Thing 23 Reflection

My favorite things were the mashups. I love love them. I have already made some for my library and my blog. My theme for this next year will be READING ROCKS so I am so looking forward to great year. I can’t wait to introduce them to students because I know they will love them too. They usually love to create graphics and can be quite good at it. I want to see what they can do so I can add some things to my website and blog. I learn from students all the time. I had played around on my own with 23 things last year on the some website I found, so I had done a lot of the items included in this project. I had never tried Ning before. I have read about, but never tried it. I didn’t think any of the things were really that hard. I found the instructions to be great. Thanks for the opportunity to have fun, think, learn, and the inspiration to pass it on.

Thing 22: Developing Your Own 23 Things

I could increase the technology skill level at my library by using some of the concepts presented through this course in several ways. One way would be to offer these tools as distributive learning exchange. Perhaps some of these tools could be introduced throughout the school year. They might also be implemented into specific lesson plans and presented to the teachers or another idea would be to link these tools, instructions on how to use them, with specific objectives in the curriculum. They could then be shared with department heads and teachers. A mini workshop could be sponsored by the library to explore several tools at once. Since integrating specific technology is a goal at my campus, I could offer some of these tools as a way to achieve these goals. Laptops in the library could be used for classes to come in and experience Web 2.0. I could teach and/or co-teach lessons

Thing 21 Podcasts

Podcasts are a fabulous way for students to do a book talk. They are easy using Audacity though it helps to practice a few times. I have also found that students MUST write a script first. It is intimidating enough for most people to record themselves, but not to have the necessary words to say is definitely intimidating. So to avoid that, just have a script or at least notes to use. I have posted two podcasts on my library page, but want to do more in the future. I have also used podcasts from Naomi Bates and Nancy Keene to share as booktalks in the library with students.

Thing 20 - You Tube

I am familiar with You Tube and have used it many times in the past. You Tube for Teachers is excellent. I now belong to a group that uploads book trailers so we can all download them and use them to promote books in the library. There is some tech snafus at the present, but hopefully all will be worked out. When I participated in a Book Cart Drill Team, our Presentation was put on you tube. It is very easy and a great resource. I have found authors talking about their current books, and so many, many resources. I think it is especially important to consider today in that our students are visual and LOVE videos. I think libraries can search You Tube for videos about any subject area they need. Previewing is a MUST, but this is a great resource.

Thing 18: Wikis

Wikis are interesting. I followed the directions and the experience I think will help me create a wiki. I have never done one before doing this assignment. It is easy but just to do it once and then create several pages helps gain confidence and certianly makes it go faster for me. I plan to create a wiki in the future.

Thing 19 google docs

I have used Google docs before with my family and at school with colleagues. It think it is a great resource and the best thing I like about it is you can always find it. Always. For example, I made a spreadsheet of my mother’s medicines. She lives alone and is almost 80 years old. Sometimes she forgets some things, and also we want to be as involved as possible when it come to her care. So, I then shared the document with my brothers and sister. We all are collaborators and can edit the document because we all need to be able to update it if we find out new information. I also have a link to my Google docs on my igoogle page for easy accessibility.
I also used Google docs among fellow middle school librarians. We were discussing and adding to a book list we were going to use for booktalks at our monthly city book club. It was a great tool to use in this instance because once again it was available for us all to access and edit and view whenever we wanted. I LOVE IT!!!

thing 17 LibWorm

I explored Libworm and did search book challenges since I am very interested in the topic. It seems to be a hot topic now and sure enough with lobworm as well. Over 1838 pages are given…..wow it will take me a while to get though all of these! I did subscribe to this topic with my Google reader since I want to read a lot about this topic. I especially like the idea that this focuses on libraries and librarians …..how much better can you get??? I have never explored this resource before! Great find.
I also explored historical fiction and found a great site that gave hot topics such as those concerning real people’s lives and/or with strong female protagonists as well as anything tudor-related. I personally feel I want to spend more time promoting this genre since they are often over looked in fiction and also they can provide great resources to history teachers as well a students interested in a certain topic. I plan on taking a look at a lot more of these valuable resources. I did a phrase search of my library, Crockett Middle School Library, and it was not listed. I tried several other of the middle schools in Irving and none of them were listed either. Over all I think the quality of results that LibWorm gives you is great. I do plan to use it in the future.

doin the Library thing no 16

Thing 16 Library thing

I have explored Librarything before. It is a huge website…..lots there. I sure think it would be cool to get some ARC’s but I suppose you need to check back a lot and sign up fast. The list was extremely long.
I found I See Dead People’s Books and checked out e.e. cumming’s library.
I think this could be valuable when teaching about particular authors since it contains their fav. quotes, etc. LIBRARIANS WHO LIBRARY THING has interesting posts especially about the things patrons say. I can see where it might be useful for librarians. Actually after I had browed this website for quite a while, I had to use the FIND shortcut to find these two sections that were mentioned in our blog to check out. The website is HUGE.

