Book Reflection: Chapter 9

Chapter 9: New Schools

"The name School 2.0 was chosen to encourage a discussion about the 'next generation of school' that can be supported by an integrated technology infrastructure." (p. 188).

Web 2.0 tools and the internet capabilities and applications are creating a fast-paced, changing

global communication network with the potential to enhance or change the current school/educational service delivery model. In this chapter, the authors have compiled some ideas of how these changes might create new schools as well as new teacher, librarian and administrator roles. In fact, one suggestion is that technology will enable communities of learners to 'get together' in ways that may make the physical facilitities unnecessary. This is already happening with distance delivery and online education (this class being a case in point!). Age-related classes would give way to ability groups. The role of the teacher may evolve more into tech coordinator and info facilitator in teaching students how to use tech tools and how to research their topics of choice. ('Knowledge Navigators,' p. 179).

The authors encourage educators to send ideas about how they're using technology in their classes and schools for contributions to their next book. 

(e-mail: gwen_and_lynne@yahoo.com)

Chapter 8: Systemic Issues

Chapter 8: Systemic Issues

Systemic issues include digital equity, teaching through technology for English language learners and ESL students and special needs students. Language learning programs are becoming less classroom and whole group instruction-based and more technology, learning-listening center- based. Podcasting is one web 2.0 application that's becoming increasingly popular as a second-language learning tool. According to Solomon and Schrum, the most recent census revealed that while about 70% of Caucasian and Asian-American students have computers and internet access at home, fewer than 40% of Native American, African-American and Hispanic children have computers and internet access at home. This discrepancy is 'the digital divide,' which school districts, cities and communities need to address. Electronic portfolios as one form of assessment is also discussed  at length.

Book Reflection: Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Online Safety and Security

"Protecting children and personal data online is a legal responsibility." (p. 138).

I liked the student awareness survey in this chapter which was developed as part of an internet use awareness program for students. The brief discussion on legal requirements was informative. I know our District has internet compliance and protection programs in place, but wasn't as familiar as I should be with the laws behind these safety measures. The issues of copyright and how to publish student work online through these web 2.0 tools must be considered and worked through with administrators and parents. The issues of blocking are controversial in terms of freedom of speech, yet our children do need protection from predators and unsavory imagery that's on some online sites.  These knotty issues require that teachers, librarians and administrators be absolutely up-to-date on all of the most current policies in their school district(s) and protections that are available.

Book Reflection: Chapter 1

web 2.0: new tools, new schools 

by Gwen Solomon and Lynne Schrum

Chapter 1: 

What struck me most in this discussion about our new world, new web, new skills was the economics of the internet and how it's affecting production and companies on a global scale, largely due to making communication so much easier. Students will need to graduate from schools and universities with current, state of the art skills in technology in order to be competitive in the employment market of today, and certainly within the next decade.  We're already seeing outsourcing of American computer and tech jobs overseas (such as to India).

Week 9: Thing 23

Week 9: Thing 23 - Copyright and Creative Commons

I watched the fair(y)-use copyright video which was a creative presentation to drive the point home. I wonder how long it took Eric Faden and collaborators to produce it?!

I also reviewed the Creative Commons site. I hadn't heard of Creative Commons before, but it

seems like a valid idea to be able to adjust one's copyright status for various works. Although I didn't peruse in-depth, the licensing tools looked accessible and easy to use.

Course summary:

What worked:

Whew! This online course has been a fantastic introduction to interactive Web 2.0 tools.

The course syllabus is well organized and easy to follow. Where there are two or three sub-activities to do under one heading, they seem to be well matched or related. Tuning in to comment on others' blogs is also a good idea. I feel like I've come a long way since my 

first few naked blog entries. I looked at someone else's blog which had some eye-catching

sidebar gadgets and felt envious. Now I not only know how to create a blog, but also how to add some pretty fancy stuff! (Check out my 'Celtic Woman' soundbites! How cool is that?). I also realize that while I've learned a great deal, there's still so much more out there to learn or become more proficient thru the use of these web applications, it's kind of mind boggling.

For example, recently I've been having trouble uploading url's for videos to my blog and some of my gadget's have become broken. I guess that comes with the territory of internet navigation...it's not always smooth sailing and there's a lot of room for operator error.

Thank you, Ann, for the more recent updates on my assignment completion status for the class.

Those were very helpful. 

What didn't work:

I think this course should be at least a 2 credit class offering.  Each of the 23 things required on average about 2-5 hours of online activity. 

