Tuesday, August 12, 2008
#23 (Week 9) It is soooo NOT Week 9!
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!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
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!).
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Week 9 (#22) I'm not sure how I feel about e-books!?!
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!
Monday, July 28, 2008
Week 8 (#19) One of My FAVORITE DISCOVERIES!!!
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
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Weeks 7 & 8 (#17 & 18) I'm on a roll!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Week 7 (#17) Missed me?
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!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Wiki this and wiki that -- Week 7 (#16)
I recently had a phone call from one of my co-workers. She was asking what I knew about Wikipedia because she and a student had encountered something highly inappropriate there. I explained to her the nature of wikis, which definitely burst her bubble. She had been taking everything she read on Wikipedia as gospel. Of course, the problem with the offensive materials was reported and quickly remedied, but it definitely left a bad taste in this teacher's mouth.
My favorite of the wikis I explored for this exercise was "Library Success: A best practices wiki."
Finally, I can see so many uses of wikis in the educational setting, all of them centered around collaboration.
Reflecting on Week 6
Libraries of the future!? Week 6 (#15)
Mind-boggling! Week 6 (#14)
As a librarian, I'm both comfortable with, and fascinated by, tagging. I consider tags to be the "way" we will all search for information in the future. Adding tags to your blog makes the blogger more aware of the content and the coverage within a post. It is challenging to create relevant tags for a piece. I will be interested to read about what fellow bloggers perceive to be the disadvantages of tags, as I'm still seeing advantages.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Doubly Del.icio.us! Week 6 (#13)
1) now I have a way to access my bookmarks regardless of whether I'm at my school, at my night job, on a computer at Admin., or on my laptop at home; and
2) I really enjoy checking out the popular and recent lists!
In clicking on an item in the Hotlist, I found a great site which offers educational games in an arcade format. I could have spent the rest of this evening playing games ranging from choosing antonyms to selecting the state when given its capital. I'm an adult, and I loved playing, so I know the students will, too! The site is http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/ and I can't wait to share it with my teachers.
In a library or research setting, I can see students searching for topics of interest, and then getting additional ideas from the comments made by the other folks who've bookmarked a site of mutual interest.
Also, before I finish commenting on Week 6, I want to say that I have found the tutorials from commoncraft to be so helpful, clear, and simple. I'm a visual learner, and the style of these tutorials works for me.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Week 5 (#12) Rollyo
I taught English as a Second Language for four years, and I spent lots of time looking online for any and every resource I could find. I have shared the list of sites with other teachers, and now, thanks to Rollyo, I can share with even more folks.
I was fascinated by all the search tools that are out there, as well as by the various URL's which compile the Rollyo roster -- catchy little bit of alliteration there.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Week 5 (#11)
Week 5 (#10)

I created my own personal ribbon. I am a cancer survivor, and while most people know that pink is the color associated with breast cancer, I was pleased to discover that purple represents "cancer survivors." I attempted to add my newly created ribbon to this blog, but was unable to do so for some unknown reason. But, for me the good news is that I kept trying, and as you can see for yourself, I was finally successful, which makes me very happy!!!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Week 4 (#9) I'm Returning
After looking through Edublog's award winners and then looking around in Google Blog Search, I am in awe (again). There is so much "out there." One of the nominees for Best Educational Wiki 2007 was "Salute to Seuss," and I found so many great resources there. One of the first grade teachers at my school celebrates Dr. Seuss' birthday every year, and I cannot wait to show her this wiki.
Through Google Blog Search, I found the blog for School Library Media Activities Monthly, with a discussion of Exploring Elementary 2.0, a modification of Web 2.0 that has been adapted for elementary school staff members. I can't wait until I have time this summer to explore this exciting self-paced exploration, as she calls it!!!
I found another blog entitled "It's all about passion...Blogs, wikis, and other web 2.0 passion quests," which I found very interesting. Of course I loved the link: Teacher-Librarians are Learning Gems! -- as they say, what's not to love?
BUT, the most exciting new thing I discovered as a result of #9 is LibraryThing at www.librarything.com I just finished the tour of this website, and I want to encourage all you readers and book lovers to do the same. This site offers cataloging information for librarians, but the thing I love most is where it says that "LibraryThing cares about books, not about SELLING books." I can't wait to spend time here, too!
Finally, I want to say that I am having a great time checking every site I go to nowadays to see if I can set up RSS feed. If anything, my biggest problem is finding too many I'd like to add to my bloglines.
I'm signing out to move into Week 5, and more and more I agree: "It's all about passion," and I'm becoming quite passionate about all the information available through all these new technologies. Without Web 2.0, I would be missing soooooo much!
Thursday, April 3, 2008
#8 (Week 4) RSS Feeds -- Who'd have thought?
Week 3 #7
Week 3 Explorations continued
I am also very intrigued with Flickr Color Pickr and Montagr.
But, I must confess that of everything I explored, I was most impressed by the fun and games of Jim Bumgardner. His URL is http://www.krazydad.com/ Within Fun & Games, you'll find Adjustable Maze -- I had a wonderful time working my way through maze after maze. I'm hooked!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Banned Books Week Banner
We all need to be familiar with the books being challenged, since I'm guessing you'll be surprised to discover some of the titles that have been the target of censorship attempts. This poster is amazing!
NOTE ADDED 4/3/08: I found this banner while I was becoming familiar with Flickr, and I felt compelled to add it to my blog. Be sure and notice the comment I received from the Dayton Library!
Playing With Flickr FINALLY! (Week 3 was awhile back)
I have always heard that ladybugs bring good luck. Can't we use all the good luck we can get? So, I'm using a ladybug to depict me as "readerbug."
I'm happily learning more about Flickr as I attempt to "catch up" on my Web 2.0 lessons.
I enjoyed making a Buddy Icon in Flickr, and I think students of any age would enjoy this activity as well.
I contacted two different people who had posted pictures that really "spoke" to me, and I'm awaiting their replies. I'm glad I'm learning about Flickr!
The most challening part of my work today was learning how to post a photo to my blog, so I'm particularly proud of Ladybug Still Life.
Friday, February 29, 2008
My Avatar
The Avatar was something totally new to me, and I did have fun with this!
7 1/2 Habits
Now, I will carve out the time to play, play, play, as I discover more about these emerging technologies through Web 2.0

