Thing #23

Finally...finished!! This has been a very beneficial online course. I have learned so much about Web 2.0 tools and had "assignments" that actually made me put them into practice...so I got real time experience. I see so many possibilities! I have told our tech director about each lesson and he plans to incorporate many of them into his tech summer school for middle schoolers. I plan to develop some sample lessons to introduce to teachers to encourage them to incorporate into lesson plans to enhance student learning.

My frustration with the ability to do several things has convinced me to investigate getting high-speed internet at home. Living in the country, however, does not make it readily available. If the technology had worked when I needed it to work it would have been a less frustrating experience.

Which brings me to the last hurdle...I really did do the online survey and tried 3 times to "submit vote"...but alas, it wouldn't go through either...sigh :( Just know that you got high marks and I included all the comments here. Thanks for the experience!

P.S...to address the questions:
1. Favorites: the ones that worked...widgets, avatars, blogging, and photo story 3.
2. Even though videos were impossible to watch at home, I discovered some wonderful Web 2.0 tutorials I watched at school. Now if I want to learn anything...just search for a video tutorial!
3. Surprises: Blogging is SOOO easy. I want to convert this one now to my library blog. The Forum is the name of our library...our mascot is the gladiaor.
4. I realize some of the best tutorials were in the videos, but when I couldn't see the video for a couple of lessons, I was totally lost. Perhaps make sure that the explanation is in more than one format.
5. I would love to participate!
6. Eye-opening (to a whole new experience I don't know was available on the web)
7. I'll try...What I want to see now is some suggestions on how others have used these tools to incorporate in lessons. Any suggestions on where to look?

Thing #22

I liked the Teacher Librarian Ning the best as it seemed to have more information already posted in the comments. Texas School Librarian would be good but it seems to be a newer Ning and hasn't developed quite as much. This is a very useful social networking tool for members to post concerns and issues and help each other with proven practices. There is always someone else out there who has already been there...done that so it makes sense to access their expertise. It is particularly useful to those of us in a one-librarian district.

Thing #21

I created a vidcast of sites to see in Rome. It has 8 photos, narration, and Photo Story created music. I tried several times to upload it to this blog at home with dial-up, but each time it failed stating it could not contact blogger.com. So I came to school, downloaded Windows Media Player 11, downloaded Photo Story 3, copied it from my flash drive to my hard drive, and got my tech director to unblock the site so I could post. Again it gave the same message. I spent several hours working on this and really enjoyed using Photo Story 3. It looked pretty simple to post...just click the video icon above, browse to the file, and upload...if it worked. Unless someone can tell me what to do to upload the vidcast, you'll just have to take my word that I did it and tried. It was saved as an wp3 file. This has become frustrating.

Thing #20

I have searched YouTube and TeacherTube before and am a firm believer in them for use in the classroom. Although I, too, HIGHLY recommend reviewing videos before showing in the classroom.

This embedded video is a tutorial to show students on how to use Photo Story 3.



This is a video from TeacherTube using Google Earth to tour locations of Anne Frank's family.



I downloaded to my hard drive a video of the Great Barrier Reef from Blinx, but when I clicked the video download button on the tool bar it inserted the video screen and then 30 seconds later it disappeared and said there was an error.

Thing #19

The site I explored was pipl. It was quick and easy to use and you could find out some interesting things about people...if they happened to be on the web anywhere. For some I found a bit...for some nothing. It could be useful in the library for locating other librarians. For example, I recently had a copyright question and wanted to contact one specific person but didn't have contact information. Here I could have found him/her.

Thing #18

I started to download OpenOffice and found that it took 7 minutes to download 1 MB of 120 MB for the program…at that rate it would take 10 hours just to download. And that’s before I could even start to play with it. It was not worth my time to download. I did watch the Impress presentation tour and it looks like an easy program to use once downloaded.

I did play with Google Docs. I created a document and sent to my daughter to collaborate and make changes. I'm waiting to see how that goes. I also created a document and inserted a photo from my files. It is a very good picture, however it is VERY blurry once inserted. I also sent it for collaboration to my daughter and husband to answer questions on the document. We'll see how easy it is for them to access and revise.

Thing #17

This has been the most frustrating 2 hours of this course. I had looked forward to learning to do wikis and haven't learned anything. The videos will not play on my dial up. I tried them at school and they sputtered around and wouldn't play enough for me to learn anything. So I tried downloading them at home to play...but I didn't have ShockWave. So I tried installing ShockWave NUMEROUS times and something wasn't working. It did not install. So I decided just to (try and) post on the sandbox wiki. "Playing" around I didn't get a post where everyone else is...but on a different spot in discussion page. I give up....:(

Thing #16

The best explanation of a wiki was the Common Craft video. I understand wikis much better after viewing that. I looked at all the examples. Our language arts class could create a wiki where students provide additional information for a topic, but are also required to edit and correct the spelling and grammar of the previous poster. Classes in different schools studying the same topic could create and share a wiki to add what they each have learned from different teachers. I'd like to see more teacher created examples for classes.

