Week #8 Syndicated Search

I must admit it was a surprise for me to hear in the Joyce Valenza conference that Google keeps a profile of my regular searches and so the order of what is listed is based on that.  Naive of me!  I did however assume that the companies etc that pay more, get listed more easily.

Anyway, I've started having a look at the different search engines.  I began with DeweyDigger.com because it was such a unique way of searching.  I thought it could be useful as another way of finding resources to use with classes.  Interesting idea but it really wasn't that helpful for me and I don't think it is one that I'll use.  Something interesting to note is that I looked up Australia - what with the history in the Australian Curriculum - and was very surprised to see South Australia not there as an option - when I looked more closely, neither were a few of the other states/territories - Vic, NSW, QLD were.  I don't think I'd bother with this site, interesting as it is, I would do a direct search in one of the other search engines.

I have then had play with the other search engines.  I used the term "Australian animals" - a typical primary school search - to see what each found.  Interestingly, Quiki found nothing as it didn't have a quiki of that name.  I then tried "Adelaide" as the search term, with greater success. I thought it was ok and unique with the multimedia but a little bit limited.  One to watch I think.

With blekko, Twurdy and Kngine, they all listed similar results.  I found blekko a bit confusing and when I tried the slashtags suggested, didn't get anything remotely like what I wanted - my own did though.  I really quite like Twurdy and can certainly see me using this as it often takes time to find text appropriate for primary aged kids through Google.  I often do a search like "Australian animals information for kids" to get similar information in Google.

I also tried using "Searchypants" - a search engine that Joyce Valenza mentioned. This is very simple to use and would be useful for kids I think, particularly JP.  Similar results were found.  You can also pretty it up a bit in the same way as you can with igoogle.  It is also good in that you are more guaranteed to hit only safe sites for kids.

It has been good to spend the time looking at different search engines as it is very easy to only use Google.

Week #7 Literally Social Twitter

I'm afraid that my reluctance to set up a Twitter account is part of what has slowed me down with achieving the tasks for Week 7.  I have finally got around to it and had a go - found people and things to follow and even tweeted, but not sure if I can really be bothered doing more.   I can see it could be useful, particularly with sharing sites etc with colleagues - but currently do that through slasanet. 
It took me a while but I finally found some colleagues - a bit like Facebook in that it was through others.  I also had a go shortening a website through Bit.ly and shared it.

In doing this though I was once again hit with the feeling that I don't really have anything particular to share or whether things I find would be useful to others.  I'll keep giving it more of a go over the next few weeks and see how I go. 

I am already familiar with librarything and shelfari and use them often to find resource lists and get book reviews/suggestions, but I don't have an account.  I must admit that Shelfari is one site I would like to investigate further.

Well, better get onto the next week's activity as time is ticking by!!

Week #6 Interactive Imagery



My pretty girl on her birthday



I have had a bit of a play with Picnik and found it pretty easy to use.  Shame it can't take my photos for me though - most of mine were ones I took quickly with my Phone and so weren't the clearest.  I must admit photos on my phone are pretty random - but as I said, probably more about my skills.

 

I have also played with a couple of photos I took for a class who are looking at styles of houses for different eras.  Some of them, while fine on my laptop, are too dark and almost impossible to see on the interactive whiteboard - room's too light.  Therefore, I have deliberately washed them out a bit and I'll check them out later in the week. I have put the original as well as the manipulated one for comparison.

As I have already said, I found it easy to use but one problem that I did have was that on occasions, the file wouldn't upload even when I tried the older way of manually browsing.  Not sure why this was happening.  If I went out of the program and then back in, it would then work.  Who knows!!!

I have also played with zoom.it.  Wow, that was amazingly simple to do, however I am not convinced that I have embedded into this blog correctly.  Please let me know and if need be, I'll have another go. 

http://zoom.it/P42y

As I am into craft, I am familiar with flickr as this is how many people show their work.  I personally do not use any of these sites and really can't see me doing so as I am not big on taking  photos.  I do think that sites where photos can be stored are important though because hard copies aren't always made, copies and original files can become damaged, accidentally deleted or lost.  Therefore it is a good way of securing them.

