Thing #13

I can see how del.icio.us can be useful. I am always wanting to save ideas and other things to my computer but always end up with folders all over the place. Using del.icio.us can help organize an eclectic mix of saved things in one easy place. Tagging definitely helps finding those favorite things again. It will take some gettung used to though. I've never been that organized or been that fixated with it.

Thing #12

I found using Rollyo easy to use. I typically don't search the internet for information other than the top stories in the news, sports and weather. I do find myself wondering who someone is when I'm watching a film or like to look up fiction authors so I created a short search engine for looking up people who are in film or write fiction books. Sometimes I like to find out about real people of note. My lookitup1 search engine has a couple of databases that give me this information.

Thing#11

I found Library Thing quite interesting. I can see how it can be a great place to spend some time. I may not be in the 50 largest library category but I do have several hundred books at home that I've read. I never have had the urge to sell them to Half Priced Books although that's where I do a lot of my shopping. I can't seem to part with my books. I guess I just like to look back at them as trophies or maybe have a more physical representation of how many I have read. Library Thing can also be a neat supplement to this idea. I was a bit overwhelmed by the idea of cataloging all of my books. I do not have that much free time, except maybe in the summer. I did see the CueCat tool for scanning books. I would very likely get this as it would make this job much easier and it costs surprisingly little. I can see this as a tool in the school library. One could start a book club or a peer book review in the library. Library Thing could facilitate this idea. I have not found any groups that interest me yet but I am still looking.

Thing #10

Be careful. This is my personal bodyguard. she's very protective! I created this with Comic Strip Generator . There are so many possibilities with image generators. I did not know that there were such sites and for free too! I wonder what the copyright issues are though. I'm assuming that the site has permission to use the characters or am I wrong in that assumption? One can add likenesses of actual trademarked characters such as the Simpsons or Bugs Bunny. I can see a teacher making a class project more fun by allowing the students to create such images. They don't have to be silly though. A student might put himself next to the Eiffel tower for geography class. The possibilities are endless.

Thing #9

While Syndic8.com has a home page that is hard on the eyes, I found that the result page was quite useable. I think Feedster is out of business. Google Blog Search and Technorati are probably the two most used. Technorati is better for categories but Google Blog Search is probably faster. They are all kind of confusing at first but that’s just because the concept is new to me. I think that less is “more” for some of the sites. I liked Edublogs' award winners. This is a good place to find some interesting blogs. I found The tempered radical under the “Best teacher” blog category cool. It can provide insight for fellow teachers, students and especially administrators.

Thing #8

I do like how it RSS feeds and newsreaders can bring news to you quickly and efficiently. One can scroll through a bunch of news and information interests without the more time consuming internet search and open window/multi-tasking. I personally am not a news “junkie,” so I don’t see myself getting much use out of it. But it’s still nice to have just a click away. I can, however, see it being used in the library as source of information. One can use it for research of current events or ideas/opinions on subjects. I definately see how a librarian can use it to monitor other librarians blogs for new and innovative ideas for the library.

Thing #7

I did not realize that Google was so comprehensive and user friendly. No wonder they are doing so well. I can see people using Google as their basic platform from which to access and manipulate information from home or work. I created a personal iGoogle. It was very easy to do and I can have a bunch of personalized information available to me immediately. I do have a MyYahoo page but it doesn’t have as much of a user friendly interface. Google calendar is even easier to use than Outlook. I like to “next four days" feature for quick reference. A friend of mine uses Google calendar to send reminders or cancellations of our pick-up Ultimate Frisbee games on Saturday mornings. Pretty Cool!