LM_NET: Library Media Networking
Thanks to everyone who responded to my question on "fun" websites to include
in an Internet workshop. You all are the best!
<<One of the ones I like is http://www.makestuff.com/>>
<<If you want to raise a laugh, try
http://sites.netscape.net/spzumalt2/camera1.html
What about ecards at http://www.postcards.org/postcards/
or webcams of interesting places (like the surf in Australia - no bias
here!) http://www.webcams.at/>>
<<Switchboard.com is also effective to show how much you can learn online.
If they have a not-so-common last name they can do a state or national
search for relatives. If their name is common they can still look to up
to see it there. This is helpful around the holidays for finding
long-lost friends addresses.
I taught an Adult Ed class to use the Internet a few years ago and a
student was the local police chief. I showed them how to use
Switchboard.com. A few weeks later the police used it to find an
estranged relative of an injured crossing guard. They were all amazed at
the speed of the task.
http://www.switchboard.com>>
<<http://Alfy.com is awesome for kids and has a great Teacher's link.>>
<<http://www.altavista.com/
Not exactly "fun" but useful...... At Altavista, they can try locating
pictures
(in the left margin under Multimedia) by clicking on Images and further down
the left margin, under Search Tools, have them try Translate and People Search
to look for themselves........ Oh, and while you have them searching for
pictures, show them how to grab the picture and paste it into a word processing
program.>>
<<I'd recommend a good search engine -- my favorite is
http://www.google.com
and a library-like resource such as Internet Public Library
http://www.ipl.org/
and perhaps an archive for newsgroups such as deja.com
http://www.deja.com/
Others that might also be useful and not widely known include
http://www.ed.gov/free/ Links to 100s of sites supported by federal
agencies around the country
http://www.scholastic.com/index.asp Scholastic Publishers links to
more than 1000 "safe" sites for kids plus resources for teachers and
parents. This site has won awards from People's Choice and Webby>>
<<This is not a local site, but one I go to everyday,
because it generates food for the hungry.
www.thehungersite.com
You just click a button and food is donated by site
sponsors. There are other donations available, such
as for rain forests, AIDS, etc.
Just another idea of how the internet works for us!>>
<<How about
http://www.familysearch.org
It's the Latter Day Saints website for genealogy. They could type
in their grandparents' names and see what they get!
Also,
http://www.familytreemaker.com
On that website, by typing in my great-grandfather's name and
because Iknew his place of birth and approximate date, I was able
to find 4 families of ancestors who came on the Mayflower!!>>
<<CopyKat Creations http://www.copykat.com/
How to make your favorite restaurants' dishes in your own home!
eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/
How things get done---How to do just about everything!
RxList http://www.rxlist.com/
Internet drug index
WebMD http://my.webmd.com/index
Blue Mountain Greeting Cards http://www.bluemountain.com
Ballparks http://www.ballparks.com/
Cool site with info, ticket prices, pics etc of baseball parks, football
stadiums, basketball arenas, hockey rinks, etc professional, semipro,
college, etc of the past present and future. Lots of info here for the
sports nut.
Weather Channel http://www.weather.com/
Garden.com http://www5.garden.com/index.html>>
<< Your workshop sounds great. The only other fun "local" website
that I can think of is the Virtual Tours website (I am sure I don't have
the name quite right) offered by DPI for places like the Legislative
Building, Executive Mansion, etc. in downtown Raleigh. The web address is:
http://www.itpi.dpi.state.nc.us/vvisits/vv.html>>
<<This is easy for me. As a parent of school-age children, I appreciate the
website ScreenIt.com more than any other non-professional or educational
site. When my son asked to see Mission Impossible 2, I knew exactly what to
expect ahead of time. (In this case, we went with him to see it, but my
daughter had a sitter.) The site details possibly questionable content --
violence, sex/nudity, profanity, alcohol/drugs, smoking, blood/gore, even
disrespectful attitudes, plus a few more -- and lets the parent make a
decision as to whether the movie is suitable for their child. I haven't felt
the reviews I've read were unfair or judgmental; they simply stated what was
there. It's great knowing what is in the content before I buy a ticket.>>
<<take them to the louve or other museum
take them on a virtual tour of a famous city
take them to pbs.org for Arthur and games
show them how to play the lotterie on the web--well,
maybe not.
www.bluemountain.com for e-cards
www.shockwave.com for games and sophisticated e-cards
www.usaancshares.com 5% APY checking account (and
other services).>>
<<My favorite useful and so practical site is:
www.bestbookbuys.com
Plug in your title and it lists by price many, many
online vendors prices for that title. The price
includes plus s&h charges so you see your actual cost.
Then just click on the one you want and it links
directly to that vendor site. Then order the book!
It saves so much time as you don't have to go to
amazon, then Barnes and Noble, e-campus, etc. Just so
great for educators! They'll love it!>>
<<Bluemountain.com is a great site sending free e-cards.
Beverly Almond
PS Do not type in the address minus the e from blue--not a good site!>>
<<Internet Movie Database is a vast resource for all those trivia questions
about who was in what movie and what version and such!
http://us.imdb.com/
It also includes TV and can be searched in various ways. I use it to answer
questions from LM-net occasionally too!
Be sure to show them some e-greeting card sites. A general index of a bunch
of them is:
http://www.cardlady.com/ This one used to be cardcentral.net but seems to
have changed names! One of my favorites is Angelwinks and I borrow lots of
neat wallpapers from that site!
