The Book Nook

Tool 11

2011-08-07T17:56:00.005-05:00

Finished!!! Yea!! I have really enjoyed the 11 Tools training. This is my third time to participate in an online training of this kind. The SBISD Library Media Office developed three such trainings for librarians and any other educators that were interested several years ago. These trainings were 23 Things, 11.5 Things, and 5.75 Things. I participated in the first two and now in 11 Tools. I never cease to be amazed at how many new "tools" and "things" are out there! Being an educator in the 21st Century is a constant learning experience! Some of my favorite new "tools" are Wallwisher, Storybird, Storyjumper, and Twitter. Plus, one of the biggest benefits from doing 11 Tools for me was a renewed interest in blogging. About a year ago I set up a blog for my library called Leo's Library Lair. At the time I was really busy with many other things, and didn't really get it started. Now, after completing 11 Tools, I have a renewed energy for having a library blog. There are so many things that I can do with it and so my goal for the year is to get this up and running and help my students to start developing an online community. (I am providing the link here to give myself some accountability!)

While I have been on the "incorporating technology" bandwagon for several years, my thinking has transformed some in that I see more of a need for our students to be more global citizens. It isn't going to be enough for them to be "good students" in our own little schools, they will need more global citizenship skills and we can help them by providing global learning opportunities. While trying to plan a "global learning activity" is a little intimidating at the moment, I intend to take some small steps to at least let our students begin to connect their learning to others outside of of the walls of our school.

Tool 10

2011-08-07T17:07:00.002-05:00

Three things I try to make sure all students understand about digital citizenship are:

1. Safety, safety, safety! Don't put personal information out there without talking to your parents! Safety is such a key with students when talking about the online world! Many elementary students just aren't mature enough to think through the consequences of their online actions and need parental help.

2. Kindness and Respect - Being nice and showing respect to people and to devices and equipment. One of my pet peeves is when students come into the library or classroom computers and change the settings to their own personal preferences. With the exception of students who have disabilities and need to change settings, I do not allow this. We talk about this and the importance of respecting the property of our school.

3. Responsibility - How to give credit where credit is due for information found online that is used in projects and presentations. With lots of freedom, comes lots of responsibility. I try to teach students to make good choices and of course, cite sources!

Two years ago all of the district librarians were given the task of teaching digital citizenship to all of our students. We have the iSafe curriculum as a starting point, but I also use BrainPop and other web resources. One of our fabulous district librarians created flipcharts for teaching Internet safety that include the iSafe curriculum as well as other resources. Last year the district included teachers in the "teaching Digital Citizenship" requirement. This is key! Students will learn so much more about what is the right thing to do when it comes to digital citizenship if all of us (the whole staff) are giving them the expectations of being a good digital citizen.

Explaining Digital Citizenship to parents is very important as well. One of my goals for this year is to submit some articles to our PTA newletter and hopefully make a brief presentation at a PTA meeting explaining digital citizenship and what we are teaching regarding digital citizenship at school.

Tool 9

2011-08-07T16:32:00.004-05:00

1. Why is it important to tie the activity to the objective?

This is key to everything we do! If we are not connecting the objective to our activities then we are just spinning our wheels! We are like a rudderless ship with no direction. There are lots of great activities out there, but to get the biggest bang for our buck with students, we need to make sure our activities are congruent with our objectives.

2. Why should we hold students accountable for the stations/centers?

This is a mistake I myself have made as a teacher! When there is no accountability, then many times activities will turn into "play" or students may even not do them. Asking for accountability helps teachers know what skills students have mastered and where they are still struggling. Accountability also makes learning more meaningful for students.

I loved the interactive websites! My favorites were Learning Games for Kids, TESiboard, and Thinkfinity. I got a little carried away at these sites and played several games myself! I can see using many of these websites in library lessons and after lessons for exploration time.

I really enjoyed searching the Tools for 21st Century Learning Database! A fabulous resource that I have not utilized! I spent lots of time looking at apps and web tools and flipcharts! I appreciate that you have a form for submitting additional apps for approval! I am interested in learning more about the Colonial Williamsburg apps - Today in 1770 and Word of the Day. These will be great to use with 5th grade. I also want to learn more about the iTalk Recorder app and the Diigo Reader app.

In the library, since my time with classes is limited, when I am using the devices with a whole class, we usually have a predetermined activity. When students are using the devices on their own, I either give them suggestions (apps to try or start with) or they already know where and what they are supposed to do on the devices since they have an assignment from the teacher. One thing I have found to be beneficial for students, especially younger students, is to demonstrate how to use apps before turning them loose. I use my document camera and put an iTouch or an iPad under it and show them an app, what to do, and then let them try it. This gives them direction and purpose. Too many times we think all we have to do is give the students the devices and let them go because they will figure it out. A few of the students probably will, but most won't and they end up jumping from app to app very quickly because they can't figure out what to do. This wastes a lot of time. So, I spend time actually teaching them different apps and before you know it, they have a whole repertoire of apps that they know how to use and use effectively.

