Week 9 #20

The Rainforest Grew All Around-Trailer

I can use this as a hook when I share materials to tie in with a second grade unit on rain forests.

This was another lesson that took longer than it needed too because I got caught up in watching videos and then in searching for themed videos. Not only did I find the Rainforest video, but I also found a great short video on penguins which my first grade teachers could use during their January penguin unit. Every year they ask me for something and I could never find anything at that level on United Streaming, etc. Lately, they've resorted to using March of the Penguins, but this would be even better as a hook, since it gives a quick overview of habitat, predators, and different species.

I found YouTube easy to use, though I don't like all the hype. The star rating system and ability to comment on the videos, as well as the options to save, load, post, etc. made it very interactive. I found that I looked at the picture on the left first, then at the running time, stars if any, and tags.

Ideas that I could or already do use on my web site: pictures of covers of books I'm reviewing, what's new column (LibraryThing widget), just a few, clearly labeled tabs. The featured video with an option to vote is intriguing. Maybe a featured book each month and as students read it they could comment...

Week 8 #19

#19 I had already discovered LibraryThing in week 5 when we were playing. I decided then to make a library of everything that I was reading this summer, both fiction from my school library and my personal reading.

I chose to use the widget which puts only the most recent books I'd been reading on my blog. Except for Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows and The Lightning Thief I found no discussions about the books I'd added, although there were a few people who also had each book on their list.

It's amazing how much is on this site. I have found myself skimming the discussion threads and getting caught up in a discussion that I wasn't planning to join. It's also fun to check out the tag clouds, authors, etc. (In David Warlick's latest 2 cents Worth blog and comments I read about some interesting ways to use tag clouds with students, e.g. in President's speeches to note the relative importance of themes.)

I'd like to use a LibraryThing widget on my school library page as a way of highlighting new books. I think it would be an enticement to students, especially if I use the format with the large book covers. It might even get them to look at the site for something other than research (always assuming that they actually do that now)!

Week 8 #18

#18 I've played with Google docs online but had never tried Zoho Writer. I had fun checking out the different templates and even added some to my account. I was interested and occasionally amused to see the great variety available. I noticed that there aren't so many fonts available as there are in Word, though there's a respectable variety, mostly web-compatible. There are also fewer special characters, but I like the way a character is shown to the right, enlarged and named when you hover over it. And I noticed that there is only one bullet option. The icons are easy to understand and mostly familiar. Cute emoticons, too, though they didn't publish when I transferred this doc to my blog. I like the fact that you can add Technorati tags and transfer them to your doc.

So while it doesn't offer the number of choices that Word does, it's online, it's free, and it's easy to use. Also, you can store your docs online, so you don't have to use hard drive space and you can access them from any computer with internet capability. I also like the fact that you can export docs in so many formats and and add pix and links so easily. In going through the FAQs I noticed that if you're planning to share docs with someone whom you want to have add to or edit them they must also have a Zoho Writer account. (This is true with all the Zoho apps.)

I did notice that Google docs offers similar choices but has a different look with tabs for editing, inserting, and revising options. They seem to have more special characters and an option for adding comments within the text (in color), but fewer font and size choices.

When I looked at spreadsheets I noticed that, aside from layout, Zoho and Google were very similar. Google offers folders to organize while Zoho uses tags. Google also has a selection of charts, while Zoho has only a column chart option.

Zoho has many other choices-wikis, show (a PowerPoint type of app), a planner, a database creator, a meeting planner/notifier. It's definitely more versatile than Google.

Week 7 #16, #17

#16 I really enjoyed playing around with wikis. In fact, I created a wiki for ideas and plans for a family reunion which our family talked about in April when we were all together.

Pros are that it allows one place for many people to work together and share ideas rather than laboriously sending emails back and forth among a group. It's non-threatening for those who aren't real confident using the internet (if you can use Word you can use a wiki); information can be easily added and changed by anyone (if private, by anyone with the password).

