In the Flickr Thing, I got really frustrated that I couldn't get my Flickr Photos to go into Wordpress. I've been cutting and pasting code from Photobucket for a while, but today I ran into a glitch with that. (It was due to a new camera and a new method of uploading and had absolutely nothing to do with user error, I assure you.)
We took our kids on an outing yesterday and I actually had a lot of photos that I wanted to include in the post about the Firefighters Museum. I was then met with some challenges. 1) Did I want to have 18 photos lined up vertically at the bottom of the post? 2) I uploaded the photos to Flickr, but I couldn't find a way to resize them, nor code to add them to my existing post. 3) I figured out Flickr's "blog this" feature, but that made a separate blog post for each photo and muddied up my "recent posts" listing.
The answer: a slideshow, which I had learned about in the earlier Things and wasn't as difficult or scary as I thought it would be. But how to do it?
I put the photos in a "set" in Flickr and could view a slideshow there, but I couldn't find a way to embed that into my post. Through some help screens in Flickr, I found Flickrslidr and made a nice slideshow, but when I put it into Wordpress, the code was stripped out. So I turned to the Wordpress FAQ's, where I found links to three slide programs that will work with Wordpress. Since my photos were already in Flickr, I chose www.slide.com because it would grab my Flickr pics. Then, to my delight, I found that it would also make a slideshow of that particular set, and that I could customize the size so it would fit appropriately into my posts. The code was simple to embed in Wordpress, and it worked like a charm.
So I did it! I found a real-world application for some of the Things, and got it to do exactly what I wanted.
Now I just have to remember how to do it again next time.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Friday, March 7, 2008
The End . . . or is it The Beginning? (Thing 23)
Overall, this was a very good experience. I learned a little more about some things I'd tried before. I tried some alternatives to things I was comfortable with. I looked at some things I'd heard of yet not tried before. I heard of some things that I didn't know I needed to know about. And once in a while, I found that I wasn't as far behind the world of Web 2.0 as I thought.
There was frustration--sometimes the instructions were unclear (to me, anyway) and sometimes too specific. That's life, and something we have to get around.
In a perfect world, it would have been nice to have feedback from someone "in charge." It was nice to get occasional comments from fellow Thingers, but a note or two now and then from those "teaching" the course would have been useful to let us know if we were on the right track, or that our frustrations were being heard. Alternately, a centralized help or discussion board, read by leaders and learners alike, would have been good for finding answers to our problems. I realize there were comments at the bottom of each Thing, but again, I wondered if anyone was reading them. So, I guess my best suggestion would be to provide more feedback to the learners as they go along.
I enjoyed reading others' blogs. Early on, I added some that looked interesting to my Bloglines account, and I haven't been disappointed. This is probably the most "networking" I've gotten out of this exercise.
I would definitely do another program like this in the future. Learning from my own home whenever I can squeeze in the time is the best thing at this point in my life.
Thanks to all who put a lot of time and resources into this project. I'm glad I had the opportunity to participate.
There was frustration--sometimes the instructions were unclear (to me, anyway) and sometimes too specific. That's life, and something we have to get around.
In a perfect world, it would have been nice to have feedback from someone "in charge." It was nice to get occasional comments from fellow Thingers, but a note or two now and then from those "teaching" the course would have been useful to let us know if we were on the right track, or that our frustrations were being heard. Alternately, a centralized help or discussion board, read by leaders and learners alike, would have been good for finding answers to our problems. I realize there were comments at the bottom of each Thing, but again, I wondered if anyone was reading them. So, I guess my best suggestion would be to provide more feedback to the learners as they go along.
I enjoyed reading others' blogs. Early on, I added some that looked interesting to my Bloglines account, and I haven't been disappointed. This is probably the most "networking" I've gotten out of this exercise.
I would definitely do another program like this in the future. Learning from my own home whenever I can squeeze in the time is the best thing at this point in my life.
Thanks to all who put a lot of time and resources into this project. I'm glad I had the opportunity to participate.
Staying the Course (Thing 22)
I think the RSS aggregator will be my biggest tool in keeping up. I've got a lot of feeds on there now, but they don't all have new information every day, so it doesn't take much time to read the new articles.
