11.5 Things: Thing #2

I am familiar with some of these word manipulation sites already... I have used Wordle quite a bit and I love it. However, some of these are new to me, so I'll highlight those and give examples related to those "new" learning opportunities.

* Wordsift is similar to wordle, but with less options, in my opinion. I see its value, but I'll choose Wordle over it any day. Students could take a paper, poem, or anything they just wrote and enter it to see where the cloud "settles"... something I know they'd enjoy!
* Glogster... I have heard of this and played with it very little. Making a poster online is simply spectacular. It's kind of like a graffiti wall on crack. I definitely love it! I think it's a much more valuable assignment than cutting and pasting to a piece of cardboard to turn in to a teacher. It requires a great deal of tech-savvy-ness (is that a word?) to get everything set and ready for display. I spent a long time selecting a background and uploading pictures, etc., and then my computer froze and I had to restart, therefore losing my project. :( No fun.
* Voice Thread was fun, but I liked the other things better. Students would enjoy it and it's a good thing to offer teachers as an option.
* Animoto and I are friends, but not as good as I want us to be. I frequently forget that I've subscribed and can make whatever videos I want! The thing that bugs me most is the music... it never comes out the way I want it to and I don't enjoy it as much as if I could put my OWN music on, but that would be a copyright problem, of course. But I do love it.
* My Voki is over on the left. Can you hear the audio? I can't. And it's cut off on the right. Hmmmm.... but it's cute, right?! :)
* Bookr - LOVE it, but I see how students could get caught in here and never return! Sometimes having lots of options for young children (unlimited photo access) is difficult! However, I love it, and it would be a great way to teach students about how to find copyright-ok photos!

11.5 Things: Thing #1

I loved this video. It was exactly and completely what the Library 2.0 Librarian should be doing for students. In addition, she should be providing the teacher with the tools to positively affect students in the way depicted in the video.

If only schools were able to have this type of "utopian" learning environment in every class...

Loved this video! I want to show it to my teachers at the start of the year!

Attention 23 Things Players...

I am a fellow colleague who works in Spring Branch ISD. If you see a few comments on your 23 things blogs, don't be concerned... it's just me reading and learning along with you, and enjoying your blog comments.

I will shortly be starting the 2nd version of 23 things called 11 1/2 things... but for now, I'm just a commenter in your learning process.

:)

Cafe Read 2009

A 3rd grade teacher at Valley Oaks decided to create a Reading Restaurant of sorts to celebrate Read Across America Day... thus, Cafe Read was born. Last year, she did it in her classroom and we all visited. This year, we decided to host it in the Library and collaborate on it together. It was fabulous!

More Video - 8/20 LIS Meeting

I struggle with patience when TeacherTube is involved. It is soooooo slow within the district. When I finally get on, there's great stuff, but it's frustrational b/c of the time it takes to load, search, and play videos.

I love YouTube. I truly wish it were unblocked, but I do understand why it is unavailable. There's lots of crazy stuff on YouTube, much of it inappropriate for young eyes and ears. I am less familiar w/ Zamzar b/c I've never actually converted a YouTube to a Zamzar video, but I just played with it and converted a video which I will get later via email. :)

I have also made a MovieMaker file.

Here it is! Coolness! :)

Video Manipulation - 8/20 LIS Meeting

In this round, we played in Photo Story, which is a great free program that comes from Microsoft. Although it took a while to upload, here is my video that I created with pictures from my trip to Florida this summer.

I am so glad that it worked!!!

Audio Manipulation - 8/20 LIS Meeting

This was a bit more stressful than Image Manipulation b/c I have less familiarity, in general, with audio files and how to work with them.

I used audacity to record my voice, and then went to Incompetech and captured some royalty-free music. I then merged the 2 files and saved them as an mp3 file. As asked, I tried to upload the file to the Sandbox in our Wiki, but it didn't work. :)

Ah, well... good thing I wasn't in front of an entire class when this happened.

Good information here but not super successful.