I'm now a graduate!

I just logged on to see who else finished their 23 Things and I found my blog listed under "Congratulations Graduates!" Wow! What a thrill! There were times I didn't think I would make it and now I am a 23 Things Graduate! It will be sweet dreams tonight! Thanks VMB for updating me on Library2Play!

Thing #23 - The End

Wow! What a journey! I can't believe I have made it to the end! This has been an incredible learning experience and I am grateful to our Kickball Captains for putting this together for us to explore, learn, stretch, and grow. Here is a summation of my thoughts about this journey...

What were your favorite discoveries along the way?
Blogging, comic strip generator, Google Reader, igoogle, Library Thing, podcasting, & vidcasting, just to name a few!

How has this program assisted or affected your life-long learning goals?
I love learning new things and this program has given me the opportunity to learn many new things! Most importantly, I have learned that I still have a lot to learn! It was also great fun reading the blogs of others and seeing what interesting things they found along the way.

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes that surprised you?
Take aways were many! For one thing, I have thought about starting a blog for awhile, but have never really taken the time to set one up and learn about it. This program has forced me to do that and I really have enjoyed keeping my blog. I have been thinking about the direction I would like to see my blog move in now that the 23 Things are done. Another surprise to me was how many people are spending a lot of time online and what great things they have created for us to "play" with! (i.e. Flickr, Library Thing, Trading Card Maker, etc.)

What could we do differently to improve upon this program's format or concept?
Overall this has been a fabulous experience! However some of our "things" were quite time consuming. Maybe we could have fewer "things", or for the "things" that are heavy in activity, like the whole Google section, that could be divided up into smaller steps. Also, having talked to several players that were less familiar with technology, I think there needs to be either more specific instructions for a few of the things, or one or two face to face meetings after school.

If we offered another discovery program like this would you choose to play?
Of course, I am a glutton for punishment!

How would you describe your learning experience in one word or one sentence?
Amazing, mind-boggling, fantastic, appropriate,...yes I know it is more than one word! I just couldn't stop myself!

Thing #22 - Nings

This was something new to me - Nings! These are an interesting way to explore social networking through web 2.0. For safety and security reasons I have never been comfortable with sites like MySpace or FaceBook so, I appreciate the idea of creating your own social network and one ning I tried to visit was limited to invitation only, allowing for more security for those in the ning. Honestly, I can't see myself joining a ning. However, I did enjoy looking at several. One of the features that I liked are the specialization of nings. You can choose to join a specific group for a specific reason (i.e. librarians, knitters, etc.) On the TeacherLibrarian Ning, I like the videos and looking at the different groups. The Texas School Librarian one was very similar(photos, forums, videos), but not as many members or groups.

I did visit Nings.com and searched through some others. I found a good one for knitters with a link to a knitting website I had visited before. I also just browsed through some others. One thing I can see is that there is an enormous amount of people online!

I tend to agree with Ms. Frazzled on this one...I may have to create a second life to be able to keep up with all of these new 2.0 tools!

Wait...what is that I see? Is it the light at the end of the tunnel??!! I think I may have made it!!! On to Thing #23!

Thing #21 - Podcasts

Whew! This one took some work! Unfortunately, I don't even know if you will be able to hear it! After much trial and error, I don't think the sound recording is working quite right on my computer - probably user error! With the headphones on, I can hear it clear as a bell. Without the headphones I have to turn up my volume all the way to hear it just a little bit. Hummm... it is a problem!

I really love podcasting and vidcasting. For Thing 21 I decided to create a book review using Photo Story. I have long admired one done by a fellow librarian! Now I have a new respect for this! It has taken me all day to do this! Well, in between all of the other demands on my time! First I had to find images, then write out my script, and of course I went back and rerecorded multiple times! When I had to choose music it almost sent me over the edge! I am pleased with my finished product (if the audio portion will work!) However, I don't know how many of these I will be doing, but I will definitely teach some kids how to do this!

I have been working with a second grade teacher at my school on podcasting for the past month. We have had great fun teaching the second graders how to podcast on Audacity. Check out their book reviews!