As for keeping up with my 23Things blog, I don't know that I'll do that. While I'll continue to learn, I don't necessarily feel that I need to write about it. I'm a reader and love to learn new things, but if I feel I have to write about it, I'll see it as a chore and be less likely to try new things.
I'm certain I'll play around with some of the Things more in the future. Photo sites, slideshows, and Youtube come to mind. And who can say what else?
I agree that it's good to try to keep up with the new things, and I'll do my best.
As for keeping up with my 23Things blog, I don't know that I'll do that. While I'll continue to learn, I don't necessarily feel that I need to write about it. I'm a reader and love to learn new things, but if I feel I have to write about it, I'll see it as a chore and be less likely to try new things.
I'm certain I'll play around with some of the Things more in the future. Photo sites, slideshows, and Youtube come to mind. And who can say what else?
I agree that it's good to try to keep up with the new things, and I'll do my best.
Socializing in Web 2.0 (Thing 20)
It seems that there are a lot of social networks available. When I searched on some things that I would find interesting, I was surprised to see groups with two or three members in them. I think the groups may either thrive or starve. It takes a good group of people, who actually share with each other, to keep a group going.
I suppose the Yahoo! Groups also fall under this category. I've been involved in a Yahoo group of friends for over a year now. We e-mail back and forth every day, share photos, etc. The page layouts aren't quite as sophisticated as some of the ones listed in this Thing, but it's content-rich.
Again, it comes down to time. Do I want to go looking for more groups to join according to my interests? It's good to know they're out there, and maybe someday I'll look again.
I suppose the Yahoo! Groups also fall under this category. I've been involved in a Yahoo group of friends for over a year now. We e-mail back and forth every day, share photos, etc. The page layouts aren't quite as sophisticated as some of the ones listed in this Thing, but it's content-rich.
Again, it comes down to time. Do I want to go looking for more groups to join according to my interests? It's good to know they're out there, and maybe someday I'll look again.
No, this isn't Star Wars (Thing 19)
For some reason, the word "podcast" always makes me think of Star Wars. I'm not sure why, but it's an association I have a hard time dismissing.
I've subscribed to podcasts in the past; there's a segment on WCCO that I like to listen to but rarely catch live. So I subscribed to the podcast, and found . . . that unlike glancing through a list of feeds, it takes a lot of time to listen to a podcast. So I would see the list of topics, and think, "Wow! That looks interesting. Maybe I'll listen to it someday." And someday never came. So while I don't doubt that there are interesting and/or useful podcasts available, I don't think it's something I'd be inclined to take the time to do unless it was something I was very specifically interested in (like the feed of my husband's parents when they were interviewed on the radio).
I looked at some podcast directories as well as the library and Minnesota ones listed. I was disappointed that it took a lot of time to load the podcast of Wanda Erickson but found it to be interesting once it had finished loading. Like so many Web 2.0 things, the availability of resources and Internet speeds may affect usability.
I've subscribed to podcasts in the past; there's a segment on WCCO that I like to listen to but rarely catch live. So I subscribed to the podcast, and found . . . that unlike glancing through a list of feeds, it takes a lot of time to listen to a podcast. So I would see the list of topics, and think, "Wow! That looks interesting. Maybe I'll listen to it someday." And someday never came. So while I don't doubt that there are interesting and/or useful podcasts available, I don't think it's something I'd be inclined to take the time to do unless it was something I was very specifically interested in (like the feed of my husband's parents when they were interviewed on the radio).
I looked at some podcast directories as well as the library and Minnesota ones listed. I was disappointed that it took a lot of time to load the podcast of Wanda Erickson but found it to be interesting once it had finished loading. Like so many Web 2.0 things, the availability of resources and Internet speeds may affect usability.
For all the world to see (Thing 18)
I chose to search on carseat safety, which is a topic near and dear to my heart. I am trained as a Child Passenger Safety Technician, and I've previously seen some of the videos that popped up with my "carseat" search, but this one was a good one I hadn't seen before.
I also like how this one (below) has several short segments that relate to each other--the difference between a forward-facing and a rear-facing child safety seat, for instance. It's very compelling in showing the advantages of keeping children rear-facing in their carseats as long as possible. (If you don't believe me, look at the difference in the crash tests for forward-facing and rear-facing seats.)
