I have spent parts of the last 2 days (Sat. & Sun.) surfing through the RSS search tools that were provided for this exercise. I thought each one was pretty simple to find feeds and I really didn't find any difficulties with any searches. I actually subscribed to Bloglines and Technorati but I really did like Topix.net. Topix was very easy and as soon as I opened this feed I had the options of local news, top stories, forums, popular, US, World, Sports, and Entertainment. I could have selected any of these feeds and saved them on my RSS feeds.
On Bloglines I actually saved 2 feeds; Quotes of the day and Sub with Bloglines. As a coach I am always looking for famous quotes to use with my players. This feed had unlimited quotes from humor, to inspirational, to motivational, etc. Sub with Bloglines had a Feed tab and the feature that I really liked the most was a feed labeled Bloglines Top 1000. WOW!! Information overload. I guess you could spend all day reading these informative feeds. On the Technorati feed I actually saved a sports feed to my bookmark bar, but when you open the Technorati site you find tabs for the following subjects: Business, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Politics, Sports, Technology, Blogs, Photos, & Videos.
These RSS feeds are so extensive that it is overwhelming, almost information overload for a simple guy like me. Great information and great learning/education tools!!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Thing # 10 - RSS feeds
I have successfully opened an RSS feed account with Google Reader. I have set up accounts with YouTube, ESPN.com, DallasNews.com, USATODAY.com, and SI.com.
I'm sortof a sports freak so I have set up accounts with these sources so that I can check quick updated information as it occurs either in the news or in the world of sports. I read another blog from one of our other bloggers in "Thing 23" (Mandy's Mailbag) and she said she copied and pasted everyones blog sites onto her RSS account so that she could access their blogs much quicker. That is an intriguing possibility and I fully intend to explore that concept to see if I can do the same thing.
Very interesting! This is another great lesson in our 23 class and I am excited with this new knowledge that I have acquired today!
I'm sortof a sports freak so I have set up accounts with these sources so that I can check quick updated information as it occurs either in the news or in the world of sports. I read another blog from one of our other bloggers in "Thing 23" (Mandy's Mailbag) and she said she copied and pasted everyones blog sites onto her RSS account so that she could access their blogs much quicker. That is an intriguing possibility and I fully intend to explore that concept to see if I can do the same thing.
Very interesting! This is another great lesson in our 23 class and I am excited with this new knowledge that I have acquired today!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Thing #9 - Image generator
http://www.imagechef.com -Since I am a basketball Coach, I thought I would make my own customized basketball jersey. I see this as a tool to use when messaging within your network of friends whether it is emails, myspace, facebook, etc. Looks to me like you could implement the image generator in classroom power point presentations but I would need further experimentation with that idea.
This morning I was playing around with this assignment and I've added a little smiley face sign to my image generator post. That was a fun little image to create from www.signgenerator.org.; or www.happyfacegenerator.com
How do you like my little one eyed monster? That's just a disparaging comment that I've always wanted to say to a basketball referee, but I think it would get me ejected.
Pretty cool stuff, this is pretty fun!
Thing #8 - Flickr Masher
Fickr Masher - spell with flickr: What a unique tool! Some of this stuff is somewhat difficult for me to do but I chose to use spell with flickr b/c of its' simplicity. It seemed fairly easy and quick, however, I couldn't figure out how to downsize the letters so that they could fit in my blog correctly. It is supposed to read "U Need 2 Know . . .". Some of the other options like mosaic maker for instance, seemed very difficult for this assignment.
I can see how I can use this type of masher to develop headers for vocabulary assignments or quick fact or statistical readings in my Health class. For example, I use an information sheet on suicide warning signs and this will be a perfect way to create a header for my students to get this information into their hands.
