Thing #8

What do you like about RSS and readers? I like that I can view my favorite sites without all the advertising and other distracting material, and they are all in one place. It saves a lot of time.

How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life? I can subscribe to websites that I want my students to use in research or projects. I can also use it as a tool to teach students how to search the web. In my personal life, like I said, it definitely saves time.

How can libraries/teachers/administrators use readers or take advantage of this new technology? It can be used in libraries and by teachers and administrators to list favorite websites that they search often for educational information and products. It can also be used to set up websites ahead of time that you want your students to search so that don't have to weed through the vast number of sites that come up in a regular search engine.

Bron-wyn

thing #7

I played with Google docs and Google Scholar. I chose Google docs because my team for the final presentation asked if I used it. They wanted to use it to share the information we are collecting for our presentation. I had not used it yet, so I thought I better get on board. I like that I can save information here and share it with my group. This is perfect for collaborative projects for our students. They can access it via the internet which makes it easier for them to work on projects from home as well as while they are at school. I also checked out Google Scholar. What I like about this is that it searches more scholarly material, similar to subscription online databases. I don't like to send students out into the world wide web without direction, and sometimes that what it is like for them when they use the regular search engines. If we can give them more direction and narrow their searches, they will produce better products. I think Google Scholar help achieve this goal.

Bron-wyn

Thing #6

I am finally back to playing. I love the trading card feature that you recommended and created my own trading card. I can see the potential use in the library (or the classroom) for exploring authors or famous people from history or current events and having students create a trading card. They could then share there cards with each other and learn from one another. It could also be used as a getting to know you activity done in the library or in the classrooms. Here is my trading card:

Trading card created using

http://bighugelabs.com/deck.php

Thing #5

Flickr is pretty cool. I think my husband has an account. He's an amateur/hobbyist photographer. He has a group from church that shares their pictures. I definitely see the usefulness of Flickr: Creative Commons site for teachers and librarians. So many pictures!


I love the Beatles, so I had to download this picture. Now why wasn't adding my Avatar as easy as adding this picture? Hmmm...


Bron-wyn

Photo retrieved from Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/fmclean/4722705559/

Thing #4

Yay! I'm registered and can play. This is fun and kind of addicting.

Bron-wyn

Thing #3: Creating my blog

Creating my blog was fairly simple. I was able to follow the directions and click on all the right buttons to create my blog. Creating my Avatar was pretty easy, also. Adding my Avatar was intense. It took me a long time, but I finally got it done. Whew!

Thing #3-Going back to question in Thing #2

Of the 7 1/2 habits of a lifelong learner, I find that habits 1 and 2 are the easiest for me. I can easily see what I want to accomplish, set goals to get there, and jump right in by taking responsibility for my learning whether it be signing up cake decorating classes or dancing in my very first dance recital at the age of 30-something (I did both of those this year). What I find most difficult are habits 3 and 4 (viewing problems as challenges and confidence). I usually go through stages (much like the grieving process) when a problem arises. First, I get frustrated and tell someone about my troubles. Second, I panic and have an emotional melt-down because I can't figure out how to fix the problem or go around. Third, I realize how ridiculous I am acting and tell myself to get over it. Finally, I move on, and most of the time everything turns out just fine. About the lack of confidence, I usually have plenty when I am goal setting and planning my strategy to accomplish the goal. My confidence begins to slip when I realize how daunting the tasks truly are. Then I get it back when I realize that I am smarted and more talented than I give myself credit. After I get past habits 3 and 4, the rest come fairly easily, and I begin to enjoy the task at hand.