#11 LibraryThing

This was interesting. Setting up an account was easy and posting books simple. The biggest difficulty is if you try to find a particular book which has had dozens of reprints! 1,000's of versions and trying to find the one you have can be a time consuming and almost impossible task - a needle in a haystack.

The advantages of this are that you can build up a profile of your books and this enables you to document what you have to refer to away from home. It let's you become part of a community if you desire it and can give opportunity to explore more books of a related topic, field, style ....

In a classroom situation this would not be very useful to me, but potentially privately it could be.

#10 On Line Image Generators

While it was fun to work with, I found it difficult to create things and then post them into my blog. I find the Adobe Creative Suite a little easier to use as it is constantly able to be used, rather than having to wait until I am on line. It seems to be more reliable.

The fun nature of working in the Online Generators is good and the students I'm sure would have more success.

I was looking on the Web for the artist who taught me how to do the Polychromatic Silk Screen Printing that I mentioned in my initial blogging entries and found a site that had some of his work. This is a work by the artist Anthony Syndicas. I met him first when I was in Year 11 as an artist-in-residence at my school CCEGGS. If you are interested in seeing some of his other work or that of his daugher, Diahann Syndicas, or photographer brother Alexander Syndikas, you can go to the following URL: http://www.archsign.com.au/asg-online-gallery.html . Hope you enjoy their work if you do choose to take a look. I might post some of my own work at some stage too!

#10 On Line Image Generators

It is interesting to see the different sites that are available. Some links were a little confusing, but I thought that some of the animations on JellyMuffin.com were interesting. I chose this Winter based snowflakes falling (http://www.jellymuffin.com/icons/seasons/) - I'm a Winter and love snow, so I thought it appropriate. Still going on this stage though! I also attempted to make an animated image, but the blog didn't seem to like the html when I added it. Will try again!




Myspace Codes

I tried making a button on Cool Text: Generator Image which was quite interesting.

#9 Virtual Worlds

Interesting to have a look at these. I knew they existed and have avoided them generally due to the nature of these sites - addictive to some. It is a funny thing, but I can see the attraction to use a virtual world. Second Life and WoW are known to me and students have often talked about them. I think this is part of the reason that I have not looked at them before now. It is a bit like Chat Rooms and Social Networking Sites. I am hesitant to use them. In this case, the potential to meet up with a student is actually quite high in the virtual world, but it is likely that you don't know the identity of the person behind the avatars that you meet.

A fascinating concept though. If I had the time to explore one, I think it would be a lot of fun.

#8 iGoogle

I have seen this before and it seems to have a lot of options. I have a hamster on mine. Cute! I also have a game of memory - one of my favourite as a child.

Having the different features available - by selection is a great feature. This can enable more control of what you are wanting to access, not just doing general searches, but rather focused depending on the category.

I like that it is able to be personalised. Looking forward to how it will look in the day over the night!

#7 Google Books

Fantastic resource if the book you are looking for is there. I looked up two of my favourite novels - Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin. Both were there. I also looked up some non-fiction relating to my husbands interests and work area (Model and Prototype Trains). My books were there in full versions as well as directing to sites to purchase, but his were only acknowledged without any preview or copy available at this point in time.

It will be interesting to explore what non-fiction works might be available - being a teacher of Visual Communication and Design (also Art by interest and training) let alone resources for my faculty which includes food and materials (woodwork etc) - it would be a good facility for students to access if there are resources of this nature available. Draw back is that they might be still under copy write for many of these areas.

On a personal note, I can see it as a useful tool. I have a Smart phone and this would enable me to access books away from home, school or a library so long as I have reception for my girls and I.