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.