Tool 8

2011-08-07T15:24:00.002-05:00

In the library, we received iTouches 2 years ago and Dell netbooks and iPads last year so I am already familiar with the devices. I did know that the Dells had the web cams, but I wasn't familiar with the "webcam central" software and the ability to record video. I will definitely have to explore with this. The videos you had were great and I think will be a great help to teachers as they set up and manage their devices. I also learned about setting a particular website as an "app" or link button on your home screen. I had learned this before, but had forgotten how to do it. Again, nice to have these videos to go and be able to refer back. When you are first setting everything up, it is a little overwhelming, so it is easy to forget. One thing I would like know about the iTouches and iPads - is it possible to organize the apps on one device and then somehow "copy" or "duplicate" this to all your other devices? It would sure save a lot of time!

In the library I usually have a helper every morning that comes in and gets out the devices and helps to get them set up each day. I know of classroom teachers who have "technology helpers or captains" that do this as well. It is a nice routine to establish.

Tool 7

2011-08-06T16:53:00.002-05:00

I have to be honest...I was a little apprehensive about this tool. "Developing an online project" with another classroom sounded a little intimidating! However, after reading through all the information, watching the interview with Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay, and visiting several of the sites recommended, I find this pretty exciting! I did sign up for a Skype in the Classroom account. I already have a Skype account, so it was easy to add a Skype in the Classroom account. I also looked at the Skype in Schools wiki and the Authors Who Skype With Classes website. It is amazing the opportunities that are available.

A few years ago our school purchased a Video Conferencing unit and a few other teachers and I signed up with an organization called Collaborations Around the Planet or CAPSpace. What was great about this organization is that teachers from all around the world would post projects and requests looking for other classrooms around the world to either do a video conference call or Skype. I assisted several teachers on our campus setting up video conferences. It was really great and the students LOVED it! Unfortunately, I believe my email got dropped, or you have to register again, because I stopped receiving updates. I am going to register again so that I can have another avenue for setting up collaborations.

The project that I am planning is an after school book club that focuses on reading and sharing Newbery Award books. A couple of things I would like to do with this group is set up a wiki or blog where students can post questions and comments about what they are reading. Plus, I would like to create an online group or club on one of the online book communities such as GoodReads. I saw this suggestion at TCEA last year and loved it. Within the online group, students can post books they are reading and questions for other readers. The school that presented the idea had great success. Other things our group can do is set up a time to Skype with either other schools in our district that are doing an after school book club, or I can search out a school from another part of the state or country to Skype with us. If possible, it would be great to Skype with a Newbery Award winning author! I still have lots to iron out on this idea and I appreciate the Steps to Developing a Collaborative Project link. This has lots of great ideas and suggestions!

Tool 6

2011-08-06T15:01:00.004-05:00

Wow! I didn't realize there were so many tools for promoting discussion in and out of the classroom! I am already familiar with several of these, but I wasn't thinking about these as "discussion promoters." I already use Google Docs, which the more I use it, the more value I see in terms of discussion, or at least getting students to express their thoughts. I have had the opportunity to use Today's Meet and Poll Everywhere several times in professional development settings. I have not tried either of these with students, but would like to try Today's Meet - especially with 4th and 5th graders. I have used Skype several times and know that there are many opportunities for using Skype in the library. One time during our weekly Books and Breakfast, one of our teachers was out of town, so she Skyped with her group. The students were so excited and their weekly discussion was great!!

One tool that has been new to me is Twitter. This was something that I wasn't really interested in using, not being one to "put all me business out there" so to speak, or read about what someone had for dinner. However, this summer at the November Learning Symphony, we were asked to create a Twitter account to use during the 3 days of training. They taught us about the power of Twitter when it comes to education. Quite frankly, I was amazed! We learned about hashtags and how to search for educational ones. Another tool they showed us was TweetDeck, which is a separate application that allows you to sort your Twitter feed into different categories for easy reading. I have downloaded TweetDeck and have just started using it. I still have a lot to learn about Twitter and TweetDeck, especially in customizing it for my use, but I have been pleasantly surprised at how useful this tool can be for education. I have signed up to follow CoolCatTeacher and let me tell you - she Tweets A LOT!! Tons of good information, but it is hard to find the time to read it all.

