading.

I guess because TeacherLibrarian Ning is a social networking type page it doesn't have a RSS feed? I eventually did find one on the page (it was in latest activity?) and added it to Google Reader. I had to scroll down a lot? Did I miss it up top? I will be curious to see what I receive.

#15 - RSS Feed

I love RSS feeds. They are an easy way to receive the latest information/posting from a site without having to check it all the time. Great timesavers! I haven't used my Google page before to do that and it was very easy to do!

BTW - the first video tut didn't work for me but the second one did.

#13 & #14 - Get social with...MySpace and Facebook

I decided to do one post for both of these as I am not a huge fan of the social networking sites. I do acknowledge that they are good tools for promoting what is going on in the library!

I am happy to see that people are starting to become smarter about how they are using it. The articles/information teaching how to use Facebook safely are good resources, something that we can share with students.

BTW - I do have a Facebook site (have had one for a while) but have the privacy set on the highest it can possibly be. I keep it mainly because I use it to email people, however, I share my personal email account with them ASAP.

Giant Puppet on Big Pineapple

Giant Puppet on Big Pineapple
Originally uploaded by Kim Dove

This photo is just great!
Not sure what this project is but it will be fun to investigate and find out more!

The Concrete Landscape

The Concrete Landscape
Originally uploaded by Rossco ( Image Focus Australia )

How fabulous is this photo!

Flower power

Flower power
Originally uploaded by jpongskie

Just wanted to add some colour and beauty to my blog!

#12 - Store photos online with Flickr

It was incredibly easy to upload photos. The hardest part was deciding which one to use!

I really like VoiceThread. It is a great, fun way to share information. Shame that Blackboard or Moodle can't do something like that!

#11 LibraryThing

I love LibraryThing. I love the tags and find them useful for when I am looking for ideas for different books on different topics.

#10 Image generators

This one was a fun one; however, I was not successful in creating anything as my computer is so old it just kept crashing! I gave up in the end but have bookmarked the ones I liked to try again another day, when I finally buy a new computer!

I would have to be careful what I recommended for students to try out as some of the advertising or images on some of the sites were a bit "adult". However, I would like to share this with students as they could have a lot of fun creating different images etc and adding them to their work.

#9 Virtually Online

I love the idea of virtual worlds and am always amazed about how popular they are.

Some things I have learned about creating a successful virtual world are:

1. Allow time for students to master how to make their avatar move, talk etc in a virtual world. Do this before officially starting a course.

2. Establish rules of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.

3. Spend time creating a community with the group before asking for opinions etc.

4. Encourage those who might not feel comfortable contributing by asking questions or contacting them off group to see how they are going.

#8 iGoogle

iGoogle is very easy to use. The gadgets were fun. I know I am using it superficially so am not sure how to apply it to work? I do like how I have now created a page where I can easily see/find the links/items that interest me and that I go to often. I am finding that I am getting used to a different language and sometimes I am not sure what things are called.

While I find the tools all very easy to use, I know I will need a lot of time to become comfortable and competent with them so then I can work out how to apply them to a primary school setting. I usually teach the little ones and the schools I have worked in usually have other platforms for sharing information (with children, parents, admin, staff and visitors). Right now these tools just seem more like social tools.

Google as a workplace? Not sure if it is for me! However, I do like how they challenge people to think outside the box, which is why it is such a dynamic place!

# 5, 6, 7 Google Docs, Maps and Books

I spent some time today playing and looking at Google Docs, Maps and Books. I know that I will need to play/look some more as I am not sure about the following:

• How is Google maps different from Whereis?
• Would I need to use Google Docs when I have access to and use Blackboard or Moodle?
• Google Books has GREAT images for covers of books and access to all or part or no text but I am not sure how it would necessarily be more useful than Library Thing.

It will be good to continue playing with the Google tools to see what else they have to offer!

Completely unrelated to Google applications but how do I fix the time as I did not post this message at 2:08am!

#4 Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is interactive and social. It allows users to share and collaborate.

I do wonder about privacy and people sharing too much!

Is there such a thing as Web 3.0? If so, what is it and how is it different to Web 2.0?

#1, 2, 3 About this program, Create a blog & Let us know.

Hi

The first time I tried to do this an error message came up, so I decided to leave it for a couple of days.

I had no problem with creating a blog today - i.e. no error message. The hardest part was finding a name that was available!

Happy blogging everyone.

BTW - updated this post on Sep 01.

Am looking forward to learning about the different Web 2.0 tools.

I think I was able to let you know that I have started my blog as it is on the participant's list and I received a comment! Thanks!