That. video. was. GENIUS.!!!!!!!! After I finished watching it, I immediately shared it with my pals on Facebook (and nobody will understand the genius) so then I sent it in a message to a fellow librarian pal on Facebook. Now SHE will understand the hysterics and truth of the Fair(y) Use Tale!
I think that I understand the point befind Creative Commons. Like they say in the example, if you are looking for a photo of a giraffe, you can type in "giraffe," click on the flickr tab, and I will see pictures of giraffes that the photographers have marked as free for me to use and adapt....basically, this is the same concept as the Fair(y) Use Tale. The creators took snippets of Disney works and amended them to tell a completely different tale, although that tale seemed to be pretty anti-Disney in terms of copyright laws, hence the need for the Creative Commons.
And...now I'm done.
These past few months have been a truly eye-opening, enlightening experience. I have enjoyed almost every minute of my time exploring 23 fresh teaching tools, and I have most certainly enjoyed blogging about them all! To my readers (ok, basically that's just my mom and a few kind librarians), thank you for following my travels through the web!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Week #9, Thing #22: eBooks
Ok, I have to admit it...I have been slacking. The last week of school was nuts and once I was out of school, all things library slipped completely (well, kind of) out of my head for a few weeks. But here I sit at school, having a work day, attempting to finish my 23 Things while the beautiful sun shines down on the 90 degree weather outside. Alas, I wish I was sitting outside with Harry Potter and a cold lemonade.
Instead, I am attempting to search the World eBook Fair for free downloads from Project Gutenberg. Unfortunately, it's telling me to come back between July 4 and August 4 for the Fair...so until then, I have no choice but to wait patiently for the next two weeks until I can search. But since I need to finish these Things by July 1, I've decided to explore other avenues for finding ebooks. My favorite is the online tour of the British Library's online gallery. I used to live in London and LOVE the British Library, but this is the coolest thing I have seen in months!!!!!! Jane Austen is one of my personal favorites, and being able to "turn the pages" of her history of England, seeing her handwriting and little drawings, is AMAZING. I love technology!
Another favorite was Lewis Carroll's original manuscript for Alice...all the beautiful detailed drawings and neat penmanship, including little page numbers in the upper corners. This is simply amazing. What a great resource for teaching primary documents, eBooks, or simply internet exploration. This one's a keeper!
Instead, I am attempting to search the World eBook Fair for free downloads from Project Gutenberg. Unfortunately, it's telling me to come back between July 4 and August 4 for the Fair...so until then, I have no choice but to wait patiently for the next two weeks until I can search. But since I need to finish these Things by July 1, I've decided to explore other avenues for finding ebooks. My favorite is the online tour of the British Library's online gallery. I used to live in London and LOVE the British Library, but this is the coolest thing I have seen in months!!!!!! Jane Austen is one of my personal favorites, and being able to "turn the pages" of her history of England, seeing her handwriting and little drawings, is AMAZING. I love technology!
Another favorite was Lewis Carroll's original manuscript for Alice...all the beautiful detailed drawings and neat penmanship, including little page numbers in the upper corners. This is simply amazing. What a great resource for teaching primary documents, eBooks, or simply internet exploration. This one's a keeper!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Week #9, Thing #21: Podcasts
My road to podcasts was not as smooth as I would have imagined. First of all, the "Yahoo: What is a Podcast" tutorial is broken, so I figured I could just go it with a blurred vision of podcasting. After I tried and failed to access the tutorial, I tried using some of the podcast directories suggested by the Library Learning 2.0 site with little success. The first and third options on the list are no longer usable sites, and I was stuck with the second choice, podcastalley.com. It seems like an easy-to-use site, but when I tried to access the Learn to Speak Italian podcast, it prompted me to download a player. Without any knowledge of the good v. bad players, I chose one at random, but the downloading directions were confusing. At this point, I was thoroughly frustrated.
Enter iTunes. I've had some bad experiences with downloading on my home computer, so even though I know that iTunes is a very well established and reputable, I've never used it and thought that I could use one of the other podcast players. Wrong! As soon as I downloaded iTunes, I realized that it would be so easy to use. I did a search for podcasts in the search results and came up with lots of great results, including a podcast on learning to speak Italian, perfect for my upcoming honeymoon!
In terms of library-related podcasts, I'm having a little trouble. I'm sure that there is a wealth of information and podcasts floating around out there somewhere, I just need to find it! I'm going to keep looking. I have found a few book review podcasts, but they are mostly for religious books, which will not help me much in buying materials for my middle school library. I will stay on the hunt and add the RSS feed when I find a good podcast. In terms of the entire experience...not one of the better orchestrated "things." But a fun idea, and lots of possibilities for libraries!
Enter iTunes. I've had some bad experiences with downloading on my home computer, so even though I know that iTunes is a very well established and reputable, I've never used it and thought that I could use one of the other podcast players. Wrong! As soon as I downloaded iTunes, I realized that it would be so easy to use. I did a search for podcasts in the search results and came up with lots of great results, including a podcast on learning to speak Italian, perfect for my upcoming honeymoon!
In terms of library-related podcasts, I'm having a little trouble. I'm sure that there is a wealth of information and podcasts floating around out there somewhere, I just need to find it! I'm going to keep looking. I have found a few book review podcasts, but they are mostly for religious books, which will not help me much in buying materials for my middle school library. I will stay on the hunt and add the RSS feed when I find a good podcast. In terms of the entire experience...not one of the better orchestrated "things." But a fun idea, and lots of possibilities for libraries!
Friday, May 29, 2009
Week #9, Thing #20: YouTube
Hey, hey, hey, what is going on here?!
