Happy 9th birthday to Google…can you believe it!

From the site:
Google opened its doors in September 1998. The exact date when we celebrate our birthday has moved around over the years, depending on when people feel like having cake.

I really don’t remember BG (before Google!) I have certainly taken advantage of much of its growth and development. Here’s the timeline from the site itself!

P.S. Don’t you just love the clever artwork each and every time on special dates? I would love to know those creative people…bet they are fun!

ANIMOTO
http://animoto.com/play/a462c2d1fe46475b480b18b8b6e7f6e3
this link is the movie I made to learn the process using the only batch of pictures I had handy…hence the reason for it only being 26 seconds long.
If it doesn’t play because of a password issue, try one of theirs…I saw a cool little movie about skateboarding in the preview pane. It is a simple 1 – 2 – 3 process.

Of course, at this moment, I am not sure it will be available inside my school district…guess I will find out tomorrow.

All the interesting techniques with the pictures, Animoto did that…it does ask you to highlight a few of the pictures for extra punch…and you can choose one of their music files…not too many to my taste, but, hey…it’s free!! and it does all the work for you…so I am not complaining! (You can use your own music file–be sure you are not violating copyright!)

Go have some fun…it is E-A-S-Y.

P.S. It took me longer to create this post than it did my little movie…of course typing can be a bit of a problem when your space bar all of a sudden decides to stick! o, brother…technology is fickle, isn’t it?

Now we are investigating different types of blogs to see what they have in common and how they are different. It is a noisy activity, but they are having a great time looking and learning!The PPT that introduced the subject is available here. Some participants search thru blog rolls on sample blogs for blogs to review and some decided to track down “new” blogs by searching the WWW.

All agreed that the blogs are all as different as the people who create them. Personal taste and personal needs are reflected in the posts and in the blog rolls and other link lists that appear on the side bar!

Some of the blogs reviewed include:

A Library By Any Other Name & its mirror site

Librarian Philospher thought-provoking topics on librarianship 2.0

Book Book Book Title says it all! bunches and bunches

The Fidra Blog Edinburgh, Scotland book seller, reviewer, book lover!

Charlotte’s Library archaeologist, Friend of her public library and a book lover

Blue Skunk Blog long-time, well-established blog + LOTS more!! website

TechBlog Dwight Silverman, Houston Chronicle

New Scientist blog for magazine of same name

Super Students Blog classroom blog, more by other students

4K Class Blog very clean format

Toolmonger all about power tools!

/Other blogs covered in the class discussion:

Just One More Book podcasts galore!

Room 9 Nelson Central class blog 6-7 yr. olds from New Zeland. Ccheck out their video about blogging.
A Chair, A Fireplace & Tea Cozy graphic novels list noted, but there is o-so-much more!

Cool Cat Teacher super blogger (when does she sleep?)
We talked a little about RSS and readers like Google Reader and the types of things that you could use one for–groups of blogs, web pages, news sources…anything that you want to keep up-dated on.

We also reviewed how a blog gets started, looked at some basic information to think about when creating a blog and briefly looked at the two services, Blogger & edublogs that are open in our district.

The afternoon flew by and we had to leave some topics on the table for another time.

[If you would like to read the comments regarding this class, please go here--a "mirror image" of this blog. The participants made sure to comment...an essential ingredient for a proper blog!!]

[this post was originally created Tuesday, June 19th as a part of a "blogging live during a blog professional development workshop" experience and  posting has been delayed due to the service's upgrade issues the past 10 days or so!]

Beginners and advanced alike all learned something new to make lessons more student-centered and real-world relevant while using technology to make the delivery of instruction more inviting and the culminating activities different learning experiences for their students.

Subjects included Greek mythology, food groups and good eating habits, the water cycle, career exploration, and good behavior habits. One way the group made sure the lessons were student-centered and true collaborations between librarian and teacher was to deconstruct the lesson by making lists of teacher, librarian and student responsibilities.

Everyone had opportunity to learn PowerPoint tips and tricks, how to create a Photo Story, how to work with videostreaming, how manipulate photos, how to add music, and create podcasts. A special presentation was made about the ActivBoard and all the great teaching and learning tools available with that special technology. There was lots of looking for the sign-up list to get one! The group learned how to create a rubric using Rubistar, an open source software available to all who want to use it.

Lots of work time was built into the week so that each team could present a good representation of their lesson to the whole group. Even during this time, there were exchanges of ideas and expressions of “O, I can do that too with mine” or ” Gee, I can add that to my lesson.” So much so, that the “final” lessons will not be posted for about another week so that all the good ideas can be incorporated and added.

