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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Glogging= Poetry after Blogging

Did you know there was poetry in digital technology?  Who designs these weird and wonderful, nonsensical names?  I really think that the weirder the name, the more popular the site will become.  Please can some techno geek design a romantic name for me:) 

This week Matt and I "glogged",  and no, this does not mean we imbibed too much grape juice, but rather Matt and I schooled ourselves in the anatomy of a glog poster page.  To learn this we went to Glogster

My role as the "facilitator"in this process of digital learning was to design a teachable topic, brainstorm some ideas, send him to the URL and watch the visual dynamics upload.  Excited with learning a new application Matthew inhaled his objectives, digested the terms, analysed Christian perspective of his topic and created his poster.  As he profoundly said "this is so easy to use even my mom and sister can do it".  He was proud of his Outreach poster and although he could not properly load the music he declared this a work in progress!  Please let me know if you get your students producing a Glog?  I would love to add some samples to our library interface:)

PS If you would like to test your student's knowledge of the Internet and computer terminology have them read the Google E Book.

Thank you God for encouraging me in this process, and for allowing my son to become excited about learning a new application and making Bible an artistic process:)

God Bless you in your discovery of digital technology! I look forward to chatting with you.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Absorbing Technology Akin to Starbucks Java

I have decided that learning informational technology can make you manic and then some!  Just as learning the terminology for a cuppa java at your local Starbucks, with that decaf, low fat, no foam, soya latte to go, I have discovered the addictive nature of digital technology.  My brain has slowed down over the last few years, and so learning new applications can take time, and more time...  So I wanted to share the techno "buzzz" the same way you get that coffee "buzzz", of course some of us are just more addicted than others:)

At my recent library conference I was overwhelmed at all the available technology out there, and felt helpless to know where to begin.  So I felt really good that I was on Facebook, could not get excited about Twitter, had figured out Skype and Elluminate (well barely) and now I had to learn about Diigo, Delicious, Jing, Flikker, and many more to mention.  To me they sounded like dog's names, and yet the web was naming them in the top 100 applications of the year.  To get you excited about all these top applications, here are the sites to follow:

Online tools and applications by  - Go2web20
Jane Hart's 100 Tools for Learning List 2010
Kathy Shrock's List Web2.0Tools

Today after much practice and prayer, I brandished my sword, and cuppa and conquered Jing.  Jing is not a prelude to Christmas bells, but rather a very clever way of capturing screen and audio, like IMovie on a Mac, if you would like to have an online screen cast.  My goal was to explain my virtual library to staff and parents, and after several attempts of stopping my dog from making really bad noises in my mike, I realised, according to my son that I had not changed the internal mike to my headset. Oops.. 2 and half hours later, I finalized my sound under 5 minutes and was ready to produce my first "ahem" movie, (not really but it felt like it).  Even my dog and daughter said, "Not bad mum".  Hey, if I can figure out how to load it onto Screencast.com and then send it to you all I will be flying:)  PS Next week we will attempt poster applications using Glogster.  What?

God Bless Pippa

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Absorbing new Technology

Well this morning I listened to Greg Bitgood's podcast on starting a blog, and with much anticipation I am starting mine this morning.  I have been dogged by a bad virus this week so work has been intermittent, as I give my body time to recover.

Do you feel overwhelmed at all the technology out there and wonder how you can enter this new 2.0 world of information overload?!  I hear you:)  I think if you commit yourself to learning one thing at a time, you will be able to enter this brave new world with a different view on life.  Our kids can absorb so much of it within seconds, and yet we struggle to take on the challenge of simply starting the process.  Fear of failure is large in my vocabulary, and patience to get everything right the first time, ie make a perfect page with lovely settings and photographs etc.  Please God remove all these expectations, and help me do one thing at a time.

The reason I am starting this blog is twofold.  Firstly, I like this idea of posting my newsletter this way so that we can collaborate, and parents and students can see our posts.  Secondly, I love the idea of keeping archives, must be the "librarian" in me!  Having one's own domain is a distinct plus!

So if you have not listened to Greg's podcast this week please do so.  I joined Blogger.com and was amazed at how easy it is to use.   I would love for my students to be doing their own blogs, especially my middle and upper level students.  I know that some of my book club students are already blogging and reaching out to students all over BC.  But you can choose to make your blog personal and closed, by going to settings.  I look forward to meeting you here on my blog and chatting!  God Bless!