Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Thing #23

The End....

I can't believe I have actually made it through all 23 things...I have learned so much!! This is probably the most worthwhile training I have ever experienced...so practical for what I try to do as a librarian every day.

In summary, some of my favorite discoveries had to do with using mashups (very fun and creative) and setting up the Library Thing account. I also enjoyed re-visiting embedding Youtube videos into Photostory...what seemed so hard a year ago was actually relatively easy. I have confidence that I can teach this process to teachers!

Something interesting that has happened to contribute to a lifetime of learning is just realizing what is out there----how incredible! I never knew the extent of blogs, podcasts, videos, etc. that are available for FREE to help us in a professional and personal lives. I have read more interesting blogs lately...I am also preparing for a workshop coming up soon and I found a variety of videos on Youtube that I want to incorporate...so much is out there!

I set up an account on Ta-dalist ( http://megmills43.tadalist.com/lists )that allows you to create "to do's". I am currently making a list of the ideas I have encountered in the 23 Things that I would like to share this coming year with students and teachers. Delicious and Rollyo will certainly be on that list as well as using Google docs and other share programs that I have been exploring.

No improvement necessary and I would certainly participate in another program that allowed me to stretch and enhance my knowledge of technology and tech applications as they relate to the library and classroom.

In one sentence, I would describe my learning experience with the 23 Things as gaining the ability to recognize what wonderful tools are available in 2.0 land and applying them to my professioanl and personal life as a librarian and life-long educator.

I am soooo glad I chose to attend your session at TLA...I know that this course will allow me to be a better teacher/librarian.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Thing #22

Nings

I found the article on Nings interesting-they said how students can feel awkward when the "adults" are joining in to create a social network with them through Myspace and Facebook. Using a ning eliminates that encroachment. I think it would be something that we would like to use in our district as a communication tool amongst the library staffs. We have very little time to meet or get together so an electronic format would be ideal.

I enjoyed the Teacher/Librarian ning by Joyce Valenza. I had the pleasure of hearing her speak at TLA a couple of years ago and I am very impressed by all she does. I plan to join her ning ASAP.

Thing #21

Podacsting and Videocasting




Photostory is actually a program that I have had some training in through a couple of workshops. The more I use it, the better at it I am getting. I like that it offers a more exciting product that Power Point. I would like to use Photostory in creating my own digital booktalks or as an introduction to research projects that may be coming up. I would also like to familiarize the students with it as they branch out beyond the same old Power Point and Word documents.

I also have an interest in incorporating Podcasting into my library world...maybe by making important announcements about upcoming library events or important things going on at school? Hmmm, I'll keep working on that!!

We have a teacher at our high school that has really embraced the use of technology, especially Photostory. I plan to encourage others to take that leap!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Thing # 20

YouTube, TeacherTube and Zamzar


I am a huge fan of YouTube and have spent a lot of time looking at a variety of videos...and my own personal kids are total YouTube junkies. I have always had great frustration in a school setting trying to use YouTube and embedding into PowerPoint presentations. It is blocked for our students but I could log in and then save the video and help them embed..quite a lengthy process. I loved Zamzar-it literally took 1 minute to convert the video into a format I could put into this blog-wonderful!! I will certainly be using this in the upcoming school year.

I know that there is always controversy surrounding allowing YouTube to be available in schools-we begged and begged and were finally given teacher access last year. There are some wonderful short clips that really can enhance a lesson. We were able to bring up a short video on lightening and sports for our Sports Medicine class. It was very valuable information for our students who are most certainly visual learners.

Enjoy the video from PBS on the Jane Austen series that aired a couple of years ago. I'm a huge fan!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Thing # 19

Web 2.0 Awards List

I like the organization of this list...I will certainly bookmark it so that I can go back to it for future reference.

