Thing 14 Delicious Bookmarking

I have used Delicious for just over a year. It's a great tool and I find the Delicious Toolbar very helpful. The idea of tagging my bookmarked sites is a great help when I go back to look for a site that I saved earlier. The tagging also helps me find my treasures that I've forgotten.

I have found one difficulty. On occassion I need to uninstall the toolbar and then reinstall it because it stops working correctly. I don't know the reason for it. However, I like the convenience of the correctly operating toolbar that I take the time to reinstall it. If any one knows the reason for this or can share your knowledge to stop it from happening, I'd certainly appreciate hearing of it.

Thing 13 - tagging

I've used online bookmarking for many years. I moved to Delicious last year and find the toolbar extremely helpful and convenient. It's so simple to add a site to my online bookmarking. Tags are absolutely super. Before tagging, I collected so many sites that I found worthy of saving but then I couldn't find them when I neeedd them. Tagging allows me to categorize the sites in a manner that will help me find them when I need them. And, unlike the favorites on my hard drive, Delicious can be accessed anywhere I can access the internet. This is a great resouce tool.

Thing 12 widget - avitar

Mrs. S. speaks - attempting my first avitar



Get a Voki now!

Thing 11 - Connecting through Comments

Comments do strike the emotional sting. Positive and encouraging messages boost my confidence and lead me on to doing more. I'm no different than a child in that regard. Posting negative statements are troublesome and should be made very infrequently. They produce little in the area of results.

I received a comment regarding a picture from Flickr and the words I associated with it. My heart increase a small bit with the kind words. Yes, there is a real draw to communicating with others even when I don't know them nor will ever see.

When I have students post their works on a site such as ToonDoo, I'm concerned that they will receive a negative comment. Children have tender feelings and don't receive hostility will. While positive comments feed their spirits and spur them on to do more. I'm like that too.

Thing 10 embedding a video

I'm currently working with a 6th grade science teacher. The next unit addresses the Virginia watershed that filters into the Chesapeake Bay. I found this YouTube video and felt it did a fine job explaining this concept. Thanks to the Department of Conservation and Recreation of Virginia for providing this video.

Learning about a watershed.
What is a watershed? How does it effect the water bodies surrounding my state? Can I help to maintain the health of the water bodies around me?

This was my first attempt at embedding a video to my blog. It went very well. I'm always expecting a glitch to occur. Nothing ever seems as simple as it looks. However, this one was. Thanks for the video tutorial. It was most helpful.

I've used zamzar.com for some time. It's very helpful and always works for me (so far). Since I have high speed internet access at home, I can peruse the YouTube site and find what I need. Unfortunately, there are many in my rural county that still have dial up internet. There is not real option for them yet.

Thing 9 YouTube

Great avenue of expression. I've found numerous videos that communicate humor, information, point of view, etc..... I've personally gained some "know how" for such things as using handheld GPS unit for hiking. I've always been a visual learner (although I certainly appreciate the written text as well). Community with the world becomes easier each day with the next web tool.

YouTube is blocked in my school district but thanks to sites such as www.zamzar.com I am able to convert those "just right" YouTube videos for use into the classroom. I have shared many of these videos with other teachers. TeacherTube and SchoolTube are not presently blocked.

Thing 8 Mashups

Although each of these links lead me to clever, impressive results, I do not have a vision for how I would use them in the classroom to enhance instruction. True they would dress up my blog, wiki or webpage. I will tag several of them on Delicious and perhaps use them at a latter date to promote some event or dress up an online site of mine. As for now, I think I'll persue my energies elsewhere.

Thing 7 - Flickr

My previous posting fits the posting for Thing 7. I'm finding many web 2.0 tools which have a partnership with Flickr, accepting the upload of images stored in Flickr. The uploads are easy. Flickr's service is so user friendly that other online applications/tools find it very applealing. This of course, only promotes Flickr more. A partnership serving each other.

Thing 6 Flickr

I've had an account to Flickr since the summer of 2007 when I first learned about the site. However, I have not used it as a permanent storage site for my many photos. I'm thinking differently. I like the photos I see and I'm thinking about sharing some of my better photos with the Flickr community. It will be great fun recieving comments.

I was feeling a bit guilty because my first postings to Flickr were images I had found for a project I was doing. The images were not mine. I have since changed them to private after receiving comments on two of them. As an educator, I need to model correct copyright procedures. My face is red.

I selected the picture called Autumn by siodre because of the beautiful color. This image is of Big Meadows on Skyline Drive in Virginia. The orange shades are striking next to the browns and grays. I can smell the dirt and decaying leaves in the air not to mention hearing the crackling of the stone trail under my feet.

Thing 5 Subscribing to Blogs

RSS feed - it was indeed intimidating. It took me a good while before I got this one under my belt. I never did get the Blogline Bookmarklet to work. I continued to get an IE7 error. However, I was successful with the other two methods.

As an educator and technology resource teacher for other teachers, I'm not sure how to promote this to students. Many teachers aren't familar with blogs let along subscribing to blogs through RSS feeds. The more exposure teachers get with blogs that are of interest to them, the more willing will they become to subscribing. I guess my first job is to share blogs that may interest them, then encourage them to subscribe. I haven't heard much about blogs that would draw the interest of students.