Imaging tools

Well, this was pretty interesting.
Mostly because I have a sloppy trail here and couldn't remember usernames, emails (primary and secondary) or passwords. Turns out I have a couple accounts. But all is well now. My Yahoo account is now activated, and I saved the info into my spreadsheet thank you very much. My Flickr accounts (both of them) are up and running. Apparently I'm both audlindal and albrechtBHS. I'm guessing I set one up for work and one up for home at different times. That sucked a ton of my time up this afternoon, as both accounts were attached somehow to the same secondary email and therefore neither was allowing me access. I've included the set from Flickr here: Let's see if blogger and Flickr will agree to share my slideshow.
I also have two Photobucket accounts, and ISD 181 is allowing me to access them. I feel especially blessed.

Atomic Learning

I've used Atomic Learning quite a bit in the past. However, I've always been a fairly intuitive computer user and would rate my skills in most applications as above average or advanced. I find that I get pretty impatient with the Atomic Learning tutorials in general, because they start at such a basic level. When I find instructions in print, I can scroll down the page, locate the info I need quickly, and move on.

However, I discovered today that they do have info on both OpenDoc resources and Gimp. Since I'm a single mom on a single salary with a budget, I didn't invest in the newest stuff on my new machine, and I'm relearning applications with freebie software. The OpenDoc and Gimp interfaces are fairly complex and advanced, so I imagine that I will make use of Atomic Learning again in the future. The other catch wtih using Atomic Learning is that you can't get continuing ed credits. If I really want to improve my spreadsheet skills I'd rather show up for the class, where I can also get lane advancement credit and hours towards my relicensure.

HOWEVER, the thought just occurred to me that I can use this as a source for my kids (I'll provide links for them) when we're working on research papers and I don't want to take the time to reteach info they should already know. It would be a good resource for kids who have forgotten or don't know the basics for navigating Word, for example.

To Do List:
create a links page for Atomic Learning that is a basic that all of my classes can access -- maybe off of the district teacher webpages?

Bibliography boogie

iGoogle

Liked using the iGoogle start page, but the trick will be to figure out which one-stop place I want to use and stick with it. I've got all sorts of digital tools, but the more I acquire the more I find it actually impedes my workflow. I think I'll look for a widgit that will provide windows with page links so that I can maybe use my iGoogle as my favorites bar on steroids.

Stuff I did: I changed my theme to a Lance thing (all things cycling and Armstrong!)
I moved all my windows around.
I found a clock and date widgit I liked better -- it was smaller, etc.
I got rid of some news stuff.
I added a tab with searches for concert tickets and cheap flights.
I tried to edit the Brainerd tab and found that I couldn't (the move cursor was not available.)

Of course half of what I want to add is actually blocked by ISD 181. Thank you ISD 181. You have spared me the temptation of looking for cheap flights to Orlando. I can't imagine what would be dirty or inappropriate about a trip to Orlando (Disney?) but ok, you win.

Oh, and again, I'm tossing the links we find from class on my right margin.

The one question that I'm left with is whether or not all of this info is readily available to me. Once I login to my gmail account, does all of this automatically pop up as mine?

RSS Feeds

nuts. I just typed a great entry on RSS feeds, wanted to reference something, navigated away from this page (NO! NO! NO!) and lost the entry I had written.

So, in a nutshell:
I've used feeds before -- the packaged ones that you can toss in a widgit or whatever they're called in Vista. But I hate them because they're impossible to edit once you've added them. In typical Microsoft fashion your options tend to be all or nothing. So now my Rss reader at home includes all the MSN feeds plus my Facebook updates -- it gets to be way too much info and so I use none of it.

I liked learning about the Google Reader.
I figured out how to create folders and manage my feeds that way. Still can't rename the folders, but I'll figure that out eventually.

And I'm geeky enough to really appreciate this class and the time it allows just to explore.
Thanks, Chris!

A long trail of dead blogs and other such accounts

Wasn't such a tough assignment. The big challenge for me is remembering old log-ins. I have a cyber trail of junk that will probably follow me for life. A drifting floating trail of flotsam and jetsum. Old accounts in various states of activation or inactivation -- some that I can remember, some that I can't. I have 3 or 4 separate blogger pages that I used for classes and communication with students a few years back. It all went by the wayside when one of my students created a Facebook account that copied all of my info. It turns out that more of my students had Facebook accounts than blogger accounts, and they began relying on this one student to check my Blog and then update his Facebook account for announcements. The lag proved frustrating and I ended up abandoning the communication tool entirely (his updating was inconsistent and sometimes inaccurate -- transcription errors occured from time to time). I chose not to create a Facebook account to work with my kids because a) I couldn't access Facebook from school (even though our students STILL can) and b) I decided that that was a boundary I wanted to establish -- no Facebooks with current kids.

Computer tools for me are like New Year's resolutions. I always start out with the best of intentions. The catch is to stick with them for any length of time.

Helpful links for down the road:
Edu20.org

The beginning of my trail of dead stuff:
Albrecht's old blogs