Thing #23

l. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

My two most used resources at this point are de.licio.us and photo story. Ever since I saw Naomi Bates’ digital book talks I have wanted to know how to do them. I never knew how to start, however. Well, I got started while taking Library2Play.

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

The most amazing thing happened to me during this course. I have never had confidence in my ability to learn technology without help. But I learned that if I had to, I could teach myself. Anyone else might think, “You sure didn’t learn much for what is out there,” but I am amazed at myself. I even have several projects at work to use for this school year—projects I never thought I’d be able to learn—AND I taught myself (well, with a little help from your guys). I now have confidence enough to continue developing my skills in technology--to keep on learning.

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

Maybe I answered some of this question above. I had no idea that there was so much help available from those in a social network. I had relied solely on the TLC listserve for help and advice (by the way, this IS an excellent resource with knowledgeable, helpful librarians) but there is so much more out there. I love the Teacher Librarian Ning. I have 2 digital book talks I am working on and will share when they are presentable, and I plan to develop a Wiki for my book club to use. I have so many sites that I want to share with my teachers too. I love your suggestion to put the URL for our blog on our e-mail signature line and to use it as our School Library blog. I plan to work on mine to do just that.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program's format or concept?

2 things:

1. Since there are so many sites to register for, suggest at the beginning a form or procedure for listing our usernames and passwords.
2. I could use some advice (maybe at the beginning) how to prioritize the abundance of information. How do successful web users sort the “wheat from the chaff?”

5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?

Definitely, yes. In fact, when I completed Thing #22 I thought, "I wonder if there is a follow-up course. " Since there was so much that I didn’t retain as we went along, I plan to go back through the 23 things and pick up even more. However, I would need to work on the program in the summer because I am way too overloaded during the school year.

6. How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities?

Those who feel they have only a tenuous grasp of what Library2.0 is all about need to complete these 23 things; awesome!

Thing #22

I see lots of use for Nings (hooray! I now know what they are) although I have never done one. I can see departments in our school sharing on a Ning. Teachers could set up a Ning for their class projects. From the information given, users say that technical skills are not required to set them up, another good reason for using them. I like the idea that you can make the Ning private or public also.

I really liked the Teacher Librarian Ning. I loved the fact that you could select High School or Elementary librarian. I found some great teaching videos from Joyce Valenza on the Ning. I can’t wait to use them. What a great way to share with colleagues. If I ever make the digital book talks I keep talking about, I’ll share them on the Teacher Librarian Ning.

I also found a Ning for a medical problem that my husband and I are facing.

Thing #21

I AM SO PROUD OF MYSELF even though I am pathetic! But I am determined! I have been working on this thing for hours every day—honest. BUT…I DID IT!!!!! So here is the skinny: Basic use of photo Story is easy. My major problems were two: 1) I was over zealous in trying to do a digital book talk. I did one but it has too many pictures; the music doesn’t start until the second pic; and it is sooooo boring. I couldn’t even get my husband to watch it all the way through. But I will continue to work on it; and I plan to post it later. 2) Had I known about the creativecommons, I could have saved hours with the photo problems I had. I won’t go into the details of some of the things I did, as you already know from my previous posts, that I am challenged.

I want to give thanks to the following encouragers:

Naomi Bates from Northwest High School—She is a phenomenal librarian, and a generous colleague. After seeing her unbelievable digital book talks, I e-mailed her for help. She responded immediately sharing with me the tools she uses and telling me about the creative commons. Here is a link to her school website:

http://www.nisdtx.org/nhs/site/default.asp

Go to library and look at her digital book talks. You have to see the one she did for Streams of Babel. The author even e-mailed her requesting she send it to a Hollywood producer for a possible movie deal! She is the kind of librarian who motivates us all. BUT…DON’T DO WHAT I DID—I had her book talks in mind when I started. Forget it; start where you are. Me, I am a slow beginner.

Lauraann of Fooling With Words—I needed your empathy and encouragement. If anyone responds to this neophyte attempt, you will—and I appreciate it.

