Thing 14 - Technorati blog search

I have been very curious about Technorati since it has been referenced many times in this 23 1/2 things adventure. I explored keyword searching which helped me get to the right area, and then tag searching to follow out specific themes such as "library_love" to watch the latest video submissions on You-Tube. I am quite sold on tags. I also did some research on solar energy blogs on Technorati and on Google Blog Search. Both pointed me to excellent sites, although different ones on the top 10, so I think searching in tandem is the key -- not sticking to just one site.

It wasn't really surprising to me to see that the most popular blogs at the moment are technology-related (with the exception of The Huffington Post probably because it's an election year). I think things change so quickly in technology that blogs are the only way to keep up with things. Educationally speaking, I think this site is more geared for older students and professional development. I did see some interesting videos promoting the library which gave me some ideas for creating one for our elementary library this year. I found so many more blogs of interest to me on Edublogger.

While I explored the widgets I chose not to join Technorati because I feel I'm getting spread too thin. If I get too many things going, I won't develop the habits I need in any depth. At least I know what the site is if I need it again. There were no tutorials for using the site either which makes me feel that the site is really for techies, not so much for educators.

Thing 12 - commenting

This Thing really made me realize the differences between generations. While I see the need to contribute, I am on a steep learning curve and I find it exhausting to be in these types of learning communities online and sitting at my desk communicating so much. I still prefer face-to-face, showing my age I guess. The other comment I would like to make is the using your name discussion should have been part of Thing 3 as I was creating my avatar and setting up accounts. I probably would have made different decisions.

But, OHHHH!, there are gems in all the digging. YouTube - We Think was one result of searching Drapes Takes today. I find it amazing that one simple 2 minute video can change many of my long-established understanding of the teaching process and am glad he posted it from YouTube where I'm afraid to go directly anymore because too many hours go by. I've subscribed to Drake's feed too because it seems very thoughtful and uses big, new words like adhocracy in his posts.

I was able to comment on the Library2Play blogs, but had much more difficulty commenting on "expert sites". I don't feel qualifed except to lurk at this point. But I finally found a very welcoming post on the Library Tweeter blog titled "Is Anybody Out There" which gave me confidence to post as I had already read the Bluebonnet Books. Then I found a great article on Information Overload when I searched google blogs. Needless to say I had some newfound expertise in that area!

Thing 8 - RSS feeds.

Some of my favorite feed articles are linked in the side bar. I access them easily on my igoogle page's Google Reader gadget. I think RSS feeds are a great professional development time saver, plus I feel more likely to "stumble upon" the things I need to know to do my job. I will still rely heavily on my LM-Net Listserv friends for good ideas and practical tips, but the sites I chose are good for thinking and building a vision about what the library is becoming.

I saved the Eagles Read site so that I can build one like it for my own students. I hope they are as excited about talking about Bluebonnet books, research question troubleshooting, new books, and keywords as I am.

Thing 3 - avatar and personal blog

I am slightly intimidated looking at some of the blogs thus far. I feel like a foreigner to this new world.' but the Chinese proverb comes to mind: "Even a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step." Here is my first baby step into Web 2.0. Setting up the accounts turned out to be the hardest part of the assignment. None of my email addresses were accepted by blogger until I opened a gmail account, but things went well after that. Another account opened at yahoo, but working with the avatar was fun. I chose an explorer because I really do feel like one. Might be that the most difficult part of this assignment will be keeping track of all the passwords and user names! Very much looking forward to the next step and am so grateful for this structured program to help me in my explorations. Thank you Dr. Bishop and Spring Branch ISD.