Mother's Day!

When you have a child, you get all excited about Mother's Day, until you realize that you're not your husband's mother, and a three month old child isn't going to be thanking you for anything any time soon. Of course, it's still all about your mom, so off you go with plant and card to see her. When, you wonder, will Mother's Day be about you?

This Mother's Day, after twenty of them, it was about me. Yay! I have to credit my daughter with choosing a college mere steps from Fenway Park, moving home on the proper weekend, and the Red Sox for opening the park for a Mother's Day Walk around the warning track. And yes, I DID call my mom on Mother's Day - lucky, lucky me!

Arriving on the warning track in the famous triangle area.












The center field wall (looking toward left) where Fred Lynn knocked himself out when he crashed into the concrete while going for a fly ball. It is now padded.










Okay, a plumber's family. Who could resist?













A warm Fenway welcome.













Manny's corner at the 310 marker.













On the third base line where greats Wade Boggs, Bill Mueller and now Mike Lowell patrol the field.












The closest we'll ever get to seats on the field.













Sitting in Terry Francona's seat. He has a great view of the field.












See?!













Faith Rewarded - mom too.

Week 9, Thing 23 - Copyright, Creative Commons and Congrats!

Well - after I stopped laughing, I sent off the YouTube video to a college professor friend, the other librarians in my district and my college student. What a clever way to get the point across. I also visited the Creative Commons web-site and found ccLearn which is dedicated to extending open education resources to the teaching community. I loved the elementary magazine for elementary schools, Beyond Polar Bears and Penguins and will be sharing it with my teachers. Wow - there is SO much out there. I wish, I wish, I wish .... you do too I am sure.

So what were my favorite discoveries? Oh gosh - everything except Technorati. I loved the mashups and still play with them. I WILL work them into the curriculum! In the meantime, I will play with my hamster pictures. (By the way - five of the babies are placed so I have a lovely blue male named Fenway and a teeny-tiny female runt named Lily who will stay with me.)

Zoho Writer and del.icio.us had immediate use to me and my colleagues as we work on developing a K-12 library curriculum. Learning how to use a blog has been wicked fun and

perhaps I will become a library blogger for my students! Wikis were entrancing as well. I'm just going to have to stop there ... though I AM enjoying getting all the Red Sox news delivered to Google Reader.

Ah - life-long learning ... I strive to be open to new experiences and this course has been the swift kick in the pants that I needed to find the good and useful on-line. I didn't expect to like so much of what we did. It all sounded so dry when I read the CSLA introduction and 23 things seemed beyond my ability. I dragged my allegedly life-long learning feet to sign up. I am so glad that Kathy dinged me and signed me up by the skin of my teeth.

I don't know that I'd do anything differently ... I liked the freedom and the format ... but a real live meet the colleagues might be nice. Would I participate again - oh my, what a question! How many ways can you say absolutely, positively, without a doubt, YES!!!!

One word for this course ... empowering ... and isn't taking charge of our knowledge what it's all about?

Finally at the end. Yay and rats at the same time. A program like this forces me to look at new technologies and consider how they can make my job easier and be of help to my students. It also introduces me to cyber-colleagues who make my wheels turn. As I once said, we all have a lonely profession in that we are generally the only people in our buildings who do our jobs. No grade level meetings and common planning time for us. This becomes our common planning time. So thanks to all of you for sharing your thoughts and ideas. I have been enriched. Should you care to stay in touch, here's my e-mail: bookwoman7@comcast.net

Week 9, Thing 22 - eBooks

Wow - I feel like I have been away from this community for a very long time! Blame a heavy rehearsal schedule for a performance, kid home from college fighting for on-line time, a cold and a loooong book fair. I am terrified to look at my Google Reader as I suspect all of you have been busy at finishing and posting. I will have LOTS to read. Today, my tongue is no longer dragging on the tarmac so I think I can finish this course. YAY!

Hmmm ... eBooks. I first entered the realm of "not a book" when my husband gifted me with an audio book of Pride and Prejudice. That experiment went well so I tried some contemporary titles. Then a student's parent pulled up next to me at a red light on a warm spring day. Windows wide open, I was enjoying Billy Straight. The, shall we say expressive, language caused said parent to take a long measuring look at me and that was the end of that. Talk about caving to censorship!

