Video Killed the Radio Star! But... it has proven to give new life to Millions of Other Hopefuls: 501 Video sharing blog post

When I began thinking about making a blog about video sharing, the first thought that came into my head is how much I can learn from watching videos. I am an avid user of the website: www.instructables.com where I can find instructions about how to make and do like a million and one things. But, there is an aspect of interaction and engagement that is missing when learning from still frames. I find that videos can be valuable for presenting an idea or image from several perspectives that makes learning from video more realistic. As a example of how effective video is for presenting ideas, here’s an amazing video based on a recipe in a book by Todd Wilbur, Top Secret Recipes, about how to make a Big Mac© at home:



In my kindergarten classes I begin each day with a sharing circle. To begin, I share a couple (few) seemingly unrelated stories about life, about what I do after school, what I learn, things I read, places I’ve been, people I’ve met, and everything about life. Yes, the stories may seem unrelated, but the stories all contain a similar moral point, and the students look for the thread that connects the stories to one another. When my turn to share is done, then it is time for each student to choose to share (or not) something with our group. We have 30 students in our class, so sometimes it takes a while to get through the whole group if everyone wants to chat that day, but sometimes the sharing is quite quick if the group is not feeling particularly chatty. What I like most about the circle is that each student brings an amazing wealth of knowledge, experience, and perspective to our group. And, it is the process of developing collective knowledge that makes circle time important as the school year draws on, because the students learn so much about one another by listening and sharing, that they don’t need to rely solely on the teacher for assistance, guidance, instruction, help, answers, and engagement. Likewise, I find that by interacting with others through the videos they share with our circle of humanity, I get to know so much more than if I was left to develop all of those ideas on my own.

To be honestI don't think one person (especially myself) would ever have the independent knowledge to build a space shuttle, and all the necessary technology to make it get to a specified destination outside earth’s atmosphere. Heck, I might never even get to see a shuttle launch in realia, but via video sharing I can come VERY close to experiencing such a beautiful and amazing feat of human technological skill and teamwork that produces results that benefit every human on the planet:



At the end of the work day, there are times when I like to watch funny clips that people post; other times it might be strange or fascinating mysteries of nature; or motorcycle/racing videos if I am feeling energetic. I suppose that I am drawn to certain users on video sharing sites based on how I feel, and what personal spiritual, emotional, intellectual, or academic penchant I need to have filled. And, there are times when photos don’t provide the visual stimulation combined with auditory accompaniment that makes me feel like I am a part of 'the scene'.

Discussion of the tool in terms of my own personal learning

Although I had set up a YouTube account a while ago as a part of my gmail account, I had never logged into YouTube, and it was interesting to see how much I’d been missing by not accessing YouTube as a logged-in user. There are many more features available for users than I knew, such as reading full summaries of each video, downloading using YouTube Downloader, leaving comments about users' videos, and linking videos to other aspects of the Google Suite that connects nearly all my accounts.

I tried changing the user settings of my YouTube account, but have since found it more difficult to navigate than one would expect. I first tried to upload a new background image to more closely resemble my avatar, but to no avail. Despite several attempts to change my account, I see that no permanent change to my settings have taken place…again, all this despite saving the changes each time.

I haven’t yet ventured to making comments about other users’ uploads, but I DID subscribe to a user who has some short videos about his Ford Courier on YouTube, which is a truck similar to the one I drive.

I tried exploring another video sharing site, Vimeo, but the sign-up procedure for that site wouldn’t allow me to sign-up because of my existing Google Suite login credentials that didn’t match that site, nor to my Facebook account. As I mentioned last week in my photo sharing blog, my camera is broken, and I am unable to upload videos to my account, which is too bad, since I would like to post some of my own videos. I hope to get a new camera for my birthday, so by September 2010, I will have videos uploaded for my subscribers to get to know me better.

Reflections on the process of learning about the tool

Learning how to become familiar with video sharing was DEFINTELY made more positive by the Common Craft video dealing with video sharing, and I feel more at ease having watched the video. Yet, I wish that the names of more sites had been mentioned for me to know where to go to watch videos, and search for videos to link to my account.

