Week 6 Thing 14 - Technorati

I checked out Technorati today. I did a search for "school library learning 2.0" and found 896 posts. Under Advanced Search, I used the same search in the tags field, and found only 9 posts. That's a huge difference! I did not find a way to search the Blog Directory as suggested.

I searched popular blog searches and tags. I found that the most popular blog was Boing Boing, with 3, 870 fans. I was surprised that this number was not higher. Boing Boing is a weblog of cultural curiosities and interesting technologies.

The big advantage of tagging is finding information that is of interest to you. Likewise, you can tag your blog to allow more people to find you. Two disadvantages are: the extra step it takes to tag, and that two people might not choose the same tag. As I said in my last post, this would make a good lesson on subject headings used by librarians.

Week 6 Thing 13 - Tagging and Del.icio.us

I can see why Del.icio.us is such a popular social bookmarking site. It is very user friendly. I like the home page where you can see what is "hot" right now. I think having students create tags allows them to think as librarians have to when cataloging. They will like that this is freeform. A good lesson would be explaining why librarians use standardized subject headings.

I think the most beneficial feature is access to bookmarks from any computer. It is also nice to be able to organize bookmarks, because information can become overwelming without a system.

Week 5 Thing 12 - Rollyo

This week I explored the Rollyo tool. I agree that this tool will give students another option, rather than "Google" it. However, I like the Nettrekker search tool that we have in place much better. Rollyo makes money by paid advertisements. That is, sponsored links will appear in your list of sites. (These are highlighted in blue.) When I created a list of author websites, Rollyo inserted sponsored links for booksellers. This is not helpful for student research.

In my view, Netrekker is a better tool. Nettrekker gives students websites that have been checked by teachers, are rated for reading level, and offer a dictionary tool. Of course, we pay a fee for Netrekker, but I believe it is worth it.

I created a Rollyo of author websites:
http://rollyo.com/bacorcoran/my_authors/

Week 5 Thing 11 - Web 2.0 Awards Site

Today I took a look at the list of Web 2.0 Award winners. I tried several, but I was particularly impressed with the Last.fm site. I liked listening to music while I worked. I requested music like Billy Joel. I heard one of his songs, and then Last.fm played more songs from other artists (Don Henley, Little River Band, Hall & Oates, James Taylor). This was enjoyable, because I didn't know what would play next. For each song, the user can post a comment. You can see what others are interested in the same music you like. If they set up a library, you can play songs from their library. Likewise, you can set up a library, and see how many and which people are playing your songs. You can click on events to see what concerts are happening. You can read what people thought of the concerts.

For Billy Joel, I clicked on his Biography. This was surprisingly detailed, with a view of his life through his music history. If a song is mentioned, students can use the same site to hear the music or possibly view the video (although many are amatuer from UTube). I think that this would be very helpful to a student doing research. Last.fm can provide a video and audio component to research while you read.

I also tried the Traveler IQ Challenge. I think students will find this really fun. Teachers can post a "high scorers" list for motivation.
http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq/game1?f235=938e

Week 5 Thing 10 - Online Image Generator

This week I had a great time with online image generators. I found a comic strip generator that was simple to use. Many of my elementary students love to read the comics. This is a great way to get their attention. It's also a great tool to work on dialogue.

Click on my comic below to enlarge.

Week 4 Things 8 and 9 - RSS Feeds and Bloglines

Until today, I had never heard of RSS feeds or Bloglines. It is frustrating when you miss an update to your favorite website, so this tool will be very helpful. Sometimes the information superhighway becomes overwelming. It is good to know of these tools to help organize and stay current with topics that interest you.
So far, I added to my feeds: Publisher's Weekly Bestseller News, NY Times Books, and Library Stuff.

Week 3 Thing 7 - Flickr

It took some time to explore the features of Flickr. I searched for the term "lighthouse" to go with the theme of this blog. The lighthouse shown is from Maine - the Portland Headlight & Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse.

It is incredible how many results are available. I also searched "dog" and found that there were over two million images.

This is a useful tool. For students, I liked the map feature. This incorporates geography in a fun way.