Week 9, Thing # 23 Summarizing it all

I learned so much from this experience. I'd never listened to a podcast before, much less known how to find one! You Tube was only slightly familiar, RSS feeds were untouched, etc. Now I've signed up for so many various feeds I've flooded myself with too much information, but it's so hard to resist!
I loved some of the sites, and have shared the info with teachers, students, and my own family. There's been a touch of awe from many of them, first at the technology, and also at the fact that I even know about it...I'm surprised myself.
The course has helped me to overcome some of the reluctance, and even fears, I had about approaching some of these things, and I feel much more comfortable with exploring on my own, now, too. What's the worst that can happen, anyway?
The nine weeks is fast, and maybe too compact for me. I fell behind and had to cram the past few days in order to get it all done. I had some trouble learning how to blog, and may not have included all that I wished to, or should have, so that is an ongoing learning experience. I'd like to keep the blog, or at least start another, to use in collaborative projects with teachers and students in my high school media center. It will be a great way to share info on recommended sites, homework, projects, new book and materials, etc.
While not a fan of Wikipedia, I've come to appreciate the give and take of this kind of technology, and really appreciate the variety of opinions and voices to be found in shared online communities. School library media teachers are all about collaboration, which is found in huge quantities in SchoolLibrary Learning 2.0.
Thanks so much to our Californina colleagues for preparing this course, and the MSLA for offering it to us.
In one sentence:
"This is the best professional development offering I've ever participated in."

Week 9, Thing # 22 ebooks and audio ebooks

I've got a fairly large collection of audiobooks (mostly donated) in my high school library. Most are on audiocassettes, and are bulky and inconvenient to use, as students no longer have Walkmen on which to listen to them. Tiny technology now, and so much more convenient. I think it's important to offer these audio formats, as many people learn better by listening, or in different venues.
I looked at the Project Gutenberg link, and downloaded all of Jane Austen's Emma in less than a minute. Clear print, and easy to read, though it required rotating the text every two-page spread. Over all it is amazing!
I also found the link to Distributed Proofreaders---they are looking for volunteers to proofread materials to be included in the project. This was a real example of the communal and sharing nature of much of these new technologies.

Week 9, Thing #21 Podcasts

I looked at a number of the podcast directories; I thought "Educational Podcast Directory" was my favorite, as it's clear and easy to use. I looked at Travel, Foreign Language, and ESL sites, all areas of personal interest. I know of people who have saved podcast travel info on their Ipods and have used them as guided tours in other cities.
Lots of nice things to listen to, and useful for self-instruction, especially if listening to native speakers when learning a foreign language.

Week 9, Thing #20

You Tube is blocked in my school; too many instances of "inappropriate content" to pass muster. Students complain about that a lot, and once in a while we can get it unblocked to access something, but it's not easy.
I look at it from time to time, usually on recommendation from someone who wants me to check out a funny or instructive video. There's so much on it, and it's fun to browse, you can find yourself wandering far off the beaten path.

Try http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJlkplvYdgA

Week 8, Thing #19---make that LibraryThing

I liked looking into this site, but I never enjoy cataloging; not at work, and certainly not at home! Still, I can understand the fun in joining a large cirle of like-minded readers, and it could be useful for book clubs, curriculum connections, and the like.
I did link to my mini-collection in LibraryThing for this exercise, and there are MANY others who have tagged the Jane Austen novels.
Tags are growing on me---once I read the comparison to putting labels on folders, and having the same thing in more than one folder it made more sense. How many times I've looked in my recipe file for apple squares, and had to search under apple, brownies, cookies, squares, before finding it---usually on the shelf beside the box, waiting to be filed...

Week 8, Thing # 18

That's my Zoho document in the previous posting. So easy! Students using the library computers are always asking to send their work to themselves at home, or to another student--web applications such as this are much better for that type of collaboration and multiple-venue working. You learn something new everyday...

Untitled

Starting with Zoho

 

I do some work for school at home, and will sometimes forget to email myself the document, or to save it to a memory stick. I'll use this site for all that type of work in the future. I've tried Google Docs, but like the Zoho set-up more.  It seems friendlier,   easier to use, and has many ecstra extra features to incorporate.