Cons are that anyone (if private, by anyone with the password) can add or change something. In an educational context this can be problematic if you're using it as a reference, because you don't know how authoritative writers/editors are. Also, wikis may have a definite agenda which students may or may not realize. Finally, they can be somewhat disorganized.

I can see librarians and teachers in my district using wikis for developing/emending policies, planning special events involving many people with different tasks (I really like the idea of a wiki for our upcoming CSLA conference), as a planning space for meetings, and to generate subject guides for library users.

I can see students in my school using wikis for group projects.

#17 I had fun adding idea #14 to the images and pictures section of the California Curriculum Connections wiki. It did take a couple of tries to get my link right. Yesterday I read through the ideas that people have submitted and I'm truly impressed with what a wonderful resource this is. I've tagged it and I'm sure I'll return to it for inspiration many times.

Week 6 #13, #14, #15

Hi,

# 13 I enjoyed learning about folksonomies and playing around on the del.icio.us site. The tutorial was very helpful. I opened an account and transferred all the bookmarks from this computer over. Creating tags was an interesting exercise, as was doing some bundling. I found it an excellent way to mark and organize bookmarks, especially helpful when I'm working at home and the bookmarks I want are on my computer at school. And I can see how students could use it to tag sites for a research project. In a library, I could see tagging resources used by specific classes for projects and/or research or quickly tagging a favorites list.

#14 I had played with Technorati earlier, created an account, and claimed my blog. This time I did the suggested search for School Library Learning 2.0 and found 364 blog posts, 1, 157 tags, and 12 blogs using the blog directory. Clearly, tags are the way to insure hits on your blog! Looking at the home page, it's the cloud of tags that catches your eye. There seem to be many blogs about performers and personalities, though in exploring the popular blog searches, Kos's political blog and the official Google blog are right up there.
Tagging is quick and easy to learn and do and you can even see how others have tagged a site, but there is no uniformity. I noticed even as I was tagging I had to check to see whether I had used the singular form of a word (blog) or the plural (blogs). I can also see how as I bookmark and tag more and more it would take longer to scroll through my tags to find just what I'm looking for.On the other hand, outdated or hard to remember subject headings are no problem. It's comparable to keyword searches on an OPAC, which our students far prefer to subject searches. I found an interesting blog on the use of tags, The Hive Mind, by Ellyssa Kroski, in which she discusses the relative merits of taxonomies and folksonomies. http://infotangle.blogsome.com/2005/12/07/the-hive-mind-folksonomies-and-user-based-tagging/

#15 Reading the recommended articles was interesting, but they seemed to reiterate things I've been hearing and reading for years. Find new ways to bring services to our patrons, make our holdings as accessible as possible, keep up with new trends, but make sure we meet users' needs. What was new was the discussion of technology as not just a means to access information, but a means of collaborating to create and disseminate it, too. I liked Michael Stephen's comment that "Perpetual beta works well for a library's Web presence." I also enjoyed Dr. Wendy Schultz's comparison, using the economic "chain of meaning". If we can offer a special experience, be a "knowledge spa", then we will survive and prosper.

So, what does Library 2.0 mean to me and to school libraries? More and more, I see that it means learning as part of a larger community, not just in a vacuum. It means building upon and adapting others' ideas, not just being exposed to them. It means being interactive, not passive. It means trying new technologies and determining how we can use them to make learning come alive-for ourselves, our staffs, and our students. Now if only we had endless time to play...

Week 5 #10, #11, #12

Hi.

#10 This was another fun time that flew by as I explored online generators. The image you see here was created using imagechef.com. (Our school mascot is Scorpions; our colors are blue, white, and yellow.)

I also explored FD's Flickr Toys (which I had played with before), Comic Strip generator, Cooltext.com, creatingonline.com, Redkid.net, and bannerbreak.com.