Overall, this has been an awesome learning experience. I got off to a late start, but I really liked the self-paced, do it yourself learning environment. I've gotten a lot of ideas to share with my colleagues and use with my students.

Week 9: Thing 22

Week 9: Thing 22 - eBooks and Audio eBooks

I enjoyed browsing the collection on the Guettenberg project (World eBookfair) site.  Isn't there irony in having Plato's words now preserved in such a high tech space? I was lamenting with my sister recently about how I will miss the physical act of holding, folding and opening the newspaper on a daily basis once the paper newspapers disappear into cyberspace. I was pleased to see the 'flip book' formats of some of these digital books. With a click on the page, one can somewhat simulate the experience of turning the pages of a book.  I also enjoyed seeing some of the older texts that were available, especially children's books that looked like....well, books from my childhood! Preserving those dated visual elements offers me some comfort in my old age!

Since this was not a free e.bookfair month, (July 4-August 08 and apparently will be again starting on July 4, 2009), I found little that was actually free on these sites.  For access to downloads on most of them you have to register with a credit card and pay fees of some sort.

Did I miss something here?

Listening to the audio books or clips was also a treat.  Being able to listen to a sample to hear the reader's voice is helpful.  I listened to two versions of the Jabberwocky poem.  The first was

a dramatic reading; the second was by a speaker in Romania whose vocal affect did not convey the verbal drama inherent in that work. The Librivox site and the other site listed in the class syllabus for access to free e-books and audio books are very nice resources.

Week 9: Thing 21

Week 9: Thing 21 - Podcasts

 

I found this activity fairly frustrating because of the amount of 'resistance' I encountered in my attempts to navigate through the new world of online podcasting.

For some reason, several links were not working. I could not directly access the Yahoo tutorial on podcasting thru the class link, so I did a google search, and did read a couple tutorials about podcasts. I found the most helpful podcast directories to be the two educational ones because they had clearly delineated categories which made accessing a podcast of personal interest a little easier to find. I could not get to 'podcast.net' as it said the server was unavailable.  I found 'podcastalley' a little cumbersome in trying to locate a podcast to listen to. In many instances, the podcast titles did not readily reveal their topics. 

I did have my 14 year old daughter show me how I can start making my own podcasts using 'garage band' on my Mac laptop.  Watch out world, here I come! 

I located a podcast on hearing loss issues that will be interesting to subscribe to. I was also frustrated that when I tried to subscribe to a couple of podcasts via my google reader account, when I typed in the url given, on google reader, it said they could not be found! I had just listened to them. Obviously there's more of a learning curve here for me to pursue.

In terms of the podcasts themselves, I listened to quite a few, at least to introductory bits. Some are clearly more professionally composed and produced than others.  I liked the ones with clear, crisp audio; the speaker's voice has a lot to do with whether or not I'd want to continue listening.  I also found some with long musical lead-ins to be a bit distracting.....like I wanted them to get to the point--so I could hear the message, not the music (unless it was musical podcast like a radio show). I listened to podcasts from L.A. (English as a Second Language listening practice for ESL learners); Plano, Texas (Brain and Behavior), and one on psychiatry from Australia. I also listened briefly to a podcast on learning Spanish. It was by a native Spanish speaker, and the sound quality was not very good, so I would not opt for one like that if indeed I was trying to improve my Spanish.

Week 9: Thing 20

Week 9: Thing 20 - Video

The Teacher Tube site is interesting in its similarity to you-tube. The video I chose is about "How Not to use a Powerpoint." The presenter uses visuals and voice and demeanor to demonstrate his less than subtle, humorous rationale for what not to do when 'composing and presenting' a powerpoint. I looked up some videos about hearing impairment, and there are several by a Mrs. Stacy.  I found her accent difficult to understand and so I opted not to select one of her videos to post on my blog, although her list of topics seemed very relevant to my students (and their parents). One topic, for example, is how hearing aids work. It's easy to spend a lot of time

clicking away on Teacher Tube, as on u-tube. Having the videos categorized into recent, favorites, and most discussed, was helpful and made for easier access.

Week 8: Thing 19.1

Week 8: Thing 19.1 (Alaska's digital pipeline)

I spent more time exploring the digital pipeline and EBSCO support sites and links.

This is the first time I've seen the EBSCO support site, and both it and the digital pipeline are

a bit mind boggling with all the information that can be accessed through these resources.

This 19.1 'addendum' could be a whole course in and of itself, I'm sure!

