Thing 23 - One Last Thing

I've completed the online survey and as I mentioned in the survey, thank you, thank you! 23things is a terrific professional development opportunity. I am excited to continue learning about library 2.0 tools.

Thing 22 - What did I learn today?

1. I resolve to stay current and keep up with my blog. Since I cannot access many things at school I might not be able to commit 15 minutes a day, but hopefully on a weekly basis I can further investigate somethings such as some of the challenge ideas.

2. I certainly can ask myself "what did I learn today?" on a daily basis to blog these ideas.

3. One way that I've kept up is the intrigue of these 23 Things. This definitely was an adventure. I've shared some ideas with teachers at school and hope to continue to do so. Webjunction-Minnesota is a great resource and I hope to share aspects of this with collegues.

Thank to all who helped to put 23thingsonastick together and for promoting this across the state! As I mentioned earlier, this is a wonderful adventure that goes on and on!

Thing 21 - Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks

Other than Facebook, I've joined Ning. I think after more exploration I'd like to join Bakespace and Teacher Librarian Ning. I enjoy baking...although I haven't had much time lately. I think that the Teacher Librarian Ning would be a wonderful resource to share and receive ideas!

Thing 20 - Libraries and Social Networks

I already have a Facebook account. I keep in contact with some Australian friends. Matter of fact they were students that I taught when I was there teaching for my student teaching experience. This is a great way to be in touch!

I joined Library 2.0 interest group, Librarians and Facebook, and Librarians Using Facebook Pages. I joined these groups because I feel that these groups were more appealing to me and seemed to have aspects about them that interested me more than American Library Association Members. I feel that I will encounter pertinent information or ideas from these groups.

Thing 19 - Explore Podcasts

I love to listen to Car Talk on Minnesota Public Radio on Saturday mornings, but sometimes I miss it so listening to it via podcasting is awesome! I don't have to worry about missing it on Saturday mornings anymore.

I feel Podcast.net, Yahoo Podcasts, and Podcast.com were easiest to use. I was actually surprised and disappointed that Educational Podcast Directory wasn't as easy to use as I had hoped. I was hoping that this directory was going to be something to share in our Professional Learning Communities (PLC groups). I hope to try this directory again and hope that I can figure out why I had difficulties with it.

I must be honest that I am not sure that I am ready to do any podcasting myself yet. I plan to look at All You Need to Know to Podcast in Podcast.net to investigate this further.

Thing 18 - You Tube and other sites

I cannot say that I spotted a Minnesota Librarian in the YouTube video.

Adding this YouTube video was easy! I am a native of Green Bay, WI and a faithful Packer fan. This is a favorite in our house since Brett Favre announced his retirement. This is fun! I think students would have fun with this too, but it would not be possible in school since YouTube is blocked for all of the reasons listed in the instructions for this Thing.

Thing 17 - Minnesota Library 2.0 ELM

I've tried to set up a search alert using the new directions from newsletter #8, but seem to be having difficulty. I know it is quite late so I will try again when I am a little more awake:)

I tried it again today 4/16 and it worked.

The ProQuest create a web page and Ebsco page composer are convenient short cuts to searching databases. I think students and teachers would like these and find them helpful in searching databases for research. I noticed in ProQuest that there is a way to format the citations in MLA format for a bibliography, which is another helpful tool especially for students.

NetLibrary is a wonderful find! I haven't looked at this before, but will include this in my weekly newsletter at school as a terrific tool both for teachers and students. I imagine teachers will be excited to learn about this resource.

Thing 16 - Minnesota Library 2.0 Research Project Calculator

The RPC and teacher guide can help students plan and manage research projects through a step-by-step process. It provides a rubric to help students know what is expected of them with the research process in addition to an evaluative component as to what they felt they did well and what they felt they should do differently next time. It guides them as to what parts need to be completed by certain dates in order to pace themselves in the project rather than procrastinate and cram.

I see the RPC being a valuable tool to complete annual personal professional goals or library projects such as patron surveys for patron satisfaction and improvement.

Thing 15 - Libraries and games

Second Life is an amazing world and I think it does have a place in the world of education and in the world of libraries. I looked at few different YouTube videos in regard to Second Life and education. In terms of the world of education, second life is a wonderful opportunity for students to experience the world of periods from long ago. An example shown is where the person's avatar visits the Elizabethan Era. I think this would be an excellent learning tool with a different avenue in presenting history, literature, or science. I know that www.exploratorium.org uses Second Life to allow you to experience a solar eclipse from Turkey as well as other out of this world experiences!

