Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Thing #16 Wikis

It is exciting to learn more about Wikis. What I still don't understand after spending most of the day exploring is -- are wikis free? When I explore the PBWorks site, it says to contact an agent for sales information. Can a wiki be hosted somewhere for free? It looks fairly easy to host, but it looks like it can become very involved quite quickly. What a great way to extend a concept using the web!

I love the way a teacher can add a video clip, links, and begin collaboration in a safe environment. I think elementary students could use this activity at school to begin to try out some of the Web 2.0 tools that we have been learning in the 23 Things. I would love to add Flickr to the wiki and have students check out mashups. I believe the first step is just introduction and the natives will continue to collaborate and extend their learning in ways that we might not even imagine at first.

I found this YouTube video that share teachers' thoughts on using wikis. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av2yofWSdU0 Check it out.

Wikis are not one-dimensional; a teacher can take a research project and essentially create a group project where all students learn to be collaborators and work together. Basic etiquette will need to be taught, and students must be willing to be respectful when sharing information.

Thing #15 Library 2.0

I especially enjoyed David Warlick's post and I added him to my RSS feeds. He had a particularly interesting blog on Twitter, and it's importance in Web 2.0. I think all of us as librarians are trying to find ways to implement technology into library services. At the elementary level, we have begun providing interactive books online, but our major push is sharing technology with teachers to integrate into their classrooms. Our district has a powerful filter and many sites are not available in the district -- no blogs, no wikis.

When I have asked my students if they can access the Web at home, only about one-third of the class has internet access. In that case, it is up to us at school to provide as much access to computers and technology that we can. How will these students be able to compete in today's society without technology training? What I am reading in these articles seems more relevant for high school and public libraries. We start simple in elementary school. We teach them to use the online card catalog and to read information online instead of trying to print everything to take with them. We introduce them to very simple online tools, how to use those tools to explore and share information, and ways to evaluate the information on the web to be a wise consumers. We are constantly looking for ways to add value and relevancy to our services. I do agree that federated searches must be able to reach into our collections and databases to be of real value.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Thing #14 Technorati & Tags

I don't think anything has been as eye-opening as searching Technorati with keywords, whole blogs, and tags. When I searched by tags, the returns were much more applicable to my original search idea. Wow! Tags really are important. I do agree with the Technorati video that the originator probably should not be tagging his post, rather the readers should tag the post. If the originator tags the post, a popular tag is often used that would allow the blogger more hits, but it might not truly be the tag that really embodies the post.

I thought the first video was extremely simple to understand while explaining all the new features of Technorati. I was so excited to do a search of the most popular searches in Technorati. In the top ten, I noted Paris Hilton, Jennifer Garner, Jennifer Anniston and news. The first three were definitely out, so I chose to explore "news." Imagine my excitement when I looked at the first three blogs -- Bad writing contest, Man tries to rob hotel with butter knife, Wimbeldon info. Well, it was on to the top three blogs -- which led to information about harvesting rainwater in Colorado, Do I need a mentor, and the everpopular -- getting more hits on your blog.

I do see the importance of tagging and searching for tags. Hopefully it will direct me to pertinent information.

Thing #13 Social bookmarking

I have used delicious before, but I stopped using it. Since I have re-examined it, I can see ways it is much better than just adding websites to Favorites. I am going transfer several of my favorites over to delicious and tag them. I understand tag clouds.

When I clicked on the hyperlink for Furl and watched the demo, it took me directly to Diigo, and I was so surprised. I have seen Diigo on several of friend's emails, but I was unsure exactly what it was. It doesn't look as easy to use as Delicious or Digg. When I checked out the top 30 social bookmarking sites, there was Digg. It looks extremely user-friendly.
Magnolia is completely down. I made a few comments so the originators would be aware. The podcast and video are no longer up. I searched Delicious on YouTube and found a super video on Delicious. I also checked out the site for FAQ for delicious.

As for how I will use it in the library, I am not sure it is appopriate in the elementary setting. It seems much more appropriate for the high school level. I like to use our databases for research and most of the online encyclopedias are reading level friendly. We can bookmark those pages and place them in the work location and the students can look at the entries that we starred. I know I can trust the information on those sites.