I looked at a couple of the award-winning web sites. Of course, veing summer and all, I could not resist under the Fun Stuff tab the site called "cocktail builder"!! It has tons of easy drink recipes and even a place that you can add your own personal favorite drinks...a bit off topic...sorry!!

The next site I looked at was .docstoc. On this site, you are able to pull up a variety of posted documents. I found blank worksheets for elementary math, examples of various legal forms that can be printed out, a section on wills (they even had Michael Jackson's will scanned in for your own personal reading..). It was an interesting site. I'm not sure how much it would be used in a school setting. I did check out the education tab and found character lists and summaries of a Charles Dickens novel. There are also scinece manuals that had been scanned in and were available for download.

There is a lot going on on this site! It is worth taking a look at and introducing to your teachers.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Thing # 18

On-Line Productivity Tools

I have been an Open Office user for the past year. This is all we use on our own personal computers at home. At first, I didn't care much for it because I was so used to used to using the Office suite. Now I have no problems with it. I was thrilled to know that it can be saved as a Word document (something I didn't know!) as this will make it easier for me to transfer my documents from home use to school use. I will also need to let our students know about this. Last year was a bit of a pain when the kids would bring in their essays that had been finished at home but needed to be printed at school. I was downloading the Open Office program and then converting the documents from there. If they know how to go ahead and save as a Word documant, we can avoid this issue which can be time consuming.

As far as use in school, we have just hired a librarian from Irving ISD that says her former district is only going to use Open Office to save the district money. The only thing I see as a hindrance is that the kids are so used to Office, they will have a brief adjustment period. The posistive side is that everyone has access to the program..FREE!

I have also been using Google docs. I am prepapring a presentation for an inservice and am using the Google version of Power Point. It is easy to use and located with all of my other Google programs. You don't get the wide variety of templates that Office offers, but they are adequate for what I am doing.

Thing # 17

ROLLYO

Once again, an application I had never heard of! I set up a Rollyo account and added Amazon and Barnes and Noble as links. These are two sites I use frequently when searching for something new to read or to check the bestseller lists. I did not make the search public but did go through and do some searching...wonderful idea! I can see where this site will be very helpful to myself and teachers when helping students research various topics. We used to do an extensive research paper on King Arthur. I would spend lots of time setting up a webpage with the links-each year I would have to remember what I did to get back into the webpage and so on. This is a much simpler and quicker way to do basically the same thing. Just copy and paste the links and give students access...I will certainly be sharing this with our teachers!

BTW, the Teacher Tube video was very helpful. Great tutorial!

Friday, July 3, 2009

Thing # 16

WIKIS

I have been familiar with wikis for awhile. I enjoyed exploring some of the different library wikis that are out there. I ran a cross a wiki for a teen library in Cleveland. There was so much info on the page and lots of wonderful ideas going on-book reviews, new titles, activities at the library...very cool! I also came a cross a wiki from Australia that had a link to a YouTube video called "The Angry Librarian"..quite funny!!

In the library, wiki's could be used in many ways. I am thinking of starting a wiki for our book club. That way students wouldn't have to wait for a meeting to begin a discussion...we could have on-going talks. We use a share point in our district that is essentially a wiki. We cna post information or calendars or reminders.We still haven't perfected its use but it is worth giving it another shot!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Thing #15

Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the Future of Libraries

First of all, I loved the YouTube video! I am giving a workshop this summer on K-20 learners and I think I will use this to show that our students today have quite different learning styles that those we have seen in the past...very good video!