VWB—I know if I need help, you are out there. Wouldn’t even have been able to complete my avatar without your assistance.

And, of course, MY DEAR HUSBAND. Without his help I couldn't even have found the file; I have so much on this computer now.

I can use this to play as students come in. They love to see themselves "on film."

By the way, Naomi said it took her 6 hours to make her Streams of Babel. This Library Doings took me probably 50 hours after fooling with Animoto (a tool I really want to learn), searching for pictures, screwing up photo story, and many, many, many other stupid moves. So, if you are feeling challenged, I did it and you can too. In the end after a 50 hour learning curve, this video ended up taking me only about 10 min.

Thing #20

I will be shocked if this works. I have spent hours searching for videos on Blinkx and You Tube. Our district subscribes to United Streaming for educational videos. I have taught teachers to use it--really easy. But for those who want more variety, these sites will work. Obviously, you need to spend time looking for appropriate content. I found a lot of interesting library 2.0 videos, but I selected a student digital book talk on Stephanie Meyer's Twilight to show. I want to learn to do these myself. This would be a great student project too.




Many of you have probably seen this video done by some principals for a faculty meeting. It has been passed around via the TLC listserve, and I loved it. I would love to work for these guys--great sense of humor. If you haven't seen it--enjoy!

Thing #19

This was so much fun! What intelligent and creative people these designers are. I am definitely marking this page of awards to share with teachers. Two sites I want to share are Lulu and LiveMocha:

Lulu at http://www.lulu.com/ is a publishing tool. How many times have students asked if you know how they could publish their work? Believe me, English teachers get asked this all the time. This site provides for cover design, formatting, editing, ISBNs, printing, buying, and selling their work. This would be a great motivational tool for teachers who assign written work. If students think their work will be published, they will work harder on the product. I see this as a collaborative tool for the visual and language arts. I plan to show the art and language teachers. I will also share it with our yearbook sponsor. I will put this site in my faculty newsletter because you can make cookbooks, calendars etc. with this publishing tool.

Another site I liked was Livemocha at http://www.livemocha.com/
It offers free foreign language courses with self study lessons, text and audio chat tools, and connection with a community of native speakers. Two of the languages are Chinese and Russian. I wish I had known about this for our Russian students. They were often sent to the library because the teacher was not able to accommodate their needs during testing. I could sign them up for a beginning course in English on Livemocha. I’ll have this ready for this coming fall. My ESL teachers will really like exploring the possibilities of Livemocha. I looked at the English courses. There are 4 of them. The first 2 take 50 hours each. The second 2 take 30 hours each. You go at your own pace. If I were traveling to a foreign country, I would consider taking an online Livemocha course in the language of the country to which I planned to travel. Highly motivated students will find this a helpful tool.

Thing #18

I am having problems with downloading Open Office. I have downloaded it 4 times. The folder is on my desktop, but I cannot get it to open. I really like Google docs. In fact, I already use it. It is a great source for group work. You can set up groups that include only members you invite. Our district has a spreadsheet for book reviews. Only invited members can add to it. All those in the group can read the contents. I’m really getting to like Google. I used to use it only as a search engine. It offers so much more than just searching for a subject.

Thing #17

Rollyo was so easy to use. I plan to learn to develop wikis so I made a list of sites I think will be helpful when I try to teach myself how to make one. I also made a list of some of the image generators that I plan to use. Yes, I had these in delicious and in favorites, but having specialty lists in Rollyo will make the search much easier. I also found some great lists of Photostory tutorials and help sites that someone else had composed. I hope this link takes you to my rolls:
http://rollyo.com/infomaniac You might have to highlight, do a controll C, and copy into the URL browser to access.

