Tag you're it!

So now we come to tags and evaluating those websites we use everyday and looking at how we find those websites

I have been preparing for the year 9 science classes to design an energy efficient house so that  was my obvious choice for my test searching on the web.

 Duck duck go corrected my spelling for me and gave me very American results. I went into settings and changed my region to Australia and my results reflected this change.

The search results:lots of commercial sites to design your house, a link to Vicnet site 2009. I checked and there didn't seem to be a way to narrow the search.  Probably not going back to this search engine.

Bing results came up with an Australian emphasis. The image search option looked very like Google.

The search: before I put in the term I restricted results to Australia. The ad box is very pale and not obvious that these sites are ads. Interestingly same results as Duck Duck go in same order, commercial and Vicnet 2009.  Then a relevant and useful site from the SA government.

Instagrok I liked some aspects of this search engine. It is possible to have one tab open with your search and the next tab your notes.  When I went to join, I found I already had last year! 

The search: The image search doesn't appear as good as Bing or Google. Clicking on the circles doesn't seem to do anything, when you click on the key facts that's when you go into the websites. I did like that when you clicked on "websites more" a table appeared and by marking concepts on the left hand side bar the number of results in the table could reduce. It used a tag cloud/preview cloud, difficulty reading level and a paragraph on the website.  For one of the searches where I had restricted the concepts if offered me only 4 websites, terrific I thought but they were all the same National Geographic website.

I might use Instagrok again and sometimes one of the work computers defaults to Bing but I will not be changing from Google to one of these.

So evaluating a particular website.

Back to Google. I looked at the results on the first page, I was still looking for something for my year 9s.  "Interactive" that could be good, from the South Australian Government, that should be authoritative. I clicked into the site, I could chose different options and I could click on the image of the house. Within the house I could click on the lights or water or insulation and be given a little information, click on that bubble and be taken to the website still within the SA government domain for further information.  It also uses a variety of ways to present the information, text, pictures, photos and videos.  The site also has a Creative Commons Attribution licence.

I looked at the site and the information with the eyes and distracted minds of my year 9s in mind. I was looking at the language used on the site and how much information was given, was there the option to go deeper.  Overall it would be a site I would be happy to show and recommend to the students.

Tagging is becoming more of a habit and I installed the tag cloud for my blog and I went back and tagged earlier posts.  Evernote is also helping me to be more aware and deliberate about the tags I use.

So....tag you're it!

Evaluating an online tool

As I scrolled through the list of tools I realised I had played with or used a lot of these tools!

Scoopit  I have used and follow others on it but I have let it lapse a little. Have thought about using Scoopit as a way of showcasing websites to a class and teachers relevant to their assignment

Evernote - I am using more and more, taking notes for the PLN in Evernote and as I participate in the webinars writing my notes straight into Evernote

Skitch  now that I have an iPad have played with but not really used

Voki a colleague was using this for students to use as their book report the avatar would speak their review

Dropbox I have used for my life outside of school, sharing documents for a specific task, committee

Livebinders - I have bookmarked other people's livebinders and can appreciate the way they display and how they are organised but I haven't tried one for myself

Glogster - I have used to complete a uni assignment and think it could be useful to students. Sometimes it takes a long time for all those pink wheels to stop spinning and the images/video to load

Prezi - I have played with and I am interested that now they offer music to go with your presentation

Wiki - our library staff use a wiki to ensure that all our in house procedures are up to date and able to be referred to by all staff and are current policies

Pinterest - a service that I use for professional use and for gathering ideas for parts of my life outside of the library

Chrome - I have started to use but I should explore more in depth (but as I have already done one Google tool for Unit 4 I will not do that for this task)

Goodreads - I use Shelfari and I have started shelves for each of the year 8 classes

Padlet - I have played with Wallwisher but not really with a class and in a real situation

Tagxedo - I have used Wordle and introduced it to teachers who loved it.  Love the example of putting in the inauguration speeches of Bush and Obama and seeing the difference which would then promote discussions

Voicethread - I used this at uni, working with a fellow student we presented a Sri Lankan story.  

Revising and evaluating Voicethread

Voicethread now available on the iPad.

As I logged in after not having used it in over 2 years I found there had been some changes which they alerted me to. One is that you can't control specific security settings.

It is possible to use it as an individual or to pay for a school license which did seem expensive unless you were going to use it a lot. To comment you need to have be a member which means you need an email address. I can see classes have created presentations and different children have commented. If you do have a single educator license the  teacher can create student accounts but they don't need an email address to join (paid level).

The terms of conditions are quite clear.

I had seen it more as a student tool rather than a professional learning tool but in exploring some of the featured Voicethreads I read about how a university lecturer used it for his online students. They could respond and be more than just an email address to other students. Professionally it may be a way to share and discuss ideas across the country, world or workroom.  Perhaps.

I see it as a very useful tool to use with students. One of the examples I saw a Chinese teacher took photos of vegetables and had her students pronounce the word, or write it in Chinese.  Practical vocabulary tool.

I feel that Voicethread does fit within the SAMR model. The task we completed at uni, recreating a Sri Lankan picture book would have been impossible without a native Sri Lankan narrator and translator. I loved seeing the text and not having a clue how to read it, pronounce it or anything and hearing Shyani read it.  A child in a class could read or tell a story in their own language and share it with others who could comment or ask questions about it.

