delicious

I think I'm a convert! If you haven't tried delicious, do so. I forget my websites at times, but now I can take a list of my favorites to any computer thanks to delicious. Now this is useful!

Technorati

I can see the use of Techonorati to look for trends and see what everyone is talking about, however I don't see myself using this tool very often. I tried clicking on the books in the popular section and didn't see much that intersted me. Perhaps if I played with this more, I would see more value.

delicious

I like delicious. I created my own account and saved links to Oh What a Geek, blogger, rollyo and all my preschool fingerplay sites that I use. I looked for other people who used my fingerplay sites to see what other sites they liked to use. I'm just wondering how convienent it will be when I switch computers. I know that this is the point, but do I need to put delicious in the links on each computer I use? I'm guessing this will be the case. I can see this as being VERY convenient, as I hate not being able to remember a site.

Rollyo

http://rollyo.com/mmatusz/

I made a rollyo of some favorite sites I use for storytime and fingerplays. It's really neat to be able to search all the sites at once, rather than going to each site individually. This is one of the most useful tools I've seen yet.

Library Thing

I really enjoyed looking at library thing. I liked the fact that I could list books that I want to read to be viewed later, keep a list of what I had read and look at suggestions. I will be turning my library thing profile to private as soon as I know I have credit for entering my books. I find that I'm interested in learning about all these different technologies, but not as interested in using them. So many of them involve talking to strangers online. I'm willing to do this on a professional level, but uninterested in doing this on a personal level.

Image Generators

I made my mosaic on Letter James - http://www.letterjames.com/start.php?mod=ecard-service&r=8&s=9 These are the pumpkins the staff made in our pumpkin contest. This is a fun thing to do, but at this point it takes me so much time, I don't see myself using it in practical situations. I do like to design signs, so maybe I will see a use for this in the future.

RSS Feeds

I found that the sights I go to often didn't have RSS feeds, so I had to stretch myself a bit to find my 10, but in the meantime I learned something about RSS feeds. I found a RSS feed called Librarian Moms, which I think will be fun to follow, and added a few newsfeeds to my list. Overall, this was much easier than I expected. I did use Google Reader rather than Bloglines, and I like not having anymore passwords. Google Reader is very self explanatory.

Technology

Technology can help you lose weight instantly. Today Stacey helped me erase at least half of my behind in a picture using paint. We had these great pictures of our kids from storytime dressed up in their costumes and in about half of them was me handing them their bubbles or stickers. Did I mention that I'm dressed as Thing 1 and wearing bright red sweat pants? Not a pretty sight, but technology saved me and our pictures! Yeah Stacey!!

Mash-ups

I went to the Mashup of the day site and discovered a site that is going to track the elections. Twitterday vote report, the Mashup of the day winner, is designed for voters to record their voting experience. They can tell the site about long lines, machine problems and will be able to enter their zip code and address so that I could choose a site on the map and see what issues are being talked about in my area. This site is designed to help people help the others in their neighborhood, and I think it's a great idea. I'm going to check it out on Tuesday!

Technology

I'm going to date myself and tell everyone that for my internship in graduate school, I worked at a small library in Ypsilanti, MI that did not have an online catalog, and still used the paper version of the Reader's Guide. I had a teacher just last week tell me that she missed the card catalog. I DO NOT! Some of the first online catalogs I used were cumbersome and difficult, but to me they still far outweighed the card catalog. When I first started my job in GA in 1996, we had an online catalog without the circulation module! We had to file cards. I'll never forget watching our pages sit in front of rows of cards for hours filing and pulling cards for books. Let's not even talk about pulling holds and keeping up with new books! At times, technology seems to be viewed as something that will consume libraries. I see that technology has greatly enhanced our abilities to serve. I was so excited when we got our first direct connection to the Internet. I was in Marquette, MI in my first professional job, and the Internet was just amazing to me. We would type in an address and then wait, and wait, and wait, sometimes for 5 minutes, but the results were worth it (sometimes).

Lately, it seems to me that many of the new technologies are used for social purposes. I find that I am interested in technologies that help me during my work day, but I am not really very interested in going to the computer for my social outlets. Shopping however...

#5 Flickr and geotagging

I believe that one could become lost in Flickr. I started to look at pictures one day and found myself in the same position a half an hour later. I clicked on geotagged today and found that you can type in a subject, I tried animals, then the pictures will pop up and when you choose a picture, it will link the picture to a spot on the map. I think I could use this to share pictures of my kids with my parents.

a much needed prod

After a 6 year hiatus from the full-time working world, I'm pleased to again focus on learning about technology. My six years at home with my children were wonderful, but I did not find myself drawn to the world of blogs as some do. The way the program is structured, one small step at a time, is ideal for my learning style. Thanks for offering this program and giving us time to complete the program.