Here I am, it’s 2010, and one of my resolutions this year is to finish Vermont’s 23 Things. I vow not to go off on tangents or spend too much time in Facebook, or go click happy on the Internet…however, let me share something I found on one of my excursions: http://www.n2yo.com/ .
Here you can follow orbiting satellites in real time. I am currently keeping track of the International Space Station (ISS ZARYA) as it goes round and round the earth. You can put in your location using latitude and longitude (Google will help you) and this website will plot a prediction table for viewing ISS in the sky when it is visible from your location. I’ve seen it as it travels through the night sky and disappears just as the table said it would. Great fun!

Banned Book Week

Keep Checking

I was so proud of my last accomplishment - sharing that Commoncraft video by pasting in the code the Commoncraft website gave me...and it worked well, too! That is, until I bragged about it and tried to show somebody!

Nice white box...wait for it to load, wait for it...nothing!

I was at work at the time - so I blamed it on the Tech Department's filtering software - they must be blocking me! At home, however, I got the same result - so it's the cable company, too, huh! What is going on?

What 'was going on' was that the link had changed. This possibility dawned on me just recently the blame was all mine! So every now and then, I will be checking my links to make sure that they have not changed and are not broken.

I have been experimenting with RSS feeds and dabbling in Facebook lately. The RSS feed video from Common Craft was great - straightforward, fun to watch and they don’t talk down to you! The website http://www.commoncraft.com/ has many online videos like this to share for free and I will have to try to post on my blog and again on my website. Why not now…here’s one called Web Search Strategies in Plain English by leelefever:

I did it! All I did was cut and paste what the Common Craft people told me to!
RSS feeds were fun to get – but there are so many, I had to stop myself and become more selective. Paying attention to how often information is posted to these feeds is helpful, too – some of the weather feeds can be too frequent – compiling every 15 minutes or so, for example! I couldn’t resist getting the daily Writer’s Almanac feed – and the podcast, too. So when I am logged onto a computer where I can listen, there is Garrison Keillor’s amazing voice just for me! So much better than hoping to catch the show on the car radio! Want the link? Sure you do! http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/
Google Reader was the easiest aggregate for me to use, since I already have gmail, and igoogle (that’s fun – you can load your page with all sorts of gadget and tools. I like the language translator, unit conversions tool and, just for fun, Hangman). One stop for everything in a click happy world!

I'll blab about Facebook in my next post!

As I progress through Vermont’s 23 things I have found that experimenting with websites and gadgets has been fun and has taken me down some pretty wonderful rabbit holes – but maintaining a Blog has not been easy at all! I cannot seem to be able to put myself out there and must write things over and over again before I post them, usually editing them down to nothing. This ‘web log’ is not exactly like the diary that I used to keep under my bed, letting my mind ‘throw up’ anything and everything onto its pages. (Ever go back years later and witness with horror what you once thought and actually wrote down!) It is frightening!

O.K. – so what are some of those 23 things that I have done but failed to blog about?
I experimented with Spell using Flickr http://metaatem.net/words/ . It was fun and the html code is provided so you can cut and paste your spelling creation into your blog/website. I put our school letters on my school website by doing this and it worked great…until I realized that only staff could see it, since each letter is really a link to Flickr and Flickr is blocked for students by our IT department! A work around is to paste the letters into Microsoft Paint, decorate and/or experiment further, save as a jpeg then upload as a picture. You can also paste the letters into PowerPoint and manipulate them there. So, here goes (html code pasted into compose window):


Something for me to remember: occasionally sign on to my school website with a student sign on - so I can see what they see without staff privileges.

Beginning Vermont's 23 Things

This blog begins with my attempt to complete an online course entitled Vermont's 23 Things, a Vermont Department of Libraries challenge to familiarize Librarians and Librarian Wanna Be's (like me) with emerging web-based technologies. Hopefully, as I progress, this blog will morph along with me to something not yet imagined.

First assignment is to learn the habits of successful life long learners and to discuss what I would personally consider the hardest habit for me to develop and the easiest. Here's the list:

Habit 1 – Begin with the end in mind
Habit 2 – Accept responsibility for your own learning
Habit 3 – View problems as challenges
Habit 4 – Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
Habit 5 – Create your own learning toolbox
Habit 6 – Use technology to your advantage
Habit 7 – Teach and mentor others
Habit 7 ½ – PLAY!

Mmmmmm! Habit 1 - setting that goal, seems easy enough, but someone always moves the cheese on me! Habit 2 - check. Habit 3 through 6 - working on it. Attitude is everything. Habit 7 - that's my job and I love to do it!

But Habit 7.5 - here's the rub. This is my easiest and my most difficult challenge rolled into one (or should I say a half). I love to play with new stuff (gadgets and the like)but have difficulty with time. How do I find the time to play especially without feeling guilty - there is so much to do and someone always needs something - particularly my family! Play! How dare I, when I should be doing...

And, yet...I do play...at the end of day, when all is quiet (except for that damn cell phone). I Play. (How many gadgets can I have on my iGoogle homepage, anyway?) And time seems to stand still, until I look up from my computer and realize it is 2 a.m. and somehow hours have disappeared. And my new challenge becomes when do I sleep!

Welcome to the debut of my blog!