#11 Web 2.o award winning site
There were so many sites to explore! It was interesting to see how many we had already explored (e.g. Flickr) or will be exploring. After having fun with Yelp (my daughter had once mentioned checking out some restaurants in Oakland with Yelp) and ColorBlender, I spent some time with Library Thing, a site which lets you catalog your personal library online. I chose to use it to catalog the books I've been reading this summer-a blend of reading for my pleasure and catching up on novels to recommend to my students next year. It makes for an odd list, to say the least! There don't seem to be too many matches with other people's lists yet.
Students might use it to track their reading during a semester or over the summer. They could write reviews of their books. They could also join a private group to share ideas about books. This could even be another option for book reports.
I used Ning to join the School Libraries group on the Library 2.0 network. I was the eleventh member to join and I immediately responded to a question that had been posted about school library websites. I have also been in touch with several other members of the group in the last couple of days. Fun and informative!

#12 I explored Rollyo and set up an account a few days ago. I created a searchroll for a Laura Ingalls Wilder unit which one of our third grade teachers does. However, I'm not thrilled with the idea of having students use this site. I set up my searchroll three different times, but each time I tested it, a link to the entire web was added. Students would be led to sites not previously vetted, negating the usefulness of Rollyo. I also didn't care for all the advertizing and the sites highlighted on the home page. The link to my searchroll is www.rollyo.com/explore. Type in Laura Ingalls Wilder and click on the searchroll created by sherryelm. While I don't think I would use it with my elementary school students I could see teachers using it to find good websites and blogs for students to use in researching various projects.

#8 & #9 RSS Feeds

Hi,

# 8 I've spent parts of the last several days exploring RSS feeds. I began by reading several of the suggested articles (though I couldn't get one of them to work) and then set up a Google Reader account. After trying several feeds I discovered very quickly that I really didn't want some of them, so quickly unsubscribed. I found Reader to be very easy to use, with the keyboard shortcuts easily visible on your left. I especially like the ease with which you can mark a group of articles from one feed as read or, if necessary, pull them up again to reread something you misssed. I also liked the star feature, where you can add a star to something you want to save. After a couple of days of using Google Reader I then tried Bloglines. It didn't seem so easy to use, but maybe that was because I'd already gotten used to Reader. I did like the way you can see at a glance how many subscribers there are for a feed and how you can click on a title and start reading the whole article/blog, rather than finding the little arrows in the gray circle on the far right and clicking on them. I didn't like the way you have to have look at all the aticles in all your feeds or you'll lose them if you click on "read all". Or the way I had to do a search when I'd accidentally marked articles as read that I hadn't had a chance to look at first. I also didn't like having the keyboard shortcuts listed at the end of the feed, or the extra steps to save an item in clippings.

I can see how using feeds would help me to keep up on breaking news, as well as what's new in the field. But I can also see that it eats up time without my even realizing it. I will need to be very selective about the feeds I use and/or very conscious about how much time I spend on them. I seem to remember Alice Yucht mentioning a timer??

At this point, I can see trying out some of the ideas mentioned in blogs in our elementary school library, but will enjoy reading others' comments as to how I might use this technology in other ways.

I believe the last point was to share my public URL. It is:
http://www.bloglines.com./myblogs/public/Sherry

#9 I would have to say that for me the easiest way to find feeds was looking on some favorite sites for the RSS icons and then clicking. It was easy to do and I already knew that I liked those writers. SLJ has some great ones.
I tried all the different feed searches suggested.
Google Blog search-easy
Feedster-slow
Syndic8.com-confusing
Blog Pulse-not much use right now and a time waster for me
Technorati-interesting (I'd seen the symbol and heard a lot about it so it was fun to play with it.)

Some of my library favorites include:
LISZEN, a library and information services blog search engine where I found Christopher Harris's blog
Alice in Infoland, Alice Yucht's blog
Neverending Search, one of Joyce Valenza's blogs
Hey Jude, Judy O'Connell's blog
Unshelved, especially last week's takeoffs on the the PC vs. MAC commercials

There were some interesting ideas, such as using XTimeline in the library/classroom (Joyce valenza), and checking out the Video toolbox (Judy O'Connell). Alice Yucht's blog about cleaning out home clutter really hit home, too.
The discussions on the OPAC transparency and possible challenges by non-community members and the usefulness of OPACs as they are now were thought-provoking.