Week 3 - #5

I hope it isn't driving anyone nuts but me, that I jump around. I try to assess how much time an item is going to take and match that with the time available. The aim of this task was to post a picture directly through Blogger. VERY easy.

This is my attempt to make you all jealous. This is Playa Blanca in Panama. I was there in 2005 and am headed back there in 8 days. My father worked on the canal when I was a young child and he enjoys going back - mainly for the tarpon fishing. I oblige by helping him with the travel arrangements and then sitting in the shade with a good book while he catches dinner.

Week 5 - Online image generators

I tried playing with the Cartoon Generator. While it looks like it could be fun, the download time was excessive even with a dedicated DSL line. Does anyone know what the copyright ramifications are? There were Disney cartoons that you could modify. Did Disney give the rights for that? I find it hard to imagine since they tightly control their products.
All of the image generators that I experimented with could have very creative uses in the classroom. But, and I hate to keep saying this - really I do, they would never fly in my district. There are far too many questionable links and advertisements on the sites. Before filters were mandated, I was at the elementary level and managed to control the links that students went to through fear and intimidation ;-) Now that I have been at the junior high level for the last six years, I can see how necessary (even tho' it frustrates me no end) those filters are. This age group has very little impulse control and fear and intimidation when they are mostly bigger than I am doesn't work.
Image Chef was fun, but would easily be abused at the jhs level.

Week 4 - RSS feeds

Sorry to have been away so long. Somehow, despite routine use of antibacterial hand cream, I managed to get the flu - guess viruses just don't recognize that brand of voodoo that says anything with "anti-" as a prefix should apply to them as well.
I did manage to get on Bloglines and set up feeds for 11 of my favorite librarian blogs. I can see how this will save me time instead of calling up each one. I knew full well that it would, and I should, but like cleaning out the kitchen catch-all drawer, it is just something I never got around to. Thanks for the nudge.
In browsing through some of my favorites, I did find a good idea posted by Doug Johnson (who is always full of good ideas) for Flickr. He says:
"Last year I wrote about Fastr, a game that uses Flickr images. "It loads ten images that all share a common tag, one by one, and you guess what the tag is. When you guess right, the tag will turn blue, and you'll get points. The faster you guess, the more points you get." I haven't looked at it for awhile, but Joyce's post alerted me to some updates. Now you can play Fastr in German, Spanish, or French! What a great way to build vocabulary...IF you are good at getting inside people's heads to guess how they'll tag."

I liked the advanced search in Topix.net. I felt like I could refine the search best in this product. I tried searches for topics that classes are now doing and liked the results best with this service.

School Library and Classroom Ideas:
I can see how setting up a news RSS feed would allow you to customize content for student projects. I will need to try it to see if any of services can get by our overly zealous filter. Right now I could set one up for students who are researching Darfur and another for a sustainable agriculture project.

Week 3 - Flickr Font

FlickrFont (http://ghill.customer.netspace.net.au/flickrfont/) is a mashup that allows you to create word art using images from Flickr to replace dull text elements in a web page. It can either be static or dynamic. I have copied the code and am going to try to paste it into my school website to see what happens. So much of the image world is not available to us at school, that it will be interesting to see if this works. I love adding graphical elements to projects and I am sure students would really like using this for their own work.
I also played around with Magazine Cover in FD's Flickr Toys. That could make an interesting school project. Not only could it be printed out and used for an actual magazine that students create, but the cover itself could be a project, much like a trading card, ie. what would a magazine cover look like for the literary character Thidwick the Moose, Hermoine Granger, Babar, Paddinton Bear, etc?

Week 2 - Adding the avatar

Yahoo's avatar maker was having tecnical difficulties, so I went to http://www.tektek.org/dream/ instead. Like any tech "toy" you could get lost for hours playing around. I still don't understand the lure of having an avatar and and after creating and posting it, I took it off theblog. Perhaps it is my aversion to having my picture taken that extends to even having any image that represents me. Found a nice picture of Irma Pince. That will do for the time being...

Managing student security in 2.0

I am currently running an online bookclub using blogging software and hoping that it stays "under the radar" of my district. There are inherent dangers for both the district and the students in using 2.0 applications and teachers are liable for the results. The district is concerned about student privacy, appropriate content, and student safety vis a vis predators and bullies. I have so many safeguards on my blog that it barely functions as such. The students have to have signed parental permission. The blog can only be accessed by registered users. The postings are made under fictional pseudonyms and the postings are moderated and do not appear until I have approved them. Sure takes most of the fun out of it.

Week 1-Library 2.0 test drive

I have been very impressed with the CSLA version of Library 2.0 so far. My main concern is that it will not be able to be used on the job by many of us. Most 2.0 tools such as blogs and wikis are blocked in my district. I wonder how true that is across the state. Are there any reports on that?