Thing 23 - Summary

1) My very favorite discovery this summer for me on a personal level was LibraryThing. I loved, loved, LOVED it. I will be inputting books and looking at recommended books to read. My favorite discovery for my profession was BIG HUGE LABS, it is really awesome all the possibilities on the website for students to have fun and learn at the same time.

2) This has assisted my lifelong learning goals by gaining the wisdom of finding out new information on the internet and different ways I can incorporate them into my personal and professional life.

3) An unexpected outcome was learning how much Google has to offer. They have the calendar, which e-mails you reminders, the reader for the RSS feeds, the Google Docs, and free g-mail. This was a wonderful unexpected outcome, to find out how to utilize something you already have.

4) I do not have any suggestions about how to improve on the program. It was just a little fast to go through in four weeks with other homework to work on, so you didn’t get to delve into it as deep as I would have liked. But the surface was touched and the programs I really liked will add value to my life and I learned a lot of computer jargon.

5) I would do this again, once I am out of college. I find with work (and all it entails), family, and homework; there is no time for extra learning.

6) FANTASTIC experience!!!

Thing # 21 Podcasts and Videocasts

This has been the most fun, yet most frustrating Thing to work on. I downloaded Photostory, put the images in the program. I set up the microphone and narrated the pictures. When I went to upload, the message kept saying processing. I started at 1:55 pm on Monday, August 3. At 2:15, I received a message could not upload, no reason why. I figured I uploaded the .wp3 file, so I tried again and uploaded the .wmv file at 2:30pm. At 6:35 it was still processing. I cancelled, deleted 3 pictures looked around and decided to set pictures at a smaller level. Presto! It worked.

Besides the frustration, this was a unique way to show pictures. I could see any educator using this tool in the classroom. Students could write, draw, and narrate a story. Very higher level thinking skills.

Thing # 19 2.0 Web Awards

The 2.0 Web Awards page is a really neat place to look at. I particularly liked the Docstoc website. This is where you can find all kinds of documents from business to real estate to education. Under education, I found teacher originated rubrics for different products.

Personally, I would like to look further at PeerTrainer for my health and welfare. It sends you a tip of the day and has recipe suggestions. It might make me more motivated to lose weight. My, that was a lot of m words.

Thing # 22 Nings

I viewed some of the Nings listed in our guide sheet and found I was drawn to the Teacher Librarian Network Ning. I like how Ning is a social network website created for people who are interested in the same topics or how you can set one up for a group. I recently joined Facebook this summer and I would not want anyone I am just acquainted with to be my personal friend. There is a place for work and a place for your personal life and they do not need to mix so completely. A Ning can solve this need for social networking and be more professional topics.

On the Teacher Librarian Network Ning, I liked how it was set up. It was not difficult for me to navigate. The tabs were self-explanatory and were full of information.

Thing #20 You Tube and Teacher Tube

This is a wonderful age when we have sooooo much access to the information we have available. Now we spend a lot of time weeding through the information, instead of trying to find any. But as educators we are lucky to have these tools available to us. I know the students really enjoy and benefit from Discovery streaming videos. If the district allowed, they could benefit from Teacher Tube and You Tube.

I picked a You Tube video which explains how to use Animoto. A Library 2.o tool where you can put music to pictures. On Teacher Tube, I picked a short video on examples of Hyperboles. As a reading teacher, this would be a great introduction and jump start to discussions about figurative language examples.

Thing #12 Commenting

I agree with the point V. Davis, Cool Cat, made about making your comment more meaningful than just saying “great” or “right”. It would be more beneficial to the blogger if the commenter would go into more detail about what is so great about the post. Also, she states that if you disagree with a posting to not make your words harsh, but to do it in a kind way. This is showing respect and if you do it rather harshly, people may not keep reading your suggestions because they would be turned-off right away. Her posting had several good points about commenting.

Darren Rowse’s posting had a good suggestion about asking open-ended questions. This could elicit responses from others and this is what makes a good blog, when you have a community that participates and gets involved.

I feel as an American citizen our politicians need to hear our opinion, therefore, I perused through the Houston Chronicle blog in the politics section and made a comment on a Texas Library calendar. Next I went to the Huffington Post page and checked out the living section and read a post by Hillary Fields, I love to cook (and eat). She expounded on her experience to eat 90 salads in 90 days. There was a link to some salad recipes, I just love how salads have gone beyond lettuce and tomatoes.

I commented on these blogs: Brooke’s 2.0 Blog, Mrs. Maslonka’s Moose, Rochelle’s Blog, 23 things I learned, and The Library Window.

