Thursday, January 29, 2009

Week of January 30- February 6


Well done to all who have jumped the highest hurdle of creating your own blog and sharing your experiences. We think this week will expand your understanding of what Web 2.0 is and give you a chance to have some fun on Flickr.


4. Read a few perspectives on Web 2.0, and blog your thoughts.


5. Explore Flickr and learn about this popular image-hosting site. Set up an account and join some groups! And remember, blog about what you learn! Are there other photo-sharing sites that you use and could share?

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Things 1 & 2 ( January 23-January 30)

When you have read our Welcome to the Hudson 23 Things post (below), you will have already successfully completed Thing 1. You are off to a great start!

Creating Your Blog: Thing 2
2. Set up your own blog on Blogger.com & add your first post.
If you do not already have a Google account, you will need to create one. Follow the steps to create your blog name. Create this blog for your personal or professional use as part of our 23 Things. Your blog name will be part of your URL for your blogspot. For example, I create on Blogger: Hudson23Things and we all view on http://hudson23things.blogspot.com/.


3. Comment below about your experiences and please share the URL to your blog.
Welcome to the Hudson Falls Site of 23 Things!

This Learning 2.0 program was originally created by Helene Blowers at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenberg County (PLCMC). You may wish to view the archive of Helene's Infopeople webcast, Web 2.0: What Library Managers Need to Know to get a flavor of the excitement generated by the 23 Things. We also want to give thanks to the PLCMC and the Missouri River Regional Library for generously allowing copious amounts of lesson copying. Without them we would have no program. And finally, to Infopeople for their design and layout of our Hudson Falls 23 Things site.

Over the course of the next nine weeks, we recommend that you pace yourself by trying two to three "things" a week so that we may end our digital diet with a very low-tech celebration in early April! Enjoy your explorations!
Week of January 23-30
1. Read this entry (that's right, the one that you are reading now), and this FAQ.
2. Set up your own blog on Blogger.com for personal or professional use.
3. Share your experience with the group.
Week of January 30- February 6
4. Read a few perspectives on Web 2.0, and blog your thoughts.
5. Explore Flickr and learn about this popular image-hosting site. Set up an account and join some groups! And remember, blog about what you learn!
Week of February 6-13
6. VUVOX is a neat mashup tool that allows you to mix, create and blend your personal media – video, photos and music into neat presentations. It's free and easy. You can use Flickr photos, Picasa albums, and RSS feeds - and then you can add audio narrations and music. There is an express service, a collage option or a studio option where you can construct your presentation in a storyboard style. Here is what I created, Sample 23Things .
Week of February 13-20
7. Visit Classroom 2.0, the social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies. This will introduce you to ways other teachers are using Web 2.0 in their classrooms. Create a blog post about anything Web 2.0-related that you think would be useful in your classroom. There is a great search "By Tool" and "By Subject" on the right sidebar.
8. Learn about RSS feeds and set up your own Bloglines newsreader account. Bloglines is a FREE online service that allows you to search for, read and share updates from your favorite news feed or blog.
9. Locate a few useful classroom related blogs and/or news feeds and add them to your Bloglines account.
Week of February 20-27
10. Sign up for a Twitter account. Track your activities using Twitter for a few days. Think about how Twitter might impact students in and outside of your classroom. Blog about your Twitter experience.
11. Play around with an online image generator. There are a number of free graphics generators that customize images into banners, buttons, comic strips, logos, blog pics and more. Flickr's online image generators are a fun and easy way to start now that you have an account! Blog about your experience(s).
Week of February 27-March 6
12. Take a look at LibraryThing and catalog some of your favorite books.
13. Check out Ning. There are lots of educators on Ning. This tool lets you create your very own social network space! Create your own space, and invite some of your colleagues or classmates to join! Blog about ways you think this tool might be used in your classroom.
14. Learn about social bookmarking then create a Del.icio.us account and add and tag some Web 2.0 sites.
Week of March 6-13
15. Explore Technorati, an Internet search engine for searching blogs, competing with Google and Yahoo. As of June 2008, Technorati indexes 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media. Learn how tags work with blog posts.
Week of March 13-20
16. Learn about wikis and discover some innovative ways that classrooms are using them.
17. Add an entry to our Hudson23Things wiki and read about (register for?) educators free access to private K-12 wikis for your classroom.
Week of March 20-27
18. Take a look at some online productivity (word processing, spreadsheet) tools.
19. Explore My Maps on Google Maps and create a map of our school and add a picture of it to the map.
Week of March 27- April 3
20. Discover YouTube and a few sites that allow users to upload and share videos.
21. Discover some useful tips for and uses for podcasts in your classroom at The Education Podcast Network. Interested in creating podcasts in your classroom? Let us know, we can help!22. Teach someone else how to use one of the technologies described above and blog about your experience!
23. Summarize your thoughts about this program on your blog.