And the next one is very nicely made, providing accurate information along with compelling footage:
I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to embed the videos into the blog. Although it might take some time to sift through the videos to find ones with good content, it would not be difficult to recommend them to patrons or students via a website by embedding them. Recording book talks on Youtube (or embedding ones that others have done) could be another library application.
The "related videos" section is helpful. I could get lost going from one to another, but it's useful to be able to see related content.
I also like how this one (below) has several short segments that relate to each other--the difference between a forward-facing and a rear-facing child safety seat, for instance. It's very compelling in showing the advantages of keeping children rear-facing in their carseats as long as possible. (If you don't believe me, look at the difference in the crash tests for forward-facing and rear-facing seats.)
And the next one is very nicely made, providing accurate information along with compelling footage:
I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to embed the videos into the blog. Although it might take some time to sift through the videos to find ones with good content, it would not be difficult to recommend them to patrons or students via a website by embedding them. Recording book talks on Youtube (or embedding ones that others have done) could be another library application.
The "related videos" section is helpful. I could get lost going from one to another, but it's useful to be able to see related content.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Finding Friends Online--Thing 21
I had a Myspace page once upon a time. I even had the username and password written down. But now I can't log in; I get nothing but error messages. I used the Myspace page exactly . . . once or twice. Now and then I still get a message from some stranger wanting to be my friend even though there was never enough info on my page for a person to know if they'd want to be my friend or not. I thought of creating a new account, but why have two that sit idle. Maybe when my kids are older I'll jump back in; I've heard of parents joining the social networks and requesting to be their kids' "friends" so they can keep an eye on things in cyberspace with their kids.
My first thought about the library websites was, "They're really grasping at straws to get the teens involved in the library." But then I looked at some of the comments that had been left, the "thanks for giving me the add" remarks, and I wondered if a teen might make a friend of the library via its social network just as easily as walking into the library and finding a place of comfort.
Both the Denver and Hennepin County pages are set up similarly; I suppose the templates don't allow a lot of differentiation. They both have a lot of information available about events that teens might be interested in.
I wonder how their users find the site. Do they promote it in-library? Do kids just happen upon it? Might there be teens who specifically look for their library to have a Myspace or Facebook page?
Regardless of the benefits of having such a page, it will probably often come down to the fact that it takes resources (mainly time) to maintain them, and many libraries don't have the resources to be adding additional tasks to their job list. If a social networking site becomes a priority, something else may have to give. Do we reach out to teens and tweens at the expense of senior citizens or young children? This is a difficult question, as always.
My first thought about the library websites was, "They're really grasping at straws to get the teens involved in the library." But then I looked at some of the comments that had been left, the "thanks for giving me the add" remarks, and I wondered if a teen might make a friend of the library via its social network just as easily as walking into the library and finding a place of comfort.
Both the Denver and Hennepin County pages are set up similarly; I suppose the templates don't allow a lot of differentiation. They both have a lot of information available about events that teens might be interested in.
I wonder how their users find the site. Do they promote it in-library? Do kids just happen upon it? Might there be teens who specifically look for their library to have a Myspace or Facebook page?
Regardless of the benefits of having such a page, it will probably often come down to the fact that it takes resources (mainly time) to maintain them, and many libraries don't have the resources to be adding additional tasks to their job list. If a social networking site becomes a priority, something else may have to give. Do we reach out to teens and tweens at the expense of senior citizens or young children? This is a difficult question, as always.
Ahoy, matey! Thing 15
The video of the Info Island made no sense to me. I'd be lost on that island for sure. I suppose I should have delved into it further, but I chose instead to look at the pirate game.
I have a question about the computer resources required for online games. It took something 45 minutes to download onto my computer in order to play the puzzle pirates. If one wants to play on another computer, do you have to re-download everything? How do libraries handle downloads in general, even if they're activex controls, etc.?
