Book Brat (Teresa)

I had two initial ideas for a website. I chose to further a project I completed for LIS 716 (Communication for Leadership). The project I created was a pathfinder for the first grade team/students at my school. The topic is dinosaurs since they will be studying this soon. So I decided to create my website based on the materials I had already gathered. I will eventually link the website from my school’s website.

The first page is quite boring so I will have to spruce it up eventually. The second page is a link to a smattering of print resources Allen (my school) offers. I listed fiction, non-fiction, and guided reading books. The third page is media resources. These are websites and webquests. Finally, my pdf is a complete listing of the actual pathfinder.

I was rather frustrated in completing this project. My skill level is below that of others in the class and I think my site epitomizes the typical 80s site (ugh). I need a lot more practice to produce better work and imagine creativity will come in time. I am glad to have had this opportunity to enjoy class with awesomely talented colleagues and superb instructor. I just want to add that I feel better about my project today than I did yesterday. With the help and support of classmates, I am glad to have completed my first official html coded webpage. Thanks again…Teresa

Thanks to Renee who helped me design and execute the site. Hopefully, public acknowledgement won’t lead to a grade reduction.

http://domin.dom.edu/students/geratere/LIS753/dinopath.html

TeacherTube is a free resource dedicated to viewing teachers’ lessons. This site launched on March 6, 2007 and the goal is to provide the online community with space to share instructional videos. The company wanted a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers. Teachers can post videos or have students watch videos on a certain topic (in the hopes that your school has access to this website).

TeacherTube was started by Jason Smith, who has been an educator for 14 years. His brother, Adam and wife, Jodie also pitched in to begin the process.

“With TeacherTube, community members can:

• Upload, tag and share videos worldwide.
• Upload Support Files to attach your educational Activities, Assessments, Lesson Plans, Notes, and Other file formats to your video.
• Browse hundreds of videos uploaded by community members.
• Find, join and create video groups to connect with people who have similar interests.
• Customize the experience by subscribing to member videos, saving favorites, and creating playlists.
• Integrate TeacherTube videos on websites using video embeds or APIs.
• Make videos public or private – users can elect to broadcast their videos publicly or share them privately with those they invite.”

It is free to join, but you must be a member to post comments. You can log in and get a password immediately. Once you have taken the video, click on the upload button at the right hand side. Here you will describe and tag the video. Once you find the file, you can assign it as public or private view.

The site has many options from which to choose. You can choose from a list of videos on the homepage from the following categories: most viewed, most discussed, most recent, top favorites, top rated, recently featured, and random. There are also “today’s featured videos.”

You can subscribe to many different RSS Feeds under the Channels tab. You can join a group so that you can view similar videos or be part of a private group and view the group’s videos. There are also two blogs in which you can participate.

Users can flag inappropriate videos which will be viewed by the TeacherTube staff and they will remove any inappropriate material.  The obvious use for this site is to view and post teacher lesson plans. Students can also join in to create various videos.

The two issues I had when I was working on the site were the speed and the advertisements. Maybe it is just at some points or some particular videos that run really slow. The ads rotate and one could be considered inappropriate for an elementary school setting (it was a horror film website with a scantily clad woman surrounded by a beastly ghoul).

As an elementary school library media specialist I would use this to benefit a class in which I had already collaborated with the teacher. The content can vary. One project I would put online is our 4th grade egg dropping contest (students build container which they think will withstand an egg breaking when dropped from 6′).

A school in Bartlett posted a video on how kindergartners used shape blocks to create symmetrical designs: http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=fcee05b046edd635e27d

Have you heard of Clay Animation? Well, take a look at this link and you will see how it works:

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=c904e22309f6fa599e98 

The following link is to an article about TeacherTube’s history and how teachers use it: http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/articles/0326biz-TeacherTube-26.html

Some challenges, of course, would be getting access to the site through a school district. Teacher/parent/student/administration permission to post online may be an issue. Safety may also be a concern for some.

I decided that I would like to evaluate a school l library’s website since I will be a school librarian later this year. I attended the ICE Tech-Fest in February and attended a standing room only session presented by teachers/librarians from an Arlington Heights school  http://www.ahsd25.k12.il.us/~RebeccaDufern/dufern/index.html. They were on top of things and created so many activities for their students. I figured their website had to be outrageous and I was not disappointed. I will be using a checklist that Michael placed on our blog. It is titled Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005 (Jakob Nielsen, Oct. 3-05).

The homepage for this school library has a white background with a picture of the school on it. The title bar is a blue sky with white clouds. A picture of the mascot, a dolphin, is located in the top right hand corner. As you scroll down the page, you will see a picture of the four librarians/aides. They are in a “READ” poster in which ALA sells the software. There is a link to send them an email. If I had Outlook set up, it would work. There are also 2 other links to the school home page and the district. At the very bottom, there is a note that the site was created using RapidWeaver on a Mac.

