Week 9, Thing 23, Copyright, Creative Commons, and Final Reflections

When I was watching "A Fair(y) Use Tale" my kids came in to see what it was.  They both watched the whole thing and thought it was entertaining.  That's an endorsement in and of itself.  I could see using it to reinforce what I've already taught about copyright.  I had heard about Creative Commons, but had never poked around their site before.  It was good to have the opportunity to so. 

I had heard about many of the Web 2.0 applications that this class explored before.  But I didn't have the time to dig into them and find out anything more that superficial familiarity.  There were a few bad links that the RAW 2.0 team fixed when I (or someone else) let them know. There were also a couple of typos that I viewed as giving this course a human touch.  I especially liked the reference to "communters" using audiobooks.  I had visions of bus riders communing together on their way to and from work.  I liked doing the class in the summer when I could devote lots of time to exploring and clicking around and never really getting anything done.  On the down side, I found the online format to not be my first choice in learning.  I felt like I was writing my blog entries in a void most of the time.  Thank you Ann for all your responses, but was hoping for more feedback from others too.  This class has me thinking about technology differently and how I can and should use it in my library to engage my students.           

Chapter 1 “New World, New Web, New Skills” from Web 2.0 New Tools, New Schools by Gwen Solomon and Lynne Schrum

Web 2.0 New Tools, New Schools by Gwen Solomon and Lynne Schrum
One of the main purposes of our education system is to prepare students for the working world. The Web has changed how, when, and where people work. The skills that our students need to succeed in many careers have changed to include new technology that schools in other countries are embracing in a more meaningful way. Businesses can use this to employ people around the world (through a few different time zones) to be working around the clock. Employees in other countries are many times willing to work for far less than U.S. employees. If students in our country are going to be able to compete, our education system needs to not just change what we teach, but how we teach.
Teachers need to not only know that new technology is out there, but must be comfortable enough to use it. Teachers need to be well trained and supported to be able to teach 21st century technology skills. Teachers need to give assignments that are project based and require students to use information from multiple disciplines, but also all levels of Blooms taxonomy. The specific technology tools used are less important than the content that is being taught through technology.
Regardless of what a student does after high school, all students must have these 21st century technology skills to be successful in the work place. Students will need to have greater global, financial, and civic literacy than in the past because of their interconnectedness with people from all over the world. They will need to be self-directed, creative, and able to communicate and collaborate effectively.
Students today use technology comfortably and effectively. It is the education systems job now to use those tools to prepare students to be effective employees in a worldwide job market.

Chapter 7 “Online Safety and Security”

My district has adopted iSafe to teach students about Internet safety and security. I use the curriculum for 3rd - 6th grades in collaboration with the technology teacher. This year we will be getting a new tech teacher and I’ll have to find out if that person will be willing to continue this joint unit between the library and technology. We cover copyright (the music teacher also does a lesson on this), personal safety online, ethical behavior, and social networking, as well as other things that students bring forward.
I need to review my school’s AUP. With all the new Web 2.0 tools that I have learned about in this class, there are some applications that I want to use with my students. I need to find out if these uses are allowed in our AUP. If they are not, our AUP needs to be reviewed.
Most parents expect that their child(ren) will learn Internet safety at school, and although parents want to do what they can to ensure their child(ren) are safe online, many don’t know how.
I like some of the alternatives that are listed at the end of this chapter if my school wants to start using Web 2.0 tools, but can’t (because of being blocked) or doesn’t want to be open to the entire Internet.

Chapter 8 “Systemic Issues”

The fastest growing student population is limited English proficient (LEP) students. This is expected to continue for at least 15 more years. Teachers in some schools are already using technology to help students acquire English language skills. Some Web 2.0 tools could include: blogging – where students could practice reading and writing, and podcasting – some teachers are already using this technology in various ways, I think the most interesting is developing “interactive story mazes” (similar to the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series.)
Some students with special needs are already using technology so that they can participate in the school environment. Web 2.0 tools can be used to reinforce skills as well as help students with IEPs. There are also numerous podcasts available to parents/guardians of special needs students.
Last year I saw and got to play (for about 5 minutes) with one of the “$100 laptops”. The laptop was part of the One Laptop per Child program. Many of these laptops are going to third world nations, but some of these machines are going to destinations in the U.S. These laptops are sturdy, simple to navigate, and do not require wired broadband to access the Web, instead they use satellite connections. Computers and wireless connections have been put into some low-income communities to help bridge the digital divide.
Assessment can take place in many forms using Web 2.0 technology. Projects and/or activities can be done using Web 2.0 tools so that others can review and comment on the piece. My school does portfolios, and I found the information about electronic portfolios to be interesting. I don’t know if we could have all of the student’s entire portfolios online, but some portions could be. The advantage of this would be that people that can’t make it to a portfolio share either because they are working, live too far away, illness, or whatever can still be a part of the portfolio process.

