Thing #12

At first it was a little daunting to put myself out there and comment on other people's blogs. However, I found that it was kinda of empowering to be able to contribute to the conversation. I read all of the blog etiquette and dos and don'ts of blogging. All of it was mainly common sense and very helpful. I want to be sure that what I write is open and contributes to the conversation in a positive manner.

Thing #23 Overview

I learned so many new things during this experience. There were many "favorites." I really liked the Library Thing. I liked the Google reader and being able to compile my lists of blogs to follow. So many of these tools will be useful for sharing resources with other professionals.
This experience was eye-opening because it makes me realize how much there is to learn and to continue learning. I had no idea the myriad of things that were out there on Web 2.0. It will keep me searching for new things. I would be open to doing this again because I learned so much. I discovered things that I will use in my personal life as well as my professional life.
One word or sentence would be mind boggling and enlightening.

Thing #22

I explored the Teacher Librarian Ning and the School Librarians Ning. On the Teacher Librarian Ning there were groups for all areas of school libraries. This is another great place to share resources, pick brains, find solutions and brainstorm ideas. I like the idea of having a controlled social networking site. It could be used among faculty to share ideas or even with a specific classes or groups to share ideas and keep in touch indefinitely.

Thing #21 Photostory

I created a very short photostory on the Alex awards from the YALSA website. I have used Photostory before. It is very simple. I have only used music and not voice but I think adding voice would be beneficial and easy as well.

Thing #20 YouTube and Teacher Tube

For YouTube I searched 'school librarians' and found the interview with Danah Boyd at ALA conference. She is addressing the issue of the importance of school librarians utilizing social networking and providing a framework for its use in the school system since it is so heavily used by students.
For Teacher Tube, I found a video introducing Web 2.0. It is very basic but it was interesting and fast paced.
I had some difficulty posting it and just added it to my links column.

Thing #19 Web 2.0

Frappr maps let me search for 'ice cream' in Portland, Oregon and churches in Stillwater, OK. I had better luck with the ice-cream than the churches. Peer trainer will inspire me while I work out and try to lose weight. LAST will recommend music and Hairmixr shows me different hair styles. I'm sure the Apps will keep growing and soon we won't even have to leave our houses!
Professionally, educational apps included learning another language at LiveMocha and utilizing various map applications for projects. More search engines were available as well as tools for blogging. Lots of good things to use to get the more traditional out of their comfort zone.

Thing #18 Open Office

I can't believe I've been buying these products when they are available free online. I played around with several of the office products. They look remarkably similar to the "real" products and it was easy to begin using immediately. It took a few minutes to think through the saving process and exactly which format I should use. I was also impressed with the input that users have so it can have enhanced features not available with Office. It was interesting to read how they guard the integrity of the product while allowing user input.

Thing #17 Rollyo

Rollyo was very easy to use. I created search sites for planets. I browsed and simply copy and pasted which sites I wanted to include in my Rollyo search. The process was quick. It was very convenient to enter in the search critera and have the information from the desired sites only be displayed.I can see using this tool for classroom and library purposes.

Think #16 Wiki's

Another great tool! I had no idea how manageable these were. The videos made them seem very doable. I am getting a little confused though on why I'm not seeing more of these in our school district. After seeing all of these things, it's almost like we are underutilizing technology. That's another topic for another day and I know that TIME is the biggest enemy of some of these things. The sample wiki's were impressive and offered great ideas on implementation in the classroom and the library as well as for any group project.

Thing #15 Library 2.0

"Away from the Icebergs" introduced just the tip of the iceberg for libraries to become nearer to a Library 2.0 model. Print materials collections should get smaller because that reflects the circulation as online resources get bigger. Users must be educated in how best to use the resources and they need to get 'friendlier.' Online library resources need to be readily available and easily accessible from anywhere. All of this leads to "Into a world of new librarianship." Librarians have to be technosavy and must be up on new trends and techology. They must be able to evaluate resources and make decisions based on user preference. Many of the tools we've examined through 23 things would be useful to a librarian to help stay current. Especially conversations with other librarians. It's not the same library or the same clientale. It is no longer a slow-moving and stagnant area and librarians and libraries will have to change to stay relevant and useful.

Thing #14 Technorati and tags

First, I loved adding my tags to things I found. For my personal bookmarking, this helped me categorize things in ways that were relevant to me. I can see the controversy over publisher putting tags on things but again, they serve a purpose as well.
Using a social site such as Technorati helps find relevant blogs in an organized way. Looking at the popular blogs and websites was interesting because it was lots of current news and hot topics. I think this would be kind of a neat way to stay updated on trends and issues. One tool to use to stay updated anyway because it is what is important to serious bloggers.