Here is the Photo Story on Belle Teal by Ann M. Martin

Thing #20 - You Tube & Teacher Tube

I had never really explored You Tube or Teacher Tube prior to Thing #20. My nephews however are proficient on You Tube! They love the Harry Potter puppet videos among other funny videos. Well after spending a couple of hours on these two sites, I now understand the allure! I started off my search for educational things like "libraries" and "Web 2.0", but before I knew it, I was watching video clips on Pride and Prejudice and other movies! I know I have said this before, but I am blown away by the sheer volume of content on these two sites! Amazing!

I will agree that much of what is on You Tube is not appropriate for elementary school students, but there are some good quality videos there and I appreciate the information on Zamzar as to how to save them into a different file format for use at school. Having said that, the video I chose to embed has little educational value, but great sentimental value! Cookie Monster at the Library!



Teacher Tube was definitely more educational in value! I do wish there was a way to search for videos by age (i.e. elementary, middle school, high school, professional). There may be a way, but I didn't find it. I did finally search the groups for elementary videos and found this one called "Science Detective". There is no audio on this video, but I think students would really like it and I thought this is a good idea for something students could create themselves. A good idea for our PGP kids!



Now that I have crossed the divide into You Tube and Teacher Tube, there is no going back! I will just have to make sure I spend as much time looking for educational videos as I do on other videos, such as the plethora of videos on Pride and Prejudice!

Thing #19 - Web 2.0

Once again I am amazed and a bit overwhelmed at the number of 2.0 sites out there - and these are just the award winners! Many of the sites we have explored in our 23 Things were on the Award Winner list! Some others that I found interesting were:

1. Biblio.com - a website that lets you search for used, rare, & out-of-print books and purchase them from independent booksellers through their website. I looked up some of my favorite children's books that are out of print and found out where I could buy them!

2. Pandora - this one was just for me! This is a music website that sets up your own personal "radio" station. You put in a song or artist that you like and then Pandora creates a play list/radio station just for you with similar songs. Of course you can also buy the songs you like!

3. Listdump - If you love lists - this is a great one to check out! Basically you can go on and create a list or add to others' lists. There were list on best mountain ranges, best food websites, top ten tips for salary negotiations, etc. You can create your own list and have others add to it or rank the items in your list. I was thinking that this would be a good idea to use with students since creating lists is a writing genre. However, as I explored the site further I found some lists that were clearly adult in nature. So this site should not be used with students, but you could use the idea of creating lists with your students. Students could come up with a list title and then have their peers add to their list.

4. One Sentence - This is another great idea: write a true story in one sentence. You can add tags to your sentence and then others can rate it. Again I thought this would be another great idea to use with students, but once more I found some clearly adult sentences. So...the best thing to do would be to pull off some of the better one story sentences and use them as examples for your students and then let them write their own.

5. Fuzzmail - Again another fun one. I first saw this one on Happy Harping's blog. I tried it out myself and it is fun! You type in an email message and send it. When the message opens it types out the message you typed exactly as you typed it - same speed and including typos! It is fun. This would be a fun thing for students to use to be able to see how fast they are typing!

All in all - a fun place to play!

Thing #18 - Online Productivity Tools

I checked out Google Docs and was pretty impressed. What I like most is the ability to share the documents with multiple people and the changes are maintained in real time. I can see using this especially in situations where you are collaborating with other people. This would be a great tool for group presentations in either high school or college courses.

Advantages of online tools:

1. Free
2. Supports multiple platforms - you can upload & export in various file formats.
3. You can save the files online (at least with Google Docs).
4. Access anywhere there is a Internet connection.
5. Can share and collaborate with multiple people. Changes are maintained in real time.

Disadvantages:

1. Learn a new "software."
2. Doesn't have all of the bells and whistles as MS Office products.
3. Need to be familiar with various file formats to know how to export documents based on who you are sending them to.

I think that online productivity tools will continue to add more features to allow for easier use for users. I did notice that currently Google Docs is not compatible with MS Office 2007 which saves documents in a new file format (.docx).

Personally, I like the MS Office products, but if I were buying a new computer and had to purchase the Office suite (currently priced at about $330.00) I would definitely consider using Google Docs or another online productivity tool.

