Thing #18 Online Prodictivity Tools

There are many advantages to online productivity tools. The first and most important is that students and teachers have access to productivity tools that are free. Many of our students cannot afford expensive software for creating assignments. OpenOffice.org and GoogleDocs provide productivity tools for students to create projects and assignments from home. The same for teachers. I like GoogleDocs because it allows choosing the type of document from templates. Though OpenOffice requires only one download, our school computers are blocked from downloads without contacting the tech specialist. I like the fact that GoogleDocs allows document sharing, eliminating the email nightmare. This is great for projects and groups.

D Allen & News
This is a personal interest news searchroll. I plan to create a library news searchroll at a later date. I will probably find some I can edit. Rollyo certainly has its place in education. Students and teachers can create searchrolls for research and assignments, as well as for fun. What a great way to introduce interests of individual in a classroom. But on the academic side, creating searcholls for assignments has wonderful possibilities. Oh, how I had to resist shopping. If I had started on that search I would never finish my 23 Things. When I arrive back at school I plan to make a searchroll with my bookmarks.

Thing #16 Wikis

I created a wiki last year for my library and library newsletter: The General Dispatch
I intend to continue it this year, but expand it. Our school district does allow wikis, so it can take the place of blogging with students. Our library program director set one up for librarians and we use it to communicate. I think it has been very successful and give us a quick way to see what we are all doing as a group. It is truly more efficient than email for group projects. I found wikispaces to be the most user friendly. PBworks was not as easy to use at first, but now I think that has changed. Wikis can be used to create assignments for students on the computer. Also, they can be used for assignments from home, book clubs, or any activity that requires posting and collaboration. PBWorks is a good site for this type of assignment. One great thing that I realized is that Library2Play is a wonderful resource blog!

Thing #14 Technorati

About Technorati: categorizing posts on blogs. I can see that there is a need to categorize tags and grouping them together is useful, as well. For bloggers who are blogging all the time and for those who wish to make money from blogging, I can see the value. I can also see the value for finding tags that are of interest to you. However, time spent in Technorati could be overwhelming, with all of the different tags floating around in all the clouds. A keyword search resulted in finding more than 700 posts for School Library Learning 2.0. Who has time for browsing all of the posts? Perhaps keeping abreast of what is going on in the world is a plus for Technorati, but I do think it is most valuable for very serious bloggers or a quick way to find out what someone thinks about something other than the usual "professional" opinion. I wish I could hear some discussion on this "Thing." I feel certain that there are many opinions about the value and purpose. I tried to add a Technorati cloud, but failed. I will try later when I have finished Thing #23.

Thing #15 Library 2.0

In a School Libray 2.0 article titled "Say good-bye to your mother’s school library" Christopher Harris speaks to school librarians about ways to engage Web 2.0 technology and apply it. I like ideas and he has some. I am personally overwhelmed with the tools, and I need help tranfoming them into my library to use with teachers and students. After reading all of the articles listed in Thing #15 I began to think about what I recently said to my principal during my evaluation: "I keep getting older but my students are always 14." This was a more profound statement than I realized at the time. My incoming students were born in 1995. They were 10 in 2005. Their experience with the world is digital. Much more so than the students I had even six or seven years ago. My library motto has always been that famous quote from an anonymous person: "Half the knowledge is knowing where to find it." Finding it is becoming increasingly easier with Web 2.0 and the interactive web based tools it is offering. Helping our students become information artisans is the challenge. Yes, we must say good-bye to our mother's library. A visit to the new Houston Public Library is proof of that statement. As Mr. Harris suggests, we must undergo a mental transformation if we are going to take on the responsibilities of helping our students become literate users of information and the tools that offer access to the information . The quest is the same but way we teach them to conduct the quest has changed. I particularly loved the statement in the article "Away From Icebergs" that stated that if our services require training for all of our users then the services need fixing." The article further stated that we need to integrate our services into our users' environment. I need a collection my students can download into their MP3 devices and this would be a good running start to serving and connecting. A few Kindles wouldn't hurt either.

Thing #13 Tagging and Delicious

Delicious is a very handy tool for everyone. Assuming that my students can sign in at school and tag, this will be a wonderful way for them to save their research pages accessed on the Internet, especially those who do History Fair. When I have more time I will spend some time looking at tags related to elesson plans, school libraries, and education. But it is time to keep moving. I love the example of the group creating special tags so they can see what they have collected and share resources. This is a great collaborative tool and a huge time saver. Overall, Web based bookmarks are wonderful. I have always been looking for the wrong bookmark on the wrong computer. That stress is now ended.

Thing #12 Creating Community Through Commenting

This has been a challenge and I am still not sure I have all the information I need about commenting. Mostly, I gather that when a person comments they would like to hear back regarding the comment. Also, I think there are guidelines about posting a comment, but based on many comments I have read over the last year, most people do not follow them. I posted comments to five Library2Play participants (two from my school distinct, Aldine) and to LibraryThing and CoolCatTeacher blog. The CoolCatTeacher blog has some wonderful advice for starting the school year. This would be helpful to all teachers but also to new teachers. I am not sure how I came across this blog for educators but it is a good one that I have in my Reader. For LibraryThing I commented on a book I really enjoyed reading this summer: Sweethearts by Sara Zarr. If you have not read this YA fiction novel I highly recommend it. I am looking forward to Story of A Girl. I am always challenged by Bill O'Reilly who wants only "pithy" comments.

