Week 7 #16

I am so excited! I love the idea of creating a wiki. It is funny, I never put two and two together and related wiki's we'd learn about to Wikipedia. I explored all the various wiki's that my computer supported and saw some great opportunities for sudents and staff. I like the fact that wiki's can be set up with passwords so that who has access for adding to the wiki can be controlled. I think this is very important in a school setting as districts are concerned with liability. We currently use Schoolnotes and many teachers post links and homework assignments so that students and parents can stay current. Students work on individual assignments and then post their work in a folder hosted on our internal system. I see an opportunity for teachers to post work in a wiki format and use this technology to further engage students in both individual and group work. Class assignments and group work can take on a new life if I can convince teachers to give this a try. I think that the literature circles our 8th graders are working on could really take off on another level.
As a library, I saw the wiki's that were posted for various libraries and thought I can do this. We have a Long-Range Plan that could be posted, I use volunteers and posting their job responsibilities might bring in more volunteers. I like how easy it appears to link to various pages or internet resources. I think I could definitely beef up my summer reading pages and I loved the way books were presented on many of the wiki's I viewed. I enjoyed one librarian who sounded very enthusiastic about her reading and her presentation made me want to run out and read the books she posted. I can see my summer reading program taking off on a whole new level and it is exactly what I was looking for in terms of sharing books, comments and basically talking books.
Each of the wiki's had their own style. I did notice that some of the wiki's look a lot like Wikipedia. My favorites were not those but the ones with more of an individual style and formatting. The ones that offered other links to related topics, fancy lettering and personal voice really appealed to my style. Each had easy navagational tools which also appeals to users.
I can't wait to show this to some of my staff. I liked one of the historical wiki's that called for student participation and input. I can see teachers setting up reviews, something they struggle with in terms of engaging students. I can also see our Revolutionary Picture Book going online. Oh, the endless possiblities, I can't wait to get back to school tomorrow and begin sharing what I've learned. I'm just not sure how to get one started......yet.

Week 6 #15

I enjoyed reading the articles on Library Web 2.0. I find that there are other people who like me are hesitant about the whole big picture that is Library Web 2.0. I think part of the thought process around this is the openess of participation among all users. It is scary to open our libraries to the constant input and feedback that is possible when part of the web 2.0 network. On the other hand, haven't we all asked for input from our library patrons? I know I have and at times it is useful feedback and other times it is not very useful depending on how serious the respondent was to the data. I believe that as librarians we do need to embrace the new technologies and figure out how to communicate and remain in the conscious thought of our patrons or we will become obsolete. I am reminded of this whenever I ask students to work and research on topics important to the curriculum. While I do still want them to consider using books and encyclopedias, this is not their perferred mode of operatus. I would love to still have the library thought of as a place in which information is available and that is supporting the new technologies. In other words, I would love to be the buzz in our school. Many of the articles focused on how we need to rethink our libraries and how patrons can access our information. Each article talks about building/participating in a community and that web 2.0 is the next step on our evolution process. In the article, "Away From the Icebergs" the point is made that patrons will expect to have access to everything and if we don't provide them with the opportunity to get everything they will think of us as obsolete. This affects schools as we deal with internet use policies and teacher/student expectations. I would love to have students participate in blogs, but am limited on what the blogging sites will allow for age appropriateness. I'm sure I may learn of other ways to have students participate online without having to be limited to blogs. I'm sure school districts also think of what the liability will be if students are placing themselves out to the whole world. Parents are also nervous about what their children are actually participating in while online. We need to reassure, provide great PR and build on the trust that each district strives to have with their parents.
In the article, "Into the world of librianship" the author makes the point, "This librarian understands that the future of libraries will be guided by how users access, consume and create content." I hope that I'm recognizing the need of my patrons and that through the use of tags, RSS feeds and Rollyo I'll be able to move my library forward and remain in the teachers/students thoughts as a place they can respect and use because I've set up a library to nurture their souls. I would love to be one of the libraries that is collected and placed on the hit list as a worthwhile place to check out.