The task was redefined and has the potential to create deep meaningful tasks for students.  The link could also be shared with parents and used as a way of showing what the students have learned and how their thinking has grown.

Our Sri Lankan Story  narrated by Shyani
The winner : a Sri Lankan story

The tool and it's terms....

Working my way through unit 4: Free tools

Loved the look inside the Google data centres,with its vast colour coded water cooling systems. Really liked the infographic about how the companies make money from their free tools.

As I use gmail I decided to explore some of the Google services.  Google offered me to the service to search for me on the web, and I found accounts I knew about and a couple that I had forgotten that I had joined. I also found a British me cycling to raise money for charity back in 2009 and a link to phone number in Georgia USA (neither one the real me!) I was surprised when I followed another link to find not information about me but a photo of my mother in law as she is a friend on Facebook.  When we enter information and make connections we don't really know where they will end up and who may search and find out information.

Reading the privacy statements for Google:

I didn't read the terms of use and privacy conditions when I first joined Gmail many years ago but for this assignment I plunged into the terms and conditions. My eyes were beginning to glaze over with all the possibilities for privacy and who is linked through the Google circles but I did find that the terms of service were clearly written. However the following was a bit disconcerting (http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/terms/):

Your Content in our ServicesSome of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.
When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service. Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope of our use of the content submitted in those Services. Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services.

So Google can modify or publicly perform my thoughts to promote their service?

As a result of reading the terms decided that I had been lazy with my passwords so I decided to create a stronger password for Google, but of course that automatically means that my YouTube log in and other linked accounts to Google have changed as well.  Perhaps this a big drawback with the linked Google tools.

 The Google dashboard revealed a surprising amount about me and the history of my searches done on my iPad.

Exporting my data:

My back up seems to be in the Google cloud and I can download individual files from the Google Drive. I couldn't see information about the back up of data, but there were frequent references for the need to have a verification back up.

 Closing my account:

It seems to be quite easy to delete and to reactivate with in a set period of time. It is possible to set up an inactive alert so that you or your trustees will be alerted if the account is inactive for a designated period of time.

 Would I recommend this tool?

I would recommend Google it is very user friendly and there is enough information in the legal speak pages to inform people.

I think it would be a great activity to do with my secondary school students. Have them log into their own accounts and see how much information is out there on the web without them even trying to publish or push their profile out.

when a favourite author dies you feel like you have lost a friend.

I was sad to hear yesterday of the death of E.L Konigsburg.  One of my all time favourite authors. I grew up knowing and loving "From the mixed up files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler" and thought it would be great to hide in a museum after it had closed for the night.  I re-read "The outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place" after hearing the news, and it is still a lovely read. Eccentric uncles loved for who they are.

Enjoying Coraline, for the third time

I love Neil Gaiman books and as I had a long car journey I selected the audio copy of Coraline to accompany me. I have read the book, seen the movie in an open air cinema in Darwin and now had Neil Gaiman perform it for me in the privacy of my own car.  He has such a way with language and I love that big black button eyes can be a horror feature.

PLN Networking

Sometimes my input from my online communities is overwhelming. I am getting information from OZTL Net via email (which for some weird reason I can't read on my iPad) and Facebook, CBCA Vic and Australia through email and Facebook, Scoopit links, and other general emails that are professionally interesting. Most times I can manage it, and when I look back and see old emails unread I can now delete them unread without panicking that I will miss something.


I do like Flipboard and will continue to use that and expand what I have in that.  Twitter I joined sometime ago but feel that most things that interest me have come from a network such as OZTL Net and already going around the twittersphere and I don't need to retweet it.  Having said that, I did retweet something in the last week.  It may be that because I follow some blogs which are perhaps not the usual library ones, Boing Boing, and Danah Boyd that I will have something different to offer, we'll see.
I have joined some Facebook groups that interest me professionally, and through one of them I keep in touch with one of my colleagues who lives interstate but also contributes to the group (we are also Facebook friends but I get a buzz seeing her professional comments!).
I have only been at my current school for 14 months and it was so refreshing to see that students were not banned from accessing their mobile phones during the school day (not during class).  Why waste time telling the students to put the phone in their locker?  I am yet to see how we can utilise it fully for the library but we are thinking.  The school has an official Facebook page (not sure how the community interact with it) and the school captains regularly upload talks to students via Youtube (not sure if it is a private link).  These are positive ways of using the social media which the students use daily, if not hourly.
As I have been a lurker for many years on OZ TL Net and occasional contributor I can see many fantastic ways that collaboration and support is offered to librarians all around Australia and overseas through this resource.  
Librarians have always been great at sharing ideas and resources and the online community is another way to do this and to tailor it to what is relevant and timely to us.

Twitter: mmeglib

Webinar catchup

Caught up on the PLN webinar that took place on Wednesday night.  Interesting to play with my blog while Kelly was speaking.  She was adjusting her bog but it didn't appear on the Blackboard screen so I just went and had a play with my blog settings while she spoke.  Frustrating trying to adjust one of my blog links and Blogger wouldn't save the changes, need to go back and see what step I am missing.

I have reactivated my twitter account, but still don't know really what I will tweet about.  Most of what I think is interesting I have found out through OZ TL net or other professional sources so it is already going around the community without me retweeting it.

Really appreciating Flipboard on the iPad.  Adult son is away in America and I was able to add a feed from South By South West while he was there and have the Wondercon feed loaded ready for when he attends that amazing convention on the weekend.