Thing #23 1/2 (Week 9) Summary

My favorite discovery was Zoho writer. Now I'm anxious to learn more about the other applications to see if they are as easy to use and as full-featured as the writer. Like many of us, my workday is so busy that I appreciate not having to spend an enormous amount of time just learning how to save more time. I don't think that I would have tried all these things if they we're required for this course, but I'm so glad that I did because the experience has given me the confidence to connect with the digital natives in my high school.
I managed to complete everything on time, but I did think that the pace was a little fast. I would've been happier investigating fewer technologies in depth rather than just touching on 23. And I'm quite disappointed in the grad credit option from Fresno Pacific, even though I'll be finishing up with that this week too. (I hope.) It would've been much more effective if students had been able to sign up at the beginning of our discoveries so that we could've used that forum to post our thoughts.
An overworked, yet appropriate one word summation of this experience? AWESOME!!

Thing # 23 (Week 9) Copyright & Creative Commons

I found this passage on the School Library Learning 2.0 homepage, attributing the idea for this course to its original creator:

"Learning 2.0 is a discovery learning program created by Helene Blowers. Content and style for School Library Learning 2.0 and Classroom Learning 2.0 have been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License."

Our Thing #19 was LibraryThing. In the original version it was "Select any site from the Web 2.0 list and play with it."
One thing that I wish our version had kept was the incentives and prizes - for completing all 23 things, they got an MP3 player. If they completed them early, they were also entered in a drawing for a PDA! Better yet, there was a final drawing for a laptop!

Thing # 22 (Week 9) eBooks & Audio eBooks

My only exposure to audio books has been with the purchase of a small starter collection of Playaways for my school. The students who have checked them out have been very enthusiastic and I'll be buying more in the future, even though they are quite expensive. I like them because it can be used without any other equipment, but can also be plugged into a boombox for classroom use.
I haven't ventured into the realm of eBooks for my library, even though they are available from various vendors. And I certainly couldn't advertise free downloads since teachers and students are prohibited from downloading anything to school computers and would have to do so elsewhere.
I own a Palm E2 that I use for inventory and it also has the capability of downloading eBooks, but I seldom use it as such. I prefer to read on a larger screen than 3"x 4" ! Has anyone seen or used the new Kindle ? I'm curious to see if that will take off better than the older eBook readers.

Thing # 21 (Week 9) Podcasts

I wasn't really sure I'd benefit much from this exercise because we can't view or create podcasts in school, but I did find a series of videos that a vocational school in Illinois recorded that might convince our technology coordinator to allow selected classrooms to use them for educational purposes. I've posted the podcast of an electricity and robotics class that I'm sure our electricity instructors could use. I wasn't able to embed it into this posting, even though I tried to follow the directions. I'm also adding the link to this slideshow that goes along with the podcast.
I had a considerable amount of difficulty viewing podcasts for this section. The tutorial from Yahoo wasn't available and Podcast.net and Yahoo Podcasts took too long to load or kept hanging up my computer. I had better luck with the Educational Podcast Directory, but there were also quite a few links there that I couldn't seem to view.

Thing # 20 (Week 9) Discover YouTube

I found this video from the Alliance Library Sytem on YouTube that I'm going to try to share with you. Hope it works! I found it when I searched for libraries on second life.
This is a great example of using second life for educational purposes. Is this how American history will be taught in the future?

Thing # 19 (Week 8) LibraryThing

I've used LibraryThing for both a personal book collection and for the summer reading program at my school. You can see on my blog where I added my father's railroad books - I created the list to share this interest with other train enthusiasts out there. I noticed that many people are using LibraryThing for online book clubs, so when our English department got together this year to select the summer reading books, I sent them a link to a YA lit club so that they could read some reviews of current literature.
This past fall, I catalogued last year's summer books and posted them on my library web site so that students would make comments, but so far no activity. This year, I'll make sure that they know about it beforehand. I'll also be able to use the recommendations for further reading feature for those students who want to read similar titles.
The LibraryThing for Libraries project that would integrate the features of LibraryThing with an existing OPAC really seems like a great leap forward. I noticed that it's mostly public libraries that are using this, but I think that it would be great for schools as well. Not only could students search by keyword and subject headings, but also by more familiar sounding tags. And they could also add their own reviews as well as reading others.

Thing # 18 (Week 8) Online productivity tools

This is a picture of my daughter Jennie (last one on the right) with her Irish Step-Dancing team that recently competed in the All-Ireland competition. They came in second! First place went to an Irish team.

