Thing 38... JING! $$$$

I love Jing. I just never had the time to really utalize Jing. Now, I have all the incentive I need. With a new year of Moodle I need some instruction vids. Here is the first of four.

Thing 37..... Photos and whatnot

I see no need to use Flickr when I can use Picasa. So here is what I set up using Picasa.

I was in Oaxaca for the 6th time. When I arrived it was a few days after 100,000 protesters where physically removed from the streets and then the protesters came back into town with a vengence. It was quite a different experence than my other visits to Oaxaca.

I hope you enjoy.

Thing 36... cartoons and other play things

I was having a really good time playing with this one. It took me forever because I was playing.

But here is a few samples of my pla... many I hope to use in the classroom:

Made this on Strip Generator. Was Playing with ToonDoo but didn't have the time to make all the toons. A great site but too much to learn in this limited amount of time.

I had a great time with these and see a lot of class opportunities to use this, but don't have the time to play :(

Thing 35... Internet v reading material... or is it vs?

I often hear the angry grumblings of people saying the internet is the death of reading. However there has been more published and more books/magazines read than ever.

I found this exersize to be terribly fun and addicting.

I knew about and often give reference to resources like Shelfari.

This kind of post also had me thinking about the virtual books, books on your ireader or for portablility you Kindle or even your iphone. Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but I like a paper book. That doesn't mean that e-books are bad, I just don't enjoy them.

Then the site had me explore some great websites like Booklamp! Wow! what a great web site! I also really liked, what should I read next. These two sites are exactly what the book world needs the internet to do. They are creative and use the power of mass databasing and easy accsess to their advantage.

Unfortunatly I now have 8 more books on my to read list. But thats not so bad, we have a library very close :)

Thing 34.... on-line answer sites

I found this exercise to be a bit tedious. The sites listed are all sites that you hit when you do a general google search for:

How to fix a broken pipe?

or

How do planes fly?

or

Whats the difference between an encephalopod, an insect and an arachnid?

All good questions, all can be answered on the Internet with ease.

however, there are many questions that really need the help of another human.

Such as:

Needing to find diaries and city planner notes of Minneapolis in the 1880's

looking for information when doing family histories/lineages

etc.

The Internet is fantastic, but unless:

A. The form was originally created electronically and then willing to be released

or

B. Someone took the time to scan or translate the paper copy to the Internet

the Internet is not always the best place to find all documents.

Lastly and most importantly... there are some subjects that one does not have the vocabulary, enough understanding or the subject is far too complicated for the Internet. The help of a reference librarian is a must at those time.

Thing 33... Travel

Ah travel,

There really is nothing more glorious then stepping off an airplane... looking around and the air just smells different, the look of the architecture, clothing, people, language are all different. I find this to be one of the greatest feelings. If you are one of these people and "jet set" regularly there are great resources for you.

However, one can not just jettison off to some foreign local at a moments notice. Perhaps you need a little help planing that trip, or perhaps you can't afford a vaccation and so you live vicariously through others. Either way the web is here to help.

There are a number of travel web sites to help plan your trip. Things like:

Trip Advisor

Travel Post

I am a much, much bigger fan of Travel Post. It not only has slightly better information, but it is a lot less advertizment filled and "quick hit the buy button" mentality. Besides, Lonely Planet links to Kayak (the owner of Travel Post). That has to account for something. And why was Lonely Planet not listed? Hmmm

As for the Blogs, I think a few of them really stand out as fun and/or entertaining.

MyKugelhopf This is an extrememly well travled and well written individual. Not sure where their funding comes from to keep blog like this going, but that is quite a lifestyle choice. Great links to different types of travel opportunities like cooking classes, hiking, climbing, museums etc.

The Cranky Flyer is really more about a ranting traveler who has a lot of insite on the travel industry and can give you some insite, but really its more about three issues:

• Raw entertainment
• Core travel industry news (like busniness article news)
• hints and tips thrown in here and there.

I liked some of the other Blogs, but not that useful or intersting to me.

A site I am surprised was not listed was WIKI TRAVEL. I would think they would have people log in and add to the site. Thus not only learn about travel, but also contribute and become part of the web 2.0 system.

Thing 32.... Google Maps and Mashables

Although I haven't made my own google map for publishing, if you go to "my maps" in google maps there are two that I follow and one that I have added info on.

Bike Thefts in the Twin Citites

View Bike Thefts in Twin Cities in a larger map

Although highly incomplete, it does give a nice look at clustering and keeps you on top of what is happening and what to look out for.

Greenway assaults map

View Greenway Assaults Map in a larger map

I'm not sure what I would make my google map about... origionally I would use google maps, but now there is

http://cyclopath.org/

Which is like googlemaps but exclusivly for biking. With road ratings for bikablility etc. Once you log in, you can customize the maps for your own needs as well. Very cool.