Friday, August 13, 2010

Thing #23: Copyright, Creative Commons, and Congratulations!

Whew!  What a great feeling of accomplishment I have!  I guess the third time really is a charm!  But first things first...
I enjoyed watching the copyright law clip.  Lots of good points are stressed in a creative way.
I looked at the resources listed for Creative Commons and understand that but am still sort of confused.  I read somewhere how you should always double check to see if something you want to use has a creative commons license but I don't understand how to do that.
I searched for other 23 Things programs and found several.  When I looked at the original by Helene Blowers, I saw a few differences in sequence but no major differences in content.  I did see the prizes though. Hmmm!  Oh well, I'm content with the knowledge I finally gained.
When I tried to complete the survey, I got the message Unable to Access Survey.  If you want to email it to me, I would complete it that way.
Closing Thoughts
1.  Favorite Discoveries - I think my favorite discovery was how easy wikis are to use and the multiple uses they have.  I really want to get some wikis embedded in my library website for my students to use.
2.  Lifelong Learning Goals - Through this program, learned about lots of things that I had heard of but been afraid of before.  I always avoided topics like wikis and podcasts at conferences because I had no idea how to use them.  That is over.  I am anxious to start using them with my students and teachers.  I guess this should me not to fear the unknown.
3.  Surprises or Unexpected Outcomes - I guess my biggest surprise is that I finally finished this course. 
4.  I really enjoyed the format of the program.  I guess I would like to see more communication between participants but I'm guilty of that, too. I still need to go back and make comments.
5.  After seeing how much I learned through this program, I would definitely participate in another one like it.
6.  One word - That's a hard one!  It seems that every time I learned something new, I thought to myself that I couldn't wait to share it.  So I guess that has to be my thought.  "Ready to Share"

Thanks for a great learning experience.  I wish I would have completed it the first time I registered so I could have started sharing last year!

Thing #22: Audiobooks and ebooks

I have looked online for ebooks before.  In the past though, I had limited my search to mostly free books for my Kindle.  I wasn't very successful so I had a rather negative opinion of ebooks.  I understand where they are very useful with students, especially ESL students.  I just haven't had much luck finding free downloads that I though my students would be interested in reading.
For this "Thing," first I searched in the Gutenburg Project.  I had a hard time narrowing down my search.  I tried to use the Advanced Search option but didn't have much success.  When I finally found a book I thought my students would like, Black Beauty, I tried to download it but I chosse not to buy a year subscription so ... no luck there.
I found Librovox easier to use but still had little luck finding titles to download.  When I searched and found Black Beauty in that catalog it appeared to me that I had to download a chapter or section at a time. 
I do encourage the use of audiobooks with my students.  In the past in our library, we have had an large section of books on cassette tape.  However, that seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur.  We are getting ready to use audiobooks next year in the form of playaways available from Follette Library resources.  I am anxious to share these with my students.  In the meantime, I will continue to look for good free or reasonably priced ebooks to use.

Thing #21: Podcasts

The term podcast terrified me.  I would hear it at conferences and panic.  "I kkow nothing about this," I would think.  What a waste of worry over a simple thing.  After finding and listening several podcasts, I am thinking of a bunch of ways to use this in my library.  I would love to start doing book talk podcasts so the students can get recommendations for books anywhere, home, the classroom or in the library.  That is another thing to add to my goal list for the year. 
I used PoscastAlley to search for podcasts.  I found a great children's book review site called Childrens Book Radio.  I added it to my RSS feeds but then I noticed it isn't updated very often.

I tried to use the Yahoo Posdcast directory but found it it had been taken down in October, 2007.  I then tried the Educational Podcast Network.  I didn't think it had a very appealing interface.  I think students would turn off right away.  When I tried to use it, I found a bunch of the links couldn't be found.  Frustrating!

Thing #20: YouTube

Browsing around YouTube was a blast.  I could have spent a lot more time with this thing but I'm trying to finish today.  First I searched for librarian and found lots of fun stuff.  I love the librarian song by Joe Uveges.  It's not something I'd use at school but I thought it was funny.


I used this video during childrens' book week.  My students LOVED it.  I showed it to all my classes and one day I played the whole song over the intercom.  I had kids singing it the rest of the week. 


