Week 5, Thing 11

Checked out the Teacher-Librarian ning and spent quite a bit of time there. I was glad to find a middle-school group since it applies directly to what I'm doing and the concerns are quite similar. This is the first thing I've found where an RSS feed might make sense to me.

Del.i.cious - I've started using Google bookmarks but wanted to check out del.i.cious since it seems to be so popular. As far as I can tell, the difference is in the social aspect. Google keeps track of your own stuff where delicious gives you the opportunity to see what others are bookmarking. I think if I could get it fine-tuned enough, this could be helpful but it seems like just one more aspect of information overload to me. Too much stuff and too many ways to do the same thing.

Lulu - I've done a couple of books on Blurb so when I saw this was a bookmaking site, I figured I already knew about it. After some browsing around though, I see that this is really a much more robust site than Blurb. I like the general tone of Blurb and I think it's great for photo/travel books but Lulu seems more well-rounded and also cheaper. Doing a search on Mesopotamia, I actually found a play of Gilgamesh written for teens that would fit with the 6th grade curriculum. I just bought it and will share it with my 6th grade teachers. It would be a great extension activity for some kids. $5.99 for purchase - $2.99 for download. Now to see if I can catalog it.

Google docs - Already using it. Good stuff but lack of formatting bugs me. Maybe I haven't explored it enough?

Twitter - you've got to be kidding. I don't care that much what I'M doing every minute, let alone what others are doing every minute of their day. Too connected for me.

Last FM - can't find any rating labels or information about whether lyrics are explicit. this is a problem for schools.

Yahoo Answers - cool stuff but it seems like it has all the built in trouble with Wikipedia... and more. Anyone can answer you? If they point you in the direction of reliable answers, it seems ok but if kids blindly rely on what someone tells them here, it seems like this could be a problem. Good way, though, to tap into an expert network that might not be very accessible elsewhere.

Whew! There are A LOT of sites. A drink from a firehose.