Another fun Thing!   The PopArt above was created using one of my photos (with permission) in Big Huge Labs.  I loved being able to click on “shuffle” until I liked the color mix.

The first few tools in this Thing were pretty neat.  The spellr would be fun for creating a logo or a greeting card; the Color Pickr was cool too, especially since it’s linked to flickr’s images and you can see whether a particular image in the chosen color is available for use.  I wish I’d had access to these tools when I was teaching retailing!  Such marketing and advertising possibilities!  The Sudoku didn’t appeal to me, partly because it required my concentration, and partly because it’d be another reason to sit at the computer, and I prefer to do Sudoku at the end of the day after my computer work is all done!  The Montager and Memry tools were fun.  I thought kids would enjoy them as a change of pace–maybe as a reinforcement for spelling words, where they could type in the word (correctly spelled, of course) and watch all the images that come up for that word.  It might be a way of getting my son to look at his spelling words for more than a nanosecond.

As for the big tools, Big Huge Labs and Image Generators, I know I only scratched the surface.  I encountered very little frustration, but it was VERY time-consuming as I navigated off on one sideroad after another.  A girl could spend several weeks exploring and accomplish very little.  I think it would be wise to go into a site or tool with a set task in mind to avoid the technological ADD we all fall into. 

I had come across Big Huge Labs in my travels doing another Thing (I get detoured pretty regularly), and I was really pleased to have an excuse to play with it for a while.  I finally had to stop to try Image Generator, which I also enjoyed.  I’d give a thumbs-up to Big Huge Labs for visual appeal and clarity for a new user, whereas Image Generator was a little janky-looking–but once you get past not being able to see all your prompts on a single screen, and actually having to read the prompts, it gets the job done.

There are so many uses for these tools!  I could see students using the magazine cover tool for a school periodical, or creating a visual that serves as a get-acquainted vehicle at the beginning of the year, and any of the tools would be useful for personal creative tasks–creating a silly picture for a birthday card using the fun templates (a confusing but fun tool), a family calendar.  I’m going to try using the palette generator to match the colors in a picture for my daughter’s new room decor.  For students, I see it being an accessible way to express their interest in a person or topic, perhaps coupled with photos found on flickr.  I’m looking forward to letting students try a single visual project and seeing what other uses they uncover, as well as seeing what other 23 Things students come up with.

This is another very helpful tool–a means of sharing without dragging around a storage device.   Pretty much every question that came up for me was answered along the way, including how to cite “some rights reserved” photos (I hope I understood it correctly), and how to search for others who are already using the site.   I didn’t do any sharing because I know of only one of my friends who’s using the site, and I don’t know the first and last names of any of my classmates in this class who are already past Thing 10, or searched and couldn’t find their account names.  If you’re willing to share photos with me, please comment and leave me your user name for flickr.

I did encounter a couple of snags:  first, it seemed like all the photos I thought were really cool were copyrighted (maybe I just have an eye for professional work?  Or not…).  I really liked the work posted by an AndreaRenee–beautifully edited stuff, many of herself and her baby, and all very striking.  Short of getting permission from the photographer, (and many I’ll discover this through using the site), what’s the shortest route to a steady supply of un-copyrighted stuff that may be used with students?  I’m glad we’ll be getting some information on copyrights in a later Thing, because I think it’s important to honor copyrights and teach students about them.  Many of my questions relate to use of copyrighted materials:  Should I insert the link or just the text for the attribution?  May I upload copyrighted photos to my account for private viewing (I assume not)?  I’m really looking forward to that information.

Another weird thing:  I created my account, logged out for a while (overnight, actually), then went to get back in to my flickr account, and it again prompted me for a yahoo id.  I was using a computer with a REALLY slow internet connection (many in the family believe it’s powered by a small man in the backroom of the office on a bicycle, and when he gets tired or takes a break, the connection fails), so I wonder if some of my clicks weren’t getting through.  Anyone else out there have problems with that?

Here is the photo I chose to download from flickr, not because of its artistry, but because it was cheerful on a cloudy, spitty day:

And its (rather long) attribution info: 

<div xmlns:cc=”http://creativecommons.org/ns#” about=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/34288646@N05/4142325540/”><a rel=”cc:attributionURL” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/34288646@N05/”>http://www.flickr.com/photos/34288646@N05/</a

> / <a rel=”license” href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/”>CC BY-NC 2.0</a></div>

Is there a prettier way to do this?

I’m not sure I succeeded in this Thing, since technically I haven’t shared my photos with anyone yet (I’m hoping my friend will accept me as a contact and we’ll trade photos soon), but I’m really excited to get started on a couple of personal and school things using flickr.  But I learned a great deal.  Thanks for a good Thing, and thanks for reading!