I next encountered "not a book" at rehearsal where a fellow soprano was reading on what looked to me like a PDA. It was an eBook reader and while it look rather cool, the screen was gray and the letters black so the contrast wasn't all that tempting. What's more, as a person who suffers from astigmatism, the movement of the words as they scrolled caused (as my daughter says) "the worms in my stomach to start partying." Let's face it, I love my old fashioned, tree-killing, and generally ecologically unfriendly blocks of paper and text.

While waiting in a doctor's office, I had the chance to read a very long article on Amazon's new Kindle ... or maybe it was new at the time because all the periodicals were suffering from advanced age ... as was I as I waited. I was impressed by the thought behind the product - and the fact that it addressed the issue of contrast - was shaped like a book to add some tactile pleasure to the experience, stuff like that. The article also addressed issues of storage - where do bibliophiles (is that the right word) store all their treasures? Cost was also considered - for those who purchase books, an eBook is significantly cheaper. It was certainly something to mull over.

Because life is serendipitous, along came this assignment. Despite my forays into the world of Web 2.0, I found the World eBook Fair to be somewhat intimidating. Strange coming from the keyboard of a person who just spent five days trapped in the world of Scholastic! I seemed to get a huge number of hits for my searches, despite trying to tailor them and that turned me off. I liked much better, the sub-catalogs on the site like the Alex Catalogue, Author's Community Collection and Childrens eBook Collection - though you'd be better off doing research on children's literature rather than trying to find something to read that's much more current than the turn of the century.

I found LibriVox to be rather neat and enjoyed Aesop's Fox and Grapes which was read by a volunteer with a smooth and expressive voice. Such short and well done audios would be of great use in a classroom, not only for sight-impaired students or those who do best when reading along, but could be used as demonstrations for teaching children to read with expression to engage an audience. (It's in the Frameworks, I swear!)

I checked out the Best Places to get Free Books site and found two amusing sites. Book Crossing reminded me of the elementary school practice of leaving a teddy bear in an airport and seeing where he ends up as travelers pick him up and send postcards from his various destinations. It was interesting to see that the site tracks real old-fashioned books vs. eBooks. LibraryElf is a disorganized person's dream by keeping track of an entire family's worth of books from various libraries. I have solved that problem by putting my due dates on the kitchen calendar and keeping the books on top of my dresser, but we can't all be anal-retentive.

Week 9, Thing 21 - Podcasts

My first thought upon looking at podcasts was "Help!" I fished around a bit for the tutorial which was a bit too techy, though I am not, and never have been, a "Flashing 12." I found a better description with less distractions on the page at the NPR Podcast Directory Help. What was most confusing to me was whether or not one needed podcast software like iTunes and the discovery exercise direction to subscribe to a podcast using an RSS feed. I've still not found that little orange RSS button anywhere on the podcast pages I saw. However, I was successful with the assignment.

A bit defeated by my inability to locate an RSS button, I decided to look at using iTunes for my podcast of Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me! from NPR. I clicked the iTunes button, the iTunes store appeared, I clicked on the free "purchase" and voila, there it was in iTunes. It was quite simple and I began to wonder why I had thought this would be difficult.

Not willing to give up on using an RSS feed and Google Reader, I decided thatI would pit my talents against this challenge and figure it out. I prowled among the entries of my classmates for clues and hit upon purpleglassesclub who has been a wonderful inspiration throughout this course. You can blame her for helping me understand the hyperlink tool and my hyperactivity in using it. "Hmmm," thought I, "if she can embed this link in her blog, perhaps I can embed the link in Google Reader." So I tried it ... and it worked! What link did I cheerfully steal? Why that of Children's Literature with Daniel Pinkwater. I then went back and did the same with "Wait, Wait" and am now free of iTunes (which is incredibly slow on my computer) and I will see all the new entries when I log into Google Reader. I suppose one benefit of using iTunes over Google Reader is that my husband can listen to the "Wait" podcasts without having to go into Google Reader. We'll have to wait a bit to see how the new week downloads to iTunes. An interesting note, when subscribing through iTunes, I got only the latest broadcast, but when subscribing through Google Reader, I got everything back to December, 2007.

Did I find anything useful? My main thrust was figuring out the tool and I was so busy doing that, thoughts of my students went into suspended animation. I think using podcasts for research could be very interesting especially for very current topics where books are not available. NPR frequently covers a topic over a number of days giving very complete and balanced coverage. Subscribing to a podcast would alleviate time spent searching for the broadcast and send it to the student's computer. I'm not sure where I would go with this tool in an elementary school. Looking more closely at the Educational Podcast Directory would be a place to start, but for now I know there isn't a computer in my domain that can handle this tool, so I will have plenty of time to think.