Chapter 9 “New Schools”

Our students are already immersed in technology. Our educational system is not keeping up with the rapidly changing world and the role that technology plays in it. If schools can’t teach what students need in a way that suits students learning styles, schools become irrelevant. The world is changing, our students are changing, and our schools need to follow suit. This chapter is all about possibly ways to make that change happen.

Education software could be written that is interactive like Amazon and eBay. It could track each students learning style, and knowledge base to suggest sites and activities to learn a lesson.

Teachers can use Web 2.0 tools to keep all stakeholders (students, parents, staff, community members…) up to date on what’s happening in the classroom and school. Librarians using this information to make and maintain a curriculum map. Parts of this are being done already. In my school many teachers send their weekly newsletter to parents via email, one teacher sent a daily email to all parents in her class of what happened that day. This year I want to be on those email lists to see what each class is studying.

In the same way that textbooks are sometimes not used, the same can be said for software. Our administrators and curriculum committees need to acknowledge that not all students are the same, and so the same teaching materials will not be effective for all students. The same can be said for Web 2.0 based learning. The key difference though is that through the connectedness of Web 2.0, students can learn what they need to even if they didn’t learn it to mastery the first time. If students had access to the Web, learning can take place not only in school, but when the student is ready, even if it is outside of the regular school day.

Professional development is key to making these changes happen. Teachers need to not only learn what the tools are, but how to incorporate them into their classroom (library, gym, school, etc.) This class is an example of how professional development can be accomplished online. Even after the “for credit” class is over, the content will still be up on the Web for others to access.

For all students to be able to compete in the technology-based environment that they are growing up in, they must have access to broadband. I was surprised to see that in a 2007 study by the federal government, “42% of households have either no computer or a computer with no Internet connection.” These students are at a serious disadvantage.

How to pay for Internet access is another issue. Periodically, there are rumblings that Web sites that provide a lot of content should pay more. Some fear that this will leave small sites at lower speeds that will then result in fewer site hits. In the past few months some companies have started to charge more for users that access the Internet more. In my opinion, this is a step backward.

Week 9, Thing 22, eBooks and Audio eBooks

I went to World eBook Fair and found it easy to use. I searched for a few titles and found some and not others. I browsed some of the collections and liked that. Since the covers were pictured, it was kind of like looking through a library or book store. I was interested to see that there are books available in some of the languages my students speak, specifically Brazilian Portuguese but couldn't find a way to search for just children's titles in that collection. Personally, I liked the catalog of music scores for when one of my kids are looking for music. Even though I liked some of the things I found, I still can't get past not liking to read on my computer. Maybe some of the new technology like Kindle is easier, but what I've seen so far I haven't been impressed with.
I've played around with audio eBooks for over a year now. Last year I taught the 4th, 5th and 6th graders how to use ListenAlaska. I even had a few portable CD players that I checked out to students that needed the extra support of listening to the book and following along with the print copy. This worked well for an ELL student and a couple kids whose reading was way below proficient.
I went to LibriVox and found I couldn't search for children's titles like I wanted to. The Best Places to Get Free Books site was fun and had some of the same sites listed that I had already visited and used.

Week 9, Thing 21, Podcasts

I had heard of podcasting, and even have a subscription to a podcast that my son started with adult help. He was 7 when they started the weekly show, and it ran for a couple of years. They don't do the show as regularly any more, but it's still set up for when one is posted. So I had an iTunes account that is used for lots of stuff in our house. But for this "thing" I was searching for something library related. What I found was that there are lots of things out there, but the descriptions I was finding weren't what I really needed. I had to listen to a lot of stuff before I found one that I really liked. I found bookwink. It's a podcast of children's books that are related to a theme (best friends, dragons, avalanches, etc.) But what makes this podcast even better is that there's a website http://www.bookwink.com/ that has more titles. Bookwink's mission is to inspire kids in grade 3 through grade 8 to read, so all the titles are meant for that age range.

My school does "Explorations" every other month. It's like an intensive where teachers teach a single topic for one day. I've done volcanoes, rocketry, Harry Potter and dinosaurs, to name a few. Kids sign up for an "Exploration" of their choice. As a teacher it means that I get kids from multiple classes and various grades. I'm thinking that I could do an "Exploration" on podcasting. I'm very excited about this!