I am leading an international tour with 30 travelers. I could create a wiki where everyone shares information on what to see, how to pack, how to act, etc. with links to find out more.

Thing #15

I read all the articles and it makes me worry that our library is not "21st century" enough. I am trying to stay on top of the tech world with my library, but feel like Web 2.0/Library 2.0 is passing us by. This course has been tremendously helpful. My favorite article was "Away with Icebergs." I don't add many nonfiction books simply because they are not read or used for research, but I wonder if I am wasting money on the few I purchase. I know I need to reassess our library paradigm to move forward with changing technology...but just when I think I'm catching up, I fall twice as far behind because the tech world is changing so fast. As I learn about these Web 2.0 resources and think of how to apply them to our library and curriculum, I fear that they will already be yesterday's news by the time I get it done. I note the date for the OCLC article -- 2006. And I'm just now getting there!

Thing #14

An advanced search for "School Library Learning 2.0" did bring up some different items. I liked the tag search the best, although I did read a blog from a librarian who is also doing thisa similar 2.o course through a different source. When looking at the popular blogs, I looked at BoingBoing (what an eclectic site!) and Engadget. What was neat wI liked all the photos, clips, and videos included in each. I can see the value of tagging if looking for info on a specific subject. I've noticed the clouds in Amazon but never really knew what they were. I order a lot from them, so now can better use them. I claimed my blog on Technorati and added the html. I looked at the widgets but didn't want them on my blog.

Thing #13

I created a del.icio.us account and practiced searching for topics using common tags and then saving them and creating my own tags. I did this with sites about Civil War battlefields that I want our 8th grade social studies teacher to use for students to create a photo story 3 of one of the battlefields as a documentary type project. I envision creating a separate del.icio.us site for my high school. There I'd like to create folders for each different project and store the web sites to use in each. I couldn't figure out how to create a folder and move the web sites into the folder to make it easy for students to locate. Any help on uncluttering the favorites page? I tried creating a CivilWar bundle and did a search in your favorites for civil_war and all the ones I tagged were then listed, but the page is still cluttered with all the favorites on the original page. Students then could search for more del.icio.us sites on the specific battlefield using that name as a specific search tag. I prefer using ikeepbookmarks for my own personal bookmarking site. It is easy to use and I keep it as my homepage.

Thing #13

I created 2 searchrolls in Rollyo. One is for US Presidents to see if I could streamline an assignment from last week where students had to research a different president. I found several sites and added them to Rollyo. I then tried a search for Harry Truman and it only searched those in my searchroll and quickly found the info fast. Worked great! Wish I had this last week for students.

The second searchroll did not work so well. It is Book Buys. When I purchase a book, I usually check at least two book selling vendors online to find the one with the best buy. I thought it would be great to list 5 -- Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Follett's Titlewave, Perma Bound, and Bound to Stay Bound -- with the hope that one search for a title would find the books simultaneously in all 5 and I could choose the best buy. This didn't work. My searches only found results in Amazon and BN. Can anyone tell me what I did wrong? Did I put the wrong web page for the other 3?

Thing #11

I set up a Library Thing account and added 31 books from my favorite author Clive Cussler and the 3 books in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I found that 700+ have listed Cussler and over 4,000 listed Twilight! I posted in the conversation on Twilight, added a Library Thing widget to my blog with 10 books and covers, added a "chiclet" to my catalog, and learned to delete books from my list. I would like to use this to help in cataloging books in my library, but I could only access details when I added books to my list and then had to delete them. Is there a better way? Details is good for getting a call number and subjects, especially if searching Library of Congress. I did not find summaries except in description and these were from Amazon…where I go sometimes anyway. Any suggestions?

Thing #10

This library cartoon I created through Comic Strip Generator. Pretty easy. I tried saving image and uploading. Both worked pretty quick (once you learn to read ALL the directions!)

This license plate I made through License Plate Maker through Sign Generator. Saved to my folders and inserted here in the wrong place! Had practice manually moving items around on the page.

This one was made with Glitter Text Effect Maker through Sign Generator.

And this one through Flower Text in Image Chef...as a belated Valentine's message. I tried sending it straight from the site with the Blogger icon. It said it was uploaded but it did not appear here. (Post Note: After I posted this I saw that it sent this image straight to my blog in a separate post. I since deleted it. But learned what would happen if I send straight to the blog.) I saved it to My Pictures and inserted. I also tried the onsite email feature and it didn't work.

And this one through Happy Face Generator...and I've got to stop! This is too easy and could go on and on and on....