I really enjoyed browsing around YouTube and not being accused of wasting time.  :)  The only problem I have is that YouTube is blocked at my school.  My tech department is very helpful though if there is a video we need.  We also are able to use the site keepvid.com to show YouTube clips to our students.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Thing #19: Library Thing

Oh my!  I have said this for other "things" but I REALLY love this thing.  Library thing is great.  Years ago I kept track of books I'd read in a notebook.  What a pain that was.  I am going to share library thing with family, colleagues, students, anyone who reads.  Nothing is more frustrating than curling up with a good book and realizing you've already it!  Library Thing will eliminate that! 
Every year, I have trouble getting students to use a reading log.  I would think that older students would love to use Library thing to keep track of his/her books read.  Can't wait to try it out!

Thing #18: Online Productivity Tools



Wow! As the document appeared from Zoho, I think I actually jumped with surprise. I was a bit confused on how to publish to my blog but stayed with it and finally figured it out! Ta-da!
As I played with Zoho, I found it VERY easy to use due to the similarities with Microsoft Office. Students would have a very easy time making the transition. I can see teaching students to use this application to ease document accessibility. No more excuses like "But teacher, I emailed it to you. I must have the wrong address." or "I don't know what's wrong with my flash drive, must have a virus!"

Thing #17: Playing in the sandbox

I found several creative ideas for using wikis. My goals for the year include using wikis to 1) have students write books reviews and add comments, 2) start book clubs for students and faculty, 3) use a wiki to communicate with district librarians, 4) try to get my principal to use a wiki to disperse campus plan information and get feedback on the plan. Lofty goals but goals none the less.

Thing #16: Wikis

SJCPL Subject guides:  This site has a huge amount of information presented in a very organized way.  It seemed to be quite user friendly.  Thing only negative thing I found was links that are not active anymore.  tends to be frustrating for adults -- kids would really turn off.
Book Lovers Wiki:  I loved this wiki.  Of course, I could have spent hours reading book reviews.  Must press on!
Library Success:  I found this wiki to be FULL of very useful information.  What a great professional resource.
CSLA Event wiki:  I am familiar with wikis like this.  The instructional technology specialist in my district creates a wiki when he goes to TCEA.  We also use wikis like to when organizing our district technology showcase.
Albany library staff wiki:  I thought this was an interesting way to present information. I question allowing unrestricted access though.
Library Bloggers wiki:  This site has a lot of good information on it but you have to do some wading to get to it. 
Sample school wikis:  I would like to try to start using wikis more at my school.  Students could create them to review books and teachers could share successful lesson ideas and more.
Teacherllibrarian wiki:  This is an example of a  wiki I would love to get started at my school.

Thing #15: Future of Libraries Web 2.0

I read the article "Away from Icebergs" by Rick Anderson.  As much as I cling to books, I agree with his idea of limiting our "just in case" collection.  Frequently, my students come to the library for research with a very specific topic.  Usually we don't have books on that topic.  In the past, that would cause a disappointed student to change the topic but not now.  With all the information we have access to online, students can chose a topic they are interested in.
I also agree with the idea that all the technology we use must be user friendly.  All of my students don't have the opportunity to come to the library for instruction so it's a hit or miss process for my lessons.  I love using applications that are easy to figure out or can be taught by other students. 
I also read the article "Into a New World of Librarianship" by Michael Stephens.  I agree with every point he made.  Librarians in a Web 2.0 age need to be need to listen to users when planning, offer access to Web 2.0 tools but not go crazy for technology.  Too often in the education world, we jump into something new only to find later that it didn't meet our needs at all.  Technology needs to enhance education, not take it over.
Stpehens says a librarian must get content.  I think the role of a librarian has changed so much from the "keeper of the books" to one of "information acquisition goddess."  Students have to be able to find and evaluate information on a daily basis.
When I think of Library 2.0 I see an evolving vision of books, both print and ebooks, technology, and information aquisition.  However, most of all, the vision needs to be driven by the love of learning and reading.

Thing #14: Technorati

Technorati was very confusing to me. I tried to search on School Library learning 2.0 and got no results in either blogs or posts.  I found the blog directory and found no results there.  In the tag list, I found the tags most used in the last month but didn't figure out how to search by tag.  Ugh!  I am frustrated!
I created an account and then tried to claim my bog.  I hit a brick wall.  On the ESC 1 23 Things site, everytime I tried to open the link for claiming my bog, I was redirected to back to the 23 things site.  I never was able to figure it out. 
I can see where Technorati would be helpful for some but I don't see myself using it much.  So many of the other tools have have learned about are much more useful to me.

