Audiobooks

For anyone who spends a lot of time in the car, or simply isn't interested in another formulaic sitcom in the evening, audiobooks and podcasts are a life saver. Between work, graduate school, and all of the other responsibilities that come with adulthood, little time has been left lately to read for pleasure. Rather than listen to the hit of the week for the 200th time on Top 40 radio, I have been listening to a great number of audiobooks and podcasts. The podcasts I download free from iTunes and cover everything from ESPN's Mike & Mike radio show to comedians like Kevin Pollack's Chat Show to various NPR and 60 Minutes episodes.

I haven't set foot in a public library building in several months (should I admit that as a librarian??), but I have been adding to the county library system's circulation statistics on a weekly basis. Right now I'm listening to Life, the autobiography of Keith Richards that is read by Johnny Depp. Even though I love biographies, I don't know if I would have had time to pick up the hardcover, but I can't turn off the audiobook. Many established and very talented actors are getting in on the audiobook game. Anne Hathaway's reading of The Princess Diaries, whose film she also starred in, is terrific. Maggie Gyllenhaal reading a very depressing The Bell Jar, The Rivalry performed by Paul Giamatti and David Strathairn about the Lincoln-Douglass debates, and Inkspell and Dragon Rider read in a plethera of voices by Brendan Fraser are all brilliant.The books I borrowed from the public library are downloaded through the OverDrive program onto my iPod right from home and others I borrowed on CD or Playaway from my school library. I love the fact that I can take them anywhere to listen to them - the doctor's office, rare quiet moments at work, long or short car rides, or through my television with a special cable while I do chores around the apartment. I never thought I would like audiobooks, but with a talented reader they can become quite an addiction - and life saver for those of us with little time to sit down :)

Such Tweet Sorrow

I stumbled across Such Tweet Sorrow in a journal article today. It was mentioned, along with several other Web 2.0 tools, as a creative way to engage students in lessons. Mudlark and the Royal Shakespeare Company have teamed up to create five weeks of tweets that will tell the story of Romeo and Juliet. For those who join the conversation late, there is a "story so far" section to catch the reader up. This is a daily update of the events that have transpired. The language used in the project is definitely "teen" not "Shakespeare" and could be used in well-crafted lessons to engage reluctant readers of the Bard's play.

The only problem I see with this program is that, based on my experience, many teens do not have Twitter accounts, nor do they intend on getting any. I'm guessing that most will view the tweets on the project homepage, rather than follow one or more of the six characters tweeting. The similarity of tweeting and texting, a main form of teen communication, may override this issue. However, overall it is another tool available to teachers to engage students and perhaps the organizations will do similar projects for other works of Shakespeare.

Google Art Project

I love museums of any kind. Ok, except for Modern Art. I have tried, but I just don't get it. I should not have been surprised when I heard about a new Google tool yesterday called the Art Project, especially when I have stumbled upon the ability to enter some musuems, such as the Louvre, in Google Earth. This new art site incorporates the technology that allows the ease of traveling in Google Earth and incredible imaging of the world's great masterpieces.

The beauty of the site is it's simplicity. Only half of the homepage is used for drop down menus, while the background is a constantly changing array of artwork. The focus is clearly on highlighting the museum holdings, not creating an elaborate website.

The site is very easy to use, with two initial choices of selecting a museum to explore and then deciding between exploring the museum or the artwork within it. Each piece of artwork is accompanied by physical details, artisti information, media, viewing notes, the history of ownership and other artworks by that artist. The museum exploration option includes an interactive floor plan, works in the museum, history, links to offical site and, of course, it's location on Google Maps.

For those desiring a little more instruction, there are two short video clips linked from YouTube. There is one that explains how to use the site and a behind the scenes video. Each video is only a few minutes long. The behind the scenes video is merely a montage of the museums included in the project and the photographing of the masterpieces, but it still makes one a bit jealous of those participating in such an endeavor.

Google Docs

Google has many exciting tools that I have only begun to explore. I used to be apprehensive of saving my documents online and felt more secure and more in control by keeping them on my computer and backing them up to an external hard drive. Then a friend of mine showed me a trick for sharing Google Docs without allowing others to edit and I was hooked. It always seems that just when I believe that I have a handout perfected for a class, I notice a mistake or a student asks a question that shows the document needs further revising. If you use a program like Moodle or a web page that requires constant uploading and downloading of revised documents, you know there is always the chance that you will forget to upload the correct one or simply lose time making the corrections. I learned that if you change the sharing options to "anyone with this link" can view (leaving the "edit" box unchecked), you can just post the link to the Google Doc to your site. You can easily make revisions to the document without having to upload and download new items and no one can edit your document, only view it. Since it is web-based, I don't have to be concerned about what program the kids have at home and feel that I have to save to a more universal PDF format. While Google Docs may not have as many bells and whistles as the full Microsoft Office program, it has saved me a lot of time when it comes to sharing curriculum materials and lesson plans with co-workers and students.

Free Kindle App

Amazon has created a free Kindle app for most hand held devices and personal computers. I tried it this morning on my work PC and it worked, but I couldn't get the free books to open. I'll have to try it on my personal PC when I have more time at home. I then downloaded it to my BlackBerry and it worked. Barnes & Noble also has a free e-reader available. I'm not sure that I want to read a novel on that little screen, but that may change over time.

New toy

My new favorite site is Tagxedo, which takes creating word clouds to a new level. It is very easy to use and allows you to import pictures to create shapes. I have found that using pictures that are have high light/dark contrast works the best. I created the one below for my information literacy course homepage. Check this site out!

Digital Footprint

I subscribe to a lot of library and edtech-related list servs and there have been many emails about Choose Privacy Week. Those of us in the library and edtech world understand how information is stored permanently on the Web. Have you Googled your name lately? I just did it this morning. I use the "liberrygurl" nickname for many of my logins, so I Googled that, as well as my full name. That particular screen name came about because one of the things that irritated my friends and I in library school was the inability of some future professionals to say "library". Sort of an inside joke, I suppose. Anyway, upon reviewing the results of Google search, I found that I'm not the only one who uses this screen name. I love Amazon.com, but don't write reviews on there. However, someone else does under the name. It makes one wonder if when potential employers do the same thing, do they take this into consideration? Unless they can verify that, yes, that is the same person using the same screen name on all of these sites, they don't assume that to be true? I haven't seen anything negative associated with that screen name, so I don't believe I have anything to be concerned about.

Keeping track of your digitial footprint is very important. This topic, along with Wikipedia, are my favorite lessons with my freshman Information Literacy students. I write everything I am involved with online on the board to show a "good" digital footprint. This list includes several email addresses, Blackboard (as teacher and student), Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, list servs, blog, etc. Then I share how I would never do something like trash my principal or students online because although my settings may limit only friends seeing my posts, one of my friends may not have the same restrictions or may be friends with my boss or students. Common Craft has several humorous, short animated clips social media, social networking, etc., that are great for introducing or reviewing these topics with students. I also collect articles on employers Googling job applicants, people who have gotten in trouble for Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube postings, teens who are facing charges for sexting, etc. Having the students read and share these articles seems to hit home better than me lecturing to them about online reputations.