Week 9, Thing 20 - YouTube, etc.

I have oft wondered what was going on upstairs when my husband disappeared for hours. One day, I discovered his YouTube addiction. He is a fan of Chad Vader and several others and I have been forced to watch whatever his latest fascination is, though sometimes it is hamsters so that's okay. Needless to say, I did not bring a terribly open mind to this discovery exercise. Imagine my surprise to find that there might be something useful about this tool.

Hmmm ... what did I dislike about YouTube? I found the sound in many of the videos to be of poor quality and the camera work often jerky which is anathema to someone who gets motion sick in a rocking chair (aka "me") A good number of the library videos contained language that I was not comfortable with. Call me a censor, or even a hypocrite, but I can't upload something with inappropriate language or situations. (Is my "elementary" status showing?)

What I did like, was the immensity of YouTube's collection - meaning I could find things that were funny or informative without being offensive. Yahoo Video pales by comparison as does Google Video, but they had many, many more than poor Yahoo. I really liked YouTube's Video Toolbox with advice from the pros on correcting those sound and shake issues I had.

I found a very cute School Library Media Specialist video on YouTube that runs just about a minute and a half. I was drawn to the Sam Spade-like aspect of the film - done in black and white, a solemn voice-over, and 40's type music. Very cool.



My favorite tool was TeacherTube (how predictable!) where I found a spiffy video on information resources that spoofs "American Idol." I can see linking this video to any library web-page where I think it would be really appealing to our young patrons. This video is just over six minutes long, but was funny, informative and very worth it.



TeacherTube is what got some ideas running around in my head. Could we record and upload "Reading Rainbow" type book reviews done by our students? Could we link to short videos that cover a curricular concept for a "Homework Help" page? What about a video that gave a "tour" of the library web-page? I have found the videos that have been included in our discovery resources have been the thing that I have gone to first in learning about something new. Surely our students - who are even more tuned in to this media - would find this an exciting way to learn - without knowing they are learning.

Finally, I love the help feature on Blogger which gave me simple directions on embedding these videos and now that I have finally discovered it - I love the spell check. Yep, it took me 'til tonight to find it.

Week 8, Thing 19 - LibraryThing

This assignment was pretty easy for me. I had already taken a good look at LibraryThing several assignments back and I really liked it. I have mentioned before, that I do not own very many books. I'm my local library's best buddy because I am a constant borrower. Therefore, I really don't have any personal books to catalog, but I have recently purchased some exceptional picture books for our school system's "Reach Out and Read" (ROAR) program, so I cataloged those. My colleague and I choose picture books to be read to our fourth and fifth grade classes by community readers. (The K-3 classes are read to in the fall) This year, we tied into the ALA theme of "Read Around the Circle of Knowledge - so we changed it to "Reach Out and Read Around ..." and we concentrated on circle of life, circle of family and circle of friendship. I was really pleased with what we found especially because not only are they substantive and well-suited for reading aloud, but fit the curriculum (yay!) quite well.

Most of these books are not terribly well known - at least on LibraryThing so there was little in the way of review or discussion, but what was there was very positive about these titles. "Henry's Freedom Box" was the most popular title of my "library" because it was a Caldecott Honor Book - it was included in 114 collections.

Week 8, Thing 18 - On-Line Productivity Tools

I am taking the plunge and attempting to publish this entry to my blog from Zoho Writer. Wish me luck!

I thought I would try some of the tools within the tool and see how they work. Brave of me. If you have read my blog, you know I have Campbell's Russian Dwarf hamsters. We had a litter on February 14th Miss Lucy gave us ... seven dwarves. I'm using the Insert/Modify Image tool to show you a pig pile of tiny bodies.

Okay - enough playing. One of the things that immediately struck me when looking at and reading about Zoho Writer was the ability to edit from anywhere. We have four librarians in our district and we are responsible for maintaining a Program Profile that must be updated yearly. We all work very well together so we share the editing. Just last month we had a flurry of e-mails and attachments back and forth to make the necessary changes. I only have two schools where I can open a Word attachment so had to wait to make comments until I was in the "right" place. Zoho Writer eliminates that barrier as well as allows editing to the original document while tracking changes. As you can imagine, the first thing I did in Zoho Writer was to share the discovery with my colleagues.