Week 9, Thing 20, TeacherTube

"Pay Attention" from TeacherTube

I looked around at TeacherTube and found the above video. I like what it says and its relevance to this class. I'm going to ask my principal if it can be shown to the staff at my school, because it just makes us think about whether the way we've always been doing things is still the best way to do it. It is similar to the video "Shift Happens", but I figured most people have seen that. I went to YouTube, and found that I could spend way too much time on either of these sites and not get anything accomplished. TeacherTube had lots of great tutorials, and videos that could be used in classes. The hardest part of this "thing" was figuring out how to get the video into my blog - the note on the RAW 2.0 page wasn't enough info for me, but I figured it out.

Week 8, Thing 19.1, Digital Pipeline

I have looked at Digital Pipeline in other classes, but I didn't remember most of what I had discovered in the past. I didn't remember how to make a folder, save things temporarily, or that I could email articles to myself until I saw it on the tutorial. I don't think I ever knew that if I hovered the mouse over the magnifying glass and paper that it would give a short description of the resource. I found that School Library Journal is available, and I have tried viewing journals on line, but I like having paper in my hands when I read (digital immigrant here.) The Consumer Health Database was one that I hadn't looked at before. I researched a couple of illnesses/diseases that my family members are dealing with right now. It was as easy to navigate through as the rest of the databases that I explored, although some of the videos were more fluff than substance. I spent a lot of time looking at what was in different categories. But I don't think I would use the small engine and automotive repair databases.

The Flash Movie about the new EBSCO Host interface may have been informative, but I found that having no sound, it was too long and hard to follow in places. Also, at the beginning and end it said "EBSCO host 2.0 Clean. Powerful. Intuitive." I would agree it was clean, powerful and intuitive. But 2.0? I thought I had a handle on what 2.0 was, and EBSCO databases doesn't really fit in the definition. It is certainly very powerful and if my students can navigate through the OPAC and Google, they can certainly find their way through the EBSCO databases.

The Digital Pipeline tutorial was helpful and I can see using it with students.

Week 8, Thing 19, Library Thing

I had not heard of Library Thing before. I created an account http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Sharon_on_the_web added the Battle of the Books titles that I have read this summer as well as the latest title from my book club. I liked that I could add tags to the titles. My ratings were pretty close to the average rating. The discussions were kind of misleading though. Most of my books showed that there were discussions, but most of them didn't pertain to the book.

The best use I saw for the virtual book shelf was for my students to keep track of books. My school does portfolios and I had already decided this coming year I want students to do a self-reflection about what we did in the library since the last portfolio share. I want them to be able to write at least one book (favorite?) that we read in the library or that was checked out from the library. I could either have each student do their own Library Thing account where they can keep track of their books and rate them. Or, have an account for each teacher and the titles would be listed for the class, and each student could use their name and a rating of 1-5 (i.e. Sharon5) as a tag to identify that they heard or read it. I've played with Good Reads (http://www.googreads.com/) and have about 50 books in there already, but don't think it would work as well for my students for their portfolios.

Week 8, Thing 18, Google Docs

O.K., I never knew that something like this existed. I do a lot of lesson planning at home. When I create a document at home, I email it to myself at school. I like to have the document at school, so I can easily make changes or whatever. Since I use both a PC and MAC at home, I usually print it out at home, just in case it doesn't email well (formatting gets messed up or what ever.) I love the idea of being able to create my documents online, and accessing the document from either platform and any location.

I decided to try Google Docs because I was familiar with Google Reader, and Zoho didn't look as easy to me. Also Google Docs has a way to work on your documents offline, and then when you are online again, it syncs everything together. I typed part of this post in Google Docs, saved it and then reopened it to finish the post. It was quite easy to do.

The one thing that didn't work cleanly for posting from Google Docs to my blog was there was no place to title the post in Google Docs. So I had to edit my blog to add the title (and now this last paragraph.)

Week 7, Thing 17, RAW 2.0 wiki

I posted to the RAW 2.0 wiki before I even looked at thing 17. It was very easy to do and pretty intuitive. The ASD librarians have a wiki that I visited last year, but not too terribly often, and when I did, I spent way too much time there. Wikis are another great resource out there, but I haven't figured out yet how to fit it all in to my day. It seems that I have so much to do, that I don't go looking for things that could be time drains.

Last year I set up a wiki page with wikispaces, and made a salmon pathfinder. I gave the url to the 2 classes that were studying salmon. I introduced the classes to it, but I don't know if the teachers used it or reminded the students about it when they had to do research. My goal is to make my pathfinders on the wiki, so that I can always find it, and don't have to start from scratch each time.

