Thing #23

This has been quite a journey. I really enjoyed learning so many new things about Library 2.0. I was already familiar with a few of the Things, but I never realized how much there is that I didn't know. After completing this program, I feel both excited about the upcoming school year and well-prepared to take my library program into the 21st century.
I really enjoyed learning about the Flickr mashups (particularly the website BigHugeLabs)--there are so many ways that these can be used to promote my library program. I also appreciate the RSS feeds and newsreader accounts--rather than sitting at my computer and trying to remember which sites I wanted to check out, I can just go to my Google reader account and it is all there for me. What a time saver! Of all the Things, I think that creating a blog has been the most eye-opening for me. Now that I've actually done it, I can see how easy it is. I am inspired to create a personal blog so that I can share pictures of my daughter with family.
This program has certainly assisted in my lifelong learning goals. As a librarian, it is imperative that I stay current on technology. Rather than sitting through a course about technology, this program insists that we get out there and do it. I really feel that I've learned a lot. I would certainly participate in another program like this.
Now, to describe my learning experience in one word: discovery. I use this word because it implies learning through experience, something that I believe is very important to understanding and retention.
Thanks for the experience!

Thing #22

This was my first experience with Nings, and I can really see how helpful they can be to educators (or any professional in general). I looked over Joyce Valenza's Ning, Teacher Librarian, and really enjoyed what I saw. With the popularity of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook among our students, I think that using a Ning would almost be second nature to them. As librarians, we can join existing Nings (like Teacher Librarian Ning) to stay connected with other professionals in our field; on the campus level, we can create a Ning to help connect with our patrons.

Thing #20

TeacherTube and YouTube are excellent sources of video. TeacherTube focuses primarily on educational (instructional) videos and they also offer a selection of staff development videos. I was unable, however, to find much in the realm of the library.
YouTube, on the other hand, has some fabulous videos for the library. I searched for a number of books by title and was pleasantly surprised by the results. There are video book reviews and fan-made teaser trailers that will be great for showing in the classroom. I searched for a book called The Adoration of Jenna Fox that is on the most recent Lone Star list and found this trailer:

Thing #19

I really enjoyed looking around the Web 2.0 Awards List and was happy to see that I was already familiar with many of the resources (thanks largely in part to this program). I had fun looking at the websites under "Widgets," but the most interesting website I found was listed under Education: .docstoc. Labeled as a place to find and share professional documents, .docstoc has a wide array of documents-- everything from speech transcripts to legal forms. I think that this can be a very valuable resource for educators, particularly history teachers. I did notice, however, that some of the search results were of questionable validity. I would not recommend this website for students doing research, but I do feel that it could be a valuable resource for teachers and professionals.

Thing #18

I have used the online production tools offered by Google, but I was unaware that there were some offered by OpenOffice.org. From exploring the website, I noticed that they offer products parallel to those by Microsoft Office. While I will continue to use my Microsoft Office suites, I really like the availability of a free presentation tool that is similar and compatible with Microsoft's Power Point. Power Point is a program that is not offered with all software (particularly on people's home computers), so it is convenient to have the option of creating presentations at home. Since OpenOffice's applications are compatible with Microsoft's, educators can create presentations at home and then e-mail them to their school computers to use in the classroom.

Thing #17

I love Rollyo--what a great concept! Before, when a class would come into the library to do a research unit, I would create pathfinders with hotlinks on a Word document. This is so much easier! Rollyo allows us educators to streamline research and guide students in the direction of credible websites. My eighth grade language arts classes conduct a research unit on the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe, so I made a Rollyo customized search for that:
http://rollyo.com/skinney/edgar_allan_poe/

One concern I have is information literacy. If we educators guide students to only credible websites, will they be able to discern them when they Google what they're looking for? This is a lesson in and of itself that must still be taught in the library. All too often, however, research units are pressed for time, so Rollyo can help alleviate some of that pressure by allowing teachers to guide students to the information they are looking for.