Week 6 #14

Today, I explored Technorati and am amazed at the number of bloggers and blogs that are in existence. I think that blogging is so common because we all need a place to voice our opinions, thoughts and general information. But, as I learned on Technorati, blogging is so much more than opinion, readers can tag blogs they are interested in and that provide information on products or good insight into politics, current events and technology. I reviewed the blog posts and tags and really didn't see much difference in these two except, the tags, had less in their excerpts. The blog directory was a horse of a different color, I thought of it as more of a tutorial in what blogging is all about. The list of available blogs on the popular page is astounding. At first, I was confused at what made a blog authoritative but learned that it is the number of times it is linked, the more your linked the more authoritative the blog becomes. I'm not sure that this is a librarian's qualitative measurement however I am learning that there are many ways of establishing creditability and linking is the equivalent of a good or favorable review. The results that popped up on my various searches were relevant to my search request. Sometimes I was surprised at the differant number of tags one might place on a blog. Even though some only had two tags they still showed up in the search. I believe the tags chosen are important in order for a blogger to be found and for them to gather links.
Popular blogs are not necessarily the most popular topics that are in the entertainment world or what we typically see when we watch the news, read the paper or magazines. I was pleasantly surprised by reading more on fanfiction, seeing popular news headlines and learning about what people are finding interesting that otherwise wouldn't make the local, or world news. I was also impressed with the number of bloggers from around the world. It makes the world seem smaller and more connected. I admit that I couldn't read all blogs as I don't speak or write except in English. One of my servers at Dunkin Donuts told me to listen to music in another language to improve and learn a foreign language. I asked how I would identify what they were singing about and he told me to get a dictionary. I found this to be quite humorous, if not horrifying that I truly only do speak one language and he spoke six.
I believe tagging is as important as subject headings. The more we open up ourselves to be tagged and linked the more opporunities we have to share with the larger world. I also believe that tagging allows us to see and join in on discussions we may not have thought of on our own. We might have missed the bigger picture had we not generated a discussion and been linked to other ideas and thoughts related to our topic. That being said, I still find myself hesitant about opening myself up to being tagged. What if I offend someone, or what if noone ever links to me? I should be more positive but I'm hesitant.Why? I watch too many crime shows and imagine all kinds of things happening because I put information about myself out to the world. I wonder how safe I am and yet I can't imaging not being safe. I chose not to tag my blog at this time, but I haven't given up entirely. I think tagging will be important to keep up with ideas that are being generated now and learning how to keep up with the global community at large. There are certainly many sites that offer tagging and we've explored at the very least three companies that specialize in tagging. I don't have a favorite although I suppose I do as I like the formatting of Technorati better than the formatting of del.icio.us. Flickr reminds me more of a promotional tag by providing us with the opportunity to create picture books, posters and communicate using photographs. I wasn't aware of any of these before I began this class and exploring all the possiblities. I will think long and hard about tagging my blog. What I need to do is think about where I want to be in five to ten years and what the possibilities are for a school library.

Week 6 #13

I am attempting to set up an account in del.icio.us and have run into problems with the e-mail account as it logged in only under my husband's name and did not provide me with a way to log in as myself. The computer only recognizes my husband and now Verizon no longer supports Windows98 which is my computer's operating system. Did I say I was slightly behind the time? I of course was not showing any sense of humor when I woke my husband up to find out what he had done to get the computer to only recognize him. He was not a happy camper.

Del.icio.us is a great way to add links and RSS feeds to one account. I believe that while I'd use Rollyo to engage students in evaluating and collecting quality websites, I would encourage staff to explore del.icio.us and take advantage of the linking system, comments from other users and the RSS feeds to gather their own collection of quality websites.

The other parts of del.icio.us I found to be interesting is the bar on the right that provides many links to other related topics. Within each of these links are many other detailed links to help support research that a user is trying to complete. As with the last three lessons I find it takes time to work your way through all the advantages the website has to offer. Interesting you can add any of the links necessary for your research without having to add the whole folder. Each of the sites becomes your own personal connection. Students would also love to play with this, but the user policy of being 18 or older limits what I'd be able to do in the middle school.

I will continue my attempt to activiate my account with del.icio.us and update you when I have or don't have success. I am confident that I will succeed, I'm too tenacious not to and cranky enough to pull off the job.

Week 5 #12

I always thought that I was up-to-date on technology. One thing I have learned in this course is how far off I was on this theory. I am in a galaxy far, far away although I made a jump in light years in just accomplishing the last three activities. I didn't realize how often I don't use the internet. I tend to focus on the subscribed databases we have available as the students are so focused on using only the internet. I need to get out there and explore more and have the students help me. I finally enrolled on Rollyo, it took me a while to recognize that maybe I need to enroll in order for my searchroll to work. Like I said, "I'm light years behind."
I like Rollyo as I think this could easily engage students in learning about and sharing quality websites on topics they know as well as curriculum topics. I believe it might actually actively engage them in becoming more adept at becoming media literate. I want to plan some lessons around this and get teachers and students both involved on collecting quality websites. I think this could be a life lesson they will continue to grow with and enjoy at the sametime. Excitement abounds, students beware, you just might have fun.