Week 7, Thing 16, Wikis

I spent a few hours on a decent Saturday looking at various and sundry wikis. The best by far was Harper-Allen Team wiki - This is our place to post class news,... I saw so many things that I could use in my school library. The student book reviews were great. I've heard about students doing reviews on a wiki for a couple years now. As I was reading some of them, I thought it would be a great way for students to keep track of the Young Reader's Choice books that they have read. There was also a parents book club were parents could review books that dealt with parenting kids that age. On the parent page there was also a link to sites for leveled books - I have parents ask me all the time what would be a "just right" book for their child, and this is one more source that parents can use. There was a place for homework/assignments, and since I also teach a 2nd grade math class, I saw possibilities in that.
I also liked teacherlibrarianwiki. The book lists were great.
I highly recommend Lee LeFever's wiki tutorial http://www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english, once again it gave me the foundation I needed to understand the world of wikis.

Week 6, Thing 15, School Library 2.0

I read "School Library 2.0" by Christopher Harris from School Library Journal, May 1, 2006. This article tells how libraries have changed and adapted in the past, but also why they need to continue to change and how those changes look in some libraries.
Libraries have always adapted to the technology that was available not because what the library was doing was wrong, but because there was a better way to do it. School libraries were instrumental in getting computers and internet access into classrooms because it was good for education.
Because of all the focus on standardized testing, school libraries are being marginalized. With limited funding, many states are looking at the "65% solution", in which 65% of school funds must be put into classrooms to support student learning. It sounds good until you realize that in many states libraries are not a part of that teaching staff that supports student learning. Libraries are not just a physical space, but are also on the web.
Library 2.0 looks different in different libraries. Some libraries are having book talks and discussions online through blogs and podcasts with other students in other parts of the country. Book discussions can happen online with the author regardless of where the author is. Students can share resources through social bookmarking. Students, staff, and parents can have virtual collections of favorite books. Staff can have a blog about standardized testing complete with RSS and email. All of these services create community that can be anyplace, not just one physical space.
Library 2.0 doesn't mean changing everything. But instead finding what would make things work better. That means not necessarily being on the bleeding edge, but possibly being on the cutting edge to allow students to be effective users of ideas and information.

Week 6, Thing 14, Technorati

Let me start by saying, I was not impressed by Technorati. I tried approaching this "thing"as a way to figure out how to make Technorati work for me. I found the menu for finding items with "any authority" to "alot of authority". I played around looking here and there and found it to be overwhelming. So I decided to do the assignment as directed. I did a search of "School Library Learning 2.0" a couple different ways. When I did the search with "any authority in English" I found 68 posts, 20 videos, and 10 blogs. I wondered if I could narrow it further and did the same search, but with "some authority in English", this time I found 8 blogs, 20 videos, and 0 posts. Maybe I narrowed it too far, but I wasn't so overwhelmed.
I made the same kind of search of tags. I found 11 tags with "any authority in English", and 0 tags with "some authority in English". I couldn't find Raven About Web 2.0 at all no matter how I searched. I don't know what I was doing wrong there.
I next went to Blogger Central and found Boing Boing to be the #1 blog. I checked it out and found the subjects to be scattered, and hit or miss if it was something that I was interested in.
As I stated at the beginning, I was unimpressed with Technorati. I couldn't figure out where I was hierarchically, it was too much information and organized in a way that didn't make sense to my digital immigrant brain.

Week 6, Thing 13, Del.icio.us

I'd seen Del.icio.us before. When I was in the SLMS program at UW one of the teachers had us learn (search, post, etc.) Del.icio.us. But I never really felt comfortable with it. This time, I thought "this has potential!" It seems like the last two months (unrelated to this class) I have been finding that the bookmarks I wanted weren't on my list. It was usually because I was in Internet Explorer and I had saved something when I was in Firefox or vice versa, or sometimes it was because I was at home but had found it at work and it was bookmarked there. So, I set up an account and the first thing I bookmarked was the site for this class. I found that two other people had already done the same thing. I looked at the tags they used and saw that we used similar or the same tags. Next I bookmarked the school district home page and my school home page. I like that when I find something that someone else has previously bookmarked, I can see other things they have found and benefit from their searches. Hopefully as I add to my list, others will benefit from mine as well. I can see how this could be far less confusing than how I have been doing things. Next I went to iKeepBookmarks to see what I had put on that account about a year ago, and need to think through if I want to put the two together, or if they will serve different purposes. I was using iKeepBookmarks for when a teacher asked for resources to supplement their curriculum.
The "Social Bookmarking in Plain English" tutorial by Lee LeFever was great. I have found his other tutorials to be very helpful too.

