Wiki this and wiki that -- Week 7 (#16)

As I looked through the various educational and library-related wikis, I was both glad and sad to see controls on editing content. I am glad because unfortunately control is needed, and I am sad because we live in a world (wide web) where people cannot be trusted.

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

The exercises in Week 6 definitely stretched my comfort zone, and I cannot put this week behind me without sharing a wonderful blog I found. This was posted by Chris, and it is "A Letter to Teachers about Learning." Chris adapted the 23 Things program to fit his own school, and he wrote such an encouraging letter to the staff members brave enough to enroll in the course. He expounded on the information glut we are experiencing, and he recognized that there will always be "stuff" we don't or can't know. We need more teachers like Chris, and I applaud him!

Libraries of the future!? Week 6 (#15)

First of all, I couldn't stop with only two of the articles on libraries, but after reading them all, I must admit that two in particular "jumped out at me." I related to most everything Michael Stephens said in his piece entitled "Into a new world of librarianship." I love the notion of a library as human, because this image conveys that a library is constantly changing, growing, developing, stretching, yawning, sleeping, reaching out, etc. I also acknowledge the importance of user-centered libraries that provide access wherever the patron or client or user may be at the time he/she needs information. Finally, I was encouraged by Stephens comments on technolust and techno-worship. We don't need technology for the sake of technology, but rather technology that meets the needs of our users.

The other article of real interest to me is entitled "A ripple effect." To read about what a small, rural school library has accomplished since the early 1990's was so heartening! It was also challenging -- it they can do this, can't we all? And they recognized that the key to their success could be found in providing quality customer service. Too many librarians have the "keeper of the books" mentality, instead of the "provider for the patrons" approach.

These articles gave me hope for our libraries, as long as librarians accept that libraries are ever-changing, ever-growing entities. We must look to the future of our libraries with excitement about the unlimited possibilities, rather than with fear for the changes taking place.

Mind-boggling! Week 6 (#14)

I honestly believe I could have looked around forever in Technorati, and yes, I know that forever is a long time. While the first Discovery Exercise was time-consuming, I learned so much about how to navigate around in Technorati. In searching for "School Library Learning 2.0" in Blog posts, tags and the Blog Directory, I discovered that the number of posts or results varied substantially, even though I saw a number of the same Blog posts in all three searches. As a fan of People magazine, I must say I enjoyed looking through the popular blogs. I read lots of interesting tidbits, but I cannot say that anything in particular surprised me.

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.

Doubly Del.icio.us! Week 6 (#13)

Now I know what del.icio.us is, and I have created my account. I immediately see two benefits of using del.icio.us:

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.

Week 5 (#12) Rollyo

I am now the proud roller of a search tool called ResourcESL.

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.

Week 5 (#11)

Well, I guess I'm easily impressed, but I really enjoyed looking through the various Web 2.0 winners. Of course, I was pleased to see LibraryThing won second place, but since I was so blown away by this website, I had to look at www.lulu.com, which won first place. And for sharing original creation/content, this is the site for you. I have a test book for which I search when I'm on a bibiliographic site, and I was able to find a copy of this long out of print title, which I have always read to second graders until it magically disappeared from the library awhile back.

Week 5 (#10)

Image Generators are so much fun! I poked around in Webfetti, and then in CustomSignGenerator.com, I found a support ribbon generator at http://161.58.20.24/signs/ribbons/support.asp

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!!!

Week 4 (#9) I'm Returning

After a very busy few weeks, I'm back!

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!