As a grad student taking SLIS J742 at the University of South Carolina, I had to create a product to present to a particular audience (students, teachers, other library media specialists, parents, etc.). I chose to create a presentation that I would be able to share with my faculty in hopes that they would want to incorporate into their teaching.
I chose to use VoiceThread, and unfortunately, can’t embed it here. If you’d like to see this amateur slideshow, click on this link.
I admit I was a bit skeptical when I first read Joyce Valenza’s column about Encyclopedia Brittanica offering a free one year subscription to publishers of web content. Come on, free? What’s the catch?
In her article, Joyce stated:
“I am however hoping that Britannica will define blogger and Web publisher broadly enough to include most blogging teachers, as well as learners.”
Okay, so maybe it’s not free to all publishers of web content. I know that my little blog is as inconspicuous as possible so I thought, “Hmmm….if I qualify for this offer, then anyone can.” So off my little email request went into cyberspace and I waited for a response. Within one day, I had an email welcoming me to the service.
I followed the email’s directions and entered my passcode. Free, right? Uh-oh. Why am I being given a standard form to complete (including my name and address)? This looked very suspicious, not unlike many of the scams I’ve seen before for “free” services. I was just waiting to be asked for a credit card number. If that had happened, this post would have taken a different tone. Luckily, no credit card was required for a free year (imagine that) so I completed the registration and had to give my subscription a spin.
The purpose of this post is twofold: one, to inform those who were unaware of the offer that it does indeed exist even for mild-mannered library media specialists, and two, to try out the linking capability.
This blog is mainly about my journey into the Web 2.0 world, so that has to be my first link to Encyclopedia Brittanica ’s wealth of information. Clicking on this hyperlink should take the reader to the entry on Web 2.0.
If this works, my mind is boggled (okay, not a hard thing to do these days) at the possibilities this holds.
But, it also takes me back to the idea of “What’s the catch?” Will those who click on the links be bombarded with spam? If you’re reading this and notice your inbox is full of junk, I apologize. PLEASE let me know so that I can disconnect the link and mark this up as another scam.
Can using Web 2.0 tools get any funnier than this? I hate that YouTube is blocked at my school because I would love for my math teachers to see this video. (Hmmm….Zamzar might be able to help me with this one, right?)
This is what happens when you allow a creative student the opportunity to choose the medium he wishes to use to share his knowledge.
WordPress doesn’t seem to want to cooperate, so if the video doesn’t load, please click on this link:
This cool little graphic was created using Image Chef. Very simple for this Web 2.0 Newbie to use! Choose a template from the wide variety available, type in your message, then create a widget to post to your blog. You can have Image Chef post the widget for you, or you can copy and paste the html yourself.
I’ve used graphic generators to “pimp” my Myspace page before, but had not considered their incorporation into the classroom. Several of my Spanish teachers have students create PowerPoint slideshows as a final product for a country research project. These slideshows tend to be text heavy, lowering their effectiveness as a teaching tool.
But using Image Chef, students can create graphics using the flags of their countries that they can add to their slideshows. Because the text size is large, only a limited amount of text can be placed on each image – forcing students to condense text.
For example, here is the flag of Cuba with its population emblazoned across it.
If teachers don’t wish to try new tools, as a LMS, you can introduce new tools to the students and have them incorporate them into those ubiquitous slideshows.
How have other educators incorporated use of grahics generators into the classroom?
Reference
“Cuba.” CIA: The World Factbook. Mar. 2008. Central Intelligence Agency. 3 Apr. 2008
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cu.html.
Image Chef. 2008. Image Chef, Inc. 3 Apr. 2008 http://www.imagechef.com/
April is National Poetry Month. We’ve already had our annual Poetry Festival Week but want to continue the celebration of poetry when I return to school next week.
Poets.org has some suggestions for celebrating this month that will be easy to incorporate (we LMSs have limited time so ALWAYS appreciate simple ways to promote our program).
http://poets.org/page.php/prmID/406
This site also provides a way to access thousands of poems from your cell phone. What a perfect way to promote Poem in Your Pocket Day!
I’m on Spring Break which gives me more time to surf the ‘net and LEARN! My Twitter network is fabulous for keeping me up-to-date on Web 2.0 postings.
Liz Davis’s April 1st blog introduced me to a new video. I was blown away by this simple video that makes a profound statement on creativity and sharing in the 21st century. It’s a youtube video, so if you can’t access it from school, please check it out from home. It will help you understand the core of Web 2.0 and why so many of us are drawn to it!
This cool little graphic was created using 