I also played around with Rollyo and created an experimental search that included only the databases that my campus offers. This is a great tool to help motivate students to use the databases. With all of them consolidated into one searchable site, they are more likely to use them. I am excited about using Rollyo this upcoming school year.

Thing #16

Wikis are all about collaboration and so is education. As educators in the 21st century (and Librarians 2.0), we must encourage our students to work together; as professionals, we must also practice collaboration with our colleagues. As the saying goes: "Two [or more] heads are better than one." Wikis provide users with a forum for collaboration and the educational practice implications are endless. They can be used by students for research, note taking, or to work together on group projects. They have the same applications for teachers and professionals. I've even heard of people using them to share recipes. When I first learned about wikis I was a bit intimidated at first, but they are so user-friendly that it is harder to not use them when collaborating.

Thing #15

The presented articles on Library 2.0 offered some very interesting insight to the concept of the future of libraries. Dr. Wendy Schultz's article challenges us to rethink our definitions of a library. According to her, our past, conventional definitions of libraries (Library 1.0) where books are commodities to be stored and cataloged must be rethought and expanded to include the concept of libraries that are barrier free and extend into every aspect of our life (Library 2.0). I agree with her thoughts--as technology breaks down our barriers to information, libraries must adapt and change.
I also enjoyed reading Rick Anderson's article about the three "icebergs" that threaten the future success of libraries. The first iceberg particularly stood out to me--it is no longer our job as librarians to predict our user's needs and provide "just in case" collections. Now that information is available in many more formats than just print, it is no longer necessary to build collections that may, hopefully be needed by our patrons. Rather, we librarians should focus on accessing the digital portals of information that exist.
Finally, David Warlick's July 16 post, "Technology and Teaching" brought up some interesting points about the integration of technology and teaching. The internet has changed what it means to be literate with information so readily available. We no longer have to wait for the evening news to find out what's going on in the world; sites like Twitter and Flickr allow users to be informed of news as it happens. Rather than teaching students to consume information (Library 1.0), we must teach them to be "information artisans" that are able to seek out and contribute to the information banks (Library 2.0).

Thing #14

Exploring Technorati was something entirely new to me, but the concept of a search engine for blogs makes perfect sense. There are so many blogs out there (and more everyday), that it makes sense to have a tool that organizes them for users. I really like the opinion that blogs have taken over as the "voice of the people" on the internet; providing users with a method to seek out, find, and organize these blogs is a valuable resource.
Tagging information (be it in blogs, Flickr, Delicious, etc.) is an effective way to organize the information. I see tagging as a way of cataloging information (the same way we librarians catalog books with subject keywords); these tags provide portals of access. Without tagging, the information wouldn't be categorized, and it therefore wouldn't be as accessible. For this reason, I find tagging to be of utmost importance when organizing any pieces of information, be they tangible (in books) or virtual (on the web).

Thing #13

I have used Delicious before and I really appreciate the way that it facilitates research. As an educator, the ability to make content-specific tags for research units truly streamlines the research process for my students. One of the things that I really appreciate about this and other social bookmarking sites is the opportunity that it gives students to share and discover new resources. Since it's a "peer driven information directory," users can access the information that others have found, as well as contribute to this bank of knowledge. As students build a shared reading list for their research, they are learning to collaborate with others--a powerful component of web 2.0.

Thing #12

Thinking about blog commenting, I've realized some things that I never given a second thought to. First off, I am a lurker (though I never even knew it). I am guilty of reading blogs and not contributing to the discussion. It was interesting to me that only 1% of blog readers are active contributors. Blogs are an excellent way that we use technology to network and create communities of learners. Without meaningful, well-thought out comments, the discussion would end at the beginning of the thought. I now realize that as a responsible blogger, I must not only read the blogs of others, but also contribute my ideas and thoughts via commenting.
Which brings me to my second realization--I do have something valuable to contribute. Meredith Farkas' article on blog commenting discusses the reasons why so many people don't post comments. While my personal reason hasn't been that I don't want to share my thoughts and knowledge with others, I have been operating under the assumption that I don't have anything worthwhile or valuable to share. I now realize that as long as my comments are well thought out, they may be valuable to someone. Who am I, after all, to determine what may or may not be helpful or thought-provoking to others?
Blogging is such an effective tool for communication. Now I realize that it's not simply a one-sided forum. In order for a blog to be as effective as it can be, it must generate provoking, two-way dialogue. I invite you to, please, post comments on mine.

