RSS/Subscribing

I really pleased to now know about RSS feeds and have immediately set them up for the professional organisations I am associated with.  I believe this will be a time saving resource because I will no longer have to check for their latest bulletins, they will come to me.  For school use, I will have to try it out for a while and see which sites that we use also have RSS feeds.  As a primary school, it may not be as relevant as for a secondary or tertiary environment, I will keep an eye on RSS subscribing and see how it goes.

Delicious/Diigo

I started an account with Diigo because I was under the impression (maybe falsely) that Delicious was closing down and all accounts were to be transferrred to Diigo.  Diigo works under the same bookmarking principle and since I discovered the concept, am really pleased with the site.  I don't have a laptop for work and was constantly frustrated with the lack of access to my bookmarked sites when working from home.  I am still in the process of transferring them all to Diigo and, despite of the time it is taking to complete, being able to access the information I need when I need it makes the effort worthwhile.  I like the idea of creating your own tags ensures that information retrieval is efficient and relevant to your individual way of working and thinking.  Additionally, if your computer crashes, having the bookmarks stored in the 'cloud' means they are not lost.  Great site, fabulous concept.

Flickr

MCG aerials, a photo by Annie Harry on Flickr.

Taken from a helicopter on the first day of the 2010 Boxing Day Test Match (Cricket). Great shot, even though I'm not the least bit interested in cricket, because my daughter took it while on her first helicopter ride. I hope this connects to my blog - first time I've tried this exercise so fingers crossed!

Online Image Generators

Really enjoyed the Comic Strip Generator (as you can see).  I could see this as an engaging application for students, especially those that struggle with creative writing, to spur their imaginations.  BigHugeLabs looks great for creating all types of displays - can't wait to use it at school.  Jelly Muffin had some good things on it, but I was getting prompts to 'check out these singles in your area' - no surprise the site was blocked on the school network!

Virtual Worlds

I had heard of using avatars and virtual worlds but had never been interested enough to explore.  It is great to have the opportunity to glimpse another reality and can see why people (millions of them!) can be caught up with Second Life and WoW but I just don't have the time to explore them.  Exit Reality is an interesting 'add-on' for social networkers - I've heard that Facebook is now the third largest 'country' in the world.  Probably a generational thing, but the word 'friend' is thrown around alot in the 'virtual' world and I am choosy about who I call 'friends' - wouldn't like to come across any students in an alternate reality, real reality is enough for me.  I can see that Second Life may be an opportunity to try out new opportunities in an educational sense, but, personally, the virtual world is not for me (and was blocked on the school computers anyway).

Library Thing

Great idea for sharing books online and finding a 'like-minded' book community. I will be exploring the opportunity for setting this up for our school, not so much for cataloguing but a possible central point for students to see new additions to the collection.  Students could also add their own reviews to the site - would have to be checked what they are writing though!  I wasn't able to join up - on the verification page you need to add the author of a book cover they disply but the page is coming up blank.  I will try another day and on another computer.

iGoogle

I love iGoogle.  Why didn't I know this existed?  Maybe I need to spend more time exploring rather than just whizzing around the cyber world with a specific search in mind.  Oh, that would require more time than I already have...but I am glad iGoogle has been put in front of me.  A definite time-saver in itself - how many times do I go to the weather bureau for weather?  Or go to the ABC website for breaking news? Or look for recipes/movies etc...etc...? Now I can have them all on my own home page and I could not be happier!  Would it be possible for each student to customise their own page according to their interests?  It would have to be carefully monitored from a school point of view, but it may create some interest for them in the creation of such a space.