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.