Thing #16

I plan to use wikis in the library this school year. I have never set one up before, but I will practice doing so before school begins. I need a wiki for my Name That Book team to list which books they have read and to comment on them. I may use a rating system and add a comment page. They will love doing this. I have a debate coach who is always looking for sources that the group can share. I can set up a wiki for her to have students post these sources. Having my own librarian wiki will enable me to share ideas and resources with staff and students. I e-mail staff a weekly newsletter, and it seems that as soon as I click that send button, I discover something else that I want to share. I don’t want to send multiple e-mails to clutter up the in boxes. If I had a well organized wiki, I could add to it and teach patrons to search the wiki for help and information. I really liked Meredith Gorran Farkas’ comments on wikis. She makes clear that a wiki must have a specific purpose and some sort of structure so that people will feel comfortable posting. She also gives a suggestion for a spam filter to use:

http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/index.php/2005/07/05/ala-wiki-what-i-learned-and-what-im-doing-with-it/

Thing #15

Library 2.0 clearly means that the librarian bases all plans on what the users need and want. To effectively use the new technologies, librarians must be constantly learning. Michael Stephens' article gives 6 of the most important traits of the 2.0 Librarian : http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/3.htm I like his comment: "This librarian creates and nurtures a living, breathing technology plan." His comments promote a sense of urgency in the reader to work hard to learn more about web 2.0 tools.

I also learned a lot from the blog that "teacher Ka-blog!" posted : http://tametheweb.com/2008/06/26/what-is-school-library-20/ This blog makes concrete how the library uses web 2.0. I particularly liked the observation that web 2.0 tools enable students to collaborate on real world problems like global warming....

Librarians must embrace fully the web 2.0. It is their responsibility to implement technology that "create(s)a useful service for putting users together with the information and experience they seek (Michael Stephens in his web 2.0 blog)

Thing #14

1. I used the advanced search option and typed in the tags area. I found a blog of someone in our Library 2.0. I did not find anything else that I thought was useful to me. The blog directory just led to sites that gave very little useful information. I don't think I understand yet how this search works. Previously, I have read some helpful blogs, but when searching for facts and relevant information within a reasonable time frame, I think I would do better with experts and professionals, as opposed to "the "human experience--raw and uncut."



2. This site was not helpful to me. I did not find helpful information on any of my searches. If I had unlimited time, and the inclination to connect with people I do not know, I might enjoy spending time reading blogs. I think Technorati is beyond my current tech skills too.



3. I attempted to "claim" my blog but the e-mail verification did not work. I did send an e-mail to the contact desk and will wait to see if I hear from them. I still do not understand widgets or pings either--maybe in my next life, this site will make sense to me. I do not see using this site in my library.

Thing #13

1. I love the idea of social bookmarking. Sharing sites someone thought were good on a subject helps the next person. I found some great ones on the subjects I searched on Del.icio.us.



2. The tags worked well in my professional field. Teachers could use these tags to find lesson plans and other information in their subject.



3. Del.icio.us offers an easy tool to add bookmarks. I also like the fact that you can tag with subject headings and add notes. That you can "carry these bookmarks with you" by logging in at another computer makes it preferrable to just bookmarking on your local browser. This is a great tool for sharing research with classmates. It is an easy tool to teach too. I also liked Furl (although the tutorial is more tedious to watch), and I liked Ma.gnolia, which has a nice, clean interface. I found a great site where teachers can post their class notes so that absent students can go to them at any time. It came up on one of the popular lists (I think).
http://www.classnotesonline.com/

Thing #12

1. I loved Cool Cat's observation, "(Commenting) is like having a vote on the topic." When you vote you release power to make a difference. So I think our responses to blogs can add credibility to the writer--or as cited in some of comments--change or modify a writer's point of view. Another point Cool Cat makes is that commenting gives credibility to your own blog. This reminds me that I need to work on my profile. I don't need to give out personal information, but I need to development an identity to connect with readers. The 3rd point I saw that I would like comment on is the book Here Comes Everybody, which observes that technology is changing the way we form groups: "people given tools to do things together without needing traditional organizational structures." What an awesome insight.



