I thought first I would review the SpanishPod to see what it was like. Not bad for an online option. Some information is too skimpy and too informal. It does offer dialogue, exercises, some cultural issues, false cognates and more. I still prefer attending a class like for French, the Alliance Francais.
For books, I was disappointed that the following did not make it. My daughter thinks it is a very good site.
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
This is what she wrote me, "The goal of project Gutenberg is to make available all books that haveentered the public domain. The start of the project was typing in theUS Declaration of Independence, and now includes such works as Beowulf, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Mark Twain, Jane Eyre,Oscar Wilde, Grimm's fairy tales, The Count of Monte Christo, and non-fiction works including Charles Darwin and Einstein. They are also working on archiving works in languages besides English, andarchiving video and sounds files.
Instead of SpanishPod, I have decided to revisit Picasa to check some of their "new" (to me) features. I created a slideshow of some of my favorite vacation pictures to imbed here. Some of it reminds me of the year we watched Lance Armstrong win his last Tour de France and then retire.
I like the many features Picasa offers. If I had all the time in the world, I would spend days becoming an expert Picasa user. I like the feature of saving to the web and creating a link for friends to view. Makes a much smaller email.
Other features?
-- Slideshows and movies
-- Star picture for visual stand out
-- Keep one picture in multiple albums
-- Add password to any Picasa collection
-- Edit
..crop, remove red eye, fix contrast & color, enhance digital picture,
..Go sepia, black&white or color, zoom & move focus, share (resize & attach),
-- post slideshow to own blog or multiple photos,
-- works with newest compact flash devices,
-- print at home or from an online company, burn CD/DVD for archive,
-- turn photos into movie clips,
-- make personalized desktop picture or screensave or screensaver rotation,
-- create a poster
-- make collages
I can see the students chronicling steps in a science experiment with pictures and then posting it in our class blog. This would make for a great project and many learning styles (visual, tactile, written....) and the incorporating of technology in our class material.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Thing # 18 - Online Productivity Tools
Word, Power Point, Excel from Microsoft are all good tools. Like any tool, it takes time and practice to get used to the way things are done. It is frustrating not remembering how to do something you have done in the past because you don't do it often enough. This is how it is with any application. Since the Microsoft suite is not free, one is looking at spending close to a couple of hundred dollars for each one application. Just checked at http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=office&x=0&y=0
I am pretty much a Microsoft Office person and like creatures of habit, will probably continue to use it. It is the software installed in the district computers. My daughter, however, is constantly evaluating and experimenting with what is out there. As a computer engineer, she has a very inquisitive and open mind. She shared some of her insights for Open Office and Google Docs with me. So I am also sharing the information here.
Note that I was unable to download the free tools under my id. Don't know if it is already part of our software package, but do not want to take the chance of intalling under admn id like I did with GoogleEarth, then found it in web apps, deinstalled the downloaded version and lost both.
The greatest advantage of Open Office is that it is free. A disadvantage is that most everyone in the corporate environment is probably using and saving their documents as Microsoft type files. But this is not a great problem as Open Office provides the ability to save them as Microsoft files. Even users of the MS software encounter inability to open and read documents from other people with an older version. It happens to my husband when his college students turn in reports and he has to request they resend them as .rtf. Also, one would have to get used to different menus and names for some things, but pretty much everything one can do in Microsoft Office can be done in open office.
Google Docs does not have as many features as Open Office or MicrosoftOffice, but the features it has are probably all that is needed by 95%of the population. Additionally, because it is online you can access it from anywhere you have an internet connection. If you know you won't have an internet connection where you are going, you can download the file to your computer and take it with you. If you need to make a power point presentation but the computer you're using doesn't have the correct software installed on it, as long as you havea web browser you can still show your presentation. Additionally, if you have a document that multiple people need to work on, the web-based nature of it allows for easy collaboration. Much like Open Office, Google Docs is constantly evolving, adding new features, and completely free. Disadvantages of Google Docs? Some people are concerned about privacy. Your document is stored on Google's servers and presumably some stranger could figure out your password or hack the system and delete all your stuff or (if you keep sensitive information out there) steal your stuff. Don't put sensitive information out there and keep back ups on your computer if it is something you don't want to lose.
I am pretty much a Microsoft Office person and like creatures of habit, will probably continue to use it. It is the software installed in the district computers. My daughter, however, is constantly evaluating and experimenting with what is out there. As a computer engineer, she has a very inquisitive and open mind. She shared some of her insights for Open Office and Google Docs with me. So I am also sharing the information here.
Note that I was unable to download the free tools under my id. Don't know if it is already part of our software package, but do not want to take the chance of intalling under admn id like I did with GoogleEarth, then found it in web apps, deinstalled the downloaded version and lost both.
The greatest advantage of Open Office is that it is free. A disadvantage is that most everyone in the corporate environment is probably using and saving their documents as Microsoft type files. But this is not a great problem as Open Office provides the ability to save them as Microsoft files. Even users of the MS software encounter inability to open and read documents from other people with an older version. It happens to my husband when his college students turn in reports and he has to request they resend them as .rtf. Also, one would have to get used to different menus and names for some things, but pretty much everything one can do in Microsoft Office can be done in open office.
Google Docs does not have as many features as Open Office or MicrosoftOffice, but the features it has are probably all that is needed by 95%of the population. Additionally, because it is online you can access it from anywhere you have an internet connection. If you know you won't have an internet connection where you are going, you can download the file to your computer and take it with you. If you need to make a power point presentation but the computer you're using doesn't have the correct software installed on it, as long as you havea web browser you can still show your presentation. Additionally, if you have a document that multiple people need to work on, the web-based nature of it allows for easy collaboration. Much like Open Office, Google Docs is constantly evolving, adding new features, and completely free. Disadvantages of Google Docs? Some people are concerned about privacy. Your document is stored on Google's servers and presumably some stranger could figure out your password or hack the system and delete all your stuff or (if you keep sensitive information out there) steal your stuff. Don't put sensitive information out there and keep back ups on your computer if it is something you don't want to lose.