Since the purpose of a blog is to attract and inspire readers to subscribe to my writings, and for those subscribers to become regular members of the community in which we share ideas and information through multimedia, it seems appropriate that I should find means to make everyone who stops by here feel welcome. Well, I stumbled upon a paragraph from Joyner’s (2010) article, Show us what you can do, highlighting a reason for the success of Comon Craft as told by the founder of Common Craft, Lee LeFever:

"There is no sure-fire way to score a hit video, but the most effective demos have several features in common, says Lee LeFever, founder of Common Craft, whose popular “In Plain English” series of animated videos explains complex concepts such as cloud computing and the stock market. “They should focus more on how a product fits into someone’s life, not how it works,” he says."

By reading the blogs of others, and being aware of what others’ interests are, I am better able to find commonalities between my interests and the interests of my subscribers, and build a stronger community through that approach.

Discussion of the tool in terms of teaching and learning

Anderson (2009) outlines some of the benefits of video sharing in her article The Power of Primary Sources in assisting educators to:

">>Build awareness and knowledge
>>Develop personal connections
>>Enhance teaching and learning by engaging and motivating students
>>Foster inquiry and critical thinking
>>Support multiple strands of national and state information and technology literacy standards
>>Appeal to multiple senses and many learning styles"

A clear example of how video can be used as a teaching tool in ways that photos have less sensory impact can be seen in the following video about the history of the US Civil War (each second of the video represents one week of battle, as you will see in the scrolling calendar):



Finding educational material for use in the classroom will present with similar challenges that I encountered with photo sharing, and that was the difficulty with tagging. Being relatively new to using Web 2.0 for both personal and professional purposes, it is becoming increasingly clear to me that the language I use to locate resources will need to develop, as I typically use keywords, identifiers, and tags that do not accurately represent the subject matter, ideas, or topics I am searching for. My tendency is still to look for resources based on what feels like an outdated model of speech that doesn’t net the results I would like. I sometimes hope that it really isn’t just me, and that it just that the seemingly infinitesimal digital resources available are simply just not yet organized into an effective, searchable format yet.

Riismandel (2009) talks about the need for educational videos more searcher-friendly:

"Despite the fact that the number of universities and videos is limited, what’s important about Academic Earth’s approach is that it attempts to leverage the power of metadata to make educational videos more accessible. The real challenge comes with attempting to include videos from schools that haven’t tagged and organized their content in such a consistent manner. That’s the next crucial step in educational video online: developing a common standard for cataloging, organizing, and sharing content, regardless of platform. We already have a model in libraries, which have common standards for cataloging physical assets such as books and discs. The successes and failures of this decades-long process should provide direction and insight for educational video."

What now?

I am almost embarassed to admit that I have been living on earth for the past 10 years, and have never used video sharing as a tool for creating and sharing resources professionally and personally. I enjoy linking and embedding interesting and innoative videos that make my ideas clearer to others.

My readings this week led me to the website for the Iowa State University Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, http://www.celt.iastate.edu/lt/sn.html and found an explanation for what Web 2.0 is, and how it differs from 'the Web':

"The term "Web 2.0" is a broader term—and refers to a shift in the Web from primarily an information-sharing platform to a one that increasingly facilitates personalized online experiences, interaction, collaboration, and social networking. Some argue that Web 2.0 does not imply a new version of the Web. Its is, however, an acknowledgment of a continual evolution that includes a layering of a wider range of social software..."

I am very much interested in learning how to make use of more technologies, and to make them work together, in a more seamless manner that feels natural. As I get more exposure to different social media, I feel the 'network' aspect of social media rather than being just an occassional users, or bumping into these tools in my quest for resources. Another quote, from the same website, http://www.celt.iastate.edu/lt/sn.html really captures the feeling I get from trying to manuver and connect my ideas across several platforms:

"A social network comprises the individuals and the webs of connections between and among individuals who are associated—based upon one or more interdependencies, such as shared interests, values, friendship, family, or profession. These connections range from weak to strong ties (Granovetter, 1973, 1983).

