Thing #16 - WIKIs

As I said in my contribution to the "sandbox", I think I might be able to encorporate a WIKI into my History of Computers segment. Maybe two or three students per group could add information they find on a particular person in computer history, like Babbage or Steve Jobs, etc. I'm getting excited just thinking about it!

Thing #15 - Libraries

It had not occurred to me that my two friends who are librarians at Houston Public libraries would not be having the same number of patrons visit their libraries as they had in the past. Of course! they would have fewer visitors! Patrons will find most of what they need with Google, but there is still that need for some human assistance, and I believe there are those of us who still need the comfort of a good book that we can hold in our hands, curling up on a soft chair, and escaping to another world by flipping pages...not having to scroll down...

Thing #14 - Technorati

Good source. I enjoyed exploring, and was even able to add my avatar to my profile.

Thing #13 - Social Bookmarks

"Delicious" (insert periods!) is great. I will enjoy using this tool and getting to know it better. This will be a very useful tool for my classes. In Computer Literacy, students can learn about social bookmarking during their Internet unit. Multimedia students will be able to bookmark relevant sites and access from home or library while doing research.

Thing #12 - Commenting

#9 on the "Ten Commandments of Blogging" is a good one. I would much rather read comments with some humor than "just the facts, Ma'am". Although I got some good pointers reading about the Ten Commandments, I didn't care for the comments left on that site when I was there! They were repetitive and just the thing it says not to do: "Yeah, me, too!", etc.!

The other site I got a lot from was the first suggestion on the CoolCat Teacher Blog: "Write a meaningful comment." Unfortunately, I often don't have time to give a great deal of thought to a meaningful comment spiced with wit and humor...so I generally leave without saying anything.

Thing #11 - Library Thing

I added my five books. Except for the "Cat Who" books, I guess I really enjoy learning about history while I read. I never paid attention during high school, so this must be the way I can get my history lessons! It seems that there are an awful lot of people who like my books as much as I do, going by the number of members who listed them.

Thing #10 - ImageChef

Blingy heart! I also found some cool stuff on Webfetti. Here's the link to the bling heart:
http://www.imagechef.com/ic/make.jsp?tid=Princess+Heart. Since I do Multimedia, this will be a good project for the kids to do during the Web Mastery part of the class.

Thing # 9 - Finding Related Blogs

I had a hard time with this one. Every one of the methods suggested for finding blogs gave me grief. All I wanted to do was to add Patsy Lanclos' main blog site to my Google Reader and I just danced around all she's got out there. I finally found one site using Google Blog Search and got it loaded onto my Google Reader, but it's not her main one. Blogline Search Tool didn't do anything for me. I plan to go through the Atomic Learning lesson on RSS after I complete the 23 things.

Thing # 8 - RSS

This is very cool. I have subscribed to the news bundle. When I went to the Iditarod web site, I didn't see the little orange icon I have to click on, so I guess they don't have that. I will start looking for the icon on my regular pages, though.

Thing # 7 - Google Tools

I teach and use Google Advanced Tools in my class, but was happy to learn more about all that is available. I signed up for a Google Alert to keep track of the Iditarod, which we also follow in class in the spring. I made a Google Notebook on the Iditarod as well.

Thing # 6 - Mashups and 3rd Party Sites

These all look great. I would like to try the mosaics when I have two minutes to work on them!

Thing #5 - Flickr

I spent entirely too much time finding a great picture. I also discovered I had used Flickr back in January of 2006, and had posted a picture of my niece!