Thing #13: Delicious

I have used Delicious for about a year now.  I LOVE it.  I have created two separate accounts, one for personal websites and one for school use.  In the school account, I put any website I think my teachers would find helpful.  If we use an website during an inservice I mark it with our Delicious bookmarks.  That way they don't need to write down the website.  Too often the site is copied wrong or the notes are lost.  I even have marked recipes that were a favorite served during meetings.  My teachers love this, too.  The user name for our school Delicious account is Garzatechtips. 
With my personal account, I save tons of links.  When I see a cool website in a magazine, I mark it with Delicious.  Then I tag it.  Some of my tags include recipes, weight loss, health, shopping, books.
The thing I like best about delicious is that I can go to my bookmarks no matter what computer I'm on.

Thing #12: Rollyo

I created a search roll using Rollyo to use with my students in the library.  I wanted to create a search roll for students to use to help them find read alike books.  My search roll is call "If you liked..."  At this point I/m not sure how I will use it in the library but the sites I added were hugely helpful.

Thing #11: Exploring Web 2.0 award winning applications

I enjoyed looking through the list of award winning applications.  Some of the sites I have used before: Pandora, Kayak, Craigslist, Facebook, Delicious.  There were several I added to my favorites to use more.  I liked two of the sites listed under the Health category.  Revolution Health and Peer Trainer were very useful.  I created an account with Peer Trainer and now will receive a healthy lifestyle tip everyday by email.  They also provide places to keep diet and workout information.  Revolution Health is a plethora of useful information.  This site would be very helpful in preparing health lessons.

Thing #10: Online Image Generators

I had a lot of fun looking through all the different online image generators.  I could quickly see many ways these could be used in the library.  I do a birthday book club to raise money for the library and the students would love to see their picture on a magazine cover rather than just a simple picture.  Our library theme for this year is "Be a Star @ the library!"  I loved the image above to use with that theme.
Three times a year we have a RIF distribution.  I could see using image generators to create excitement and go with the distribution theme.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Thing #9: Useful Library Blogs and Newsfeeds

As I browsed through the blog seraching tools listed, I was slightly overwhemed at the vastness of information available on any given topic.  I can see where these searching tools would be VERY useful when looking for certain information.  However, Iam afraid if I added very many to my RSS Reader list, I would get very little else done and spend most of my time reading feeds.  But, that being said, I did find several of the searching tool useful.

1. Google Blog Search:  I thought this was easy to use.  I searched Caldecott award and came up with many interesting sites.

2.  Blogline's search tool:  the message came up.  Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /search on this server.

3.  Edublogs award winning sites:  I loved this tool.  I came up with a particularly intersting site to me on free techonlogy tools for teachers.  Lots of good information to share with my staff.  I liked this site also because the less helpful sites have been weeded out, saving me lots of time.

4. Topix.net:  This was interesting but I found other search tools more helpful.

5.  Syndicate8.com:  I found this site extremely confusing to use.

6.  Technorati:  Although fairly easy to use, this search tool wasn't my favorite. 

7.  Blog Pulse:  I tried searching with this tool and had some success.  However, I don't think I personally, will have much need to track conservations.

After exploring all the serach tools listed, I found my favorites to Google Blog Search and Edublogs award wining sites.  I know those two tools will be added to my toolbox.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Thing #8: RSS Feeds

Wow!  Learning about RSS feeds has been fanastic.  I love not having to search every website I look at on a regular basis for what is newly added.  Of course, now I will be on the computer even more!!!  I added a bunch of feeds to my page but I can see that my list may need to be edited so I continue to have a life! 

I can see where RSS feeds would be very helpful to teachers who use blogs on a regular basis.  (Note to self-an inservice on blogs would be a super start to the beginning of the year, then go to setting up a reader page.)  As a librarian, blogs that review books are really helpful.  I love Teri Lesesne's website.  Her reviews are always fun to read.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Thing #7: Cool Google Tools

I learned a lot exploring all the cool google tools.  I can see where many of these would be helpful in educational setting.  I set up a Google calendar and added just a few events (after all, it is summer).  I was surprised when I checked my email and saw the reminders.  I can see where students could use the calendar feature as a planner and assignment reminder.  Our school uses Gaggle e-mail and the reminders could be sent to that email address.
I also looked at the alert feature.  I like to keep up on events in my hometown when I am not there and by setting up an alert on it, I can see when newsworthy events happen.  I can see where this tool could be used for a reseach project or current event study by students.
I couldn't believe how many tools were listed in the "even more" section.  I REALLY liked the checkout tool being the internet shopper that I am!