Free Technology for Teachers

I tried the quiz in the post below as a result of my discovery of a great blog, Free Technology for Teachers: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ On the blog I found a tutorial on using Google tools, Google For Teachers: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/p/google-tools-tutorials.html One of the tools they talked about was making a quiz to be posted. When the test is taken the answers are sent to a spreadsheet so that the results can easily be viewed on a spreadsheet and even graphed. Feel free to taken this challenging quiz (haha) and your answers will be sent to my spreadsheet.

Practice Using Google Docs to Make a Quiz

Still Learning

I guess I should still post to my blog even though the 23 Things Kansas project is finished. Last night my son was using Movie Maker for a project when a virus took over our computer. Eek! Luckily, he already had gotten his graduation present - a new laptop. So, he had to start over, but he did learn his laptop's newest version of Microsoft's Movie Maker (I watched over his shoulder and learned a few things myself).

Week Sixteen: Wrap-up Webinars & Final Posting

As an assignment for the last week I have listed 23 things I have learned from participating in 23 Things Kansas:
1. Learning new technology is not to be feared. It just requires devoting some time to experimenting and if all else fails, there’s always someone out there willing to help.
2. Blogging can be an easy way to post comments, created media, links, etc. for all others to see.
3. Online communities are an excellent way to stay connected with others and to stay on top of the latest news.
4. Online meetings allow you to meet with anyone anywhere.
5. Archived webinars are an excellent way to learn.
6. Photo sharing sites are an excellent way to organize photos and I wish I had started using them years ago.
7. RSS read feeders are not as scary as they sound. Google Reader is an easy way to stay up on my favorite sites and I can change subscriptions at any time.
8. Social bookmarking allows me to get to my favorite sites from any computer.
9. Delicious, the social bookmarking site that I signed up on, is an exciting way to find new sites of interesting.
10. Twitter is popular these days so it’s good to know how it works.
11. Cloud computing is an exciting concept and an area that’s definitely growing.
12. Google docs are easy to use, free, and ideal for collaboration and sharing.
13. There are several free document tools that can be used “in the clouds”. These would be ideal for our students to use so that they could work from school or home.
14. Meebo is a great way to be connected to people using different instant messaging services.
15. Ustream.tv, Justin.tv, gik.com and 12seconds.tv are sites that allow you to livestream video which means you are broadcasting live.
16. Jing is an easy way to make a screenshop or a screencast video. Videos can be stored and shared at screencast.com.
17. Screencast-o-matic allows you to create 10-15 minute videos that are easy to upload to YouTube.
18. Zoho Show is another tool we should look at for our students to be able to access their presentations anywhere.
19. Animoto is my personal favorite because I can use the pictures I take to make a really slick looking show.
20. Shelfari, Library Thing and Goodreads are great sites to keep up on what people are reading and to keep track and share what I have read.
21. PBWorks and Wetpaint are two free and easy to use sites to create wikis.
22. It takes time and effort to stay informed of new technology. Setting aside a certain amount of time each day to “play” is one way to keep informed. Attending conferences and webinars, using an RSS read feeder, and projects such as 23 Things Kansas are great ways to stay current.
23. Organizing websites and passwords is a must for me.

Week Fifteen: Wikis

For week fifteen's first activity I signed up for a wikipedia account and updated information on a private school on the entry for my city. I felt pretty important being able to correct something for all to see. For the second activity, I collaborated on the 23 Things Kansas wiki on Wetpaint. Wikis are easy to work with. I helped a teacher set up a wiki for her class a couple years ago so the students could work in groups on a project. It's probably something we should do more often.

Hey, I'm caught up! I'm going to miss 23 Things Kansas when it's finished!

Week Fourteen: Library Thing, etc.

For week 14 setting up a Shelfari account was one of the activity options. I had already set up an account and put it on my blog, but I needed to update my collection with the books I had read in the last few months. It was the first update I had done so I had to rethink how to get the update onto my blog.

Week Thirteen: Slide Sharing

This week we were supposed to use a slide showing website. This is one of my favorite activities! I already used my library photos from week 4 to make an Animoto video that I uploaded to my blog. Here's a link to my first Animoto video I made a couple of years ago after a vacation with my family: Family Vacation

Screenshot of our Card Catalog

I created this screenshot using Jing.

Week Twelve: Screencasting

For week 12 I learned to use Jing. I downloaded the program and created a video to demonstrate how to use Gale through the Kansas State Library Card. However, my microphone didn't work so I will have to try again when I find a working microphone. In the meantime, I made the screenshot of our card catalog.

Week Eleven: Break

This was my break to get caught up on everything. It helped, but if you're keeping track of dates, I'm way past the 11 week mark.

