Friday, March 21, 2008

Library2Play - Thing # 19 Web 2.0 Awards

In my "The term paper is due, I'd better clean the house" mode I've managed to procrastinate my way all the way to the Library2Play deadline. I don't need the 18 hours so I 'm not even sure why I am driven to finish it. I guess it's a combination of my Type A personality and the fact that I'm enjoying learning about all the cool toys that are out there. I've given up being concrete sequential and I'm being random and working on the "Things" that are the most appealing to me personally.

The list of Web 2.0 award winners is utterly fascinating. What's even more fascinating is that I already knew about a fair number of them. Guess I'm not as old as I am feeling (I just found out I'm eligible for the Senior Citizen Meals at IHOP).

I adore Pandora - music has always been one of my passions and I've found some artists whose work I enjoy. For some reason I'm not an ipod junkie, though I have one. I still tend to stick the CD in the CD player and let it rip. I'm more likely to carry a book on the plane than my ipod. I'm also a people watch from way back and it's hard to observe humanity when your ears are plugged up.

I sell on Biblio.com so I think it's safe to say I'm familiar with them! Library Thing, another favorite has lots of library potential. It's way more fun than writing a book report. I haven't explored Technorati, mostly because I know it will unleash my inner monster and I'll spend hours of time there!

I use IkeepBookmarks as my web bookmark site but it's so slowwww so I'm interested in checking out some of the others. I 've taught my lunchbunch to check Ikeepbookmarks for interesting places to go.

My iphone has a direct link to YouTube and oh boy, can I while (or waste) away the hours on it. It's blocked at school - though the kids managed to find their way around the filters. They weren't being malicious, just searching out "funny videos". Most of which I found to be dorky to the extreme but then I'm not a 10 year old boy. I think many of the videos on YouTube are only funny to 10 year old boys. It's Captain Underpants on speed.

Yelp and I going to be as one the next time I go out of town. I looked at the Houston reviews of thrift stores and they are spot on. Good reviews, recent information (Thrift Stores come and go so quickly here) and maps! Oh and a school use - fits in with that old chestnut "The State Report".

I am not a game player - be it board, card or on line but the Lunch Bunch will enjoy Arcaplay - assuming of course they aren't blocked. Bet they are! We'll find out come Monday.

WetPaint already has fans at Housman - we use it to order our lunch and I know some of the teachers plan to use it academically. Just a few though - it is so hard to wean teachers away from pencil and paper projects. I can understand why, since the 4th grade TAKS writing test is all pencil and paper. TAKS keeps us from doing so many interesting things but that's another rant for another post.

Craigslist is a Web 2.0 tool too! Who knew? Love me that Craigslist - couldn't find my inventory without it. I check it every week for garage sales. I'm surprised that Freecycle , the free version of Craigslist didn't make the cut. I use it to get rid fo my culls. Beats hauling them to the Goodwill.

Google Maps - it's on my iphone too. Great tool for the directionally challenged. Why isn't GoogleEarth on the list? My Gifted/Talented kids and I are playing with GoogleEarth - it is endlessly entertaining - and educational.

The one that escapes me is Twitter. I really don't want to know the whereabouts of everybody I know and I don't think they want to virtually follow me around as I do a round of errands. I can see how it could be used in schools for "Virtual Field Trips". That's worth exploring.

I've bookmarked the SEOmoz list and I think I'll be spending lots of time playing with it. Time I ought to be spending doing something else. Like cleaning house.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Random or not, I really want you to finish...so keep at it! We all want our blogging pioneer to be there with us at "graduation"!