The other tool I tried for #6 was Wallwisher. I have seen this used before, but didn't think much of it until I started seeing some of the ideas the other teachers on my campus were posting for Wallwisher. I created one thinking specifically about Books and Breakfast, a weekly book club at our school for 4th and 5th graders. Each week during Books and Breakfast, students have a different question or discussion starter to answer based on their reading. We create bookmark for students, so they can keep track of each week's topic and their thinking, but I wonder if we could add a technology piece to it as well. Having a question posted each week on a Wallwisher, would give students another opportunity to interact with each other and their reading. All Wallwishers could be embedded into a Books and Breakfast wiki so that all groups would be able to see them. I think I am going to give this a try this year! The Wallwisher I created is posted below. If you have read the book, post a thought!

Tool 6 - Wallwisher

2011-08-06T14:43:00.008-05:00

This is an idea for a Wallwisher based on this year's Newbery Award winner, Moon Over Manifest. Students would respond to a question each week as we read and discuss the book.

Tool 5

2011-08-06T14:05:00.002-05:00

So many great tools to explore here in Tool 5. I chose to look at Animoto and Storybird. Animoto was very simple to use. I created an Animoto of this year's Texas Bluebonnet Award master list for my 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. These grades participate in the Texas Bluebonnet Award reading program and I will use this Animoto to introduce this year's books. Animoto was very easy to use. I did go ahead and pay for a year's subscription so that I could make a longer Animoto. I will use it for making Animoto's about things going on in the library.

I also created a Storybird book. Several other teachers on my campus had created books on Storybird and I wanted to give it a try. It was very simple. I can see students at all grades being able to use this. I also looked at Storyjumper and TikaTok. I liked both of them as they both allow students to use their own art work and are probably better suited for older students who are ready to work on a more involved program. Both of my creations are posted below.

One of my favorite things about this tool was discovering all of the "how-to" tutorials on YouTube. After watching some of the tutorials posted here, I went and explored other tutorials posted by two different groups: Radford Education and eduTecher. Both of these YouTube channels had lots of great tutorials on all kinds of Web 2.0 tools! I will be checking these two channels often to see what new things they have posted!

Storybird - Catty Cat

2011-08-05T20:44:00.008-05:00

Catty Cat: A Different Kind of Cat by bhelib on Storybird

Animoto - Texas Bluebonnet Award 2011-2012

2011-08-05T19:29:00.002-05:00

Tool 4

2011-08-03T11:30:00.003-05:00

Google Docs is something I started using last year, especially with students. I created and shared documents with student that contained directions and links for projects. Students in turn were able to share documents with me too! I like the easy collaboration features of Google Docs versus emailing documents back and forth. I also love the chat feature of Google Docs. This could be very useful if a group of students were looking at a document and engaging in a peer review. We did find that if several people are looking at the document at the same time, only one person at a time can edit. If multiple people are trying to edit at one time, then the changes are not all saved. Using the chat feature would allow students to discuss changes and options before making them.

I did explore more with Google forms. I created a form and sent it to a few teachers on my campus. Unfortunately they never received it. We discovered that the email from Google Docs informing them of the item I shared with them - specifically the link to the form - was getting caught in the spam folder. If the teacher didn't check the spam folder, then she never received the form. This could be a real problem when it comes to using forms. I am going to do a little more experimenting and see if I can pin down what is going on. I really like the idea of Google forms, but need to work out the kinks within the district email.

This year I am excited about trying to use Google forms and spreadsheets with students. I think this will be a great way to teach students how to gather information and collect results.

Tool 3

2011-07-30T18:52:00.012-05:00

I looked at several of the video hosting sites. You Tube, being the most popular and the one I have used most often, was the easiest one to navigate successfully. I also have use Teacher Tube and School Tube, both have some good educational videos, but they are more limited in their selection. I also looked at Blinkx, which I found to be the least user friendly - at least for my area of need. Blinkx looks to be more focused on news related current events. I was not familiar with View Pure. I am glad to have learned about it. There have been times when I have shown a You Tube clip to students and have been uncomfortable with the side ads and other videos on the screen. Here is a link to a You Tube video using View Pure:

http://viewpure.com/pkIJDXCiZsk

I found two videos on Book trailers; both are posted below. Book trailers are a fairly new genre. They are similar to movie trailers, but are centered on books. Many publishers are now creating book trailers to promote their new titles. I have used book trailers with my 4th and 5th graders many times. Our 5th graders even made their own. It was a great experience for them.