Wow! For the first 16 things, our instructions were to "play around with this" or "see what you can do with this" or "try one or two of these 12 things." Now, suddenly, we're given specific things to search for and lengths of time to keep track of them, and the number of people to e-mail them to? This kind of guidance would have been more helpful at the beginning of the Things. Now that I'm used to going through this somewhat blindly, I'm not so happy to have to do such specific searches. I'm sure I could come up with something interesting to look at in each of these databases without being told what to search for.
I couldn't add the Gale feed in Bloglines, so I added the XML feed to another aggregator.
I suppose the ability to set up web pages would be good for directing students in their research.
Being able to e-mail results of searches to myself is a useful tool I have used before.
Sometimes it's easy to forget about ELM. I forget that the Star-Tribune is on there and instead go directly to the Star-Trib website to look for articles, and so on.
I am getting really really tired of having to create an account (or five) for every Thing, especially if they're not sites I'm likely to return to in the future.
I couldn't add the Gale feed in Bloglines, so I added the XML feed to another aggregator.
I suppose the ability to set up web pages would be good for directing students in their research.
Being able to e-mail results of searches to myself is a useful tool I have used before.
Sometimes it's easy to forget about ELM. I forget that the Star-Tribune is on there and instead go directly to the Star-Trib website to look for articles, and so on.
I am getting really really tired of having to create an account (or five) for every Thing, especially if they're not sites I'm likely to return to in the future.
Thing 16--Student 2.0 tools
Both of these tools look like they would be useful for students. In some ways, they remind me of the research guides we got in high school (back in the dark days of paper Readers' Guides and typewritten papers), but with the added benefit of a personalized timeline.
What could make these even more useful would be the ability to check off the parts that you've completed. Sometimes I get ambitious and do a lot of steps at once; it would be nice to mark them off to show my progress, and perhaps readjust the timeline. They also seem to be limited to research papers or similar projects. Thus, I was unable to tweak it enough to use it as a timeline for completing my 23Things.
It seems that requiring students to go through these steps would very useful in teaching them research and writing skills and in developing good habits. This is perhaps one of the most useful Things yet.
What could make these even more useful would be the ability to check off the parts that you've completed. Sometimes I get ambitious and do a lot of steps at once; it would be nice to mark them off to show my progress, and perhaps readjust the timeline. They also seem to be limited to research papers or similar projects. Thus, I was unable to tweak it enough to use it as a timeline for completing my 23Things.
It seems that requiring students to go through these steps would very useful in teaching them research and writing skills and in developing good habits. This is perhaps one of the most useful Things yet.
LibraryThing, or Thing 14
Now I'm starting to confuse myself. While I couldn't care less if people use the same tags as me, or like the same news articles, etc., I think it's really cool that I can see how many LibraryThing users have the same books as I do. I took strange enjoyment in being unique enough to be the first to have a book, and found it interesting to see which books that I thought would be popular had hardly any copies in others' libraries.
This would have been really nice when I was cataloging/inventorying our small parochial school's library a few years ago. It didn't take me long at all to add 98 books to my library. I like the display option that allows comments, as I plan to use this field to indicate which books I've read. I probably won't use LibraryThing as a tool to catalog the books that I own, but it will be useful in keeping track of books I've read, finding books by authors I like, and so on.
I think the review section is interesting. It is so easy yet so difficult to find reviews of anything these days. For electronics, I head to Epinions and Cnet. And then to Amazon. Or are there good reviews in the shopping comparison sites or Circuit City? For books and toys, there's the same dilemma. There are so many review sites available that it's hard to know where to start if you really want to delve into reviews on a product.
I also found the book swap links to be helpful. I've sold books on Ebay and to the local used bookstore, but it's nice to know of some other book swap services.
I'm not sure of the library applications--currently a lot of catalogs have tools for listing new books or bestsellers in the collection. Perhaps a community or library could start its own book-swap site; people could enter the books they have and trade with one another?
Off to set up a link to my library. I was surprised that the best match of other LibraryThing users was only 3 of the same books that I have.
This would have been really nice when I was cataloging/inventorying our small parochial school's library a few years ago. It didn't take me long at all to add 98 books to my library. I like the display option that allows comments, as I plan to use this field to indicate which books I've read. I probably won't use LibraryThing as a tool to catalog the books that I own, but it will be useful in keeping track of books I've read, finding books by authors I like, and so on.