Actually www.mybookmarks.com wouldn't be a bad idea because that is where
there are bookmark files of all kinds of other people(including me-username
rawsonkehl) and it might be worth sharing so they can see that when they
find some good things they can share them with others! There is some work
involved in keeping them up-to-date but I refer people to mine occasionally
when they want something I have collected lots of sites on!
Oh, and take a look at some of the ones recommended in my signature line to
remind them to beware of hoaxes and urban legends. That I think is an
important part of our mission! ;-)
I could keep going because I have so many favorites. Just remind those
fearful people that the Internet is like (insert your favorite
discontinued/overstock stores-we have Big Lots here). There are some good
deals and some junk!>>
<<These are sites I used in the "just for fun" segment of a
presentation. They were chosen more as fun ways to while away free
time than for much educational value, though some of them are
informative, The last one is an opportunity to contribute to charity
at no personal expense. I have not tested most of them since last
April.
Technocopia
http://www.technocopia.com/
The Webby Awards
http://www.webbyawards.com/
The Internet Tourbus
http://www.tourbus.com
Earthcam
http://www.earthcam.com
Osiris Trivia Quiz
http://osiris.sund.ac.uk/online/quiz/quiztime.html
Magnetic Poetry
http://prominence.com/java/poetry
Bored.Com
http://www.bored.com
World Wide Recipes
http://www.wwrecipes.com/recipes.htm
Crossword, anagram and cryptogram help
http://www.oneacross.com/
FreeDonation.com
http://www.freedonation.com>>
<<How about www.ask.com>>
<<www.virtualflorist.com
(send virtual bouquets)
www.coolsig.com
sometimes irreverent humor
also a site where you can send free electronic greetings such as Blue
Mountain, Hallmark, etc.>>
<<How about one of the investment sites. Switchboard or 411 are interesting to
be aware of.
Martha Stewart has a good deal of free information on her site. Also, it is
such a phnemenon, what about ebay?>>
<<How about flamingoworld.com, it is a site that collects up cupons and
discounts for shopping on the web.
Also mysimon.com will do comparison shopping. ancestors.com is a good
genealogy site>>
<<learn2.com
flighttracker.com
amazingbargains.com
ivillage.com
drkoop.com>>
<<i like landmark-project.com, which does happen to be an education site as
well as a link to anything you'd ever want to know, but also because it is
created by david warlick, a former wake county technology teacher who
continues to do work at the
carolina global schoolhouse at the wade edwards learning lab. my teachers
have fount it very useful>>
<<Here's one that will blow them away.
http://www.bored.com/netscape.html>>
<<This sounds great. You may wish to include online shopping such as Mercata
and some of the card and greeting sites.>>
<<Just for fun - try the Book a minute site:
http://www.rinkworks.com/bookaminute/
It cindenses books to one or two sentences. Great idea for book reports. Has
companion site movie a minute.>>
<<Don't forget weather related sites!
http://www.wunderground.com/US/NH/Swanzey.html
Harry Potter trivia - http://www.mikids.com/harrypotter/default.htm
and my personal favorite "stumper"
http://cjta.net/special/index.htm>>
<<A weather site is always good, then USA Today or CNN or ESPN. Have fun.>>
<<Here are some fun sites that kids and teachers enjoy:
www.globexplorer.com (You can type in your address and see your house and
neighborhood from the air)
www.nuttysites.com (You can see animals from armadillos to cows to insects
dancing!)
www.godiva.com (I think you can guess--drool on the keyboard)
www.virtualflowers.com (Send a virtual bouquet of flowers to anyone who has
email FREE)
www.bluemountain.com (Send a delightful animated greeting card!)
www.trip.com (If you know of an airplane flight number, you can track its
progress across the country)>>
<<How about some fun sites for their students to use:
www.kidsdomain.com <http://www.kidsdomain.com>
www.askjeeves.com <http://www.askjeeves.com> or www.ajkids.com
www.funschool.com <http://www.funschool.com>
www.funbrain.com <http://www.funbrain.com>>>
<<You might include http://www.moviemom.com which offers movie reviews
geared towards parents. It explains why a film got a particular
rating. I have used this is some of my newbie training sessions, and it
has always been a hit.
Another one to try is http://www.weatherunderground.com which is a
weather site but it has a great feature - historical weather. If
someone is going on vacation and wants to know what it is usually like
in, say June in Paris, they can figure this out on the website.
You might include http://www.moviemom.com which offers movie reviews
geared towards parents. It explains why a film got a particular
rating. I have used this is some of my newbie training sessions, and it
has always been a hit.
Another one to try is http://www.weatherunderground.com which is a
weather site but it has a great feature - historical weather. If
someone is going on vacation and wants to know what it is usually like
in, say June in Paris, they can figure this out on the website.>>
<<How about the News and Observer and WRAL?>>
<<One of my favorite sites is BigChalk.com - it has an easy name, easy to use,
and a great virtual library.>>
Stephanie L. Fiedler, M.L.S.
Media Coordinator
Swift Creek Elementary School
5601 Tryon Road
Raleigh, NC 27606
919.233.4327 / fax 919.233.4344 / sfiedler@wcpss.net
Website: http://www.angelfire.com/nc2/sfiedler
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