I am familiar with the Fair Use Guidelines. The video clip was a good general explanation of Fair Use - especially when it comes to transforming a work and repurposeing a work. As long as something is being transformed and repurposed and it is for an educational purpose, then students have a fairly wide berth of freedom when it comes to copyright. I do feel though, that it is important for students to give credit for photos and other pieces of media when they are not transforming them, but just using them as is in their work.

I also enjoyed exploring Picasa Web Album. While I have used Flickr Creative Commons many times, I have not used Picasa Web Album. I was pleased to see how easy it was to search for pictures and the number of returns. This will be something that I will use with students this year.

One thing that was mentioned in Tool 3 that I was unfamiliar with was the SBISD Media Server. This is something I have never heard of and would like to learn more about.

Here are the two videos I found on Teacher Tube and School Tube:

Tool 2

2011-07-25T19:02:00.005-05:00

I have really enjoyed reading the blogs from other teachers on my campus. It is great to share in learning! Different people find different things as they look at other websites. I have learned so much just from reading their blogs.

I already have a Google Reader account. I set it up several years ago when I first did 23 Things with the SBISD Librarians. I have used it quite a bit. I have several other librarian blogs that I follow as well as blogs on children's literature reviews. I also set up a Diigo account and plan to use it to add websites for students to use in the library. I have used Delicious in the past and prior to that the site IKeepBookmarks. All of these are similar bookmarking websites that allow you to add and or access your favorite websites from any computer.

As far as building a PLN, I do have a few blogs that I follow and I have recently signed up for a Twitter account and have learned about following specific educational hash tags. While I do learn things from the blogs that I follow and specific websites that I visit, I also feel like my main PLN is my fellow colleagues right here in SBISD. I am constantly learning things from teachers on my campus as well as my fellow librarians. I can email my fellow librarians with questions and have answers before the day is over. They are a great network!

11 Tools - A New Journey: Tool 1

2011-06-29T06:01:00.004-05:00

I already had my blog set up, so I didn't have to do that. Since I have created this blog, Blogger has made several changes and additions to their site. There are many more choices for your template and Advanced choices to make your template more customized. I also love that Blogger has added the options for "pages." I hope to add some pages soon!

Making the Voki was great fun! The choices are endless! Students would love to do this! I added my own voice to my Voki and it was fairly easy to do. I will definitely use Voki with my PGP kids this year!

As far as the 11 Tools directions for Tool 1 - the most confusing part is getting logged into your blog. If you are using your Spring Branch email to set up your blog, you have to log in to the Google Apps for Educators first, before you go to your blog. This has added a layer of confusion and several extra steps that are really unnecessary. I hope in the future, this is revised.

Thing 11.5 - Evaluation

2010-08-09T21:04:00.005-05:00

Thankfully I am finishing up before midnight! This has been fabulous! I enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed participating in "23 Things" with Library2Play! Some of my favorite new things

Glogster - this is my number one favorite thing! I was familiar with it, had seen a few examples at workshops, but had never really played with it myself! I love this! I am anxious to use this with students!

Skype - loved the articles about Skype. So many good links and ideas for locating possible "Skypers"! I am definitely going to try to Skype with an author this year!

Video resources - this was all fairly new to me. Of course I knew about YouTube, didn't know so much about all the other video sources online. There are so many video resources!! In addition to the video resources, I found out how easy it is to post to YouTube! Who knew!!

Screencast - loved this! Definitely see myself using this and even teaching kids how to use it!

Slideshare - specifically authorSTREAM. Am anxious to try uploading an authorSTREAM to an iPod Touch.

A special big thank you to our Lifeguards! Thanks for putting together a wonderful learning experience that will help me to expand my teaching in technology!! You all are the best!!

Thing 11 - Digital Citizenship

2010-08-09T17:04:00.005-05:00

Digital Citizenship is something our district has really focused on this past year. This is something I already teach, but definitely have room to improve! This is such a huge issue. I loved what Cool Cat Teacher had to say:

"Too many teachers talk about how students are coming to them vastly uneducated about researching, validating sources, and using multiple sources of information. Students are believing everything they read. Where is the skepticism? The investigation? The desire to double check things?"

Of course it goes beyond not knowing how to validate sources, believing everything they read, and accepting the first source they come across. It also involves personal safety, netiquette, and legal issues associated with copyright and plagiarism.

Digiteen Digital Citizenship had a good overview of what digital citizenship involves including access, communication, safety and security, but also responsibilities and health and wellness.