Thing 14 - Library Thing

I think Library Thing is a wonderful tool to help students and teachers find books based on reviews, tags/subjects, ratings and other options. At this time, we provide suggestions based on personally read books as well as reading lists for particular classes. This tool offers insight to books that my assistants and I have not read, but others have. This tool offers suggestions to students who are reluctant readers as well as keeping students reading who have trouble finding books they like. This tool would be great to design a MHS teen list of books read and recommended by MHS students. What a great way to promote reading but by your own peers.

Thing 13 - Online Productivity Tools

Ok, I tried the flash countdown time generator, but it doesn't seem to work. I am missing something, but cannot seem to figure out what.

I like IGoogle's format and interface for a customized homepage along with widgets to choose from. My favorite is famous optical illusions:)

I prefer the online calendar I use from Outlook Express. I'd probably consider the google calendar if I didn't use the one from Outlook Express.

Remember the milk looks like a great tool for me! I love lists and carry a stickee note pad in my purse so I can remember things when I am on the go!

Wow! I can't wait to try Zamzar at school. Hopefully it will not be blocked by the filter. Frequently student send documents to themselves via an email account such as Yahoo! or Hotmail, but the file type at home is different than that at school and doesn't allow them to access the document. Fortunately many teachers are aware of this and have given students an extra day to turn in the assignment, but hopefully Zamzar could be a solution for this problem.

Thing 12 - Do You Digg it?

http://letsplaymath.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/happy-pi-day-2008/

I have to link this fantastic resource and celebration of Pi Day! I added my "two cents worth" to this article too. I actually learned about Pi Day from Science Friday on public radio. The next best thing I can offer since my school district filters block web 2.0 tools is to present articles or web sites on a weekly newsletter for the high school.

I will use these tools at home. After looking at the four listed (Mixx, Digg, Newsvine, Reddit), I prefer the presentation and organization of Newsvine or Mixx the best. I didn't like Reddit at all, it did not appeal to me. I also liked the format and presentation of StumbleUpon. The one reason I liked this format is that it isn't all written by "just anybody" but articles are also written by journalists, such as MSNBC.

Thing 11 - Tagging and del.icio.us

I can see how tagging helps to sort or organize things according to that tag or label. I also like the opportunities of del.icio.us to help research and keep organized the sites I find helpful or informative.

Unfortunately, we are not able to access del.icio.us because of filter restrictions. At this time, students do not have access to web 2.0 sites except in a couple of business classes the teachers teach using blogs.

Thing 10 - Learn about wikis

Wikis are another wonderful collaborative tool. I enjoyed looking at the pathfinder wiki developed by the St. Joseph County Public Library system. I was fascinated to find information in the geneology area about my mom's family. She is originally from this area. I also found the The Blogging Libraries Wiki fascinating, especially Valley View Middle School's blogging wiki with all of the book reviews. This is a great idea for school media centers! Finally MN150 wiki is a great tool to share about Minnesota's history.

I completely understand why high school teachers ban Wikipedia from student research. Many students do not evaluate the information that they read on the internet. They are not really critical users of the internet. Students need to be introduced to reliable sources and learn how ti evaluate internet sites before using sources like Wikipedia which may or may not have accurate information for research.

I edited 23 things on a stick wiki.

Thing 9 - Collaboration

My school district currently only allows students to access to email accounts such as Yahoo or Hotmail. Students are constantly saving documents from home that are not able to be opened at school because of different versions of Word. Students also are often sharing computer passwords in order to work collaboratively on projects. I can see how Google Docs would be a great tool to alleviate these problems. I have tried both Zoho Writer and Google Docs, but do not have a preference at this time. I hope to play with both more to determine which one I feel is more user friendly.
The K-8 media specialist and I plan to revise the Media Center Policy and Procedure Manual next year. I can see how these collaborative tools would be great to work on this together as well as being a time saving tool to accomplish this task.

Sadie

Thing 8 Share your creations

Thing 8 is fun! This would be great to use personally but also at school to post photos from activities on the district web page. I can see using the eFolios both professionally and to help students prepare a "resume" via eFolio for careers classes or college applications.
I used PictureTrail and felt is was user friendly. I'd use it again and recommend it to others because they provide so many creative options for displaying photos in fun ways. I plan to further investigate databases at another time.

Thing 7 - Communication

1. Email-The 5 fast email productivity tips article is a great reminder. I hear teachers complain that they have too many emails to read or respond to and they wonder how we all survived before email was a part of lives in terms of communication. I think a reminder of how we can manage our email helps to harness email to a productive tool rather than a time consumer. In terms of how email is used in the MHS media center, I do contact teachers to send students with overdue materials to the media center, but I do not contact students since students do not have email access in our district.


