RSS- so simple!

I am continually feeling inundated by the amount of information, usernames and passwords that I am adding every time I click into learning 2.0. However, I hope that the RSS feeds will work for me. I feel bad when my sister asks if I've seen something new on her blog and I haven't. Now I should get a little nudge that lets me know when she's posted something new. I would like to know if setting up a little "alarm system" is possible or do you have to check your bloglines account?

Good Reads

I hope it's ok, my sister already belonged to Good Reads so I did that site instead. I believe the purpose and tools are very similar to Library Thing.

Rollyo

I can see how this could be very helpful, however, is it much different than bookmarking? or creating a blogroll on your blog?

Photo Generator

Fun! I really liked playing around with this one. Once again I've spent way too much time messing around. I forgot to set my kitchen timer.

Activity 2 Information Task

I was surprised by how gullible I was. I had seen the original cell phone popcorn party and just thought "Wow!" I never questioned the integrity of the experiment and possibly worse, I never considered the health risks if the experiment were true.
In reading through the different scenarios, I decided to focus on the idea of trying to implement a mandatory curbside recycling program. This particular topic is of interest to me for a few reasons. One, I have been recycling for several years, well before family and friends around me. I started with bins in my garage and once a month I would haul my bins to the local recycling center. This job was a huge pain, especially during the winter and my garage was always a mess with overflowing bins. Two, the city where I live, recently implemented a mandatory curbside program, which caused some concern for many citizens. I was thrilled because I no longer had to make those cold, Saturday morning trips. The more I recycle, the more I realize the many other things that I could be doing to help the environment. I am hoping that through this activity I can find other ways of beefing up my own recycling program. For example, I know that there is more to recycling that simply throwing the cartons in the right bin. What kinds of containers are best to buy originally? What are some ways that I can reuse materials that I already have? Is the mandatory program working? Are we seeing a difference in the amount of waste that makes it into our landfill? As I began to think of this topic I got a few ideas for how I might begin a search; "reduce, reuse, recycle", recycling programs, reusing ideas, and city recycling programs. I started with "reduce, reuse, recycle" and found a kid friendly site through the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; There were lots of definitions and examples that would help define what recycling is and how it can help the environment. I then tried to find information on recycling programs and how they are working. Logan city offered information on their program, but no statistics for how it is working. Reusing items can be a big part of recycling and the following site gave lots of ideas for household reusing;
In order to discuss the implementation of a recycling program I would want to know basic recycling facts and have some information regarding other recycling programs. Environmental Green offers a variety of facts about recycling, how it is helping and what more we need to do. I think this would be a good place to start.

Activity 1 Information Literacy

As a student and teacher in today's world, I feel that information literacy is incredibly important. We are surrounded by a massive amount of information and if we don't have the skills to find, organize and use the information it won't do us any good at all. I often find when I search the internet I become unfocused and I get easily distracted. I finish a late night of homework realizing that I haven't accomplished any of the tasks that I began the session with. The problem isn't finding information, but how to manage the information that you find. During this stage it becomes necessary to weed out information that doesn't match my needs or isn't accurate or even being able to identify which source is providing the best information that is available. Because of this it is imperative that students are aware that there are many avenues that are available to them. The web offers a variety of different search engines that enable a searcher to be more specific in their query, resulting in information that will be best suited to the individual's needs. Students also need to know that the internet isn't the only source they can go to for information. Students need to be aware that there are many resources in books, magazines, and even people.