Thing # 18 Online Productivity Tools

I chose to explore OpenOffice.org. After reading information about OpenOffice and Google Docs I see there is a big difference between the two. OpenOffice is a free Open Source Software (OSS) product and you need to download it onto your computer in order to use it. Whereas, Google Docs is done on-line and the document itself can be saved on your desktop, but you would need internet access to work with it. In my case, there had been several times my internet connection went down but I could still work on a Microsoft document. Same scenario would go with OpenOffice, but not Google Docs. The last ATT person to look at my internet dedicated one line straight to the computer and luckily I have not had any problems since. But after viewing the introduction to Google Docs, I see where it can be useful in collecting data from co-workers. All things have their pros and cons.

OpenOffice was not hard to figure out. Not all keys work exactly the same, I tried the F4 command and it did not do the same as it does in Microsoft. I can see how for economic reasons, OpenOffice is a wonderful product. People who could not afford Microsoft Office could get OpenOffice. It is updated constantly and they receive feedback from users on how to improve functions. If I did not have access to Microsoft, I would most definitely use OpenOffice.

Thing # 17 Rollyo

In order to experiment with Rollyo, I created my own search roll using different library websites that I have used over and over again. I found Rollyo very easy to set up. This could be a convenient way to search trusted websites you use all the time. It could be handy for teachers to set up a lesson where the students are not being sent all over the place, such as, in a Google search. Instead, the students would be directed to websites the teacher trust.

Thing # 16 Wiki's

I liked the blog Talk: Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki because it did not have a lot of talking on it. It had lists with category headings and a wealth of topics to go to. It was easy to navigate and go to subject matters that you are interested in.

For the mid-term presentation, our group created a Wiki page scavenger hunt for the library, called Treasures in the Library. It was not difficult to set up and I see how it will keep the students interest because they will be using technology instead of a book and/or just a worksheet. Also, in this activity they work in a group and will get up and walk around to locate a book of their choice.

In my Young Adult Literature class, we used a wiki to discuss the books we read and exchanged opinions about them. People do need to learn to be short and meaningful in their discussions when a whole lot of people are involved. You risk the chance of being skipped over if you go on and on.

Thing # 15 Future of the Library

According to M. Casey and L. Savastinuk’s article, Library 2.0: Service for the next-generation library, “the basic idea of Library 2.0, to transform library services by making them more personalized, more interactive, and more web-based along Web 2.0 lines”. At the very least, they feel by letting your “customers” put their input into reviews, tags, and ratings enhance the catalog for future users. There will be favorite author lists and genres. With libraries experiencing decreases in budgets, the technology is there to use free of charge.

R. Anderson’s article, Away from the “icebergs”, he believes there are three roadblocks to the success of Library 2.0 in today’s libraries; just-in-case, reliance on user education, and the “come-to-us” model of library service. The just-in-case roadblock is where librarians are still building up collections in the library where circulations are down. The reliance on user education is teaching research skills instead of ridding of barriers to getting information needed. Last, the “come-to-us” model, people need to be able to access information anywhere, at any time and not have to go physically to the library.

Today’s students rely more on technology than any other generation. There does need to be a fusion between learning and using technology.

Thing # 14 Technorati

Technorati is a blog search engine. I found it to be too busy. There was not a category for education, so how do you find blogs pertaining to education issues only? When you type in a long item to search for like School library learning 2.0 and want to re-type it, it does not memorize what you have looked for before and I find this inconvenient. When I did search for School Library, the first search pulled up 182 listings. Next, I searched using filters and received 74 postings and they were not the Spring Branch blog.

This maybe a good starting point to search for blogs, but I did not like it. Listening to the video of the employees of the company, they have a grand idea of blogs being the "voice of the people", but there are a lot of voices to listen to and dredge through.

Thing # 13 Social Bookmarking

The social bookmarking concept is AWESOME! The ability to view websites you have saved and are interested in from any device with internet service is incredible. Also, to be able to tag (name) them how you believe you can find them again is great. Delicious is easy to use and navigate. This can eliminate having to e-mail websites to colleagues, they can look it up on their Delicious account. In Pasadena ISD, each new school year your favorites are wiped clean, so if you did not save them in a document or some other way, they will be gone.

I can see how in research, social bookmarking is a handy tool to have. I like the feature of highlighting a portion of the webpage you are looking at, because sometimes you only need a bit of the information and there is a lot of content on the webpage and after time, it is hard to remember why you liked the article. The highlighting will be there to remind you.

Furl is now diigo. You can produce shared reading lists with friends and co-workers.

Thing # 11 LibraryThing

WOW!! Where has this been all my life. I have always wanted an easy way to keep up with books that I have read. I use to be a romance novel junkie, and I went through so many, I would forget what I had read and ended up getting one I had already read. I do NOT like to pay full price, so I hit the library, used book stores, and e-bay for bargains. Of course, you can't beat the library, except they do not always carry the newest works.

