Thing #42 Pimp Your Twitter

I created an account and made a post. As a beginner, I decided to see what Twitter was all about.   I did check out all the articles that was mentioned in the assignment.  I guess I'm just not sure about Twitter.  It didn't help that I had a "follower" as soon as I signed up.  I need to find out how to delete her from my following if possible.  Don't like the message she left.
I did create a tweet and played around with the design and added an avatar to my profile.

I like FaceBook and created a page for our school library.  I don't plan on creating one on Twitter.  At this point, I don't see a need for it at the elementary level.  There is not enough time to keep it up to be useful. I don't like the micro-blogging.  Not enough characters to explain at times unless you link to another site.

It was wonderful to see all the public and university libraries that tweet, keeping the community posted on what is going on.
I did a search for our library, school, etc. and did not find anything mentioned.  I did look at LibraryJournal and New York Public Library Twitter accounts.  I have noticed that links are used a great deals so that readers can get more information. It is a way to direct readers to your website. I even looked at one with the subject of sewing.  Not impressed.

I checked out Susan's and Allana's Twitter, but both are private.  I did send a request to each.   Christa certainly has a lot of followers.  I liked her comment about the free books from the bank.
Michael needs to be careful about letting people know where he is at.  Many people have their places robbed that way.  It is a safety issue.  (Can you tell that I have been teaching Internet Safety lately?)

I don't think that this is something that will be useful to use with the library or personally, but I'm glad that I took the time to check it out.  I will check it out every once in awhile to see if my opinion changes or not.
Twitter account

Thing #41: There's No Excuse Not To Learn! - How to 2.0

 1&2.    General How To Sites
        I was really impressed with the variety of videos at Gaspr.  You can even sign up using your FaceBook account.  I chose to register as there wasn't as much information required. Although once you register, there is a profile section that they want you to fill out.  FaceBook is having issues right now with personal information going to third parties.
    I was especially drawn to all the craft videos.  While looking at some of the quilting videos, I came across a game quilt video.  I have that pattern and recently purchased the material.  I plan to make it probably for Christmas.  This will be a good place to look if I need any help with the directions. Here is the link: http://www.graspr.com/videos/QRC-Creates-a-Game-Quilt.    I did see that this is only the first of several videos.  The rest are located on a site that you must be a paid member to view.
    One of the features that I like about Gaspr, is that you can see the videos created by a contributor and not just by topic.

    Instructables is web-based documentation/instructions.  Right now they are having a Halloween contest and lots of ideas for Halloween items.  I don't like this site as well.  A little complicated as far as looking at the images that go with the documentation. Topics include: Food, Health, Living, Outside, Play, Halloween, Technology, Workshop, & Dremel.   I did find instructions to create lighted led wings at  http://www.instructables.com/id/Lightwings-Fiber-Optic-Fairy-Wings/ .  Cute idea for a little girls costume.
     Certain features are for members only for a fee.  I did get a good idea to use snaps with a bead/gem glued on to make hair gems.  I didn't find that this site was very easy to use because of its organization or lack there of.    There are some good low cost practical ideas if you have the time to look.

     MonkeySee - See How the Experts Do It,  has videos on all different topics.  Looks like the videos are done by experts in a particular field and then uploaded.  It has featured How to Videos, Featured Videos, Recommended, Most Viewed, Newest, and Hot Now.  This site has ads before some of the videos.   Under Careers and Education > Elementary School, I found a video How to deal with a shooting at school.  My how the times are a changing. She does give her qualifications for dealing with the topic.  Videos can be shared to several online apps such as FaceBook, Delicious, Twitter, Digg, Mixx, etc. What I like about this site is that on the right of the video, there is information about the expert, you can save the video to a mobile device, and see a written transcript of the video that can be printed.  There are also related videos available.  You don't have to be registered to use this site unless you want to be able to save to a list of favorites or write comments.

School How To Sites

• "WatchKnow - Thousands of great short videos, and other media, explaining every topic taught to school kids. Videos come from many sites include YouTube, eHow, National Geographic, TeacherTube, and more.

• TeacherTube – An educationally focused, safe venue for sharing instructional videos; designed for teachers, schools, and home learners.

• Khan Academy – Thousands of short videos created by Salman Khan to explain math concepts from simple to advanced. Useful to students of all levels. "  (from Learning 2.0 Blog)

I did look at all three of these sites.  I was so excited about the WatchKnow and Khan Academy sites that I added the link to my homework helper on my school's website.  (I'm the webmaster for the school's site).  The TeacherTube site, I already had linked as a video resource for the Teacher Links.  The WatchKnow site, I believe is my favorite that I would use with students. 

     3. The biggest advantage of the online video how to sites is that it is great for the visual learner.  The videos can be stopped and viewed again.  Many times you can even contact the maker of the video if there are further questions or post a question.  I will be anxious to see how many of these sites that I can get to from the school library.  If these are not filtered, they are certainly a welcome addition to resources that the library can provide, especially when the budgets for materials are getting smaller.

NE Learning #40 - Sept. Aviary and Pixlr

 

original picture taken at Cabela's

School mascot is a bobcat.  I started with this image at Pixir.com and transformed into the following:

On this image I used the Hope filter.

On this image, I used the

Art poster filter- settings:  amount 126  color 283

This is my favorite.  I used the

Kaleidoscope filter  size: 47  Horizonal: 12  Vertical: 50

When I worked on the Aviary.com site I did have some issues exporting the images, kept getting error messages. I took a screen shot of them and saved in Preview. 

I used this image of our school that I shot several years ago and use as a desktop on the school computers. I do like the fact that you can use basic keystrokes to cut, copy, paste, undo, etc. 

Filter: Pointinize

Filter Metal glow

Filter: Erode

Peacock Filter  : 

Effects: canny

Effects: Quilted

Effects: Spiral

At first it is hard to get the hang of getting the two boxes connected.  It certainly is different.  Gives more effects than some programs.  Can spend a lot of time exploring this site.

I liked the Pixir website better.  I can see using this with my students since I didn't run into problems exporting.  Aviary does give you give more options, but is a little more complicated. Students could create an altered picture and then use it to create posters, write a story, or use as part of a project.

Thing #38: Use Things to Market Your Library

After Reading Seven Strategies for Marketing in a Web 2.0 World, I decided to create a Facebook page for my school library.  It is something that I had been thinking about trying anyway.  I had created a Facebook account for myself earlier, just to see what it was like.  Hard to teach students how to be safe on Facebook if I'm not sure about what to expect.

I'm hoping that the school Facebook page will be a place that mainly parents, students (they have accounts anyway), as well as the community can go to find out about what is going on in the library (once school starts again), schedules, new books, etc.  I'm hoping to get the students interested in quick reviews of books that they are reading for others or suggestions that they would like to see available in the library.  

I'm just concerned about monitoring comments that may be inappropriate and the time involved.  This could be very time consuming especially when I'm also the webmaster for the school.  I

Search for Beals School Library 

7 and 1/2 lifelong learning habits reflection

Good steps to follow to get any objective/task done.  The easiest habit for me to follow will be number 7 (Teach/mentor other).  This is one of the reasons that I can trying this out.  I want my students to benefit from the information that I learn about web 2.0.   The hardest one will be to find the time that I would like to play with all the new information ideas/tips.