Week 9, Thing# 23

My first post started with a "Wow! I can't believe I just created a blog," and now I'm ending with a Wow! I can't believe I just finished all 23 things! I really enjoyed the discovery exercises. I'm glad thing #23 ended with "A Fair(y) Use Tale" video. Not only did I enjoy watching it, I also find the topic of copyright very interesting. Thanks to the discovery exercises I now have a better understanding of what a blog, a wiki, an image generator, an avatar, and a sandbox are, and better yet, I now have an idea of how to incorporate some of these in the library/classroom. I really hope more online training just like this one become available in the near future.

Week 9, Thing# 22

I think it is great that there are so many books, poems, and stories that we can read online. I've downloaded mainly short stories and poems. I've also had students listen to online stories. This year one of my teachers came with an old book of a story she wanted to read to her students but the book had one page missing. We found the missing page online. She was so happy when I printed the page for her.

Week 9, Thing #21

I didn't know there were so many different kinds of podcasts. I searched several on jokes, but didn't really liked those I visited. I liked the ones on teaching a foreign language. I listened to some lesson for learning French, Italian, and English as a second language. I'm thinking these could be good for school kids. There were also some podcasts on grammar and writing.

Week 9, Thing #20

I didn't know TouTube had so many videos under "Seuss." My school likes to celebrate Read Across America; some of these videos would be perfect for the celebration. I'm including one on "Fox in Socks."

Week 8, Thing #19

My husband and I have our own library. I had always wanted to catalog our books because we have so many. Sometimes we even forget which ones we already have. Library Thing is definitely my solution. I added 5 of the 2008-2009 Bluebonnet books just so that I could try it, but as soon as I have a chance, I'll start cataloging the books from my own library.

Week 8, Thing# 18

I really liked Zoho writer. I think it is a great tool, especially for someone who uses different computers or someone who has to travel. This is the document I created:

    My Bilingual ABC

1. Air - aire
2. Boat - barco
3. Coconut - coco
4. Dragon - dragon
5. Elephant - elefante
6. Figure - figura
7. Goose - ganso
8. Hunger - hambre
   
9. Iguana - iguana
10. Jicama - jicama
    
11. Kiosk - kiosco
    
12. Lion - Leon
13. Monkey - mono
14. Nest - Nido
15. Orangutan - orangutan
    
16. Parrot - perico
17. Quetzal - Quetzal
    
18. Rat - rata
19. Soft - suave
20. Turtle - tortuga
21. Uniform - uniforme
    
22. Volcano - volcan
23. Watt - watt
    
24. Xylophone - xilofono
    
25. Yoyo - yoyo
26. Zoo - zoologico

                                       


Technorati Tags     alphabet,bilingual

Week 7, Thing # 17

I was very impressed with the California Curriculum Connection Wikis (http://calcurriculum.pbwiki.com/). I think this is a wonderful way of using wikis: allow people to post ideas on how to use a particular application. I viewed their pages on online learning, blogging, images, and wikis. Two ideas posted on wikis that I think I would like to try in the library this coming year is to use a wiki for students to do book reviews and to use a wiki for students to list questions for "Battle of the Books."

Week 7, Thing#16

The first time I was told about wikis I was left with the impression that it was an online encyclopedia where anyone could add their own comments and entries. I guess they were referring to Wikipedia. I now learned that a wiki is a lot more than that. A wiki can be a lot more than just a "community encyclopedia." It can be about any given topic or subject. I can see how a wiki can be used in a literature class where students can write book reviews, how it can be used in a science class where students can use it as a journal as they are working on their experiments, how it can be used in a history class for student discussions on any historical event, etc.
I don't think I would allow a class to use a wiki as a dependable source of information for conducting research, but maybe a particular wiki might provide them with a list of sources for the students to examine.

Week 6, Thing# 15

I totally agree with Rick Anderson ("Away from the icebergs"), when he states that "the very idea of library 'collection'" must be seen differently. For example, we, as librarians, need to ask ourselves whether we should spend our money in buying a new set of encyclopedias to replace the outdated ones or if we should spend that money to subscribe to an online encyclopedia. I have only one teacher who checks out an encyclopedia set every year once a year. All my other teachers use the online encyclopedias. I still show the students how to use the printed ones "just in case" our internet is down (which this year happened more than once), but the majority of the students would rather seek for the information online. I also totally agree that public libraries, more so than school libraries, need to keep up with technology and need to "bring our services to the patrons." For me, library 2.0 is a way for libraries to keep up with the constant changes being brought about with technology.

Week 6, Thing #14

I did different searches for "School Library Learning 2.0" and got different results. The first time I did it, I got 25 results; I then searched the blogs and got 10 blogs about "School Library Learning 2.0." I then searched by tags and got 16 posts tagged "school library learning 2.0." I then explored the popular blog, searches and tags and got 42 results when I searched for "school library learning 2.0."--very interesting!
I feel that tags, just like many other features, have advantages and disadvantages. With tags we don't have to choose a "category;" instead, tags help us while searching by providing us with a set of keywords that we can use. Tags, I think, can be used to provide a more specific classification. However, when coming up with tags we have to be very careful that we do not misspell them. Also, there might be some content for which it might be difficult to come up with "appropriate" tags. In addition, we have to be careful with synonyms or related terms.

