Instant Messaging - Week 9

Looked at IM today. I feel like I'm on overload as far as all the different accounts I'm creating and trying to keep straight with user names and passwords. I created a Meebo account, or at least the start of one. I have already used Google Talk and tried to add that to my Meebo account but realized that I had set Google Talk up on my home computer and needed to download a component to my school computer (as I'm still at school). When I tried to do that I got the message that the "Video-chat" plug-in won't work with Power PC Macs so I couldn't add Google Talk to my Meebo account. That seems to be my fate with so many things on the computer. I can't complete this project here at school and the time I will be on my computer available for IM will be almost non-existent. Guess I'll be moving on to Week 10 and see what I can learn from that. I have used some other IM services with my automation system tech support and with others here in the district so I do have a little experience.

Cloud Computing and Battle of the Books

I set up a Google Doc today so that Lou Brewer and I can work together on a single document creating the questions we will use in next year's Battle of the Books. Previously we each wrote questions for half the books and then had to combine the questions. Now we can create one document and add to it as we get time. Much of the work will be done this coming summer from our own homes as we read some of the books and review others. I added a table which we can use to quickly see which books we still have to write questions for and which ones we have done. I'm eager to see how this will work.

Catching up Week 6 and 7

Didn't realize it had been more than a month since my last post. In the meantime I spent a week in Washington D.C. with my Coldwater High School teacher daughter and fourteen kids during their spring break and then tried to get things caught up at home during my spring break as well as shopping for a mother of the groom dress. Obviously this was not one of those things I got caught up on. I have finished my HPL 2010 Project so maybe I can concentrate on this now. In the past Delicious was blocked at school so I was dragging my feet on that. I was pleasantly surprised to find I was able to make an account so I have done that and will be adding my new bookmarks to that and starting the tagging process. I also had a Plurk account but have not really got into using it. I'm not sure I'm really into the "tweeting" that I am seeing. I don't really care that a stranger is going to bed or that he had a pizza for supper. I need to speak with a friend of mine who is on Plurk and gets good advice from tech people and find out how to get connected with them. I don't really see myself spending a lot of time posting. I think I'm on my computer too much as it is.

Week 5 RSS and Feed Readers

Another frustrating session. Stayed late at school to try and get caught up a bit - I should be on week 8 - and when I tried to view some of the Bloglines videos they came up as blocked at school. I am also involved in the Hutchinson Public Library 2010 project. I did get some RSS feeds set up using Google Reader for that. I don't have a website or blog and frankly at this point with all my other responsibilities I don't have time to maintain a site. Even though I may not get all the activities done I do feel like I have a better handle on all these features now. I am grateful for that. I think I'm going to say I've done all I'm going to do with week 5 and move on.

23 Things Kansas Week 4

I've been working through the Photo Sharing information. Don't have a Flickr account so just did a keyword search for Vancouver Olympics to see what photos would turn up. I haven't figured out how to upload one of those images to this blog. The information I read on uploading had to do with getting your photos from your digital device or computer to the Flickr site rather than from Fickr to this Blog. I will have to spend some more time trying to find out how to do that.

I read further (Option B) and discovered that if I have a Flickr account it should be easy to add a picture to my blog. Since I don't have a Yahoo account and thus no Flickr account I will have to take some time and sign up. I do have a Google account so may opt to go that route. Out of time now so will look at the "More Fun Stuff" at home tonight.

Online meetings-Week 3

"Hope for the best" seems to be wishful thinking for me. I tried to view an archived BCR session. I first had to download Saba Centra and everything went well until the final statement which said I did not have the proper audio something or other so I had no sound to accompany the visual - not very satisfactory! Prior experience trying to participate in a live Wimba session was a problem too. I could never get it running on my computer, even after consulting with my district tech person. However, another district librarian had no problem with Wimba, even though our computers are identical issued by the district. Fortunately the four district librarians were gathering to participate together so my computer was not needed. I have had one positive experience participating in a webinar in the past. In general, live webinars are difficult to manage in a school setting.

I'm finally back!

Life interfered and I postponed doing Week 2 assuming things would be blocked at school. I'm just now taking time to get caught up a bit. 4 day weeks are great but leave little time for "extra" projects. I discovered as I did the assignment that I already had a Ning account and that you could belong to different groups within that account. Had I realized that I might have got this work done during week 2! I did some reading on the Teacher Librarian Ning.

I appreciate all the Facebook information. I will consult it further if I ever decide to get a Facebook account although that is unlikely at this point.

On to week 3.