I think the review section is interesting. It is so easy yet so difficult to find reviews of anything these days. For electronics, I head to Epinions and Cnet. And then to Amazon. Or are there good reviews in the shopping comparison sites or Circuit City? For books and toys, there's the same dilemma. There are so many review sites available that it's hard to know where to start if you really want to delve into reviews on a product.
I also found the book swap links to be helpful. I've sold books on Ebay and to the local used bookstore, but it's nice to know of some other book swap services.
I'm not sure of the library applications--currently a lot of catalogs have tools for listing new books or bestsellers in the collection. Perhaps a community or library could start its own book-swap site; people could enter the books they have and trade with one another?
Off to set up a link to my library. I was surprised that the best match of other LibraryThing users was only 3 of the same books that I have.
To be (productive) or not to be (productive)--Thing 13
I'm not sure that most of these tools aid in productivity. Sure, you can set up your iGoogle page and have all kinds of neat stuff on it. The gadgets are fun. Several months ago, I organized mine very nicely with tabs like Home--Tools--Weather--Bookmarks--Feeds--News--Shopping. I used it for a while and then took it off my homepage link. I think load time had something to do with it. Perhaps I'll give it a try again, as there are some things on there that could be useful all in one place.
Something similar that I do use frequently are the "toolbars" that one can download into a browser. I have (and use) toolbars for Google, Stumbleupon, The Weather Channel, Upromise, Yahoo, and more. These allow one-click access to websites, search boxes, shopping discount reminders, and more. Because they don't take any extra time to load and are out of the way of my normal pages, I like these better than the other site-type productivity tools.
The Zamzar document converter could be really useful. Our board recently had trouble with a Works to Word conversion and this would have been a nice tool to use.
In the past, I also used Yahoo's calendar. It had the benefit of being accessible from any computer, but it seemed to take a lot of time to enter things into it. A neat tool that we (my husband and I) have discovered for sharing our Outlook calendars on two computers is a little product from 4team called ShareCalendar. It's the only way we found to share our calendars without an Exchange server, and it's been really effective. An online calendar would have been our next option, but it's much easier to use our Outlook calendars since we also use Outlook for our e-mail and contacts.
Again, these things are interesting to know about, but I don't know how useful they'll be. If I needed to accomplish something specific, I'd look for these types of tools, but I likely wouldn't use the majority of them.
Something similar that I do use frequently are the "toolbars" that one can download into a browser. I have (and use) toolbars for Google, Stumbleupon, The Weather Channel, Upromise, Yahoo, and more. These allow one-click access to websites, search boxes, shopping discount reminders, and more. Because they don't take any extra time to load and are out of the way of my normal pages, I like these better than the other site-type productivity tools.
The Zamzar document converter could be really useful. Our board recently had trouble with a Works to Word conversion and this would have been a nice tool to use.
In the past, I also used Yahoo's calendar. It had the benefit of being accessible from any computer, but it seemed to take a lot of time to enter things into it. A neat tool that we (my husband and I) have discovered for sharing our Outlook calendars on two computers is a little product from 4team called ShareCalendar. It's the only way we found to share our calendars without an Exchange server, and it's been really effective. An online calendar would have been our next option, but it's much easier to use our Outlook calendars since we also use Outlook for our e-mail and contacts.
Again, these things are interesting to know about, but I don't know how useful they'll be. If I needed to accomplish something specific, I'd look for these types of tools, but I likely wouldn't use the majority of them.
What are all these funny-sounding things? Thing 12
I'm just a wee bit proud that I discovered some of these things before I got to this Thing. I've been putting a lot of time into my Travels with Children blog lately (sorry to keep mentioning it, but it's something that's near and dear to my heart) and as a result, have been looking at ways of increasing its readership (somewhat successfully, I'm happy to say). So, in reading and learning more about the wide world of blogging, I came across Stumbleupon, Reddit, and Digg.
I'll admit that I wasn't a fan of the Reddit and Digg type sites. I think I have the same reaction as I do when the news magazines publish what their top 5 online stories of the past week were. I really don't care what the rest of the world is interested in.
