Thing # 12

I found myself in a steep learning curve when I got to thing #12. I had assumed that blogging was kind of like thinking out loud. I had not considered the whole concept from the perspective of the audience. I have not tried to hyper link as the html is rather intimidating to me, but I intend to attempt it in the next few days to come back and link to some of the sites I am mentioning here.
I am going to look into CoComment in more depth. It looks very interesting and I do use FireFox as my browser.
As I went into How to invite comments, I thought to myself that this would create a responsibility in me to respoint to all the comments. I was relieved to read that not every one feels the compulsion to respond [10% did seem quite minimal]. I know that my strength is open ended comments, so I am going to throw a few of those out there, and see what happens.
I like the idea of a community in cyber space. Much of the social judging that we do in face to face interaction has strong overtones of our social, religious, economical and educational background. I wonder how much of this is picked up in blogs.

Oh, I have a question in all of this is: is there such thing as too much .... in this process? AND what about the voyeurs... where do they fit in?

Thing # 11

This is an incredible site. I have just logged one author in and it is incredible. I love the visual aspect. I am not a list person, so to be able to see the book jacket is great. It is the same feature I love about iTunes. I will be working on my LibraryThing site off and on till I catalog all of my library collection.

Thing # 10

1. I love playing around! These cartoons are great learning tools. Every word must count or it just doesn't work. Here is the site I used: http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/

2. The fake magazine site is great for political satire =0) This is where I created this magazine cover: http://graphics.imagetemplate.net/magazines/?page=10



3. The puzzle maker is interesting but I don't know how I would apply it just yet. Here is the link: http://bighugelabs.com/jigsaw.php



But my favorite is BigHugsLabs. It's all in one place and I think that this would be most efficient when working with the kids.

Thing # 9

Blogs, wikis' and RRS feeds.... so much information, so little time. I really liked Cool Cat's recommendations about surrounding yourself with wise... I know I get impatient when I run across someone with a soap box. I am looking for the communicator myself. I checked out CC's own choices and found a few I liked, then did a bit of a personal search, and am pleased with my personal list.
I also liked Edublog for many reasons. First of all I wanted to see what a really good blog looked like and I was very happy to see so many variations on a theme. I really want to develop my own presence when I am out in cyberspace and now I have a few inspired thoughts thanks to this site. I still don't know what type of blogging I am interested in.... guess time will tell.
I wandered into a space on YouTube that had a great wiki vidio, and it got me thinking about collaboration methods... I see wiki use in my future collaboration efforts! Very serendipitous. I think that is what I like most about this new method of communication. I may start out looking for one ting, but invariably I find other items that are potentially useful in other areas. Keeping an open mind while searching may be the key to this paradigm shift.

Thing # 8

I have always been wary of the strange little orange icon. After creating my own way to manage them, I have found that they can be useful. I just found a great deal on pet prescriptions while doing my homework. I like this!
I can see how you can manage your professional communications much more effectively without feeling totally overwhelmed. With some well honed skim reading skills, I could actually keep up with the trends that are my passion and those that are my responsibility efficiently. I believe I will keep up with my Google reader account. I have put it into my quick links bar, so that i don't forget it. Once it becomes a habit, like my 3 e-mail accounts, facebook , and online banking, I can remove it from the must remember checklist.

Thing # 7

Google has always been a favorite of mine. In fact, at home and on the computers in my class we use Blackle the energy saving component of google. Now I find that there are way to many choices out there to customize any aspect of my online experience you can think of. I built the quick home page and found that in no time I had cluttered it with so many "aps" that I would never leave the space if I tried to take advantage of all the "tailored to my taste" toys I had collected. only a minimalist could survive this onslaught of multimedia nirvana.
The practical tools and information is as amazing with the volume of information right at your fingertips... literally.
It seems I am not all that good at the game "Where in the World" by round 22 my highest score was 657. hmmm.

Thing #6

Yahoo travel trip planner was a neat mashup site. It is a great way to let people see where you have been. No more hard copy photo albums for me. I didn't understand color pickr though. I couldn't see it as an application, but is was a great way to see the photos. Will need to get some guidance here. I really liked mosaic maker. I think the kids could do some neat assignments with this one. This is not a topic that one can skim over, but I have to get up and walk away frequently because all of the possibilities are a bit overwhelming.

Thing # 5

Flickr is huge. I wandered for about 2 hours, and still don't think I have a real grasp of the scope of this site. I love the Big Huge labs page and all of the flickr toys. I think I will upload some pictures and see how they can be organized and I feel like I can search for pics pretty well but will have to be aware of the fair use practices.
Some of the pictures are so awesome, that I immediately wanted to know how they got the effects. Being a minor photo geek, I am always curious how a shot was captured. This site could be a time warp trigger for me.
pepper

Thing #4

It's done. I need to see if I can personalize it a bit, but for a first time I feel pretty good about it..nuff said.

Thing # 3

Well, I think I have officially created a blog. It lacks much, but it exists somewhere out there. I hope to keep up with it through out the summer, and maybe someone will read it. lol
I feel like I should say something worth while, but all I keep thinking of the old query: If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it really make a sound?
So I am wondering, if you have a blog and no one reads it, is it really a blog? hhmmm??

Thing #2

71/2 habits was most interesting, though not surprising after 3 decades of teaching. I am glad that the 1/2 was added. To my way of thinking, if you are not in it for the fun, then you are in the wrong business. So the easiest would be the 1/2. On the other hand I believe that the Think/win/win is for me the hardest. When you think of maintaining one or two interpersonal relationships sucessfuly on a professional basis, this habit is doable, but when you are trying to keep up with an entire staff, or even 5 to 6 grade levels, it becomes very complicated, and sometimes I am not as flexible as I would like to be. I become frustrated when more often than I like, I find the answer is no deal. I have to pull back and remember my original goals and regroup to Think, and Win another day.
On a completely different note, I thought the powerpoint was a little anticlimactic... I expected a few more bells and whistles.

Thing #1

I didn't realize until I did the reading in Thing # 1 that my Facebook page is just a controlled blog where all of the layout and design are done for you... That made me a bit more curious to see what else I could do. Still not sure how I feel about wikis though.