Week 5 #11

Well, what an interesting day I had today. I started early and looked at a few of the sites available on the awards list. I ended up getting lost in the Library Thing. The multilayers available on this site is incredible. When I say lost, I don't mean not knowing what or where I was going, but just the amazing amount of information available was incredible. I also realize how lame my blog is when I read the blogs posted by Tim Spalding. I also found it interesting that he could partner up with a company. I'm sure that many high school teachers and a few middle school teachers would find this site interesting for their own personal reading lists. I enjoyed reading about the women featured this month as three of them are from New England. I also like that I can set up my own book lists and join in on book discussions with people from all over the world. I think one of these times I might try reviewing a book as this is something I've always been interested in trying out. The amount of people trying out to review a book is mind boggling and I'm not sure how someone is selected, but some day I might qualify. I did not join at this time. I feel like I'm signed up for so many things currently and trying to keep up with everything is not working out as well as I'd like. I am interested in keeping things going and spending time to perfect the art of everything I'm learning about. Am I the only one who is feeling overwhelmed with information? I do like what I'm learning and I certainly see opportunities popping up all over, now I just have to figure out how to put some of my ideas into action. Let me just say I really need to brush up on my Geography. Stay tuned for that blog...

Week 5 #10

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These two hearts are one of the designs I chose to create and use on my library website. I thought it might interest students in checking out suggested reading. I also created a comic strip to encourage students to consider an afterschool program that myself and another teacher are teaching. I seem to have an error message in trying to upload the comic. I enjoyed playing with the images, I will have to try this on my school computer as many of the comics would not open on my computer. I also had trouble with the Image Chef generator but eventually I was able to get the images to load. The memory on my computer must not be able to handle all of the images and this proved to be very frustrating to me as I saw some great images I wanted to use and was unable to open them in the editor section of the generator. I am still trying to get into FD Toys to check out this picture generator.

I really enjoyed creating an avatar and this lesson has to be my next favorite. I love creating images to help boost the website or even lessons. Students love comics and the images are great to use to encourage students in many endeavors. I also found loading the image on my blog was easy and the reinforcement of previous lessons is always appreciated.

Let me know if you also had trouble with the images loading or being able to edit them. I'm not sure if this is just my problem or not.

Week 4 Thing #9

Hi everyone. I must be a bad blogger because I'm terrible at thinking outloud and am boring to read. I haven't had any comments in quite some time so I think I'm going to have to improve my writitng technique. I don't think it will happen today, but one never knows...

I have tried each of the blog and RSS feeds we were directed to try. I fnd it interesting that Feedster disappeared after such a great start. It appears with all the blog options the feeds are just as apt to disappear as quickly as they are designed. Topix.net was an interesting RSS feed and I was able to work my way around the feeds once I figured out how to pull up the whole story. I was a little disturbed to read many of the feeds to the story about the five women shot in the Lane Bryant store. The negativity towards blacks and the feeds that compare statistically on the black vs white is still astonishing to me as I think we as a society are supposed to be working towards a colorless society. I worry when I read the blogs that continue to point this out as to whether or not as a nation we are truly color blind. What does this mean for our next Presidential election?

I decided to then explore the topic of sports for the remainder feeds as I am not able to deal with the black vs white issues. I should, I suppose have posted my own comments but left that for here. I don't want to believe that we are as backwards as some of the comments hinted at, but I do believe we have still a long ways to go in this country. So on to sports...

I was at first intimidated by the set up of Syndic8. The open directory set up was somewhat confusing at first. When I did enter my feed search for Patriots (is there any other sports to blog today?) I found that I could easily locate and read the entire article. I like how they posted the links to the actual article I also enjoyed the articles I read. The blogs accompanying the articles were interesting and not too negative. I did find that Technorati had some interesting and different blogs for the Patriots. What I had trouble with was getting any of the links to open up. I was unable to open any links, no matter what the subject matter, innocent or not on my computer. Did anyone else have this problem? I would not want to use this with students however because the temptation to view some soft porn would be too tempting and the girls might be insulted with the snack suggestion for larger breasts.

The Google Blog Search had some annoying pop ups that I couldn't figure out how to close them until the time was up and they closed on their own time. This would drive me crazy and with the two other RSS feeds that were easy to find and locate information on, Topix.net and Syndic8 I would be more likely to use these feeds. It is easy enough to post comments and to read the articles in their entirety.

Maybe because my search was easy I found that I didn't have trouble pulling up information on any of the feeds. I thought the most unusual feeds came from Technorati as they didn't direct me directly to information on the Superbowl or the Patriots but did give snack ideas and useless information.

I did like the tabs at the tops of all the pages, except for Syndic8. This was easy to choose which category I wanted to participate or read up on information. I did search politics, sports and general information (meaning I just clicked on stories listed on the page without putting in a search).

Well, this is it for now.... I will have to explore these RSS feeds more often and possbily figure out the best way to incorporate them into my life and then possiby into the students' lives. I am worried that with middle school students it may be a little tricky. Has anyone tried this yet?