Note: As I went back to insert the hyperlinks...I discovered they were all listed in the extensive list under Custom Sign Generator.

I could use these on our website, to make signs for the library and display cases, to teach students in technology classes when they build web sites, powerpoints, or photo story 3.

Thing #9

This was my least favorite lesson. I searched most of the suggested websites for feeds, but didn't find a lot I liked. I added several to my GoogleReader, but I must not be doing it correctly because nowhere did I see the RSS box in an address bar to click to add to my reader. All that I added I copied and pasted the web address to GoogleReader when I clicked add subscription.

Thing #8

Although I basically understand RSS feeds, never having used one before I will have to use it for a few days/weeks and see how easy/useful it can be. It was simple enough to create. I created an account with Google Reader and added 5 sites...3 librarian blogs, 1 for Rick Steves Travel blog, and 1 for Rootsweb news. The last two are my hobbies...travel and genealogy. Libraries could use the feeds to just get tips for school or public libraries or to get info on book reviews, etc.

Thing #7

Google Earth was great fun, however, again dial-up issues. It took 1-1/2 hours to download the program. But then I spent hours playing with it. I suppose it was because of dial-up that some images took a while to load, but after finding my house, of course, I then "toured" in England and France and actually saw Stonehenge and the Eiffel Tower! Awesome!!! I have seen Google Earth demonstrated before and was shown some 3D images of structures...like the Colosseum in Rome for example. Try as I might I could not find where to make these appear on my maps. Anyone know how? Also one irritating thing was all the little camera icons all over some locations. I realize they were actual photos when clicked on, but could never get them to open with my dial-up. I just wanted to get rid of them so I could see things better (the Eiffel Tower was covered in them obstructing the image). Anyone know how to "turn off" the camera icons. I can see much potential for using this in classes...especially our world geography class.

I also played with Picasa Web Album. I use Picasa to store and enhance my photos but did not know about Web Album. I uploaded one photo just to see how it works. I was afraid my dial-up would take forever, but it only took a few minutes to upload one photo. It is online here. My husband said he would use it to show his friends he really had met Red Steagall at Palo Duro Canyon! I can foresee using it for sharing photos with friends and photos taken of library events.

Thing #6

Try as I might to understand about mashups while reading the information, I'm just not techno savvy enough to understand them...it was like reading another language!! Regardless, I did explore the suggested sites and play around with them. CD cover in FD Toys I really liked and can use for most any CD I create. I really liked the look of movie poster and thought we might could use it during Teen Read Week. Students could dress up and/or create backdrops to represent a favorite book, and we could put the photos into movie posters to advertise Teen Read Week. I also tried mappr, trading cards, guess the title, jigsaw, and mosaic maker and just wasn't that taken with any of them.

Thing #5

I could spend days playing with this site. Tried uploading 8 photos. With dial-up it is a little slow, but doing a few photos at a time (and doing something else while they upload!) works OK. I think I understand tags, sets, and groups. I created my own flickr address and put some vacation pictures on the map. I opened it only to some family and friends and am sending them the site to check and see what they think.

Twilight Fans

This blog post is for fans of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. If you have a comment on the the author, the books in the series, the upcoming movie, related web sites, or any similar book on paranormal fiction to recommend, please click on comments and add to the post.

Thing #4

Registering by email was easy enough. I have an idea for a blog but now need to figure out how to do it. My students (and some teachers) are HUGE fans of the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyers. I want to set up a blog for students to log on and make comments about the series as well as comments about other books on vampires and other paranormal fiction. It seems when we get them hooked on Twilight, they read everything we have on the subject. They are always asking for a recommendation on the new vampire books but I haven't had time to read them all. Student comments would help.

Thing #3

Again dial-up issues. I could not open the PowerPoint on blogging at home and had to open and read it at school. However, I was able to set up my blog, post to it, and create my avatar at home. Fun, fun, fun! I am discovering that you can play forever and will have to self-pace to complete this course on time! I also learned (because I did not do it the first two times on the main blog posting) to include my html so that others can get to my site. I did go on a couple of other blogs and read them which gave me a good idea of what I'm supposed to be doing.

Thing #2

I am discovering that some "things" do not work so well at home in my pajamas. Although I have fairly good dial-up internet service, I am finding some items do not open well at home. The slide show for lifelong learners only opened half the time. I'm glad the words were printed on the side. Easiest for me--accept responsiblity for my own learning. I like to be totally in charge. Hardest for me--view problems as challenges. I tend to see problems as crises. I have to work on this constantly.

Thing #1

I had mixed emotions before starting this online course...excited to learn about all the "things" I've been reading about in School Library Journal and apprehensive about starting something new. I am grateful for the opportunity to get to participate in this course. As a "one-woman" librarian in a small rural district, it is hard to get real-time practice with new ideas.