Individuals belong to multiple social networks—and many group-specific social identities—each of which contributes something to his or her concept of self. The manner in which any particular social identity contributes to an individual’s self-concept stems from his or her perception of membership—and the values and emotional significance he or she associates with a group (Tajfel, 1981)."

Thanks for another great week!

-Rob

References

Anderson, M. (2009). The power of primary sources. Multimedia And Internet@Schools. (Nov/Dec), 35-38.

Joyner, A. (2010). Show us what you can do: Using videos to boost sales. Inc. (February), 81-84.

Riismandel, P. (2009). Making educational video more accessible. Streaming Media. (June/July), 14.

What does social networking have to do with teaching and learning? (n.d.) Retrieved January 25, 2010, from http://www.celt.iastate.edu/lt/sn.html

501 Photo sharing Blog Post

If you take a person to a diagram, then you can show most clearly that learning is recollection. -Plato

Clearly, Plato would appreacite the intutive nature of creating social networks founded on identifying patterns and similarities through pictures and photos.

Discussion of the tool in terms of my own personal learning

Photo sharing isn’t a common practice for me since my camera was ‘accidentally’ tossed like a Hail Mary NFL Football pass by one of my kindergarten students a couple of years ago during class-time.

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to start-off my blogging experience by attending to all forms of social media to get my blog up and running. I didn’t realize how much work goes into creating various accounts and profiles that support one’s primary social media platform, which for me is Blogger.

This week I applied my skills to navigating a few different photo-sharing sites to get a feel of which one seems best for me. I followed the advice of Singer Gordon and Stephens (2006), “It might seem overwhelming at first, but worry not—the best thing you can do is take some time and explore. Dive into some image pools, surf some tags you find interesting, and upload your own pictures to the site with a free or “pro” account. Play around with the features and some of the Flickr Toys that have sprung up because of the open nature of Flickr’s database. Try some tagging. Join the Libraries and Librarians group and share pictures of your building.” Diving into the pool of web activity that is not a part of my personal routine wasn’t so much risky as much as it was humbling.

I started off with Flickr because it is the most well-known hosting sites for photos. I found that Flickr required a Yahoo account, which is odd because Flickr is so well synchronized with the Google Suite of tools, that I assumed Google maintained ownership of Flickr. I would have liked to have my photos archived within my overarching Google account, to allow for seamless navigation between sites, accounts, and multimedia. But, as I mentioned, Flickr is supported by, and supports Blogger, which eased my transition into uploading some .gif and .jpeg images to my new Yahoo-based Flickr account.

I was disappointed to find that my animated .gif images don’t appear as animated when hosted on Flickr and embedded on Blogger. Since I wanted to incorporate .gif’s, I tried to load them directly to Blogger, and have them show as animation from within my blog. Regrettably, Blogger doesn’t show animated .gif’s as animation either.

In a scramble to find a host for my animated pictures, I turned to Photobucket, and found that site hosts and embeds animation directly to blogs, with animation.

Reflections on the process of learning about the tool

I found myself actually having to take time to think of tags for my photos. And, only after completing extensive professional reading about photo sharing as a social networking tool, do I understand why I am having so much difficulty with assigning tags to my uploads, and to my blog posts. “Although social tags do not constitute a controlled vocabulary, a contributor who does not use the preferred tagging vocabulary of the social network will make it difficult for others to find the resources they have tagged.” (Jacob, Y., Zhang, Z., Foo, S., Yan, E., George, N., and Guo, L., 2009). I kind of got the sense that there must be A Tagger’s Cant, or Taggiquette about assigning labels to my creations, but discerning the rules from others’ actions didn’t create parameters to guide my own use of tags. “Perhaps most problematic are the variant word forms used by different taggers to refer to the same or very similar concepts. These tag variations reflect individual preferences for describing online resources, but they also underscore the primary difference between the folksonomies that evolve on social tagging sites and the controlled vocabularies that have traditionally been used in formal indexing systems (see Universal Tag Identifier section, above). While these individualized folksonomies support retrieval by the original tagger, they require more effort and creativity on the part of the searcher, who must think of all possible variations on a term or concept in order to retrieve resources on a social bookmarking site.” (Jacob, Y., et al., 2009). I know how much I want others to find my uploads, and really, my blog and the material I embed, link and attach to my ideas are there for others to enjoy, so the tags aren’t so much about me, but about how others can use keywords to interface with a computer program to find a human affective connotations of images that reflect the experiences they are connecting to.