I looked briefly at the other image sites.  I must say anything with creative commons is a good thing for educators.   I'll be honest, I do often use Google images.  I have also subscribed to a graphics website Graphics Factory (unfortunately American) and that can be useful for quick clipart type images and animations, particularly when I was making shelving signs last year.  Out of the ones you mentioned, I think I'll look more closely at MorgueFile.  There are some really beautiful photos there.

Prezi - How it went!

I used the Prezi today at school .  I wasn't blocked from the Prezi site but was the YouTube videos.  However, by temporarily overriding the block, I was able to then access the videos in the Prezi without difficulty.  I think it worked well and the teachers liked it.  I can see this being very useful as I was able to put pdfs and video, info and images all in the one place really easily.  One thing I have found is that I am still fairly linear in my organisation as I find that the whizzing around too much can make me queasy!!  (I dislike computer games for the same reason.)

Prezi - Another go!

I needed to prepare something for a class tomorrow about how money is made.  I decided to try using Prezi again - more fool me!  Here it is. 
http://prezi.com/huxxwm7arya7/edit/#5_1284389
I can only hope it works and isn't blocked or I might be crying. 
(Not really, I'll do an alternative presentation just in case!)

Week #5 Social Bookmarking and Tagging

I have created an account with Diigo and have mainly used the bookmarking facility at the moment.  However, I think this could be really useful because I have to use a range of different computers at school, as well as my laptop and desktop at home - and obviously don't have bookmarks on them all - I do often do a Google search to get to particular sites- not a big hassle but it does then take longer.  I haven't found bookmarking on the intranet particularly reliable as they can disappear without warning - usually at the most inopportune moment.  One way I have worked around this when working with students is that I put links into a Word or PDF document and then saved it into my own or a student accessible folder so that we can all get ready access.  I think Diigo will therefore be useful when I'm working with students on a particular topic and I have already identified relevant sites.  As I work with a minimum of 6-7 classes and so have 6-7 different inquiry learning topics going at the same time, I'll have to have a bit of a play with the groupings of sites etc.  I may find that I'll have to subscribe as an educator rather than on the free subscription.  I'll be interested to see tomorrow if this - like many of the other web 2.0 tools - is blocked at DECS sites though!! 

Week #4 Interactive Presentations and Slides

Book Week is finally over and so I can hopefully get back to my weekly tasks. 
I admit I do use PowerPoint as a tool in my work but very often not in it's true form as a presentation. 
It is funny, I actually found and showed the Don McMillan "Life after death by PowerPoint" to 2 of my older classes just last week - and there it was on the Prezi site.  Hopefully made the point to the kids!!!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpvgfmEU2Ck

Anyway, I have had a go creating a prezi - it was easy to use - really quite intuitive - but I would need to play with it a lot more before I am able to create something that I am more happy with. 
http://prezi.com/_au6nmpfpr1z/wilfrid-gordon-mcdonald-partridge/

I do like it though and will consider signing up at a higher level.  I still feel a bit odd about having my work published so publically - for a range of reasons I suppose - I'm fairly private but also because I don't think my work would be much use to anyone else but me - nothing new, different or special. 

Anyway, as an aside - I decided to write some work in Google docs, last week only to find that it is blocked at DECS sites.  It took me a while (admittedly while panicking) to realise that was the problem because it wasn't the usual blocked page - rather the not available one.  Luckily I was able to override.  However, this is something that really needs to be looked at if we are going to start using these tools in our work and with kids at school!!

In response to your comment, I have heard of Edmodo and have looked briefly at it already.  One of my more adventurous colleagues and I are planning on playing with it more next term.  She has already had a bit of a go and so hopefully she'll be able to help me out - otherwise, we'll muddle through together!  Thanks for the suggestion.