Week 9, Thing 23

Wow!! There are certainly a lot of things packed into this course. The copyright issue is certainly one that needs to be addressed as many teachers and students have the attitude that if it is on the internet, than anyone can use it. Although there are several "things" I hope to incorporate into my teaching, there are others that I don't see myself using. However, I think it is good to become familiar with them so that as teacher and/or students ask about them, I can at least provide an intelligent explanation. As with many new concepts in education, the question arises - where will I find time to include these new tools? However, in order to stay on top of things and to help students learn their way through these tools, the time needs to be found. This was a great opportunity. I would participate in another learning experience like this during the summer. Based on the time involved, I'm not sure that I would attempt this during the school year.

Week 9, Thing 22

This is a great resource to locate audiobooks for students. We just started purchasing playaways last year, and I couldn't keep them on the shelf. I'm not sure if students would be interested in reading books for pleasure in ebook format, however, in an audio format, I think there will be great interest. I want to share some of these sites, specifically with my language arts teachers, when we all settle into the new school year.

Week 9, Thing 21

I am familiar with podcasts, however, I wasn't aware of the podcasts directories. Thinking about it, it makes sense that there is a way to search and locate just podcasts. Through the SLJ website, I have listened to several programs over the last year. Using the free software Audacity, I am also in the process of creating booktalk podcasts which I plan to connect to my OPAC. This software is very easy to use and I would recommend it to anyone interested in getting involved in creating their own podcasts. I was hoping to get further along on this project this summer, but summer is quickly slipping away. I am also thinking about using students to complete this project to help get more booktalk podcasts created.

Week 9, Thing 20

I have played with YouTube in the past. Unfortunately, the problem with trying to use it with students in an educational setting is the site blocking issue. One way I found to work around this is to find the videos that I want to use at home, burn them to a CD, and then use the CD in my class. I was able to use the videos of Julie Andrews for School Library Month in this way. This is a video that I learned about at an AASL meeting. I think it is a great song/video that plays on the library stereotype.



OK, on an educational note, I have students produce PSAs as a final project for a unit on plagiarism/copyright. I found this video on TeacherTube which will I can use to help teach them about PSAs.



This would be a good video to use at the beginning of the year with our Ancient Civilization classes.

Week 8, Thing 19

This is a great tool to use with students which will allow them to share their reading with each other as well as staff. I hope to make this part of my webpage and encourage students to set up their own accounts to share with each other.

Week 8, Thing 18

We have had several problems with students not being able to use their flashdrives from home.  This is a great alternative to let them know about.  No more student frustration because they can't access their files.  From my exploration of zoho it appears that many of the same options are available as can be found in Office so this is a great option for people to use.  The ability to access the file from any location also solves the problem of having to remember to carry the flashdrive with you everywhere you go.

Lower Dauphin Middle School

Adding a picture didn't proceed as smoothly as with Office. I couldn't get the insert command to work, so I had to do a copy and paste.

Week 7, Thing 16A and 17

There are a lot of great ideas on the California link. The PA Curriculum wiki will be another great resource as more people learn about it and add to it. I really liked the WebTools4U2Use site. I am anxious to share some of the ideas from this site to use with my faculty. I think there are many good ways to include wikis in classroom assignments. Even if the sites are blocked at school, students can still access from home and make contributions from there. Not the best solution to the blocking problem, but it could work.

Week 7, Thing 16

I have some experience with wikis. I have used the ALA conference wiki and have used a wiki with a group to create a project. This is a great way to accomplish group work virtually and eliminate the need for face to face meetings. Wikis would be an excellent way for students to collaborate on projects within their class or even to create some type of collaborative projects between classes in different states or countries. However, we need to convince the decision-makers of the value of this tool as wikis are often blocked by school as are many web 2.0 technologies.

Week 6, Thing 15

Each of these articles make very good points about the survival of libraries in the age of technology. In the article by Wendy Schultz, I like her definition of what a library is - "... they are conversations, they are covocations of people, ideas, and artifacts in dynamic exchange....they are communitites..." In order for libraries to continue, they must change with the times and incorporate the new technologies which will only make them a better for patrons to use and relate to.

Week 6, Thing 14

I played around with Technorati and looked at the various tools available. I don't see this tool as one that will be very useful to me or for my students. I will admit I am not in to blogging as much as some, so I'm sure this is part of my lack of interest in this tool.

Week 6, Thing 13

This is a great tools to create resources for students.  It will be a great time-saver as you can access others research and lists.  I certainly plan to make use of this as I update and create new units for use for staff and students

Week 5, Thing 12

This was a little frustrating as I couldn't quite understand how to link this to my blog.  Even though I finally was able to do it, I think there has to be an easier way.  This is a great tool to set up for students to complete their research.  I need to play with it a little big longer to understand it a little better on how to make the link.

Week 5, Thing 11

Woods Cove Sunset
Originally uploaded by greeder

With my interest in photography, I decided to play with tool picnik. This was a photo that I took recently on a trip to Laguna Beach. My original photo was a little dark, so with the use of picnik, I was able to lighten it up a bit and come up with a great beach sunset picture.

I'm not sure of the library application of this tool, but I liked playing with it for my personal use.

Week 5, Thing 10

I like the Comic Strip Generator.  I can see the kids really getting into this.
Made with free image tools @ TXT2PIC.com

Week 4, Thing 9

The two tools I found the most helpful in locating additional RSS feeds was the Bloglines search tool which did the searching for you and linking to websites that I visit which have RSS feeds.  I liked the bloglines search tool as I found it time saver by doing the searching for me.

Week 4, Thing 8

This is a great way to get updates very quickly and easily.  However, I can see this eating up a lot of time in an already busy day.

Week 3, Thing 7

A few weeks ago I was purchased a GPS and as with most technology it came with some additional features.  One of the features on my GPS which really excites me is that it can also double as an MP3 player with the simple purchase of an SD card.  This was a great added feature that I have used almost as much as the GPS.  As always, it amazes me how technological devices keep getting smaller and smaller but yet they provide more and more power and functions.

Week 3, Thing 6

Matterhorn
Originally uploaded by greeder

Although I was familiar with flickr before beginning these lessons, I was not aware of all the tools and toys. These tools are a lot of fun to play with, and I can see many applications that can be used with them. I have just started exploring and have feel I have just touched the surface.

Week 3, Thing 5

Yosemite
Originally uploaded by greeder

After a lot of exploring, I think I have this figured out. Since I'm not at school or have ready access to pictures of my library, I choose one of my favorite pictures from a recent vacation to Yosemite. I connected my blog to Flickr so I am hoping that this is going to go directly to my blog.

Week 2, Thing 3

Had a little problem trying to get my avatar pasted in to my blog, but was finally successful.

Week 1, Thing 2

Looking at the list of 7 1/2 habits the easiest item is probably to accept responsibility for my own learning.  I have always been very self motivated to learn new things so it is something I am always looking forward to doing.  I don't see anything on the list that I would consider hard.  Sometimes I get so caught up in trying to learn how to do new things that I forget to play with the new tools instead of just having fun with them.