Adding to Delicious: Week 4

Delicious has changed! Delicious has been acquired from Yahoo by AVOS.

For more information look at: http://www.avos.com/delicious-press-release/

Basically, it has a new look, new terminology, and some things were lost that the company is currently working to correct.

I had trouble figuring out how to search for multiple tags (put commas between tags) and I lost my network of fellow students. I could have sworn putting commas between tags did not work on Monday, but it worked on Wednesday. Hopefully other issues are quickly fixed.

Bookmarks are now Links. 
We now have "Stacks":
  a way of connecting and organizing related items.

I added two new Bookmarks….oops, Links.

http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com/

“This blog is my main on-line filing cabinet, open to the world. It focuses on interactive multimedia technology that supports collaboration, communication, creativity, and learning. Topics include multi-touch, touch and gesture interaction, HCI, UX, ID, IA, NUI (natural user interfaces/ natural user interaction), interactive displays/surfaces, mobile technologies, 3D, universal usability/accessibility, and interactive multimedia content in a 2.0/3.0 world.”

Initially I looked at an older post from May 12, 2009. 
A project is discussed: "The Children’s Interactive Library” by “Interactive Spaces, the Department of Computer Science, University of Aarhus, the Department for Design, Aarhus School of Architecture, and others." Pictures and videos show an interesting and fun place for children.

My other Link is for my Early Childhood Education Class:

http://www.literacy-builders.blogspot.com/

Overview of Blogs: Week 5

I continue to 

Follow Sources and Add to Delicious.

I also had some practice this week using Creative Commons. 

Creative Commons is a place where people can put items

they wish to share with others, 

such as photos and audio files. 

There are different levels of licenses available through Creative Commons. 

One may need only give "attribution" to the owner of the license

to use the item as they wish,

while other licenses specify that the item cannot be changed

and/or cannot be used commercially. 

Finding the photo for the assignment was the easy part.

My original idea was a child holding a balloon

but I did not find a picture close to the one I had in my mind.

I decide to search for tigers

and found pictures of a variety of animals from the cat family.

I picked fighting cubs because it reminded me of my children

when they were young ;-)

Then came the hard part! 

After listening to audio files until four in the morning

I found one that I thought was close to what I wanted.

I had trouble embedding it into my post

but managed with some help from my professor and my husband.

After some thought I decided to use a different audio file

that I had heard the previous night:

the theme to "Friends" by the Rembrandts.

Unfortunately I realized that there was not a license posted

for the audio file where I had found it.

(I thought about downloading from the musicians' website

because it is a free download

but I was unsure if this fit into the criteria of the assignment.)

Luckily I found the audio file I have on my post

after getting the search  box to work 

on one of the websites I had visited.

My little girl really likes the audio file

so what more could I want?

All together I am happy with the post.

I hope everyone enjoys it!

Following Sources: Week 3

As of Tuesday morning, Sept. 20th

Resource Shelf Blog – http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog

15 new posting! I will discuss two briefly:

September 14:

FromZDNet:

On August 31st Ask.com took its user-generated Q & A service out of beta and offered it to all of its members. One can ask in-depth questions and other members may answer.
Ask.com has also went mobile and the iPhone version has received one million downloads. An Android app will soon be available.

September 20:

From the report:

83% of adults own a cell phone and 73% use text-messages. A Pew Research Center survey asked how adults like to be contacted: by voice calls or text messages. 53% preferred voice calls, 31% preferred text-messages, and 14% said it depended on the situation. Young adults between the ages of 18 to 24 are the most avid users of text-messages.

ALA TechSource – http://www.alatechsource.org/blog

3 new postings, I will discuss one briefly:

September 14-Daniel A. Freeman

The workshop that I discusses last week, “Using Google Apps for a More Efficient Library,” finished its second session. The article discusses the preliminary readings again and gives the resources for the second session. These are both books so I could not read them for this post. There is a link to slides used in the presentation by Suzann Holland “Basic Tools, New Realms.”

Adding to Delicious: Week 3

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com

“The World’s largest reviewer of books, multimedia, and technology for children and teens.”

Amazon.com regularly posts reviews from School Library Journal for children books;

I have used these to help make decisions on the value of books,

plus provide information on the contents.

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/bestlist/bestwebsitestop25.cfm

“The "Top 25" Websites foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration.

They are free, Web-based sites that are user friendly and encourage

a community of learners to explore and discover.”

Several of the categories seem geared for older students:

Media Sharing, Social Networking and Communications,

and Content Collaboration.

Digital Storytelling's websites seem geared for younger students:

PicLits, Zooburst, and Myths and Legends.

In Zooburst,

Children can create a 3-D book, add their own voice for the characters,

and pick from thousands of images and materials for their story.

Sibling Rivalry

Always Fighting, a photo by MacJewell on Flickr.
License Some rights reserved by MacJewell
Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
-----
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Attribution 2.0  Artist: Dmitry Urupin
http://turbulence.org/soundtransit/search/artistinfo.php?id=247

Google Reader

One of the assignments for this week is to start
a RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Reader account and add feeds. 

