Week 9 - ED 566E.1

I really enjoy the hands on aspect of this class. We have the opportunity to try out (almost) everything that we discuss in class. Tonight, we talked about Google Earth and Skype among various and sundry other topics. I'm really happy that we touched upon Skype, because like so many other topics we've addressed in class, these are new technologies that I've heard about in passing, but didn't feel I had the time to explore. When I'm doing it for class, it feels more purposeful and I'm gaining the same benefits. Similarly, Google Earth was great! I'm going to attempt to add a video I found on Google Earth showing a tour of Niagara Falls. I'm excited to share "places" with my students through this format. What a neat way to learn about a place!

Well - I couldn't access Google Earth, but I also looked at pictures on Google Earth of Joshua Tree National Park - another place I've been, so I'll practice inserting a picture instead - here you go!

So - after previewing, I see that it's up at the top right hand corner, I'll have to play with that and I'll try to add a video next week (something to look forward to, I know!)

Additionally, on the website project side of things - I had some trouble embedding widgets into the FreeWebs interface. I found some ways around that however. On the "What's the Librarian Reading" blog, I added an entry about Read Across America and found a page element to add exactly that - what I'm reading (or listening to, watching, etc). When interfacing with FreeWebs on the blog page, just click on the headphones, select books, and type in the title you'd like to add. I did this to add Dr. Seuss books to this entry. I also created widgets from Library Thing accounts designated for K-3 and 4-6 to show a rotating view of our collection on the homepage.

Check out the homepage with the widget (I had to insert HTML, it wouldn't let me add as a technical "widget" but this works just as well!)
Home Page

Check out the blog page with Dr. Seuss selections:
Blog Page