I CHANGED MY ACCOUNT OVER TO EDUBLOGS.ORG

I've taken the plunge, I have done it, I switched over to Edublogs.org.

So if you would like to continue reading my blog please click on the the below link:

http://hshawjr.edublogs.org/

Thanks Harold :)

New Blog skin

I have been working most of the evening on changing my blog's look "again".  I just wasn't happy with the look I had - too cluttered and had been planning on changing it during my vacation, well vacation is almost over and guess what I am doing at the end of vacation.  Oh well.

I really like the new skin but some of it was in Spanish, so I got very brave and  edited the HTML code, wasn't that difficult, so hopefully I didn't mess it up too too much. :)

Still having some problems with the template itself though, when I try to add a new widget with the page element function, the template will not let me save to add a new widget.  Also when I attempt to add a widget directly from a Website, it stops me from doing so, sends me directly to the Blogger Login page. 

 
I will keep looking at the HTML (still not sure what I am looking at though) to see if I can find the blocking/lock out. 

Anyone got any ideas out there to help me make this them more my own?

Technorati Tags: blog,blogger,frustration,themes,web2.0,shaw

100 th Blog Post

Well I had visions of vaunted words of wisdom for my 100th post on this blog.  But instead I would like to say thank you for the time, help and guidance that you out in the Blogosphere have given me in getting to this point in my blogging life.

The only words of wisdom are "enjoy life it is far too short", "plan for tomorrow, but live for today" and "smile more, it makes people wonder what you are doing".

One last thing, just think in 100 years someone may read something you wrote in a blog and it might make them smile or if you are not so positive, shake their head in sympathy.  So don't take things too seriously and enjoy the Blogosphere.

Again thank you and I wish I could contort myself like this while I am sleeping -

Joey my cat without a care

TWEET CLOUDS

I am being a bit of a copy cat here...Clay Burell had this on his blog this A.M. and I just had to try it out for myself. I learned who I talk to most and what I talk about the most. I wonder how this will change a month from now or even 6 months. It will be interesting to see. Thanks Clay for the link, self-promotion and a bit of fun. Sometimes we take ourselves a bit too seriously.

http://www.tweetclouds.com/

Technorati Tags: blogs,burrell,education,fun,technology,tweetclouds,twitter,web2.0

MICROSOFT ONENOTE UPDATE

I have been using Microsoft OneNote since January and have really loved it! It has done most everything that I want it to and then some! Some of the things that I really like are

The ease with which I can transfer information to OneNote either with:

or the right click and then "copy to OneNote

I really like the integration with M/S Outlook and how I can simply click on a button and send an email to OneNote to move to the appropriate folder.

As you can see below, I have several workbooks and use them all quite often.

OneNote has done something that I never thought would happen, I have stopped printing everything out (CYA stuff), I am now simply saving a lot of information to OneNote. This has reduced significantly my use of paper and ink for the printer and file space. If I need something I simply key word search it and there it is. Much easier to retrieve information when I need it, instead of wasting time looking for something, like I used to do.

Below are a couple of improvement suggestions/observations that would improve how I use OneNote.

1. The ability to hide subpages versus always having them open, much like the Workbook doesn't show the different sections unless you want it to.

This change would clean up the look of the page section and would make it more effective for my uses.

2. Have easier online access by other's who do not have OneNote. Unfortunately, not everyone uses Microsoft products or has OneNote, but it does make working collaboratively on certain projects difficult. If I would like to have someone view my Electronic Portfolio, at present it is at best "clunky". They have to go through a series of steps including downloading a "free" trial version of OneNote. Many do not want to have to go through that long process to simply view my Portfolio, so I have not been able to "share" this as well as I would like.

3. Give an pop up option to put what I am sending to OneNote in a particular folder versus going to Unfiled notes (there may be a way, I just haven't found it yet).

Overall, I have been extremely pleased with OneNote and what I have been able to accomplish in the short amount of time I have been using it. I will probably file all my notebooks, except the Electronic Portfolio and start them over when the school year is over, now that I understand the workings a bit better. But that is the cool part, because it is so easy to use, and the learning curve so short, I don't mind re-doing a small amount of work to improve what I have.

So if you want an easy to use Note taking program and are Microsoft centric, then OneNote will be more than you will ever need. If you do not use Microsoft products or want a web based system, I do not have the answer to fit your needs, but in this case I really believe you should give OneNote a try.

No this is not an Microsoft advertisement and I do not receive any compensation from Microsoft. This is just me following up on my previous post on OneNote.

Technorati Tags: blog,eportfolio,microsoft,OneNote,Outlook,paperless,shaw,teaching