We need to add the blogs of our fellow students, the sources we are following,
and any personal or professional RSS feeds we want to add. 

I discovered that when I started my Gmail account at the beginning
of the Fall Semester I had also started Google Reader,
so part of the work was already completed.

I do not follow blogs in my everyday life but those who are "followers"
would find a RSS reader very convenient.
Some blogs are updated quite infrequently but contain good information.
Instead of checking each blog to see if they have posted new articles
they simple check their RSS reader to see who has recently updated
and can read the article while in the RSS reader
or go to the website. 
 

I had clicked "follow" on some of my fellow student's blogs who use blogspot.

This is a simple process; click "follow" in the upper left hand corner,

then click "follow" again in the small screen that pops up, then "close,"
and you are done!

My blog dashboard shows the students I am "following"
and I discovered these are also on my Google Reader. Cool!

I added the rest of my fellow student's blogs who use blogspot by this method.

 One thing I do not like is that the blogs are in alphabetical order

by the title of the blog even after I renamed them by student name.

 I added those who use wordpress by clicking "Add a subscription"

in the left hand corner of Google Reader

and typing in the url of their blog. 

I also renamed these blogs by student name.

I added the two sources I am following by using the "Add a subscripton" method.

  I used the search box to find more blogs to follow.

I chose the ALSC blog (Association for Library Service to Children)

since I wish to work in Children's Services, 

For Better or For Worse Strip Fix because I like this comic strip

(it also has notes from the author of the comic strip),

and Google News Blog because it seems to be a regular source

of news for the resources I am following.

I looked through the postings of our blogs for the last two weeks and while 

it is more convenient to have everyone's postings on one page, I think it loses

the "personal touch" of actually going to the blog.

Following Sources: Week 2

As of Monday, Sept. 12th:

Resource Shelf Blog – http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog

Twelve new postings! I choose two to discuss briefly:

September 8:

From Official Google Blog – “Google Acquires Zagat”

Zagat is a website that reviews for restaurants using surveys by users of the site, both members and nonmembers. The restaurant locations are throughout the United States and also include 24 international locations. The ratings are based on a 30 point scale. The previous owners of the website, Nina and Tim Zagat, started the surveys 32 years ago and will remain as co-Chairs.

September 12:

From press release – “Springer Releases Web Tool for Downloading MARC Records and eBook Title Lists” The article was very short and did not provide much information beyond the headline.

ALA TechSource – http://www.alatechsource.org/blog

Two new postings:

September 7-Daniel A. Freeman

“Continuing the Conversation: Using Google Apps for a More Efficient Library”

The blog has a few articles that are ongoing and begin with “Continuing the Conversation.” Since I am new to the conversation it can be a bit confusing!

A workshop about Google Apps was taking place and had finished its first session. A couple of the subjects were a comparison of Google Apps versions and why you should use Google Apps over Gmail.

September 8-Patrick Hogan

The blog discusses an upcoming workshop by Buffy Hamilton: “Creating Subject Guides for the 21st-Century Library.” There are four preliminary readings for the workshop and it sounds rather interesting. A couple of them are “Getting More From Your Subject Guides by Going 2.0” and “Pathfinders, Subject Guides, & Thematic Resources.”

The workshop costs $50.00

Adding to Delicious: Week 2

http://www.abe-clio.com/ODLIS/odlis_A.aspx

 

ODLIS = Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science

Some information about this site:

Created in1994-

originated at Haas Library at Western Connecticut State University as a brief four page handout for undergraduates unfamiliar with basic library terms. 

Today it has approximately 4800 terms.

ODLIS is available online and in print.

The dictionary is a “work in progress” and “expansion of the dictionary is an ongoing process.”

http://www.ala.org/greatsites

ALA and ALSA - Great Web Sites for Kids

I love this site!

It has 10 main categories, such as Animals, Literature & Language, The Arts, Reference Desk, and Social Sciences.

Each main category is further subdivided. 

I choose to follow a couple of the subdivisions. 

Under The Arts I clicked “Museums” and was given 20 websites for museums, with  brief descriptions. 

The museums vary from the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis

to the Web Museum, Paris to the Salem (Mass.) Witch Museum. 

Under Literature and Language I clicked “Favorite Children’s Stories.” 

Here I discovered 40 websites with a variety of interest, such as: Animorphs, Berenstain Bears, Poetry, Junie B. Jones, Seussville, and The Story Home.

The website has a pencil symbol with an initial to help determine for whom the websites are intended:

Green pencil/P for Prek, Red pencil/E for Elementary, Blue pencil/M for Middle School, and Yellow pencil/ P for Parents/Teachers/Caregivers.

Following Sources

Assignment: Pick two or three sources from the end of Chapter 2 and follow them for six weeks, with weekly reports of helpful information. After a six week period of following blogs, make a decision as to if the sources were worth watching.

http://www.alatechsource.org/blog

September 1-Kate Sheenhan

The blog discussed the reliability of reviews on Yelp.com. Recently Ms. Sheenhan was in a unfamiliar city and used the reviews from Yelp.com to determine a quality place to eat, but was sadly disappointed. She feels she has a lot of experience with sorting through online reviews and wonders if reviews are becoming like comments.

