#10 Play around with online image generators

Generators? No, I’m not talking about those gas powered back-up things. The generators I’m talking about are websites that allow you to easily manipulate images.

For this discovery exercise, we want you to have even more fun than you're already having!
Find a few fun image or text generators to play around with and write a post in your blog about one of your favorites and the display the result. Often adding the image you mocked up to your blog is as simple as copying and pasting code that the page provides. If not, you may just need to right click on the image and then save it to your hard drive before using Blogger’s image button to add it to your post.

If you’re having difficulty getting your image added to a post in your blog, ask a colleague for help or your 2.0 Team.

Discovery Exercise:

   1. Play around with some image generators and find one that you like.
   2. Post the result of your discovery process in your blog. Note: Be sure to include a link to the image generator itself, so other participants can discover it too. Take some time and have fun with this exercise. And remember to be tasteful too!* Images created with FD Toys, Comic Strip Generator, Image Chef.

Discovery Resources:

    * Generator Blog FD Flickr Toys.
    * Also try searching for online generators, text generators or image generators such as Comic Strip Generator, Image Chef.

Curriculum Connections:

   1. Idea #1: Image generators: Show how to make an interesting image to use as interesting story starters. For example: using the star image on Hollywood Boulevard, a teacher or student could add the name of a character, a famous person, or any name. The students could make up a story about how that person got his/her very own star on the Hollywood walk of fame.

   2. Idea #2: Use comic strip generator to make cartoon directions - students and fellow educators might follow THOSE directions!!

   3. Idea #3: Generate an image for your school, classroom, or library website, newsletter, or bulletin board.

[Note: Please remember to include the THING# in your heading posts.]

#9 Locate a few useful Classroom related blogs

Now that you have an RSS Reader (your Bloglines or Google Reader account), you can begin adding other feeds that interest you. There are several ways you can locate RSS feeds:

• When visiting your favorite websites -- look for RSS feed icon sthat indicate the website provides it. Often a feed icon will be displayed somewhere in the navigation of the site.
• Use Blogline's Search tool - Bloglines recently expanded search tool lets you search for news feeds in addition to posts, citations and the web. Use the Search for Feeds option to locate RSS feeds you might be interested in.
• Check out the top "Edublog" award-winning blogs.
  

Other Search tools that can help you find feeds:

• Google Blog Search- See what appears when you search “Classroom Learning 2.0”
• Topix.net - This search tool allows you to locate recent newsfeed items based upon keyword or phrase searching. The tool focuses specifically on news and media outlets RSS feeds for information, not weblogs
• Syndic8.com - Syndic8 is an open directory of RSS feeds that contains thousands of RSS feeds that users have submitted.
• Technorati- Technorati is a popular blog finding tool that lets you search for blogs. Since RSS feeds are inherent to all blogging tools, Technorati Blog Search can help you find RSS feeds for topic specific blogs you may be interested in

Blog Pulse - Tracks conversations (try putting CSLA 2.0 to see who is talking about us)

Discovery Resource:
Technorati Tutorial on finding and adding your blog

Discovery Exercise:

1. Explore some of the search tools noted above that can help you locate some news feeds.
2. Create a blog post about your experience. Don't know what to blog about? Here some questions to think about ...Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use? Which Search tool was the easiest for you? Which was more confusing? Did you find any feeds that were not useful? Did you find any unusual ones? What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?

#8 Learn about RSS feeds

Make Life “really simple” with RSS & a news reader powered by ODEO -- listen to this!

You’ve heard of RSS? You’ve seen those small funny tags on websites? You’ve heard co-workers and acquaintances swear by it, but still have no idea what RSS is? Well don’t worry, according to a this survey you’re still in the majority, but this is changing rapidly. In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionalizing the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web. Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit everyday. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for just the text you want to read, doesn’t it? Read more about RSS here or see this video on the Common Craft web site.

Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually. Would that be valuable to you? Well, it’s available now through a newsreader and RSS. This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and what free tools you can use to do this.

