#23 Finished

Hello Everyone,

I am proud to say that I have completed the 23 things and have thoroughly enjoyed almost every minute of this tutorial. I will definitely be sharing these resources with other librarians and staff .

Thank you for setting everything up and sharing all those wonderful resources.

Melanie

#22 Week 9 eBooks and Audio eBooks

I have just visited the World EBook Fair and was amazed at how many books are available free of charge or at a reasonable price. I myself have never been a fan of reading off the computer for any length of time, I would much rather have something to hold onto. It is a resource that any library could use to make books available that they would not have to purchase outright. Under the topics that I looked at I didn't see anything that was free, but the prices were not unreasonable. I am wondering if it would be something that the library should subscribe to, to make more resources available to the students??

Unfortunately I am using a school laptop which prevents me from downloading any necessary software to listen to these books. LibriVox website was down, British Library Online Gallery was not available due to software constraints, but the "Best Places to Get Free Books" was a really great resource that I can share with students and colleagues.

#21 Week 9 Podcasts

I opted to go with a technology podcast that I can use with staff and students. I found
"The Tech Teacher" podcast which focuses on several different types of technology. It was easy to use the website which is categorized and easily navigated for any type of user. There are so many possibilities that you can do with a podcast. Technology tips, book reviews, tutorials, etc. We are going to do podcasts on an immigration unit in which the students will tell a story about a person(s) who immigrated to the U.S. talking from that person's point of view.


http://thetechteacher.libsyn.com/rss

#20 Week 9 YouTube

YouTube has a lot to offer, but it is understandable why it is blocked at my school. I am not especially savy with video and I have to say that the Help menu was really easy to understand and easy to navigate. I did figure out how to embed the video into the blog, but I am not sure that it will run. There were some really great videos under librarian and library. I think humor is a great way to encourage students to use the library and it is something that I would consider to show 9th grade to introduce the library to them.

#19 Week 8 Library Thing

I tried to get into Library Thing a few times, but the traffic as too busy and wasn't able to take a long look around. I really don't see any value for my library personally since we have a circulation system already in place. I think its a great idea for small libraries because then anyone can access the materials. I forsee that there may be problems with multiple libraries and millions of people all using the same site. I thought about putting my own personal library on, but the last thing I need is more books. I am running out of room at my house, so this is definitely something that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

#18-Week 8 Zoho blog

Zoho writer is a great collaborative tool for anyone to use. Very easy to navigate probably because it is very similar to Microsoft Word format. In graduate school we used Google docs, but Zoho Writer is also a possibility that could work well. I tried to export it, a dialogue box came up, but I didn't know what to do with it, so I tried publish. It came up with blogger, thats where the account is so you just had to put in a username and password and that was it. It was really simple. I will have to look into the export option and find out what you are to do once the dialogue box comes up. I already have experience using Google docs so I didn't spend much time investigating the options, but I know that it is also very user friendly, easy to navigate and another great collaborative tool.

#17 - Week 7 Sandbox Wiki

There was a post in the sandbox about doing a district library handbook, what a great idea. I never thought about trying something like that. We are actually doing strategic planning this year, I wonder if they would consider using a wiki, it might be worth mentioning. I prefer wikispaces as opposed to pbwiki, it just seems easier to use/navigate for me. Wikis could be used to share information across the curriculum and it would be a easy tool to use to get teachers started with technology.

You have the capability of locking certain pages while leaving others open for collaboration.

#16 Week 7 Wiki Information

Wikis are great for collaborating with colleagues and with students. When clicking on the sample library wikis I found some that were well structured, easy to navigate and attractive to look at. While others were chaotic and difficult to look at let alone navigate. I have used wikis for colleagues to share information as well as set up wikis for students/teachers to use on a particular subject. When we used the wiki with the students it was locked down because there were assignments on drawings that the students needed to interpret and we were afraid that they would try to manipulate them. Maybe this year we may open everything up and see what happens.

I was supposed to do a webpage for the local library, but I think that I am going to contruct a wiki that we can both contribute information to.

#15 Future of Libraries

Library 2.0 is scary, nerve wracking, and exciting, but if we don't embrace the tools available our job/library will become obsolete. I know from personal experience that it is hard to accept change, but in order for us as librarians to become an effective tool within the school we must take a hard look at how our library was and what we want it to become. One of the articles did say about libraries and how they were a collection of books, but that is no longer the case and if we don't want to get phased out we need to learn all that we can about library/web 2.0 resources/skills so that we can again become a vital part of the school.

#15 Library Research

After reading these articles I have decided to focus on a few articles which include "Into a New World of Librarianship" by Michael Stephens, "Away from the "Icebergs"" by Rick Anderson and "To More Powerful Ways to Cooperate" by Chip Nilges. These articles have convinced me that I need to change my focus to how web 2.0 tools can assist me in engaging students and teachers to locate the information that they need. Each article points out thoughtful ideas which I plan on using when redesigning my library as well as the tools we are using for this tutorial. Cooperation, collaboration and change are words to live by for the web 2.0 tools. You can't be afraid to try something new or ask the students how they did something or show them a better way to locate information.....its what we do as librarians.

I also read the artcle "A Rural School District Shows How One New Service in 1992 Put in Motion a Steady Wave of Library Support" by George Bishop. Although it focuses on embedding ILL into the library program it also shares several ways that you can embed technology into your library program.