It was interesting to read how “the Library of Congress is using Flickr to share its massive collection of photos, allowing the public to tag photos—which in many cases had minimal or no information— with identifying names or locations.” (Funk, 2009). I wonder how many archived photos form the past will eventually, someday be ordered and categorized with links to my own blog posts, links, ideas, etc…

So, what about using photo sharing tools? I remember a couple of years ago when I held office for our local Library Board of Directors, the topic of social networking sites arose, and limited discussion about networking tools followed the initial interest in using Web 2.0 for hosting library-related materials. I was in favor of having library staff receive training in the use of Web 2.0 tools, but the issue didn’t get a lot of attention because of other more pressing requirements. I wish I had read Singer Gordon and Stephens (2006) article "Tech tips for every librarian" when I had voice to speak for the future of our library system. Singer Gordona and Stephens outline ten ways to integrate photo sharing into work and networking. The article provides explanation of each of the ten points highlighted below:

Ten Ways to Use Flickr
Armed with your digital camera or scanner, a Flickr pro account, and access to your own library blog or Web pages, here are a few things you can do to make your online presence more interactive and much more fun:
1. Edit that profile and make some contacts.
2. Tag your images.
3. Display images via RSS.
4. Create sets of your programs, events, and specialties
5. Host images for your blog or Web site.
6. Use notes for HTML links and more.
7. Engage users with those images.
8. Share the library’s history.
9. Use some Flickr Toys to make some snazzy graphics.
10. Allow Flickr access on library computers.
These 10 tips just scratch the surface for all of the uses for Flickr in our institutions—I didn’t even cover applications in K–12 schools or library programs. Imagine students using Flickr to create their own cards for a class project. Sites such as this, paired with the Flickr Toys site, can be powerful tools for extending your online presence.

Johnson (2008) provides three simple ideas for making the use of photo sharing a more enjoyable and practical experience for novice Flickr users:



I am totally impressed with the range of tools available through Photobucket. I tried using Picasa, but the Terms of Service for using it require the user to save and install an .exe additional program into their computer and I tend to shy away from such programs. I wish that Picasa had been available as a Google-hosted Application Programming Interface through a standalone site, but as of now, it isn’t like that.

Discussion of the tool in terms of teaching and learning

I think the Trailfire video was the best introduction for me learn about Photo sharing. In general, the Trailfire videos are ALL amazing, and their simplicity takes away any worry a user can have about learning how to use a program. Many of the website and journal articles I encountered about the topic of photo sharing that were written more than seven or eight years ago seem to lack expressiveness of the breadth that photo sharing sites offer to users. I think that our present technology really has grown considerably in the past decade that the closest ideas from ten years ago that match the tools available to us today are the projections and predictions developers made back then. Even so, I read two amazing articles “Perspectives on Social Tagging (2009)”, and “Flickr Image Tagging: Patterns Made Visible (2007),” about how users interests needs have changed in the past few years, and are changing the nature of the internet as a composite whole.

I encountered an awesome blog that I have in my Bookmarks, RSS, and blog list, it is http://tametheweb.com/ I found TameTheWeb to be full of practical ideas and excellent tips for both novice and experienced web users.

While my workplace discourages employees from using social networking tools, I can’t imagine how I could ever go back to not using my photobucket account, like for the rest of my life. The readings I did especially impacted me to realize that it is the voice of average users through tags, titles, descriptors, and comments that add a human voice to a digital universe that is leading us toward what some call the Semantic Web. I really hope that my voice can contribute to the new lexicon of humanity through my affective connection to postings. At this point I wish I could find a better guideline for creating tags, titles, descriptors, and comments that would help me to relate better to the established community of Web-2.0-tool users.

