Thing 7 - Flickr 2

Obviously, Flickr is a neat site with lots of creative potential. I liked the video suggestion (from thing 6) of searching with the tag "metaphor". I can see Flickr being used with creative writing and visual literacy lessons. I can also see art teachers using it to start discussions about visual design. I do have concerns about students using this, when questionable stuff can come up. I also find that I need to always think about separating my personal life and my professional life with Web 2.0 applications. I am happy to see that I have the choice to make certain images public, and others private. I can also imagine needing to upgrade my account, as I have only uploaded several photos and have already used up 10% of my allotted space for this month!

Thing 6 - Flickr

I am finding that most of these tools are intuitive. The most frustrating thing is that they can't all be accessed with the same passwords! I wish I could have a home page with all of this linked and passwords embedded....

I can imagine using this site with a class, but I prefer the Library of Congress site and AP photos....you don't have to sift through so much junk, and you don't have to worry about copyright. I found, through an advanced search, a Creative Commons photo taken in Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house- of a bookshelf in a stairway- I like the monochrome quality and texture of the rocks. (...and I know Matt H. will appreciate it!) Here it is:

Thing 5 - Blogs 2

I feel comfortable searching for and subscribing to blogs in different ways. One thing I noticed is that many of the movers and shakers are starting to use twitter and ning and facebook rather than the blog....is the blog becoming passe? For instance, I found on several pages that the twitter and facebook widgets were up front and center, while I had to scroll down to find a subscribe button. Hmmmm....also, Ning is Joyce Valenza's preferred way to communicate, it seems. Do we have access to Ning in WPS?

Once again, I am trying to keep this managable so that it can become a usable thing for me, rather than an overwhelming thing.....

Thing 4 - RSS

As I mentioned in my post on Thing 3, the blog universe can be overwheming. I have decided to start small, with some of the very best inspirational sites. I created a LibraryTech folder, where I have subscribed to three blogs: Joyce Valenza's School Library Journal Blog, entitled Neverendingsearch; David Pogue's NYT Tech blog, and the blog of the Unquiet Librarian, a high school library media specialist whom I admire. I also created a file called books, where I have posted the Librarything author blog, and Unquiet Librarian (yes, I have her in two folders, as she is prolific!). We'll see how it goes.

My biggest confusion right now is that I am not sure where these posts will pop up. When I originally created my google account, I created a gmail address, thinking that I had to do so. I have my wilton school email listed as an additional address. However, my iGoogle page (which was created with the gmail address) does not show the blogs that I subscribed to. I guess I'll have to play with it. I also did not find the last video (creating folders) on the 23 thing blog to be helpful. The woman did not explain things well at all- I did better just figuring it out on my own.

Thing 3 - Blogs

So, I spent quite a bit of time pointing and clicking into blogs- some were very useful, some not so. It is so easy to be pulled off in so many directions, and to lose site of where/why you started! I suppose the best thing to do is to add links of the best educational sites to my favorites, and check them now and again. The most useful thing I think I pulled from Thing 3 is a list of 30 ideas of how to use blogs in the classroom. I am definitely going to use this. I have already seen first-hand how useful blogs are in AP government, as an example.

I got a chuckle when I read the blog from ISTE on critical thinking in web 2.0- one presenter called critical thinking "crap detection"!!!

The biggest obstacle here? TIME to keep up! Maybe RSS will help.....onto Thing 4....

Thing 1 and Thing 2, or, "Here I go again..."

I started 23 Things in February of '09 through the State of CT, and got through some, but not all of it. Here I go again! As for the YouTube videos in Thing 1, I had seen the first of the two- very compelling stuff, good to be reminded about the importance of technology in the lives of our students, and the idea that many feel they have to "power-down" in order to come to school. The second video was interesting as well....the fact that the move from HTML to XML allows for focus on content, and format becomes very user-friendly.

I have two concerns as I look forward to this challenge: First of all, I find that my "non-digital" learning style has me frustrated with the nature of learning web 2.0: it is always changing, and therefore what I learn today may be irrelevant tomorrow! Secondly, I cannot get past my librarian way of looking at authority: web 2.0 is all about collaboartion, and blogs are 21st century news sources, but I can't help saying "who WROTE this?"