YouTube is going on! I LOVE YouTube, I use it all the time. It's great for finding hysterical clips of the things mentioned, like commercials or old music videos, and wonderful things like "Conan the Librarian." I also find myself turning to YouTube to see news clips or check pop culture facts, so it really has many uses. I chose the video of "Saved By the Bell," a popular and wacky '90's teen TV show, because these were some of my earliest envisionings of high school.
I know a few teachers in our district who would love to use YouTube for instructional purposes, and only recently the tech support department changed our web privileges so that they could use it. Because it takes so much bandwidth, we have a lot of limits on streaming media. Options in libraries...our students would not be allowed to use YouTube on our school network, but perhaps public libraries could use it to promote short videos made about library services, etc.
YouTube is going on! I LOVE YouTube, I use it all the time. It's great for finding hysterical clips of the things mentioned, like commercials or old music videos, and wonderful things like "Conan the Librarian." I also find myself turning to YouTube to see news clips or check pop culture facts, so it really has many uses. I chose the video of "Saved By the Bell," a popular and wacky '90's teen TV show, because these were some of my earliest envisionings of high school.
I know a few teachers in our district who would love to use YouTube for instructional purposes, and only recently the tech support department changed our web privileges so that they could use it. Because it takes so much bandwidth, we have a lot of limits on streaming media. Options in libraries...our students would not be allowed to use YouTube on our school network, but perhaps public libraries could use it to promote short videos made about library services, etc.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Week #8, Thing #19: LibraryThing
LibraryThing is a pretty decent concept and site. While I don't think that I will ever take the time to catalog my own personal collection at home, I could see this being a good tool for work with kids in the library, in coordination with some kind of library blog, or a wonderful tool for small libraries or large private collections. This is one of those tools that kids could use for recommendations, projects, etc., and I'm sure that a lot of librarians are really hyped about it, but I just don't see myself using it a lot. I can see the advantages of being able to connect to other users who read similar titles, or discuss books, but I think I'll keep my Tuesday night book club, thank you very much.
On a positive note, it was very easy to use and add titles. I added a few middle school books that I've read this year and loved, including "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins, and there were several hundred other users who'd read the book and I was able to read a few discussions about it. If you haven't read it, it's DEFINITELY worth checking out!
On a positive note, it was very easy to use and add titles. I added a few middle school books that I've read this year and loved, including "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins, and there were several hundred other users who'd read the book and I was able to read a few discussions about it. If you haven't read it, it's DEFINITELY worth checking out!
Week #8, Week #18: Google Docs
Ohhh I love Google Docs!
I had heard about Google Docs in the past, and boy do I wish I had been familiar with these tools earlier this year! I don't have Office tools on my home computer, so doing anything besides the most rudimentary word processing was impossible, but it certainly is now. I like the fact that I save these documents to a "file" that I can access anywhere.
Also, these tools could have great possibilities for students who don't have computers at home or nearby. In my district, we have a program called eLocker that gives each student an online "locker" in which they can upload and save files for access anywhere. This is a great program, but if the student is like me and doesn't have Office at home, often times the files are not compatable, and he or she can't open files saved at school. Little Jenny works hard on a report at school, saves it to eLocker to continue work in the evening, and goes home only to find that she can't open the document because she doesn't have the correct word processing program on her home computer. Or, she has a Mac (we've had a few problems with Mac compatibility). With Google Docs, these problems are completely eliminated! Woooo hoo! An alternative to this problematic situation!
Also, I should say that I chose to explore Google Docs because I use Gmail and I also use Google Reader for my RSS feeds, so continuing with the Google family of products seemed easiest...and truly, it is VERY easy to use. I found it especially easy because the Google products truly have a similar feel and look to them, so if you use Gmail, you can use Google Docs. If you use Google Docs, you can use the reader, etc.
I had heard about Google Docs in the past, and boy do I wish I had been familiar with these tools earlier this year! I don't have Office tools on my home computer, so doing anything besides the most rudimentary word processing was impossible, but it certainly is now. I like the fact that I save these documents to a "file" that I can access anywhere.
Also, these tools could have great possibilities for students who don't have computers at home or nearby. In my district, we have a program called eLocker that gives each student an online "locker" in which they can upload and save files for access anywhere. This is a great program, but if the student is like me and doesn't have Office at home, often times the files are not compatable, and he or she can't open files saved at school. Little Jenny works hard on a report at school, saves it to eLocker to continue work in the evening, and goes home only to find that she can't open the document because she doesn't have the correct word processing program on her home computer. Or, she has a Mac (we've had a few problems with Mac compatibility). With Google Docs, these problems are completely eliminated! Woooo hoo! An alternative to this problematic situation!
Also, I should say that I chose to explore Google Docs because I use Gmail and I also use Google Reader for my RSS feeds, so continuing with the Google family of products seemed easiest...and truly, it is VERY easy to use. I found it especially easy because the Google products truly have a similar feel and look to them, so if you use Gmail, you can use Google Docs. If you use Google Docs, you can use the reader, etc.
Week #7, Thing #17: PA Curriculum Connections
I have requested permission to access a workspace!
Ok, update. I requested access, which I got a few days later. I posted a comment to the PBWiki under "Image Generators," and included some thoughts that I have on introducing these Web 2.0 tools as an alternative to playing computer games when trying to occupy students.
To view the comment, here is the link:
http://pacurriculum.pbworks.com/Image%20Generators%20and%20web%20award%20winners
Ok, update. I requested access, which I got a few days later. I posted a comment to the PBWiki under "Image Generators," and included some thoughts that I have on introducing these Web 2.0 tools as an alternative to playing computer games when trying to occupy students.
To view the comment, here is the link:
http://pacurriculum.pbworks.com/Image%20Generators%20and%20web%20award%20winners
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
