Just playing around with google gadgets

Now that I'm done with the 23 Things, I'm going to go back and play a bit.

Go ahead and doodle a bit and then save it. Don't worry, I draw stick figures.

#23 (Week 9) I am a slow watermole, but the trip is always worth it!

"Find an example or attribution that shows this program has been modified from it's original."

Learning 2.0 is a discovery learning program created by Helene Blowers. Content and style for School Library Learning 2.0 and Classroom Learning 2.0 have been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.

#22 (Week 9) ebooks and audiobooks

I'm still a purist when it comes to books. I love the feel of the printed page; but I do enjoy being able to listen to a good book on my mp3 player or read a book on my phone when I don't have my favorite paperback with me. I've never read a book-length work online, but I have been to Project Gutenberg before and I have used it for research. I discovered LibriVox through the 23 Things and was excited about listening and even recording some of my favorite books. And even though I haven't taken the time to do that yet, I still hope to. I think it would be a great project for students-- one way to know for certain that they read the book!

A site I found interesting was Gutenberg's top 100 ebooks downloaded.

A google gadget for finding free ebooks

"Justfreebooks is a search engine that allows the user to search the pages of more than 450 sites of free ebooks, including gutenberg.org, wikibooks.org and archive.org. With Justfreebooks, one can find public domain texts, open ebooks, free audio books, ad-supported ebooks and more."

#21 (Week 9) podcasts

I already subscribe to a few librarian podcasts with iTunes so that part was easy:
Book Lust with Nancy Pearl
California Library Association Podcasts
iTunes:Meet the Author
Library Geeks
The Washington Post Book World Podcast

I did have a problem though when I tried to click the Yahoo: What is a podcast tutorial. It only takes you to the Yahoo audio search page.

I also read the Wikipedia entry on podcast which led me to the Podcasting Legal Guide.

Just this semester, two of our teachers assigned podcasts to students who used library computers to mix the audio. We have GarageBand on five Macs, but given my librarian sensibilities, I think the free and dual-platformed Audacity is a better choice for libraries.

#20 (Week 9) YouTube

I've already done quite a bit of YouTube posting, first here, then the beginning of YouTube here, so I wanted something special for this final YouTube posting.



Views: 69,500,227 The most viewed video on YouTube as of this posting.

#19 (Week 8) Library Thing

I simply love Library Thing. I first heard of it from the librarian from whom I inherited my current position. I bought a lifetime membership in October 2006 and have since cataloged most of my library. I included the author cloud with all of the authors represented in my library (this took a little modification of the html because the site would only generate 30 authors). I'm looking into upgrading our OPAC, so I emailed Library Thing. The rep was very friendly and gave me some good leads. So this discovery exercise was just visiting an old friend.

#18 (Week 8) A review of online word processors typed in Zoho writer and published to this blog.

Online Word Processors

• AjaxWrite: It doesn't seem to have all of the features that Zoho has, but I like the clean and simple interface
  
• Adobe Buzzword: This app is very slick.  I like the interface better than Zoho, but it crashed while I was using it so it doesn't seem to have matured yet. Also doesn't have all the features that Zoho Writer has.
  
• Docly:crowded GUI, has all the features of Zoho Writer but I got an error message when I tried inserting a photo.  Docly's signature feature seems to be that it "automatically assigns copyrights (both All Rights Reserved and Creative Commons) licenses to all published Docly Documents"
• FlyWord:I couldn't get this one to load! It asked if I wanted to download Flyword to my computer.  I didn't bother.  I also ran across grammar errors on the site: "On Windows, FlyWord don't need Java anymore."- never a good sign.
• Google Docs:I love these apps! Google seems to get it all right.  The interface is clean and simple but it has all of the features that Zoho Writer has.  Given that gmail works so well, I'll probably use Google docs as my default online writing app.
  
• iNetWord: Basically the same as Zoho Writer.  I was annoyed that I was required to give a phone number to register.
  
• LaTexLab - web based LaTeX editor: Still under construction.  I got this alert: " This tool is in the development stage. The following options are not available:File sharing across users"
• Nevrocode Docs: Like FlyWord, Nevrocode is a desktop and web app, so you have to download the program before you use it.  This is a model that works, but I prefer the apps that are completely online.
  
• PDSText- free online Unicode text editor for Indian languages:Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi, and English. It has basic features.
• Rallypoint: There are a few companies with the name Rallypoint.  As near as I can tell the online word app is www.rallypointhq.com, but the server was down when I tried to go there.
  
• ThinkFree Office ThinkFree is similar to Zoho writer and Google Docs.
• ZCubes describes itself as web 3.0 so that you can"express without limits."  The demos look great, but I couldn't use the text editor without downloading a plugin for firefox.  Looks like there are a lot of great ideas here but too overwhelming to the new user.  I think it is one to watch.
• Zoho Writer: Zoho is the app recommended by School Library Learning 2.0 and the one I've compared to all of these others.  I think it is a solid choice for collaborative documents, but I think that Google Docs is better for its clean look and seemless use with gmail and google calendars.

This was a very short survey of online word processors.  I did not look at the other apps that came with most of these like spreadsheets and presentation apps.  

#17 (Week 7) I added the Pac Man google gadget in the sandbox;)

I also had to add a recommended reading page on the California 2.0 Curriculum Connections wiki. Before, "recommended reading" went to one web site, CNN's business web 2.0 page, so there was no way to add to the recommended reading list. I also added Walter Crawford. I know I have been pushing him, but I really feel like he is a solid-headed voice in a lot of hype.

I didn't have any new curriculum ideas to add, but I did a little clean up of font sizes for consistency.

And I found the PBwikiTips to be helpful.

#16 (WEEK 7) "the simplest online database that could possibly work"

I started this Discovery Exercise on two fronts: first looking at the Wikipedia entry on wikis and second looking at each of the library wikis. It seems to me no understanding of the wiki would be complete without a look at its creator, Ward Cunningham. It was also interesting to take a look at the very first wiki. I learned of Wikipedia years before I learned about wikis, so it was strange to learn that an interface that I was used to using in Wikipedia could be used in other ways. Incidentally for you wordsmiths, here is "wiki"'s etymology.

The library wikis were interesting, but few of them seemed to have a robust community. When there aren't many people using a wiki everyday and it is open to public posts I think you can get a lot of spamming, see my earlier post.

On the plus side, I've suggested that the Position Statements Committee in the BAISL association do its work on a wiki. I think wiki's are particularly strong for committee writing. If you are thinking about starting a wiki yourself this is a good comparison of wiki hosting sites out there.

Finally in the random but interesting category I found this site on kamishibai through a library wiki.

Digital Immigrants Digital Natives Bridging the teacher-student tech divide Conference

Well I'm in Monterey, California at the Digital Immigrants Digital Natives Conference. I learned about Audacity and more about Wordpress. I'm looking to host my blog on my own server. I wasn't that impressed with Mark Prensky, but Will Richardson was interesting. Prensky's keynote seemed to be fear based. Your students are bored and will continue to be bored until you use web 2.0 tools was the gist. I was reminded of Walt Crawford's warning to librarians.