Discovery Exercise:

   1. Follow these discovery exercises to set up your own, personalized RSS feed reader. Learn about the differences between RSS feed readers, Bloglines, and Google Reader.
   2. Create a free "RSS aggregator" account from either Bloglines or Google Reader and subscribe to at least 5 newsfeeds to your reader. [BLOGLINES. Here are the steps for creating an account in BLOGLINES. See Using Bloglines Tutorial steps 1-3 for instructions. See also a short video on YouTube on how to add feeds ; GOOGLE READER. You may prefer to set up an RSS aggregator in Google Reader. Tutorials include: Google Reader Tour,  or Google video tutorial ]
   3. Create a post in your blog about this exercise. Don’t know what to blog about? Think about these questions: What do you like about RSS and newsreaders? How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life? How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?

Newsfeeds to add to your reader:

    * San Jose Mercury News Feeds (pick at least one)
    * Reader’s Club new review feeds
    * Maybry Middle School, Georgia - example RSS feed
    * Westwood School, Georgia - example RSS Calendar Feed

Discovery Resources:

    * CNET Video: RSS – Feel the Need for Feeds (3:32) – a good over view of what RSS is and the benefits to users.
    * Feed Me: A gentle introduction to Internet feeds - a good tutorial from Palinet, a library cooperative
    * What is RSS? Video by Common Craft. And other similar videos.
    * How to Make your RSS Feeds Pop!
    * Check your local newspaper and discover if they have an RSS feed you can subscribe to.
      Additional Bloglines news feed subcription information
    * Your co-workers or fellow Classroom Learning 2.0 participants - tap into their knowledge and experience with RSS feeds and readers.
    * Edutopia article, “Tech Teacher: Cut Through the Web Noise: RSS Feeds help sort out the new from the mold”


How to find your public Bloglines URL:
1. Click on the Share tab within your Bloglines account:

2. Scroll down the right screen pane and locate the public URL.

Why have a public account? To share blog rolls with others, of course. That's how we keep track of Classroom Learning 2.0 participants. It has been a fantastic productivity tool for the CSLA 2.0 Team project manager -- each time a participant posts something new to their blog, our bloglines list shows their blog in BOLD and how many new posts have been added to their blog since the last time we looked. NOW, imagine that you have one or more classrooms full of students who each have a blog and must post an assignment to their blog -- you can see at a glance which students have posted.

Curriculum Connections:

   1. Idea #1: Use an RSS Reader to keep up to date on issues of interest to you.
   2. Idea #2: Locate news items on a particular theme, copy them – or create links to them onto your classroom blog. Have students read them and then create your chosen activity: class discussion, critique, review, debate or perhaps writing onto a class wiki.

#7 Blog About Technology

Create a blog post about anything technology-related that interests you this week
Simply blog about anything technology related. Yes, it can be anything that relates to technology! You just need to share a few thoughts. For example:

"I like digital cameras because it's much easier to share photos with family and friends now that I have a Flickr account. Skype lets me talk with friends through computers. Technology advancements for music and medical equipment are amazing! Video Games, iTunes, iPods, Flatscreen televisions, etc. "

Discovery Exercise:

    * Add at least one comment to another participant's blog.

That's what online communities are all about - connecting and communication. CHEER and otherwise encourage your GRMS Classroom Learning 2.0 colleagues :)
Curriculum Connections:

   1. Idea #1: Never miss an opportunity to share and discuss issues related to technology such as Internet safety & ethics, censorship, plagiarism, copyright, online learning, or library collection development.
   2. Idea #2: Post a web 2.0 curriculum-connection-of-the-week on your classroom blog or assign students to each take a week for their idea.

