Thing #23

Yippee!! I made it to the end. For a person who is almost 70 years of age and one who retired over ten years ago, this has been a big challenge. I am definitely in the bottom of the group, but I am absolutely sure that I had farther to go than probably anyone else in the class. I am so pleased that I took a deep breath and signed up for the class. I definitely know that each of the things that I accomplished does not give me the skill to be able to teach that skill to a student, but at least I now know where to start. I was thrilled when my Superintendent told me about a multi-discipline activity that we are going to do in the high school this year and I was able to give him a suggestion of a technique that I had learned in this class--I am scheduled to meet with the technology teacher to implement that. Thank you so much for that!!


1. Picking a favorite is hard, but I suppose that knowing how to embed a YouTube or TeacherTube into a blog is up there at the top. You didn't ask for my least favorite, but that would be the mashup exercise, because I was not very successful at that--I would love to be able to do a map project and I was not able to master mappr and importing it into the blog; I had to settle for a beginning Mosaic project.


2. Doing projects like this definitely keeps my mind active and, hopefully, continually learning. I am going to love knowing how to do some of the projects that I have seen the students attempting to do; now, I think that I can help them.


3. Lots of unexpected outcomes, but I was thrilled to be able to locate the Billy Joel TeacherTube presentation after reading another blog. I loved reading other blogs--they gave me some wonderful ideas for future projects.


4. I'm not sure that I know enough to really answer this question, but one of the problems that I had was that I was hesitant to ask a question about something that I did not know how to do. I suppose that I am like so many students that do not ask questions because they are afraid it is a stupid question with an obvious answer--so the problem was with me rather than with the course.


5. Yes, I think that I would take another course. Our world is changing so quickly and when you live in a remote area, it is difficult to find courses that you can take without driving long distances and at great expense. I am envious of all of you in the Spring Branch ISD system who know people that are taking the course to personally ask questions about something that you do not understand and/or to bounce ideas around with someone else.


6. AWESOME!! or "A mind-expanding class".


7. I have commented on several during the class, but I will go back and add comments to two or three of my favorite blogs.

Thing #22

Nings--I had heard the word, but did not know anything about them. I subscribed to TLC and LM_Net after being out of the loop for over ten years to try to keep up with some of the latest trends and/or problems. I have really become attached to those two services--have even ventured out into asking and answering some of the questions posted even though one of the Nings that I read said that those two were intimidating. I looked at the Texas Librarian Ning which I had read about on TLC and I liked what I saw--I like the fact that you can post videos, photos, etc. on a Ning--it does make it seem more personable because you can connect a face and a name. When a discussion question is posted all the replies are with the question--on TLC and LM_Net that is not the case even though the groups are usually very quick about answering a question. I also checked out the Teacher Ning and found some activities that I can use for the younger groups--I am always looking for exercises to use with the younger children since I had always been a high school librarian prior to taking this part-time job in a PreK-12 school. Definitely something I will check out--BUT, I will probably be a lurker for a while.

Thing #21

I do not know what is wrong with the audio portion of the video. I even purchased a new microphone for my computer, but still no luck; will have to make do with background music for now. I think students would enjoy being able to put videos into their presentations. I can hardly wait for the new project that we are doing this year in the small school that I am a part of to get started. With the new smartboards that we have and some of the techniques in this class, I see countless possibilities. If I am not very proficient in the techniques, at least I now know what they are trying to do and perhaps, I will be able to help them make a better presentation.

Thing #20

Thing #20--Part 1

What a blast!! I don't know how I can use this YouTube in class, but on this Fourth of July weekend, I can't think of anything better to put in my blog. I love the Cactus Cuties singing at one of the Texas Tech basketball games. I realized after I did it that I had placed it in the wrong place, but I saw the Billy Joel TeacherTube on another blog and realized that this was the one that the history teacher had asked me about last year--so I located it on TeacherTube and used it instead of moving the other one!! Success!! I love this! I love both of those videos and I think kids would love using some like these in classes. I'm not sure that I know how to give copyright credit for the videos if the creator is not listed at the end of the video--will need to find that out before I use them for school.

Thing #19

Getting to select the best from the best--great!! I selected MyHeritage and checked out an ancestor that I have been looking for--received hits in 39 different lists--much easier than searching the web for sites for genealogy. My son is always talking about Craig's list so I had to check it out--much like ebay except you can pick from items in your own town. I also checked out Wikispaces--there are free spaces offered to schools this next year. I think that would be a good deal for a school, but since I am only part time, I need to find a cooperating teacher to use the site for her or his class--I will check that out. I also checked under education (.Docstoc) and found documents on teaching library skills in school that might be helpful. I would think that having a list by categories would be helpful for teachers to select one that would fit their area.