Thing #11

I am amazed by Library Thing--what a wonderful way to organize your books while networking with readers who have similar interests. I spent a lot of time playing around with this site and I found lots of interesting applications. Professionally, Library Thing is a great cataloging resource. There's always that stack of books that need to be cataloged but some piece of information is missing; this site can help locate that information.
This site can also be used by teachers and educators to organize their classroom collections, required reading lists, etc. I plan on encouraging my students to create their own accounts next year as a way to track the books that they've read and want to read.
I love the format of the site; I chose to display my collection by the book cover. It's so easy to network with people who have similar reading interests. I'm always looking for new books to read, so I plan on using this feature a lot. I also joined the group "Librarians who Library Thing" and enjoyed reading their concerns, frustrations, etc.
I am very excited about organizing my personal collection with Library Thing and can't wait to share this site with my book-loving friends.

Thing #10

I really enjoyed playing around with the online image generators. Wordle is a really cool tool that allowed me to make a word cloud with text. When playing around with it, I decided to submit an excerpt from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech since my eighth grade language arts classes do a unit on civil rights that includes this speech. While I really liked the result, I was unable to save it or print it, so I am a little bit disappointed. I think that the students would really enjoy examining it while studying the speech. I do, however, think that Wordle could easily be integrated into the classroom.

The main problem that I had with most of the image generators is that their products seem to be limited to online images. Oftentimes if I create an image, I want the option of printing it out. For this reason, I prefer the generators at Big Huge Labs. I really like the motivational poster tool and used it to make a reading poster. My idea for the upcoming school year is to take photos of teachers, staff, administrators, custodians, cafeteria workers, etc. reading books and creating posters of them to display around the school and on our campus slide show. I created the one shown here using an image from Flickr since I don't have any pictures yet. I am very excited about using this application as a way to motivate our students to read.

Thing #9

After using several search tools to locate RSS feeds, I have found that there are definitely some that I prefer more than others. My favorite was Google blog search; perhaps I prefer it the most because I'm so familiar with Google's formatting. While I enjoy using my Google reader account to stay updated on library practices and technology, I especially look forward to reading the blog posts about new literature and book reviews. When exploring these variety of search tools, I used the same search query for each one: "middle school literature." Google blog search returned the most relevant results; I particularly like one blog that I subscribed to called "A Year of Reading."
The search tools that I like the least include Blogline, Topix, and Syndic8. I found the formats of all of these confusing and not very user-friendly. With Blogline, the focus seemed to be the advertisements. Topix seemed to be focused on the news and Syndic8 was just not my style (my search returned zero results).
When searching for blogs to add to my Google reader account, I will probably use Google blog search most often. It is, however, nice to be aware of the many search tools that are available.

Thing #8

Wow--who knew that RSS feeds could be so cool? I've never before heard of such a thing, but now I don't know how I lived without a Google reader account. Like most people, I have my favorite websites & blogs that I periodically check out. The idea of having them come to me is something that I've never considered. Before I created my Google reader account, I would sit at my computer (when I had time) and think, "Now, which blog should I check?" Utilizing the RSS feed, I can now simply check my account and it will list for me the news and updates.
In my professional life, I must keep abreast of the advances in technology and library science. I subscribed to librarian posts such as "Librarian Philosopher" and "A Library by Any Other Name." Another challenge that I face as a librarian is keeping current on the new literature. To help with this, I searched for blogs that offer YA book reviews and awards. By typing "ALA book awards" and "young adult reading list" into the Google reader search engine, I was able to locate several blogs that have reviews and book lists. I ended up subscribing to four blogs that cover these topics: BPL Teens, Young Adults Central Blog, Suite 101: Teen Fiction Articles, and The LibrariYAn. I am excited to check my account for new, updated information.
This technology can be used by everyone in the education field. Teachers can use it to stay informed about instructional technology and teaching practices; administrators can use RSS feeds to stay current on leadership practices and scientific based research. I plan on sharing this easy-to-use application with my campus at the beginning of the year.

