Omnivorous Surfer

I'm one of those people who works better (at least I think I do) with some background sound. I usually have some kind of music playing. I think, though the site is designed to provide "sounds to promote sleep and relaxation, there will be times when I prefer the sounds from Sound Sleeping's Drum Sleep Aid/Relaxation Tool. You can choose a music type (drums, flute, or vibes) and up to three sounds (bird song, bonfire, creek, crickets, gulls, ocean, rain, thunder, and wind chimes). Volume can be set for each one to give just the right blend, and each can be set to the left or right speaker for a stereo effect. I haven't tried it yet, but the site indicates that rain produces a white noise that will mask ambient noises. Right now I have wind chimes (which I love) and ocean; I feel like I'm working oceanside, so it's kind of like a vacation. it's very relaxing.

Have more opportunity at your computer than elsewhere to read? If you could get a "daily dose" of a book, just enough for one day at a time, would that make it easier for you to read a book? If so, DailyLit might be just right for you. A wide variety of authors and titles are available to choose from for FREE. Your selection will be delivered in installments via email on your choice of a daily, weekday, or Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule. You can add books to a To Read list so that when you complete one book, the delivery of the next one will begin.

I have used this in the past, but two of the offerings mentioned in my most recent newsletter have drawn me back:
a 16-lesson Berlitz Spanish course, available through May 1
Murders in the Rue Morgue, in honor of Edgar Allan Poe's January birthday

I think I should be able to read these in Mobipocket Reader.

Ever see an Internet shorthand or text message shorthand  ;-) that you didn't recognize? Well, there's help for those of us who don't use these to communicate all the time. The dictionary on NetLingo also includes words and acronyms in the following categories: business, hardware, software, technology, programming, organizations, and technical. The book NetLingo: The Internet Dictionary is available, but who wants a static reference these days when a dynamic one is available. Besides, you'll probably be on the Internet when you need it.

There are also a widget to add to your iGoogle page, if you use one, which lets you type in the shorthand to retrieve its meaning; an iPhone app; and other tools.

I'm exploring Classroom 2.0 again and finding it to be quite a useful site. It is a "social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in education." To get the most from the site, you need to become a member, but it is a free site and has not generate any spam for me. There is a beginner group as well as starting tips and a "Tour of Classroom 2.0" webcast video to help you get acclimated.

This is a good place to network with people who are using Web 2.0 tools. For example, I'm looking for ways to use the iPod Touch and Skype in the classroom. I'm watching an "iPod Touch Schoolwide Implementation" discussion to see what kinds of projects schools are using, what their policies are, and what, if any, problems they encounter and address. I've also found several teachers who are looking for classrooms to participate in projects communicating with Skype. I've "shared" these on del.icio.us (an example of Web 2.0 bookmarking) and also have chosen to receive an email each time someone posts to these discussions.

This would be a great site for those wanting to wade in who don't know quite where to start. You'll have lots of experts to help you along the way and lots of novices to grow and explore along with you.

One way to "explore" the world, available from this site, is to view an "organized sampling" of photos. The goal of the Degree Confluence Project is to collect photos taken from each of the 10,538 latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world (39,804 confluences in the oceans and some near the poles are excluded from the project).

On the home page are photos from the 18 newest confluence visits. Those posted today are from such countries as Scotland, Colombia, Libya, Oman, Zambia, Germany, Australia, Mongolia, and the United States of America. Some confluence photos are beautiful, but many are of very ordinary views.

The site indicates that wherever you are, you are at this moment within 49 miles, or 79 kilometers, of a confluence. Anyone could participate in this project. The instructions provided include not only the items need and how to locate a confluence, but also a letter to landowners to aid in obtaining permission to venture onto private property in the process of reaching the confluence.

It's fun to visit the site and see the photos, which are organized by country. It's interesting and, in some cases quite enlightening,  to read some of the "How To..." and "Information" pages.

First, why elecronic books (eBooks)? This is just one more way to give people access to books. Many younger people are more used to looking at a computer screen, or certainly to an iPod or iPhone screen than at the pages of a book. While I happen to enjoy the feel of a book in my hand, reading from printed text, there are times when I find myself in a “waiting” situation without a book. I always, though, have my PDA, and I enjoy having a book waiting for me there. There are many reasons an individual might be interested in eBooks and eBook readers.

