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.