Resources:

    * Social Networking Sites - what are they, how are they used?
    * All Things Digital (Wall Street Journal)

#6 Flickr fun, mashups, and 3rd party sites

Like many web 2.0 sites, Flickr has encouraged other people to build their own online applications using images found on the site. Through the use of APIs (application programming interfaces), many people have created third party tools and mashups* that use Flickr images. Here is just a sampling of a few …

    * Mappr - takes Flickr images and allows you to paste them on a map
    * Flickr Color Pickr - lets you find public photos in Flickr that match a specific color.
    * Montagr – create a photo mosaics from photos found on Flickr.
    * Poster Maker with inspiration sayings (add in any picture and saying)

Discover more mashups, web apps, and Flickr tools.

Discovery Exercise:
Your discovery exercise for this “thing” is to: Explore some of the fun Flickr mashups and 3rd party tools that are out there. Create a blog post about one that intrigues you. You might want to check out FD Toys’ or Trading Card Maker.   Have some fun discovering and exploring some neat little apps. If you are up to the challenge while you’re at it, create a trading card of your own. :) or a movie poster or magazine cover from this Flickr site.* Mashup Note: Wikipedia offers some great articles that explain mashups. Basically they are hybrid web applications that take features from one application (like Flickr) and mash it up with another (like a map) In this example, you get Mappr (http://mappr.com)

Curriculum Connections:

   1. Idea #1: Use Flickr toys to make a magazine cover. Many classes make their own magazine. This would be perfect! Example for covers: "Crusade Times," "Heading West," or "Genetics Today." Students could create a magazine cover and headlines for a famous person, historical event, or story character.
   2. Idea #2: Create trading card sets. Liven up 5th grade mission projects, annual "animal" or "state" reports, and other topics that are ripe for change. Each student could create a card or student groups could design their own trading card pack. Trading the cards can be a fun game, but they can also be useful for recommended reading, books, illustrators, authors, and historical bios/dates. How would you use them? How about using them as Flash cards for vocabulary, periodical table, foreign language or ELL.
   3. Idea #3: Have students use these image generators as part of historical figures for a history report or characterization assignments about a character in a book.

#5 Explore Flickr and learn about this popular image hosting site

Photo sharing websites have been around since the 90s, but it took a small startup site called Flickr (now owned by Yahoo!) to catapult the idea of “sharing” into a full blown online community. Flickr uses "tags" or what we would call keywords to help identify and search for photos.

For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a good look at Flickr and discover what this site has to offer. Find out how tags work, what groups are, and all the neat things that people and other classrooms  are creating thanks to Flickr.

Discovery Exercise:
In this discovery exercise, you have two options…
a. Take a good look around Flickr and discover an interesting image that you want to blog about. Be sure to include either a link to the image or if you create a Flickr account, you can use Flickr's blogging tool to add the image in your post. Another option you have for including images in your post is to use Blogger's photo upload tool.
--OR--
b. If you are up to an easy challenge ... create a Free account in Flickr and use your location's digital camera to capture a few pictures of something in your school library. Upload these to your Flickr account and tag at least one of the images “GRMS Classroom Learning 2.0” and mark it public. Then create a post in your blog about your photo and experience. Be sure to include the image in your post. Once you have a Flickr account, you have two options for doing this; through Flickr's blogging tool or using Blogger's photo upload feature. So go ahead, explore the site and have some Flickr photo fun and if you're interested in looking at some photo hosting sites, then check out Picasa Web Albums from Google and another service called Smugmug.
PS: A quick word about photo posting etiquette and cybersafety - When posting identifiable photos of other people (especially minors) get the person's permission before posting their photo in a publicly accessible place like Flickr. Never upload pictures that weren't taken by you (unless you have the photographer's consent) and always give credit when you include photos taken by someone else in your blog.

Discovery Resources:

    * Flickr Learn More tour (6 steps)
    * Mediamazine Flickr Tutorials
    * Flickr: Popular tags Interesting- Last 7 days
    * Flickr Services (3rd party applications & mashups) and here's another Flickr site that lets you create movie posters, CD covers, magazine covers and so on.
  

[Note: Please remember to include the THING# in your heading posts.]