2. Instant Messaging-
2a- The problem I see at this time for me using IM is the language. I am not up to speed on the "short-hand" aspect to instant messaging other than LOL or a few other common terms. I'm sure if I used IM frequently, I would learn fast. As for using it at school, I am not sure that our district is ready for IM at this time. Change is slow.
2b- The article IM Me presents a fascinating perspective to consider with reference services and IM. As mentioned above in 2a, I am not sure that my school district is ready for this yet. I am currently collecting data to determine a need for virtual reference.
2c-I am in the process of setting up an IM account at school. I'll write more when I've played with it for a while.


3. Text Messaging
At this time is not allowed in school. I do not see a need for this in the district yet because of the policies in place. Personally, I haven't gotten the hang of text messaging. This will be something else to try.


4. Web Conferencing
I have experienced web conferencing or webinars through Minitex and enjoyed what I've participated in. I think this is definitely another change or paradigm shift in professional development and learning for students. As more and more people turn to online learning, webinars or web conferencing is a wonderful tool. One webinar I participated in was the Gale virtual references webinar. I am not collecting data as to how often our reference materials are used to determine a year from now what reference materials I should weed and whether I can afford virtual references.

Read On

Thing 6 - Online Image Generator

I am having fun with these new tools! Lots of ideas for using this one such as teaching presentations using Powerpoints and announcements on Tiger TV through the local cable channel that is shown in school and throughout the community on the cable TV channels.

Thing 5 - More Flickr Fun

I think these creative tools would be awesome to use in schools and in the media center. Some great ideas for using the Mashup tools might include using them to promote the MHS reading incentive program, posters promoting Read Across America or I love to Read Month, and promoting new library books. These tools could also be used to promote other events or activities school wide.

PR 54 Fan Rock on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

PR 54 Fan Rock on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

PR 104 Chuck wagon on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

PR 104 Chuck wagon on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

PR 112 team penning on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

PR 112 team penning on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Thing 4 - Flickr

I haven't really thought about how Flickr might be used or helpful in the media center since I would first need to gain access to Flickr in our school district. At this time it is blocked by the filter. I see opportunities for it in our school, such as helping the Ag teachers to post all of their wonderful photos of the Ag activities each year. At this time the Ag teacher has all of the photos on his computer which he mentions causes it to run slow. I also see wonderful opportunities using the photos posted on Flickr from the Library of Congress for learning or to illustrate moments in our history.



I've actually used Flickr to experience photos of a friend and her husband as they traveled around the world. It was fun to see photos she posted of when we met in the Cities for a day last fall.


I am not sure yet as to how I feel about making photos public. I understand pros and cons to this. I wonder if we (speaking as a part of the school district) need to be concerned about posting photos of students. I am sure that we'd need to request permission from parents. I suppose teachers who choose to use Flickr for sharing photos of school activities could post them at private and check the friends box where then in the contacts the teacher would include students as their friends. I'd be interested to read what other schools, teachers and media specialists are doing.

Thing 3 - RSS

RSS: What a great idea for all of my interests! I hope to learn and figure this out in time to get ready for spring gardening! What about learning about places my family and I would like to travel for vacation? Wow! I think this can be a wonderful tool. My son is thinking of learning about these 23 things as a 4H project.

I think RSS will be helpful to use at school for a variety of things such as PLCs (Professional Learning Communities), to stay current with Library Media Specialist topics and to help in keeping in touch with new literature for young adults and teens.

RSS is a great tool to share with teachers to help them in looking for ideas related to themes or curriculum support.

Thing 2 - Perspectives on Library 2.0

I've read through The Ongoing Web Revolution and watched Abram's video and have learned many interesting things about L2, but as suggested by Abram's I need to learn by doing. I just need to share computer time with my kids and their homework since I do not have access to do social networking at school.

I am excited to learn about these 23 things and both of my kids want to design a blog now:)

As I read about Library 2.0 a lot of things run through my mind. When I think about Sarah Houghton's definition of L2 I consider the context of the high school setting where I work. I wonder how other high schools allow students to access and use social networking sites when I know that they are blocked at our school. The philosophy is that students need to focus on school related things in school and social networking isn't considered a part of this realm. On the other hand I understand the reality of students and their need for socialization in school both face-to-face and online through tools such as Facebook, MySpace, or others.

I know that some classes require students to use a blog as part of their assignments and online classes are being introduced for next year's registration. How will blocking social websited impede the learning that is being asked of students? At this time, I work on my 23 things at home because I know that I do not have access to somethings at school.

As a part of the Technology Committee in our district, we have discussions to provide opportunities to move students forward to the needs and demands of what work places and careers are requiring. As suggested in Blyberg's 11 reasons why Library 2.0 exists and matters, perhaps the other library media specialist and I need to reconsider the library mission statement for our district to allow for L2 ideas and concepts.

Thing 1 - Set Up Your Own Blog

I'm excited to have this opportunity to learn about blogs and actually design one for myself. Finding the time to work on this is key though.