Stumbleupon, however, is another matter. I really like this one. Stumbleupon allows you to give a "thumbs-up" or "thumbs-down" for any site you visit; if you're inclined, you can write a more in-depth review of the site. When you register for Stumbleupon, you tell it what categories you're interested in. Movies? Agriculture? Gardening? Computers? Travel? Children? and so on. Then, when you've got a few seconds, you can click on the Stumbleupon button and get a "random" site to pop up, random in the sense that it's based on the categories you've chosen, what you've thumbs-upped or -downed previously, and how many other people have thumbs-upped the site. I use Stumbleupon when I have a few extra seconds--during a commercial break on TV, while I'm waiting for something else to load, etc. I've come across some interesting sites, ranging from blogs to author sites to a geography quiz that my son loves. You can also set up a network like in Technorati or other similar sites and share your liked and disliked sites with others. I'm not so much a part of the social side of things, but I do like Stumbleupon for finding new and interesting sites.
I'll admit that I wasn't a fan of the Reddit and Digg type sites. I think I have the same reaction as I do when the news magazines publish what their top 5 online stories of the past week were. I really don't care what the rest of the world is interested in.
Stumbleupon, however, is another matter. I really like this one. Stumbleupon allows you to give a "thumbs-up" or "thumbs-down" for any site you visit; if you're inclined, you can write a more in-depth review of the site. When you register for Stumbleupon, you tell it what categories you're interested in. Movies? Agriculture? Gardening? Computers? Travel? Children? and so on. Then, when you've got a few seconds, you can click on the Stumbleupon button and get a "random" site to pop up, random in the sense that it's based on the categories you've chosen, what you've thumbs-upped or -downed previously, and how many other people have thumbs-upped the site. I use Stumbleupon when I have a few extra seconds--during a commercial break on TV, while I'm waiting for something else to load, etc. I've come across some interesting sites, ranging from blogs to author sites to a geography quiz that my son loves. You can also set up a network like in Technorati or other similar sites and share your liked and disliked sites with others. I'm not so much a part of the social side of things, but I do like Stumbleupon for finding new and interesting sites.
Thing 11--Tags and social bookmarking
Regarding tags: I have a hard time with tags. Perhaps it's because I like controlled language. I'm afraid that if I start tagging things, I won't remember what tags I've used before, and therefore they won't be of much use to me. This is one reason I prefer Wordpress to Blogspot for my other blog; in Wordpress I can set up hierarchical categories, whereas in Blogspot I can only use labels or tags. (Wordpress has the advantage of allowing categories and tags so I have even more flexibility.) Tags in bookmarks don't help me that much because I already have my bookmarks set up in folders.
Regarding del.icio.us: When I first looked at this site, I didn't like it, but I thought I'd try it for a few days and see if I changed my mind. I still am not a fan. For me, it took a lot of time to add bookmarks to it, think of tags, and switch between the windows to get back to what I was doing. I prefer to just use my bookmarks in Internet Explorer. If I know I'll be using another computer and will need my bookmarks, I upload them to iGoogle so I have access to them. Perhaps del.icio.us would be useful if I were doing research on a particular topic, or if I often used shared computers. Maybe.
Regarding del.icio.us: When I first looked at this site, I didn't like it, but I thought I'd try it for a few days and see if I changed my mind. I still am not a fan. For me, it took a lot of time to add bookmarks to it, think of tags, and switch between the windows to get back to what I was doing. I prefer to just use my bookmarks in Internet Explorer. If I know I'll be using another computer and will need my bookmarks, I upload them to iGoogle so I have access to them. Perhaps del.icio.us would be useful if I were doing research on a particular topic, or if I often used shared computers. Maybe.
Revisiting some Things
I found a new photo editing site that I really like: www.picnik.com. With Picnik, it's easy to edit colors, add some interesting effects, and crop a photo to the perfect size for an avatar or social networking site. Once you've transformed a photo, you can upload it to Flickr or Photobucket or other sites, save it to your computer, or e-mail it to friends. I really like the e-mail feature because it shows the picture in the text of the message rather than as an attachment or link to be clicked upon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
Digg/minnemom
Flickr/minnemom
Twitter/minnemom
Del.icio.us/minnemom
GMail/minnemommy
Technorati/minnemom
Blog/Travels with Children
