The Daring Librarian

I think I've mentioned before in a previous blog post called MentorMob & the Secrets of the Remix Mash-Up YouTube Generation   that I came to MentorMob about a year after hearing of it from the amazing Dr. Joyce Valenza . I mention it only again because I don't want *anyone* to feel self-induced "tech guilt" for not trying a new tool right away! Sometimes you need to muse, meditate, and contemplate something new before jumping in with both feet. Sometimes you're just too darn busy!  LOL  Either way, however you get to a new tool, talent, or challenge - do it when YOU are ready! Long story medium, I am SO glad I did finally play with and master MentorMob last fall & it was so easy and the learning curve so gentle I felt I "had it" in less than an hour! UPDATE: Follow MentorMobEDU for all the latest education features & to connect with other Playlisters! Much different than the Learning Curve of 3 weeks for Second Life, 3 days for...

The Task: "You've moved to the upscale neighborhood of Mt. Olympus, rubbing elbows with the big shots, the wealthy, the divine - yes the Greek Gods. To fit in you better know who your neighbors are! This playlist will help you find out all about their habits, attitudes, and yes...their powers!" During testing season we have a challenge to support student research with limited access to our computer labs and mobile labs. So, teaming with my 7th grade English teachers, we've re-worked our usual Greek Mythology research unit & adding a Reality TV hook for engagement. (Confession: 2 of my 3 seventh grade English teachers & I are also all huge Bravo fans & and our shared guilty pleasure is the Real Housewives franchise) Since we didn't want to do "Real Housewives of Mt. Olympus" for fear that our guy students would be turned off by that, we thought Big Rich would do the trick! PS. This lesson also would work for our good friends in the S...

It's been about 3 years since I've blogged about FREE digital image editing & fun sites... So I thought I would update it! Thanks to my dear friend @ Linda Dougherty ‏ who Tweeted & Scooped to me about Ribbet which made me give it close look comparing it to my beloved PicMonkey.  I thought I owed you, my dear readers,  an unbiased review of these fab photo editing sites. Last time I talked about 5 of them - this year I'm giving you 10! (Plus a link to my Sqworl gallery with 66+ links) 1. What makes PicMonkey Made of Win? Features Galore! PicMonkey , is MADE of WIN! This beloved site with happy hipster styling beautifully filled in when Picknik went away . [pours some Diet Coke out for my fallen homey] Really, for 94% of what you need to do with images this site can do & WAY easier than Photoshop. I even thought of making a Comic Tutorial for it - but it really is SO easy and intuitive I don't think you need one! PicMonkey is a creation ...

as seen through the eyes of a curated MentorMob playlist! Create your own Playlist on MentorMob! What is MentoMob Mentor Mob Features You can easily  add steps to your Playlist. A curated & vetted web link, including a YouTube video (make sure to grab the "share" link not the "watch" link) a file, you can write an article card with a preset headline, subhead, & you can add extra text or a graphic. You can also add a Pop Quiz! (I haven't tried this yet!) Pretty cool, huh? Anatomy of a Pla ylist Once you have your steps you can drag & drop to change their order. You can easily add more steps inserting them before or after other steps. You can share by embedding or sharing the direct link with your usual social networks.   Embed I t , Baby! Did you see way above how you can embed a playlist on a blog? Neato, right?! Love me some widgets to add to my Wikispaces page or blog!  I also like how you can get a custom embed size. Read m...

Have you experimented and played with the new Twitter look yet? It was rolled out last month and it allows a greater (and fun!) branding customization. Much like the Google+ and the Facebook header, this allows you to upload a background with your profile pic and description overlaid. By the way, I started this blog post about three weeks ago -- didn't post because I was *still* playing with my header! Yes...it's compulsive! Some people have had a lot of fun with it creating neat optical illusions (it's a bit difficult and it gets whacked with different resolutions and with mobile versions) and others have made slick, graphically delicious statements. Here's How to Do it!    Decide on a header image that is somewhat dark on the bottom as that's where your profile description will be printed, as well as your URL and your location. Here's a full size example . Original image size cannot exceed 1252×626 pixels (with a max file size of 5MB).  Twitter do...