Thursday, October 1, 2009

Things 5-7

This weeks' Things have been a mixed bag.

#5. I used to have a Flickr account. When I went to Scotland with my class from UW-Whitewater, we all agreed to open a Flickr account and share photos. Out of 8, two of us did it. Actually, three, but the other one never did much. It was a flop. Loved the idea, but the implentaion wasn't there. The use of photo albums would have been nice if I didn't have to buy more space. I had two albums and then was told to either pay up or I had to make peace that this was it. After a year of trying to get the other to contribute, I gave up and just never went back to do other things with the pictures. Needless to say, I can't remember my login info so they are stuck in cyberspace for all time. Flickr was really easy to use, though. As techno illiterate as I was back then (not implying that I am that much more literate now, but that's besides the point), it was super easy to get pictures loaded onto the site, labeled and into the appropriate album. Sharing with my one other friend in the group was nice. I could save her pics and use them when I had to make a powerpoint for my church ladies' group. (You only have to talk for 45 min......)



#6. I have used mashups with another site. I belong to a Halloween group http://www.ghostdroppings.com/ and we all put ourselves on a mashup map using Mappr. The pic I chose doesn't load because it's too big, so I'm currently working on getting it resized. It's really nice being able to see who lives where and what everyone looks like! On a side note, feel free to drop by and see what we're all about. Guests are more than welcome to read posts, they just can't contribute to the threads until they join. I am still trying to get the Flickr SpellIt to work, but everytime I try to run it my computer freezes. I will continue to try to get it to work, updates will be following.



#7. Anything technology related that interests me. Hmmmmm...I'm having a love affair with iTunes at the moment. iTunes helped out our JH language arts teacher last year. We participate in the Rebecca Caudill Award (IL state program for 4-8th graders) and Red Kayak was so popular that the teacher integrated it into her curriculum. When they read a book, they try to listen to it as well to catch all the audio learners. We could not find an audio version of that book through anyone. We tried all the usual suspects and came up empty-handed every time. Out of sheer desperation, I tried iTunes and BINGO, there it was! So it got downloaded to my account, my ipod and played in her classroom. After that, I looked at all of the audiobooks and podcasts that were there. I'm still not sure what the copyright issues are with iTunes, but it's blocked at our school. (Hate CIPA!!! But I digress again.) I have burned a few old time radio shows to CD's to play around Halloween. Old meets New; the kids like listening to the campy radio shows and then go home to see what they can find on iTunes themselves. We have had quite a few interesting conversations about why I can't play certain ones in school. (I don't care if you think it's a good story, the content is not appropriate for school!")

1 comment:

  1. Red Kayak was a required read this summer for one of the middle schools in the town where I work. One night I had a young lady come to the reference desk asking for the audio book because she couldn't understand the printed book.... I too tried looking anywhere and everywhere and couldn't find it..... If only I would have thought of I-Tunes. You've really thought of a great way to use popular technology in a professional way to benefit your students. Thumbs up Erica!

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