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.
Monday, July 6, 2009
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!
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!
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!
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.
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!
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!
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!
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