Monday, July 16, 2007

Week 11 - Last Post: Some Place Cool

With temperatures creeping into the 90s, you may be looking for place to cool your heels. Here are a few ideas:

For just $5, you and up to 7 others in your vehicle can cool off at Wekiwa Springs State Park. There's also canoeing, hiking and camping there.


Looking for a peaceful day with friends or family, visit the beautiful Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales.

All geared up for a day at the theme park, however, the weather is not cooperating? Chill out at DisneyQuest Indoor Interactive Theme Park. You'll enjoy virtual reality games, bumper cars, design your own roller coaster and even play games from the days of video arcades. All this fun and action for $29-$35 and air conditioning for the WHOLE day!

Have a great summer.

Week 10 - Podcasts and Audio

I will use my mp3 player to listen to music when I go walking, need to focus on a project, or when taking my kitties for a walk in the back yard.
Thank you for this awesome course and great prize.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Week #9 Digital Musical

In my humble opinion, I believe it is completely fair for artists' work to be protected and for people to pay for music and movies rather than pirate them. I favor the pay per use rights, as long as it is a reasonable fee.

I added a widget to my blog of the 5 day forecast for Orlando, to assist people when planning activities. Florida's weather can change so quickly.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Week 8 - Sharing Information

When it comes to online, just the name of this week's lesson makes me nervous. Since my husband was a victim of identity theft several years ago, I am very leery about the information I am willing to share, especially online!
Flickr is a really cool way to share pictures with friends and family. Tom, I like your pictures of Lake Eola. I take it you are a duck hunter by the looks of your boat and your beautiful dog, Beau. I should introduce you to my Pastor - he is a huge hunter, has a lab named Daisy, and a boat like yours! He shares his catch with the members of the church. My Mom says he feeds our church - physically and spiritually.
The Creative Commons info piqued my curiosity - how is this enforced effectively? I found this article on the PlagiarismToday website about Creative Commons violation. I learned that sploggers (spam bloggers)"scrape" blogs for content, sometimes but not always attributing to the original creator, then earning money by surrounding the content with advertisements. This is prompting some bloggers to consider "Full Copyright" instead of using Creative Commons or create their own license.
Learning online has been a convenient process. It has been nice receiving and providing assistance. It's motivational to hear other's experiences.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Week 7 - Fun Stuff

I enjoyed Dogster and Catster. Of course, I created an account on Catster; come see Sassy and Charley.

Blufr was also fun. Test your knowledge on this bluf:
Lightning actually strikes upwards from ground to sky, not downward. Click here to find the answer.

I also created an account on The Puzzle Player. I have wanted to learn how to play Sudoku. I'll probably play more word search - my favorite childhood word game.

For my Adventure from SEOmoz's Web 2.0 Award's website, I used Technorati to find a quilting blog. There were many. I found SimpleArts, who claims to be the "world's first PodCast for quilters."

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Week 6 Learn2.0 - Library Thing

I enjoyed the "Why I Love the Library" video by NJ libraries - very heartwarming. Learning about mashups was really neat. I especially liked the http://www.propsmart.com/. By the way, Wikimapia was interesting and a little strange. I enjoyed eXploring the library apps on Learn 2.0. I can't wait to share Library Thing with my father-in-law. He has a huge, uncatalogued collection of books and videos in his home library. I wonder what impact Book Mooch might have on book stores and libraries, if you can simply trade books, why buy or borrow? It's great that OCLS participates with Elf. I know this will be helpful to my busy friend who has 4 library cards in her household, and often has late fees.

This was difficult to decide, however, my favorite Library technology is our Online Databases. It is incredible that our customers are able to access, for free, this much information from the convenience of their home or office at any time; and unlike some websites they would find by googling a topic, the information is from reputable, reliable, and accurate sources. From medical resources to car repair, learning about other countries to learning a new language, researching antiques or stocks, career guidance, test preparation, online typing tutor and help with homework.




My personal favorite is Tumblebooks. I discovered Tumblebooks is much more than an online collection of electronic picture books for children. You can choose to view the website in English, French or Spanish. You can also see stories grouped in the following categories by clicking on the corresponding category bubble:

1) Story Books – narrated, animated picture books.
2) Tumble Readables - electronic books that are “self read.”
3) Life Learning – combination of narrated and “self read” e-books on various life issues – health, social and the all important Internet safety for children. I highly recommend Little Red in Cyberspace.
4) Puzzles and Games – related to the books available at Tumblebooks. Practice spelling, memory and complete puzzles.
5) Language Learning – read or hear the stories in another language.
6) Audiobooks – narrated stories including music and sound effects.

*New feature available* Tumblebook Mailer - send via e-mail (1) a Tumblebook story, (2) an animated Tumblecard, or (3) Record-A-Book – record your voice reading the selected stories. Here is a really cute story Why Libraries Matter: A Story Long Overdue.