My blog fish are easy and fun to feed. These are real fish temporarily living in the library. They are a prize for our Read Across America guess the fish contest. They are active and noisy and already trained to come to eat when I approach the bowl. I just may need to get an aquarium when they leave on Friday.Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Real Fish in the Library
My blog fish are easy and fun to feed. These are real fish temporarily living in the library. They are a prize for our Read Across America guess the fish contest. They are active and noisy and already trained to come to eat when I approach the bowl. I just may need to get an aquarium when they leave on Friday.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
The Digital Natives are Restless
Teens Tech Savvy, But Still Need Guidance
This article is in the SLJ Extra Helping that comes to my e-mail about every 5 minutes. I thought it was very interesting. Even though I am not involved with teens, the article refers to those "digital natives" I keep hearing so much about. Turns out they do need us after all!
I really liked this article, but I guess it has "expired" or something, the link is broken, and will no longer go to the article- it is not available anymore. Sorry.
This article is in the SLJ Extra Helping that comes to my e-mail about every 5 minutes. I thought it was very interesting. Even though I am not involved with teens, the article refers to those "digital natives" I keep hearing so much about. Turns out they do need us after all!
I really liked this article, but I guess it has "expired" or something, the link is broken, and will no longer go to the article- it is not available anymore. Sorry.
Monday, February 22, 2010
I think these are my final thoughts. . . are they?
I think that I am done with all of the exercises for this course, but I am not really sure. I am ready to receive some feedback, and see if there is anything I still need to do. I can say for sure that my mind has been expanded and is about to burst. . . or is it just explode? In order to summarize my experience effectively, I will answer the questions posed in item #10:
What were your favorite exercises or discoveries on this learning journey?
I like my blog. There, I said it. I think it is cute, though I may change it soon, and I enjoy posting on it. Once this is over, I may keep it and just post other random stuff. One of our teachers has a blog for family photos and recipes and musings and it is so interesting to read. I read everyone else's (in our course, I mean) blogs, too. And I click on "next blog" every time I go to any blog, mine or someone else's. I find the whole blogging world fascinating. There are so many creative people out there. And lovely families who want to share their life's journey. I know that this has little or nothing to do with the tasks at hand, but I have discovered a world that I had no idea existed!
I will also continue to use delicious. I really wish I had done this before my last computer was fried and I lost all of my bookmarks. Even though I can live without them, there were some that I know I will never find again. It is like a fire in a storage unit- you don't know what you lost, and it may have been a bunch of junk anyway, but someday you may go to look for it and it is gone. So putting all of my bookmarks on delicious (I know there are dots in the name, but I forget where) is something I will continue to do.
How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
There is so much to learn, it sometimes makes my head hurt just thinking about it! Some of these tasks were frustrating and time consuming, but each brought awareness of some aspect of the technical world that was new to me. I am a reader, and now there is even more to read- blogs and newsfeeds and wikis, oh my! Now I have so many more places to look for what I need to know. Time. Time is the only barrier to ever being finished with one's lifelong learning task!
Were there any take aways or unexpected outcomes that surprised you?
That I was able to figure out how to do things I didn't know how to do. Most of the tasks were things that needed to be puzzled out and figured out and then done. Difficult at times, but now I feel more confident about making the computer do what I want it to do. Surprise! And I didn't expect to like my blog. I like the wikis, and really want to get one set up on my library website. I would love to open up a conversation with students about books and reading.
What could we do to improve upon the program's format or concept?
One word- FEEDBACK!!!!! It would be nice to have comments more frequently. I think maybe submitting each module for critique would be good. I am truly not sure if I am done with this, and await word as to what needs more "tweaking." I guess I am too externally motivated- I need to know that what I am working on is working.
If we offered another program, would you participate?
I think so. . . maybe. . . we will see.
(I do want someone to help me with the wiki thing)
All in all, this project has taken MANY hours. I have spent most of the last several weekends submerged in it. Sometimes that is because I am lost in the online world, other times it is because I am inept and dysfunctional. I hope that I am done, but I will continue to explore. And post.
bye, for now.
What were your favorite exercises or discoveries on this learning journey?
I like my blog. There, I said it. I think it is cute, though I may change it soon, and I enjoy posting on it. Once this is over, I may keep it and just post other random stuff. One of our teachers has a blog for family photos and recipes and musings and it is so interesting to read. I read everyone else's (in our course, I mean) blogs, too. And I click on "next blog" every time I go to any blog, mine or someone else's. I find the whole blogging world fascinating. There are so many creative people out there. And lovely families who want to share their life's journey. I know that this has little or nothing to do with the tasks at hand, but I have discovered a world that I had no idea existed!