I had never heard of Yelp. I discovered it is a site that allows anyone to review numerous categories (hotels, restaurants, etc.) in numerous cities in the United States, plus Paris and London.

August 30-Jason Griffey

The blog discusses three events that have recently happened:

"Google bought Motorola Mobility"
"HP drops WebOS...and computers?"
"Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple"

From these articles Mr. Griffey advises that a library's next Android device be Motorola, and warns that a library who currently use HP as their source of desktop systems will soon be looking elsewhere.

http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/

"Welcome to the ResourceShelf ResourceBlog where dedicated librarians and researchers share the results of their directed (and occasionally quirky) web searches for resources and information."

September 7:

From press release - "Free "Early Journal Content" from JSTOR"
JSTOR is allowing free access to journal content to anyone in the world for articles that were published before 1923 in the U.S. and before 1870 from anywhere else. This represents close to half a million articles from over 200 journals.

From PC World - "Google Voice Added to Archive Service"
Google now allows user of Google Voice to archive their data.

I had to do some research to understand this article since I have no experience with Google Voice or Google Takeout. "Google Takeout allows you to download a copy of your data stored within Google products"

(https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=backup&passive=1209600&authuser=0&continue=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Ftakeout%2F&followup=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Ftakeout%2F)

I found the information about Motorola and HP the most interesting as the information may effect my own personal buying decisions in the future. I also learned a little bit about subjects in which I had no prior knowledge. Overall, the blogs were worth the time I spent in both reading them and trying to comprehend the knowledge in them.

New to Me: Delicious!

This week I discovered a new way to bookmark the web: Delicious. Delicious allows one to bookmark websites and tag them for organization. Once you have set-up a Delicious account and have websites bookmarked, you can access your bookmarks using any computer with internet access.  

Here are the two websites I bookmarked for this assignment. I will be adding more websites in the coming weeks. So let us begin!

http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/

The site has tabs for Parents, Teachers, Librarians, Principals, and Other Professionals.

Under the “For Librarian” tab are their top 12 resources, including:

a. Videos of over 80 award winning authors and illustrators

b. Themed booklists

c. Librarian toolkit

“This free toolkit, developed by Reading Rockets and the Association for Library Services to Children and the Association of School Librarians of the American Library Association, contains resources to make it easy for librarians to offer community forums, discussions, and workshops for parents, teachers, and caregivers on how to support children's reading achievement.”

The site also offers free Newsletters:

a. Rocket Blasts allows you to receive an e-mail each weekday morning with the latest news concerning “reading, literacy, early childhood, and elementary education issues.” 
It is also available on weekly bases. 

b. Reading Rockets News is a monthly newsletter.

c. Growing Readers offers tips for raising strong readers and writers. 
It is mostly for parents and is used by schools and libraries as a resource.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of helpful information and resources available.

http://www.storyblocks.org/   

Various short videos using rhyme and song-for babies, toddlers and preschoolers

“Children get ready to read long before they start Kindergarten. 
You can help by singing, talking, and playing with the children in your care. 
Watch our videos to learn fun songs and rhymes, and how they help build readers!”

(I also added a couple more bookmarks but they are for my ECED course.)

Wikis

    I have told fellow students that their professors will NOT let them use Wikipedia as a source on papers but it is good for background information about a source. Wikipedia has lots of information on many topics but it is considered unreliable because the authors may not be authorities on the subject since anyone can edit the pages. Wikipedia can lead one to other sources that are considered more reliable.

I feel the same way about Wikipedia after reading more about wikis and Wikipedia for this week's assignment. Personally I use it when I am just curious about something or I am having trouble locating information; it usually give me a basic understanding of the subject and it has led me to other sites for more information. The other subjects in the articles can be quite helpful when doing research.

I have never edited Wikipedia. I have never found a subject that I felt I was an authority on the material, although I have found articles in which I felt part of the information was incorrect.
I do not believe I have enough knowledge of web syntax to judge it, but wiki syntax seems to be easier than HTML.I hate to say more on a subject that I am so vague on my correct information.

I have in the past used a wiki for a class project and we ended up asking the teacher if we could change to group pages because we found them easier to use and we were familiar with group pages. I see now that we could have each added our part of the project individually and worked together to make the simple corrections needed to make the complete project. It would have saved time when we noticed something that needed fixed on another persons uploaded file.

I think wikis can be useful if everyone concerned understands how to use them. It allows multiple people to add to a project and edit it as new information becomes available. But people can edit information that is correct or add information that is incorrect. Participants need to be able to work together and constructively use feedback.

This week we did a couple activities and added them to class wikis. First we looked up sources from our textbook in library catalogs/databases and added to a group wiki when/if we found the material. My class is online and the group members used libraries from all over the state. I enjoyed looking up the material and I personally felt compelled to locate the items even when they were not in my library's catalog or database.


We also added to a wiki in which we each gave a review for one of the items we had located. It was interesting reading everyone's reviews.