Rethinking del.icio.us, Rollyo and Google Custom Search

I spent some time this weekend (aren't 3 day weekends glorious) trying to figure out how to use these tools in the library. Our 7th grade students are about to begin their research for Medieval Market (our version of the Renaissance Fair). All three of these tools would help guide their research. I created a Google Custom Search and a Rollyo search with appropriate websites for their research. Unless I create a del.icio.us account for the school - which might not be a bad idea - students would see all of my bookmarks along with the ones selected for their projects. So, now that I have these search engines set up, where do my students access them? My website is through TeacherWeb.com and I've not figured out a way to include the Rollyo or Google search box on the site. Any suggestions???

Week 6, Thing 13 del.icio.us

Early on in this tutorial, I explored del.icio.us because I needed a way to access all of my bookmarks from any computer I used. I wasn't able to connect to the 12 minute video and will try to at another time. Instead, I found this tutorial at CommonCraft.com and thought it explained social bookmarking in an easy to understand format. Enjoy...

Ooops

Maybe I should explore more fully before posting on my blog. I just discovered that you can import your existing bookmarks into Rollyo. Now I can really see how I'll use this tool at work. Time to start working on those custom searches for my students. I guess I have my work cut out for me organizing bookmarks on the various computers I use daily. It will be nice to have my favorite sites accessible from anywhere. I'll have an excuse to play on the internet during the rare moments when no one is in the library :)

Week 5, Thing 12

Select...knitting, etc.Search The Web

Ok, so I've played with/on Rollyo. I decided to use knitting as my topic as I have dozens of sites I search through individually - this might expedite my searching. Although I do think this tool is very much like Google's Custom Searche Engine, I do think there are ways I can use this at school. Since our conference last November, I've wanted to create some custom searches for various assignments my students have throughout the year, but best laid plans.... now that I have Rollyo, I've run out of excuses. I'm not sure I like using it. It takes some time to set up searches. I like the ease of using del.icio.us and might like Rollyo better if it were easier find your favorite sites within Rollyo and then just add them to the "searchbox". I found that if I had 2 tabs open, I could search on one and then copy and paste the urls into the Rollyo window. I think the kids might like using it for their searches and I do like that you can limit their searches to just what has been entered into Rollyo. It just might keep those kids on task.

Week 5, Thing 11

I was able to spend more time exploring the sites/tools from the "short list" of Web 2.0 Awards winners. I was surprised at how many of these tools I currently use. I use "Personalized Google" as my home page. I like that I can customize the page and have added some useful and fun items to my iGoogle page. I especially like that I can access my groups and email from this page. I'm also able to get to my blog easily from iGoogle.

At the beginning of this quest, I set up a Del.icio.us page. I keep all of the places I frequent on this page. Using tabs (I love this feature), I'm able to have Del.icio.us on one tab and my blog or School Library Learning 2.0 up on other tabs. I think I like using Del.icio.us more than Google Reader. I know that they serve different functions, but I'm still getting used to all of these tools. I know I could use Del.icio.us to create bookmark lists for the various projects my students are working on, although I think that Google Custom Search might be a better application for that purpose.

I've also played with Library Thing and Shelfari (a cousin invited me to join). The jury is still out on which application I'll end up using. Either one could be used to post new additions to the library on my web page. My sister uses Kayak for all of her travel arrangements, but after playing on Farecast, I might get her to change. Zillow has been around for a while. I've looked up the value of our house along with home values in areas where I might want to live. It's fun, but not reliable. I love One Sentence - the language arts teachers do an activity similar to this. It would be fun for their students to have their stories posted on this site. Another site I enjoyed was Coverpop. I love the screen with all of the kids books - but there is no way to include it in my blog or post it on my library web page. It would be great to include a short annotation of the book - maybe even the AR or Reading Counts info when clicking on the cover.

All in all, this activity was fun. It felt good to know I wasn't as behind the times as I thought. Thank goodness for NPR - many of these tools/sites have been mentioned on various NPR radio shows. It's a good thing that I have a commute to work.