I will also continue to use delicious. I really wish I had done this before my last computer was fried and I lost all of my bookmarks. Even though I can live without them, there were some that I know I will never find again. It is like a fire in a storage unit- you don't know what you lost, and it may have been a bunch of junk anyway, but someday you may go to look for it and it is gone. So putting all of my bookmarks on delicious (I know there are dots in the name, but I forget where) is something I will continue to do.
How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
There is so much to learn, it sometimes makes my head hurt just thinking about it! Some of these tasks were frustrating and time consuming, but each brought awareness of some aspect of the technical world that was new to me. I am a reader, and now there is even more to read- blogs and newsfeeds and wikis, oh my! Now I have so many more places to look for what I need to know. Time. Time is the only barrier to ever being finished with one's lifelong learning task!
Were there any take aways or unexpected outcomes that surprised you?
That I was able to figure out how to do things I didn't know how to do. Most of the tasks were things that needed to be puzzled out and figured out and then done. Difficult at times, but now I feel more confident about making the computer do what I want it to do. Surprise! And I didn't expect to like my blog. I like the wikis, and really want to get one set up on my library website. I would love to open up a conversation with students about books and reading.
What could we do to improve upon the program's format or concept?
One word- FEEDBACK!!!!! It would be nice to have comments more frequently. I think maybe submitting each module for critique would be good. I am truly not sure if I am done with this, and await word as to what needs more "tweaking." I guess I am too externally motivated- I need to know that what I am working on is working.
If we offered another program, would you participate?
I think so. . . maybe. . . we will see.
(I do want someone to help me with the wiki thing)
All in all, this project has taken MANY hours. I have spent most of the last several weekends submerged in it. Sometimes that is because I am lost in the online world, other times it is because I am inept and dysfunctional. I hope that I am done, but I will continue to explore. And post.
bye, for now.
Audiobooks
I have made a very valiant effort to connect with NetLibrary and download an audiobook. However, the spirits are not with me on this one, and I must finally admit defeat. When I open it at home, I am unable to set up an account, and am unable to find any sort of link on the LD Bell site. When I go to it at school, I am taken to the LD Bell site, but when I set up an account, all I see are ebooks- not audiobooks. So I tried going to the Hurst Public Library site from school to set up an account through them, but that took me back to the LD Bell site, and the ebooks. SOOOO, I tried going to Hurst Public from home, and it told me I have to set up the account at the library. Jeesh. I give up. I will, maybe, try to do this at HPL, but since I don't plan on downloading any books, probably not anytime soon. I know, I will go when I have a MP3 player to download them on!
I did make an interesting audiobook discovery, though. When revisiting the podcast.com site, I noticed a link for downloading a "free" audiobook. Curious as ever, I went to this link and read about audible.com. It is a division of Amazon, and is a monthly subscription service for downloading audiobooks. For $14.95 per month, you get 1 "credit"- usually worth one book. S0 you can download 12 books/year, and play them on any media player or your computer. This may be interesting, the 14 day trial would be a fun way to listen to something brand new. I would like to compare their library of titles to what is available for free at NetLibrary, that is if I can ever get to it! Anyway, I am an audiobook addict, so maybe once I have something to play them on (away from my car), I will investigate these resources further. For now, I am closing the book on audiobooks.
I did make an interesting audiobook discovery, though. When revisiting the podcast.com site, I noticed a link for downloading a "free" audiobook. Curious as ever, I went to this link and read about audible.com. It is a division of Amazon, and is a monthly subscription service for downloading audiobooks. For $14.95 per month, you get 1 "credit"- usually worth one book. S0 you can download 12 books/year, and play them on any media player or your computer. This may be interesting, the 14 day trial would be a fun way to listen to something brand new. I would like to compare their library of titles to what is available for free at NetLibrary, that is if I can ever get to it! Anyway, I am an audiobook addict, so maybe once I have something to play them on (away from my car), I will investigate these resources further. For now, I am closing the book on audiobooks.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
NPR Book Review Podcast
I have added a link to the NPR (National Public Radio) Book Review Podcasts to my RSS feeds on the right side of this blog. I usually enjoy their take on new books, and Nancy Perl is a contributing reviewer. The particular program that comes up when you click the link is an interview with Jeff Kinney about the release of Dog Days last fall. I need to do more exploration of podcasts, I know that there are lots of words floating around out there that are waiting to be heard. Unfortunately, like the piles of "stuff to read," I could accumulate quite a collection of "stuff to listen to." I can see why it is easy to spend hours in front of the computer with not much to show for it!
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