Thing 9

I was already a member of YouTube and have used it quite a bit for posting and viewing videos, mainly for entertainment, not work, purposes. I find it easy to search for videos and to rate videos and leave comments. I subscribe to some people's videos so that I am notified when they post new videos. That's a nice service fromYouTube. I commented on Taylor Mali's video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsOVK4syxU) and rated some videos by singers I enjoy.

YouTube is blocked at my school, so it is frustrating to search for and find good videos, but not be able to play them. I guess I could do something time consuming like finding a video copying site, downloading the YouTube video to my home computer, copying it to a CD and taking it to school. I don't even know if that would be good to do in the world of copyright...

Anyway, I found an uploader who reads aloud some children's books while the cover picture shows on the video. I guess if I had laryngitis, I could use this reader while I showed the pages of the book. ;) I think I may find more useful items for school at TeacherTube and SchoolTube...

TeacherTube has more relevant videos, but I haven't found a ton for the library arena. The videos I have watched have been nice, but nothing I would use in my teaching. Subject areas seem more popular topics for videos. And, oh my goodness!, it is super slow and has just refused to run some searches. I don't know if it's just today or my computer, but I would get frustrated if it's always like this. I liked that it has "channels" that break the videos down into areas, but there is only an elementary channel--nothing for libraries. I wish the elementary channel had further subject divisions.

SchoolTube had more hits for general library-related searches, such as "library" or "books", but not for specific topics, like "Dewey Decimal". The site ran much faster than TeacherTube. I didn't like how the results for my search only showed the partial title for the video. I had to click on each video to see what it was about, which wasted time. SchoolTube seemed to have more videos made by students or with students in them. An idea from SchoolTube is to have students make videos giving book reviews.

YouTube is my favorite of the video sites in how it is set up and how it runs, but it has the least useful videos for school.

Thing 8

I really like spelling with Flickr (http://metaatem.net/words/Jane). I was being picky and trying to find my last three letters as lowercase letters, but then I got the Scrabble "A" and had to keep it. I love to play Scrabble. I couldn't get the embed code to work to post my name picture, so I saved it to my hard drive. However, it would only save each letter individually. So I added each letter to my blog separately and, after a couple of tries, got it to look like this, but I couldn't get it in a nice line like "23 Things" is for their blog. This tool is one of the most fun for me, but I don't quite know how to use it properly. Also, the dark blue font on a black background was not visible to my eyes! I had to highlight the page to read what it said.

Looking at Flickr pictures in specific colors (http://www.krazydad.com/colrpickr/) makes me feel artsy and as if I want to do something creative. Too bad I'm not terribly creative when left to my own devices. It is really interesting to see the multitude of photos available in every color of the spectrum.

The Flickr Montager (http://www.deviousgelatin.com/montager/image.php) was interesting, but not all that effective in creating one large picture. The individual pictures are too small to appreciate separately, although I did discover that if I rested my mouse on a tiny picture, I could see it a bit larger. The whole picture doesn't clearly represent the design for which it's aiming. I would like to be able to select which picture is used for the overall large one. I searched "cats" and "dogs."

Flickr Sudoko (http://www.beckysweb.co.uk/sudoku/flickrsudoku.asp) could be very addictive to sudoku fans. Thankfully, that doesn't include me because I have enough internet addictions with which to fill my time. Now, Flickr Memry (http://www.pimpampum.net/memry/enter.php) is one I could become addicted to...mindless fun. I am going to forget I ever saw that website.

I made my permit for Ginger at http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/badge.php. I saved it to my computer to be safe and then clicked "share" to see if I could get a code to embed here. Well, that asked me to set up an account. When I tried to go back to the previous page, my badge was gone. So, I still haven't figured out how to embed photos in my blog, darn it. There are a lot of other fun tools at Big Huge Labs (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/).

There are many fun things to try at Image Generator (http://www.imagegenerator.org/). It seems to be a listing of other sites that have image generators. Some require registration or even paid membership. I tried out different hairstyles at http://www.dailymakeover.com/makeover/virtualMakeover. They weren't so great. :)

I can't figure out how to move pictures around in my blog. I'd like to be able to slide them to different locations. I also wanted to put one at the bottom, which isn't an option.

This was the most time-consuming "thing" so far. There are just so many photo tools to explore.

Thing 7

I actually already had a Flickr account, but I haven't done anything with it for awhile because I haven't organized my pictures. I hadn't added tags to my previously-uploaded photos. I also hadn't paid attention to the public-versus-private option.

In the school setting, pictures taken by teachers or students could be uploaded to Flickr to share. It could be photos from a field trip, an event at school, a classroom activity, or anything. If students' are in the photos, the setting will need to be private for the safety of the children. Flickr also has nice products teachers could buy. A teacher could organize the class pictures into a book to be printed and kept as a memento.

In searching Flickr, students could use the public domain photos for their own projects. It would be important to discuss with the students which photos they are allowed to use. The Library of Congress photos aren't nearly as exciting as the vast quantity of amazing photos on Flickr. So, students will need to be well-versed in the copyright guidelines. Art teachers could use Flickr to look at artistic photos with a class and discuss them.

Thing 6

I chose this picture from Flickr from the Library of Congress photos. After our very long winter, I am longing for spring and warmth and sunshine, and the flowers made me feel like summer. I am ready to be done with grey snow and cold dampness. Flowers would be welcome right now.

Most of the Library of Congress photos are in black and white. These flowers were in color, making them even more appealing.

I did not know about Creative Commons licensing. After reading about it on Wikipedia, I find it an interesting concept.

Thing 5

Every time I title a new blog entry, I think of Dr. Seuss' Thing 1 and Thing 2. :)

I really like the toolbar button to subscribe with Bloglines. It is the simplest way to subscribe to an RSS feed and saves the time of looking around for an RSS button.

Searching for blogs through Google Blog Search and Technorati showed the overwhelming amount of blogs that are out there. Their general search tool often gave a lot of hits that weren't really about the topics for which I was looking. My search term may have been mentioned once in one blog entry, but the subject of the blog was quite different. Searching the tags in Technorati helped get better results, but there are still so many blogs!

Using RSS will help me keep track of blogs that I enjoy without having to remember to visit each individual site.