Week Ten: Video on the Web

For week ten I embedded one of my favorite You Tube videos that shows how to open a book. I was supposed to make a video as well, but I still haven't found time to do that. I wish I had a Flipvideo but all I have is my little ole camera with short video capability. My kids like making videos and a couple years ago I showed my son how to use Windows Media to edit his "incredible basketball shots" videos. Since I've made videos before and edited before, I really need the experience uploading to You Tube. Maybe he'll give me permission to share his feats with the world.

Here's a favorite YouTube video by Zauron3ooo

Week Nine: Instant Messaging

I have used instant messaging on Facebook to talk to friends. It was extremely useful a couple summers ago when my oldest son was in Spain for 6 weeks and that was our primary means of communication. I don't see using it at school since most of our teachers are away from their desks so often, but I could certainly see it for reference work in a different library setting. I logged into Meebo with my Facebook account. I had not heard of Meebo but it certainly is a convenient way to be linked to people with different IM providers.

Week Eight: Cloud Computing

I should be on week eleven but I've had too many distractions and now I'm way behind. I did have a chance to work on a Google spreadsheet document with Shirley from USD 462 and Janie from our grade school, but it was already completed by the time I got around to opening it. I'm glad I set up a Google documents account, though. It looks like something I may find a use for in the future. We have used Wikispaces for group collaboration with the students before but I could also see them using Google documents.

Week Seven: Microblogging

Today I opened a Twitter account. I am following my two college sons, 23ThingsKs, Lybrarian from the 23ThingsKs twitter list, and Sarah Dessen. I sent out a tweet as well. It was easy to find people only if I knew their email address or their twitter name. I will give this a try, but don't really see myself getting too involved in it. I think if someone has something important to say they will say it through a different medium but it's important that I give this a try. I will look at adding others and sending out some more tweets. I think it would be fun to keep up with my boys, but they really don't use it to tweet as much as they use it to follow a sports guy.

Week Six:Tagging and Social Bookmarking

This week I opened a Delicious account. I imported my bookmarks and downloaded some people to my network. I spent some time exploring and discovering new sites and am excited to continue exploring and discovering!

Week Five: RSS and Feed Readers

For week five I subscribed to Google Reader and subscribed to several feeds. I chose the Google Reader since I already had a Google account and it seemed easy enough to use. With the reader I will be able to follow several blogs without having to go to each one to see if there's a new post. One of the blogs is Stephen's Lighthouse which was created by Stephen Abram, the presenter of the technology webinar I watched in week three. I also subscribed to a couple of book review sites so I can stay on top of new titles. I like the idea of having news brought to me instead of having to spend time seeking it out. I will continue to tweak my reader as time goes on.

I added my Animoto clip to my blog. Look to the right under the Shelfari. I didn't spend much time making it because I was trying to get to the Colgan vs. Frontenac game. I should mention that both our girls' team and our boys' team won. Anyway, I just embedded it for all to view.

Week Four: Photo Sharing

For week four of 23 Things Kansas I opened up a Flickr account. I took several pictures of our library at St. Mary's Colgan and uploaded them to Flickr. Then I sent one of the pictures to my blog as you can see below. It was very easy to do so you will probably be seeing more pictures on my blog in the future. Next I'm going to make a short video clip of my pictures using Animoto.

St. Mary's Colgan Library 10

St. Mary's Colgan Library 10
Originally uploaded by mama librarian

This is a picture I took of our library at St. Mary's Colgan. It looks lonely without students.

Week Three - Online Meetings

For my online meetings assignment, I watched an archived webinar from SirsiDynix titled 25 Technologies to Watch and How. Stephen Abram presented this webinar two years ago on Jan. 31, 2008. It was interesting to see what he predicted as the technologies to watch compared to where they are two years later. I found the How part of the presentation interesting as well. One of the suggestions he made was to schedule 15 minutes three times a week to learn something new. That's what I like about the 23 Things Kansas program. It's a way of making myself take the time to learn. And sometimes learning one thing leads to another. Did you notice my Voki to the right on my blog? I discovered Voki through another blog I'm following. As Stephen Abram points out, we have to find time to play.

Week Two - Online Communities

For week two I chose to use Facebook because I was already a member. I reviewed my privacy settings, friended a couple of people from the library community, updated my status, wrote on someone's wall, and became a fan of 23 Things Kansas. I spent more time on Facebook this week than I had the past 6 months. It's a great way to stay connected and discover the latest news.

Week One - Blogging

So, I finally created a blog. This is my first activity as a participant of 23 Things Kansas. I'm excited about learning new technology but a bit concerned about finding time! I'll be letting you know how it turns out.

I started with a blog on wordpress but it would not allow me to add a Shelfari widget. I wanted to build a favorites bookshelf for the visitors to my blog, so I started over with this blog. Hmm... I took a simple exercise and made it more difficult. Maybe that's why I'm always short on time!