Thing 6--Image Generators

I have had a good time working with Image Generators. My kids ages 4 and 7 were having me make different things for them. My son is in T-ball and wanted me to make a Jersey with his number and nick name on the back. I can't believe how easy it is. I could see how these could be used in my desktop publishing class and used for the students web design class to have on their sites. These would work well for printed materials as well.

Image Chef is the one I spent the most time on. It was very user friendly. Like I said my young kids were also able to use it. The posters and comic strips were also good and I could truly see so many project ideas that could be created with image generators.

I would encourage everyone who is reading this blog to take sometime and use image generator. I think you will be able to easily find a use for this application.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Thing 5--Flickr

Thing 5--Flickr

I have spent the last few hours playing and looking through images on Flickr. I am really impressed with the free service that flickr has to offer. It was so intresting to see all of the photo ideas that are out there. The photo talent that is out there is truly amazing!

I did create an account with flickr and added a few pictures. I do not think that I will use flickr to keep track of all of my pictures because for the last 4 years I have been using another free photo storage device "shutterfly". Shutterfly seems to let me do just about everything that you can do in flickr. Although I do not know if shutterfly allows you to attach a picture to a blog like flickr does.

I did add a few pictures to my flickr account and posted it to this blog called flickr test. Please take a look.

Thing 4 Search Engines

Question:
What did you discover about Web searches that is important to share with students?

Wow, everything I read is important to share with my students. I have learned most of what I read prior to this class but it was a good refresher. The sites I was at I will bookmark and make sure my students spend time on those site going through all of the information for making searches easier and more accurate. I think Thing 4 is something that everyone who spends time on the Internet should read. We all have wasted time sifting through websites trying to find the exact information that we need. Thing 4 gives great tips on searching quickly and more accurately.

Thing 3, iGoogle Suite

Blog question:
How can the Google suite of tools help you to organize information and how can the Google suite of tools be used for education? What is the “paradigm flip” that the article suggests should occur in classrooms and school libraries?

The Google suite of tools can help you organize information by having many different links located all on the igoogle search page. Now when I go to google.com I can do a regular search or I can check my gmail, check the local weather, see my to do list, check my calendar, read the blogs I have selected, access my blog, read documents that I have shared and much more. I really like my igoogle page. I have it personalized with all of the sites that I would go to found in one space.

This can be also used educationally, because from this site I can locate the educational blogs that I want to read to keep me knowledgeable in my content areas. It also can be used for students. All of my students are part of a laptop program, so they all have their own personal laptops that can be used to customize their very own igoogle page. This way they can have their classmates and instructors blogs linked to their page so they can easily read everyone's blogs. As an instructor I can post assignments, reading assignments and follow up questions on my blog and have them respond to the questions on their own blog.

The paradigm flip that was mentioned in the article I take the paradigm flip to meaning that we need to change the way we think about our school libraries and classrooms. We need to move to being a web 2.0 school. With web 2.0 not only would the "library" be open from 8-4 it would be open 24/7 the reason we could accommodate students with the flip is because we would take our "libraries/ classrooms" virtual. We would have unlimited resources available online for our students and staff. We could be at the "library" anytime anywhere. That is what I believe it means to do a paradigm flip.

Thing 2---My First Blog Post

Today I registered and created my first blog. I am taking a course using web 2.o. In the course I go to the following URL: http://clovis23things.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/register/ where I see what item I need to complete. The course ends once I have gone through all 23 items. I am to blog about each of the 23 items so check back and see what I am learning each week, I will keep my blog up to date. So far I am pretty impressed with blogging, very easy to register, set up and create entries. Not quite sure how to tag a blog??? I will have to go through help to figure it out.

Just got done reading all the directions, I should of read through them all before starting. I am as bad as my students. I read that you should not name you Blog with your real name. Oops. My blog URL has my real name. I am sure I can change it but for this class I will keep it as it is.

Question:
What have you learned so far about blogging and how can it be applied in the education field?
I have learned that blogs are easy and free. As far as teaching I can have my students all create a blog and keep a journal for my classes. It would be easy and probably something different and fun for the students. It would also be an easy way for parents to see what the kids are doing in school. They could just log on and check out there child's blog.

As far as a personal use I could see me using this to keep family and friends up to date with what my family has been up to. I can really see myself getting into blogging!

Have a good day!

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