I think it will help organize my web information, and that is a huge plus.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Thing #12 Creating Community through Commenting

As I read through the strategies for commenting, I really began to think about the need to just comment. I am in the process of really cleaning my home -- I call it "deep cleaning." So the thought of clutter just popped into my thoughts. How many of our comments are really just clutter. I lurk around a lot, but if I have something meaningful to contribute, I will add a comment. Sometimes, I think people are really only adding clutter. I believe that is why more people do not add comments. I think people often do not contribute because the issue under discussion has been blogged to death, and there are no new comments to make.

Another thought that I have is community... Is blogging really a community? I worry about my own children and this generation of teens. They stay in their rooms or in the office and stay connected to their friends electronically. They blog, twitter, and use facebook continually. Are they going to be able to function in a workplace with society? Will they actually talk to people or will they just email to the next cube? Honestly, I would rather communicate face-to-face than on a computer.

Blue Skunk comments back to every blogger. Wow! Commenting to every blogger is a huge undertaking. I am not sure where to find the time.

I added two new blogs to my RSS feeds. One is about home decorating -- I am moving the office downstairs and reclaiming a bedroom upstairs. The other one is about sewing. I need to make a new shower curtain and I want to add grommets. I think I will be able to search this blog for the information that I need.

I have commented on a few blogs. I am so impressed with some of the backgrounds of the blogs. Way to go you guys! I'll post more comments in the future.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Thing #11 LibraryThing

Wow! I never knew this existed. As I have perused several of the blogs for 23 Things, I have noticed that a few have the LibraryThing on their blogs. Using this site is super simple and it is even easier to add books.
I really like that I can look at older books and see the reviews of several members. I am in an elementary school library that has had several librarians and I don't have time to read every single older book. LibraryThing allows me to at least have an idea about many of the books.
I found a group called Children's Literature that review children's books. It is perfect for me. The Name that Book group is great for finding the name of a book that I can't remember at the moment. There are lots of people out there to help.
I can hardly wait for the "Wish List" option. I can see reviews for books that I am thinking about purchasing for my library before I buy them. In the current economy and shrinking budgets, my collections needs to be only the best.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Thing #10 Image Generators



The first thing that I wanted to do was to create a Jigsaw puzzle. There are several sites that will create this effect. Big Huge Labs and Dumpr both were easy to use.




I have used Wordle many times before. It is a great opportunity for students to share what they have learned with a word collage. You can check it out at http://www.wordle.net/. I was unsuccessful when I tried to copy/paste my wordle art, but it is so much fun.




I really enjoyed using Big Huge Labs to turn a photograph into a sketch. It was incredibly fast, and I was so excited until I showed my son his image. He looked at me, shrugged and said, "Mom, I can do that on my phone." Obviously I am an immigrant, and he is a native. Dumpr also has the capability to turn a photo into a sketch.






I think the easiest of the applications to use is the Happy Face Generator. This example was so quick to create.




It took me forever to create a comic strip. I couldn't find a picture that was exactly what I wanted. I love the one on Library2Play. Here is mine. We've had 3 straight days of over 100 degrees.

This "thing" was a lot of fun and a very creative avenue. I spent two days just exploring the sites. The Kid Friendly Image Generator would be a lot of fun for kids to explore, but I don't think I would ever take them there because the Barbie image is not acceptable. What were they thinking? I think Glogster would be a great opportunity for older elementary through high school for a visual sharing of any kind of reading.
I noticed that many of the image generators offerred several of the same opportunities. Some sites were easier to use than others, but it was all fun.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Thing #9 More RSS

I am enjoying this section of the Web 2.0 experience. I found Edublog to be the most effective site for library blogs. I found Blue Skunk which led me to even more blogs. The Google blog search is really easy, but it didn't seem to narrow the search enough.

The most confusing of the blog searches involved School Library on Suprglu. It seemed to be only one blog -- more like a diary than sharing information. All of the posts were from one librarian. Maybe I just didn't search the site correctly.
Technorati looke like a good source, but part of the site was down due to a fix that is in progress. I plan to go back at a later date and check it out. The tutorial was very straightforward.

