Thing # 13

Wow! I learned so much about social bookmarking and over the last week have found myself using delicious often. The tagging in Delicious is easy to use, it's just the tagging I do with my personal blog (note to self... I should go back and tag my posts in in this blog). I think that Delicious would be a super useful tool for the classroom. HOWEVER, that being said, I would want to create an account that is FOR SCHOOL ONLY. I think it would make research projects and other classroom assignments so much easier for students and I wouldn't have to worry so much about my students accessing inappropriate content. So, while I LOVE IT FOR THE CLASSROOM... it is unfortunate that teachers would need to create more than one account. I also LOVE that I can save a bookmark on my home computer and easily access it from my school computer.

I went and checked out digg. I think that digg seems more time intensive at the onset. I was excited to see that I could easily access other friends who use digg simply by connecting it with my facebook account. HOWEVER, I was SHOCKED when I learned that out of ALL my facebook friends... only 2 have digg accounts and there wasn't much that they had checked out on the site.

I can see and understand the use of Furl, but after spending so much time on Delicious and digg... I will have to admitt that it didn't seem to offer any bells and whistles that I would NEED that isn't offered in either of the above mentioned sites.

When I went to check out Magnolia, it told me that the site was closed until ummer 2009 (8-4-09 is when I went to check it out).

Thing #12

The assignment for Thing #12 in Library 2Play is to learning about commenting. I'm finding it humorous how much I'm reading about commenting rather than commenting, but I find the articles helpful. So far, I have found the TOP 10 post most helpful. I have to say that I really enjoy Blue Skunk's posts. He is a very thoughtful writer and one that seems to live by the you have to be a friend to have friends mentality. I do try and comment on other blogs, especially if they have take the time to read what I write. I find this especailly gratifying as a new mom. I love it when people comment on our family blog. My husband and I are over the moon excited about our baby girl and I love reading that family and friends are getting to see her grow up and find joy in her as much as we do. I am making it a goal starting now to begin commenting more on edublogs... I'm much more prone to comment on other mommy blogs, so edubloggers here I come!

One blog I read for pure mind candy is i hate green beans. I have been a bachelor watcher from the get go and found out about lincee's blog from a girfriend of mine. I love her since of humor and find myself looking forward to her blog post as much as the tv show! I encourage any bachelor or bachelorette watcher to go check her out!

I'll go and use this google tool to find a new blog to me and you. I can't wait to go read Thing #12 posts and find out what else the world is reading!

Thing #11

LibraryThing is interesting. I think something like this could be very helpful for people looking for good books and bookstore events. The one thing I wonder is how much this site has been used since the boom of facebook and the many different applications it has to recommend books to friends and share what you have read and are reading through that network. I am a member of a book club and look forward to sharing this find with the women in my group. We always have the longest andhardest disussions when we think about what to read next. Having so many recommendations readily avaliable will be super helpfull!

Thing # 10

Get your own photo sketch

Here is a photo I made using http://www.dumpr.net. When I tried to post directly from the site to Blogger I couldn't made it work, but I believe copying the codes and pasting should work. Let's see.. well, it worked. I learned to reduce the size so that it would fit in my blog window.

I also checked out http://www.comicstripgenerator.com. I think it would be fun to use this site to add to my flipcharts. The cute cartoons will grab kids attention for little reminders that they might otherwise not notice.

Thing # 9

I found the Google Blog search easier to use than the Blogline Seach tool. What I thought was interesting is how the technological tools that I have learned about so far have helped me streamline what information I find on the internet, however, I felt like these search engines sent me back to the overwhlemed vastness of information that can be found on the internet.
I didn't like that I had to register to use Blogline Search. I feel like I have registered for so many accounts during this learning experience and wonder.... where does all the information go? I used a few other searches from Library 2 Play and I don't think that I understand the usefulness of RSS feeds yet. I'm off to read other blog posts on Thing # 9.

Thing # 8

I had no idea what a RSS feed was and after watching the video I realized that I already use this function through my blog. Since I had already set up igoogle it was super easy to use Google Reader to follow my favorite blogs (Blogger adds them for you) and then subscribe or add my favorite websites. EXCELLENT!

Thing # 7

Google has taught me so much this morning and I'm hoping it has also added some to my quality of life!

I am intrigued to use the Google Alerts. I have set up an alert and look forward to checking daily to see what news it sends me. I opted for the Daily New Feed which I understand to mean that it will send me updates on my topic of choice only when there are internet reports.

I've tried to use google calendar once before to manage our every changing and busy schedules. Now that there are three of us, I'm going to give it one more try. I do wish it were more in-sync friendly with non-google account users. I love that I can have it pop right up on my new home page, i google. My world is EXPANDING! :)