Thing # 17 - Rollyo
I found setting my searchroll quick and easy:
.
There are so many search engines and different ways to add and get to the url's. Again, my qualm is coming up with a descriptive enough title of 20 or less characters and then, remembering what I called it.
As a chocolate lover (dark chocolate), I thought it would be interesting to see what I would pull up. Will probably find this one in one of those yummy patisseries in France next week and more. mmmmmm....... :)
As a chocolate lover (dark chocolate), I thought it would be interesting to see what I would pull up. Will probably find this one in one of those yummy patisseries in France next week and more. mmmmmm....... :)
photo source: flicker naoko123
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Thing # 16 - Wikis
Wikipedia - the largest wiki with millions of entries. The things we can share and create when we have where to store it. And everyone can use it. Better yet, contribute to it. WOW!
It wasn't hard to get into the sandbox to add a comment. Having a wiki for lesson plans and group projects is definitely an improvement to the emails with reply to all. I can see updates being more synchronized as registered members get to see real time others comments. With emails, sometimes while you are sending a comment, others are in the process of doing the same and may or may not have seen prior emails re subject matter.
My one concern is the delete function and the possibility of others to easily delete ones well thought out contribution.
It wasn't hard to get into the sandbox to add a comment. Having a wiki for lesson plans and group projects is definitely an improvement to the emails with reply to all. I can see updates being more synchronized as registered members get to see real time others comments. With emails, sometimes while you are sending a comment, others are in the process of doing the same and may or may not have seen prior emails re subject matter.
My one concern is the delete function and the possibility of others to easily delete ones well thought out contribution.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Thing # 15 - 2.0 and the Future of Libraries
Photo source (http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewickie/347385304/)This talk of the evolution of the library as we know it, reminds me somewhat of a Star Trek episode. All information, or most, is retrieved from the computer. The computer even talks. Artificial intelligence is a done deal. The members of the ship can live an adventure without leaving the spaceship in this special room. Yes, I share the opinion of this section on library 2.0. The way we did business in the past is changing and needs to continue changing, books and libraries included.
Dr. Wendy Schultz article, To a temporary place in time, ( http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/6.htm ) was quite a sneak into the future. To this I add some questions. How far will we go? How fast will it be? What will we have to leave behind?
In Rick Anderson's Away from icebergs, ( http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/2.htm ) I can't think but that the 55% drop in circulation is because people spend more time on computers (surfing the web, playing video games, etc.) and much less time going outside to visit the library, play sport, walk, engage in face-to-face communication. Recent health news cover children lacking vitamin D (more bone fractures) and increased percentage in diabetes. Yes, there are libraries poorly equipped today, but won't learners that do fall outside the technology learning style, be poorly equipped for what is coming? And then we have the issue of accessibility, and power source, and newer technology.
I believe and agree that what is going on today is an extension of the same key principles that have been in place since the 19th century. Todays technology is making things possible that weren't possible before. It easier, better, more effective to improve and provide the services using state of the art technology and tools. It was is the same with the advent of the radio, the TV, the telegraph, the telephone, to name a few.
I still prefer to curl up with a good book. It is very difficult to do so with even the most streamlined laptop. Posture is important to view the screen. And then there is the issue of going back a few pages. Not as easy to flip back and forth with one computer screen. I get frustrated having to scroll up and down or in and out of articles and even get confused. But being able to browse a list of my books or books I have read...that is great! Being able to not only see the titles but the book cover online, priceless!
Library 2.0 is great. I like all the features it has made possible especially the communication to and from the users. I hope, though, that books will still be around in what is left of my lifetime and more. :)
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Thing # 14 - Technorati and Tags
Tags? I thought I pretty much knew what this was all about after del.icio.us and an exercise in creating own electronic library list. Then comes Technorati.
I did a search on school library learning under blogs. Got 17 blogs. Used their search.technorati.com and came up with 1,777. I am not good at narrowing my search criteria or figuring out what someone would tag something as. I am sure I will get better as I use the product, talk about it, listen to other people's experience. But right now, I am way over my head.
So much technology...so fast...so soon. Need some time. Like oodles of it. In the programming industry where I worked for more than 2 decades before going into teaching, there was a stable environment. There were only a handful of computer languages used, the databases were hierarchical or relational. Online applications were mostly screens populated with data. The important thing was to use the tools in an efficient and effective manner to do business. I saw with graphical user interfaces the mushrooming of languages and applications. These came and went, versions after versions, and continuing today, new applications to do some of the same things, improve some processes, add functionality. Getting stuck is no fun unless you know others using the same tools. There is the old saying, "Use it, or lose it".
I did a search on school library learning under blogs. Got 17 blogs. Used their search.technorati.com and came up with 1,777. I am not good at narrowing my search criteria or figuring out what someone would tag something as. I am sure I will get better as I use the product, talk about it, listen to other people's experience. But right now, I am way over my head.
So much technology...so fast...so soon. Need some time. Like oodles of it. In the programming industry where I worked for more than 2 decades before going into teaching, there was a stable environment. There were only a handful of computer languages used, the databases were hierarchical or relational. Online applications were mostly screens populated with data. The important thing was to use the tools in an efficient and effective manner to do business. I saw with graphical user interfaces the mushrooming of languages and applications. These came and went, versions after versions, and continuing today, new applications to do some of the same things, improve some processes, add functionality. Getting stuck is no fun unless you know others using the same tools. There is the old saying, "Use it, or lose it".
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