Thing 47: Evaluation

photo by Tim Alamenciak

Finishing these next 23 Things was 

more of a challenge than the first set.  

I began with lots of energy, and the 

breadth of some of the things required

more time than I thought I had - especially toward 

the end of the school year.  I was ready to give up. Then came the nudge to finish 10 Things and new motivation to check back in and finish.  

I learned much from this set of Things and even though it was horribly busy toward

the end of the school year I feel good about the "extra time" available now to

be systematic about applying these tools in our day-to-day with students.  

Personally I have more confidence in using Web 2.0 tools.  I plan to manage

my personal space differently because of some applications I discovered, and look forward to using the resources available in WebJunction.

I am a different educator because of "things" learned from the 46 Things.  

Approaching students in their digital world with confidence and some 

knowledge helps in creating relevant experiences for them.  

Thank you for this opportunity.  

Thing 46 Webjunction MN

photo by grantthai

Visiting WebJunction was 

eye-opening.  

As an early career librarian 

I was unaware this resource 

existed.  I joined a couple groups 

and visited a number of areas 

that will be of much help

as I move forward with planning in our school library.  

I am especially excited about the courses.  

There are many areas I would like to focus on and the courses 

offer some very specific content related to technology and planning.

I have a general picture of what WJMN has to 

offer and will spend more time there 

as the summer progresses.  At this point I have no 

suggestions as to what resources

I'd like to see on WJMN.  I'll need to use the resource first.

Thing 45: Cloud Computing

picture from Seven Morris

Our school, trying to make the most of our budget, is taking a leap this next school year and contracting with a business out of town to host our server.  Our server is dated and we have no local company able to understand the educational needs of our server; NWEA, maintenance, etc.  The business is 1 1/2 hrs. away and we have begun the transfer of information (and control).  I will have more to share as we train and move through our Web interaction.  

I have experimented with Googledocs but have little experience with it.  I see great advantages to access limited only by one's ability to remember password information.  

The Metronet Information Literacy Initiative is a resource new to me - oh my!  I am fairly new to the resources available to libraries and appreciate the effort given to this project.  It has been saved and will be used much this summer as we prepare to rewrite our technology curriculum.  THANK YOU for that!  The search engines resources alone offer much.  We are just breaking the surface in helping our learners understand there are tools other than Google for information searching; other sites put out different "feelers" and produce different results.

Thing 44: The Economy

by MyEyeSees

I appreciated the video on the financial crisis in simple terms and the Common Craft clip on saving money.  They were helpful in setting the tone for exploring the rest of this Thing.

The NEFA program sounds solid and I wish it were available for personal purchase.  Programs like these are being cut from curriculums at great rates and the fallout will be costly.   Two tools I plan to investigate more thoroughly are Mint.com and Justthrive.com.

The former tool sounds like a practical way for me to reevaluate our finances and the latter a good site for our recent college graduate soon off to her 1st post-graduate job.  My teenage daughter will enjoy Feed the Pig as she takes on money management with her 1st job.

I was hoping to embed a GasBuddy widget in my Netvibes page (didn't upload) but will have to settle on it being bookmarked.  I found a 9-cent price difference in our little community!

I enjoyed and admired the tips from the Frugal Dad and look forward to visiting a few other links from the Frugal Bloggers link.  We recently retired our land line and currently use only our cell phone.  We have added the local law enforcement number to our contact list in the case of an emergency.  It has saved us quite a bit each month and we have adjusted well to keeping the phone charged and located!

Thing 43: Online TV and Video

I just don't watch television enough to have wanted to explore online video. We have recorded a few programs on demand and have not been interested in online options.  I've explored Hulu and see many useful applications.  I was not aware of the scope of "programming" - from old movies to documentaries.  I'm creating a queue from the National Geographic programming - guess this summer is a good time to catch up on viewing.

With the cost of monthly cable - satellite subscriptions I see Internet movie sites as a practical option; especially if one can manage a computer to TV connection.  This use is once again, like Internet radio, limited to those with online resources. 

utilly's photostream

This trailer made it's debut on Apple (can't wait for the movie!), but the embedded clip is from Hulu:

Thing 42: Music 2.0

I've been using Internet Radio for a few years now and enjoy a variety of stations from NPR to those I've created with Pandora. The options available - commercial free - are endless. I think these sites offer good options to users who enjoy music and would like to tailor a station to meet their needs.

I do not see Internet radio replacing broadcast radio, although the news industry has evolved quite rapidly with users turning to sources other than print. It will be interesting to see how advertising shifts in the radio broadcast world and how it affects the quality of broadcast radio. Access to Internet radio is still too limited to those with the "luxury" of Internet connectivity. It is still much easier to jump in the car and turn on the radio!

Thing 41: Mashup your Life

I currently use Netvibes as my homepage.  It allows me to organize my favorite widgets, blogs, websites, etc. in one place. 

Looking at the other tools was informative; however I won't be switching for a bit - if ever.  I'm more than satisfied with Netvibes and have trouble daily getting to everything I've included on the page.  

I'll keep some of the suggested tools bookmarked to offer options to other who are interested in organizing their Web time.

amii's photostream