We will also be working on a five-year plan as well as a comprehensive curriculum. One of the biggest downsides to working on those projects (besides lack of time) was who would get "stuck" typing it up and distributing it to her colleagues. This might help get us motivated because we can share the load. We've also just completed revisions to our selection policy. With a district in financial crisis, we can save paper by sharing the document with the superintendent and school committee and invite comments via Zoho Writer. This is certainly something to think about to streamline our administrative responsibilities. And - thinking entirely selfishly at this point - administrators may see the librarians as successful users of technology and include our libraries in the next technology bond. (I wish)

On the education side of things, the fact that Zoho Writer so closely resembles Word, will make it easy for students to "hit the ground running." You know those group projects that parents absolutely hate? Zoho Writer allows each member of the group to access the document as needed, enter his/her information, edit when needed, etc. Will this necessarily improve the quality of the output? Maybe not. But teachers will be able to see who has been doing the work via the tracking changes. And - (dream on) if a student is on vacation ... they need not miss out on working with the group. You can all stop laughing now. Let's put it this way - a student who is home recovering or able to handle limited days in school, can still be part of the group. (Much more likely I'm sure.)

I haven't found the tool to be "perfect." I'm still getting that "thunk" in my stomach when I try pressing a button to see what happens. Though the "thunk" would not be as desperate were I mucking around in a play document instead of what I hope to be my blog I still can't figure out how to use a template and I nearly lost my mind over switching to "page view" and figuring out how to get back to my happy editing page - but time and practice will certainly turn me into a successful user. No doubt the students will become successful a lot faster than me.

p.s. When the document posted to my blog, the picture was initially in place, but when I edited for a typo, it did not come back. I added it through Blogger. None of my smiley faces came over either. Interesting.

Week 7, Thing 17 - Wiki Sandbox

After thrashing around for a bit to actually FIND the SandBox, I found it rather fun. For those of you who, like me, felt fear grip your gut when the MSLA sandbox didn't have a link, go to the CSLA page where the link is alive and well. (Thank you Purple Glasses)

It was neat to see the comments made by my colleagues in this class. I did try the chat, but was unable to do anything without a microphone. Hmmm ... shall I start a search for it? The sandbox tools are so similar to the tools on Blogger that it was quite easy to edit the page and insert a photo.

I can see that wikis would be a very easy tool for my students to use. Not only would it get their creativity going, but I think it would force them to think critically about what should be posted as well. Used as a collaborative tool in class, it may even make them work as a team. Knowing that their work would have a presence on the Web would be a very powerful motivator - the students would become the producers of information for consumption by other students. And what student wouldn't rather learn from a peer vs. an adult? We see it all the time in reader's advisory. If I like the book, there's a bit of hesitation to take it out. When student A agrees with me, it's a foot race to the checkout desk.

On a tangent to this topic, I have been thinking a lot about the wiki vs. the Teacher Web tool I used. Teacher Web provides a place to design a page that can only be edited by the owner. It is a really simple tool to use - I was able to design an attractive page with multiple links in a very short amount of time and no web page design experience. There is a cost for using the service; but if you want your page to be your own, it is an avenue to that end.

Week 7, Thing 16 - Wikis

When I first heard the word "wiki" it was in combination with the word "stick." I discovered that a "wiki stick" was a malleable wax-like stick that occupational therapists used with students who needed to develop better fine motor coordination. I even got to try one out - and I loved playing with it. So when I heard the word ""wiki" in combination with Web 2.0 tools, I sort of figured that it wasn't something to play with, but guess what? I was wrong!

I immediately fell in love with the BookLoversWiki. I am forever looking for new reads and now I can get suggestions from other avid readers and post my own. I can also see my students getting excited about books they have loved - or hated - given the opportunity to express their opinion in this medium.

Ever the believer in laziness being the mother of shortcuts, it was very exciting to see the Library Instruction Wiki. Our district has been hoping to develop a comprehensive library curriculum K-12 for the past few years. This wiki can give us a place to start ... and wikis in general can give a place to collaborate without having to gather for meetings. It can also give students a place to research, post, or comment on information that is part of the curriculum. Instead of individual research papers which go nowhere beyond student and teacher, how neat would it be for fifth graders to develop an "explorer" wiki?

When I think about the adage, "Knowledge is power," I can see that developing a wiki gives the user the power to create and adapt a knowledge base. In another on-line course, I developed a web-page on Teacher Web. Not able to afford the paltry sum (long story) to keep it "up" for a year, I went to my various school tech people to see if the pages could be redeveloped with the district's "Dream Weaver" software. I was turned down - no one had the time either to do it or to teach me - and I lost the work. Oh if only I knew about wikis at the time!