Thing #7

While Google has always been my search engine of choice, I was completely unaware of the many tools that it has to offer. I really enjoyed playing around and experimenting with them.
The first thing I did was set up an iGoogle page to be my web home page. I just love how I can customize it to my interests and location.
Google docs offers many applications that I can use as a librarian. The concept of utilizing an online, shared spreadsheet is something that I can really use. Every year, the task of completing a campus-wide equipment inventory involved my sending out e-mails and reminders to teachers. With the Google docs spreadsheet, I can create a spreadsheet that all of my campus' teachers can access to fill out their information.
I also appreciate the concept of the Google calendar. I plan on using it next year to organize my library scheduling. My campus has semi-flexible scheduling with each language arts class coming in once every two weeks; remaining days are open for classes wishing to complete research, etc. With an online shared calendar, I can post the schedule and share it with all of my teachers, who can then use it to reserve days. Rather than creating a schedule and putting a hard copy in each teacher's mailbox, they can access it online.

Thing #6

Wow--I am in awe of the cool things that can be done with Flickr Mash-Ups. These applications are a dream come true for teachers. They offer students and teachers one more way to integrate technology into the classroom. One project that my language arts classes do every year is create movie posters based on the novel that they've read. Big Huge Labs has a fantastic application for doing just that.

One thing that I was planning on doing next year was create badges for my student aides. I think that it will give them a sense of formality about the job that they are doing as well as help them be in compliance with school policy. I used the badge maker on the Big Huge Labs website to create a preliminary template for badges next year (I used my blog profile photo in lieu of a student's).

I really enjoyed playing around with these sites. I am very excited about sharing them with my learning community next school year.

Thing #5

I have never used Flickr before today--what a fabulous resource! When searching for pictures online, I always use the "image" function of the major search engines; one problem with these, however, is their copyright status. I love how Flickr has a separate site for Creative Commons licensed materials--now I can be confident that the images I use (and direct my students towards using) are within copyright guidelines. I also appreciate the quality of the images; there are some really amazing photographs.

I've posted a photograph of the gates of Auschwitz that I got from Flickr. I chose this image because my eighth graders come into the library to research the Holocaust as part of an instructional unit. I was curious as to what kinds of historical photographs Flickr had to offer and was pleased to discover that they have a huge bank to pull from.

Thing #3

Setting up my blog was a lot easier than I thought it would be. The Blogger website is very user-friendly and does a great job of walking users through the various steps. Although the basic template and components are outlined, there was plenty of room for customization.
I really enjoyed creating my avatar. There are so many options to choose from! I am disappointed, however, that I was unable to get my avatar to display on my blog page. I followed the modified instructions on Library2Play, but I just couldn't get it figured out.
Now that I've set up my blog, I am ready to continue blogging!

Thing #2

As an educator, I consider myself to be a lifelong learner. In addition to the staff development mandated by my profession (and in order to receive those much cherished district comp days), I pursue many interests in my personal life. Any pursuit involves educating myself, whether formally or informally.
Insofar as the 7 & 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners are concerned, I find the first one--beginning with the end in mind-- to be the easiest. Anytime I set out to educate myself about something, I have an end goal in mind, whether it's learning how to use technology or fixing some new, untried cuisine for dinner.
Of all the habits, number three is probably the most difficult for me: View problems as challenges. Sometimes I find it difficult to keep that attitude when a "roadblock" appears in my path. If I find a particular learning opportunity to be less than enjoyable, I am sometimes easily dissuaded from continuing. I think it's important to maintain a positive attitude, and a large part of that involves perceiving problems as challenges to be overcome.