Thing #13 Social bookmarking

Delicious bookmarking can serve many purposes in the classroom and the library.
Simply just having bookmarks that are available on-line instead of confined to one computer is a must have. Once signed up, this is a great place to be able to categorize useful websites, whether for lesson plans, graphics, or exploration. Since the bookmarks are public, students could have access to it as well. I can see how this would be useful if doing a project and resources were shared. You could set up an account specific to the resource and have everyone share their websites they found. Maybe a school could set one up for important links for the faculty. Again, there seems to be many possibilities for a site such as this!

Thing #11

I love to read and often struggle to figure out what to read next. The Library Thing is a great solution to this. I entered in a few books and then looked at people with similar libraries. I saw tons of books that looked interesting. I loved all of the discussions that were going on about books as well. A couple of the groups looked particularly interesting. One was the 50 most banned books and the other was 1001 books to read before you die. I also saw a group for librarians to discuss books as well as other issues. This is another great resource.

Thing #10

I discovered Glogster where you could make your own poster. Some of the previously created ones were phenomenal. I included one I found on Artemis Fowl by Janice. I downsized it and then included the link. It really is impressive because it includes information about the books, music and video clips. The posters can be very simple or very elaborate. I thought this would be a great way to share a book talk or to have students respond to a book. This would be a great product for any project.

Image chef was simpler and I played with it for just a few minutes. Again, I found all kinds of things that would make learning fun and creative.

Thing #9

Wow!! I am completely overwhelmed by how much information and blogs are out there. I found many good ones. I appreciated the article by Cool Cat because it helped point out the necessity to keep the priorities straight by finding excellent bloggers and focusing on those. Of course it does make it much more convenient when you can add them to your reader and have it all handy. The Edublogs website was helpful because it was education specific. Topix was interesting because it immediately brought up local information and current topics in the news. Google Blogger was very broad and took some searching to find what I wanted. I did find one blog I added, The Shifted Librarian. I also found very many interesting ones as well. I'll have to keep on reading and exploring.

Thing #8

I was not at all familiar with RSS feeds or readers. I thought this was great, especially as I am growing more familiar with blogging. Google reader conveniently displays all desired blogs and news feeds, even differentiating between new and previously read items. Using this tool would be a time saver since everything is in one place.

A publicly shared page, unique to a district's administrators, faculty, parents, or librarians, would be valuable to share relevant information.

Thing #7

Google has some extremely interesting applications. I explored several of them. Most of the applications were fairly easy to use. Many of them interfaced with other Google applications. I explored the Picasa pictures and created a photo album.
I also looked around at Google docs. Picasa pictures could be used much like Flickr in the classroom. Google docs will allow you to take any document and post it on the web making it more easily accessible.

Thing #6

Mashups were very interesting. I spent way too much time looking around at all of the different applications. I really liked the retrievr where you drew an image in a certain color and it matched photos. I'm not sure how I could use it in my classroom or librarian but it was great fun to see what images would come up!

The Trading Card application would be good to use for promoting books. An application like Mappr would be beneficial in tracking places that have been read about or explored in the classroom or library. The Motivator could be used as a response to reading.

I did try to use Motivator but I think my old and slow desktop could not handle it. I will try again on another one.

I did notice that Big Huge Labs had a link for free educator things. I will definitely look into that too. It looked like you could let your students use products without them having to have a separate sign-in. Another project for another day.

Thing #5

I thought these photos would be useful in teaching my second grade class about the food chain. I love the photo of the flower with the grasshopper.

The possibilities with Flickr are endless. It was easy to get lost in the search and follow related tags.

Thing #3

Putting the blog together was easier than I anticipated. Of course, this is only the basics. Now I need to spend some time making it "my" blog so it reflects my ideas and personality. I am looking forward to getting familiar with blogs and more comfortable with the process of adding new posts and other things.

Making the avatar was fun but I think they need more options like the WII has!

Thing #2

I have always considered myself a life long learner and look forward to new challenges and opportunities. The easiest thing was to have a good toolbox. I believe I have lots of resources, tools and people, available to help me in the learning process. The hardest is to see every problem has a challenge and not just an issue that has to be dealt with. I'm looking forward to expanding my thinking in this area.