#23 (Week 9) It is soooo NOT Week 9!

Well, I must admit there were times when I wondered if I would ever reach #23, but the trip has been such a wonderful experience, and here I finally am, just in time for tomorrow's class.

I hope I understand the directions for the final activity, and I want to complete this activity with something I mentioned way back in Week #6 when I found "A Letter to Teachers about Learning." In his blog Chris said he had modified the 23 Things for his school's particular situation. I provided the URL below, and the first thing I noticed upon re-visiting this site is the disclaimer stating that "Betchablog is licensed under a Creative Commons License."

http://betch.edublogs.org/2008/05/21/a-letter-to-teachers-about-learning/

Creative Commons will be one of the most valuable things I've discovered in this class, as I continue to "preach" about copyright every chance I get.

I learned so much from each of the 23 Things, and I definitely will find (or make) time to participate in 2.1 in the future. Until this course I knew nothing about new technologies such as photosharing sites, blogs, and wikis. I am very serious about creating a Bluebonnet blog, and I can see the benefit of wikis when a group of people need to collaborate on a project, but are unable to meet face-to-face. Regarding unexpected discoveries, almost everything I delved into provided new things for me to ponder and consider. I fell in love with LibraryThing, and I am fascinated by the blogs from other librarians. I could not make one suggestion on improving this course, but I would encourage someone planning to take this course to allot plenty of time because I genuinely believe the adage about getting out of something what you put into it, and I probably spent loads more time than necessary exploring, but that is how I work and that is how I got my brain wrapped around all the new stuff.

In summing up this experience, I am having trouble deciding between FANTASTIC and BENEFICIAL as one word descriptors. To use a sentence to describe this course, let me just say, "School Library Learning 2.0 has taught me about new technology before I even knew what questions I should be asking!" The information was priceless, and it is beyond amazing that this course cost me nothing besides my time.

Let me conclude by again thanking Shirley and Jen for your supervision and assistance!

Week 9 (#21) I'm getting into podcasts!

Tonight I was determined to complete the exercises on podcasting, so I set about to explore the directories linked under 23 Things only to discover that I could not access Podcast.net or Yahoo Podcasts. So, I thoroughly explored both Podcastalley.com and Educational Podcast Directory, and I must say that I preferred the educational podcasts. I listened to bits of a large number of podcasts tonight, so I could honestly say that I really, really like Radio Popcorn, which comes from Kowloon Junior School in Hong Kong. Once I stumbled upon how to access their website, I became even more excited by everything they have to offer!

Check out KJS at: http://clc.esf.edu.hk/GroupHomepage.asp?GroupID=410

Thanks to the course I took introducing me to podcasting, coupled with all I learned from the exercises on #21, I have a much better understanding of podcasting now, and I think that's what Web 2.0 is all about (I can't believe I ended that sentence with a preposition!).

Week 9 (#22) I'm not sure how I feel about e-books!?!

You may be asking yourself, "What happened to number 21???" During the time I have been working on Web 2.0 activities, I took a three-hour class on basic podcasting. I know we used software called Audacity, and I want to look over the class handouts before I write about podcasting. So, for tonight, I am putting #21 "on hold."

This evening, in addition to exploring the World EBook Fair site and Project Gutenberg, I also "Googled" e-books to see what else I could learn. After a bit of digging, I decided to search each site offering free e-books and downloads for "The Emperor's New Clothes." While I was able to find this selection in various formats and appearances on several sites, I am still wrestling with how I feel about the act of online reading.

Every single night before I go to sleep, I read in bed, and I don't think I would enjoy this nearly as much if I had to balance my laptop to do so. There is something very warm and inviting about holding a book in my hands while nestling in my bed.

Similarly, I find a great deal of satisfaction in holding a book in my hands while bringing it to life, so to speak, by reading the story aloud. I cannot envision a read aloud storytime involving my computer or laptop.

I don't mean to sound negative; I think my reaction to e-books would better be described as "lukewarm" at this time, but I'm working hard to keep an open mind.