The On this Day section is an interesting one to look at daily, especially in the library. I checked out READ YA Lit since I am a middle school librarian and if I had the time I would probably check in with them more. They discuss one book a month, which could be very insightful.

diging digg thing 15

I dug into dig and what I noticed first about the explanation of 23 Things is that it is SOCIAL. Therefore, the purpose of it is to be SOCIAL. And I am social….I love to talk, but when I have time. Now I am in grad school, working on school things, trying to read all the Lone Stars and as many of the YA’s as possible plus endless lists that I want to read……I just don’t choose to permanently put time into this website.

I have never heard of it. It is interesting. To those just starting out on certain tasks or if you have extra time, I think it could be really fun.

I did explore several pages and did find an article about spy gadgets we would all love. In my secret life, I would like to be a detective! I saw the facebook icon so I sent it to my facebook page. It is very interesting how quickly you can add info etc to other applications. It blows my mind.

thing 14 is delicioso

I have used Delicious before. I loved it because all my bookmarks were saved no matter what computer I was on. Now I can see how you can share easily and not even have to email each other. For example, if all the middle school librarians have a delicious bookmark and we give each other our addresses, that we can periodically look at them and update ours! How easy is that!

Before a teacher friend actually asked me to take her website off my delicious bookmark because I had made it public and when anyone typed in her name (which was quite unusual), her website came up. I really don’t know why she didn’t want her students to see it, but she didn’t. It was not the school’s link, but a personal one she had made for a class. Interesting what can happen when things are public

thing 13

Thing 13 tagging

Does tagging belong in the library….to tag or not to tag........I don’t think we have an alternative. We are tagging! I mean we are tagging when we are on the internet or the internet is because that is how it works. Having said that……………OK tagging is in.
It seems not quite right when you consider it as compared to cataloging in the library world. I mean there is usually only one answer….no creativity allowed. So, tagging is a liberal way to catalog? Interesting……It might create more open mindedness….I mean words can be used in different ways….just like a crossword puzzle. You have to open up your thinking and seeeeeee. I think it could be detrimental due to inconsistencies.

Thing 12

Twitter. I have been on twitter one other time. It was interesting but I really don’t care to be a part of it. I really don’t have time to keep up with one more thing. I do well to answer all my email and do the other things I have started. I will text friends if need be instead of calling. Texting is easier to me than twittering. Maybe I don’t know tons about it, but I had never heard of hashtags before. That is interesting in that you can search for a subject using this method. … something to remember……I have heard the traffic girl on ABC saying she has a twitter, so maybe up to date traffic could be a plus. I will have to check this out more. TO TWITTER OR NOT TO TWITTER…and afater I wrote this post, I read an example of how to use Twitter in education. One high school class was reading Dant'e Inferno and had to use Twitter to describe each phase of hell from his view point. With Twitter only allowing 140 characters, each word counts! So, this is an interesting application of Twitter.

thing 11

im's are interesting. I have had a gmail account for quite a while now and enjoy im ing from time to time, but not all the time. sometimes I am not in the mood to im or don't have time, so I have to be careful to have chat off. when you are in the mood and have time, it is fun and you can talk quickly instead of waiting for an easy to email etc. speaking of that, Facebook has a chat feature and I need to turn it on tonight because I am trying to get together with friends from high school and it takes forever when we just use facebook email. Now about the language. I am behind the times. I do text so I know a little, but cannot keep up with the high scholars. A niece and I were texting and I kept asking what highway she was on and she kept replying idk and they were supposed to be on lbj. Finally when we got together I asked her if she knew where she was and she said....no and I told you
I DON'T KNOW - IDK. And I said OH!!! I use a few abbreviations but nothing like what some people do for sure. I want to try and use some abbreviations for a sign in the library and see if we can communicate effectively.