Here are the five things I might use in regards to digital citizenship during library orientation:

Digital Literacy - rules and responsibilities for using the technology in the library. How to care for it and use it in such a way that respects other students' rights to use the equipment as well. I find that while most students have technology, few have learned how to properly care for it.
Digital Literacy - how to use technology in the library. Another article suggested that many times we leave students to figure out digital strategies on their own. Something that doesn't always work out so well! I am a big believer in direct instruction. Sometimes what is needed is for someone to simply give kids direct instruction on how to use certain pieces of technology or specific software. I find that once kids have been shown the basics, they are more confident then to explore on their own and then there explorations don't end with me trying to figure out how to "un-do" something they shouldn't have done!
Safety - Teaching them the importance of keeping their personal information safe.
Learning Strategies - Teaching students how to evaluate and critique websites and information obtained online. This is a BIGGIE and one that is not done just once, but something that is done all year long! I like the comment David Warlick made on Cool Cat Teacher's blog:

David Warlick says, "Instead of starting with a web page, displayed on the whiteboard, they [teachers] should start with Google, demonstrate how they found the page, the considerations and decisions they applied to select that page, and include in the presentation, the evidence that what's being presented is valuable...When we model authority, we shouldn't be surprised when students look for authority in every piece of information."
Fair Use Guidelines - Going over the legal issues of copyrighted material and giving proper credit for media obtained on the Internet.

Thing 10 - Virtual Worlds, Second Life

2010-08-09T16:42:00.002-05:00

I am not a big “gamer”, nor do I spend hours on my computer “surfing” the net. Therefore, I have trouble with this “Thing.” I have no desire to be a part of Second Life or any other virtual world. I did read a lot of the articles and ideas and still – I think to myself, “Why would I want to do that?” After reading through several other Beachcombers on Library2Play2, I found that the verdict on virtual worlds is about half and half. Some people were pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the idea of creating avatars and getting started. Others were baffled by the idea and still others were downright appalled! I think I am a little with the latter group! I do not think this is appropriate for elementary students at all!

I know there were many articles on the benefits of Second Life and do like the ideas of Colleges and Universities using virtual worlds for prospective students. There were links to several Universities, Museums, and science related resources that looked interesting too. Click here. The other interesting article was the one from Cool Cat Teacher. I liked the idea of using it with high school students to create a virtual world on digital citizenship. I know that there are students who would be all over Virtual Worlds and if I worked at a high school, I would explore deeper.

I do have some concerns with Virtual Worlds. The first being the disconnect from reality. One thing we taught our students in regards to netiquette is that it is easy to be or appear to be anonymous online. When people think they are anonymous, they tend to do things they shouldn’t be doing or behaving in a way that is inappropriate. Second Life opens this up in a huge way and I don’t necessarily think it is emotionally healthy. Another concern is that students could become a little too caught up in their “second life” and forget to live their real life. I think most people have someone they know, who has become obsessed with their “second life” and it caused serious problems in their real life - again, not emotionally healthy. Finally I was a little taken aback when I read the Online Safety section of Second Life. There was a lot of information in there about scams and cons that seem to be a part of Second Life (I know, I know, not unlike real life!) as well as a lot of information in there about reporting abuse and harassment. I was particularly unimpressed with their advice on how to handle verbal abuse – just mute the person. While that may solve the problem for the moment, I wonder why a person would want to spend time on an activity where verbal abuse is such a problem! (This goes back to the whole “anonymity” issue.)

I realize my opinions on virtual worlds are just that – my opinions – and are not the popular opinions, I just can’t see using this with elementary students. There are so many other tools and ideas that let students interact in the real world!

Thing 9 - Slideshare

2010-08-08T18:10:00.003-05:00

Slideshare is a very interesting idea. I like the concept of being able to post and share your PowerPoints, but I don't know how necessary this is at the elementary level. In our district students have access to their own folder on our network, so they don't necessarily need a place to store their PowerPoints. We also have a share server in our district, so it would be easy for a teacher to set up a folder for her class and have everyone post their PowerPoints there where they would be available for sharing with others.

I looked at authorSTREAM and uploaded a PowerPoint to it. I was impressed with some of the features that authorSTREAM had to offer. For one thing, you can upload a PowerPoint and set the timings, then save it to a video format that can be saved to in iPod or an iPod Touch. This would be a great use of the iPod Touch, especially if students could share their PowerPoint creations in this manner. Here is the authorSTREAM I uploaded:

Learning About Biographies

See more presentations by BookNookGirl Upload your own PowerPoint presentations

I also briefly looked at 280 Slides. This looks like a great tool to use if PowerPoint is not available, or if you are just trying to introduce your students to some new tools that are available free online and are not subject to software budget cuts!