I viewed tutorials on the EBSCO support site on Dyna-med, Kid Support, multi-lingual options and others.

One of the notable differences between the Kids, Middle School and High School interfaces is that each higher level expands a little more and becomes a little more complex with more initial search topics. In reviewing 'articles' on each, the elementary level was written at a developmentally appropriate level, and the teen article was longer and written at a higher level. Illustrations under both categories were age appropriate. I saw a brief video from a father who wanted to teach his teenage daughter about abstinence; I believe that was under a teen category or 'for parents' category.

Under a kids health interface, I did a search for hearing loss, and came up with a few articles

(again, written at developmentally appropriate ages for elementary and high school students)

which I plan to print and read with a few of my students. I will also share these links with the

other teachers in my department. I could also e.mail or text the link to at least one of my high school students who is more tech savvy than I am!

Week 8: Thing 19.1

Week 8: Thing 19.1 Alaska Digital Pipeline

This will be a stream of consciousness partial blog post from a hotel lobby in Olympia, Washington. I've occasionally used the Alaska SLED library catalog from my community library while searching for a book for myself or my children. The current 'digital pipeline' is an awesome and comprehensive search tool. I spent a lot of time looking around the 'Kids Stuff' category, and located links and resources with recipes for kids to cook, info on health, illnesses, how the body works, hearing conservation, among a myriad of other topics.
I was able to look up the latest information about the status of the Mt. Redoubt volcanic eruptions in Alaska, and how that might affect my flight home. Still orange alert status, but it doesn't appear to be affecting the flights from Seattle to Anchorage today. I also cruised around an update about the status of federal stimulus funds for Alaska and looked at some federal grant possibilities for education and other state and local entitites (autism research funding will be available).
The ability to just click on a link for the sites listed makes them very easily accessible.

Link to My Library Thing collection

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/lldeisher

Week 8: Thing 19 - Library Thing

Week 8: Thing 19 - Libary Thing

Library Thing is certainly an exciting new discovery. Even before the recent economic downturn
this winter, I was trying desperately to follow a new mantra: "Laura, DO NOT buy any more
books; DO NOT buy anymore books....!" (rather unsuccessfully, I might add). I have probably enough books in my personal collection at home to populate a small library. Categories include art books (photography and painting how-to, biographies of artists, works of specific artists);
cook books; mysteries; contemporary fiction and romance; historical fiction.....the list goes on.


I had some difficulties sometimes in locating a book when a search would show 'no results,' even when I knew very well that the book exists. Not sure if that was just my unfamiliarity with the site navigation, operator error or what. I referred back to the 'add a book' instructions and that seemed to improve the situation.

In checking the popularity of a few of the books in my collection, it was interesting to note
how some authors were more popular than others (Nora Roberts vs. Susan Wiggs for example, possibly because Roberts has a more national and international renown, and I believe Susan Wiggs is a popular northwest author (more locally based). There were differences in whether a book was contemporary fiction or, for example, a book featuring paintings of one artist (a picture book!) with the latter having only a few other notations.

I am very pleased to make the acquaintance of the Library Thing web tool and have good intentions of following up and creating a catalog of my personal library collection.

Week 8: Thing 18

Week 8: Thing 18 - Online Productivity Tools

Per this week's discovery exercises, I signed up for a free account with Zoho Writer. This is a nice Web 2.0 application that enables online document creation in a fairly simple and straightforward manner. The editing tools are well placed, clear, and reasonably intuitive. I was easily able to upload my brief ZohoWriter.doc to my blog, using Zoho Writer's export tool to post to a blog. (See below.) In exploring the rest of the Zoho site, several other applications seemed particularly relevant to teachers and librarians. These include the spread sheet (such as for categorizing books), the notetaking application, and the templates. Overall, the hallmark of this site really does seem to be relative clarity and ease of use. I also accessed my Raven About Web 2.0 curriculum and my blog from a borrowed computer in another state since I am traveling this week. This, too, was a positive experience and drives home the point about the purpose of Web 2.0 apps.

ZohoWriter.doc

I am creating a document on Zoho Writer to see how it works.

I am currently in Washington state, using my daughter's computer.