My favorite way to search for blogs is to look at the blogs that are listed on a trusted blog site and check those out. It's like the search is already done. From Chicken Spaghetti, I located Kathy Schrock's blog and Literate Lives. I added both of those quickly to my RSS feed.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Thing #8


Learning more about RSS feeds was a goal of mine for the summer. Now I have a Google reader and have added several of my favorite sites that I used to spend so much time navigating to and reading and navigating to the next site and reading. This leads me to the most important advantage of Google reader and RSS -- time management. I am able to scan all the new posts, read the parts I am interested in -- all from my iGoogle page. Yeah!!

Any information that I gain from additional reading of blogs will benefit my school because librarians are used as support staff. Since our site-based technologists have been elimated, the technology support will land heavily on librarians. Librarian in Black and librarian philosopher commit most of their blogs to the newest technology and applications for libraries.

In my search for additional blogs, I found a book for primary reading teachers that I believe will be a great resource for our teachers. Administrators, teachers, and the library benefit when instruction is supported. Anything that saves time for anyone in education is beneficial.
I added a rain cloud because I have almost forgotten what they look like. Houston is looking brown.


Saturday, June 20, 2009

Thing #7

I have used several Google Applications. My husband and I are searching for land in the hill country, and we used Google Earth to zoom in and check out neighboring tracts of land. We found chicken farms, landfills, and pig farms adjacent to several tracts of land for sale. This application has saved us lots of time.

Atomic learning has been a great spot to search for PowerPoints on different library topics. There are several good presentations on the Dewey Decimal System. This application really narrows the search. I have not been a librarian very long, and I can view several Powerpoints on many topics and make sure that I am teaching everything that I should.

I thought Google Advance Search was a great way to direct students to scholarly articles, but my Baylor daughter has informed me that it is not an acceptable site for college students.

I set up an iGoggle home page. Wow! I love it. It was so easy and there are hundreds of gadgets. I had a great time adding/deleting, adding more and playing. I love how it integrates with the Goggle calendar. The homepage was the most fun of all the applications.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Thing #6


I loved the Mosaic Maker and I think it would be a wonderful tool to share important parts while booktalking. Adding visuals with pictures from Flickr and discussing visualization while reading is an important skill that all students should develop. Students could also use this tool as an alternative to book reports. It would be similar to using a story on a string, so the storyteller keeps the events in order and remembers all the important points, but now we integrate technology.

Mappr is a great application for books like, The Middle of Somewhere. As the story unfolds and the family travels from place to place, each spot could be noted on a map with a postcard/photo and a snippet of information about the event could also be included.

I had a little trouble with the trading card. I decided to crop the trading card so it wouldn't be so large on the post. Maybe I should have just resized the image. I think this might be a great idea for our Revolutionary War Hero research project that we complete in fifth grade.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Avatar

After I posted Thing #5, I noticed that my Avatar was missing. I have no idea what happened. I went back to Yahoo, found my Avatar and added it again. Still it would not show up and I had two Avatars areas. My son suggested hosting the jpeg and importing it again. It worked!

Thing #5


I have visited Flickr before, but I have never taken the time to really explore the site. The library photos were especially interesting. I have bookmarked the site with the Plano library photos. I am interested in creating something similar with our signage.

I also tutor writing and there are so many wonderful images for students to address in their writing. I found many images that I would like to share, but I am not certain that Flickr is accessible in Katy. Our firewall is very strong, and I will have to check it out on the school computers.

I chose a ladybug to brighten up my blog.

Thing #4

Yeah!!! I have a blog. I have been reading several of the other blogs, and I will plunge into Flickr today.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Thing #3

Creating an Avatar was really fun! I had no idea that there were sooo many choices for the character. It was like paper dolls without scissors and paper. The screen shots were fabulous and a valuable resource. Setting up the blog was super easy. The only part that I am concerned about is remembering all the emails and accounts that I now have. Is it common to use the same password on several accounts?

I am not sure that I know how to access the other blogs to make comments. How does that work?

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Thing #2

Putting first things first is the easiest and the hardest part of the 7 1/2 Habits of Effective People because the most important "things" constantly change. One must constantly reevaluate goals in reference family commitments, personal goals, professional goals, and spiritual commitment. My life is so committed that I often forget to play. There just doesn't seem to be any time for fun.
I believe that we too often look at highly effective people in terms of their success at work, but all the while we are teaching students that they must be "well-rounded." To be truly effective, one must have balance in all areas of her life, and for women that is difficult at best.