23MHSthingsonastickandmobile: February 2008

Friday, February 29, 2008

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.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

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.