On a personal level, I remember the first time I ever went away from home by myself, I felt uneasy, and I cried because there wasn’t anything familiar when I was there without friends and family near. It took about a week to get my bearings in my new location, and I quickly made acquaintances, but the most important thing that helped me to get used to being on my own was to be in a routine. Likewise with this new technology of sharing my ideas and the images of my life with others, it will take repeated usage and integration into my existing patterns of behavior to make this tool second nature for me.

One question I still have is: how I can use a photo hosting site to measure the Golden Ration of my facial proportions to determine how I measure up to Da Vinci and Pacioli to see how comparable I am to the rest of the people who upload pictures of themselves?

To see the images I worked with, my photobucket account is found at: http://s888.photobucket.com/home/CNRGradio

-Rob


References

Beaudoin, J. (2007). "Flickr image tagging: Patterns made visible. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (Online) (Oct/Nov), 34(1), 26-29.

Funk, M. (2009) Testing the web 2.0 waters. American Libraries. (Jan/Feb), 48-51.

Jacob, Y., Zhang, Z., Foo, S., Yan, E., George, N., and Guo, L. (2009). Perspectives on social tagging. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60(12), 2388-2401.

Johnson, D. (2008) Upgrade your Flickr experience with free tools. PC World 26(3), 126.

Singer Gordon, R., and Stephens, M. (2006) Tech tips for every librarian Computers in Libraries, (Nov/Dec), 44-45.

501 Introductory Blog Post

501 Introductory Blog Post

Hi folks! My name’s Rob, and I am CNRG (Synergy) radio. Since our course began I’ve been adding posts to my blog to share my interests with some of you who stumble here, those who follow my blog, and those of you who wonder, “what in the world could Rob be up to now?” Whether it’s hikes from Moscow to Kazahkstan/Prague/or Ulan Batur; extended weekends in Berlin or Hamburg; living in a tent in the park beside the North Atlantic for two years to avoid paying rent at the uni so he could fund trips to Russian and Italy; writing numerous books that presently lie in storage in a closet Kiev; reading poetry on the street to get loose change from passersby; screaming on his motorcycle from Detroit to Tallahassee for Saturday afternoon dinners; surf and scuba in Tofino; or just relaxing with his dog, as of 2010 Rob still lives, and this blog will be another way to know where he’s going next! I know I haven’t been totally consistent with keeping in contact with friends and family since beginning my master’s degree, and I hope to use this blog as a way of bringing as many of you together as possible, because you all mean very much to me. And, if I can get an interactive map to link here, I will import colorful lines with dates and places to highlight where we met, to let others know that Rob still has a pulse, and he is just waiting to convocate, and then his walking shoes come out of their two year hiatus in the garage. (*smile*) And, for the new friends I make ‘in-class’, I’m sure you will enjoy the journey we make together.

Reflections on the process of learning about the tool

Never having blog’d before, this past week has me pretty much hooked on sharing ideas related to the places I’ve been, the people I’ve met, and the things I’ve done.

After only a week this blog is quickly transforming into a puzzle that will be assembled by you and me, to represent how our interests connect to make our personalities shine together. This blog will always include materials for all three systems of thinking: visual, auditory and kinesthetic (*I will do my best for Kin learners—and GIFs are my first attempt at such*). I hope to update this parking lot each day with stories about my life and interests. So, if your senses aren’t stimulated today, drop by tomorrow and I’ll probably have something that brings a smile to your face. If you want to figure out which type of learner you are, check out this link: http://www.pesdirect.com/learning-styles.html (*all three tests are different, so try each one*) Viegas, Boyd, Nguyen, Potter and Donath (2004) found that “Some of the ways in which our users interacted with the visualizations are reminiscent of how people relate to photographs. People return to their photos to reflect on past experiences as well as to share aspects of their lives with others. Photographs themselves convey limited slices of the events they represent, but their presence allows the owner to convey as much or as little as they want in sharing the event represented. Although our stories are as deeply embedded in our email [sic, blogs] as they are in our photos, we rarely have access to any sort of “snapshot” of our email so as to have these deep reflections and storytelling opportunities. The higher-level view of our digital experiences is buried deep within the actual data. When users in our case studies began storytelling around the visualizations, we realized that these provided a missing link; they created a legible and accessible view for sharing and reflecting upon our digital experiences, without revealing too much.” (p. 258)