Amazon has its Kindle, and there are other devices available which I have not researched, but I am always interested in FREE options. Mobipocket Reader is a flexible FREE program available for the desktop and a number of mobile devices* which lets you “build, organize, read and annotate your entire eBook library” and  The reader is not a simple text reader, but can display graphics as well. Some books, such as Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum I’m reading, include the illustrations from the original edition. Others, like Thornton W. Burgess’s Adventures of Reddy Fox are text only. In addition to eBooks, Mobipocket also can manage RSS feeds.

Downloading and installing the desktop version is all that is needed. The first time you connect your compatible mobile device, the application will be installed on it.

You can drag and drop .pdf, .txt, .rtf, html, and Microsoft Office files onto the desktop application to convert them.This gives the flexibility of choosing to read some lengthy documents, such as .pdf manuals, in a more comfortable environment or on a mobile device. The .pdf I opened in Mobipocket Reader was much easier to read than the original document, as the text was larger and it was broken into more manageable pages. If you desire, you can also create your own documents using the FREE Mobipocket Creator, inserting images and graphics along with text.

I love that when you select a word or larger piece of text, a menu box appears which will let you add a note, highlight it, copy it, modify it, or add a link to another location in the book. This makes it so easy to annotate and to create bookmarks for text you want to remember or come back to, as any of these actions creates a link at the right of the reading to its particular text. Here's what The Murders in the Rue Morgue looked like when I had finished the first half:

While you can purchase books, some sources make FREE eBooks available. These books, perhaps not so obviously, are those which are free from copyright restrictions. Simply download your selection, choosing to “open” rather than “save,” and the book will open in Mobipocket Reader ready to read, and the file will be saved in your My Documents eBook folder. Sources I’ve found and downloaded from include:

• Diesel eBook Store (more than a million free eBooks sorted by category; also eBooks for purchase)
• Project Gutenberg (over 30,000 free electronic books)
• Manybooks (over 16,000 titles, sorted by title, genre, and author, wide variety of formats)

Wickpedia indicates that the text or personal additions cannot be printed or exported other than by copying and pasting into another application. ABC Palm Converter will convert some .prc files to Word, .txt, .rtf, or other formats. Annotations will not be included in the converted file, and the converter software will work only on REAdTEXt files; It will not convert files that have been converted to .prc files by Mobipocket using the drag and drop method.

This could be useful in classrooms and for students who have a mobile device other than an iPod/iPhone. It would also be useful for students who need larger text.

*”PalmOs, Windows Mobile, Symbian (Series 60, Series 80, 90, UIQ), Blackberry, iLiad (by iRex), Cybook, ... And if you have a Symbian smartphone, an iLiad, or a Cybook, there is a good chance that Mobipocket Reader is already preinstalled!” Source: Mobipocket (I note the list does not include the iPod)

Reading an old blog post on Edutopia, I was reminded of TeacherTube, a site I had looked at quite some time ago. This is a site for teachers to post videos (and docs, audio, and photos) for use by the educational community. The blog describes it this way:

...it's a place that takes advantage of what uploaded, shared video offers -- community, customization, sharing, creating, and learning from each other.
According to TeacherTube, community members can

• upload, tag, and share videos worldwide.
• upload support files to attach educational activities, assessments, lesson plans, notes, and other file formats to your video.
• browse hundreds of videos uploaded by community members.
• find, join, and create video groups to connect with people who have similar interests.
• customize the experience by subscribing to member videos, saving favorites, and creating playlists.
• integrate TeacherTube videos on Web sites using video embeds or application programming interfaces.
• make videos public or private; users can elect to broadcast their videos publicly or share them privately with those they invite.

 There are tutorials on a vast number of topics, from applications to using different technologies in the classroom. Videos are available which could be used to augment curricular materials. It was suggested by one commenter that since the videos download slowly sometimes, they could be downloaded ahead of time.

I think this looks like a great FREE resource for teachers, for both themselves and their students.

I made peanut butter fudge that was really good, but it was grainy. In looking for an answer, I found baking911.com. I didn't know that I needed to let it sit until it cooled to about 110 degrees and then stir it to break up the sugar crystals. Next time I will try a different recipe, one including corn syrup, which will interfere with the crystal growth. It won't stop it, but will make it easier to produce the desired creaminess. The recipe I used before was one thet belonged to a master candymaker. I'm not ready for that!