Week 6, Thing #13

I was introduced to Del.icio.us back in February. Region One had a three hour training about this site. During the training we were asked to create our own accounts and they showed us how to add the Del.icio.us buttons to our browser. Our district technology director loves Del.icio.us because since she has to visit all of the campuses, she can now access her bookmarks from anywhere in any computer. I think that this tool could also be a great tool for research assistance since you could bookmark sites that could help students who are researching a particular topic.

Week 5, Thing# 12

I think Rollyo could be a very useful tool to use in the school's library. For example, if you know a class is going to be browsing the Internet to look for information related to planets, you can create a search roll about planets--websites you feel students can trust to get information about their particular planet.
You can then make the students aware about this search roll. The search roll I created is called "Dictionaries & More," and it contains reference sites. Here is the link:
http://www.rollyo.com/lifelonglearner/dictionaries_more/

Week 5, Thing# 11

I decided to explore the Im Cooked website. I loved the videos--there is nothing like seeing every step of how a particular dish, dessert, etc. is prepared. The only thing I did not like is that the recipes are not listed for you to print. I can see how this site could help homemaking teachers. Visual learners could really benefit from this site.

Week 5, Thing#10

I found this site http://www.txt2pic.com/ . It contains a list of different generators. It has links to comic strip generators, "Post-It" note generator, License Plate Maker, Glitter Text Effects, Famous People Message Generator, etc. I am including a Happy Face Message that I personalized using the Smiley Generator.

Week 4, Thing #9

When I was doing thing #8, I decided to google "newsfeeds." I then narrowed my searched by typing "books," or "library," or "news." I usually "google" everything. I find this easy to do. After using the search tools listed for this exercise. I liked Topix.net. It allows users to choose the city of their choice. I was able to find news about my hometown and I added this newsfeed to my Google Reader. I also liked Syndic8.com because it allows you to search for feeds by keyword. I found Technorati confusing and I couldn't access the tutorial to learn a little more about it. I also found Blog Pulse interesting. Google Blog Search was very easy to use.

Week 4, Thing #8

RSS is interesting. I created my RSS aggregator account using Google Reader. At first it was a little confusing. But once I understood and I didn't have to use the feeds that Google Reader has, I was able to make it personal. The newsfeeds I added related to news, books and authors, songs, and quotes of the day. What I like about RSS and newsreaders is that once you have your account set up, all you have to do is visit that site instead of visiting all the different individual sites. I guess libraries could use RSS by creating a Bloglines account (let's say it listed news sites) and making it public to their patrons.

Week 3, Thing #7

Last year the 3rd and 4th grade teachers at my campus began using document cameras, and eventhough some of them were hesitant about using them, this year several of them said that they simply couldn't live without them. Document cameras meant no transparencies, no messy hands, and any object that is placed within the camera's reach gets projected. This year we added SMaRT boards to several classrooms, and once again we had several teachers hesitant about using them. I wonder if next year I'll hear the phrase "I can live without my SMaRT board!"

Week 3, Thing #6

I really liked the fd's Flickr Toys. I tried the badge maker, the motivator, the movie poster, the trading card, the CD cover, and the calendar. I was very impressed with how easy they are to use. I can see how students might use the Flickr toys to make special Christmas, Mother's Day gifts, and other special projects.

Week 3, Thing #5

This is the first time I hear of Flickr. I took the tour and must admit that it looks like a great site to organize and share photos and videos although I don't feel comfortable uploading pictures to any site on the Internet. I might change my mind later--who knows! Anyways, I did some searching while on Flickr and came across the "Library Christmas tree." Not only did I like the picture, I also liked that the tree is formed with old reference books. I'm going to look around to see if I find some old books myself and maybe try to make it in December. I'm sure my patrons would be impressed! Here is the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/donaldist/1803976340/

Week 2, Thing #4

I just finished registering my blog with Region One. I guess I only have 19 more things to do! :)

Week 2, Thing #3

This is the first time I read about avatars. It was exciting creating one. It's good that they give you the option to search. It was taking me a long time trying to get a library background; it was not until I noticed the "search" box that I realized that I could search for it.

Week 1, Thing #2

Out of the 7 1/2 Habits, I find Habit 6 the easiest. Not that I am an expert on technology, because quite frankly I am faaaaaaaaaar from it, but because I rely a lot on technology. I feel I am more efficient at my job because of technology. The habit that is the hardest for me is actually Habit 1. I'm really bad at coming up with a goal. I guess that would be my goal--to come up with a goal:)

Week 1, Thing #1

The program seems to be self-explanatory. Although, I must confess that it might sound a little scary for someone who likes to get personal attention during trainings.

Creating a Blog

Wow! I can't believe I just created a blog. Hope everything else is this easy!