Week 7: Thing 17 Sandbox Wiki

Week 7: Thing 17 'Sandbox' Wiki

I looked at several of the categories in the curriculum wiki. e.learning for kids looks like a fun site, but it said my computer wasn't equipped to play a preschool game! I'll have to check into this further, as it wasn't immediately clear to me why it wouldn't work. Anyway that looks like a fun site for teachers or parents to use with children. It lists a variety of different learning activities which are separated by age range. I want to try the moo cards too.  Learning all the web 2.0 lingo is really like learning a whole new language....guess that's technology in general evolving our language. I wonder if its creating a truly more universal language?  

http://writer.zoho.com/templateView.im

This link provides a 'speech' template that could be used by middle, highschool or post-secondary students who are preparing a presentation for their class.

I added the above link-idea to the Raven about Web 2.0 curriculum wiki under the 'Online tools and applications' category. It was so easy to do!  The Zoho writer link on this page, submitted by Jill G., is what caught my eye and directed me to this site in the first place.

Book Review wiki

http://booklovers.pbwiki.com/Princeton%20Public%20Library

Week 7: Thing 16

Week 7: Thing 16 - Wikis

1) I scanned through the list of wikis and quickly went to the Princeton Public Library book review wiki.  I then quickly lost track of the time as I lost myself in reading all those wonderful descriptions of books, and jotted down a few I'd like to read. I will definitely be bookmarking this wiki! I also looked at a library best practices wiki.  It contains many entries with a broad range of topics.  It's so helpful to know that one doesn't have to reinvent the wheel! There are so many brilliant ideas already published that one can borrow or adapt to one's own teaching. There's a lot of info about use of current technology (including gaming) in libraries with students of all ages.

2) "What types of applications within libraries and schools might work well with a wiki?"

I think creating wiki entries would be a wonderfully motivating writing activity for children of all ages. Some elementary classes do a theme each month or quarter. A fourth grade class I've 

visited recently has been writing about ancient civilizations, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, etc. Within their school computer lab or library, they could produce wiki entries on their individually researched reports. These can then be shared with other schools literally anywhere. A classroom teacher (or school librarian) could create a 'book or story review' wiki

from the student 'published' books in their classroom. The student authors could write a brief synopsis of their story as a wiki entry, and then another student could write a review entry after they read it. Reading wiki entries by other kids their ages and on topics that they're passionate about would also be motivating for children to read.....more and more and more, thereby improving their literacy skills!

Week 6: Thing 15

Week 6: Thing 15: Library 2.0

1) Perspectives: Libraries are evolving. I enjoyed reading the five perspectives on the future direction of libraries. I found Rick Anderson's three iceberg concerns to be concisely stated and compelling. I know that I have often been stymied, through the years, by the hours kept or not kept by my local community library or university library. The 2.0 Library will need to have round-the-clock access, certainly for its cyber patrons, if not it's physical patrons. It's like adding another dimension of space and time to the traditional library facility. He makes a valid point about amassing the 'just-in-case' collection. His university library has seen a 55% drop in use of its collection in a little more than the past decade. He advocates rethinking the whole collection process. (Personally, I am not ready to let go of the library building with its colorfully illustrated children's picture books. So I hope he doesn't mean that!). He advises that services for patrons must be user-friendly. Avoid those that would require a lot of training for the consumer. Consumers must be able to quickly and readily access information so they can spend their time reading and creating, rather than figuring out how to use an interface.

Anderson states that for libraries and librarians to maintain their professional stature, we will have to adapt to the 'radical fundamental changes in the marketplace' one library at a time.

2) Library 2.0.  As stated above, like many entities in this, the Age of Technology or technological revolution, libraries are evolving.  Rapid changes in computer and web technology are creating global change in information technology and in the expectations of consumers. For school libraries to stay up-to-date will present challenges.  Administrators need to be on board with developing brain friendly libraries.  There are some logistical issues given the current physical space configurations of many school libraries. Libraries will need to house more technology in their space so consumers can access any number of internet

services for research and creating.  I have seen some libraries in our district in which the design has a full computer lab adjacent to the library or enough computers in the library for a class of students to use. Hopefully future designs can be implemented in which the computers can be more integrated into the interior design to make a more comfortable and aesthetically appealing configuration. If, as Rick Anderson (noted above) predicts and hard-copy print collections are reduced, that would free up space for computers and other technology.

Librarians will need to keep very current with web 2.0 and other technological advances.

Week 6: Thing 14

Week 6: Thing 14

I still find Technorati rather unappealing.  A lot of it has to do with it's lack of visual aesthetics.

I guess we've all become so used to web visuals that just 'pop,' and if I don't have a fairly quick

visual connection to a site, I tend to move on.  I did the search for Library Learning Web 2.0

and it produced a long list of sites.  When I typed in the same key word search in tags, it produced no results!  That was a surprise. I didn't really enjoy searching via the blog posts or search criteria either.  With the blog post category, it just seemed like a random cornucopia of current topics posted recently, most of which were not very interesting to me.  The recent popular searches did not move me either.

