11.5: Thing 9

280 slides is a GREAT product, especially since you can import your powerpoint slides and not lose anything. Every now and then we have issues where it's a different version of powerpoint between home and the teacher's classroom or the library. 280 slides would make it easier for those kids, no doubt. And of course, don't forget Google's version of powerpoint. There's no excuse now. Slideshare, like Google, etc., would allow multiple students to work and collaborate and synthesize single presentations. That is probably the most important aspect - some of these products are sleeker than powerpoint, i.e. the graphics are more professional looking but really when you get down to brass tacks, the main thing in my opinion is accessibility.

11.5:Thing 8, part 1

Oooooo...I see big potential with jing. Even if I do have to download it. (I trust the TechSmith folks and I'm big on brand loyalty...LOL) I'm going to use it to do my orientation presentation this year. Instead of trying to herd the masses into the library to do orientations I've decided to instead shoot an infomercial, I mean, orientation presentation to send out and post to our site. Sue Waters's blog post about how to do a better job of screencasting has answered several of my concerns. I have the orientation worked out on paper (I'm still one of THOSE people that like to sketch things out, like a storyboard. I still write grocery lists. Yeah.) and all I need to do is shoot the video once I go back on duty. The screencasting is ready to go but I want to record the audio at work. I'm very excited about this project. I've wanted to do it for a long time but I feel I didn't have enough skills to pull it off...I'm almost there!

11.5: Thing 7

Hello. My name is Renae and I'm a television and movie junkie. Hulu is my drug of choice. Second only to All My Children. In all seriousness, there is so much out there. Fair Use is just the tip of the iceberg as far as I'm concerned. Remember how scared we all were (those of us with pre-adolescents that liked to download music)when music companies really started prosecuting? I get the same heeby-jeebies when I think about the mash-ups and mixes that we're coming up with. The Fair Use link helped me reason through it, though. And I believe we should show this to kids - not to just the broadcast journalism kids, either. I'm going to suggest (hi LR) that we broadcast this 4 min. video from the main page to the whole school - kind of like an part introduction to fair use, you know? And then follow up with the documents.
I thoroughly enjoyed playing with the National Geographic videos. I chose one to coincide with my trip to Holland - I came to realize after visiting the World War II AMERICAN Memorial in Holland just how involved we were. 8000 Americans lost their lives just in Holland. You know, I think we don't do our students justice when it comes to teaching them the history of WWII - as Americans we really just think about Pearl Harbor and then we dropped a couple of bombs. I talked with Dutch survivors that had German soldiers walk into their homes and take their food - the whole country was occupied. And they are so appreciative of the American, English and Canadian forces that saved them that they constructed memorials on their own decades before we did.

11.5: Thing 6

Boy, this was a challenge for me. I decided to wait until my son came into town so I could play with his iphone without the Apple guys breathing down my neck. He already had a plethera of apps downloaded so I really got a little bogged down in his toys first. LOL I did manage to download a free wikipedia app for his phone - it was very easy to do and I was surprised he didn't already have it downloaded. I have an apple itunes account because I bought my daughter a mac online a year ago - I just hadn't used it for anything else so now I'm hooked up. I want to visit with some other librarians to find out the best course of action in reference to downloading on the itouch(es) we're getting. I imagine most kids will have their own account but I want to have a general account ready. Maybe something easy to remember.

11.5: Thing 5

GREAT ideas for backchanneling during conferences. Especially the idea of having a friend monitor the chat so it doesn't get out of hand like the sxsw 08 interview of facebook's boy genius by Saray Lacey....I would've just died. And the transcripts can be archived so the feedback is immediate - you don't have to wait for those pesky eval forms. I like the idea of their eyes being on their screens instead of me (during presentations)...I don't like the attention as it is so I certainly wouldn't mind keyboard tapping as long as they weren't looking at me! As for a classroom, I think you would have to BIG TIME set boundaries at the beginning. Otherwise, they would be all over the place in their comments. I'm just as guilty!
As far as Twitter goes, I'm still not quite ready to share my every move with anyone yet - I like being under the radar...LOL Seriously, my Facebook account has been a HUGE step for me...and I go through little spurts of being super visible to leaving the country for two weeks and not touching a computer....I know! I'm a baaaaad girl.
Maybe I'll start tweeting. Arghhhhh.

11.5: Thing 4

I'm back and now that the jet lag is practcally gone, I've hit the beach again. Uploading to youtube. My first experience with video uploading went well. However, I uploaded straight from my camera and found that the audio file uploaded at a different speed. Catastrophe, right? No! It actually worked out better because the video shows my kitten and dog playing or I should say my kitten attacking my 60 lb. white german shepherd. I am laughing through the entire thing so my laughs and commentary are sped up like Minnie Mouse on crack. It's hysterical! I did figure out that I should've dumped it somewhere else first and then uploaded to youtube so at least there was a lesson there. But my mistake came out much better than the intended product :)

I didn't know about SchoolTube - only TeacherTube. Another great place for ideas and an easy place to upload student products. Did you see the list of sponsors????? WOW!

11.5:Thing 3

Skyppe hype - it's real. Out of my circle of friends, I know one couple that uses it to communicate while he's overseas. It (or a facsimile of Skyppe) was utilized in The Taking of Pelham 123 with Denzel and John Travolta. It's really easy to use and free for the most part. I see it being used in the educational and business arenas. One of the unique educational uses I discovered by exploring Vaughn's list of resources is Mixxr - really cool place for language learners to hook up. The list is continuously growing (ways for schools to use it) - virtual field trips, meet an author, collaboration with schools on the other side of the world, etc. And of course business meetings all but require face-to-face meetings so these tools can save loads of money in travel expenses.

One thing I worry about is that we're bringing up generations of kids that won't know how to sit across a table from another person and have a conversation. They would rather text or IM - even sitting literally across the library from the other person. At least with video conferencing, they have to be able to carry on a conversation and speak their thoughts as they flow instead of filtering them as they type.