I have used iming when doing a grad class discussing. It worked beautifully. I can see where students could also use it to discuss something etc. Can it be monitored?
Do we have to worry about that? A lot of questions remain.

thing 10

Ning. I had never heard of it. I read the blog about and def. do not want to join. DONOt! I do not agree with their censorshop policies. Obviously they are biased and don't seem to be upfront with what they say they are. I do not even want to spend any more time on it. If they are a pyramid scheme, but are in denial about it, how problamatic can this be? Crazy!!!! I did type in librarian and check out several networks with this search. They were interesting, but I am off of NING after reading the blog about it. The web is wonderful but you have to be responsible and watch what you are doing too.

thing 9 more facebook

I have been on facebook quite a while, so I am a member of several groups.
One is the public school I went to and wow have I connected! Incredible. I relaly don't have as much time to play around with it as a lot of people do obviously. I have millions of requests for things. and I don't know......I joined ALA....and I am a member of the band I was a member of in high school. I accidently joined a group and kept getting their announcements of events. I can see the advantages of joining a group on facebook because you get their announcements of events. It is great. Now, I have to go see how I need to unjoin this particular one.

thing 8

FACEBOOK.
Frankly, I am addicted. and have been for about a year now.
I have run into friends from elementary and tonight 3 of elementary school girlfriends were on it and we had our own slumber party. Wow. Now, I will qualify all that with saying I am careful what I post. I don't want the whole world to see everything I do and think. I have discovered the button or link that allows you to send a private message and I try to do that. My cousin sent a reply back to a conversation we had had in person and it posted for everyone to see....and that was not good. I won't go into why. So, it is important to remember that everyone can see what you write all the time unless you do it privately.

thing 7

The video explained feeds well. thanks-I needed that. I mean I thought I understood but now I know I understand. I did explore some of the links on the 23 things blog and subscribed to them as well. It is a great way, once again, to stay organized with feeds (and Up to date) which btw, is what I work on every day. I am, my nature, right brained, and thus organization is a journey. I love it. Now my questions is, can you have 2 readers if you have 2 google identities? I don't ....just occured to me that maybe it would be helpful if you were in grad school, which I am, that it might be helpful to have 2, 1 for library stuff, and 1 for student stuff or even personal ....

Thing 6 Google Reader

I followed the instructions and realized I already had a Google Reader started. I started it last summer, but amongst my LS classes, I must have forgotten. It is definitely a great way to keep current with blogs etc. I like that it organizes them and you can look at all the blogs quickly. I want to think more about this device.......what all can we use it for? I have an igoogle page, which I love, which is interesting compared to this. Two of the blogs on my igoogle page are on the reader. All in all, I think the reader is a great organizer of feeds. and I like it.

Thing 5 Image Generators

Way Fun!!! I can see a great amount of fun with these!!! Wouldn't it be fun to write something fun in the sand and send as a digital postcard? I think the ones I tried were very easy. Very easy. In fact, I was amazed and how and easy they were and then how easy they were to post to my blog. My director had the candy hearts like I have on our slideshow at the end of the year and now I know how she did it, because it was cool. Definitely a great tool for education.

Breaking Dawn Party and I got bitten!

mashups

I got ahead of myself with thing 3. I started talking about thing 4. btw, I am going back to add reflections so sorry for the confusion. Mashups are a wonderful device Flicker offers that can have great educational benefits. It can allow a great creative way of expression for students. There are limitless ways they can be used. I could have so much fun just playing.....TAKE NOTE...remember MASHUPS on Flicker. They are fabulous. Students of all ages will love them. I think they were fairly easy to use. I am constantly reminded of how sometimes to understand something, you just have to allow yourself to play.

Flicker is fun - thing 3

Flicker is overwhelming to say the least. WOW - such a wonderful resource. I love it...I could spend hours...no days and weeks on it.......fun fun things to do. Choosing indivudal letters to spell out words is so much fun. You can create more meaning with the text by the letters you choose. I also love the captioner. I added a caption to a photo I had of when I went to a Breaking Dawn midnight party when it was first released. This is such a fun way to stylize phots and add individuality. I want to do it more, but I can really see great ways to use it in the library or classroom. Students could create an additional cartoon page by using this great flicker software......I love it.

Library 2.0

What an exciting adventure!! a wonderful way to express, learn and share.....really a great part of my library and I want to include more and more! There is soooo much out there that can be IN HERE! It is a lot of fun this summer. I want to be thinking as I take this journey of cool ways to integrate them into library events, lesson plans etc. I have seen where kids LOVE book trailers. I mean if you want books to be checked out, show them the trailer. Blogging can be fun and educational. The secret is to link the educators to the students with meaningful dialogue. I want to be part of the process.