Well, I'm still wrestling...

Well, I've learned an awful lot about video this week, in an effort to get my tutorial to work on my website. Still a no go, dang it all. But the process has been terrific because I've learned all kinds of things that I can use in other places. My favorite of the week is compressing AVI files to Mpeg4 format. I'm really glad to know that. And in some cases I'll be able to use a zip file to send a PowerPoint and have the videos travel with it, it just wasn't an application I could use on the website. So I'm still chewing on this because I'd really like to be able to load this tutorial on a school server and make it available for teachers. If you have any ideas, I'm all ears.

Looking over our classmates websites yesterday was terrific. Some were amazing. Nicole Gunn did an especially great job - professional quality. I know it will be tremendously useful to VSU nursing students. How great is that? John did a great site, too. I'm really impressed with the both of them, and proud of them, too. Top notch work.

10,000,000 ways to not get a ppt to work...

This weeks word is frustration. It is the feeling you get when you cannot get the videos to work in a ppt that you've prepared for a tutorial and loaded onto a website. AAAARRRGH! I feel like Charlie Brown when Lucy kept pulling the football out from under him.

I've tried everything I and the countless other people I have asked can think of, and -no go. I'm at my wits end. I've tried saving it as a slide show, packaging it as a CD and trying to load it that way (can't load a folder), burning it to a CD (doesn't pick up the slides and puts the videos in the wrong order), a zip file. I'm about to tear my hair out. I'll keep at it...

Reflection is good...

This week's assignment was the caption, and as I reflected on my work in this class over the semester, I'm just so proud of what I've accomplished. I know it's just a very simple website, but the most valuable part of the process is what you don't see. I really learned how to zero in on a need and how to design material to fill that need. That's huge for me. It was especially satisfying that I had designed a tutorial for teachers, as well as a research activity that children can participate in independently, so it doesn't require valuable classroom time to build skills. I think that's a great idea - kind of like the AR program for reading, but this is for research. I can't wait to see how it flies in a real school!

This has been one of my favorite classes, because I learned to much about effective design, of not only curriculum, but a website. I love getting every aesthetic and component just right, so it was a lot of fun.

This could drive a person nuts!

Okay, I've got the assignment tucked in nice and neat, but I can't get the additional tutorial I've posted to work. Drat! I think it is because it is a PowerPoint and I have some videos inserted on each page. The ppt comes through but not the video. I can't seem to package that. Drat!

Well, this week's assignment did go well. I'm getting to where I can add and edit pages lickety split. That's a nice feeling! Now if I could just get my ppt to work. Drat!

Back to it...wish me luck...

Busy, busy...

This has been a huge assigment. To fulfill the requirements of the assignment, I created my student activity within the first week of the alloted time. But because my website is a teacher resource, a student activity wasn't really appropriate for the site. Plus, at the beginning of the semester I asked a librarian friend if there was something useful I could create for her. She requested a tutorial for her teachers on how to effectively use the Destiny OPAC system, so I've been working on that as my "real" activity - although it doesn't really fit the requirements of the assignment. It's a tutorial for adults, not an activity for students.

What's especially interesting about how this is all coming together, is I've recently been learning about some video tools in another class that I've been able to utilize for this tutorial. Handy coincidence! Although I realize it's not up to Hollywood standards, I'm pretty proud of my first attempt at combining tools to create something that will be of real use to a faculty. I did it! And I learned a ton of useful info in the process. Hurrah!

Sticky Stuff

Copyright laws are tricky for me, and murky, too. Although the articles in this assignment defined the laws more clearly than any I have encountered before, I still am a little uncertain about my do's and don'ts. I hate to avoid material because I'm afraid of using it, but I also don't want to open my county up to a lawsuit. And often it seems you would not have the months I imagine it would take to get permission. I'll be in the media center, so this is really important to me, especially with the collaborative push. I'll be looking to my district office and fellow librarians for advice and direction quite a bit...

I love Big6!

This is such a terrific tool, and I'm so glad we spent the week exploring it. It is one of my main topics on my webpage, and so again I was glad to have the extra time to really look at what some teachers are doing to utilize its powerful, yet simple process. It is amazing how very young students can grasp the Super 3 version, and how it can be successfully impletmented with special needs students, as well. And what a confidence builder. When someone who is just beginning to explore the world can do it in this simple and logical framework, the sky's the limit. I wish I would have been taught this process, and I'm going to make sure each of my four children tap into this. It's fantastic! Thanks for a great class topic!

What Fun!!