This was fun!  I certainly found picnik easy to use–the labels are clear, and the tools are all you’d routinely wish for and then some.  I haven’t figured out how to do the cool sparkly thing Brooke did yet, but I’ll keep experimenting (and re-read her post on it to see if that helps direct me).  Here’s a photo of a four-panel painting my daughter made, which I edited on picnik.

Signing up took all of 10 seconds, and the photo I played with first, from the site itself, was easy to edit.  Things did slow down a little when I uploaded a photo from my computer, not only while I waited for the upload, but also between all editing clicks.

Saving caused a little confusion for me.  I saw clearly that my altered photos were saved to my computer, but wasn’t sure whether they were also saved to my picnik account.  When I clicked on “sign out” I was prompted to register in order to save my five most recent photos, and when I tried to register, it told me my username was already taken (duh!).  The corner of the dialog box asked if I was already registered, and, if so, to sign in.  But I already was signed in.  Hmmm…

I loved sending an e-mail direct from picnik, and that the photo is embedded in the e-mail (this will be very helpful to my attachment-phobic family members), and the tool for creating mats and captions, which will be perfect for creating family calendars and greeting cards.

I believe students could use this tool to create all sorts of fun things:  posters for school events, creative calendars that would help them track their own work much better than looking at the document someone else created, self-marketing materials that might be included in a portfolio.  As long as the photos they were manipulating were not copyrighted (there’s a good opportunity to teach them about copyright laws), there are many possibilities.

This is proving to be a memorable Thing.  This is the third time I’ve encountered a difference between what the video described and what I found on a site we are required to visit to complete a Thing.  Although the previous differences weren’t a problem, this difference was more troublesome.  First, the weblogg-ed.com site did not display the expected “subscribe” button.  I searched the site on two separate occasions for an RSS icon or any icon described in the video, but didn’t find one.  (I could really relate to the statement in the third video that sometimes you can’t find the RSS icon!)  I did find an “RSS feed” link on the workshops page, clicked it, and, after a brief delay, a blank white screen appeared.  As an alternative, I tried adding the URL of the weblogg-ed.com home page to my bloglines account.  Bloglines prompted me with a list of multiple feeds to choose from, and I wasn’t sure which was the “real” or best one.  The exact URL appearing in the video wasn’t one of the options, so I chose the one whose URL was closest to it.  Does it matter which feed we choose?  Do they all provide the same results?

On the David Warlick site, a similar thing happened:  this time I did see an RSS icon, but when I clicked it, the same thing happened–a short delay, then a blank white screen instead of the expected page full of code.  The good news is that I was able to copy the URL and add it to my Bloglines subscriptions, but I’m not convinced that’s the feed that’s most beneficial to me.  I don’t see mention of similar problems by other students in this class, but if you have any insights, please comment.

I also struggled with getting a link set up, but as you see I finally figured out what the URL for the link should be after looking at the blogs of others in this class who have completed Thing 9.  I gather that the problem stemmed from the fact that I hadn’t confirmed my e-mail address for the bloglines account.  Now that I’ve confirmed the e-mail address, I get the normal login prompt when I go to the bloglines site (that hadn’t happened before), and see clearly what the URL of the link should be.  (I still am very confused by the fact that I am not always prompted to login to my bloglines account on arriving at the site.  Why is that?)

http://bloglines.com/public/deibelr

Whew!  Glad that’s done.

The last little detail now–setting up a link to “subscribe to Bloglines” in the toolbar and then using it to subscribe to several blogs–has proven to be problematic, at every step from creating the link (it doesn’t automatically appear in the toolbar, and I can’t add it to the toolbar even though it’s in my favorites folder), to actually requesting the subscription (the correct URL for the feed doesn’t appear on the list).  So I tried to use all three methods to subscribe to a blog, but I didn’t have great success this time.  If anyone reading has encountered any problems with these tasks due to a browser problem or a virus, please let me know.  Also, anyone out there know:  what’s the difference between subscribing to a feed and subscribing to comments?  Should we generally elect both for our classmates?

I did happen upon edublogs (and then saw it was recommended, silly me)–it’s a good one!  I plan to check out technorati as a way of locating blogs, too, as well as looking at classmates’ and colleagues’ public bloglines accounts–that promises to be good current info on what’s useful.

Update November 25:  The requirement that we subscribe to a couple classmates’ blogs was really worthwhile!  I’ve been using others’ blogs for help whenever I run into a snag, and now I can track what my classmates had to say without going to each of their blog links on the 23 Things main page!   Hooray!

