Thing #19... Web 2.0 Awards List

I felt like a kid in a candy store, exploring the Web 2.0 Awarded sites.  I wanted to try just about everything and thank goodness that I am pressed for time trying to finish this project, else I would probably "play" with everything!

I dabbled with the self-publishing website by the name of Lulu and thought it would be great to upload students' writing to create an anthology with a customized book-cover and all.  Nothing like that to make students know they are authors.  To tell you the truth, I was thrilled to death when I read that you could even purchase an ISBN for the book you create!

I don't think that YouTube needs any introduction as far as Web 2.0 application is concerned.  I use it mainly on my personal time but you can also find educational content.  For instance, I was able to dig up a preview of the Houston ballet's upbeat version of Cinderella to show to my ESL students before their field trip, but unfortunately the district's firewalls prevented me from showing it.

Saving the best review for last, I discovered the html form builder Wufoo, which makes creating surveys and gathering information painless, even for someone who barely got acquainted with its features.  I "designed" the information questionnaire that can be seen below and I would like to give it to my students to fill online at the beginning of the school year. I am also thinking about reproducing the "Reading Survey" used by the district as an online survey, as it will be easier to aggregate the information and genres that students enjoy reading.

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Thing #14...Technorati and How Tags Work

I had a hard time doing the first discovery activity as it seems that Technorati has revamped its web site since the video by Liz Dunn was made in 2006. I entered "School Library Learning 2.0" next to the search navigation but was not able to target a search option (i.e., either in blog posts, in tags, or in blog directory); after 5 minutes (duh!), I finally realized that maybe I'd better check the "advanced" feature! Ban-zai! There it was... and the results are very different, indeed. My search resulted in 1,481 results for blog posts, 19 blogs, and 36 posts tagged School AND Library AND Learning AND 2.0. So, YES, the results were very different! Just to give my two-cents, the drop-down menu featured on the 2006 Technorati version seemed way more user-friendly to me! I feel like I had to jump through hoops today!

I wasn't too impressed with the top 100 popular blogs that were listed under the tab "overview" under the Blogger Central feature. It was fun looking at the blog reactions of the 100 most popular videos though, particularly the ones about Bert & Ernie 'Tries' Gangsta-Rap! I did a post search for "Mongolia" and was overwhelmed with results that had nothing to do with what I had in mind --I was seeking more of a "travelogue!" That's how the tags helped me narrow down my search and bingo, I found what I was looking for: Getting on Mongol Time! I also liked using the Technorati blog directory feature as my way to browse through possible reading topics that might strike my fancy... such as about pets, of course!

So far, I have to say that from all of the tagging tools that I have dabbled with so far, de.li.cio.us is my favorite one and seems to work best for me. I share the same vision as Joshua Schachter, the programmer who invented Del.icio.us: "Tagging is something you do for yourself, to help find information" which differs with Technorati's view of tagging. Del.icio.us and its efficient "folksonomy" has indeed made finding information a piece of cake of cake for me! Now, I have even started leaving tags on my Google Notebook so that I will be able to locate my notes about a topic much more easily. Beware of the contagious nature of tagging, folks --you might be "recipe tagging" before long... or does that already exist? :)

Over-achiever that I am, I went through the steps to claim my blog and that was really easy. However, now that I am performing a search under "ESLfroggie" or "Wannabe Polyglot," nothing is coming up. I have the feeling that I am not doing something right AGAIN--gee, Technorati is THE blog search engine by excellence, after all. I thoroughly enjoyed playing with the widgets, though. However, let's face it, coining a new term is in order when it comes to my Technorati savvy: techno~illiterati!