All of the main links are located on the right side text box. They are white boxes with blue lettering. I will analyze the website as I go through the checklist:

1) Legibility problems- The font is very basic and easy to read. Although the text could be larger in the text columns, it is readable. The contrast is okay. The blue does jump from the white background.

2) Non-standard links-links were established when scrolled over by the mouse in two ways: the cursor changing to the hand and the text box highlighted in blue. Other links on the page were in blue text. All of the links worked.

3) Flash- all of the links worked, but when animated slideshows appeared, I had to scroll down the page to see it.

 4) Content not written for the web- The content is marvelous. The library has links to their curriculum, technology projects, pathfinders, teacher links, pictures of the library, book preview slideshows, and the list goes on and on. This is really a great resource for school librarians.

5)  Bad Search- There is no search box for the content of the webpage.

6) Browser Incompatibility- webpage is compatible with Internet Explorer

7)Cumbersome Forms- no forms on this page were found.

8) No Contact Information- Contact information was found and you can email librarians directly.

9) Frozen Layouts- page does not have frozen layout.

10) Inadequate Photo Enlargement-Photos were properly enlarged.

I do not have many suggestions for improvement. The site has wonderful content, which I think is most important for me. Maybe it could be more colorful? I know a background can be distracting, but here maybe something would liven it up. The text could be a little larger, as well. All in all, I really like this website and will come back to it again as a resource for my school library.  

I figured with the popularity of gaming at public libraries increasing  all the time, I would like to find out how computer games started and who invented them. I nostalgically remember my first encounter with a computer game: Jawbreaker. It was similar to Pac Man but with a mouth full of teeth eating something like little pieces of candy. Then the mouth would get brushed by a toothbrush every so often. It was played on an Apple with a small, small screen in the 80s. The next game (on a computer) I remember was several years later when my brother was playing Solitaire on his first laptop. In the meantime we had Atari and Nintendo and I still have a little Super Nintendo. Online computer games are also very popular. For two of my brothers, it is poker, for me it is Catan. Well enough about my experience with games…

The first graphical computer game was a version of Tic Tac Toe created in 1952 by A.S. Douglas. This game was played on a vaccuum-tube computer. Later on in 1958 William Higinbotham created the first video game called Tennis for Two. In 1962 Steve Russell invented SpaceWar! which was the first game intended for computer use. It took about 200 man-hours to write the first version. Apparently Russell never profited from SpaceWar! 

Ralph Bear wrote the first video game for a television set in 1967. It was called Chase. The first arcade game was created in 1971 which was based on SpaceWar! Pong was created in 1972 and re-released as an Atari home video game in 1975. In 1972 the first commercial video game console made for home use was released. It was called the Odyssey. It was programmed with twelve games.

In 1976 the first programmable home game console was released called the Fairchild Video Entertainment System (later called Channel F). It used the then newly invented microchip.  Finally in the 80s Atari’s Asteroids and Lunar Landing were the first to be registered in the copyright office.  I will assume that you are all familiar with Game Boy, Xbox, PlayStation, etc.

Anyway, the evoltuion of gaming has come full circle. The Wii is so interactive. I don’t have one, but I think it is really neat that your Avatars show up in the games! Now you can talk to other players online and play with people in another country. Who would have thunk it? I wonder what will be next? Technology is so exciting. Have fun.

This post was written with information derived from the two following websites:

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa090198.htm

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcomputer_videogames.htm

I saw on a news program that John McCain’s daughter had a blog and I heard wonderful things about Barack Obama’s website so I wanted to see how connected the politicians are in this realm. Normally I wouldn’t endure the issue, but this year it’s different because a) I am more connected in this realm myself, b) our 18+ youth (and maybe even others) seem to be in the voting pool more than in recent years and we all probably feel that our voice has a chance to be heard by someone out there and c) I like a competitive fight and the Dems seem to be dishing it out. Anyway, just a few comments about and links to some of the blogs…

Hillary Clinton’s blog  http://blog.hillaryclinton.com/ which is linked from her website allows users to donate, read about the issues, join/start a local action group, read how she is connected to any one of the 50 states, watch video segments of speeches and ads, view upcoming events, etc, etc, etc. On her blog, specifically, the opening letter is a plea from Bill for donations. You can also read featured posts and comments. There are links to youtube, facebook, etc.

As soon as you enter John McCain’s blog  http://www.john mccain.com/Blog/, the speech in which the first Pres. Bush endorsing him plays on a video. Different from Hillary’s blog, John has an RSS Feed alert of popular feeds. His opening letter is from the campaign manager expressing his feelings about the recent article in the NY Times.

McCain’s daughter’s blog http://mccainblogette.com/ is really cute. She has a snazzy tagline and picture (Musings and Pop Culture on the Political Trail). Her opening page is picture after picture of up-close and behind the scene shots. She has links to playlists, viewer mail, and the video gallery. I couldn’t find a link to Chelsea Clinton’s blog. Please let me know if I am mistaken.