The most difficult tasks I found in creating my blog were in creating a name/title for my blog that would present a theme to catch the interest of followers/readers, and CNRG radio, as a music site, was a best first choice for me because I enjoy the beauty of sound. Next, finding time to update the blog daily has been a challenge, and I missed January 14, 2010, for Orthodox New Year because I was ushering in the year 7518, eating beshbarmak, manty, chebureki, and plov with tasty sides of adzhika and kabachok. After one week I can see that much like my classroom organization, I will arrange days of the week to follow themes from week-to-week, so I can present readers with consistent blogs that they will know attend to certain topics or modalities of presentation. Cousins (2007) talks about ““harnessing the collective intelligence” (p. 2) of everyone who uses a product, in the form of feedback, user reviews, and user-crafted social networks.” I think blogs can really work as tools to bring the expertise of several bloggers together to create a sphere of knowledge that provides an identity and support network for members of that community. As this semester progresses, I’m sure that each of the students in our class will identify with the blogs of certain students and form friendships based on similar interests and user profiles. Since I haven’t had any followers ask questions yet, I still haven’t been able to get discussion going through my blog, but I trust that will develop as we progress through our course. Just as Laura K. Brooks mentions in her article, "Old School" Meet School Library 2.0: Bump Your Media Program into an Innovative Model for Teaching and Learning, “A blog is very creator-centric; readers share comments, but the author controls and directs content.” (p. 15)

As I mentioned earlier, this blog gives us a chance to connect with our social networks, and I know mine has been neglected because of my full-time work/full-time study life during the past two years. As I think of ideas and topics of interest that others will enjoy related to travel, storytelling, socializing, and ‘just getting out there’, I want to use my voice to inspire others to enjoy the stories we’ve lived together, or apart—but still connected to one another. Chaney, 2005 noted, “…as more and more like minded individuals in a particular subculture or community maintain blogs and comment on and reference each other’s blogs, “virtual meeting spaces” are formed.” (p.236) Tagging my posts with keywords that summarize how the post is related to the nature of the blog is a challenge, and I will try not to repeat the same tags week after week.

Discussion of the tool in terms of my own personal learning

Setting up my blog has been a challenge, but like I said, I’m hooked, and in those hours when I SHOULD be sleeping, I’m thinking about how I can add a new link, or find a new icon to make the skin that covers my blog more comfortable to fit me.

It’s difficult to choose which other blogs to follow, and to limit the interests I stay updated with. Although this IS an academic endeavor, I also realize there are numerous readings we will do, and educational/organizational/vocational blogs we will follow, so I will try to get my ideas across with as little text as possible, which will also challenge ME to dive into the web2.0 CyberPool of ‘life’, and find treasures that await me, so I can bring them back to the surface to share them with you. I’m positive that after a day of reading, it will also be refreshing to hear Rob’s stories through picture, song, video, animation, and every media we have available to us. Approaching storytelling through blog, “the constructive quality of the blog (discourse) leaves the story open for future negotiation and re-iteration. Personal narratives remain open to new possibilities, reiterations, even moments of transformation that might lend texture or help to re-narrate previous history. As noted, good autobiographies often note moments of transformation; blogging offers a plurality of “moments” in nonlinear fashion, for re-negotiation.” (Blevins, 2007, p. 258)

I am thoroughly enjoying the pressure of finding ideas to present to others that make my world a more enjoyable place to lounge; I hope I can do the same for you.