I see this as being a very helpful tool I will use in my life. Last year my 5th grade students would recommend books and even let me borrow theirs. Now I have a somewhere to keep track of my reading. Also, I had a friend borrow a book and did not realize he still had it and now I can put a comment to remind me of who has a book, or who I borrowed it from. FANTASTIC! The recommended books on the website was an added bonus.

I looked at the what are you reading now group. I can see where this could be handy when I have more time to explore.

Thing #10 OnLine Image Generators

ImageChef.com Poetry Blender



This discovery activity was a lot of fun. You could make flowers spell out a message with a background of green. Big Huge Labs had a lot of different ideas to choose from. I used image chef to make the above images. On the right, I used mosaic maker to redo a photograph to look like a mosaic.

The uses in the school are many. Students could use this technology to be creative with writing, social studies, and any curriculum. In my class, we did a novel study on Tuck Everlasting, and students could use image generators to make an advertisement for the spring water, or use a template from Kid-Friendly Image Generators to liven up a summary for the book.

Thing #9 Blog Search Engines

I found Technorati to be a useful search engine for blogs. It was easy to use and easy to click on the blog and do a quick read to see if it was something I would want to keep up with. The Cool Cat Teacher blog’s post about your circle of friends was very informative. Unless I am your best friend, I am looking for information that will help me in the library or classroom. I am not interested in pages and loads of pictures of your personal life.

Google Blog Search reminds me of a regular google search where a lot of titles come up, but a majority of them are not what I am seeking. I felt the same way about Bloglines.

I found Topix.net to be appealing. It listed current events and you could navigate to the full story and you could read people’s opinions/comments and add your two cents in, if you were so inclined.

I did find a blog with recipes containing low glycemic index foods, a library-tech-classroom blog which looked motivating, and a celebrity gossip blog (guilty pleasure). I liked School Library Blogs on Superglu, it picked different posts from various library blogs and put them together.

Thing #8 RSS Feeds

Google Reader is a great way to keep up with a lot of things at once. I set up my five subscriptions and had 137 items right away to go look at. I see how this could be a terrific way to stay current on topics and websites you are interested in. It is a time saver and who wouldn't appreciate that aspect.

In my personal life, I see if I am interested in receiving updated information about live music in local venues or new recipes on my favorite recipe websites. For career purposes, I could remain aware of issues concerning educational issues.

Librarians could be alerted to new book information and updated blog information. It is a one-stop place for current information that you are interested in.

Thing #7 Calendar

Here is my Google calendar:

http://www.google.com/calendar/render



I can see many uses for the calendar. Students can use it to keep up with deadlines, parents can view it to see the assignments, and librarians can use it for teachers to schedule library visits.

Google Alert could be used in any class. Social studies could keep up with current world events. Science class can keep their eye on certain studies. Language Arts could be alerted when a book is released. It would save time searching if updates you ask for come directly to you.

Thing #6 Mashups

Big Huge Labs has a lot of fabulous programs students and teachers could use to create an educational product. I had fun with the trading card and the magazine cover. I can see a lot of uses for products such as these in the classroom. Students could look up information on different types of people, countries, animals, and plants (to name a few) and make a trading card. With Mappr, students could make travel brochures.

The trading card I made was about author, Kate DiCamillo. Students could easily look up information about their favorite author and create a card.

Thing #5 Flickr

Flickr and Creative Commons is a beautiful place for educators to feel comfortable sending their students to in order for them to find images they might use in an educational project. It would be easy to give credit to the people who took the photographs. The future is looking "rosy" for people to be comfortable sharing works.

Picure by Houstonian called IMG_0322 retrieved from http://farm1.static.flickr.com/32/64285588_e9341d6d07.jpg?v=0

Thing #4 Register Blog

I registered by blog and it was accepted.

Thing # 3 Set up Blog and Avatar

Blog

There was a lot of information to read about setting up the blog. It does take a lot of thought for the names. The reason behind why you want to set up your Blog definitely makes a difference on how you will name it. If you are catering to certain groups you want them to be able to find your blog on a search engine.

The avatar was a lot of fun making. My husband and I do a lot of motorcyle trips and that is why I chose a biker chick for mine!

Thing #2 Life Long Learners

Life Long Learners -

After viewing the video and powerpoints on life long learners, the easiest one is #7 1/2, Play. I have always been active in playing games, cards, sports, etc... I want to be the one on the field not the person in the stands. I feel this is one of the biggest ways I build relationships with my students is through play!

The hardest one for me is to view problems as challenges. When a problem occurs, it will upset me at first and I usually do not view it as a learning experience but yet as something else I will have to deal with. For the future, I will try to use this new perspective.

Thing #1

I am very excited to learn all the technology. I know this will help not only in my professional life, but my personal life as well.