Week 9, #23 Summarize your thoughts

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? I loved the blogging (didn't think I would), online image generator, del.icio.us, wikis, zoho, Library Thing and Youtube.
2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? It is one of my on-going goals to keep up with technology like this, so this program fit in perfectly. It was so nice to have it all in one place, instead of learning about these things in a hit and miss manner.
3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? I am using several of them in my library.
   
4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? It was hard to remember to go comment on other people's stuff and it was hard to come up with curriculum connections. The easiest part was doing the discovery exercise, then blogging about it.
   
5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? Absolutely!
   
6. How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote CSLA learning activities? Learn about different technologies in a simple, straightforward, user-friendly web class that you can do on your own time, at your own pace.
   

Week 9, #22 Ebooks and Audio eBooks

This is such an interesting new frontier. Of course the minute we had the Gutenberg Project, a natural next step was getting these books on audio. I would prefer to read a pdf file than an html file online, although I would really prefer to read a real live book in my lap! I put some of the LibriVox feeds on my podcast subscriptions. I love listening to books on podcast so this will be a nifty way to catch up on some old classics that I have never read. Maybe I will find it easier to read some of them by listening rather than by old fashioned reading. It will be fun to find out. Brothers Karamazov here I come!

Week 9, #21 Podcasting

I guess because I am used to itunes, I did not find the other podcast places as user-friendly. I bookmarked (or should I say delicioused?) several podcast making sites to try out this summer. I would like to have booktalks on a podcast but don't have time to tinker with it right now. I subscribe to several podcasts and it has provided great entertainment on my weekly walks. I found a teacher in our district who is an expert podcaster and had him offer a class at my library a couple of weeks ago. Only teachers showed up even though students were invited. The topic was how to make a podcast. So, either I didn't get the word out correctly, or students already know how to do this!

Week 9, #20 videos

Youtube is the easiest to access and watch. I liked the book video so I put this on this blog.

Week 8, #19 Library Thing

Library Thing is so easy to use. I had run across it earlier than this assignment. I had actually already added it to my blog. But I was not able to add it to my real library blog because edublogs doesn't accept html yet. Or at least I couldn't get it to work. But I also created a group for our district high school librarians and I hope they'll start using Library Thing too.

Week 8, #18, reflections on zoho

I love Zoho. I wonder what the name means? Anyway, their product seems much more robust than Google Docs and Spreadsheets. For example, Zoho has lots of other online applications, including presentation (kind of like powerpoint) and project planners, to name only two. I can really see students using this to work together or by themselves, but to have access to their "stuff" online.

I plan to share this with the folks at my next high school technology people meeting- the one at my school and the one district-wide. This product (zoho) would be especially useful for our students- with their digital native abilities!

Week 7 #17 Wiki play and ideas

I enjoyed the sandbox and the wiki work. I would like to use the wiki pb videos with students- they are so clear and so short. I think the students would like them. Now I have to dovetail my wiki scheme with a teacher's idea....