2. I am used to responding to my "circle of wise" internet community. There is something in me that wants to respond to someone who has somehow inspired me, taught me something, or showed such a generous spirit that I must send out a response and say, "Hey, I hear you, or thank you, or yes! keep at it, you can do it!" I will continue to keep responding--and try to adhere to those suggestions to be specific, to add knowledge and ideas, to encourage.



3. I will add to this request as I move through the 23 Things experience.

Thing #11

I joined LibraryThing and joined one of the groups. I plan to edit my profile to change my user name. This option is not currently working, but I will keep checking. When I change my username, I will add more to my profile and add a review to a couple of the books in my library collection. I got hooked reading some of the talk postings. In fact, I found the group I joined through a comment on a post. I see lots of possibilities in this site. I will set up a group this fall for my Name That Books students to share their comments on the books they have read.

Thing #10

1. No longer will Microsoft clip art be the main source of my graphics for the weekly newsletter I send to the staff. I had fun with all of the Discovery Resources as well as ones I found along the way. The easiest to use was Comic Strip Generator. Here are two I did with this link: http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/

2-3. I also loved Custom Sign Generator as it led me to Glitter text, then to Warning Sign generator. My high school students like this sort of graphic. Here is the link to the warning sign generator: http://www.dangersigngenerator.com/

This map marking Iran and and Afghanistan comes from Big Huge Labs' Map maker: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/map.php

I was able to save all of these images in a folder I have on my desktop then import them into my blog--very easy.

4. In addition to using these image generators in my newsletters, I will share these sites with staff and students, who will be able to use these for their own projects. I think the Big-Huge Labs will be very helpful for their many projects.

Thing #9

The easiest way to find feeds is through lists. Technorati had a blog directory with topics. My favorite site was Edublogs's Award Winners. I couldn't get off this site. I placed many of the blogs in folders on my Google Reader.

The Search tool that was easiest for me was Google Blog search. Bloglines provided helpful sidebars for my searches.

The most confusing was Syndic8. It opened with links such as "XML of syndicated news content," Quality of measurement...," etc. I do not have the technology base that makes this a friendly site for me.

I found so many useful feeds. I added many to my Google Reader: I added Wikispaces: Web Tools and set up a folder of blogs that I want to share with teachers including The Cool Cat Teacher blog. Cool Cat suggests that bloggers register their blog with Technorati. I also enjoyed Vicki Davis' guide to "immerse ourselves in the the circle of the wise." She reminds her readers that "we become like those in (our) circle." The most interesting find for me, however, was Atomic Learning. You can purchase a subscription for Web-based software training available 24/7and other educational resources, but there are many free tutorials for both Mac and PC. I plan to return to this jewel often for the mini tutorials.

To locate news feeds, I would use topix. It has a very busy homepage, but the tabs make it user friendly, and it seemed to have everything.

Thing #8

1. What I like about RSS is the fact that I do not have to search websites to find what I want; the updates come to me. I love Google Reader because everything is easily accessed. I love the choice of Expanded and List View tabs at the top. Google Reader is very easy to use.

2. I can use this technology in my school or in my personal life to save time. With so much on the internet, having these RSS feeds marked for easy access helps.

3. Libraries can take advantage of this technology to set up blogs and see which patrons respond and when they respond. This response can help with assignments and patron satisfaction. Acquainting students with Google Reader will make their work easier also because they will not have to search a variety of websites to find their information.

I made all of my RSS feeds public on Google.

Thing #7

I set up a google severe weather alert ("as it happens") in Houston. My library has no windows, and I never know how bad the weather is getting while I am busy with students and classes. Houston has some severe rains (not to mention the hurricane warnings), so I will keep my e-mail up to receive these alerts. It was so easy to do. I also like the calendar. Currently, I use Express, but I liked Google's better. It has clear graphics and is very easy to use. The tabs at the top with week, month etc. view is easier to use that Express. I added a holiday calendar too. You can merge the two calendars or keep them separate. I tried to put the holiday calendar on my blog but so far have had no luck doing so. I keep copying the HTML code they give me into the blog composer, but it is not taking. So you will not get to see this calendar. I can see it when I log on to google. My searches with the google scholar were not as successful as the ones on the excellent databases purchased by our school district. I researched topics that the teachers have used in my library such as critical articles on author's works and the significance of these authors. Most of what I found, however, was available only through purchase. If you wanted to read beyond a preview, you had to buy the book or buy time at a website. I downloaded Google Earth and love it. I have a friend who is going to Aberdeen, Scotland this month and one who is going to Qatar. I spent a lot of time on Google Earth "touring" the terrain, zooming in on the sites, buildings etc. Touring the streets, I felt as though I were in Aberdeen.