#14/Technorati

Technorati was a tad overwhelming for me in that there is too many things going on at the same time. I did claim my blog and I did put a few things on the watchlist. The popular blog was interesting to see what people are looking for and the tags that everyone is using.

My thoughts about tagging are that it could be very beneficial for locating specific materials, but one of the problems I see is that you receive several irrelevant choices because you can't control what other people are using as tags. You could possibly be missing some major information if you don't search by the appropriate tags. It may actually benefit students to "think" about how they want to search for their information and when they develop their own blogs they then have to determine what tags would be best so that everyone can find their blog. Critical thinking skills are essential to everyone and Technorati allows you to develop those skills while searching for information.

I am a little nervous about tagging my posts, but I am going to give it a shot and see how things turn out.

YIPPPPEEEEE!!!! It worked, I think.


SLJLibrary2.0

Uploading Images

Apparently I missed several activities that should have been done weeks ago, so I am trying to get them finished. The uploading of images was actually pretty easy. Lets just hope that everything went the way it was supposed to.

Delicious

Fortunately for me I already have a delicious account set up and I have to say that I use it quite frequently. I especially like being able to tag websites and classify them into their own folder in one or two clicks as opposed to using the old bookmarking system which had more steps. I find it especially helpful when I am beginning to gather resources for a particular project.

I was thinking of introducing it to students, but I believe that the IT Dept. has locked down the computers and the students would not be able to download the buttons for delicious, but either myself or a teacher would be able to create a folder for the students and then have them access the folder and then give the students access. I would hope that would be possible, but I am not sure if it is which means that I can tell them about it, but they would have to save everything at home.

As for the network badge, I really don't see a lot of use in wasting my time adding it onto the webpage.

Image Generators/Rollyo

The image generator idea is really great, but for someone who apparently doesn't think fast enough or understand how things work very quickly it is extremely stressful. It took me a really long time to get my image project done and I still don't think that its right. I pasted a picture into a template and have no idea how to manipulate the word bubble that came with the picture so that you can read it in its entirety. It will probably be a snap for the kids to do, but I have to say that I was ready to throw the computer out the window by the end of the evening.

As for Rollyo, what a great idea, but I see some potential issues in this tool.
http://rollyo.com/mscalpel/video_conferencing/
I put together a list of video conferencing/distance learning websites, but when I went to search it I received hits that were not necessarily appropriate to what I was looking for. I believe that one of the sites that I put in was a blog site which means when I type in zoos (for virtual field trips) I am getting hits on the treatment of pandas from Chinese zoos. When selecting resources for the rollyo, you must be very watchful of what websites you are listing, because I can see the kids clicking on sites that you believe are appropriate only to find out that it is a hit that is totally irrelevant.

Other than that everything went just fine. Is anyone else experiencing the same issues or am I the only one.

RSS Feeds

I actually already had a bloglines account set up from another class so instead of creating an account I went through and changed my feed list. I actually should get in the habit during the summer of checking my Bloglines account each day, so that I can stay abreast of what is going on in the field. I have some library feeds, technology feeds and specific softward feeds that will be helpful in encouraging teachers and students to use RSS.

I can see students and teachers developing Bloglines/Google Reader accounts so that they can stay updated on their favorite topics. My suggestion for anyone just starting out is to only select a few blog to subscribe to so that it doesn't get too overwhelming. The students or teachers could use bloglines for a particular unit of study in which they must gather current information. The only problem would be the "other information" that accompanies some feeds would be distracting to students, but it could also be used as a teaching tool in regard to opposing viewpoints, or bias in articles or even writing editorial style papers.

Once I become a little more familiar I may attempt to draw a few teachers in by finding a topic of interest that they would want to know more about (I guess that would apply to students as well).

Week 3

I never realized how many tools Flickr alone has available. There are soooooo many tools that you can't possibly get to them all. I tried a few different tools within Flickr, but every picture I tried kept coming out all fuzzy. I also had issues with the size of the pictures from Flickr. I tried to paste them into Paint and then edit the size, but it didn't work. It would be helpful if it designated the appropriate size of the image before starting the project and tips on how to edit effectively. I finally ended up making a mosaic which actually turned out really great.

The possibilities are endless for a Web 2.0 tool like Flickr. Flickr may be a way to engage reluctant teachers and students to use technology in many different ways.

I thought that the World Geography teachers could use this with their students to collect pictures of a particular area of the country and then put it into some type of project or use mappr to post pictures and then describe each.

I also thought that the Art teachers may be able to use Flickr to discuss the color wheel and shadowing etc. by using the information contained within Flickr.

Week 2

Out of the 71/2 habits the most difficult habit for me would be number three - viewing problems as challenges. When problems arise my first reaction is to deal with the problem head on and get it resolved as quickly as possible which stops me from doing what I had planned to do in the first place. I find that a lot of problems arise as a result of email. I have read that if you have things to get done that you do that first and then open emails since they most often bring you more work or more problems than you started with.

The easiest habit for me is number two-accept responsibility for your own learning. With life changing as quickly as it does I feel you have no choice but to become responsible for your own learning. Whether it be technology, cooking, learning a foreign language whatever is needed to become successful or to complete the task at hand. The students are so technologically more advanced than most faculty that it is up to them to learn the technology and software as it applies to the students. Students actually flourish when collaborating on projects with other students sharing what knowledge they have to make the most of the presentation.