I plan to spend some time looking at this site. It has lots of information that I think will help me with my baking and cooking. I'm actually glad I had a small problem with the fudge. It was a small price to pay for finding this site!

RefTagger is a great little widget for web pages and blogs which include scripture references. I found this one while reading some new blogs.

When I placed a reference on a blog, I used to find the text on one of my Bible sites and create a link to open that site to the scripture. This is much faster for me as I create and the viewer who reads my blog. Once the code has been put in place (instructions are easy to follow), RefTagger automatically turns any scripture reference (for example, John 3:16), into a hyperlink which opens a popup window showing the scripture text from Bible.Logos.com. To see it in action, you can check this short post.

ESV (English Standard Version) is the default version for RefTagger, but you can choose any of the many available when you have your code created.

I personally can find at least a couple of uses for iStockphoto, and I think many others can as well. Once you join, you can use all kinds of royalty-free files: stock photography, vector illustrations, video footage, audio tracks, and Flash(r) files. This could be a great source of free graphics for teachers and students. In addition you can purchase photos uploaded by approved contributors if you wish.

You can also upload your own photos and, by meeting the requirements to be a contributor, you can sell your photos. I found this site while perusing a photographer's blog and then viewing his photos. Enjoying photography--taking as well as viewing photos--I'll have to be careful not to spend too much time at iStockphoto!

"How do I integrate the Internet into my classroom curriculum?" The Curriculum Ideas section of the cyberbee website seeks to help answer this question for the vast number of teachers who have little extra time to search out curriculum-related websites. Included sites are organized by content area, cross-curricular, and teacher ideas, with a separate section for science fair ideas. Each curricular item leads to a listing of websites which fit that description. All the ones I checked were very good, and I recommend this site. Most of its hundreds of resources seem to be geared to elementary teachers, but some would also be appropriate for middle school.

In addition to the Curriculum Ideas, the site also has Postcards for students to send and pickup from the site, Research Tools to help students be better users of the Internet, Treasure Hunts, Web Links, Web Projects, and Web Picks. Check this one out. You'll be glad you did!

Okay, this isn't technically about a web site, but I think it's relevant here anyway.

The premier of Digital Nation , a film about new technologies and "the critical ways that technology is transforming us--and what we may be learning about ourselves in the process," will be broadcast on PBS Tuesday, February 2, 2010, at 9 p.m. I have viewed the trailer and read the press release, and I think this would be of interest to anyone. Teachers may be particularly interested in its presentation of the ways the integration of technology use into their lives may be affecting youth. I definitely intend to record this one.

I'm always looking for age-appropriate things to do with our grandson when I stay with him. When I look for games and activities, I always find new ones along with ones I had completely forgotten about. I thought it might be a good idea to record a few of the most useful sites I've found. I'm past the infant ones right now, but who knows, I just might have another opportunity to use them!

grandparents.com's best offering, in my opinion, is its everyday activities, many of which are good exercise for the grandparent, too! You can choose age categories from birth to 12+. The games section has rules for favorite classic games--all types of games--but these are not classified by age group. There's much more here, as well, including suggestions for toys and gifts, an "expert advice" area, and information on food and vacations. If you want to register (free), there are groups and tools available as well.

My favorite part of the Fisher-Price website is Grandest Time, which has links to all the resources on their site that would be helpful for a grandparent--not only toys, but "grand things to do" (games, outings, crafts, and cards) and "grand advice." Activities are divided into small age groups from birth to 6 years, making it easy to find just the right activity.

Games to Play with Babies has activites only for ages birth to 12 months, using everyday items you have around the house. It also includes for each 3-month age group a generic list of age-appropriate toys.

SparkPeople is a great site if you want to lose weight, get more fit, or live a healthier lifestyle. You can use as many or as few of the features as you wish, most of which are available without registration. If you choose to register (free), the site will help you track your diet, exercise, and other goals. You choose the goals yourself; they aren't set for you. There are lots of recipes (which you can add to your own "cookbook"), exercise suggestions (which can be saved to your favorites), and health-related information. SparkRecipes has lots of recipes and a recipe calculator which will calculate nutritional information for your own recipes; you can take advantate of SparkRecipes without registering on the site.

You can select from a variety of email options, and there are message boards, blogs, teams, and other ways to connect and be encouraged. It is definitely worth taking a look at, even if you don't want to go to the trouble to track your eating and exercise. I've been using it for three weeks now, and I really do like it!