The good news is that I don't feel as threatened by e-books as I did before I completed this activity. I don't think they will be replacing real live librarians in the near future.

Week 9 (#20) It Had To Be This Video!

I feel like I looked at 1,000 different book and library related videos before settling on this one. I could be IN this video, and it is such a nice juxtaposition from my avatar of a meek little me in a pink nightgown.

I felt a huge sense of relief when I finally made it to #20 of the 23 items, and I actually already knew a bit about YouTube. I could get lost looking through the videos that are here!

Week 8 (#19) One of My FAVORITE DISCOVERIES!!!

I think LibraryThing is amazing and wonderful, and I am especially impressed with all the libraries I can search, even though I usually stick with the Library of Congress. I actually got hooked on LibraryThing way back in Week 5, so I was eager to check it out further at this point in Web 2.0.

Besides being interesting and a great deal of fun for me, I can see where librarians/libraries strapped for funds and short on personnel could use the cataloging aspect as a real time and money saver.

I am fascinated by the social aspects found in Zeitgeist, as well as the suggested tags for each title.

I was astounded at how easy it was to join, and I couldn't stop at adding only five titles to my library. I actually started by adding the titles from the current Texas Bluebonnet list that I have read thus far this summer, but then I also tried grabbing the webpage for the Masterlist off the TLA site, and this produced some interesting choices for me, as well as some unexpected results. For example, where I should have ended up with 20 titles in all, I now have 23, so I will set about to figure out why I have three more than should be there. To access my library catalog, please click on the link: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/smccoy

When I was searching for titles individually, I did notice that the book entitled Atherton: The House of Power produced no results, so I searched by the author's name, only to discover the book came up only as House of Power, even though the word Atherton is clearly on the cover that appears. I found this rather strange.

So, I'm off to delve deeper into LibraryThing, which is one of the most exciting things to which I've been introduced in Web 2.0. I am so glad I've kept at this online excursion called Web 2.0. Even though Web 2.0 has taken me awhile, I will always be glad I have been introduced to all the topics about which I knew absolutely nothing before this course.

By the way, thanks to how easy it is to delete from my catalog, I now have twenty Bluebonnet titles (which is what I should have), rather than 23 (where some duplicates had occurred when I grabbed the entire list on top of the individual titles I'd already added)! The learning never stops.

I also want to take a moment to thank Shirley and Jen for their willingness to add this course to what I know are their already overly busy schedules!!!

www.sodahead.com

Weeks 7 & 8 (#17 & 18) I'm on a roll!

Well, I have added an idea I have to our curriculum sandbox, but I want to mention it on my blog as well.

I want to host a Bluebonnet blog for Angleton students in grades three through six. I visualize this as a place where students could promote the titles they really liked, as well as comment when they come upon a title they feel might be more appropriate for the Lone Star List. I would like to see this blog take on a life of its own.

I am seeking other librarians, language arts teachers, parents, students, etc., who would be interested/willing to participate or have their students participate.

Ann Booth comes to mind -- hint, hint!

I am pretty pumped that I was able to add the Bluebonnet logo, and I did so easily!

I included Week 8, #18, on this blog because I just fell in love with Zoho Writer. I never knew any sort of web-based word processing application existed, and I found this one particularly user friendly. I will concentrate on using Zoho Writer when I am writing poetry.

Now, I'm off the explore Google docs, something else about which I want to learn!

Week 7 (#17) Missed me?

It has been quite awhile since I've had time to devote to finishing my Web 2.0 activities, but I'm back. I went to the section on Blogging, and I got some great ideas from others.

I am very interested in creating a Bluebonnet blog, where students could review the current titles. At first I thought it would be best to keep comments of a positive nature, but the more I think about it, the less I want to "shape" the kids' comments. The Bluebonnet titles are supposed to be good books, and if they fall short of this expectation, then let the truth be known.

I am also pondering some kind of library research project that could be shared around, with a blog to track the happenings. After reading all the good ideas tonight, my brain is storming. I'll have to see where I land!