This Thing was an answer to a question for me.  Well done to whoever designed this course!  The tasks are ordered and timed to make each of them useful and meaningful to us, each an answer to our current needs.  I was wondering how Diane Zoellmer keeps up with reading all our new stuff, and how I’d manage if I’m able to set up my students with blogs.  My usual response to overload is to dogmatically sift through everything until I feel I’ve covered it all.  (When that fails, I take a nap.)  This is much more manageable than clicking all over Creation. 

Registering was only about a 30-second task, although once again the initial screen looked a little different than the one in the video.  I was grateful for the heads-up that the folders would seem to disappear because they’re empty, and looking forward to subscribing to some blogs.  On to Thing 9!

I had a little consternation setting up my delicious account, as it wouldn’t allow me to join without creating a Yahoo id, even after re-starting my computer.  If this was to be expected as a result of using Internet Explorer as my browser, it wasn’t mentioned in the videos (which were very helpful, other than the detour through Yahoo).  Once I did set up a Yahoo id, I was able to set up the account and create several bookmarks with tags without further trouble.

I’m very unsure of the tags I chose, mainly because I have no experience in how I’ll use the account or a particular bookmark that I might share with others.  Will I remember what tags I used once I have 400?  Will I decide tomorrow that my logic tonight was off?  (That’s a strong possibility!)   I think I’ll do a little more exploring on the notes that can be included on a tag that might remind me of what I was thinking (!) when I created it so I can use it consistently.  I’m looking forward to seeing other 23 Things students’ accounts to see what patterns appear in their tagging.

Coordinating tags seems critical to making the saved information serviceable.  For example, if my colleagues and I want to share reading strategies sites, deciding on a common tag for the sites we think are cool would make everyone’s search results available to everyone.  Guiding students to specific tags at my account would direct them quickly to the information I’ve already determined is valuable to them.  Without a designated tag, they might just as well search the whole internet and suffer the mish-mash of information that a wider search would produce. 

I see very plain benefits to using social bookmarking with colleagues, but I wonder if there are teachers among you who are using it in instruction to guide students to meaningful information and activities.  How is it working out?  Are there any issues with regard to security that have arisen in implementing its use in the school setting?  I’d love to hear about someone else’s experience with it.

The add-on video by Kathleen Gilroy was helpful as another explanation of what can be done using delicious and how it can benefit the user.  I didn’t understand the stuff about RSS Aggregators, but that’s a good reason to get on to Thing 8.

Well!  That was a lot to process (especially all the stuff about types of tagging and bundles and stuff!), but I love the idea of a bookmarking site, since I often regret working at home and needing a bookmark that’s saved on my office computer, or vice versa.  This could be very helpful in keeping me equally productive everywhere.  (That’s a good thing, right…?)

As for tagging, it sounds like the next example of how the internet is making the world (or at least the world of computer users) very democratic.  Since tagging allows users to decide on how information is organized, it allows users to steer how the information travels between users.  Tagging sounds like another step in the “information by the people” direction.  Really, something like folksonomy is how all language develops, so it makes sense that this medium of communication would evolve in the same way–real people nudging things one direction or another by validating some things and letting others fall by the wayside.

I loved the suggestion that e-mails might be taggable someday.  That’d be a real improvement in my life to be able to categorize the tens of messages I send to students and mentors in the community every week.  I’m also excited about the possibility of using social bookmarking and tagging with my students.  It sounds like an excellent means of allowing them to learn to access resources instead of memorizing information (the real benchmark of a successful adult, I think), and it allows them to share responsibility for discovering new information and sharing it with others, something most of them find meaningful and exciting.

I’m very interested in trying social bookmarking and tagging myself, so I’m eager to get to Thing 7, although I’m a little unsure of whether a new tag writer can be a really insightful one.   (Happily, if we don’t get it just right the first time, we can edit!)  To write good tags, it seems the onus is on the tagger to think carefully about the audience(s) who might be using them, to consider all the ways the information might be used and by whom, and to check on how others have tagged the address.  I wonder whether I’ll find other people’s tags truly helpful, or so antithetical to my thinking that they’re completely unhelpful.   Likely a little of both.  That might be both a weakness and a strength of tagging:  the variety of opinions and perspectives out there yields a myriad of tags; that variety might be powerful, but it may also sometimes be daunting to sort through (just like the internet).  But if it helps me keep stuff organized–and there is so much stuff out there–I’m all for it!

Commenting on posts is not just a key activity in blogging, doing it well and in accordance with some guidelines is clearly a deal-breaker in making it work in a teaching setting. 

The guidelines provided were helpful and served to highlight for me some of the dangers of allowing students to use blogs.  One can’t simply hope that students will read carefully and use caution in writing; a teacher really has an imperative to structure the blog use to guarantee that it’s happening.   