I think tagging is a good and valuable online tool which can help streamline searches. However,

a disadvantage is that it's personal and individual to the person who tags that item or post, and I suspect that some folks would tag just about every word of an entry just to get their posts read.

• http://namechk.com (Check if a username is available at a wide variety of popular sites)
• http://jingproject.com (add visuals to your online conversations)

Week 6: Thing 13

Week 6: Thing 13

It's impossible to not spend a lot of time roaming around del.icio.us, the social bookmarking site I learned about today. The u-tube tutorial was clear and concise, and the site itself is easy to navigate. I looked at the web 2.0 and library bookmarks, and others of personal interest, such as music, photography, fashion, and medicine.  I looked up a specific type of brain cyst that runs in my family, and found a plethora of information that didn't seem readily available in past searches.  Perhaps there is more recent research on this unique topic than there was several years ago.

Speaking of which, the amount of 'stuff' to look at, scan, sift through, read through is absolutely mind-boggling.  I think I will start a del.icio.us account and make a comparison of how it tracks my bookmarks vs. my own existing (albeit probably somewhat antiquated) system of savingmy sites of personal and professional interest.

Week 5: Things 10, 11 & 12

Thing 10: Image generator

Here's a product of my image generator 'play.'

I must say, these are really fun to create.

If it's fun for us as adults, I can see a lot of potential

for children to becoming very engaged in a lesson or

activity in which they could use a tool like this.

I saw an example in one image generator of how

students created 'national park trading cards.' I know

one of the intermediate grades usually has students 

creating a brochure of a specific state or national park.

This would be a great idea for that assignment....and they 

could attain very professional-looking results!

I have a student working on a project on Madagascar right now, as we speak, and I hope I have time to refer him to these image generating sites (if he's now already aware).

Thing 11: http://www.mangolanguages.com/

I came across this site in my scanning through topics 

on the Web 2.0 award winning site list. I selected

Brazilian/Portuguese, and spent a little time learning how to 

say a few phrases.  I was impressed with the process (talking to my computer, 

responding to a 'speaker' talking from my computer!).  It was repetitive enough to learn

a phrase, but not boring. I am interested in exploring this site further to see how I might 

use it with my bilingual students who also experience a hearing loss. I did have a little 

difficulty hearing the accurate pronunciation on my laptop, but I will try again with my ear phones and see if that makes the pronunciation clearer.

Thing 11: ning:  http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com

I have already been a member of a teacher librarian ning from our previous brain friendly libraries class.  That was my first experience with a ning, and it was a positive learning experience.  When I was in graduate school some years ago, the ten students in my cohort 

often spent much time in group study for one class or another.  The cooperative learning

was very effective for us and seemed beneficial to all involved. When I took this earlier ning class, again, I was impressed with what a positive group learning tool it was, with the added benefit of being able to connect learners from different locales for distance delivery classes.

In reviewing the nings that were available to peruse on our current '23 things list,' I chose

the 'teacher-librarian' ning because it looked like the most visually appealing and user friendly.

Admittedly, this was probably like judging a book by it's cover. I did see threads on the others that I will probably go back and read as well.  I already responded to a query/post on the one I joined with some information about training programs.

Thing 12: voice thread

Creating and using a voice thread as both a personal communication tool and a teaching strategy is a new concept for me.  It's just one I hadn't really been aware of or explored before.

While watching the initial voice thread tutorial, I immediately began to see the potential related to both areas above: personal and pedagogical. I'd love to see and hear my new 6 month old grand-nephew with his own voice thread! I'm quite excited to explore the prospect of creating a voice thread page for my students with hearing loss. Earlier, after 'playing with' the image generators and thinking back to how much fun creating things like personalized avatars and trading cards is, I began to think about the psychosocial aspects of having a disability. We see how this can affect one's self-esteem. I think having my students create avatars or trading cards or business cards to trade with other students with hearing loss could be beneficial; possibly creating their own online social network. This idea can be extended greatly with the use of a voice thread.  There's a motivation to work on speech and articulation skills!

Trading Card

Here's my (pre)-librarian trading card!

Week 4: Things 8 & 9

Thing 8: RSS feeds.  