Comments from participants include: [will add -- left the notes on my desk!]

One participant, my friend G, also blogged her thoughts.

Download: Posted by rachelboyd at TeacherTube.com.

How much more convincing do you need?
Here’s the blog itself.

These children are 6 & 7 yr olds. I think they got it.
I’m glad their teacher got it for them.
And their administration must get it too!

Of course, I AM preaching to the choir…or you wouldn’t be reading this!

Hurray! To the rescue comes Blinkx… a video (and audio) search engine. You can put in your search term and get a list of videos from over 130 sources. You can then select the appropriate ones for your needs and can usually play them without additional software or other technology.

Often, because these videos come from reputable sources, they are not blocked. However, it is possible that the Blinkx site might be blocked, but you could locate the video from home, capture the address, and then be able to see the video from within the school district.

A word to the wise. Be sure you check these videos out before turning them over to students. They are not exclusively educationally appropriate items. Some are user created and uploaded to services such as MySpace, but the Blinkx crawler will find them.

Have a look at all of these..either at school or at home. You will be pleased, I think!

The author of most of these music files also has a blog and among the postings, he will have new music files and give a little background on why he wrote the music or will talk a little what project prompted its creation.

Seems like quite an eclectic, interesting, talented guy. His site is called Incompetech and the tag line is “Ugly website. Brilliant content.” Sounds vaguely familiar to the many descriptions often associated with another one of my very favorite websites! His humorous dig at himself already wins points with me. I have emailed him to say so and I will be interested in his response. I’ll fill you in later.

And if you want to use these music files for you PowerPoint, here is what I did to accomplish that feat. Others may have a different journey for you to take.

After you have selected the music you want, right click on this Mp3 symbol and “Save As” to your desktop. Then go to you PPT and go to Insert Movies & Sounds on the first slide.

If you want the music to play throughout the slide show, you have a few things to do in the Slide Show, Custom Animation set up.

1. Be sure the speaker image is highlighted.
2. Go to the Slide Show menu.
3. Click on “Custom Animation.”
4. Under the Multimedia tab, check “Play Using Animation Order.”
5. Select “Continue Slide Show” and put the number of slides you want to play thru in the box.
6. Also under the Multimedia tab, click “More Options.”
7. Check “Loop until stopped.”

Be sure the music file is in your PPT folder (you did make a folder before starting to create your PPT, didn’t you?) and……….. save, save, save!

Point of clarity: Blog and weblog are interchangeable terms.

The difference between a web site and a blog:
“A weblog is a website that is updated frequently, most often displaying its material in journal-like chronological dated entries or posts. Most blogs allow readers to post comments…”

Common misconception about blogs:
“The main misconception about blogs is that they are only personal diaries…Blog topics include political commentary, product reviews, scientific endeavors, and any area of information where people have a deep expertise and a desire to express it. “

Why blogs are important:
“…Instead of primarily being passive consumers of information, more and more Internet users are becoming active participants. Weblogs allow everyone to have a voice.”

Also included is information about blogrolls, RSS feeds and readers, relationship between blogs and journalism, and linking.

P.S. What is Technorati? The largest search engine for blogs!

And if you do want to read lots of background information about blogs that is available to all readers (at least I hope it is!) go to Wikipedia.

Several useful articles for upcoming trainings…and some more information for the “Why Blog” virtual (as opposed to vertical) file folder:
Blogging is Just Kid’s Stuff by Shel Isreal; Basic Podcasts Setups and Formats; Where Do We Go from Here?

The cover article is about Robert Scoble who left Microsoft in 2006 to work with Podtech Network. Interesting reading. And yes, there are advertisements, some with sound!

Might be fun to follow this new resource.

We dealt with the typical issues that are attached to YA books and adult books read by YAs. There are no easy answers, but we all agreed that all the books presented or mentioned had value and purpose, despite what objections may be raised. We looked at ways of preventing controversy and still benefitting from the essence of the books.

We took a few minutes to look behind the scenes of a blog and did a quick post (the comments above were shouted out and typed and posted within 5 minutes.)

Perhaps, the most poignant (and even saddest) moments of the day were spent discussing HOW important all of this IS to and for the kids…and how much work we all have ahead of us in convincing the adults who lead and direct us, or even work beside us, of all this social networking, whether it is about books, math problems, current events, or life in general.

We shared, we networked, we bonded. And we laughed…a lot!