Thing #18

I downloaded OpenOffice and it looks almost like Microsoft Office 2003 (which I loved). I now have Vista and Office 2007 which really frustrates me because things are not in the same place that they were--oh, well, that is another class. Google Docs gave me a chance to get back to several other things that I had subscribed to during this class. Having Docs, Reader, Calendar, etc. all in one place seems as if it would be a time saver. After watching the video I can see that this would be a wonderful feature if you had a group of teachers or students coordinating on the same project--much more efficient than email. I really like both of these features and I think that I will probably use both of them. Microsoft Office has gotten so expensive that I can see the real value of a free comparable program.

Thing #17

I think the idea behind Rollyo sounds great, but I am not sure that I will set it up here on my home computer. The sites that I frequent will be the first or second in my history and it seems as if that would be faster or just as fast as having all my sites in one place. Favorites that are already on my computer also seem just as satisfactory--plus, I don't have to add anything else on my computer. Changed my mind--discovered what my problem was in exploring. This summer is when I need to practice to be able to set up safe sites for my students. Plus, summer will give me time to add sites that I want students to use without having to spend my time at school doing just that. http://rollyo.com/minta/my_library_skills/

Thing #16

I posted my comment in the sandbox! Yippee! I am now much more in favor of the Wiki use than I was prior to starting this class--I tended to encourage students to avoid them for research purposes, but now I am re-thinking that. I now have another tool for students and/or teachers to use for collaboration--Google Notebook, Blogs, Wikis, etc. I also think the Wiki is going to be a great tool for planning our annual family reunion rather than the emails that we have been using to try to coordinate eleven families in ten different cities.

Thing #15

I read the articles listed in the instructions and they all reinforced my belief that entering the libraries of the very near future will not be a physical visit to a library building--I believe that more and more patrons will access the library materials from some kind of web service. The article entitled "Into a New World of Librarianship" addresses some of the things that we librarians will have to do, but I believe those are things that we always have done--now, we are just having to do them outside our physical space. In the article "Away from the 'icebergs'" I agree that we are going to have to do away with our "just in case" mentality; however, I would bet that most of us have not bought as many non-fiction books for our collection as we did at one time simply because we know that the book is probably going to be out-of-date before it reaches our hands--much of that money is now being spent on on-line services. I really think that librarians as a whole try to keep one step ahead of the "troops" to be ready for them--for what other reason would an "old dog" like me be taking a course like this.

Thing #14

I investigated Technorati and was surprised to receive such a difference when looking for "School Library Learning 2.0" under blogs, tags, and posts--I was surprised that there was not a greater number of tags. The video on Technorati did make a point that I had not thought about and that was the internet has become a device for companies and/or commercial interests rather than for people; blogging is suppose to bring it back to the people. Since I realize that 90%+ sites on the internet are .com sites, I don't know why it should surprise me.
I guess that I might not have enough information yet to make a really good decision on whether to use this or not, but it seems as if I spent a lot of time looking without coming up with any material that I thought was valuable--some interesting stuff, but not what I would call valuable. I did watch two videos of my two favorite film stars, but I'm not sure that I would call that a productive use of my time. I think that I will reserve judgement until I get back in school and use it to help students--then I will make my decision.

Thing #13

I checked out Del.icio.us, Furl and Ma.gnolia. Del.icio.us and Furl both seemed to be easier to use than Ma.gnolia; however, I am wondering if any of these will get past the filters at my school. I will have to check that out when I return to school. I liked the highlight feature in Furl, but I also see a problem with that feature with beginning researchers because it could easily lead to plagerism just as with any "cut and paste" feature. Being able to set up the feature to email a tagged article to someone else that you think might find it of some value could be a nice feature for a Principal and/or Superintendent to automatically send it to one of the teachers.
I can see the value of these devices for saving articles, etc. for research, but I am wondering if the Google Notebook feature that we found out about earlier might be a better way for public school students to retain research articles than one of these three. The one feature of Ma.gnolia that I did like was the fact that they automatically changed a website address if the address changes after you have saved it.
I hope to have time to check out what I have learned in Thing #13 at the school prior to the start of school.

Thing #12

I think two of the most important rules that I read in preparing to comment on a blog would be to "Read before you write"--be sure that you know exactly what the author of the blog has said--don't respond to your first impression in many cases. As with everything in the life of a librarian, I think we should always be gracious and humble; we are always trying to set the best example for our students and to get them to come back to the library again. I found blogs on needlepoint (a hobby) and commented on two of them--received a reply from one that turned out to be a friend from a course taken long ago. Super!! I found the cocomment feature on one of the blogs, investigated that, but at this point I think I have added more than enough features to my computer--will save that for later. I also learned on one blog (after commenting) that there is a preview feature on a blog that takes permission from the blogger for the comment to appear. I think that is a very good feature.
The blogs that I have left comments on in Library2Play are as follows:

http://hebrewsc13v2.blogspot.com/
http://nerdysportsmom.blogspot.com/
http://23thingysmb.blogspot.com/
http://www.1book2books3books.blogspot.com/
http://toughteacher-myfirstblog.blogspot.com/

One of the needlepoint blogs that I have left comments on are as follows:

http://www.sudukc.wordpress.com/

Thing #11

I signed up for Library Thing and did the "widget thing" to list the five books in my library on the blog. I am a member of Shelfari and this seems to be about the same, but I have not had enough time to compare the two to see which I like best. Adding the books was really easy--much easier than some of the other things that I have tried to do.