In education today, there is a lot of talk about wanting students to "own their own knowledge" and to be responsible for "taking charge of their learning." Developing a wiki plays right into this philosophy. What's more, because it is on the Web, a wiki can create conversations between students across the country and throughout the world, accomodating varying opinions and schools of thought.

In our previous assignment, author Rick Anderson stated that we needed to eliminate barriers between patrons and information and that if services could not be used without training, then the services needed to be fixed. What addresses those issues better than wikis?

Week 6, Thing 15 - Library 2.0 Thoughts

I admit it. I am an old-fashioned girl. I still get excited by the scent of new books, by the sound of the spine gently cracking as I open the cover for the first time, by the silk of the pages as they flow under my fingertips. Books are my little bit of heaven on earth and my communion with them is tactile as well as intellectual. I have never subscribed to the belief that "Someday there will be no books because everything will be on the web." There is too much joy in curling up with a good book. Try doing that with your Kindle or your laptop. So the first thing I did with this assignment was print out the articles (forgetting that I had the issue of SLJ) and retire to my sunny bedroom to curl up in a golden puddle and read with pen in hand. Ah, bliss!

That said, I do believe that librarians need to "find new ways to bring our services to patrons." (Anderson) To me, the whole thrust of Library 2.0 seems to be about choices. If I want to have a physical book, I can get it; if I want to research on-line, I can; if I want to create new content, it's there. I also found this assignment to be strategically placed in our learning continuum. We were exposed to just the right amount of new tools and challenges to be on the verge of overload - and then we had to think about it. Clever!

I was particularly struck by Anderson's "Away from the Icebergs" and Nilges's "To More Powerful Ways to Cooperate." Anderson's statement that we need to eliminate "the barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need" seemed directed right to my elementary libraries. Our OPAC requires that students spell correctly, or get a title exactly right in order to find what they are looking for. This can be very frustrating for a little one so "if our services can't be used without training, then it's the services that need to be fixed." Of course, one of the biggest obstacles to eliminating barriers and fixing our service in the schools is the age and ability of our hardware. With that obstacle firmly in place for the time being, it becomes ever more important for us to move "into a new world of librarianship" (Stephens) to "find new ways of bringing our services to patrons." (Anderson) The delicious account that I created is a start toward bringing better service to my patrons. I want to find a way to include it on my various school web-sites (have to work with four different tech managers ...) so that students can research from home.

One of the goals of my school system has been to have a unified catalog for all twelve of our schools. The price of proprietary systems is well beyond anything we can hope for in our current fiscal climate. As I was reading Nilges's article, his idea of building new services with Web 2.0 technologies started that hamster turning the wheel in my brain. Could we possibly upload our school collections into LibraryThing and access them that way? Certainly something to investigate.

In my previous life I was a technical writer who had access to cutting edge technology and was well versed in "Project Life Cycle," you know, the business plan that takes months and months to get through and you still end up with updates. The whole idea that we must now go forward in an environment of perpetual beta testing is both exciting and scary. In an elementary school, I will need to pick and choose among the new technologies that are available without getting caught up in Stephens's "techno-lust." (Well, no chance with our budget!) But if what we are going to enable in the end is a way for our patrons to get what they need, when they need it, in the best format for that user, then there can be no down side.

Week 6, Thing 14 - Technorati

If I thought I was confused before, then just call me "Alice Through the Looking Glass." Perhaps I am congenitally uncurious, but I am not all that interested in seeing what others are saying about a particular topic. My main concern with this whole tool is that there is no authority that what's being put out there is valid. Technorati gives an authority rating, but it is just the number of others who link to a blog. That number doesn't make the information viable or useful.

I found the site somewhat confusing - perhaps the effects of antihistamines and cough syrup punctuated by hearty sneezes - or perhaps just cyber overload. I did finally manage to search by posts, tags and directories through the advanced search option. I never found that lovely drop down box in the "Technorati Tour." Using the term "School Library Learning 2.0" I found 1,857 blog posts, 13 tagged entries and 18 blog directories. I even found one of MY posts, but then couldn't find it again after I navigated from that search. (sigh)

One thing that I did like about this site was that a search returned not only text, but pictures, videos, DVDs, books, news, etc., all related to the entered term.

