Thing 16

After I looked at Assignment project calculator and Research Project Calculator, I came to the conclusion that I probably would not use them. At the K-4 level this is something that is not grade level appropriate. I did share these with my daughter who is a student at the U of M she showed some interest.

Thing 15

Working at the K-4 level I have been wrestling with gaming in the media center. Anytime the kids have free time they want to play games on the Internet. I am responsible for what they are able to play so I have created a list of games on our student webpage that have some educational value.

I did take a look at Pirates Puzzle and the view the Second Life video. Because I am not very game savvy it took me a while to figure out how to play the Pirates Puzzle game. I'm sure I would have done better if I had a student help me figure it out. There were a couple of games I came across that I would use in the media center, Quest Atlantis and Whyville.

Thing 14

This was my first visit to LibraryThing. It was easy to sign up and add titles. I like the how the book covers come right up for display. I had some trouble getting the widgit to come up on my blog the way I wanted it to. I see advantages to using LibraryThing but it is one more thing to keep updating.

In my media center we use the Destiny Resource Management system with the Titlepeek option. The kids really like the way the book covers come up when they do a book search. It makes it much easier for them to locate a book on the shelf.

Thing 13

I did create an iGoogle homepage adding a few gadgets. I played around with putting a calendar on my blog. I will continue to explore this feature as I would like to add one to my school webpage.

Thing 12

After finishing this "thing" I found that I don't digg. I did not put a great deal of time into this as it is not something that interest me right now. Would I use this at work? Not in my K-4 media center. Would I use it at home? Not right now. Of the four I found the layout of Mixx and Newsvine easier to sort through. It is mind boggling how much information is out there.

Thing 11

I had no idea what tags were before started " 23 Things". It is nice to have an understanding of how they work and what they are used for. Will I spend time tagging, probably not. There are so many tools out there that I find myself spending hours at the keyboard. I have decided to pick and choose what is important to work on.

I did organize my school bookmarks and put them on del.icio.us. This has eliminated emailing myself addresses when I work from home..

Thing 10

The video Common craft video on Wiki was perfect for someone like me who is new to all of this. It was interesting how the video used the old paper pencil and finger drag method of instruction. As I explore each one of these new tools I am impressed with how user friendly they are. It was very interesting to see how others are using a wiki.

Do I see a use for creating a wiki, absolutely. Will I create one soon, probably not. At the K - 4 level I am not sure this is a top priority for us. As a collaboration tool among colleagues I can think of many ways to incorporate a wiki. I find that in our school right now we have many new technology tools and very little at work time to integrate it into the curriculum. Adding a greeting to the 23 Things wiki was fun and easy to do.

Thing 9

As I took a look at Google docs and Zoho writer I found most of my time was spent using Zoho. Both programs were very user friendly. Over the years I have had experience with assisting staff and students in opening projects that have been stored on a flash drive or emailed to school. At times there have been issues with getting projects setup. These collaboration tools could eliminate some of those issues.
With tight budgets it has become more difficult to find funding to stay current with Microsoft licenses and web certificates. These tools could help elevate some of that.