  I hope Dieder will forgive me for putting a link to his urlLink blog without first asking permission - which is mostly his book journal - but his latest post called "Blogs hit the Web" with a link to Time Magazine is quite - well - timely! And Sarah has also started her own urlLink blog - her latest comments are responses to posts on Spord - some of you will be interested in reading. I was thinking that an alternate assignment for the Scrapbook could have been creating your own Blog! Dieder was able to include images (jpegs) that are either found on the web or (if you have personal server space) your own that you've stored. I could have shown you how to do some urlLink simple html tags to create links, block quotes, or to italicize , bold , and add color ...etc.
I suppose a blog could appeal to many individuals...but then again...for some it may just seem like the same old assignment repackaged with a high tech twist... hmmm... My practicum student, while introducing iBooks to her grade 2 class, said, "They just accomplished in an hour what took me two weeks to master! " The students were doing a web quest - seeking images - downloading them to the desktop and inserting them into a word document in order to manipulate the image. When I polled these "savvy" 7 year olds, they informed me that they had been using computers and laptops (including wireless) since as early as the age of 2!! Apparently TV is no longer the main competitor on our toddler's playtime... Come to think of it, my two eldest had access to computers since they were toddlers also but the internet did not become sophisticated until they were well into their teens…so…the TV and the VCR were their buddies (and, later, video games like Mario Brothers). Yup…I can readily admit (sheepishly)…as a working mom…I will be forever grateful to Mr. Rogers, Mr. Dressup, Rainbow Brite, Sesame Street and the countless Disney movies...(especially The Secret of Nimh) I was using the Internet as early as 1992, but by 1995 the World Wide Web was pretty much up and running as it is today with dueling browsers (a.k.a Netscape and Explorer), and my son was 6 yrs old!
He started downloading his favorite on-line games and playing with his friends across town since he was nine… Now he’s an MSN and cell phone junkie…he surfs the web regularly for funny videos/blogs…he goes to a minimum of 3 movies per week (cheap theatres near home – great dating haunts for a 15 year old! ) and watches "The Family Guy" and "Simpsons" on DVD – he reads voraciously (currently The Iliad) – plays Lacrosse religiously – and he was just presented with an athlete of the year award at his end-of-the-year assembly at school. While retro 60's, 70's and 80's are in...I'm afraid the 21st Century is truly his stomping ground! I wonder what undergrads will say about technology by the time he's in university... More things that make one say...hmmm... 