In reading the articles on Web 2.0, I find myself a bit overwhelmed. I love technology and feel like I am a pretty frequent user and what I don't know, I strive to learn (hence, this venture). But there is so much coming at us all of the time that it feels very difficult to keep up. We have purchased our first ebooks and now I am not quite sure what to do with them. With stimulus money, our school is buying Ipods...now we have to think of how to use them and what policies to put in place, etc. I work with high school kids and they are so techno savy, I find myself peeking over their shoulders to learn the latest things! Don't get me wrong, this has to be one of the most exciting times to be a librarian! It's just getting myself, the tech department, the principal, the teachers and the students on the same page to embrace these changes and what the library can do for them. I loved the comment this section began with-"reworking the library services to meet users in their space". That will be my goal...now off to achieve it!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Thing # 14

Technorati and How Tags Work

I enjoyed exploring and trying to understand Technorati. In searching for information using School Library Learning 2.0, using the tag search provided much better results for me. I even came across an interesting blog by an elementary librarian that I have now saved in my del.icio.us account! I can't wait to get time to go back and read through her posts.

When looking at the most popular blogs, I have to admit that I haven't heard of any of them before!! I guess I was a little surprised to see so many tech blogs listed..(not my idea of popular reading???).

I think what I have gained most from using Technorati is that it organizes blogs quite thoroughly and will be helpful when looking for curent information on libraries from the librarians actually out there in the trenches....I also ran across many blogs with various reading lists. These are always interesting to me as I look for great books for my students.

Thing #13

Tagging and Discover Delicious

I have heard lots about Delicious from various workshops and conference but I had never sat down to explore the site. This was interesting for me. I have always kept a Favorites list of websites on my personal (and school) computers but was frustrated by the fact that these links were unique for that particular computer. Now that I have created a Delicious account, I can save all of my links there and can access from any machine! Very nice!

As far as using in the library, I can see this being very helpful! I am a high school librarian and many times when we have the students research, they end up printing out their articles because they don't have time to read everything or they don't want to forget the site address. With a Delicious account, they can save their links and go back to them at home or from another computer. I like!!!

I also took a look at the sharing possiblities. This would be great for students working in groups...the can all be contributing to the Delicious account rather than having one student that ends up doing all of the work!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Thing #12

Creating Community Through Commenting


Two points of importance that came from the reading in this section have to do with the commenter etiquette. This was addressed by the CoolCat blogger in which she says don't be afraid of the Darth Vader that lies in wait. I feel like I am always a fairly positive person and I easily get offended when others are negative. I haven't had to experience that but she stated that it's out there and you can't take anything too personally!! I also found it interesting from one of the links about how few people ever really respond to posts on blogs. I read a couple of blogs daily and have always felt a bit "weird" contributing to them...it's time to put myself out there!!

I read an author blog daily...I am interested in her writing and just her insights as a person. She also has very interesting links within her blog that I have enjoyed viewing. A blog that has a little of everything is http://thepioneerwoman.com/.
This is a beautiful blog with many fabulous recipes and stories...Enjoy!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Thing # 11

Library Thing

I am way into things like this....it is what sweeps away a lot of my time. I will find something I am interested in and then I am gone!!

After I set up my account (I re-used my avatar..yaya!!), I added several books that I have read and will love for an eternity. Then I began perusing the groups. This is where I go nuts...there where many library groups-the one I spent time reading was the group Read YA Lit. It was interesting because within the group, they had tried to set up a "book Club" where someone named a book and all members were to read it. Well, there were thousands of memebrs so it seemed to bog down a bit...I'm not sure that they ever got a discussion going!

I even stumbled across a group for tea lovers..whatever!!

I can see a use within a school environment by setting up an online "book club" for your students. They could read and react to the book through Library Thing. I will use it for the book lists that are provided...there's a little something for everyone. Lots of interesting posts!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Thing #10


On-Line Image Generators

This has been my favorite category to explore!! I guess I just love to play! I made a magazine cover of my son the "Drama Queen" just to freak him out (I'm mean like that) and I also played around with Dumpr and Amazing Goo.

For my image, I used Comic Strip Generator. This was very easy to use and would be a fun project for students in an art class or any class. You can be creative with the backgrounds and captions.

I really wanted to work with Wordle but had trouble using it on my computer at home...some conflict with Java apparently. Anyway-Enjoy!!

