Mashable’s Top 20 Key Events on the Web 2008

Mashable has posted a great article about the “Top 20 Events on the Web” for 2008, including the election, Twitter, citizen journalism, and more!  Go to  http://mashable.com/2008/12/06/2008-year-end-review/ for the full scoop!  Thanks to iLibrarian for the scoop on this terrific article!

Free Microsoft Products for Students!

Many thanks to Sandi Adams, CCSD Instructional Tech Specialist, for this great information!

Microsoft is giving students access to its most sophisticated tools for writing software and making media rich websites. Click here for the download.

clipped from downloads.channel8.msdn.com Welcome to Microsoft DreamSpark Professional Developer and Designer tools for students at no charge

Do You Have the Email Blues?

Be sad no more!

As you know, our district acceptable use policy prohibits students from using email at school unless you are under the direct supervision of a teacher.  If you have forgotten your flash drive and have an email emergency, please see Mrs. Hamilton or Mrs. Fleet—you may use Station 21 to get homework or essays off email.  All you have to do is ask permission from one of the two media specialists, and one of them will supervise you.

Be aware, though, that some of the student profile restrictions may disable you from downloading attached files.  A flash drive is always the best choice for moving your files between home and school. 

Thanks for your help and cooperation! 

Mrs. Hamilton and Mrs. Fleet

Celebrate Teen Tech Week, March 2-8: Tune In @ Your Library!

What is Teen Tech Week? 

Here is the “official” answer from ALA!

Teen Tech Week is a national initiative sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association and is aimed at teens, their parents, educators and other concerned adults. The purpose of the initiative is to ensure that teens are competent and ethical users of technologies, especially those that are offered through libraries such as DVDs, databases, audiobooks, and videogames. Teen Tech Week encourages teens to use libraries’ nonprint resources for education and recreation, and to recognize that librarians are qualified, trusted professionals in the field of information technology. Teen Tech Week began in 2007 and has a general theme of Get Connected @ your library. The 2008 celebration is March 2-8.Teens’ use of nonprint resources has increased dramatically in recent years, yet more teens are doing this from home instead of the library. According to a recent study by Harris Interactive, in 2005, 86% of youth aged 8-18 have a computer in their home, and 74% have Internet access in their home. On average, 8-18 year olds spend 6 hours and 21 minutes per day using media (including TV, video/DVDs/movies, video games, audio media, computers and print media). Furthermore, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 71% of teens report that the Internet is their primary source for completing school projects. Yet multiple studies have shown that the majority of teens lack the critical thinking skills and technical expertise to use the Internet and other electronic resources effectively. Teens need to know that the library is a trusted resource for accessing information and that librarians are the experts who can help them develop the skills they need to use electronic resources effectively and efficiently.

This week is designed to help you explore how modern technology can help you academically and to improve your knowledge about how to be an ethical digital user.

Take a peek at today’s “Teen Guide to Blogs, Wikis, and RSS”!

Have a PolyCola and a Smile: Surf and Compare Search Engines

Have you ever wanted to compare your search results of two different search engines simultaneously?  Ever wondered which search engine yielded better results?  Now you can use PolyCola to do just that!

How does it work?  Chris Harris of School Library Journal gives us this succinct description:

The PolyCola site doesn’t mess around. A simple three-step interface lets you select two search engines, choose a search type, and enter a search string. The results are then displayed on a split-screen page that lets you scroll independently to instantly and cleanly compare the search results.

If you need to search the web, but aren’t sure which search engine is better to use, save yourself some time and search both with PolyCola.  Now you can search more efficiently and compare your search results all in one fell swoop!

Advice: Moving Word Files from Home to School

We have recently noticed a pattern that we want to share with you as library patrons.    As you know, CCSD Acceptable Use Policy officially prohibits students from using email unless a teacher is specifically and directly supervising the individual student.  We have encouraged our students for two years now to use flash drives to move their work back and forth between home and school because of this policy; in addition, students frequently do not know how to properly save their work from email, and they lose that file or student profile restrictions do not allow them to download files from certain email services.   Many students who are still trying to access their Word documents via email here at school are finding that their files will not open here.  Even with my Office converter, I cannot change the files to be usable.  For whatever reason, many of the email services are inexplicably corrupting these Word files with no rhyme or reason. So……please consider getting a flash drive for moving work or consider using some of the open source word processing software we have blogged about this week.    We have seen many tears when a student cannot open a Word document that is due “that day”! 

Yet Another Alternative to Office 2007: Open Office

If you feel Google Docs is not your cup of tea, check out yet another great alternative recommended by our very own Mr. Rob Optiz:  Open Office.org.  Here are some resources to help you get started:

• Open Office Introduction:  Getting Started
• An Overview of OpenOffice.org
• FAQ:  OpenOffice.org

An Alternative to Microsoft Office: Google Docs

Are you a Microsoft Office 2003 home user who constantly encounters the hassle of having to convert and do special saves to make your school based Office 07 documents work at home?

Learn more about using Google Docs, a web-based and open source word processing software that is very similar to Microsoft Word.  You can take an online tour of Google Docs as well!  Google Docs also has a blog that highlights new features and discusses tips for using Google Docs.

• Create documents, spreadsheets and presentations online
• Share and collaborate in real time
• Safely store and organize your work
• Control who can see your documents
• Read user examples
• Get started

Watch Out Google: Here Comes Wikia Search

Here is some interesting news from the world of technology today:  the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, says that Wikia, Inc. is ready to debut its own search engine, Wikia Search, next week on January 7.   While Wales readily acknowledges that Wikia Search is not able to compete with Google at this time, he hopes the contributions from users will help the search engine evolve into one more effective than Google and its competitors.  The service hopes to allow users to contribute to how pages are ranked and will also allow folks to edit search results.

You can read more about this project here at FOX News or here at The Washington Post.  What do you think?  Will you be trying out this new search engine?  Do you think this search engine will have the success of Wikipedia?

Google Knol

Google announced last week the launch of Google Knol, a website designed to be similar to Wikipedia in which anyone can author informational articles and post them online.  The term “Knol” stands for a “unit of knowledge.”   Right now, Knol is in the beta or “testing phase”; a select group of people were invited to participate in the pilot testing of the service.  According to the official Google Knol blog,

The goal is for knols to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions. Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content. All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors. We hope that knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line. Anyone will be free to write. For many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject. Competition of ideas is a good thing.

What do you think?  What might be some pros of Knol?  What might be some drawbacks to this service?  Would you want to participate in Google Knol?  Why or why not?  Would you want to use the articles as information sources for research?  Why or why not?

Read more about Google Knol at our library’s favorite links via http://del.icio.us/creekview_hs_library/Google_knol .