Thing 8 - Screencast

2010-08-07T18:08:00.004-05:00

Loved this! I looked at several of the options, but after reading several different post, I finally settled on Screencast-O-Matic. It was easy to use. I created a brief and not very polished screen cast on how to find a book using our online catalog, Meriwether. Here is the link:

http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/watch/c6ji3Pj3l

A few things I learned about Screencast-O-Matic:

You have to create an account before you are able to fully use this tool and navigate between websites.
There are a few demo videos available that show you how to get started.
There is some editing features available, more if you purchase the "Pro" version.
You have several options for what to do with your finished screencast including posting to YouTube.

I think screencast are a great tool for students and teachers. As teachers, we can create screencast to help supplement instruction. Students can create screencast to teach each other how to do different tasks on the computer. I hope to use these this year in the library.

Thing 7 - Video Resources

2010-08-07T15:34:00.006-05:00

I never cease to be amazed at the sheer volume of information on the Internet! This "Thing" was all fairly new to me. Of course I knew there was a tremendous amount of video available online, but I had NO IDEA of the vastness of it!

I had just learned about Hulu this summer, so it was fun to explore this. I was also aware of videos available on PBS, but spent time exploring these more in depth! I am amazed that there are so many full length videos available! I had seen the National Archives Videos on Thing 4, but really delved into them on this entry - amazing! Here is a video clip from the National Archives on the Declaration of Independence -

This would be great to show 5th grade when they are studying the American Revolution and the start of our government.

The second video I looked at was on Hulu and it was of the Hubble Telescopes' pictures of Saturn. This video did not have an embed code but the link is posted below. This would be a great video to share with 3rd grade when they are studying space.
http://news.discovery.com/videos/space-hubble-captures-saturns-aurorae.html

Thing 7 has left me with many more things to explore!!

Thing 6 - iTouch Apps

2010-08-07T14:06:00.003-05:00

Our library was fortunate to receive several iTouches this past year. We have found many educational apps and the students love using them. We have some for art, music, language arts, social studies, math, and science. It is fun to watch students who aren't really interested in learning their math fact become totally absorbed in a math app that teaches math facts on the iTouch. Other great apps we have used are those that deal with logic and puzzle solving. These are great for students who need a little extra enrichment.

Other things that students can do with the iTouches:
Send them on a scavenger hunt/obstacle course with the iTouch. Have them make their way through a set of assigned apps in order to obtain a goal.
Using the RockStar adapter, you can have 5 students using one iTouch as a listening center. We have used our iTouches with some of our special ed. students for audio books.

Perusing the articles listed on this post, I continue to be blown away by the number of apps available! There are some really cool ones out there! I will be downloading some for myself and some for school!

Thing 5 - Microblogging

2010-08-06T18:50:00.002-05:00

Okay, I will admit - I am not a Facebook fan! There - I said it. To be quite honest, I just don't have time for Facebook, nor do I feel the need to tell the world every little thing that I am doing. However, I do see benefit in creating a group page for your library. I am still debating this at the moment since I found out that Facebook will now be blocked on our elementary campuses. I do realize that my opinion of Facebook is not the popular opinion and that many people are on Facebook, so I do see benefit in setting up a group page for my library. However, I am not sure if you can just set up a group page and not a personal page. Something I will look into!
Having a page for your library will be a great way to post quick updates as to what is going on in the library for students and parents.

Needless to say, I feel the same way about Twitter, but do see benefit for groups and organizations to have a page.

Now, I do see educational benefit in back-channeling. I have used Today's Meet and TinyChat at several different professional development venues and I am definitely going to try this with students! Especially 4th and 5th graders!

Thing 4 - You Tube

2010-08-06T18:02:00.008-05:00

Uploading a video to You Tube was so much easier than I would have ever thought!! I uploaded a video I made last year to show off the entries into our Pumpkin Decorating Contest. This was fun! I have used You Tube and Teacher Tube many times during instruction. Online video sites have advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages: Great way to have access to videos anywhere there is Internet access. There are many great educational videos available for use. I especially loved the Library of Congress You Tube channel! This is also a great venue for students to post their work. I think students love to see thier work posted online. In the past I have posted student work on my library web page. Students LOVE to see their work online and are eager to share with family and friends.

Disadvantages: The main disadvantage I see is helping students remain safe when online. Allowing open access to YouTube for elementary students is not, in my opinion, a responsible decision for educators. Of course TeacherTube is a much more reliable option.

Here is my video:

Thing 3 - Skype

2010-08-05T08:01:00.005-05:00

Skype - love it!! We have been using video conferencing at my school for the last 2 years. We are fortunate to have a Video Conferencing unit that allows us to do some more formal video conferencing with places like National Parks, NASA, and zoos. We are also able to connect with multiple locations at the same time and have done activities like the Texas History Mystery.