This is relatively new information, and having just gotten started by creating a 

news reader account, I haven't used it enough to determine it's value for me....yet. I did 

a keyword search related to my field, hearing-loss education, and there were certainly many items that came up.  I think this will have some benefit for my co-workers and me. One looks like it might be a blog for students with hearing loss.  That should be worth exploring further.

I liked the explanation about RSS; it's fairly concise and clearly understandable.

Thing 9: Locating library and educational resources and blogs.  I've now added a dozen or more blogs and educational resource sites to my subscription list, including some book review sites, educational technology and literacy sites, such as e.toolbox.

I'm noticing what makes an appealing or compelling blog (that is appealing to me, that I would refer back to.  It includes both visuals and ease of visual perusal, as well as if it's in a clear format and interesting to read. I didn't like the Syndic8 search tool at all; it seemed complicated and not visually attractive. The Technorati wasn't much better. I liked the CNN one for ease of finding current info about other countries. I found a blog (teachers at risk) by a teacher who seems to have a similar voice to my way of thinking: it just seemed to 'click' so I'm subscribing to her blog. Since this is still so new, it will be interesting to see where I am in a month or more.....which initial subscription clicks I'll want to keep up with....or hit the delete button!

Week 3: Thing 7

A technology-related topic that I think about is how to be selective in deciding which web applications to use and follow.  I guess I see a potential downside in that it's very easy to become addicted to all of the online social networks, gaming, etc,  and how this can have a potentially deleterious effect on one's real-life relationships, be it with family or academic standing. Perhaps it's akin to how we're encouraged, as teachers, to give students time to explore a new material (such as math manipulatives in the primary grades) prior to beginning instruction using those materials.  It seems that our society in general is in a major exploratory mode with regard to constant use of technology and the rapid changes in online applications and developments. We discussed this in a previous class, and there clearly isn't an easy one-size fits all answer. Anyway, I think using these tools, we need to think of ways for them to have an additive value rather than a subtractive value. The amount of time that children are engaged with some technological device or another is key to my concern.  I need to realize that people are still connecting; it's just a different vehicle. I do sometimes miss the more personal, face-to-face connections of old, however. Would I have lamented the replacement of the horse and carriage for the Model T?!

Week 3: Things 5 & 6

Flickr..... Like most folks, I imagine, I've had experience e.mailing or uploading photos to various sites, but I had not yet joined Flickr--until now! It was very easy to register on Flickr, and since I have a few photos on my laptop, I was easily able to create an avatar and upload my first photo.

No difficulties. Since I am an avid photographer, I imagine this is a web 2.0 'tool' that I will enjoy and continue to use outside of class.  I even found one friend on Flickr already!

This was really fun.  I tried to upload my image (at least twice) but it did not work, so I will continue that effort until I succeed.... stay tuned.

I also enjoyed creating a 'librarian trading card,' in the 'mash-ups' part of this activity.

It really is helpful to see the examples that others have created.  Having spontaneous or instantaneous visual references accessible via these interactive web applications is great!

Week 1: Things 1 & 2

I have read about the class, and really liked the easy-read FAQs about the class design.  It's an easy reference to refer back to as needed.  I'm taking the class because I'm able to make my way around technology in kind of a surface way, but I need to learn to use the interactive 'tools' that my students, my spouse and my own children (young adult and adolescent) are using on a daily basis.  I need to jump on the bandwagon! I do enjoy using technology, but sometimes find myself stymied by it, and then I get frustrated. 

The habits of a lifelong learner were not new concepts for me.  My spouse and I wrote continuing education into our wedding vows over 25 years ago. The two habits that are probably the most difficult for me:  

1) use of ever advancing technology (staying current, and using it for more than word or photo processing), and 

2) turning challenges and obstacles into positive learning experiences. Sometimes you don't realize what you learned from a class or an experience until after a span of time has passed and you're able to reflect and reevaluate the situation and realize that what may have seemed a negative at the time, actually had positive consequences after all.

Week 2: Thing 3 & 4: Avatar posted

Success! I really like my avatar and it was fun to create

interactively on the computer.

It actually matches my pink coat!

First time

Week 2:  Things 3 & 4

I've been working on creating my first blog page.

I had fun playing with the Yahoo Avatar page.  That felt like play. 

Now if only I could figure out how to transfer the avatar onto this page!

I am trying to stick with the self-learning mode and pace, although

admittedly am running into some frustration.  The templates are

helpful, but sometimes it feels like too many forced choices, like

having to 'stay in the box' rather than think outside the box. Hopefully

that's only a formatting issue, and I'll get the hang of this soon.