I do see advantages to tagging. It's nice to use "natural language" to describe a topic and not be locked into something that Sears dictates. In some ways, I've been "tagging" my subject headings in our OPAC for a long time. If you are using this tool in a school and there is a certain way that things are referred to regionally, then the tag can be used in a meaningful way for that area. (hoagie/grinder & seltzer/soda come to mind)

One of the disadvantages is one that I encounter with my less-than-sacrosanct way of entering subject headings aka "Oh darn, what did I call that last time?" I wonder too, how many people will use a perfectly innocent tag to pull users into an inappropriate site - but that is a worry for all these tools, not just Technorati.

Week 6, Thing 13 Del.icio.us

Yummy, yummy. I've just spent several hours with del.icio.us. At first it seemed pretty impenetrable. I was very sad that the 12 minutes tutorial was unavailable. Okay, okay! I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to figure it out, but after viewing posts by my cyber-colleagues I took their advice and hit the help button. Voila! Not perfect, but certainly doable.

While prowling around the site my mind was busily working on how I could use this with my students and then I realized that this was the perfect way for elementary students to use the sites that their teachers and I have preselected. Sure, some of the sites will bounce them to other places, but many of them have been screened by librarians and others to be appropriate for students.

I also created an account and added the del.icio.us link to my blog. It is right under my picture. It's a collection of sites that are appropriate for elementary students to use as ready reference, ask an expert, kid-friendly search engines and homework help. Feel free to check it out.

Week 5, Thing 12 Rolly-O

"Rolly-O oh Rolly-O, Wherefore art thou Rolly-O" And if you think this tool is kinda weird, then just know that I could NOT remember what came afer "Romeo, oh Romeo ... " UNTIL I did a seach on Quick Quotes. Very cool.

Ah - my experience with Rolly-O started out much like the feud between the Montagues and Capulets. There was no love lost between us. I could see both the value and the ease, but I was darned if I could make the darn thing link to my blog. Duh ... until "what light through yonder window breaks, It is the east and Rolly-O the sun" I realized that the link brought me to the search page of my new searchrolls and all I had to do was copy the URL. Sometimes it's just TOO easy.

In a non-technical way, I've been Rolly-o-ing forever in my little elementary libraries. Everytime I come up with a "list of good sites" for x-y-z's assignment, I've limited my students to searching sites that will have age-appropriate, readable and accurate information. This tool is awesome for helping students search quickly and easily without being overwhelmed by a million or two hits. (And they won't have to type the URL which can always be fun.)

So wanting a little fun in my life, and needing a boost from my sadness for the Patriot's loss (though it was an INCREDIBLE game), I created a Searchroll of Red Sox sites.

And then figuring that I should probably make this a LITTLE bit about being a librarian, I started editing the Reference Rolly-o and will be making more additions now that I know this tool exists and can use it.

Week 5, Thing 10A and Thing 11 Web 2.0 Applications

I had so much fun with the image generators that I had to go back and do it again. This is the view of Fenway from "The Voice of Fenway Park," Carl Beane's window. He's from my hometown and was gracious enough to give us a tour which I then had to turn into a puzzle with this assignment. Very cool!

I explored LibraryThing from the award winner list. I have said it before and I'll say it again, I just get overwhelmed by everything out there, so I liked the whole idea of a short list. (I even get overwhelmed in a large library. Boston Public sets my teeth on edge!) One reason I chose LibraryThing was that a cyber-colleague recently used it to rescue Marc records from a two year old backup CD of her collection. I expected to find a tool that made it simple to export records. I found a lot more than that.

LibraryThing allows a user to simply and easily catalog a personal collection of materials, get reviews, suggestions and anti-suggestions, and to join groups of those with similar interests - like Elementary School Librarians. It was as simple as ZMarc cataloging, and I did like the reviews and suggestions features. It is important to note that if I searched for suggestions based on a children's book title, I got all children's books back. Obviously, when I searched on a tag, I got a mix of children's and adult materials which would not be acceptable in an elementary school.

I could see this tool being used to introduce students to new materials, i.e., "read-alikes" and to reviews written by their peers. It is simple enough to use so that they could add titles to a school account and add their own reviews to the database so they are not just consumers of information. A big concern is that this looks like a tool mainly used by adults. It would be neat - and more useful - if there were a way to "partition" a children's area.

I have four K-5 elementary schools and it might be very fun to create a group on LibraryThing where the students could interact with each other in all my schools to see what they are reading and enjoying as well. Now if I can get my "other-half" to jump in with her four schools, then we could involve all eight of our schools. Something to think about.

