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.

Bookr, Dan O.... couldn't help myself...

Bookr. Another one of those free products that makes me wonder over and over again...who are these people and when do they have all of this free time to come up with these cool tools... for FREE??? Whomever they are...I LOVE them. I could see using Bookr's book format instead of powerpoint or photostory. I have to confess, though. I "cheated" and clicked on the index menu on the right so I didn't have to manually turn the pages. That option would thrill younger audiences, I'm sure. I noticed that pim pam pum takes donatons - I hope they get some $$$ so they can keep creating cool tools like this one!

Starship Log 11.5: Thing 2, Wordle

Wordle is soooo easy to use! I used the text from The Preamble and edited the color palette (red, white and blue, of course!) and played with the alignment to make something really cool. You can generate top-notch, high-art products so quickly. LOVE it. This could replace the old-fashioned "cut up a magazine and make a collage of who you are" project that I still see assigned every year. I remember reading about different learning styles and the "artsy" type of person could use this format to study key concepts or vocabulary. VERY cool.

11.5: Thing 1

I've watched this video so many times now - and we really are all students of connectivism. It's where we are all going - not just students. Now that we have opened up FB and MS, what I want to see actually happen is that students really do post their research findngs to ther FB account for their use or for collaboraton with their team members. They're not going to automatically do that since they don't see the potential yet - they still think of FB as their social pipeline, their lifeline actually. It's going to take librarians teaching teachers how to use FB - and this forum is going to go a long way in dong that. I hope.

SUMMER SUMMER SUMMER

Love it love it love it. And I'm back on the web 2.0 train so...WOOOWOOO, ALL ABOARD!!! I'll try to tear myself away from the yardwork and the really long list of things I want to accomplish in my household in the next couple of weeks to post and ponder and ride the web train!

Facebook, Schmacebook

OK. So I finally started the Facebook thing since my 30 year HS reunion is approaching and apparently, that's THE place to meet up with everyone. But I'm seriously overwhelmed with the whole thing. If any of my Facebook friends are reading this...STOP RIGHT NOW. JK - what I'm trying to dance around here is that I don't pay much attention to the little comings and goings. I'm a big picture girl...like...did you hit the lottery? Did someone propose? Did you solve the credit crisis? I don't look at it often enough to play the little games and take the little quizzes or figure out what mythical creature I am. Truth is, when I get home, the last thing I want to do anything that requires a log-on or password. The most technologically emeshed thing I do in the evening is fire up the DVR to get my daily dose of ALL MY CHILDREN. That's right...I still watch it, like everyday! I am seriously impressed with you guys, though. I do see some serious creativity out there...and I don't want you to stop poking, pod casting or pinging me...I would miss it...I really would.

By George, I think I've got it (for the most part...)

Spent the day putting my money where my mouth is....reminds me of a joke about the big-mouthed momma frog and alligator...never mind. I was so excited to find out that I had to work through Photo Story, Audacity, Flickr, Irfan View, Power Point, Incompetech, TeacherTube, MovieMaker and a plethera of image generators. Overall, I worked fast and furiously to try to complete SOMETHING, ANYTHING that I could share. Must get rid of this perfectionist thing I have going on...anyways, I did try to post my audio file on the Learning 2.0 wiki and was unsuccesful....s-l-o-wwwwwwwwwww. Just shoot me. SO I gave up. Here is something though...just to prove that I really did something. OK. Never mind. Error in uploading. We have not had much success in uploading today :(

I started my Freshman Orientation presentation by gathering a few photos to construct a flipchart. That took a while because I wanted a mixture of backgrounds. I did find a good reggae mp3 to play in the background. So I really spent my my finding all of the components and didn't come up with a finished product. There's a partial movie, partial powerpoint, partial photostory - all saved in one file so I can pull from it to make a smashing orientation presentation.

WHEN I finish the flipchart, I'll post it here. Wish me luck.....
Toodles!