 

 

Week 7, Thing #16 wikis and libraries

Libraries would be smart to promote wikis as a community resource for shared discussion and reviewing of books and materials, among other uses. The Princeton wiki does this.
The Joyce Valenza wiki was inspiring, as all her materials are. She supplies so much information, so many places to find it, the usual copyright cautions, the fun sites...a superstar in the field for the rest of us mortals to admire.
School "group projects" are a natural for wikis, with contributions from all members of the group going into the wiki, and all members accessing the info from wherever they are. I see a lot of opposition to group projects in my high school because of the conflicting schedules students have, but this is a way to avoid that.

Week 6, Thing #15 perspectives on Web 2.0 and the future of libraries

I loved reading the OCLC newsletter in this exercise. It's so optimistic, hopeful and sweet, and loaded with technical jargon at the same time. Like reading a certain type of science fiction. I found the images of Library 4.0 very inviting---a knowledge spa!!! immersed in luxuries such as thought ! and "aromatic cigars"---away from the "technohustle"...where are the students in this utopian scene? I can't make them out in the aromatic cigar smoke...but I can hardly wait, it sounds like a nice place to work. In the meantime I have to log off,as my present work day, with its students and start-up technology begins in just a few short hours!

Week 6 , #14 Technorati

I found this site to be hard to use; whenever I tried to access it, each page took forever to load. It has a very lean look to it, with a spare, linear, "print" feel, rather than graphic, which surprised me. I'm not into blogging enough to want to wait around for it to load, but can see its usefulness in tracking down the obscure and fleeting.

Week 6, #13 Del.icio.us and tagging

This has potential as a research tool; setting it up in advance, using it to guide students to sites you want them to visit; searching for sites related to a subject you are teaching or learning. The "tags", and following their lead, aren't of much interest to me; I think I can tag a site in my own mind and rely on years of other kinds of research to guide my internet searching, though it's interesting to see how, in "tagging", others have used the sites.

Week 5, #10 Image Generators

I looked at a few of these. Nice sites, but I am having trouble getting the image to link
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Made with free image tools @ TXT2PIC.comere from the image generator.

Week 5, #10

Week 5, Thing # 12 Rollyo

I created a searchroll on Anne Tyler, to use with an English class. I hope it works out with them. Again, I see the usefulness of this tool, and again, I wonder how I will ever have the time to set it up for class use!

Week 5, Thing # 11

I looked at Pandora, a site where you create your own "radio station" by entering the name of a song or musician, and have the site generate a playlist of similar songs/artists. You can also set it up by genre. Registration is free, and you can set up scores of "stations" to listen to. I asked a couple of young people to take a look at it , too, and the response was overwhelmingly positive; "I listen to that at work all the time!/ "I love it!"/etc.
It would be a fun project to have students in a foreign language class set up a station related to their language studies, or a cultural activity for "salsa" or "jazz" music--they are broken down even further in those categories. This is a really fun, creative site, and I'm so glad I found it!

Week 3 Thing #7--some technology of interest to me

I learned to use Microsoft Moviemaker by creating a DVD for my parents' 55th anniversary. I matched a musical soundtrack of my own choosing with hundreds of family photos to make a wonderful anniversary surprise. This is a simple program that could be used in classrooms for foreign language travel info, social studies units, English classes, drama, etc.
I had a good time with it, too, during the production and the "premier showing"--not a dry in the house, especially when we laughed at our terrible hair styles through the years.

Week 4, Thing # 8 and # 9- RSS feeds

I set up and account and am now impressed with the information overload I'm laboring under. There's just so much out there of interest, and while RSS is simple and easy to set up, the huge amount of information that I could spend hours sifting through doesn't simplify much for me! There are some great sites of both professional and personal interest that I signed up for, and this is a good tool to know about; I can recommend it to teachers and family but with a warning--exercise with caution!
I found there to be such an ease of use and such a vast number of sites that this quickly becomes too much. I don't want to spend so much time managing and looking at sites and tools.

Week 3 "Thing # 7"

I spent a lot of time today---all alone---looking at "social" sites. I think I am more traditional person-to-person social at this time, not yet "social network" social enough to be comfortable and time-efficient in using these. It's even taking me quite a bit of time to get this post to the blog...hmmm. I did like what I found at this link, however, and will share with you.
http://www.coverpop.com/pop/flickr_stickfigures/

Week 3 Photos & Images

I spent quite a bit of time looking through Flickr this afternoon. It's a "snow day" from school, so I was drawn to pictures of both warm climates and icy scenes.
This one also caught my eye and interest.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaspi/7971252/

From the Shelves

Setting up a blog is a different experience; a start today of something new.