THING #16

Janis Benefield the librarian at Stratford created a Wiki for a CATCHER IN THE RYE project that I used with my junior AP class. It provided a wonderful opportunity for my students to have the information for research, bacaground for the project and web links all in one place. After seeing the Wiki ideas and explanation videos, I can see other ways to use a Wiki if I can create one. One way would be to have students create trading cards about characters or elements of the novel. Another trading card idea would be to create cards on rhetorical devices. An additional idea would be to have student groups collaborate to comment on a book for reading groups that have been assigned to different novels. Students could edit the Wiki by adding information they found on web sites or blogs.

THING #15

Library 2.0 is the library of today's world. It requires using materials and tools from the web to access and create learning materials. It is a new way of thinking about research and finding information. I have discovered, self-discovery, that the web does provide a plethora of usable tools and information to access that information. The major obstacle to this, however, is be willing to find out how to access this information and know who the experts and reliable presenters of this material are. Library 2.0 not only provides the information, but the tools to access and manipulate the information to create a product which illustrates one's learning and allows one to share that learning with an audience of one's choice. Libraries need to shift into this 2.0 model. Instead of book the library will provide and organize materials for those wanting to access it. However, we cannot lose the wonderful function of the library, to provide reading of literature, the classics, and leisure reading materials. I am from the old school at this point and want to hold on to a book; however, I am sure that the future of this too will be computer generated on Kindles and the like.

THING #14

Using Technorati is a way to use tags to help find blogs on certain subjects, topics and issues. It is a way to see what individuals and experts have to say. If you want to find out about what others have to say on a topic or issue this is a way to search for blogs, posts about subjects you want to research or discuss with others. It is a way to bounce ideas off of a large group without actually being with them. It gives you ideas to use. It seems that looking using these different methods gives you a variety of posts. The tags seem to be a more efficent method on first glance. I did not have success with the key word search suggested, but I tried one of my own. The link "popular blog searches and tags" was not available; however, I did look at top 100 blog searches in a couple of topics and can see how this would lead to blogs on topics of interest.

THING#13

I am almost at information overload. I thing that I might bookmark all of the sites and tutorials, blogs, and information from 23 Things into delicious. I have been taking notes, however, bookmarking would make better sense. This would also allow me to share many of these bookmarked sites with others including my students. Best of it would help me recall the sites that I find. Using tags is the best method to name sites so they are easy to organize and find again once they are bookmarked. The way to to send these bookmarks to others is through the bookmarking site as delicious gives you options at the end of the bookmarking process. If the person is on delicious too he/she can view the bookmark. If not you can email or twitter the bookmark.

THING #12

1. Two important points about blogging are (1) That you should invite questions with your blog in order to get a response. It makes sense -- why else would you want to blog if you did not want people to respond to your blog. (2) The other important point is that as one blogs he/she should be humble and gracious. Material on the computer is so often misconstrued if it is not clearly stated .
2. The exercise which required me to respond to other bloggers was a difficult experience for me as it was my first time to respond to comments made on line by others. It was good to be required to respond to a blog as it allowed me to see that it is not that difficult especially if you have something in common with the blogger.
3. The use for my technology experiences this summer are to help me with my students during the next school year. I found interesting blogs on the use of satire as used as a theme in Huck Finn and also as a theme which runs through modern life. Another interesting blog had to do with philosophical quotes found in Mark Twain's writings.

THING #11

LibraryThing was a great cite for cataloging books I've read. I signed up and added more than 5 books once I got started. I checked out the tabs and looked at groups I could join - one reading YA literature and another group in my area. This is a good source to help find out about current books and what readers think about them. It is also a good place to discuss the books you have read. Sometimes when you finish a book you want to talk to someone else who has had your experience -- reading a book is a great experience which if you buy into the book truly involves you.

THING #10

Working with online image generators was fun. One of the links I found http://dummies.book.cover.txt2pic.com/ gave me an opportunity to make a DUMMIES BOOK cover. I also looked at other generators include the Trading Cards, cartoons with word bubbles and magazine covers. I can see many applications personally and in the classroom for these fun images.

It took some time to play with the DUMMIES cover making the words and getting an idea to fit the cover.