Thing #9

Useful Library Related Blogs

I enjoyed exploring these various sites! The easiest of the search tools to use for me was Goole Blog search most likely because Goole is such a part of my everyday life-the screen is easy to navigate and familiar. I also liked the Blogline search tool. It was very easy to use as well.

The most confusing site for me was Syndic8. I am a failry visual leaner and I didn't like the screen (wasn't visually appealing to me!) and it seemed that there was too much going on! When I searched forthe RSS feeds, the screen beacme less busy, but still confusing for this newbie to RSS!

I loved the Cool Cat teacher blog-full of lots of great information. I also discovered a fun library blog through Suprglu-"Gargoyles loose in the Library"..loved it!! The librarian has lots of interesting things going on in her high school lilbrary. I will definitely be re-visiting that site.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Thing #8

RSS Feeds

When looking at RSS feeds, I like the organization factor. I am a daily blog reader and I do spend a lot of time pulling up the web addresses and thinking about the ones I want to read for that day. Now I just log in to my Google account and I can see the new blog postings. This works really well for the news sites.

For my personal and professional life, using RSS feeds should save me vast amounts of time. I have a tendency to get very sucked in to the web...which is fine when there is time...but usually I don't have time! The feed gives me the newest post to the blog and keeps me up to date without me spinning around in Interent world!

This is a great tool for teachers-they can have feeds for their specific subject area and take a few minutes to glance each day and tehn decide what they really want to spend the time reading. Great for debate coaches that are already sifting through great amounts of information.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Thing #7

Using Google

Of all of the 23 things, this is the one I have the most confidence using. I have had an igoogle account for over a year and actually have many of my photos saved to Picasa. I even shared them with my brother and sister last year after a family vacation..I was quite proud of myself. I have also set up Google calendars...but as with any kind of technology, you have to be diligent and keep up with them which I am not! I sponsor the Interact Club at our high school and set up an Interact calendar with one of my officers. We had great plans to post all events to the calendar and have it linked to our school web page...we got it set up and then just stopped. It was a great idea but we both got busy with other things.

A google application I had not explored before was Google scholar. What a great way to steer students to more scholarly articles (and Google book links also appeared frequently).

Our students are addicted to Google earth. I see them searching for their houses or friends houses daily! Maybe we can encourage them to look a little broader than Waxahachie, Texas...hence the name "earth"!!! Another great google tool.

Thing #6



Mash-ups

Creating the trading card was fun! We have a wonderful World History teacher at our school-I am going to show this application to her. I can just imagine the kids creating trading cards of the various countries/customs that they are discovering. She could have them posted to her blog or her school website. Great fun!

Thing #5


Using Flickr

I have used Flickr in the past to view photos that were added by friends. I didn't realize the extent of the site nor the various ways it can be used in the classroom or library.

I chose this picture because it reminds me of the old bookmobile we used to use in our school district. Ours is an old equipment truck that was painted with images of fairy tale characters not so unlike this!

Thing #4 Blog

My blog is now available for everyone to see! Thing #4 is complete!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Thing # 3

Setting up a blog:

I have actually had a blog before but decided I was too boring to write anything interesting each day. I am a loyal blog follower of other blogs (some I read daily). The actual creating of the blog was not difficult...making it pretty was a bit harder. I played around with it for awhile. A storm hit so I lost internet access in the middle...but, it appears I have an active blog with a lovely avatar of myself in a kilt....(my dream). I am still learning where to place things on the blog and I sure my background will change daily. Cheers!
Thing #2
71/2 Habits of Life Long LearnersOf the 7 1/2 habits, the hardest for me is confidence. In my profession, new ideas and technologies bombard me daily. I often feel I lack the confidence to deal with everything. I like to be good at what I do and some days, I just feel lost!!


The easiest of the 71/2 is having a goal and seeing the end product before the beginning. I have always felt that I was a bit of a visionary! I know how I want things to be and I will do everything I can to see it come true!