Wiki's

I have spent the last few days exploring the various common wiki's. I've come to the conclusion that each one has it's place. Before you decide on the one to use...know what you want to do....do you mainly want writing, photos, or just collaborate with others. ...how do you want to organize and how flexible are your users....right now I'm using several different wiki's for different things....organization is important for school, downloading photos for family and ease of use for users for my church group. I'm glad there are different wiki's out there to look at....and I'm glad they are similar enough for me to go back and forth between.
Take a look at some of my wikis at http://www.tallowoodacteens.wetpaint.com, http://pgpsbisd.pbwiki.com , http://rummelcreek.wikispaces.com and http://www.covenantcares.wetpaint.com. Lots of choices.....

TLA

It's been a while since I have written - too much going on....too much learning. I attended the TLA conference in Houston and now need to try a lot of new things. Michael Stephens is now someone I am reading a following on his blogs.
The hard part now is trying to keep up with daily life in the library - packing up for a renovation project and keeping up with new stuff so that I am prepared for the next school year. It seems like I am always on a big learning curve....

Just testing

Just trying to see if I can do what I learned

Create interactive meetings at Poll Everywhere

Here's a response

Build television sms voting polls at Poll Everywhere

Here's a gcast pod cast

The Flip

A new toy is now in use...the FLIP! I had attempted a while back and encountered a problem...this week, we've been taping and droping into movie maker...so much fun. This will be something we will continue to use over the coming days and weeks. A group of fifth graders made a great video about washing your hands....we showed it to the school on Friday....it was so much fun. I am looking forward to what we create next....we have created a monster!

Technology Overload

Curriculum night is over and Saturday I attended the Activboard training. I have so many ideas floating in my head right now it's about to explode. I have had many positive comments about the web 2.0 tools we are using at school....so I'm going to try to learn and pass on a few more. I learned about podcasting from an activboard...how exciting....can't wait to find time to play.

TGIF

My brain has been in overload this week trying to learn a few new websites. We're getting ready for curriculum night (next Thursday) and I'm trying to get some fresh ideas to share. Came across these in a journal article....looks like something the kids would enjoy... http://www.readwritethink.org/crossword/ (students can use a crossword or create a crossword)
http://www.tikatok.com/ - (where students can write a book/story…if you actually print and publish…a cost of about 20.00 a book. Register to use…but no cost until printing)
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ (create a comic strip…think of it as a way for students to write a summary of a story)

It's amazing how many new things can pop up...I can't keep up with it all. Check back next week for some new sites to try with your children. As always...I'm a bit frazzled this week.

Things to try

I've decided that I can't keep up with technology. Every day I get new websites to go and visit...rarely do I have the time to try them out to their fullest extent. I'm going to have to try to schedule in some time to "play." www.toondoo.com is a site where you can build a cartoon. www.gcast.com allows you to create a podcast or MP3 file. I've gotten hooked on www.zamzar.com where you can convert YouTube videos into MP4/AVI files to show at school. www.sparklebox.co.uk is a good site for the young children on literacy, numeracy, books signs and labels. All in all, just a few clicks and you learn all kinds of new things. My list just keeps growing.