Part one...I'm writing this blog post in ZoHo Writer and I'm very impressed with it, especially with the emoticons! (Why can't I see them in Blogger? I tried importing them as pictures, but I couldn't insert them here.) It's nice to be able to write and publish within the same program. They also have several other applications like a spreadsheet program, etc. I'll try out Google Docs to see how they compare. On a related note, I'm using the OpenOffice suite on my new computer since it didn't come with Microsoft Office and I'd recommend it to everyone. My daughter Jennie, the step-dancer, is a free-lance pharmaceutical writer and she uses it for all her work. Why buy an expensive program when you can use an open source alternative that has all the features you need, plus the ability to save in any format? The only thing OpenOffice lacks is the web-based access, which would be a very desirable addition.

As a writer, my daughter has occasion to collaborate with her clients, so maybe she'd also like to use a web-based product like ZoHo or Google Docs. And I can definitely see how teachers could use the collaborative feature with student reports as well as for creative writing assignments.

Part two...Well, I just gave Google Docs a quick tour, trying to add and edit the subject as above, but it failed my test! I couldn't just upload the photo, but had to insert it as an image. However, when I did so, the upload failed - maybe the file size was too large. Also, I couldn't find any place where I could add any comments in balloons or any emoticons. Now, I'm not the type to elaborate my writing with all that stuff, but it was appropriate for the text of my blog. So, maybe Google Docs is a tad more serious than ZoHo? I didn't try out any of the other applications, so I can't comment on them.

Thing #17 (Week 7) Sandbox play

I just posted a message to the calcurriculum wiki and I tried adding a YakPack where you can talk to one another. Not sure if it will work! Not only can you collaborate on screen but talk to one another as well.
In my previous blog post, I explained how I'm planning to use a wiki to guide students through their Virtual High School classes next year.

Thing #16 (Week 7) Wikis

Wikis aren't all that new to me since I took a course last summer about them. I had high hopes that I could create a wiki as an alternative to our school's webpages, which I wasn't allowed to edit on my own :( I haven't updated the wiki that I started, but after reading more about them for this exercise, I'd like to try again. This coming September, I'll be a coordinator for Virtual High School and I'd like to be able to communicate with my students through one of these new technologies. I'm wondering if wikis are the best format to use. I'm leaning in that direction because even if the students are taking different subjects, the online learning will be a new experience for all of them. I know that they will be taking an orientation to Blackboard, but I'm sure that they'll have more issues that I can help them with. And with a wiki they can also help each other through the course.
Reading about all the different ways that other schools and libraries have used wikis makes me a little embarrassed that I haven't updated mine. I was really impressed with the Westwood school wiki, from the sample school wiki link - very organized and well thought out class presentation. And of course I'm always blown away by Joyce Valenza's high school website http://mciu.org/~spjvweb . I noticed that she's created wikis for most of the new links. I'm inspired!

Thing #15 (Week 6) Web 2.0/ The Future of Libraries/ Library 2.0

This exercize has really come at the right point in the course for me. All the investigating that I've been doing into new technologies has me overwhelmed with the possibilities for the future of our profession. And I'm wondering what this will mean for the future of school libraries. At my school, I already see that students use the internet as their primary information source. Try as I might to convince them that they should start their searches with the catalog, they invariably gravitate to the easiest method for them - usually Google or Wikipedia. I've tried educating the teachers, but it all seems to fall on deaf ears.
I enjoy a healthy book budget, but I wonder if all that money is just being wasted on books that students never read.
I read all the articles from OCLC and was most impressed with "Away from the icebergs" by Rick Anderson. He advocates against building comprehensive print collections, when patrons can access the information online anyway. This makes so much sense to me, but the alternative (i.e. more digital content) would be a tough sell in my school. Our students are now so used to using Google and Wikipedia, they probably won't use what I buy no matter how superior it may be.
To find out what others are saying about changes that might affect school libraries, I also read the article "School Library 2.0" from the Wikipedia references. The author believes that in order to survive, the library needs to extend it's services beyond the boundaries of the school. As a staff member at the Genesee Valley BOCES in western New York, he's planning "two educational centers to support career and technical and alternative education programs. It is exciting to imagine what a library that serves culinary arts and automotive technology programs could be. We are looking to create something akin to an information commons, which will feature a print and audio fiction collection and primarily digital reference and nonfiction resources."
Since I work at a technical high school, I'll put some serious thought into redesigning the existing library collection to suit the needs of our students.