Aside from school time, I can see some of my students cataloging their own libraries at home. I confess, when my dad brought home some Nancy Drew books from a defunct church library, I cataloged them - pockets, cards and all. They were some of the only books I owned as a child. I wasn't allowed to BUY books. I had to go to the library because I read too fast. Oh my gosh ... and look what I grew up to be!

Week 4, Thing 9 Library Related RSS Feeds

Alright, I lied. My frustration level still has not settled down. Darn Bloglines. I hate to be controlled by technology. One of my first thoughts at seeing all the various ways to access blogs and newsfeeds was "Whoa ... some people have WAY too much time on their hands." I know this is supposed to be a time-saver, but one could certainly disappear into the world of newsfeeds, even limiting oneself to those of specific interest.

I liked the simple mechanics of Topix and Google Blog Search. I found Syndic8.com overwhelming ... along the lines of "too much information" and Blog Pulse downright weird. It felt a bit "peeping tomish." I know there's a good reason for having these - especially to create a virual community of idea sharing, but I'm concerned about how one establishes authority for something like this. Just something to think about. (The old question of "How do you know s/he's not an ax murder?" only in cyberland.)

The school library blogs were pretty neat as were the award winners and that's where I got an idea. How neat would it be to set up a blog with an expert and have students communicate questions or observations with that person or team during their study of a particular topic. Can you just imagine learning about elections and being able to blog with a member of an candidate's election team? What about working with an astronaut when studying the solar system or an expert at the San Diego Zoo for animal research. One could even include a live expert component as part of a WebQuest.

As for my favorite library related RSS feeds ... I love my School Library Journal feeds. I have one for reviews and one for Web 2.0.

Week 4 Thing 8 RSS Feeds

I do like the whole idea of RSS Feeds and being able to have the news/information come to me without having to look for it. This becomes particularly important during the Red Sox Hot Stove Season and as trade deadlines approach in July. Yes ... I have the Red Sox feed. Can you blame me? I also stole the idea many of you had and subscribed to all your blogs. C'mon, admit it. We all search through the blogs to be sure we are doing the exercises correctly and to get ideas. Now, the new entries will come right to me! And that's when I realized how these RSS feeds can be used in my Literacy Cooperative classrooms. Each student keeps a reader response journal. How neat would it be for each student to set up a blog as their journal - and for the teacher to subscribe to all of them so that she is able to read and respond to each student when an entry is made. This technology is perfect for that set-up. I also subscribed to the K-4 reviews at School Library Journal - I'm hoping that the electronic version is going to be out a lot faster than the print one!

I do have to say that I had a miserable time with Bloglines. For some reason I never got my confirmation e-mail, despite repeatedly clicking the button to "resend verification." After five days, I gave up and went to Google Reader. With my frustration level at an all-time high, I was less than excited to look for feeds, but figure that the blood pressure will come down in the very near future.

By the way - thanks to one of you wonderful classmates for finding the gray hair for an avatar. Now that I know it exists, I may go back and revamp my sassy (but far too young looking) "self."

Week5, Thing 10 Image Generators

WHOOPS! I completely missed week four and started on week 5. I'll be going back real soon, but having spent a few hours playing, thought you might as well get a chance to see what I did. I have Campbell's Russian Dwarf hamsters as pets and created a slide show of some of my little furry family. It was really fun to do, but I learned you should think ahead and plan what picture you want in which order because the most difficult part was arranging the photos after they were uploaded.

I can see students having a blast with this tool. The old time movie (which I chose) lends itself beautifully to an historical presentation. There's plenty of room for text to accompany each slide. Fun, fun, fun!

Here's the link:

http://www.slide.com/mscd?pxcid=-H7qNcBYob2JO16ZJf_8s1x3riMJlQpa3w-LmOxubECF5W_SKlKp3SsTDBj7TI4o&nc=1&pxciid=

Week 3, Thing 7 Technology Related Thoughts

First of all, let me say that I have enjoyed browsing (and commenting on) the blogs of my fellow librarians. A school librarian lives in isolation much of the time, so having this window into the work of others is inspiring as well as a cure for feeling all alone out there. We clearly can't all get together to talk, so this cyber-community is an awesome (and needed) replacement. And what's funny is, though many of us claim not to be writers, our individual voices are coming through loud and clear.