I love this! Building a website on Google was a perfect intro for me. It's a great site with simple tools. I even figured out how to set a custom color for my background. Really neat. I would like a few more capabilities, but hey, it's free! I think I'll use this to create a family website. That info would be great in Christmas cards this year. I wonder if I can pull it off in time...

The detailed directions on how to complete the assignment were so helpful, a life saver really. Thanks a million!! I would have been lost without them. It would have taken 10 times longer for me to hunt and peck through the process. As it was, I spent a couple of hours just fiddling with little changes, trying to get the site to look how I wanted. I didn't figure it all out, but I had fun trying!

Double Checking is a Good Idea!

You know, I really thought I had initially culled my sites very well. I still found one that I needed to replace. I was surprised! This assignment was interesting; I didn't realize there were tools out there to help you analyze a site. Helpful.

The "controversial topic" searches were the most challenging part of the assignment for me, because I try to be very careful on the web. I was really outside of my comfort zone. I'm pretty conservative when it comes to searching and clicking on search results. Over the years I've learned to scrutinize URLs because I just don't want to risk picking up some ugly malware or a virus or something. Risk equals money spent repairing or replacing a computer; I just don't chance it. So it was tough for me to click on some of the results that came up from the "controversial topics" in the PowerPoint. I only chose a few that looked (from our study) reliable; it was just too stressful to do more (fear of grocery money having to be spent on computer repair). =)

This is going to be neat!

This week things have really come together for my website, and it's exciting to see it taking shape. It's kind of taking on a life of it's own during this creative process, and it's interesting to see the focus sharpening to a resource for teachers. I think I have some great resources to really help teachers. That's a great feeling. This summer when I began my core classes I wasn't really sure how to go about helping teachers, especially since I don't have an educational background. But I'm learning so many skills I can utilitze to assist them. I'm loving this!

I'm glad we had some time in Live Classroom to present. I hadn't done that before and I'm really grateful whenever I'm exposed to a new skill. The best part about it though was seeing my classmates websites. They have some terrific ideas and resources, and I jotted several links down quick to add to a listing I keep of great websites that could be of help to teachers. I really admire the professionalism and dedication of my classmates, and I aspire to their greatness. I wish I could tell the world how terrific teachers are, they just don't get the credit they so richly deserve.

A little progress...

Today's lesson did help me take a few steps toward utilizing databases more effectively. I've found GALILEO to be very frustrating in the past, and the EBSCO video did help with a few tips for more effective search techniques. Honestly, it still is a little exasperating sometimes, but it's much better than when I started this term.

One unexpected perk of these searches is I'm finding tons of professional development material. I'm collecting just as much of that as I am resources for my website. I also think the focus of my website is changing. It is becoming a tool for teachers, not kids. Hope that is okay!

It's a Big World Out There!

Wow! I never knew there were so many ways to search the Web. So cool! I'm really grateful to have this info, it will be invaluable in my library. I was amazed that after I spent hours searching, I still found a terrific site that hadn't come up before. It really makes you wonder how that could be, and how much info I've been missing all this time! Plus it's great to be able to really zero in on what you want - such a time saver. Now I have so much stuff bookmarked, it's going to be hard to narrow down the best of the best!

Great Searches

This week I really enjoyed learning internet search techniques from Deb at the reference desk in Odum. She's a whiz, and she's nice, too. I'm really getting the knack of refined searching. Man, the time it saves! Loving it. During my searches, I also began to refine my website ideas. I'm developing a tutorial on Destiny for teachers at an elementary school (I thought I would be doing a tutorial on their OPAC). So, to keep the content relevant, I will focus the research skills page toward teachers, and teaching research skills. I found some great sites in my searches, and I'm excited to get started.

What to do, what to do...

I've been trying to come up with a research topic that will be very useful, because I want the website I create for this class to be the beginnings of the actual website I will load for my future library. I thought that if I could create a website I could add to, it would be a very practical use of my learning opportunities for this course.

I asked the LMS at an elementary where I volunteer if there was something useful I could do for her, and she said they could really use a tutorial for their OPAC. Okay, I can do that and it would be great to have on the website, but it doesn't really fit this course assignment. So I think I will research The Big 6, and have a section for that, too. I'd also like to add search capabilities to the school's AR listings on my website. It is very tiresome trying to locate a book on the school AR page now, and if I could figure this out, it would be helpful to the entire county.

Could be biting off a heck of a lot. We'll see...

First time blogger here...

Okay then, that wasn't hard! Looking forward to the class and meeting everyone.