I did join a NING, but not sure how much I'll participate or follow the group. I feel pretty connected being a member of CSLA and following the discussions on CALIB keeps me busy.

Play -- of course I had to check out the game sites - played a Mah Jongg game and then checked my Travel IQ. I am definetely geographically challenged :)

Week 5, Thing 11

One of the problems I've had with this tutorial is not wanting to miss anything. So, after exploring a number sites from the Web 2.0 awards list, I chose to add a widget from yourminis.com. Needless to say, this widget says it all - I'll explore more tomorrow, but for today, I'll rely on this decision maker.

Just a Suggestion

I love getting comments on my blog and would sometimes like to respond, but haven't found an easy way to do so. If I hit reply, the message goes to "noreply-comment@blogger.com" Is there a way to email the commenter directly? If so, I haven't discovered it. I was able to respond to someone, but on information overload, I can't remember how? Any suggestions?

Week 5, Thing 10 continued

I don't know what I did differently this time. Maybe it's just a different network. When I tried to upload the image from Image Chef while at work, the image loaded, but not the customized image. At home, I had no problem.

I really liked the "The Generator Blog" and have added it to my Goggle Reader. It might be fun to use some of the tools to create wallpaper for the different computers in the library. The students notice the wallpapers and screensavers so I try to keep them updated.

I also liked curriculum connections 2 & 3. Maybe the students would be able to follow directions for the copy machine in comic strip format. I can also see incorporating images in my library orientation power point, my website and in memos and reports. The image generators offer more choice than those in Word.

Week 5, Thing 10

Image Chef is giving me a hard time. I'm able to create an image, but not upload it. I've tried from the Image Chef page but all it loads is a link, not the image. I've also tried adding it as a page element, pasting in the code. Again, the link is posted, but not the image. What am I doing wrong?

Week 4, Thing 9

This was not an activity that I enjoyed. I've spent the last couple of days looking at the following sites. I'm not sure I see how I'd use these sites in my library. Here's my short review of some search tools.

Feedster was down. Apparently they are changing their program - updating their beta version

Topix.net - I can see using this site to research current events. I used it to research an item I'm thinking of purchasing to find any reviews - positive or negative. It provides interesting results.

Syndic8.com - Didn't like this site at all. It was not user friendly - too convoluted.

Technorati - I guess I'm just a Google groupie. Search results on Technorati gave me too many blogs and many that had nothing to do with my search terms.

Google Blog Search - This will probably be the search tool I'll use most often. Like most of Google applications, this one was easy to use. I just can't believe what people are blogging about. Who has the time to chronicle their life like this?

Blog Pulse - This was fun - especially seeing my own blog listed. I like the fact that you can search by date. That might be a useful feature, I think!?! Playing with the other tools was interesting but I don't think I'll be using any of these tools soon.

I did find a fun tool - The Blog Readability Test. You enter in your blog URL, click the "readability" button and your readability rating is ready to import into your blog. I can't believe that my blog is rated "Genius". I'd take their ratings with a grain of salt.

Week 4, Thing 8

I've spent the past couple of days playing around with Google Reader. I'm not sure I like using RSS. I think I'm experiencing information overload. I've set up a number of feeds and now feel that I have to read EVERYTHING that is posted. Needless to say, that won't work, so I'm trying to skim the articles and pick and choose those that are interesting and/or helpful. I do like the fact that I don't have to check individual websites for updated information and that the articles are there until I have the time to read them. I still haven't figured out how to delete what I've read, or if GoogleReader has that feature.

I was disappointed that some of the sites I visit regularly for work do not have an RSS feature. For example, I am on the Renaissance Reading site every day, sometimes multiple times in a day. It would be nice to get updates when new AR quizzes are added. They do notify by email, but I can see how it would be easier to navigate to GoogleReader than sign on to my email to check updates.

I know that my TeacherWeb.com site has an RSS button. It might be a good idea to notify parents that this would be a good way for them to keep up-to-date with changes or additions to the library web site.