Week 5, Thing 12, Voice Thread

 I found out about Voice Thread last summer at the School Librarians Leadership Academy.  I thought it looked too involved then, so I didn't try it.  I figured I'd try it this time, and I'm impressed!  It was easy to use and aside from having the "Oops!" dialog box at the beginning  and the "Share" info at the end it looks like the kind of thing that I would put on my school's web page.  (You can still hear and see my Voice Thread by clicking on the OK button.)  I can see this being a good way to share books - an image of the book with kids telling what they thought of the book.  We could start with Battle of the Books or Young Reader's Choice titles.  My school will have a new technology teacher this year, and I would like to collaborate with her/him and a classroom teacher to use this for a class project.

Week 5, Thing 11, Award-Winning Applications & NING

I have a class reunion coming up next year, and so I thought I would look at the social networking mainstay sites.  Twitter, the number 1 site isn't set up to do searches for people like I wanted. Facebook (number 2) worked great!  I could search by school and year.  I found a few people, one that wasn't at the first reunion, but may have been at the second, (not sure since I don't have a record of that reunion.)  I was surprised to find my daughter registered on Bebo.  That could be a whole separate blog entry!  MySpace and Friendster didn't have any classmates that I could find, but that wasn't a big surprise to me since these looked like sites for people a bit younger than myself and my classmates.  

I saw nings for the first time when I took the School Librarians Leadership Academy last summer.  I'm a member of the ASD Librarians Ning and the Alaska School Librarians Ning and thought I had also joined the  Teacher Librarian Ning, but when I went to sign in, it said I wasn't a member.  So, I signed up for that ning and joined the Elementary School Librarians group.  I have to admit that I don't do a good job of participating or even keeping track of these nings.  Maybe I can add them to my RSS feeder to keep up better.  I'm still not clear on the difference between nings and wikis.  I think I want to start one for the class reunion I mentioned earlier, but need to find out more about wikis to figure which would be a better application.   

Week 5, Thing 10, Comic Strip Generator

This was fun! I can see using this for lots of stuff - reminders on my library bulletin board, newsletter articles, notes home for students with very late books (maybe a comic would make it home when my overdue notices don't. http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/ was easy for a visual person like me to maneuver around in. The hardest part was figuring out how to get the cartoon into my blog. I'm getting much more comfortable looking for help online. I looked for a tutorial on Teacher Tube - nothing. I looked for a tutorial or some other kind of help on You Tube - nothing. I went to the help menu - BINGO! I figured it out.

Week 4, Thing 9, More RSS

So yesterday I set up my Google Reader account and spent a couple hours looking for feeds that would not only fulfill the assignment requirements, but also be useful to me. Today I look at "thing 9" and find ways to search for relevant feeds. (Guess I should have looked ahead yesterday.) I found Bloglines to be the easiest to navigate through but was opposite of what I was expecting to see in terms of page layout. The blogs that were the best matches were on the right, not in the middle. I don't usually look at the right side, because that's where Google puts ads. I didn't like Blogdigger and Syndic8 because neither of them had descriptions of the blog/feed on the results page. "Award-winning blogs" didn't interest me, and "school library blogs" was to disjointed for me. Topix, Technorati and Google Blog Search all had nice layouts but didn't come up with what I wanted quickly and/or easily. But, the best place I found for finding feeds was in the LM NET archives. I added Joyce Valenza's Never Ending Search and NPR: Children's Books.

Week 4, Thing 8, RSS

Well, I already knew what RSS was. But I didn't realize just how easy it would be to set up an RSS aggregator. I used Google Reader because that's the reader that was used in the Blip TV video. When the instructions for this assignment stated to subscribe to at least 5 newsfeeds, I wasn't (and still am not) sure if blogs could be counted in that 5, but my list does have some blogs. I've started out subscribing to the Anchorage Daily News, Unshelved, School Library Journal, Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog, and LISNews - Librarian and Information Science News. I had heard of and looked at all of these at one time or another except LISNews. I like that I don't have to think about going to these places and looking if there is anything new. But, I can also see that having all this information waiting for me could be tremendously time consuming to go through. I'm still not caught up on all my personal email! I have thought about having a wiki for students to do book reviews and that could be set us as an RSS, but I haven't come up with any other ways to use RSS with my students. I've been looking for good feeds for new book reviews for elementary age kids, I can see how that would be helpful to me professionally.