Thing #17 - Playing in the Sandbox

The Sandbox wiki is too cool! The feel of sand between my toes, a bucket, a shovel, some water - I am ready to make some mud pies! Oh, but before I do, onto my post! I never knew the term "sandbox" was used for certain wiki pages! It was fun to browse through other peoples sand castles! Lots of good ideas! I especially like the one about using wikis in Math for Problem of the Week! I think I stated several uses for a wiki in my previous post, but after looking at the PB Wiki videos, I want to add another idea: the calendar! What a great gadget for a wiki! This could be used to schedule research times or special project work time in the library! Hmm...I may have to look into this one! Must go...the mud pies are just about ready!

Thing #16 - Wikis

Ah Wikis! Finally something I am familiar with! Wikis are very useful tools for collaborative projects. I loved some of the wiki links provided by Library2Play. The one from the AASL conference was really web 2.0 at its best: the creating of a wiki at a conference during a presentation and as the final result of the presentation!
Another interesting one was the 10 grade English wiki. This is a perfect example of how a wiki can be used in a school setting - as a literature circle discussion.
Educational uses of wikis:
1. Book club discussions
2. Project planner, collaborator, and final project posting for students
3. Teachers to share resources
4. Teachers to create web pages
5. Students to create web pages
6. Create a page on samples of good writing
7. Chronicle a unit or special field trip
The possibilities are endless!

The question has been brought up as to when to use a wiki versus a blog. I recently read a great post on this from the SBISD EdTech Blog comparing wikis, blogs, and discussion boards. Check it out! Well done Kary!

Thing #15 - Library 2.0

I am a frequent user of my neighborhood public library and every time I drive into full parking lot and walk into the book/technology filled building bustling with people and activity I think to myself, "People who say libraries are antiquated and unused resources should come visit here!" In fact, I have had opportunities to visit many public libraries in my city in the past 5 years and I will tell you - they are always full of people and activity! To some extent I feel our libraries are on the 2.0 path already. I feel in my school district, our libraries are definitely on the 2.0 path! And thanks to our fearless leader, we are actually being drug down the path whether we want to go or not! (Most of us want to go!)

The video clip from this post was not something new to me. In fact I think this discussion of what kids are or are not learning in schools and universities and how that will apply to them when they get into the job force has been going on since I was in college - and that was awhile back! The truth is, the world is constantly changing, updating, and evolving. This is nothing new. I think we (education) do a good job teaching our students to be problem solvers and life long learners. We have to - that is the way of the world yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

A few points I would like to address from the articles I read:
1. In Rick Anderson's article "Away from the Icebergs", I would like to comment on 2 of his points. First, the "just in case collection." The discussion of books going away and being replaced by digital only reading has been going on for at least 10 years if not longer and I firmly believe that books are not going anywhere - at least not anytime soon! If you think differently just visit your local public library or your local Barnes & Noble or Borders. See how many people are in the store, how many people are in line to check-out or pay, and how many books are in their hands. Books aren't going anywhere. Now, I don't think we should build up collections for a "just in case" need. I never have thought that. In my own school library I take collection development very seriously. I spend a lot of time carefully choosing books and resources that meet the needs of my users but at the same time maybe introduce them to new things as well. It is a balancing act that every good librarian performs.
Second, the point he made on "reliance on user education" was right on target. We don't have the staff or resources to "teach" our patrons how to use difficult or highly technical resources, and believe me our patrons will already have found an easier solution, even if less accurate and reliable, to their research needs. Therefore, I fully agree that we need easy to use services that can be used without training.

2. In Michael Stephens article "Into a New World of Librarianship", he makes the point that Library 2.0 planning should be user-centered. I think is is interesting he feels it is necessary to say this. Shouldn't all library planning be user centered? If it hasn't been this way, then why not? Isn't that why we are in this profession?

3. Finally, I love what Dr. Wendy Schultz had to say in the article "To a temporary place in time...". Libraries are conversations and communities! Again, I challenge you to go visit your local public library and see what you will find - conversations and community! I especially love her thoughts on Library 4.0 : The Experience: "This will be the library for the aesthetic economy, the dream society, which will need libraries as mind gyms; libraries as idea labs; libraries as art salons. But let’s be clear: Library 4.0 will not replace Libraries 1.0 through 3.0; it will absorb them. The library as aesthetic experience will have space for all the library’s incarnations: storage (archives, treasures); data retrieval (networks—reference rooms); and commentary and annotation (salon)...the LIBRARY: a WiFREE space, a retreat from technohustle, with comfortable chairs, quiet, good light, coffee and single malt. You know, the library." It sounds divine, I want to go now!

