Thing #21: Podcast

I have been trying out Photo Story at school with my fifth graders. We are learning that the Civil War was one of the first US conflicts documented by photographers. So we have been looking at the stories we can tell using pictures as our backdrop. Here's one that I made to show how something simple can be powerful.

Thing #23: Comments

It sure was easy to get lost in these discoveries! I would find myself delving into all sorts of fun and interesting places! I have learned so much about what is really out there on the world wide web. Before I started, there were Things I had never heard of, or had heard mention of them but had no idea what they were! Now I have tried some of these weird Things and like them! Plus, I feel confident enough to share my knowledge with not only my students, but teachers and my family as well! Thanks for making this available so that I could learn how to be a part of the cybersphere in a more meaningful way! I can't wait for the next installment!

Thing #22:Ning

People keep finding new ways to connect! I remember when I was so excited to have a Pen Pal from another city! Now I can just click, and instantly I can be connected to a group of people who have my same career, interests, and concerns, but may be miles away. I see myself using a network like this more so than My Space for professional connections. I have been a part of Scholastic Teacher Exchange for several years, and look forward to finding a librarian Ning that suits me as I learn all about this profession! What I have loved most is being able to post a question and within no time people have respond with wonderful suggestions and ideas!

Thing #20: Teacher Tube

Currently my students and I are learning about the Civil War and playing with Photo Story, so this video was perfect!
I love how many digital videos are available through different avenues. However, it's sometimes cumbersome to go through the volume of results, and then sort through the ones that are actually made by children. It's great to have places for students to "produce" to on the internet, but sometimes I think it would be better to have a separate place for students' work. A few sources about digital storytelling are Center_for_digital_storytelling and UH-Digital_Storytelling. I have had lots of fun learning how to make digital stories! They are so simple, but can be very powerful! It will be something I try to introduce my students to every year from now on.

Thing #19: Campfire

I am not a frequent instant messenger or chat room person, but I have been trying to think about how to incorporate this type of communication in my future library. I viewed the tour video for Campfire, an instant messaging for groups website. You set up a password protected page, and up to 60 people at a time can be in a "room". The neat thing about it is you can share files, links to websites, and images as well as "talk" to one another. I'm wondering if this would work as a "homework help" or "virtual reference desk".
Something fun I tried was One_Sentence, which as it's name suggests is a website of one sentence stories. Talk about getting to the gist of a story! What an exercise of word economy! It was fun to browse and read the things people have shared in just one sentence - from the touching to the humorous thoughts. The best way to find something on a particular topic is to go to the "stories" tab and find the tag cloud. I like this one about kids "Asked by my small daughter, 'How long does a clock take?', I had to wonder." Aren't those little grown-ups just amazing? (I submitted one, but won't know if it's posted until I get the confirmation email.) Update: Here's the link to my submission: http://www.onesentence.org/stories/2112/ Enjoy!

Thing #18: Online productivity tools

I used Google docs on a project for one of my classes. This again made sharing the workload so much easier. We were each able to work on parts of our assignment when we had time, without having to email updated versions to one another, or arrange to all meet at one place to get it done. That is the main advantage of online tools - ability and ease of sharing them! Another great feature is that you can then publish a Google doc to the web, like we did for our
webquest. I also like that you can access them from anywhere - no matter whose computer you are using! I'm not sure I trust them for all my documents, but for things I might need elsewhere, it might be handy to be able to login and see it wherever I go!

Thing #17: Sandbox

Such great comments and suggestions to play with in the Sandbox! I latched onto one, and I am going to have to make it happen! Someone suggested making a wiki for teachers to post books they use for teaching reading and writing skills. That would be great! And it could be organized by grade level, so other grades see what has been used in the past and try to find new books so as not to keep repeating the same book over and over. Also, I thought content pages would be helpful. I love teaching math, science, and social studies through informational picture books! It would be such a great resource for teachers to be able to access, contribute to, and use in a very real way! I will add a link when I establish the wiki, or find one that has already been started! Keep playing everyone! :)

Thing #16: Wikis

Wikis are so cool! It's so much better than you email me, I email my friend, and so on and so on. With a wiki everyone has access to the same information at the same time, and it's all in one place! I used one for a group project so that my partners and I could post things we found to use in our presentation. It made it so much easier to keep track of what we still needed, and who was doing what. Then my husband's family was trying to organize things for a family get-together, and the email trail was getting to be ridiculous, so I offered the idea of a wiki and everyone loved it! Of course there were those who felt un-techno-savy who needed email reminders, but for everyone else it was great! They were even able to post pictures for a PowerPoint someone was putting together to show at the party. I was so proud to be able to educate my in-laws and make their coordination so much easier!
Plus, there are so many great things to use a wiki for in the library! Here are a few: have teachers post websites, rubrics, lessons, worksheets to share; have students post book reviews under genre headings; students can share the best websites to find information for projects or topics of interest; parents and teachers can use a wiki to communicate needs, concerns, suggestions, or help. I love all the wikis out there about libraries and books! My favorite link I found was to the Guys_Read website. Sometimes it's hard, being a female teacher-librarian, to figure out just what a 10 year old boy might want to read, but this place takes care of that for you! The hardest part about all the sites out there is that I don't know when I'll have the time to peruse them all, and where I will keep track of the ones I like! I guess I'll add them to my "delicious" page for safe keeping!

Thing #15: Library 2.0

As a library school student, I must admit that I started this journey because I really love sharing books with students! So thinking about the library changing from what I knew as a child to what it will be when I have one of my own makes me a little nervous. However, much of what I have learned this semester reminds me that books are great, but students really connect to the digital world. It's strange to me. I don't particularly enjoy sitting for hours in front of the computer, but boy is it a great way to connect and learn! I struggle with what to embrace. I think I have decided that I will love both the print and the digital elements of my future library. You just can't have one and not the other!
The writers of the OCLC newsletter had some great thoughts on the impact of Web 2.0 on libraries. I think what I will remember most is that we are truly a service to our students, and we must meet them where they are. If they are longing for the perfect book to fall in love with and read from cover to cover, or if they need a biography, or want a video clip we must be ready and willing to match what we have to what they are looking for. I will still be in the business of developing a life-long learner, so I must use the tools I have and share them with all I can - students, teachers, parents, and more!

Thing #14: Technorati

I love that they designed this website to search the "voice of the people", and not the mass media! I am sure there are plenty of people voicing their opinions on lots of things I would love to know about! (Good books, good movies, good parenting, good food...) It will be fun to dig through them all to find the ones that speak to me. Plus I am beginning to see the power of tagging, and just how helpful it can be to allow someone to find what you have to say.

Thing #13: del.icio.us

I really like this website! I have made del.icio.us a place to save websites my class at school will be using for a Civil War project. I like it because even when I add more sites I can have my students search for our topic and the websites I have saved will still be there for them. Plus I love how easy it is! The buttons on the browser make it great! When I see a worthwhile website all I have to do is click the button and type a few tags and it's saved! This will be a fabulous resource to use!

Thing #12: Rollyo

That was the most frustraing assignment so far! It took me several tries to get the Rollyo search bar onto my blog just right, plus it didn't even recognize my blog as a website to search. I guess when I have more websites that I rely on for their information and insight, I might find this tool more useful, but for now I think I'll stick to Google for my search needs! However, I did make my Rollyo "mommy friendly"! I put my favorite teaching and parenting sites on it. They are all quite creative and clever, so I love looking at their suggestions for my everyday problems.