Week 9, Thing #23 - Thoughts on School Library Learning 2.0

Creative Commons, refining copyright laws to allow for the sharing of intellectual property seems like a timely, sensible concept. I hadn't heard of Creative Commons before starting Thing #23.

I particularly enjoyed the creative exercises in School Library Learning 2.0: adding an avatar to my blog, creating magazine covers and trading cards using Flickr mashups, contributing to the Learning 2.0 Sandbox wiki and getting wiki updates in my Gmail account, and using a widget on LibraryThing to add some covers of my favorite books to my blog. I can see how simple tools like these could be easily incorporated into the curriculum. I have shared the links with some classroom teachers and hope to do some collaborative lessons using these tools. I am using one idea I found in this course for National Library Week: a “Get Caught Reading” poster contest for the staff and students of my school.

I think I have strengthened my technology skills and become more confident in several of my lifelong learning habits through the completion of this course. I have practiced viewing problems as challenges and have begun to use Web 2.0 technology tools to my advantage.

I was surprised by how many of the Web 2.0 tools that I became excited about and have shared with friends and colleagues. Many of the tools can be easily used in the school library, and I think that they would be motivational for students. I look forward to learning even more about these tools as I use them more.

I noticed in the Online Learning Program for CSLA Members and Friends that participants were reminded that the course was about “self-discovery and self-learning,” but that they could email the School Library Learning 2.0 Team for help if necessary. It would have been helpful to have had an email contact for help and questions.

I spent quite a bit of time exploring each “thing” so I appreciated being given extra time to complete all 23 Things.

I would definitely consider taking part in another program like this in the future. I liked being able to learn at my own pace, at my own convenience, and to be able to see the work and comments of colleagues taking the course.

School Library Learning 2.0 was an invigorating and empowering experience in which I learned how to use new, exciting Web 2.0 learning tools. This course was very beneficial to me, and I would definitely recommend it to other school librarians. Thank you to CSLA, MSLA, Kathy D. and my coach Chris S. for making this possible.

Week 9, Thing #22 - eBooks and Audio eBooks

There seem to be many options for eBooks. I downloaded a copy of the e-text of Dicken's Christmas Carol for a special needs teacher in my school from the Project Gutenberg and LibriVox.com websites. It was simple to do, and I could save the text in MSWord, giving me the helpful option of changing the font size. Mp3 files of the book were also easy to access and use.

On my public library network's website (sailsinc.org) there is a link for children's TumbleBooks - featuring animated, full-color talking picture books with nice sound effects and music which can be viewed online; audio books; and puzzles and games. My local public library has been publicizing TumbleBooks, and their popularity is rapidly increasing. I think TumbleBooks are a high quality product worth checking out. The SAILS Library Network also provides free access to many popular, quality eAudio Books for its patrons, with the number of available titles steadily increasing.

I have seen Kindle being promoted and have read some about it. One thing that I read that stuck in my mind is that the Kindle is an Amazon propriety product so that one can only purchase books for the Kindle from Amazon. This does not lend the Kindle eBooks to much price competition. I have used a similar reader--Rocket Reader to download and read books on a handheld device. For me, the main drawback was the lack of access to free titles. The eBook reader did have some nice features--the ability to: change text size, store several full length adult books on a device the size of a large paperback, good searching text capabilities, and a built-in dictionary that could be easily used to look up any word in the text. The Rocket Reader could be used in a dark room, which might come in handy at night with someone sleeping beside you! There is still something about a traditional paperback that I still prefer. It will be interesting to follow the popularity of these Kindles!

Week 9, Thing #21 - Podcasts

I used http://www.podcast.net/ to find a podcast on children;s books and subscribed to the "Children's Book Radio, a podcast and direcoty dedicated to sharing children's books." The RSS feed can be found at: childrensbookradio.com

I found some award winning educational podcasts in the categories of professional development, instructional podcast, documentary and sound seeing tour on the site KidCast Podcasting in the Classroom: http://www.intelligenic.com/blog/?page_id=82.
There was a documentary on the holocaust, a professional development activity on using Google Earth to have students evaluate the impact of historical photographs, an instructional podcast on how to calculate sales tax, and a podcast produced by elementary school students featuring their use of descriptive words in a tour of their school.

I am interested in further pursuing the use of podcasts. A good place to start seems to be the online "Beginner’s Guide to podcasts and podcasting (plus: how to create a basic podcast of your own)":
http://forevergeek.com/geek_resources/beginners_guide_to_podcasts_and_podcasting_plus_how_to_create_a_basic_podcast_of_your_own.php I might also see if I can track down the book KidCast: Podcasting in the Classroom by Dan Schmit.

I would like to use podcasts to feature students reading poems which they have chosen as meaningful to them and then have them explain the relevance of the poem.

Week 9, Thing #20 - Discover YouTube and Sites to Upload and Share Videos

I explored YouTube for quite a while and found quite a variety videos related to libraries. Some videos were created to give tours of libraries, some were instructional, some were tributes to libraries and librarians, some were historical looks at libraries, some looked at what libraries of the future would be, some featured book cart drills set to various musical selections, and one featured a joke with a dumb blond looking to buy a burger in the library.

I tried to find a video related to libraries that I could use with my students and decided that the searching was an exercise in frustration. There are good videos on YouTube, but I did not find anything that would be useful to use in my library classes. I think YouTube could be useful as an educational tool for publishing. I could see posting instructional videos or as a place to publish student productions.

Here is a YouTube video "The Hollywood Librarian Trailer" that highlights the important roles of librarians:

Week 8, Thing #19 - LibraryThing and Favorite Books

LibraryThing is very user friendly. A great preset widget tool that allows you to show random book covers with ease. I added book covers of some of my favorite middle school titles to my blog. I like having the ability to create my own online catalog. LibraryThing book covers, recommendations, ratings, member tags, and member reviews are useful to have on an OPAC. Definitely a site that I would recommend to others.

I did find that I had to go in and delete cookies on my computer for the book covers to get updated in the widget after I made a change.

Week 8, Thing #18 - Online Productivity Tools

I have created a Zoho account and am using it to post to my blog. The account was very easy to set up and seems very user friendly. Zoho offers some nice templates (50 available): resume, resume cover letter, speech outline, student progress report,... Well, I'll try posting this document to my blog.

Posting from Zoho to my blog worked quite smoothly.

Zoho has many other online productivity tools: spreadsheets, database, online presentation tools, wiki, web conferencing, organizer, note taking, ...

I do like the ability to collaborate online in real time with both google docs and zoho writer. I have used google docs to work collaboratively in real time and it has been a godsend!

Three cheers for free online productivity tools!

Week 7, Thing #17 - Add an Entry to "Sandbox" Wiki

I found the "Sandbox" wiki without any trouble and added an entry.
"California 2.0 Curriculum Connections
The beauty of a wiki is the collaboration towards a common goal" -
http://calcurriculum.pbwiki.com/Wikis

My entry:
Idea #54: Wikis provide the perfect opportunity for students to participate in book discussions in cyberspace at their convenience . I love the idea of empowering students to "rant and rave" appropriately about books. Not original, but this would be the most effective use of wikis in my school library.