Thing #14 - Technorati & How Tags Work

Another 2.0 or social networking tool - Technorati! Technorati searches blogs in the blogoshpere! (I love this term blogoshpere!) You can search blog posts, blogs, and tags. In the video clip we watched it said you could search blog directories, but I think Technorati has changed their page and I wasn't able to find that. I did search "school library learning 2.0" and discovered there are many people out there doing "23 Things!"

I like how Technorati returns results in real time - telling you how long ago something was posted on a blog. It is amazing to me the vastness of the blogoshpere! I looked at some of the popular searches and the popular blogs. Not surprising, most of the popular blogs have something to do with Technology!

I also did a search on my blog and I found it on Technorati! It is fun to see your own stuff come up on a search like that. It just reiterates the fact that nothing is private on the Internet, so be careful what you write!! While poking around in Technorati I got sidetracked looking at different blogs - the point of Technorati I think!

As far as using Technorati, I probably will if I want to search other blogs, or try to find out what blogs are out there on a particular subject. Other than that objective, I don't know that I will use it for its other features simply because I have other ways to do favorites and keep up to date on blog posts.

Now to tagging - as I wrote earlier tagging is simply applying keywords, or subject headings for you library folk, to things in order to classify them for yourself. My problem in tagging is I don't always remember the tags that I have used in the past, so I don't know how uniform my tagging is!

Thing #13 - Tagging and Discovering Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us and tagging - reminds of the ikeepbookmarks website; one that was introduced to me by a fellow librarian several years ago. The idea is the same - take your bookmarks/favorites with you wherever you go. This involved a lot of copying and pasting of URLs, but you could organize your bookmarks in folders and share with others. Del.icio.us is very similar but with the addition of tags. Tags let you label your bookmarks with "subject headings" (that's library talk!). The neat thing about this is it allows you to narrow down the reason why you have bookmarked this site. If you are like me you bookmark sites and end up with tons of bookmarks and then can't always remember why you thought that site was worth bookmarking. With tags I can go back and see what was important to me at the time via the tags.

What I don't like about Del.icio.us:
1. I have a hard time not typing a comma in between tags!
2. I can't find the option of organizing my bookmarks into folders - just by tags.
3. It is easy to add a website to your favorites if you are on a computer where the buttons have been downloaded. However, if you are at a different computer, that doesn't have the buttons - I found it harder to do. If you are on a public computer, you can't download the buttons and you have to look for the site through the Del.icio.us website.

How could Del.icio.us be used in education?
This tool could be used in many ways - teachers could set up an account and add favorites and tags around a certain subject; students could use this individually or in group settings to share websites for projects; teachers could set up an account to narrow websites for students to use; and of course librarians could use this to share library related websites.

I did set up a Del.icio.us account and added a few websites, however I don't have this tool as a top priority right now - I am still trying to keep up with my Google Reader!

Thing # 12 - Roll Your Own Search Tool

Rollyo is a very interesting little tool. Basically you can create your own customized search engine searching only the web sites you add. I created one on American Heroes for our second graders as they begin their research unit. I chose 5 websites for them to search and created a Rollyo. I put my search roll over in the side bar if you would like to try it out!

As far as uses in education go I can foresee many applications, specifically if you want students to only search specific websites. Older students could create their own search rolls for their own projects or they could even work together in groups and create search rolls and teach their class how to use them.

I see the advantages of this tool, but don’t know how much I will use it. I will definitely file this little jewel away until such a time as I may have a more pressing need. I wonder if you could add our online databases to this? I may have to try that!