I'm not at all opposed to sharing pictures through flickr online, especially for educational purposes! It's fun to see photo's from other people's photo libraries about their family, friends, vacations, travel experiences, museums, art work, hobbies & interests, etc.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Thing # 7 - Flickr/photo sharing
YooHoo!! What a great deal Flickr is! It's great to have a wife that can show you how to do this stuff. By the way . . . I had to open my own Yahoo acct. and break away from the acct. that my wife and I share together. My flickr photo on the "23 Thingster" site will be under the username of plb1751.This is a great photo that is in our family photo collection. This is "Hell's Gate" on Lake Possum Kingdom which is due west of Jacksboro, TX., just south of Graham, TX. This is where we have our family reunion every summer. The point of the cliff on the left is about 100' high and the water inside Hell's Gate is 95-100' deep. The water is very cool and fun to swim in but you'd better have your life jacket on because of the depth of the water. Possum Kingdom is well known for scuba diver's. They say there are catfish down by the dam that are as big as I am, and I'm a pretty big fella.
This is a piece of technology that I can see will require some practice and attention on my part but it looks like such a great tool to share your photo's with other people. I can see where photographers would have a field day with this system, or people who just use photography as a hobby would have a blast with Flickr. I know that young kids (teenagers) already use this technology and are very comfortable with it. They share photo's all the time.
Apparently you can tag photo's by labeling them with a key word which helps you file and organize your photo's for easy access or future reference. I also like the idea of creating group pools which enable you to select groups of people that you can send your photo's to. It is also quite unique that you have the option of keeping some pictures private as well as the ability of opening certain pictures for group or public consumption.
Thing #6 - Web 2.0 Awards List
In this Web 2.0 awards assignment I discovered a massive number of awards sites and readings to browse through and choose from. I chose to review a site in the Category of Health since I am a Health teacher and because I am in a constant war with weight loss and weight management. I chose the 2nd place award winning site called PEERtrainer. I thought this was an incredible site regarding the war on weight loss. I think this site could have wonderful benefits for people that are trying to lose weight and has endless potential to support a weight loss unit in the classroom as well.
Basically this is a peerhelpers buddy system which is a powerful tool for weight loss, fitness, and training support. It allows you to hold yourself accountable with the support of a small online group or team of others who have the exact same goals that you have. This program is free and with the help of daily logs, journals, community posts (threads), and individual blogs about nutrition, workouts, weight loss strategies, and calorie counting, etc., you can maintain your personal motivation with the encouragement and help of others. I found this to be an extremely functional and useful site for people to collaberate and share information about their fitness goals and weight loss ambitions. I really didn't find any dislikes about this site. I discovered that this can be applied or implemented by individuals, teams (groups) of people, or has definite useful features to reinforce a teaching unit within a Health classroom.
The success of this site was supported with many testimonials. For instance, jess5ash has been a member of PEERtrainer since May 2006. In that time she has lost 77 lbs., 22 inches, and 12 dress sizes; fleur 83 has been logging and blogging into this site for about a year now and she has lost approximately 35 lbs. There were many other testimonials but the proof is in the pudding. This site appears to be a very successful tool for fitness and weight loss goals and I see nothing but benefit by using this source.
Basically this is a peerhelpers buddy system which is a powerful tool for weight loss, fitness, and training support. It allows you to hold yourself accountable with the support of a small online group or team of others who have the exact same goals that you have. This program is free and with the help of daily logs, journals, community posts (threads), and individual blogs about nutrition, workouts, weight loss strategies, and calorie counting, etc., you can maintain your personal motivation with the encouragement and help of others. I found this to be an extremely functional and useful site for people to collaberate and share information about their fitness goals and weight loss ambitions. I really didn't find any dislikes about this site. I discovered that this can be applied or implemented by individuals, teams (groups) of people, or has definite useful features to reinforce a teaching unit within a Health classroom.
The success of this site was supported with many testimonials. For instance, jess5ash has been a member of PEERtrainer since May 2006. In that time she has lost 77 lbs., 22 inches, and 12 dress sizes; fleur 83 has been logging and blogging into this site for about a year now and she has lost approximately 35 lbs. There were many other testimonials but the proof is in the pudding. This site appears to be a very successful tool for fitness and weight loss goals and I see nothing but benefit by using this source.
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