Item 6 - Mash-ups and 3rd Party Sites

I like the trading card feature best. I can see so many possible uses for it. I made a trading card showing Lucky, one of the two red-earred slider turtles that live in our school habitat. I think the children would really enjoy making trading cards for planets, animals, folk heroes, invented super heroes, book characters, jokes/riddle cards, biographies, family members, pets, etc.

It looks like a project that could be done with collaboration amongst the classroom teacher, the librarian, and the technology teacher. One problem at my school is the lack of a color printer for teachers and students to use. Perhaps they have gotten more affordable. We'll have to look into it. There are so many cool pictures and images that students and teachers will want to print and utilize.

I would like to add the trading card to this blog, but I don't know how. I've saved it to my desktop until I can figure out how to move/copy it into the blog. It's very frustrating - clearly it can be done. I have admired other bloggers trading cards. It eludes me.

And then, just when I'm giving up, since it's almost 2 am and I'm sooo impatient - it works and the trading card appears. I don't know that I could do that transfer again, but I'm happy it finally came through!

#5 Flicker

I have encountered a couple of logistical problems completing this assignment. The laptop I'm using has tiny print and I can't figure out how to enlarge it. My eyes can read this, but it's a strain. I started this entry earlier and somehow lost it with a single keystroke. What a gift. Next it took longer than expected because after I selected the picture I wanted to post to my blog, I realized that I hadn't signed in to the Flickr site. Trying to sign in, I discovered that I have at least two yahoo accounts - that doesn't surprize me. I probably have more accounts that I've long forgotten. Then I had to reset my password, since I couldn't come up with the correct one. It took me a while to navigate back to the creative commons. Once there I found several great images. I was going to save the picture to the My Pictures folder, but I couldn't find that. So I saved it to the desktop,and surprized myself by locating the image when I needed it to add to this entry. I do like the beautiful picture of the bluebonnets. I know we'll talk about the Texas Bluebonnet list of books, so I can certainly use an attractive photograph like this in the library. Working through these assignments just takes time and patience. More time if you're not a detail-oriented person.

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Getting back on track

I started this 23 things tutorial back in March with good intentions, but then I got busy with other things and got off task. I am really pleased to have the opportunity to get back on track. I want to improve my technology skills. I went to a workshop at Region IV in early June on podcasting and using 2.0 and it got me motivated all over again. It was a very hands-on workshop. I actually made an audio podcast and then 2 video podcasts using Photostory 3 during the class.

Now it's only two and a half weeks past that class and I'm having trouble recalling just how I accomplished that. I did have help from the instructor and the other students at my table. I think I work best when I have a real person to call upon at those times that I get stuck. Left to myself I tend to get impatient and frustrated far too quickly. I really do want to incorporate technology into my lessons and into the activities that our students participate in at school.

I want to learn how to do online booktalks that students can access from their homes or their classrooms. I want to use our online resources more effectively with our teachers and students. I want our students to have the opportunity to create new projects and products using the 2.0 technology. I want to create a sense of fun and excitement in our students as they continue to learn and grow and use the resources in our library.

I am hoping this will catch me up to the point where I can join the SBISD online project. I would like to work through the 23 things over our summer break. It should be easier now that school is out and we have a little bit more free time to pursue areas that interest us.

RSS - Week 4 task

Doing the 23 things is very time consuming and confusing. I still have trouble coming up with all the passwords, user names, and email addresses necessary to work online. I find this type of activity eats up time. I've spent four hours on this lesson and I don't know that I've learned all that much. Too much time spent getting to a site, and then fumbling around trying to figure out what comes next.

I've read that many Americans now get their news online - but that's not going to be me. I prefer sources such as the newspaper and the local television news. I don't even care for CNN. It might be an age thing, but I don't like the slick, superficial, and often biased news that is found on cable and online. I looked at Yahoo's RSS blogs that you can subscribe to and I couldn't find one that I wanted. I'd just be deleting them as they clogged up my email. So that was kind of discouraging. But I'm going to persevere - I want to improve my technology skills. Although I'm still amazed so many people find so much online to occupy themselves. I think of my computer as a tool to accomplish work or locate information - I don't think of it as entertainment.

adding the avatar

It's probably very good for me to be working on this 23 things project. I managed to move the avatar to my blogsite today. I created an avatar last week, but I couldn't get it moved. Today I couldn't remember my yahoo account information, so I had to start over. Eventually, I created an avatar again, and with only moderate frustration, managed to move it to my website.

I find it truly aggravating to try and keep up with and remember all the different passwords, user names, website addresses and special codes that you need to access the internet. Each site has its own rules about what codes are okay, and I end up with way too many "secret codes" and sign in data to keep up with.

Another frustration involves following the given onscreen directions. It always seems as if the directions I need to complete a task or solve a problem are on another page, not where I can read and follow them as I carry out the task sequentially. I have to write them down or try and recall what to type in and what to click on , and my memory is like a sieve. I'm finding that I have a very short patience level - I'm working on improving that too.

Actually it's very nice to have free lessons online to help computer users become more competent. It just seems to take more time than I really want to spend to accomplish each task. I don't want to stumble and fumble around. I want to get in and get out and get onto other pursuits. But that's not realistic. It's going to take time, patience, and persistence if I want to learn new things and improve my computer skills. So I'll keep plodding along.

23 things, thing 1

The hardest thing of the 7 1/2 traits is following through to carry out the work - the implementation. The easiest thing is planning what I should or need to do.

I firmly believe we should all be life long learners. Discovering new skills and passions give excitement and interest to our everyday lives. I've been taking classes or training of one type or another for over forty years. I'll always be a student.

Starting a blog

Step one of learning new technology: learning how to set up a blog. I don't have much experience with blogs. They seem very self indulgent. Why should anyone care what I think? Still, I do wish to build my technology skills, so I will follow the 23 steps path.