Week 4, Thing #9 - RSS and Feeds

I have added feeds to both my Bloglines account and my Google Reader account. Right now I prefer Bloglines. It seems easier to add feeds, gives good options for screen viewing, and has Bloglines Top 1000 (a helpful place for a beginner to find feeds). My feeds include: CNN News, Word of the Day, Dilbert, Motley Fool, Librarians' Internet Index: New This Week, and PC Magazine: New Product Reviews. Now I just have to find time to read my feeds.

Week 4, Thing #8 - RSS Feeds and Newsreader Accounts

I have read about RSS ("Really Simple Syndication") and have set up "RSS aggregator" accounts on both Google Reader and Bloglines.

Week 3, Thing #7 - Technology Thoughts

I played some more with mashups.

My creation
Originally uploaded by wall.katy

I used a cool tool to create my own trading card:
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/deck.php

Tech thoughts: As a school librarian, it is certainly good to keep abreast of new technology. However, I have found that staying on the cutting edge of technology often is more expensive in terms of both time and money invested than sitting back a bit and waiting until the new technologies develop. Web authoring is an example. Writing html code used to be a somewhat tedious undertaking. Many programs are now available for creating web pages that make the process quite simple and quick. I have watched the price of many pieces of technology drop after their initial introduction--computers, digital cameras, memory cards,... As new technologies emerge, I have to decide the optimum time to jump in and get my feet wet.

Week 3, Thing #6 - Flickr Mashups & Third Party Sites

Travel Talk
Originally uploaded by wall.katy

So many possiblilities--not enough hours in a day! I enjoyed using a Flickr mashup to create a magazine cover with a picture I had taken of my husband in London last year. Middle school students would love creating their own magazine covers. So many possibilities!

Link to create magazine covers: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/magazine.php

Week 3, Thing #5 - Explore Flickr

I spent some time exploring Flickr and third party mashups. I would like to try the magazine cover and trading card applications with some of my middle school students.

Week 2,Thing #4 - Register Blog

My blog is registered with Kathy and Chris (my cheerleader). Moving right along! Fun so far.

Week 2, Thing #3 - Set up blog; add avatar

Here it is. I have set up my own blog and added an avatar.