Thing 11. Google

Here is a new Google feature--Power Tip of the Day. New products and updates to Google features can get lost, they come so often. Add this gadget to your iGoogle homepage and get a new tip each day. Handy.


If you haven't subscribed to the Google Friends newsletter, I recommend that, too. It is a good way to keep up-to-date and learn what's happening with Google. This month it describes updates to Google Notebook and Google Maps, among other things. This is where I learned about the Power Tip gadget.

Thing 17. One Cool New Thing

Picture Trail lets you create 28 different types of slide shows (the one above is called Magnifier) from your pictures. You create the slide show--or Flicks, as they call them--by uploading pictures from your computer or Web site. Once you have your Flick, save it and then you can automatically upload it to various sites including Blogger. Or get the code to use in another service. Picture Trail hosts the pictures and provides image URLs so you can post the photos to blogs, Web sites, MySpace, etc. It offers other typical photo management site features, including the ability to order prints & share albums with others. There are privacy features, too. Explore the Help and the features tabs to learn more.

There is a community feature--with "friends," etc.--which I can happily avoid. And I'm not interested in the "Bling" feature, either, which apparently lets you add sparkle and text to photos, but the slide shows offer new ways to display photos. It is easy to use, with a little experimentation.

While the service is free, you must register and then wade through multiple pages of ads to get to the Flick pages. I like photos on Web pages and since I don't have Photoshop or other skills to do this on my own, I'm willing to put up with the ads, at least once in a while. You decide.

Something of a toy, but it could be useful to add interest to your teacher page--share photos you've taken related to an event or project--or for students to use in a Web page for a project.

What Are These Tools For?

An interesting article (from a very useful site) on how the creation of online content using Web 2.0 tools is developing students who are active participants in the information society. It points out their need to receive guidance and understanding on how to act responsibly in this environment. In order to provide that guidance, teachers and information professionals need to understand the tools and how to use them and to then create assignments that address the 3Rs (they didn't use that term, but that's what it means!)--research, reliable resources, and responsible use. We can't dismiss Web 2.0 tools--whether wikis or online photo editors--as toys. They are tools for content creation, collaboration, research presentations, and more. All part of the 21st Century skills. Read more about it: Student Content Creators: Convergence of Literacies.

Bad Avatars

I have noticed a trend in TV crime shows. This new season is populated with avatars that play a key role in the plot and not usually as crime solvers--computer gamers are getting a bad rep here.

New Ideas

I am at the Minnesota Library Association conference in Mankato this week. Lots of new ideas--people are fascinated by the 23+1 Things and the MILI project overall. Lots of opportunities to talk about it.

I went to 2 presentations on Web 2.0 tools. Both were good, but the one on Wikis was especially helpful. I plan to do an afterschool meeting on Wikis, but in the meantime, check out this site. Joyce Yukawa teaches at St. Kate's in the library science program. She put this together as a resource for her talk today. It is full of resources, examples, and more for anyone interested in setting up a wiki. She has created a fictional library (Heavenly County Library) to show how a library could use a wiki as its Web presence but all the info is applicable to teachers and LMS, too.

New MILI Participants

We started our project with Minneapolis Public Schools last night. An enthusiastic group with lots to offer. You can look at their blogs at metrominne.blogspot.com.

P.S.

I created my avatar and added it a while ago. Who knew they came in plus sizes?! However, since this is a virtual representation of me, I went with the virtually thinner version. And my cat is thinner, too. We can only dream :-)

Thing 3. Bloglines

So...I set up a Bloglines account, loaded all the registered blogs, and all was fine. Next day I log in and no feeds appear in the pane. When I look at the account at home (Mac), there they are. Very weird. I have exported those links and it does work to import them all, so we will have the file of links and instructions out to you asap.

Still not sure why the links don't appear. I've read the Help and Forums and nothing so far. We do have some firewall issues in the office, especially involving any Web 2.0 applications, so maybe that is it.

Thing 3. RSS/Feed Aggregator

I love blogs as a way to keep up with lots of different things that interest me. I have a Bloglines account that includes a lot of thrift/craft/sewing blogs. I like to see what other people found at garage sales and thrifts stores. I like to compare other people's sewing experiences and what luck they have selling at art fairs. Another account tracks lots of library-related blogs and news services so I know what the library world is talking about. My latest account tracks all of the MILI blogs. Having the feed aggregator makes it so easy to keep up.

In answer to Robyn's question about batch uploading of the blogs--I have figured out how to do that. Once everyone registers their blogs with MILI, I will export an OPML file and send it with instructions how how to import the links to your Bloglines accounts.

So, if you haven't created your blog, do so soon and register it!

Saturday

Loved the excitement and enthusiasm of the participants. Looks like a great group.

Hope people had fun with the new laptops. Got a few new blog registrations. Remember to do Thing 1, Thing 2, and Thing 3 before the October meeting.

While the mystery of where the food ended up (Metronet office), no answer to why anyone would make 2 deliveries and just leave the second when the first obviously wasn't used. Lots of finger pointing at the foodservice company. Thank goodness Bruegger's and Nelson came through. The food was rescued by a Melsa person who just happened to drop in; we took it to Genesis II, an agency serving youth.

Formatting Frustrations

While working on the main MILI blog, I encountered some formatting frustrations, mostly with spacing between lines. You can see the result in some of the posts. Maddening. I haven't figured out why it happens randomly or how to fix it without going into the HTML. I know enough HTML to fill a thimble--I can do a few things, but messing with all the code--no. So there will be some weird things for a while--or maybe forever.

In writing for anything, I like every I dotted and every t crossed, with all the bullets lined up, and everything neat and tidy. Since Blogger doesn't really have the same capability as a word processing or publishing program, it doesn't always work like I want it to. Bugs me.

And what's with the fonts--why aren't the posts in the same font?

However, lots of people don't think about that stuff, especially when blogging. Incomplete sentences, misspellings, wonky formatting are all OK. So when you are posting, don't worry a lot about these details. We want your insights and reactions.

Thing 2. Setting Up a Blog

What have I learned from this experience:

• It is a lot more fun when the technology works the first time. Even the second time would have been OK.
  
• Teaching without reliable technology is a bummer.
• Participants were very patient. Thanks.

However, in spite of the confusion and frustration, it was great to hear that the blog was the "best thing" for many. I hope that continues to be true.

When I got home, I checked MILI's gmail account and there were 14 emails with blogs to add to the link list of the main blog. Lots of clever names, which is fun, too. There were a few glitches in the blog URLs--maybe some confusion about what to send. But all in all, not bad for the first night.

I hope you have some time to play around with Blogger. Basic features are fine, but adding some other things--whether a blog link list, a photo, or other page elements--will liven things up. Read the MILI 23 Things blog for ideas. More for Thing 2 has some other suggestions.

There were a few questions I heard tonight. One was the "purpose of a blog." No one answer to this question. People use blogs for lots of things--to keep family and friends up-to-date, record the events of a trip, comment on movies, ball games, books read or anything else, to "spew," as someone said, on any topic from politics to food, to keep track of an activity (our purpose)---just about any thing a journal can be used for, a blog can, too.