Thing #23 - THE END, for now

1. Favorite discoveries/exercises? I have taken a great deal away from many of the exercises but my top 3 are Photo Story, Wikis, and Delicious. These three are at the top of my list because I have begun to use them outside of my assignments and it is rewarding.
2. How has this program assisted life-long learning goals? How could it not? I came in with a small amount of knowledge and no real desire to learn web 2.0 and have come out on the other end more aware of how the tools can lift up what I will be able to do in the library and in the classroom. It has shifted my entire way of thinking about how libraries can play a role in the life of the school.
3. Any take-aways or unexpected outcomes? Yes, many times, yes. I don't know anyone who wasn't surprised by the amount that they were able to take away be it a way to create a power-point slide with narration and music and pics to creating an avatar for the first time (just in time for the new movie - AVATAR!) I didn't expect to love this program so much that I went directly to my principal with it.
4. Improvements? One of the first notices to be made when starting this program is to open up a new document to keep all of the logins and usernames in one place. I didn't realize there would be so many so I didn't write them all down, certain I would remember. When I didn't - I had to start over with new passwords. Very important.
5. Would I choose to participate in more? Absolutely - if I had the time. It was quite time-consuming. I'm glad to have been "made" to do it. I would like to learn about other tools and would hope to make the time for it. On my own though, I'm afraid it would take me much longer, I'm certain.
6. One Word -- Addictive!

Thing #22 - Nings

For this thing, I took a look at the Teacher Librarian and Texas Librarian Nings - they remind me a lot of the information I get subscribing to TLA emails. There is a lot of good information to be found at these sites. Nings are newer but they seem to be picking up members and I like the idea of creating a place for an academic purpose that isn't MySpace or Facebook. Besides using it for personal reasons, a Ning could be used for direct instruction or indirect instruction. Indirectly, I would like to see a network created for a specific classroom so that students can discuss assignments in a safe place where the teacher has input. Directly, a library ning could be available for all students for book discussions, project discussions and for students to have a place to create their own blogs. I'm still learning about this so I'm sure there are many other capabilities.

Thing #21 - Podcasts and Vidcasts

This was my first time to use Photostory and it was certainly an experience. Every step I encountered some problem with installation slowness or incorrect format, etc. But the project is complete and I am so glad to have learned it. I think I can tuck about four more bits of know-how under my cap. And now, I'm afraid, I'll use this bit of technology for every memorable event - for example, when our senior class graduates, the journalism department puts a slide-show together of each senior. Before, it was picture and music, but with the ability to add narrative, that could really change what they are able to capture with voice-overs over the pictures. I'm glad that so many options for using podcasts and vidcasts in the classroom have been provided - that makes them easier to promote.

Thing #20 - Teacher Tube & You Tube

Teacher Tube Video: Sock Monkeys Do the Dewey System by Wittmannt


Videos are always useful in education. Having a video is never THE reason to present the material but it can certainly jazz up a topic you are teaching. Just watching the Common Craft guys, I've gotten a lot more interested in the web 2.0 tools then if I'd only read about them. It piques my interest more when there is video programming to go along with the learning and it seems to stay in my head longer. I used a Dewey Decimal video for my teacher-tube video - it's cute. A class put it together to explain the divisions of the system. When I searched You Tube for libraries - the topics were endless - libraries 2.0, library fun, libraries funny - and on and on. Blocking the ability to receive online videos would be a shame. I am not in a school now to know how wide-spread the blocking of youtube is but I would hope that the administration could be convinced to include it for teachers.

Thing #19 - Web 2.0 Awards

I'm really glad to have this list of award-winning tools. It helped bring all the categories of web tools into one place. I took some time and looked through Medix and Galaxilla.
For my own health purposes, I enjoyed using Medix and asking questions about illnesses. It has a support center with many different support groups you can join along with a place to ask a doctor a question or the general public. It was a lot like WebMD but it seemed more user-friendly. For schools, it would nice to have it available for students who are researching or just for personal use. It has a widget that allows you to create a search screen on a library homepage, for example. You need to be 13 or older to use it so it would only be good for high school age. I taught speech to 12th graders for a number of years and many of their chosen topics included health issues. While databases are wonderful, it would be nice to have this resource as well.
I also looked through Galaxilla which is a science fiction and fantasy site that allows you to build an online fantasy world where you can edit solar systems and even write your own science fiction or fantasy stories. Our 9th grade teaches The Hobbit and there are many other sci-fi and fantasy books that are studied in our school. It would be a creative addition to introduce this to the students who enjoy writing in this style. It would also be a fun lesson to include in an astronomy course since one of the features is to buy your own star and name it.
~ Photo courtesy of Jim Linwood, Flickr.com

Thing #18 - Online Productivity Tools

I tried using Google Docs to collaborate with classmates on our final project. It reminds me of a wiki and I wonder what differences there are. I haven't gone further in a wiki then just creating a document so maybe wikis have more capabilities. I do like Google Docs and they are free. I struggled with creating a table because the program does not let you create like Word does - I did find that a barrier. OpenOffice.org was new to me and I'm impressed by the FREE part. I also am always a bit giddy about anything that looks new. From what I saw, there were many templates (I used the calendar) and creating a document was really simple. They seem to use more icons in place of words that are used in Word. I'm not a superstar at any specific word program so I couldn't tell if there were many more significant differences but I did enjoy using it.

Thing #17 - Rollyo

It took me way to long to understand something that seems so simple. I finally figured out how to make the link - I think I just bypassed that part in the video. But overall, it is a good site for teachers/librarians if they are prepared for the research they want their kids to do. I always gave a research paper where the student had to choose a historical movie and research the real events and compare the two. This would be a difficult project to use rollyo since there are so many varied sites, but there could be some general sites used. I created a search for Houston Food and Fun, since I'm always trying to find new and different things to do around town. I like the site though it was terribly slow; loading pages took much longer than other websites.

- Ferris Wheel pic courtesy of Flickr by Dave G. Kelly -

Think #16 - Wikis

Sandbox photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons, by Sula - I've been waiting for this THING since we had our first group assignment that used a form of technology and was introduced to using wikis in the class. At first, I only understood a simple way to use them - make lists between friends - which I've done twice now. But after reading so many of the example wikis from Library2play, I've seen how there is a way to use them in the classroom. I really enjoyed the 10th grade literacy circle wiki since I taught 10th grade English for so long. I really connected to the short stories in the wiki, the way the questions were asked and the responses the kids made. I even went on to read about Mr. Morris, his class blog and again was hit over the head with ways to use a blog in an English classroom. I was just so impressed and a bit jealous that I'm not in the classroom right now to start implementing these ideas. I love the list of ideas as well at the end of Thing #16 about how to use the wiki - I never thought of using it for note-taking - so clever. I'd like to see how the boundaries for the students are set up, how they are taught how to use the wiki correctly. I'm sure it takes a bit of education. I also see the wiki being used for a poetry unit. I can't imagine the rules to it right now, but I can imagine the creativity that would come from collaborative poetry. It's just like the game I used to play when I taught 6th graders and gave the first person a sentence and they had to add another sentence, and each person did the same until the story ends with the last person. There really are some clever things that could be done with a wiki - now, to get my self back in a school.