Thing # 11 - Library Thing

This I love! I could spend a lot of time here! What a great way to keep up with the books you have read and to share them with others! I have attempted to keep a book journal for several years. Typically I keep up with it for a few months and then it goes by the wayside. About six months later I will pick it up again and try to list all of the books I have read. Then the cycle starts all over!
Library Thing was very easy to use! It takes all of 15 seconds to create your account and then you can add books to your heart's desire. I like the rating feature, review feature, and comment feature. It is also easy to change how you display books in your library. You can catalog your books in great detail, or in little detail. I also like that you can share your library with others.
I am in a book club and I also get together with a group of teachers to talk about books. Library Thing will be a great way to remember the books I have read and to share them with others. I also have a summer group of friends that I get together with and this would be perfect for them too!
I have added some random books from my library on the side - so take a look!

Thing # 10 - Online Image Generator

This was me on Friday! As you can tell, I had fun with this one! Personally I really like the Comic Strip Generator! I made two different comics here. I like the search and the ease of creating. I think kids would really like this too! There are links to add comics to Famous People too. I can see using this with kids as a quick writing activity. They could be posted on a class blog or wiki, or they could be printed.


The Image Chef was fun too! I like the animated ones the best. Again, these are easy to create and post onto blogs, wikis, or web pages. Here is one that I made from there.



I also found a link to the Fancy Cube creator on Connected But Hassled. I took one of our Third Grade famous people and made a cube out of it. I think kids would like to use this. I tried to put a different picture on each side, but I couldn't make that work. They have a size limit on your photos, so mine may have been too big. This is a picture of William Clark. Again, this was easy to do! The steps are laid out for you.




Myspace Photo Cube

These remind me of the Mash-ups from Thing #6. One can spend a lot of time playing with these! One final comic from Comic Strip Generator:

Thing # 9 - Useful Library Related Blogs and News Feeds

I finally had to stop looking at blogs, feeds, gadgets, and all the other fun stuff you come across in this type of exploration learning and create this post. It is time to move on to Thing 10! So what have I learned from this?

1. A lot of people either have a lot of time on their hands, don't sleep, don't clean house, don't shop for groceries, don't do laundry, etc., OR they are much better at organizing their time than I am! Even now, I feel guilty sitting here posting when I know others need me to do all of my weekend chores!


2. There is a colossal amount of information out there - just try a blog search on any topic and you will find what someone posted 10 min. ago up to 10 days ago on that topic!


3. As I read through many of my searches I thought about the counsel of my grandparents generation and even my parents generation - "Don't tell people all your business!" WHEW! Have we moved past this or what? Now there is all but a torrential flood of every thought, feeling, even passing fancy! I think the pendulum has swung far to the other side! (See even I expound too much!)

Which method of finding feeds did you find the easiest?
I looked at many of the blog search tools and those were a little overwhelming. After much time looking through different searches, I have decided to be more judicious in adding blogs and feeds to my Google Reader. If I find a blog I like, I will look for it to appear in other blog rolls. If I see it more than once, then I will consider adding it to my Google Reader. So, easiest method - look at blog rolls of blogs I like.

Which search tool was the easiest for you to use?
Google Blog Search. However, the quality of your search results is directly related to the quality of your search term. And I wonder why my students have a hard time doing quality keyword searches, when I can't seem to do them myself!

Which search tool was more confusing?
Syndic8.com and Technorati (although, once I was able to watch the tutorial in English, it was easier!) I didn't realize that RSS feeds are listed by number - that is how Syndic8.com list them in the search results page. A little to technical for me!

What kind of useful or unusual feeds did you find?
Well I found many that I have added to my Google Reader - most of them on children's book reviews. After I added the must haves: Librarian Philosopher, A Library By Any Other Name, and Library TWEeter, I was thrilled to see that many of the book review journals have RSS - Booklist Online, School Library Journal, and Horn Book. I love reading these journals, but can't afford all of them - so now I can still get a taste of the ones I can't afford! Some of the other blogs I subscribed too are Chicken Spaghetti, A Year of Reading, Children's Literature Book Club, and Jen Robinson's Book Page.
A fun thing I found while browsing through different blogs was the Lookybook website. It allows the viewer to actually flip through the pages of a book. I am going to attempt to add an example on this post!



What other ways did you find to locate news feeds?
I looked at the recommended blogs from my Google Reader. It looks like they find related blogs based on what you have already have in your reader. Some of these were pretty good!

Now that I have all of these, I hope I can keep up with reading them!