Thing 11

I still feel somewhat uneasy leaving comments. I feel like a stranger in a public place sharing unsolicited advice. I tried to be complimentary every time I left a comment and to be as brief as possible. On many of the blogs I chose to comment on the pictures that my peers had dowloaded from Flickr. It felt a little less awkward to comment about a third party's CC licensed photograph. I didn't feel as intrusive. Comments in my mind presuppose a level of familiarity that I simply do not have with professionals outside of my school or the associations to which I belong. I am an introvert by nature and leaving comments stretches my comfort zone. For those who actively solicit comments I can understand how this bi-directional medium can enhance learning and build community. For me a blog still remains rather personal and I would prefer to be invited by a peer to converse about a topic where we can learn from each other. I also must admit that it is difficult to establish a context for any aspect of a post that catches my eye. I do not want to telescope arguments or decontextualize reflections by a blogger. That's why pictures feel safer. When a post captures sustained and complex thought, the challenge to the person commenting is to demonstrate active and charitable listening while giving evidence of authentic engagement. I don't know how to do this yet in a meaningful way.

Thing 10

Since I anticipated in Thing 9 the embed part of the exercise, I went ahead and grabbed embed code from one of my favorite sites, reuters.com, and included one of their latest news videos. I am glad to see more sites making embedding more convenient with "Share" buttons trhat allow the user to paste html to the clipboard and then right click in Blogger to add the video to a post. As a librarian, I am happy that these tools make attribution more likely and more convenient. I am heartened by the mounting evidence that our students feel comfortable using these tools to share online resources ethically. I am also glad that they are not limited to YouTube which seems pretty cutting edge to my age group, but very passe for some of the tweeners and teens entering our school buildings today. I am also interested to see if these tools are just as easy to use as phone apps which are our students preferred way of communicating with each other and with their teachers (when it is allowed)

Thing 9

I love YouTube and thankfully it is not blocked in our building. I used this exercise to search for my favorite episodes of "Battle of the Planets" and to immerse myself in the volatile debate on whether the Japanese original "Gatchaman" or the Americanized "Battle of the Planets" was cooler. I commented on the following episode. This is the first time that I have commented on a video. Usually, I just watch my favorite videos anonymously. There is something about leaving a post on Youtube that is a little unsettling because I know anime/manga enthusiasts take this stuff much more seriously than I ever will.

Thing 8

I had fun creating this motivational poster. It was very easy. I uploaded the picture, gave it a title and provided a caption (all under a minute). I can imagime our students gleefully uploading their pictures and ordering the full sized posters to adorn their rooms. In fact this might make a pretty nice graduation gift for the freshmen who are pictured here when they finally head out to college. I can also imagine student council elections being a little more humorous if we made use of this tool. The challenge will be to encourage students to be funny without being mean. I worried a little about my caption because I wanted to refer to the action on the chess board and not suggest inadvertently that freshmen are pawns.

Thing 7

I uploaded a number of photos that I have taken over the last two months. The pictures capture many different aspects of our library. We consider the library a vital node in the life of Divine Child High School and Flickr allows us to share some of this vitality with parents, students and alumni. We have the parents of each of our students sign a waiver at the beginning of each academic year allowing the school to use their photos in publications and online as a part of our public relations activities. I still worry about privacy concerns and chose not to identify the students by name and instead used the abbreviation DC to describe them. I also hesitated to identify myself, my wife and my mother. I did however identify our most generous donors. I can imagine using Flickr to recognize those members of the DC Family who deserve public praise for their ongoing support and their continuing kindness. I have not yet played with the editing features within Flickr and feel somewhat conflicted about modifying photos. It feels like cheating to edit red eyes and shadows and glare. I expect my photos to capture the flaws in my technique and the graceful imperfections within my world.

Thing 6

I chose to upload this Winslow Homer sketch of rugby pioneers for two reasons. First , I will be traveling to a workshop on American Art next week and I have grown fond of Winslow Homer's seascapes and was less familiar with his work for Harper's Weekly. The second reason I chose this particularly photo is because I imagine that this is the type of primary evidence my students will want to engage. Flickr provides students with access to primary sources and the ability to be an eyewitness to history. I could not believe this 1865 sketch was available through Common license so long as I provide attribution ( it was uploaded by Frederic Humbert as part of his rugby-pioneers.com photostream and also belongs to USA Rugby) A long long time ago in a galaxy far away I was once a rugby player and this is just how I remember it.

Thing 5

My continued challlenge is to check Bloglines and see what's new on the blogs that I am following. I decided to follow some chess blogs in order to vet them for my chess club members and I find myself only reading through my blogline chess folder once a week ( or once every two weeks) . I am convinced that successful use of RSS requires a change in habit. I am used to thinking about chess by myself or with a small group of people. Subscribing to chess blogs opens up a wealth of knowledge, but also undermines the comfortable universe that chess has always been for me. Once I start reading, I realize how vast a network of chess players there are and it is somewhat overwhelming. RSS facilitates global chess awareness but threatens the sufficiency of my local chess universe. I am forever comparing what our team and our individual players have accomplished to the talented young men and women who have made chess their life. Blogs in this sense force one to take regular stock of one's affinity, talent and expertise. Each time I log into Bloglines and I placed my cursor over my chess folder, I confront my fear of inadequacy. I wrestle with my true commitment to the hobby that has for years been one facet of how I define myself.