Thing #6

Thing #6

This card was easy to make with the trading card flicker toy. I used an old picture of students in my library. I can see this as a motivation perk to encourage students to read. Teachers could have students design cards to show math formulas, TAKS objectives, vocabulary flashcards, and many more curriculum connections. The trick is learning to use these databases.

I spent many days working with the flicker toys. I made a collage but am unsure how to give credit to the flicker pics so am hesitant to post it. I selected pictures of political figures. I can see a teacher using this for an introduction to a unit in which students have to match the picture to the correct name. At the end of the unit, the students would be able to recognize the people and be able to explain their significance to the area of study, place them in a timeline etc. It took me days to make the pitiful collage. As I thought of students identifying the people in the collage, I kept thinking of the Jay Leno people-on-the-street skit he does. The "Jay All-Stars" are often given a picture of someone to identify--like Ted Kennedy--to which the "Jay All-Stars" will guess--"the Pope?'' or "John Wayne?"

Thing #5

I plan to use this photo in a booktalk. Getting teens to read is a challenge, but reading is the basis of all we do to learn. I have had great success with booktalks. I want to learn to do digital booktalks with pics and music, and I think Flicker could be helpful. I searched for pictures of haunted houses, castles, and teenagers--I found so many that would work with books to spark student interest as I booktalk. I found cool pictures of castles and haunted houses, but teenagers seem to like pictures of their peers. There is so much in Flicker; I could spend days on this site. I love fd's Flicker Toys too. In fact, when I first went to the site several days ago, I uploaded one of my own pictures that I wanted to give to a friend who is moving away. I personalized the photo with a caption from Locat generator. Then I printed the picture, put it in a frame and gave it to her. I am playing with all of the "toys." What a cool site.

Thing #4

I have registered my blog and am on my way to completing the rest of the steps (I hope). If I am not, please let me know.

Thing #2

I have no idea how I got here--suddenly I'm blogging. My first assignment is to comment on the hardest and easiest steps of the 7 1/2 steps of habits of highly successful people. The hardest for me is number 4--having confidence in myself--especially when it comes to technology--but I am going for it anyway. The easiest is number 7, teaching and mentoring others (I can't wait to share what I learn)--also easy for me is #2, accepting responsibility. I look forward to learning a lot in the Library2play experience. Yes, I'll make mistakes, but so what. I'll get out of the steps what I put in, and I'll use what I learn to help others learn also.

This is a copy of what I put for my second entry. I redoing this because, again, I put Infomaniac for the title. Now I am following directions.

Thing #1

I have already done this, but I did not title it correctly--I just kept putting my name (Informaniac) in the title space--just want to use the correct format.

Thing #3

I finally got the avatar from Yahoo. Creating the avatar was fun--I did several before choosing the poodle skirt girl who has fond memories of sock hops in the school gym. I had no difficulty creating the avatar and in getting it to the blog page. I am having trouble remembering the various accounts I now have--yahoo, google, blogger--maybe I will all sort all of this out as I continue to practice. It is now 11:43 PM (Central time) so will continue to work on my blog page tomorrow. None of this is easy for me.

Infomaniac

June 13, 2008

Week 2: Thing #3

I attempted to create an avatar. I ended up at ZWinky where I "designed" my avatar--a cheerleading librarian. But I can't copy the darn image to post on the blog. I don't think I have the clearance to do so. Any suggestions?

Infomaniac