Thing #19 - Podcasts

I listened to a number of interesting podcasts. From the St. Cloud State School Media podcasts, I listened to an interview with Wanda Erickson, who is both a public and school librarian in northeastern MN. It was like deja vu listening to her describe her dual hat-wearing (since I do the same thing). I also listened to several MPR podcasts: The Morning Show skits with Dale Connelly and Jim Ed Poole, and also NPR Booktalk, which I added to my RSS account. The directories were all pretty easy to search. I even found a podcast that teaches you Spanish at Podcast Alley - it's called "Coffee Break Spanish" (also avaialable for French and who knows what else?)! And Gcast almost makes it tempting to give podcast creation a try.

Thing #17 - ELM Productivity Tools

I expected this to be easy, and it wasn't. I was unsuccessful with the RSS feed from the Student Edition. I WAS able to begin to create a Web page using Page Composer in EBSCO, entered some text, but got stuck trying to set the background (or I should say the computer got stuck setting the background). Following directions in Proquest went fairly well - I e-mailed and downloaded the items I'd marked from my search. I should add that a couple of years ago I signed up for a Booklist alert in EBSCO, but after a few months I cancelled it - this was not the way I wanted to read reviews! I have created an account in NetLibrary and did the suggested tasks there. Cool.
How would I apply these tools in my everyday work? I would like to try creating a Web page for my 6th graders' history research assignments - but maybe a wikki would be easier??? As far as setting up RSS feeds, I don't care to use this myself, but I suppose it would be useful to be able to show someone else how it can be done - which goes to the next question: how can these tools facilitate collaboration with colleagues? If I can show them how to do something they don't already know how to do, that impresses them and they see me as someone that they might want to work more with. I don't see my students setting up RSS feeds to Student Edition anytime soon! But it's much more likely that a demo of NetLibrary would impress and help them.

Thing #8 Share Your Creations

Okay, I wimped out and took the quickest, easiest task. I did look at all of the tools and they are incredible - like, no Powerpoint? No problem! Who'd a thought?! And the eFolios look like THE way to go. I'm just trying to get through as many of the 23 Things as I can before our deadline. I definitely plan to share what I've learned about these tools with my coworkers (hopefully they'll be impressed). There are plenty of ways that teachers and students could make use of the tools and I think the kids would have a blast playing with them.

Thing #5 More Fun With Flickr

Here is my puzzle picture!