Thing #14 (Week 6) Explore Technorati

After respectfully declining to "claim" my blog on Technorati, I tried doing a keyword search for "School Library Learning 2.0" - 28 results in both Blog posts and tags and only 18 in the Blog Directory. I actually found my blog, but alas, "no fans" for me. I selected the "New Books" from the popular blogs link - I like it much better than I thought I would, and there are links to Amazon for their reviews.
Tagging and the future of information retrieval - sounds like the title of an article...tags are a great concept, uncontrolled cataloguing, but easier to use than traditional subject headings - more like keywords.

Thing # 13 (Week 6) Del.icio.us

I must say that delicious is quite overwhelming - or maybe it's just that I'm so busy this week that I've been finding it difficult to keep up with everything. I registered for an account and added it to my toolbar. I've managed to add a few of my bookmarks to it, but time will tell if it becomes a habit or just one more thing to think about (and spell). Sorry for the whining! Can't wait for vacation...
I read how some libraries have utilized delicious to reach out to the public, but I doubt that it will be useful for academic research. Just because something is popular doesn't make it authoritative.

Thing # 12 (Week 5) Roll your own search tool with Rollyo

While I enjoyed viewing other searchrolls, I found it difficult to immediately come up with a list of reliable websites to create my own. I finally created a couple based on sites I usually check on a frequent basis - subjects are "Book Reviews" and "Italian Genealogy". I'm almost embarrassed to say that I made them public since I'm not sure that anyone else would find them useful! Oh well, I'm just learning. I wanted to add a search box to my blog, but couldn't figure out how to (even though I read the instructions several times.)
I think Rollyo would be useful for teachers who wanted their students to search only pre-selected websites, and add that information to their homework pages.

Thing # 11 (Week 5) Explore Web 2.0 award-winning applications and Ning

Again, I'm finding that I'm having way too much fun and spending way too much time on these explorations! I finally decided to comment on this one http://www.etsy.com/.

The lovely item for sale above is a handmade Arrr Matey Truffle Magnet - only $ 8.00 plus shipping! This was from their "Geekery" category, but they have a wide variety of craft areas represented from jewelry to woodworking. All the items for sale on etsy are completely handmade - what a great idea for crafters who need a salesroom without the overhead. It only costs $.20 to list each item plus a commission of 3.5% if sold, plus any fees associated with PayPal.

I was surprised to see that their idea of handmade also includes books, vintage items such as sewing and knitting patterns and a few antiques. I can see how school organizations could use this site for fundraising purposes, as long as they could keep up with the orders.

Ning is great! - I used it last summer for a course on Wikis through Simmons College so I already had an account. Again, I got totally immersed with all of the Nings that are out there to join. I selected the Dead Fred Genealogy Photo Archive http://deadfredgenealogy.ning.com/ because I've uncovered a few mysterious photos of unknown family members. I was intrigued with the concept of posting pictures of these people in the hopes that someone out there could identify them. Talk about a needle in a haystack - I guess I like to believe in impossible things - like the Giants winning the Superbowl. Wait! That was real!!! Okay, I digress...

On to playing with the Travel IQ - I surprised myself at how far I got, but bummed out when I was so far off the target for a few of them. With practice I'm sure I'll do better. What a great site for practicing geography skills.

Thing # 10 (Week 5) Online image generators

After playing around a bit I finally chose the Warholizer. Since my hobby is genealogy, the image I chose to upload is of my grandmother Maria Sposato, who was born in Carpanzano, Italy. I plan to use this generator with library pictures for my website.

I also spent a lot of time investigating the other image generators. My initial opinion is that most of them are rather silly, but I can see the usefulness for occasional classroom use. However, this won't happen for a long time at my school because many of these newer technologies, especially those that manipulate images, have been blocked.

Thing #9 (Week 4) Locate a few useful School Library related blogs and news feeds

I'm still having a brain freeze on how to add RSS feeds for blogs without having a Bloglines account. I went to Google Blog search and found the class blog and was able to add it as a feed, but not to have it show up with my other feeds on my Google desktop.
I can see the usefulness of keeping up with blogs since they might be more newsworthy as opposed to websites, that is if I can figure out to do it. I found several interesting school library blogs, especially those from LM-NET, although with just so many hours in a day, keeping up with RSS feeds might end up being as time consuming as checking bookmarks.

Thing #8 (Week 4) Learn about RSS feeds & set up a blog reader account

Since I already have an account with Google, I used their reader to set up my RSS feed. After viewing their video, I was able to choose among several subscriptions or search for my own by keyword. Then it was a simple matter to go back to my Google desktop to add the feeds so that I can see them when I log in. Now I won't have to rely on my ever expanding list of bookmarks to keep up with events. I chose my hometown newspaper, websites on quilting, genealogy, knitting and second life.