In order to be take this course, I had to renew my long-lapsed membership in MSLA. Though I sometimes feel like I have to dig out from all the e-mails each day, there have been items that prompted me to respond so I feel like I'm coming back into that community a bit. Who would have thought that a machine which takes one away from physical human contact could actually engender a feeling of community?

I know I mentioned my friend's "baby blog" and how that has brought us into her life as a new mom. I saw in many of your posts that you have far-flung family and that these technology tools provide ways for you to be a part of things without being there physically. This is such a great part of the technology boom - and a far cry from the old image of the "computer nerd" who hid in his/her lab.

Sure there's not enough time to learn all that we really want to know and give to our students, but we'll just have to do what we can in the time that we have. Today, I am choosing to focus on what I see as the best part of technology - the sharing and the community it can create.

Week 3, Thing 6

How fun is this! I've just spent about three hours wandering amongst the various tools and especially liked the Flickr Toy, Motivator. I can see using it as a way to get students to set a goal for themselves.

I also got myself totally lost in Magazine cover and finally settled on trying out something with one of my little Campbell's Russian Dwarf Hamsters. While playing, I was thinking about how we've all asked kids to design a book cover. I think that the tool might be fun and useful for a task like that. It might also be neat to use it for book recommendations or even a book report.

I'm going to be working with a colleague on 4th grade writing skills - specifically how to write a book review. One of their tasks will be to create an image of the book or themselves as reviewer. These tools may be a lot of fun to investigate for this project.

It's a good thing that my husband has been busy in the kitchen while I "played." I can see how easily one might disappear into the many mashups available, never to be seen in person again!

Week 3, Thing 5

Wow! I have been playing around with my dying digital camera for a number of years and felt fairly competent at uploading and organizing my photos on the family computer. I even backed them up on an external hard drive. Flickr is something else entirely. I found myself keeping several windows open ... the instructions for the assignment, the blog, and Flickr. I'm still not entirely sure what linking Flickr and Blogger did ... although my test communication worked quite well, but perhaps I need to do some more exploring.


Though I cannot call myself an expert, I can say that I successfully uploaded six photos to Flickr, tagged them all with "Schoollibrarylearning2.0" and wrote descriptions. I felt a bit disjointed and not always sure I was following the right path (where are those bread crumbs when you need them), but I did it!


I also uploaded two photos (from my C drive) to this post. This is a view of the Southampton Road School Library and shows parts of our Biography, Reference and Early Fiction sections. You'll also notice the gorgeous alphabet banners which were produced as part of an "Artist in Residence" program. Each banner was designed by a classroom (how lucky we had 26 that year) and the letters are made of a patchwork of fabrics as each child brought in a swatch from home.


Southampton is a busy library! This year, our SmartBoard Classroom is in full swing which means we often have two full classes using our space. Several years ago, the library was redesigned with the intent that a portion of this extremely long rectangular room would act as a teaching space. The tables in the space were purchased with an eye toward flexibility and may be configured in many different ways to accomodate individual class needs.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Week 1 Thing 2

Okay, okay, I'm doing things backwards! I got kind of excited about playing with blogspot and creating an avatar so I jumped right in to that without taking the time to think about habits of learning and which is easiest and hardest for me. So - what's easiest? Well, I've always believed that I am responsible for my own learning and I am dogged in solving problems so I guess I do view them as challenges. Then things get a little stickier. I was once a very confident learner, but find as I am aging that I question whether I can "get" it. This whole on-line learning thing is scary in its own way!

Hardest for me is using technology to my advantage. Hard to believe huh? I guess if you look at the prior statement you'll understand. I came from business fourteen years ago where I worked with cutting edge software tools. Needless to say, when I arrived in my elementary schools (plural!) I was back in the technology dark ages. Can you say "Commodore 64?" Today I am working with computers that are pretty much what I had back in business all those years ago. It's hard to make them do what I want so I get frustrated and fail to use them to my advantage!

One thing not mentioned in the 7 1/2 habits is the speed factor. Everything is changing SO fast. Do you all remember cataloging class where we hand-typed the cards and reference class where we set up our little recipe box of handwritten best sources? I sometimes feel like a turtle on the Autobahn! But I guess that's where life-long learning comes in. I am excited and happy to learn ... but I am getting a lot of windburn from the cars rushing by.

Thing 3 ... Playing Around

I'm taking my first steps into blogging. Funny ... I first saw a blog when my friend's daughter was born prematurely. Mom kept all her loved ones throughout the country in the loop with pictures and commentary. How interesting that my first exposure was to a baby's blog as I take my own baby steps.