Barack Obama has a very nice website. It is easy to read and navigate. His blog http://my.barackobama. com/page/content/hqblog is the same. He has many articles from various news sources (AP, Washington Post, etc.). There are also several pictures from the campaign. Many youtube video links, as well as links to the 2.0 world where Obama is at (appropriately entitled “Obama Everywhere”). As with the other websites, links to volunteering, finding events, donating, etc.

Sorry this is so long. The web is a predominant catalyst for the grass roots efforts of politicians and others alike. Enjoy.

I uploaded an image to my author widget. Does anyone know how long it takes to see it? Or, did I do something wrong? I uploaded it, cropped it, and the message said I would be seeing it on WordPress soon. Thanks for any help.

Although I have not fully investigated the following links yet, the article which addresses the links speaks highly of the content of the foresaid links. Make sense?  Library Media Connection (Oct. 2006, vol. 25, number 2) has an article titled Blogs, Podcasts, and the Letter J by Christopher Harris in the Technology Connection feature. Basically it gives an overview of blogging, podcasts, Web 2.0, etc. Since we know the basics I won’t rehash it. However, I was introduced to some information with which I was not familiar. Honestly, I am not sure if the “letter j” is actually still used and current considering this article is a year old. Nonethless, this article is beneficial to me because as a new SLMS I can use the advice for the classroom (computer lab). I will bullet the main ideas:

• The first website, http://web20workgroup.com/ is a network of blogs which combine the ideas of media and technology professionals. You can subscribe to all of these blogs through an RSS reader. 
• The author suggests that English teachers could use the book Confessions of a Boyfriend Stealer (A Blog) by Robynn Clairday (Delacorte, 2005) as a precursor to blogging. The book is written as a post with reader’s whom post comments in each chapter. Has anyone read this book?
• The author has his own blog which has information for school librarians at http://schoolof.info/infomancy/ . It is loaded with links, categories, and a clever Christmas poem. I find this site helpful for school librarians.
• One of the coolest websites that I know I will use is http://classblogmeister.com/ . This allows a class to register and blog. There is a graphic organizer at the bottom of the page which depicts the process of using this site. The author proposes that teachers can put their classroom newsletters on a blog like this.
• We can use podcasts for auditory learners just as we can use blogs for visual learners.
• Poscasts can replace the basic research project so they can have a larger audience. A website which displays weekly classroom shows is http://bobsprankle.com/blog/ . I did not listen to any but did review the site and it seems really creative.
• I don’t know if I will get marked down if I go over the word count, so I will end with the letter j. The article states that if you use an aggregator such as Google Reader, the letter j is a keyboard shortcut you can press to cycle through to the next article from your feeds. With RSS, you don’t have to bookmark and check all your blogs separately. I guess I will have to check this on netvibes. Is anyone familiar with this?
• I lied, one more: Secrets of Podcasting: Audio Blogging for the Masses by Bart G. Farkas (Pearson, 2006) was recommended for those interested in podcasting.

(Still trying to fix the date/time stamp)

You know how when you buy a car and all of a sudden you see so many of the same kind out there? Or, maybe you buy a cute pair of shoes (insert any item here) and then you notice several co-workers have the same? Well, this is what happened last week when I first heard about Mashups in our class. I had a magazine in my backpack (Learning and Leading with Technology, August 2007, vol. 35, no.1) and when I finally looked at it last Monday, the lead story was entitled Mastering Mashups. Then when I was watching Monk, the commercial advertised Monk Mashups on usanetwork.com. (The same with Psych).

Anyway, the gist of the above mentioned article is how teachers have used mashups to enhance their curriculum. Specifically, Jerome Burg custom designs files so his lit students can travel virtually with the literary character of whatever book they are reading. GoogleLitTrips.com uses Google Earth to allow students to follow along with a character’s journey. His purpose is to have students achieve a deeper understanding of great literature. Although I haven’t had time to fully browse this website it seems loaded with great ideas and lesson plans for that authentic learning. Also, if you are interested in this article there is a link to it at the bottom of the website.

Another teacher (from Australia), David Fagg, decided to use MP3 players instead of confiscating them. He allows students to explore history by doing their own fieldwork and creating analysis of the past (again, authenticity). Fagg developed the iHistory Project.

This articles shows me how promising it can be to combine technology and classroom curriculum. I think this influx will naturally push us as a society to embrace and teach technology freely and effectively and hopefully allow for our students to become more marketable, global, and competitive.

Lastly, there is probably no redeemable quality to teach about Monk Mashups in a classroom, but it is a start and I wanted to try it. I hopefully was successful in providing the link.

http://mashups.usanetwork.com/monk/pickup.php?id=07D9057B-4D64-A2B0-EC28-7D82C07AC5C2

Check out this site for the Rebecca Caudill booklist http://www.rcyrba.org/