As an experiment to see if I can "push" everyone's class blogs to my desktop as well, I tried to add them to my RSS feed account, but didn't have much success. I'll keep trying, but I think this depends on whether or not others have set up their blog for public viewing. I thought this would make it easier to keep track of everyone else's experiences.

In a school/library environment I can see feeds being used to individualize online experiences between teachers and their students.

Thing # 7 (Week 3) Technology of interest...

While touring Flickr I came across information about this library site on Second Life: http://infoisland.org. If you're curious about the "virtual library world", for $ 125 you can sign up for a course through the University of Illinois GSLIS called Second Life 101.

Thing # 6 (Week 3) Flickr fun, mashups and 3rd party sites

I investigated Yahoo's Trip Planner, where you can copy other people's travel itineraries and edit them for your own use. This site uses Flickr to post pictures for each leg of the journey with comment from the participants - giving the reader a better idea of each locale. I may visit this site when I plan my trip to Europe.

I also checked out Mappr, an application that maps Flickr photos by location all over the US. So, if you click on a location, you can view a picture of it. I could use this in conjunction with the Trip Planner if it covered more parts of the world.

Thing # 5 (Week 3) Explore Flickr

I first heard about Flickr at a library workshop last spring but didn't sign up at the time. I created my Flickr account today, but I'm at home and don't have any picture of my library to upload right now. I'll do that on Tuesday if I can figure out where the blogging tool is. I did notice the similarity of the use of tags to subject headings - cataloguing gone mainstream! I was also pleased to see that the LOC has contributed some of their American Memory collection to Flickr through something called The Commons.

Searching the Flickr site for "libraries", the first photo that caught my eye was this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/logosinberlin/359892153/
called "Timemachines" - a very appropriate title for a shelf full of books waiting to be read. I like the comment feature on Flickr that allows you to carry on a conversation with the photographer about different elements of his work.

Things 3 & 4 (Week 2) Create & register your own blog & avatar

Well, I found that it wasn't very difficult to create my blog with Blogger as I already have a Gmail account and didn't have to remember yet another password. This was a big plus for me. And I enjoyed selecting my personal avatar at http://avatars.yahoo.com This was also very simple since I have another e-mail account with Yahoo (yeah! no new password). I would've liked more options to go along with my hornetlady handle though. I found that I had to alter the directions slightly in order to add it to my blog but I got through it okay. I've registered the blog and am anxiously awaiting a message from my cheerleader.
I've never blogged before, but at least one teacher at my school has. She set up a blog for her students to communicate with her while she was on a teacher exchange in England. Her students posted to her blog in the library and I was surprised at how many students weren't all that familiar with it. We just assume that teens are experts at all things digital, but it's not always the case.
As I mentioned in my last post, I'm planning to invite my colleagues at McCann Tech to follow my progress and learn along with me. I sent them the following e-mail:

FYI…I’m the 2nd week of a course I’m taking for professional development called “School Library Learning 2.0” and thought I’d invite others at McCann to come along for the ride as I learn more about the emerging Web 2.0 technologies. These are the same internet technologies (Podcasts, Flickr, RSS Feeds, etc.) that our students are already using and we’re all just trying to play catch-up! It’s always good to be ahead of the curve, or at least close behind…
The course will take me through “23 things” or activities designed to give me hands-on exposure to a variety of new stuff. As I finish each “thing”, I’ll post the results of the experience on my personal blog (Blogging was the Week 2/Thing #3 assignment). To follow my progress go to http://hornetlady.blogspot.com Yes, I’m the hornet lady – take a look at my avatar (if it isn’t blocked)…
Feel free to add comments to my blog, especially any ideas for classroom collaboration that these “things” generate for you. Who knows where this journey might lead?

Thing #2 (Week 1) Lifelong Learning Habits

The Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners tutorial* covers familiar ground. I think most librarians are lifelong learners by default - we almost have to be if we're to be effective in our jobs.
Although I strive to achieve each of the seven habits, I tend to struggle with number three: View problems as challenges. It's difficult to stay calm when things get hectic as they normally do in a school. I'll admit to an occasional panic attack.
By far the easiest habit for me is self-confidence in my ability to learn new things. It should come in handy throughout this course.

*Tutorial developed by the training specialists at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County

Thing#1 (Week 1) About this course

I'm excited to be experiencing all these new technologies along with my library colleagues. When you make mistakes together it doesn't seem so bad! I know I'll be making my share. And in the interest of collaboration, I'm planning to invite the faculty and staff at my high school to follow me on this journey by reading and commenting on my blog. I'll try to encourage them to learn along with me so that we'll have lots of ideas when we get to Wiki Week!

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