My Voki

I had a blast creating my new avatar. Be sure to click the play button to hear it talk.

New Ideas

One of the sessions I attended at the conference on Friday was on Web 2.0. Be sure to read the December LMC newsletter to get a full listing of the sites or you can go to one of the presenter's directory of web sites @ http://delicious.com/fozzieblue/AfterSchool.

Speaking of delicious, if you haven't looked at it yet, take some time to do so. I have been to lots of presentations that recommend it.

I saw some really good things with Flickr; things that might calm some of your fears about our students and appropriate content. Check out www.flickr.com/commons for museum & library collections. Creative Commons provides licensed photos @ www.flickr.com/creativecommons.

I found it interesting that to cite the photos, the presenter just hotlinked the photo back to its original source. That would be so much easier for our students than their trying to easybib them. What do you think of offering that as an option to the formal citation?

The presenter also did a great demo of customizing a google map. She inserted bullets to make an itinerary and then hotlinked photos to the bullets. It was really cool. I could see that happening with wordnerd's Dozen Ways project next year or Towncat's travel brochures.

Finally I saw two fun sites. You have got to try these:
Wordle is a just for fun site that makes word clouds. I played around with it a little tonight. The one thing I couldn't do was copy it so that I could post it here. My options were to either print it or post it on Wordle. I chose not to post on Wordle. I could see our students getting really creative with this site. Unfortunately, right now it is blocked at school. I'll work to get it unblocked. Check it out @ http://www.wordle.com/

Finally, you have got to try the talking avatars. I plan to make one soon. http://www.voki.com/. I bet hornek will be the first to post a talking avatar.

So much to try, so little time to try it in!

Week 5: Fun with pictures

Picassa

Week 3: Flickr

It is Flickr week here at 23 Things. Do take some time to explore Flickr as suggested by our guides. Keeping in mind that Flickr is a Yahoo application, you might also want to explore Picassa, a Google application. Take a look at my two previous posts which were created by combining Picassa and Blogger. It was an easy process. I just highlighted the pictures I wanted to include on my post & then clicked on the Blogger button. Viola! My pictures were inserted and ready for me to add the dialog.

Fall Break 2008 Part II

Doug surprised me on Tuesday by suggesting that we Zoom Zoom to a bed and breakfast in the mountains. For those of you who don't know, Doug has a Mazda MX-5 (formerly the Miata) and Zoom Zoom is their catchphrase. We zoom zoomed to Helen, GA on Wednesday, parallelling the Ocoee and through two national forests. It's too bad the leaves hadn't yet turned, but even so it was a lovely drive with the top down. Octoberfest in Helen is from September - November. Go figure--a 3 month Octoberfest! We breezed through the little shops and took a little longer to sample some of the German fare.

Next we zoom zoomed to Sautee, GA to a little bed and breakfast situated on 26 peaceful acres. The Stovall House was built in 1837 and opened as a bed and breakfast in 1983. The Innkeeper is a diehard GA Tech fan. If you ask me, he is a little old to have a shaved head except for the TECH on the back of his head. I think that is the only place he had enough hair to spell out TECH. Since the Stovall House is also a restaurant, we had a delicious evening meal there. Then we retired to our comfy room.
On Thursday, we zoom zoomed back to Chattanooga via Ellijay. It was a rainy day, so the top went up about halfway back. The best part -- I managed to put off cleaning the attic!

Fall Break 2008

Long story made short, our fall break trip to NC was cancelled. I thought my break was going to be a dull and unexciting week at home cleaning up the attic and other household chores that I had been putting off since summer. So I started fall break with a stay-cation to the Prater's Mill Country Fair. My older son and grandson went along. They chose to canoe the creek while I toured the craft booths.
Off they go up the creek with a paddle.
Look who had a booth at the Fair! Ask me about my new necklace and earrings.

The Real Resourceress

Finally I got my avatar the way I wanted it and posted. I think I have a handle on how to do this. Instructions will follow in the next post.