This past year we started using Skype as well. One of our more fun and unique uses of Skype came during our morning book club time that we call Books and Breakfast. One of the teachers that was leading a group was scheduled to be out of town one week and instead of trying to find another teacher to come in at 7:00 am to cover her group, we decided to try Skyping her in to lead her group! It was a huge success. She took her laptop with her on her trip and then we set up Skype in library. The students loved it!! They were thrilled to discuss their book with their leader in another state! She even took her laptop and camera out on the balcony of her hotel to show the students the view!

The uses of Skype in the library and classroom is tremendous. You can Skype with an author, a specialist in an area, or other classrooms from around the country. Every classroom that has used Skype has loved it!! This is a great tool and one everyone should try!!

Thing 2 - Image Generators

2010-08-04T12:15:00.012-05:00

So many cool tools! I love Wordle! Above is a Wordle I created for my library. This is a great tool and one many of my teachers have used. There are so many possibilities for Wordle...students can create one to describe themselves, a character in a book, or even a science experiment. I have seen students create them to describe a biographical subject too. I love how these are so easy to create and you can choose layout, font, and color.

In regards to the other tools in Thing 2:

WordSift: Didn't like it as well as Wordle. It has a different focus, but similar. I do think this would be a great tool to help students identify main idea of an article or text students were reading. I like the feature of showing the word web and pictures from websites, however, this can produce some images you may not find appropriate for younger students.

Glogster: Love this!!! This is one of my new favorite tools! I played with this quite a bit and am excited to introduce this to teachers for projects!!

Voki: Very neat tool! I attempted to make a Voki, but had some technical difficulties. I do like the option of being able to put in your own voice! Students would love to hear your voice and create their own!

Bookr:

I created the book below on Bookr. This is a really cool tool, but I did not find it easy to use. You have to get pictures through Flickr Creative Commons and I found it difficult to get the right picture on the right page. It could be more difficult using a touch pad vs. a mouse. I think students would like this as an option.

11.5 Things - One More Time: Thing 1

2010-08-02T16:42:00.005-05:00

Time to jump into 11.5 Things again!! I watched the video of the The Networked Student again and was once more struck by the creators' idea of 21st Century Learning. The video is stressing the idea of "Connectivism" - that learning occurs as part of a social network of many different connections and ties - interesting. I agree that learning can occur in this setting, but it is not the only setting where learning occurs.

One of the key elements of success in this model is for the student to take control of his/her learning. I like the idea! I love it when I have a student that is on fire to learn something new. The challenge for the teacher/librarian is to keep students motivated. The student compiles all of his/her learning materials through web sites, online articles, blogs, podcasts, and video conferencing. The student then creates his/her own representation of the knowledge acquired - blog, wiki, podcast.

The teacher's role is tremendous! The video refers to the teacher as a "learning architect" - great description! The teacher has to guide the students in building their learning network. This will include modeling how to find good information as well as how to check on the reliability of the information found. In addition to the the teacher also needs to show students how to organize information and present ideas for them to share their knowledge.

One comment made in the video that I feel is key is - Information management is and will continue to be our biggest challenge in the 21st century. I couldn't agree more! Students are bombarded with information - much of which is incorrect. Learning to evaluate and organize information is a skill that our students will desperately need for success in the 21st Century.

The librarian will definitely play the role of the teacher. Librarians are already "learning architects" and have been for many years!

The Journey Continues...11.5 - Thing 1

2009-09-01T05:26:00.002-05:00

I enjoy this simple style of video that is found in Common Craft videos. Love that the author of this video gives credit to Lee LeFever of Common Craft and mentions that he asked for permission to use this simple design idea.

The video is gives a great view of the “ideal” Networked Student. The idea that students become more responsible for their own learning and use 2.0 technology tools to reach their learning goals while being guided by their teacher is very exciting. How will it work in the real world? That remains to be seen…

The Student: As I mentioned earlier – this student is “ideal”! Who wouldn’t love a student like this?! The roles and responsibilities of the student in this learning model are very great indeed. The student basically is taking responsibility for their learning all the way from developing a knowledge base, to creating wikis or websites about what they have learned. The video mentioned several roles of the student:

1. The student takes control of his own learning.
2. The student creates a personal learning network.
3. The student must be self-motivated to seek out sources of learning and information.
4. The student must be critical of information in order to sift out the accurate information from the inaccurate.
5. The student must learn how to organize this information in order to create new knowledge from what he has read and discovered.

Wow! This is a lot to ask of students – especially from a society of kids who have not been taught to do this and who like instant gratification. I don’t know many adults who would be successful in this type of learning environment.

