The World of Wikis

Today I learned about wikis, which really are much more than wikipedia. With wikis, people with a common interest can post info, revise it and add their thoughts -- kind of an ongoing and everchanging website. When wikipedia first came out, my kids and I thought it was great. However, we have learned that anybody can post anything, so the info just isn't reliable for a school research paper. Still, we often find info at Wikipedia that sets us on the right track to other info, so it still has its uses!

The other wiki sites I visited -- http://www.wikia.com/, http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, http://wikis.ala.org/readwriteconnect/index.php/ALA_wikis and http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page -- led me to some interesting stuff on Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Twilight, and I even got to see the trailer for the still-7-months-away Half-Blood Prince movie. I think I would use wikis for their fun value instead of for hard facts.

Image generators are very fun!!! The easiest to use and most fun site I've discovered is RedKid.net. I can't wait to show my kids!

RSS = Really Simple Stuff

I have recently learned about RSS, which actually stands for RDF Site Summary. Because I don't always have time to catch up on the news, I've subscribed to a feed with CNN.com -- now I get updates every time there is new information added. Great concept!

eBooks Rule the Miller Household

I've finally broken down and learned about podcasts, which are actually very fun and can be extremely helpful to teachers and other educators. I wonder if they have one to teach my son to drive better??

That same kid, however, boasts a superior proficiency in the realm of downloading cool books from the library. It's so important to him that the Clevenet eMedia Collection is his home page on our computer! Anyway, I am now a novice (but not a clueless) audiobook downloader! This is a big step for me!!

Advising the Readers

Thanks to my manager Kym, I've learned about some great readers' advisory sites.

The Morton Grove Public Library's Webrary has Websites for Book Lovers . . . and they're all you'll ever need to help just about anybody find any kind of good book. Some of the wonderful offerings are media spotlights, book discussion guides, book reviews, a research center, and separate sites for kids, teens and seniors.

The Webrary also offers the Fiction_L booklists, an awesome index of books by themes, author styles and even by audience groups. It looks especially helpful and more than a little fun. I look forward to discovering more there.

It's a website full of great info! I'm sure I'll put the Webrary in my favorites file.

Thanks, Pandora!

I've done it! I've opened up Pandora's box! Well, actually, I've opened up an account at pandora.com, and I'm thrilled! This website allows you to create your own music stations -- just the stuff you like with none of the commercials. It works by analyzing a favorite artist or musical genre that you choose and then creates a station of similar artists and works. It's awesome! I plan to use it all the time -- my very own set of stations . . . what a great concept!

Rolling my Rollyo

I have rolled my own Rollyo search engine! It's called Millertravels and includes some very fun websites for our future travels. We are hoping to go to Europe when Zack graduates, with maybe a sidetrip to Greece just for fun.