Thing #17

It was a tedious, but interesting exercise to set up a Rollyo. I created one for primary sources. I found in teaching U.S. History last year, there were so many sites to search from when you are looking for a document or archive on a certain point in history. Also, when I was wanting my students to search and analyze primary sources on a certain part of history, it would take a while to find the sites that actually contained the sources. Using rollyo, I can search several of the sites at once. One hangup I found is when I actually put in something to search from history, one of the websites has so many hits, it doesn't list the others for pages away. But the Memory Collection from the Library of Congress is so important, it is worth going through all of the hits. Here is a link to my rollyo http://rollyo.com/branon5/primary_sources/

Thing #16

At the last school I attended there was a wiki set up for the staff. Each department within had their own page. I was the GT liaison for the building, so I had a page for my teachers. There were many pages I could click on and find information going on within that department, with links, discussions, and lists of important items. I think wiki is a very useful tool to organize information for an organization, giving members instant access to information and a platform for input. I have used it in my classroom for lit. circles and history discussion. I have also used it for my GT students to collaborate on projects. I will continue to use it in the library and hope to add the links to images and videos. I can see how using it to show the Bluebonnet books and offer input from students on books could be fun. I enjoyed reading the posts from others for 23 Things. I can see the transformation many of us have made with becoming aware of tech tools that aid us in our quest to offer educational opportunities to the next generation.

Thing #15

It was interesting to note the differing perspectives of the future of libraries and library 2.0. I wholeheartedly agree we as librarians cannot be on the caboose yelling to the engine constantly, "But don't forget the books!" This is a mantra going unnoticed in our tech-changing world. I have thought it should be a marriage between the two, the idea of sitting and reading a book with pages and binding, and the world of technospace. I loved the ideas of having book talks sent via voice mail on cell phones and uplinked to a user friendly interface. Or having a "library thing" set up for the school and its students to connect and converse about books read in common. I especially enjoyed the blog from the futurist, Dr, Wendy Schulz, on libraries and her web1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and then to 4.0 the libraries of tomorrow. Her quote, "... the old image of a country house library, and renovates it: from a retreat, a sanctuary, a pampered experience with information—subtle thoughts, fine words, exquisite brandy, smooth coffee, aromatic cigar, smell of leather, rustle of pages—to the dream economy’s library, the LIBRARY: a WiFREE space, a retreat from technohustle, with comfortable chairs, quiet, good light, coffee and single malt. You know, the library." I will add to that and call the library a haven for information and literacy, a stopping point for all of your research needs and aesthetic reading desires.

Thing #14

I was just complaining about the inability to navigate all of the blogs in the blogosphere. Today I found technorati. I put in my search for school librarian web 2.0 and have spent the last couple of hours going through all of the sites. Now I have an account with about 8 blogs to follow. The tags do help with the organization and quick find for subjects I am interested in. Once again, tagging is a great way to organize a search or keep like topics together. Students who also find themselves drowning in the blogosphere can use the tags to better organize their search and collaborative efforts over topics of interest.

Thing #13

I was not able to look at the video, but did access the other materials giving the instructions on Delicious. Setting up an account was fairly easy with the website. Creating the bookmarks in the site and seeing the connections to others opened a whole new door for me with researching. An example is putting in new librarian and I got several other bookmarks linking me to many other sites with tips and advice for librarians. I could see my students using this to research and finding connections from others quickly, streamlining the process. Last year, my students researched a President. This site would have made some of our fruitless efforts nil, as we could have immediate efficient sites at our fingertips with Delicious. Another site I found within this Thing was Diigolet.com. With this tool, I can highlight, create post-its(floating) with comments, and much more. I absolutely loved this. Last year in my Reading Workshop, I taught my students to not just ingest information, but to comment or make a comment(highest level of thinking is making a judgment) about that information. I could so use this for media literacy and non-fiction reading strategies with my students.

Thing #12

Reading this post has helped me to refine or shape my blogging experience. It feels like part of the growing experience. I can walk with blogging, but must avoid the slips and trips of walking. The first point I found interesting is from Cool Cat's blog. She says " I think that as an edublogger, I think commenting is one of the most meaningful tools that we have to show experts where they need to focus." I never thought about my comments actually helping to shape the areas of needed focus for those "talking brains" in our industry of education. Maybe this opens a whole forum for connecting those on the frontlines with teaching with those generals using strategy back in the main bunkhouse. How powerful is that! Doug Johnson said "But I have been thinking about Levin's statement in relationship to a unique characteristic of blogging - that it can be more dialog than sermon. Lately, I've been trying to hold up my end of the conversation by being more diligent about taking the time to comment and react to the ideas of other bloggers." I remember when I was taking my library science courses, I read Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk blog and made a comment about the connection between high stake testing and the library. He responded to me, even on the low hierarchial level that I felt I was on, and his comments back have cemented a very firm view I have of the correlation between student's success and the library. Commenting back to others could be the answer to affirming our views and growing from others.
I found a personal interest blog with Grandma's House. She had a blog on "The Seven Laws of Grandparenting." So many people think being a grandparent has to be the end of life when your life is on the downswing. I have to tell the secret, being a grandparent is the BEST SEASON IN LIFE. So I was able to blog with her concerning the joy of being a grandparent and the oh so fun life of playing with our grandchildren. They are the joy of my existence.
The second one of personal interest I found was http://authoramok.blogspot.com/ . I love to write and read poetry. This blog has some fun children't poetry as well as some great lines for adults. I will be following this blog more often just for the aesthetic part of life. I love reading original lines that are current and now.