The reminder that tone in any communication that isn’t face-to-face is easily misconstrued especially rang true for me.  I’m routinely explaining to students that I can’t hear their tone of voice or see their facial expression, and advising them to WAIT at least five minutes and re-read their missives before clicking “send.”   So often the tone they intended on an e-mail wasn’t at all the tone that was conveyed. 

The reminder that the reader read all the threads of a post before commenting was a very good one, but one I think students will struggle to follow in their impatience to get to the end.

I was interested in the recommendations that addressed the effort to increase your own credibility as a commenter, and increase traffic to one’s own website or blog.  It makes me wonder how many people comment with an eye to improving their reputation and increasing their market share, so to speak.

Receiving comments is validating (even if some of them result from a class requirement), and the requirement of commenting did cause me to slow down and read the whole thread carefully.  I liked receiving a comment not so much because I was flattered that someone was reading my blog, but because it’s so potentially helpful.  If you have a question or a problem, it seems an ideal solution would it be to put it out there for an unlimited number of people to see and help solve.  The potential for synergy is pretty breathtaking.  (I have a really cool poster that would be perfect right here, but I can’t figure out if it’s copyrighted.  Any guidelines or info on where to go for more info on that would be appreciated!)

I have a Facebook account, but can’t say I enjoy checking it too often, partly because the messages I really value–from good friends and family–don’t come in via Facebook, they come via my e-mail.  In addition, I don’t enjoy how scattered I feel moving around the site, perhaps only because I haven’t used it enough to feel like I’m really at home there.  I’ll resolve to visiting it more often to see if that helps.   If there’s a tutorial out there that will help me see the logic of the site’s organization more graphically, I’d love to hear about it.

I already had a Googledocs account, thanks to a really tech-savvy friend who recommended it, so I didn’t have to create one.  I hadn’t used it in a long time, and I have so many user accounts with so many different passwords, I couldn’t remember which one I’d used for Googledocs.  By asking for help resetting my password, I learned how quickly the site is set up to help you through that kind of a problem:  by the time I opened a new tab in IE, the e-mail with the link to reset the password was there.  Pretty good.

I uploaded a document without any problem.  I also spent some time exploring the calendar and the forms tool, and see some really exciting possibilities for using that in my work, such as putting the program calendar on Google calendar and letting students access it there.  I’d like to know if there’s an efficient way to copy all my students’ e-mail addresses into Google from a grouplist.  One negative was that things moved a little slowly from click to click (maybe that was my computer, not Google).  What I wasn’t able to figure out was how to print an individual form formatted exactly as I need it to print.  I see tools for viewing the responses to the form’s prompts, but haven’t discovered how to move the fields on the form around to my satisfaction (and, just as importantly, to the satisfaction of the attendance auditors that inspect the required forms for my programs).  If other students reading this post have more info about that, I’d love to hear it.

I’m already a user of Google Maps, both in my work and my personal life.  In my personal life I’ve used it to plan travel, and even to incorporate maps into worship presentations.  In my work, I use it to confirm the location of a site I need to visit, and sometimes have even used the photo tool to give me picture of what my required exit or destination building looks like.  I’m considering requiring my students to use it to search for their potential worksites, get directions and estimated travel time before they go out on interviews.  I think it’d be a great way to get them using the tool, and it’d save a few of them from getting lost and being late for an interview!  (That never makes a good impression.)  Maybe it will serve to make a few of them more conversant in map-reading and better oriented in their environs, something my experience tells me is lacking.  The only bummer about Googlemaps is the limits on the satellite views and photos available–some destinations are just not documented in photo form yet, or the magnification you’d like isn’t available.  I had not known about the personalized maps possibility, which I think would be fun to use planning a group outing or family trip. 

Just for fun, I searched for the map of the destination for our next family trip.  I wasn’t able to save the satellite picture and plunk it in here, but here’s a photo:

I wonder if Googledoc can serve as a storage site for photos I want to share with family and friends?

In both the work-based learning programs I coordinate, I’ve wrestled with the issue of setting expectations and assigning tasks that require students to have internet access, and now it has arisen in the classroom setting as well.  In an effort to be inclusive of students who don’t have home access or an e-mail address, I’ve set up the program parameters so that students without home access use the school’s access, and this arrangement has worked well, drawing complaints only from students who feel they’re inconvenienced by having to use the school’s computers instead of having the luxury of using one at home.  Although I wouldn’t impose a financial obligation on a student by dictating that they have home internet access, I don’t think we’re doing them any favors by designing curricula that avoid use of the internet and use of e-mail.  It’s how people communicate in the real world, and students need to be truly conversant in using it.

I’m glad I tried the presentation tool, because it showed me how to share and revealed how the multiple editors option might work.  Now I want to know whether there’s an option to save a database on Googledocs that could be accessed and edited by selected people…?  The more I learn, the more the possibilities expand.