The Teacher: I love the descriptions this video gives to the teacher: learning architect, change agent, learning concierge, modeler, connected learning incubator! These are great and require teachers to think differently about their role. I think the role of teacher in “Connectivism” is tremendous! Keeping students on track for one thing, would be a great undertaking.

The Librarian: Can the librarian play this role – absolutely! I think we are already taking steps in this direction by helping students learn how to locate and analyze information and by helping teachers learn how to facilitate projects that focus on “Connectivism”.

Playing with Technology #4

2008-08-20T19:47:00.006-05:00

Last exploration today was images. I love using the image generators that we learned in Library2Play. This was created in Big Huge Labs - so much fun! The picture came from SuperFantastic on Flickr Creative Commons. Love the dog!

Playing with Technology #3

2008-08-20T19:38:00.006-05:00

This exploration was focused on video. We could either use TeacherTube or Discovery Education. I chose Discovery Education because TeacherTube was taking a long time to load. However, when I uploaded my video into Windows Movie Maker, I had trouble with the audio. The audio would play fine until I placed it on the Storyboard and then the audio played much faster making it sound like chipmunk talk! I tried several things to see if I could change that, but haven't discovered a fix as of yet. If anyone knows how to fix this, please let me know! Until then, enjoy the chipmunk talk!

Again, this only took minutes to load from home and it would NOT load at work. Maybe there were too many of us clogging our super highway at work!

Playing with Technolog #2

2008-08-20T19:29:00.006-05:00

Our second exploration today was Photostory. This is a program I was already comfortable using. However today I explored images from Discovery Education, one of our online databases provided by our district. There are some great images here! I attempted to load this during our meeting today, but it would never load. I left it loading for over 2 hours and never got it to load. I am now trying it from home! I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will work!

Yea! It worked. It finished loading in less than a minute. Wonder what the problem was today?

Playing with Technology #1

2008-08-20T19:06:00.009-05:00

I have been wondering what direction to move with my blog. I have composed many post in my head (mostly in the car). Today I was given direction. In one of our library staff development meetings we reviewed and focused on some different technology skills so that we can better help our students and teachers with these on campus.

The first was audio:

Here we worked in Audacity and downloaded free music from Incompetech. This was a new sight for me. I definitely want to spend more time exploring this site. I also learned that you cannot post an audio file on your blog. I would have to post it on a wiki and then link my blog to it. Instead, I have chosen to use Photostory, add a few pics and import my music. Here it is if I can get it to load. (Getting things to load today took a long time!

A New Look

2008-04-01T20:56:00.004-05:00

I decided since the Library2Play and my journey of my first "23 Things" was over, I would change the look of my blog. Therefore, I have spent the last hour, not posting mind you, but choosing a new template, picking fonts and colors, and checking and rechecking to see how it would look. So far I like it, but you never know, I may need to change it tomorrow!

I have been thinking about posting and have composed several posts in my head on the way to work. (It is about the only time and place I have to myself these days!) I even have some good ideas for future posts! I have also been spending some time looking at all the other blogs. (Everyone who was in the Library2Play!)

At our Monday librarian's meeting, those of us who were able to muddle through all 23 Things got a certificate and the promise of a new toy! Plus, we have been told that there will be a new adventure for us in the fall: "11 & 1/2 Things." It is the 1/2 that makes me worried! However, I look forward to that adventure as well! Some teachers at my school who completed the 23 Things received their certificates in the mail today. They were just as excited as I was and we have all felt a little lost since completing our 23 Things. I think at the moment we are just aimlessly wondering through the blogs to see who is still posting and hoping to find something new! Give us a few weeks and we will be back with new posts of our own!

I'm now a graduate!

2008-03-23T22:23:00.002-05:00

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

2008-03-23T17:04:00.012-05:00

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

2008-03-21T21:44:00.004-05:00

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

2008-03-21T20:55:00.006-05:00

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

2008-03-20T07:37:00.005-05:00

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

2008-03-19T14:24:00.005-05:00

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

2008-03-18T13:17:00.002-05:00

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:

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

Disadvantages:

Learn a new "software."
Doesn't have all of the bells and whistles as MS Office products.
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

2008-03-17T15:11:00.003-05:00

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

2008-03-15T21:01:00.003-05:00

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

2008-03-15T19:58:00.005-05:00

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

2008-03-15T18:46:00.002-05:00

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

2008-03-12T18:37:00.003-05:00

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

2008-03-10T21:22:00.005-05:00

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

2008-03-09T19:46:00.002-05:00

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

2008-03-08T08:58:00.013-06:00

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

2008-03-08T07:39:00.012-06:00

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?

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!

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!

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!