Thing #10

This was fun. I played around with several of the images on each of the image builders that were listed--I deleted most of them, but had loads of fun thinking about how they could be used. I saved a Wanted Poster (Good Readers Wanted) that I am thinking about using with some of my classes. I created a picture from the comic strip generator and think that the kids will enjoy doing that. I tried making another trading card but still I need to work on that--there is something I am not doing correctly. I also investigated the Kid-Friendly Image Generator and found some borders that I think will be great with classes to make individual certificates. I looked at the Mosaic builder and think that program would be good for geography or history projects with students.

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/deck.php

http://www.txt2pic.com/comic/abducting-alien-being.htm

Thing #9

I investigated all of the search tools that were listed in the instructions. I enjoyed reading the blogs of winners listed in the Edublog's Award Winners and I added two of them to my Google Reader. I liked the topic divisions on the Technorati site because it was easier to select a topic to investigate rather than individual blogs. I did like the library link of the day listed on Bloglines and have added that also. I was surprised at first to see the listings for my town as I logged into the topix search--those were interesting to read; however, many of the listings had nothing to do with my town. I also enjoyed finding out about the Atomic Learning site--I clicked on some of the free instruction videos and discovered a faster way of doing something.

Thing #8

I have added two newscasts--one local and one worldwide. I have added five library-related blogs that were recommended.
I think the RSS feeds are valuable to a librarian because it puts the latest news in one place that can be reviewed the first thing each morning--I use to scan the newspapers each morning to be able to help students with current events--a reader is much more efficient and covers more information than the old method that I use to have to do.
The library-related blogs is an easy way to keep up with advances or techniques used by other librarians. However, at this point, I rely on my librarian list-servs for just that information. Librarians are so busy that I'm not sure that many of us will have time to keep a blog up-to-date. Perhaps, though, I am such a novice at this that I am not aware of all the possibilities and it just seems as if the emails thru the list-servs would be faster.
I think the feeds would be a great asset in a history or geography class to find out what is happening now in the country the class is currently studying.

Thing #7

I enjoyed this level because I have used the Google advanced search before. I used an ancestor who fought at the Alamo for my search term. I had not used James Clinton Neill as a search term before, but it is always fun to find more information about a member of your family.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txnavarr/biographies/n/neill_james_clinton.htm

I have also set up a Google Calendar, but I haven't finished that one for the week. I'm not sure that the Calendar will replace the one on the refrigerator door yet, but it was fun to set one up. Plus, my husband does not like computers so he would never be able to find me if my calendar was on the computer.

I am also setting up an account with Google Notebook to see if this would be a better way to take notes for research papers, and I set up a Google Alert with two terms that I want to track.

Thing #6

I did investigate the trading cards, the mosaic, mappr and looked at some of the other items in the Big Huge Labs section. I think any of those would be fun to use in various classes or the library. These are all new to me so I would really have to select one and work to perfect that technique prior to using it with students--BUT, I am thrilled to know about the possibilities. I have gone back to the Mosaic feature and posted my first attempt with the credits for the pictures listed below.

1. Flower Fairy..., 2. DSC03160, 3. DSC_1570m, 4. DSC03161

Thing #5

I finally located a picture that I wanted to use that would save to my blog. I still do not know why I can save some pictures from Flickr and not others, but maybe that will come later. I love bluebonnets, but I live in an area where they will not come back after our winters. I keep thinking that maybe Texas A&M will work on creating a bluebonnet that will survive in the cold northern part of the state. I also gave credit to Zyada (http://www.flickr.com/photos/zyada/) for the picture when asked at one point, but I can't figure out where that is now. A caption must not be the place to put that type of information; I did notice that some students' blogs that used pictures from the same group that I used show a link to all the pictures belonging to that person so I must have missed a step. (As you can see I just found a way to put a link in the blog that gives credit, but it is still not like many of the other students' credit. HELP!!) As Scarlet said, "tomorrow is another day." This is the first time I have used Flickr and I can certainly see how it could be used for activities with students.

Thing #4

I received word last night that I had registered my blog so I suppose that all is well at this point. WHEE!!!

Thing #3

I think I have set up the blog correctly; it is still scary for an old person like me, but I am trying. At this point, all that I know is that I can see what I have done when I log in.

Thing #2

The easiest thing for me to do is to set a goal; I always know where I want to end up--I may never get there, but I always start with a long-term goal.

Thing #1

I have been in the school business for 44 years and I have always stressed being a life-long learner. As a school librarian I hope that I am doing my job well enough to allow my graduates to transition into the next level of libraries and to become life-long learners, too. I have been out of the loop for so long that this process is really scary for me, but here goes!! I learned about this class on TLC and thought it was a good place to start to bring me up to date in order to help my students. . I think the hardest thing for me will be to set up my toolbox since I am so far behind in the technology area.