Thing#11 LibraryThing

LibraryThing

Easily created an account for this site and listed five YA titles of interest. I enjoyed viewing the various groups, especially the YA group Read YA Lit where I found some interesting discussion threads. This might be a good one for me to join to keep informed on what is going on with readers of YA literature outside of journals. Checking out what is going on in our local area is also a plus. I was somewhat confused by the author chats, but will return for further investigation. This site is a plus for those who do not have access to other book databases.

Thing #10 Images

Well, the image generators are many and I have many "Things" to complete. However, it is very nice to have this resource in mind for myself and for students. Our students have used the cartoon maker to create multi genre products related to research assignments. Writing on images allows for creativity for students setting them on the path to information artisans. I think one of the most popular sites is Imagechef. I plan to create a Wordle and I know students will have great opportunities to show understanding using this image generator.

Thing #8 RSS and Readers

RSS is certainly a handy Web 2.0 tool. For teachers and administrators who have limited time to access information on the Web, setting up blogs can be a huge time saver. As we teach our students to critically evaluate information, we need to emphasize that blogs are mostly opinions and certainly not always from experts. For the most part, I feel that blogs can provide helpful and updated access to information in fields of interest. Also, it is helpful to read what others are thinking in a particular subject area. Finding quality blogs can be a challenge and it is important not to become overwhelmed with too many blogs. Quality blogs by professionals such as an author could be used in the classroom to create a relationship with the author and bring that author closer to the students. Blogging with the author could be fun and perhaps spark an interest in reading. Blogs are alive in that way. From a library standpoint, EBSCO allows feeds for research purposes. The concept is like a blog, but the articles come from within the database and are more authoritative. At this time, blogs are restricted in our district. Perhaps if districts begin to allow students to use their personal mobile devices many possibilities will open. When teachers and students are not able to use the tool in school, educational opportunities are blocked. I would be curious to know how many of our students actually blog.

Thing #7 Google

I visited all of the Google links. I am a frequent user of GoogleEarth as my daughter and her husband recently moved to Japan and I have been using GoogleEarth to look at her new home. I did learn about several other features including the history feature and the under the ocean feature. I know there are many classroom applications but I have not seen how these are used. I will spend more time with GoogleEarth later. I did set up an iGoogle page. I spent time in AtomicLearning as there are many lessons that teachers can use and adapt for their subject areas. I am especially interested in the 21st century applications. I like the fact that students can save work in iGoogle. However, our students may not access email from school so I am wondering if this will be a problem. Bringing technology into the classroom is a challenge for all of us, but Google is helping to bridge the gap. The tools from Google seem endless.

Thing #4 Register

I registered today for 23 Things. I am working my way through the "Things" and I have completed 6 "Things" in one day, but I have done little else.

Thing #1 Getting Started

I learned about 23 Things during a session at TLA in 2009. I planned to start much earlier but I was not able to do so. I hope I can complete all of the "Things" within the time frame.

Thing #6 Mashups and 3rd Party Sites

I was not familiar with mashups, but I can see endless possibilities for using the Big Huge Labs site to create student products related to curriculum: movie posters, magazine covers, and trading cards are just a few of the user friendly applications that will engage students in becoming information artisans. Our students complete a multi genre project for language arts research and the mashup applications will be helpful in creating their products. Combing pictures and maps would work very well for our geography students.

Thing #5 Flickr

This image from Flickr is posted by Tom Hilton in Creative Commons. I would love to be on this lake in the mountains away from this terrible Texas heat. I am familiar with Flickr, but I did not know about the Creative Commons section. So many students in my library want to download images from Google and use the images without copyright consideration. The Creative Commons section of Flickr makes them aware of using images created by someone else and the restrictions placed on using those images. Access to images for creating products and for group interaction make Flickr a very important educational tool.
Attribution:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomhilton/ / CC BY 2.0

Thing #3 Creating a Blog

My blog is created and I have added the Avatar. Because I am not in a class and I am working alone, it took me a while to get it all together. Thinking back over the process, I would probably have created a more interesting domain name, but I did not read all of the information on naming a blog until after I created the name.
I am a late comer to this adventure with Web 2.0, but I hope to complete all 23 Things before the deadline.
I have looked at several of the blogs created this summer.

Thing #2 Life Long Learning

1. Begin with the end in mind
2. Accept responsibility for yourown learning
3. View problems as challenges
4. Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
5. Create your own learning toolbox
6. Use technology to your advantage
7. Teach/mentor others
7 1/2. Play


Easy-I have confidence that I am a competent and effective learner and I enjoy learning and teaching others, as well.

Difficult-I have trouble viewing problems as challenges. I will have to practice changing my viewpoint when faced with problems, viewing the problem as a learning experience.

Regarding the toolbox: I tell my students that they are on a journey. They need to put their learned skills in a suitcase so that when they arrive at their destination they will have all the skills they need for college, for work, or for life. I guess the toolkit is the same analogy.