Thing #11

My experience with The Library Thing:

1. Went to the website (Wow, another gift from Spring Branch library division!)
2. Started an account, added my books (with ease, I might say)
3. Startled, began clicking voraciously to find others reading some of my favorites
4. Found groups- a little confused on some groups that were stagnate, and some very unusual groups, such as Book Moochers
5. Found a group reading where librarians and others discuss Children's Literature ( A Collection Developer's Etouffe) and joined, of course
6. Began looking for a recommended next read
7. Thinking of how I could use this at school, library discussion or group discussion of books, perhaps book club forum
8. Tried to link widget, but became frustrated when it said there were illegal characters in the web address, finally gave up (will try problem solving later)
9. Logged off before midnight, knowing this could be a huge addiction! :)

Thing #10

Today I had fun with several image generators. Fun and addictive! I could spend hours doing this! I created a wordle for my role as a librarian. Being a newbie, I had to think of all of the roles and verbs to describe what it is I will do as a librarian. I could see the value of students really thinking about words, as powerful as they may be, to describe themselves or other item they are contemplating. I love Wordle! I also went to image chef. I know at the end of last year, my librarian created a Photostory to show photos taken throughout the year. She used image chef and I was very impressed with her signs. I created one for my daughter and sent it by email. I am surprised once again at what we can do with the technology tools that are FREE and available! This journey has really made the internet an eye opener. Here is the link to my Wordle

http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/955920/LIBRARIAN

Thing #9

I found the Superglu site easiest to use because I was looking specifically for blogs from school librarians or someone attached to the profession. The Topix site was much harder to navigate. I was looking for school librarian and got very wide topics, mostly updated news stories. It took a little more advance searching to come up with some specific blogs. I found the feed from Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk blog. I was very excited to find he has an RSS. I added it to my feed for the igoogle. An unusual blog was the http://www.boingboing.net/ site. Today was fashion day at "Boing Boing gadgets." Blogs for the day included a social networking shoe; a review of the bluetooth headset that Heidi Klum wears, and a touch-sensitive hoodie that lights up and plays tunes. The picture left if of the touch sensitive hoodie from Leah Buechley. She designed this hoodie at the MIT Media Lab using a LilyPad Arduino, power supply, LEDs, tiny speaker and iron conductive fabric. The creative energy of our future generations is very encouraging as an educator.

Thing # 8

I like to have the idea of having the information current and relevant. It is nice to be able to pick my reader cafeteria style per se. I have already linked it to my igoogle. Having the thoughts of professionals in my chosen field instantly keeps new knowledge fresh and up to date. It's like an instant learning community that is constantly evolving from the creative thoughts of others in the educational field. Connections are valuable sources in the world of networking librarians.

Blogger from Google!

I just realized I can use my blog from igoogle. How exciting! I feel I have just opened a webtool Christmas present in June!

Thing #7

Google offers so much! I had no idea it offered so many different avenues and experiences. I now have an igoogle page, complete with gmail, gdocs, daily news, youtube, random facts, calendar, calculator, interesting quotes, totally free stuff, and a monkey to play with. Who could ask for more on a homepage. I also added google alerts. I set it for the subject of "school libraries" and have received several really interesting news alerts concerning some interesting news about libraries. This is an ongoing investigation. I now want to spend some time finding more treasures. Students love gadgets. How fun to put it on your own homepage. Watching the world in real time with webcams gives students a view of the world many may never have. Sharing documents on googledoc, offers opportunities to collaborate and share learning with others. This is definitely a tool I will share with students.

Thing #6

I have been exploring the cool tools of mash ups and Flickr third party tools. It seems mind boggling that there are so many different sites with tools to format and publish photos. Is there that big of a demand out there? I found the bubblr site a very fun one to create comic strips with photos. This would be a great tool for students in the library to create comic strips from books they have read or from their own stories. After seeing the other librarian cards, I also created one from the site for Trading Card Maker. This would be a great tool to allow children to celebrate their individualization and their own interests. Another idea that might be fun is to create these for characters or authors.

Thing #5

Wow! What a resource Flickr is. Following the instructions, I began to explore this incredible tool for photo sharing. I do not take a lot of photos myself. My family, such as my daughter and husband, are usually the ones with the cameras in tow. However, now that I have had the chance to navigate this website and see the many uses that collaborative photo sharing can have in the education field, I plan on toting my camera little more. I was surprised to find the issue of copyright so deleanated on the site to ensure compliance. I joined several groups for school libraries while I was on the sight. There were some great resources for book display ideas and signage.
(Above photo link http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiousexpeditions/1304077492/)

Thing #4

I have registered my blog and am excited to share the new training with other fellow players.