Discussion of the tool in terms of teaching and learning

I am a kindergarten teacher, and I have very little contact with humans over the age of 6 on an average day. My students can’t open twinkies, juice boxes, or ziplocked sandwich bags themselves, so at work I rarely get a chance to leave my classroom. Being online and having discussion with adults is cool, and it allows me to share a side of myself that is difficult to integrate into my professional life. In my classroom, our students, by January, are able to activate our SMARTboard, click through a PowerPoint presentation, watch a video clip, and play online mathematics learning games, but bringing the life of a blog to their developing minds appears to be a formidable challenge. Our school division encourages teachers not to post ideas to social networking sites during school hours, nor with students’ ideas in the event that posting an event violates FOIP. Still, when we can find a radio station online that hasn’t been blocked by the school division we listen to some music during in-class gym times, or for class parties involving musical chairs. I have already found several of the threads in our class discussion to be valuable in helping me to reflect on how my students can take ownership of technology in the classroom in ways I never thought possible – thank you (cf. Web 2.0 Projects, Freedman, 2008).

Three years ago, one of my kindergarten students made a computer similar to the one in the video linked below, and it is encouraging to know that systems thinking and social networking is intuitive for the next generation.



I am very excited to see how much learning takes place through our 501 class from here on in.

Cheers, rob



References

Blevins, D. (2007). Story telling or storied telling? Media’s pedagogical ability to shapen narrative as a form of “knowing”. Religious Education, 102(3), 250-263.

Brooks, L. (2008). "Old School" Meet school library 2.0: Bump your media program into an innovative model for teaching and learning. Library Media Connection (April/May), 14-16.

Chaney, K. (2005) Blogs-learning a new arts medium: So far neither rare nor exactly well done. Teaching Artist Journal, 3(4), 233-240.

Cousins, D. (2007) Exploring School Library 2.0 Tools in an Elementary Setting. Diss. University of Alberta, 2007. Edmonton: Dept. of Elementary Education, 2007. Print.

Freedman, T. (2008) Web 2.0 projects. Terry Freedman Ltd.: Great Britain.

Viegas, F., Boyd, D., Nguyen, D., Potter J., and Donath, J. Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences – 2004. Cambridge: IEEE, 2004. Print.

Friday afternoon, and dreaming of summertime

This weekend the Edmonton Motorcycle show is happening at the Agricom: http://www.edmontonmotorcycleshow.ca/ Every year the third weekend in Janaury proves to be a high point for me since I can forget about the long winters in northern Alberta, and dream, at least for one afternoon, about riding when the weather is favorable.

In anticipation of a great show this year, I'll post some choice snaps of bikes that have been sent to me.

I especially like the bike with the red and black striped tank, and unbelieveably fat meat on the back, and the front too, which probably requires extra alertness when riding.

Hope you enjoy, and I look forward to meeting up with many of you at the show.

rob

Eye Candy animated gifs for fun!

Here are some mid-week treats to keep us amused until Friday afternoon! If you have any gifs of your own link them to your RSS and after notification I'll up them in my 'bucket.

You can find more of these in my photobucket, click the camera lens on the left to link to my account.

rob

You Really ARE Beautiful!

Linking to audio files hosted on remote servers is a best option for blogging, to reduce u/L - d/L times.

Cheers, and hope you enjoy!

Rob

hd colorful video

For those of us who spend A LOT of time in our digital world...

...here are some desktop backgrounds to add pizzaz to your workspace. (*Enlarge, right click, save as, set as desktop background*)...you know the routine! ROFL!

Glad to be able to share some of these items with 501!

cheers, rob

today's work from break o'dawn to nitefall

Today I realized that,

I often take for granted the awesome wide open spaces we have here in the pristine nature of Canada.







On my drive to work I next to never pass a car, seeing only:

moose


bald eagles



deer



and, occassionally a bear




Today I went for a walk, and got some fresh air,




away from my computer




and I thought of the crowded places, where people value even the smallest peace.


Have a blessed day! Namaste!

IT, Tech, and related materials to make you smile

They're all pretty funny. But, there's one in particular that really makes me chuckle...

click on each one to see full size in a new window: