Reflection Island

Rediscovering Shelfari, Skype, and the Google applications were my take-always from this adventure. I’m going to get to work on my school blog ASAP, and I’m truly excited about it. I’ve got a design in mind and will use many of the sites that I visited as links and as patterns for a visually appealing and informative vehicle that will meet the needs of our students and faculty. This made me take the time to explore the Web 2.0 sites and reawakened the passion that I have for technology and its educational applications. I’m hoping to pass on this excitement to our students and faculty.

Life-long learning, think of the possibilities! You-Tube alone is a modern miracle. If you want to learn anything there’s a step-by-step video for it. The Internet offers on demand learning – we can learn whatever we want whenever we want. That’s pretty awesome to me. I must say that I appreciate the opportunity this online adventure gave me to reconnect with the educational asset that Web 2.0 can be. It has so much to offer, so much potential, surely I can pass my reclaimed enthusiasm for it to others. How? By using it and sharing it.

Don’t think I would change anything about the program. Nice, simple format, uncluttered, easy to use and understand. Thanks Michelle for all the time that you must have put into it.

Excursion

Perhaps because I’m a librarian I chose electronic books and mobiles as the most important emerging technology. I love books, the look, the feel of turning the pages; even the smell but I really enjoy the convenience of eBooks. About half of the books I read now are eBooks. With a little more color and animation I can see students really getting into them. My thinking was that if students can’t take care of a book how would they take care of an Ipad like device. But almost all our kids have cell phones that they keep up with and taking into account their fascination for anything electronic how long will it be before they all have an Ipad or something similar. So just maybe we can use what they have to capture their attention and get them to read more.

I want to use Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Sites. They will help me with organizational tasks at work. I know that there are Word apps that will do some of the same things but it will be nice to use some things that just have a have a different look about them. I was really impressed with Google presentations.

After wading through all the other Web 2.0 sites the Discovery Education site beat all the others hands down ( in my opinion, of course). It listed most of the tools found on the other sites but in a clear, easy to use style – another add to my favorites. I will definitely share this with our faculty; I really think it is the best list of Web 2.0 for educators. I want and need to use Animoto and Glogster more in the library. Our students enjoy it and it captures their attention easily. I can see collaboration with some language teachers using these tools in my future.

Wetpaint the program that allows you to create a website and invite others to help build it would be a great tool to use for a classroom project. I really want to use XtraNormal – a 3D animation program. Think it would produce some eye catching presentations but this brings to mind my pet peeve with some of the 2.0 tools. The free version of the program allows you limited use but you need to pay for the better version. Could never find Screentoaster , got excited about it but don’t think it’s available. Did I mention MediaFire and Scribd? They’re both file sharing programs I’d like to try. Right now I’m suffering from Web 2.0 overload, so much to use so little time. I’m definitely going to have to choose my top three or four and move on from there.

Liked Tagxedo but think it’s a little more complicated to use than Wordle but I can see it being used as a vocabulary tool and will share it with our teachers. SlideShare gets two thumbs up from me especially since it has a privacy feature. It would definitely help save time with moving files with flash drives. The only hang-up I can see is the uncertainty of our network. Whew, I will upload a slideshow to SlideShare tomorrow.

Search Island

Discovered Shelfari again through one of the blog search engines, and discovered Book Adventure- a free motivational reading site for kids that is sponsored by Sylvan Learning. Children can compile book lists based on reading level and interest (subject). Once they register there are quizzes they can take and prizes they can win based on points. I’d like to add these two resources to a blog for an online book club. Really think it will work and the kids will enjoy it – looking forward to getting started.

Google News gets an A+ from me. I thought the layout was clean, sleek and easy to use. Can see using it in the library. Liked the Yippy and Google blog search engines but probably won’t use them that much in the library. Good to know it’s there if I need it.

On Ixquick found a Yahoo directory of Children’s authors that I will use over and over again. It will be great for our author research project – so much information – so easy to use.

I confess; I love YouTube. Use it all the time – book trailers, videos to use in class super tool to have at your fingertips. Music, instructional videos on just about anything you can imagine.

Rediscovered Digital Librarian. So much that I can use and share with teachers: book lists, book reviews, even a link to 655 fables with their morals listed . I have added it to my favorites and know I’ll use it again and again.

Can see myself using blinkx again to find videos. It had a nice layout (not cluttered) and seemed like a quick way to locate videos. Don’t think I’ll use the podcast search engines just not a big fan of podcasts I always want video. Thought that some of the sites were just too advanced for my students for example INFOMINE.com, MYPORTAL.com, Resource Shelf and the legal sites – great info for the right user but not something my kids would need to use.

Skype

Of course, I want to try a virtual author visit. I believe that I have everything (hardware) that’s needed either at home or at school. Hope that Skype is accessible from school. The School Library Journal article was extremely helpful especially the step by step guide. I was excited to see that someone had visited Bruce Hale via Skype. I also have another author that I have visited with several times at TLA and think he would be a good candidate for a virtual visit. He’s funny as can be and I think the kids would really enjoy him. I will contact him and let you know how it all shakes out. I wasn’t excited about some of the authors hadn’t heard of them and some seemed to be authors who had published their own books (good thing, bad thing who knows).

Really liked the Skype Authors link, it had a more professional look. Think I’ll try contacting some of those authors as well. Also, like the idea that I can record the visit while it’s going on with a program that I can download. Some of our staff members went to workshops that involved Skype last year but I don’t think anyone is using it on our campus. I will get together with someone (maybe even an author) and record a Skype session and share it on our campus during those staff development days at the beginning of school.

Libro Island

From ALSC on the More Great Web Sites for Kids from ALSC page I found (or perhaps stumbled across again) TeachingBooks.net. There you can click on a book cover and listen to a short book talk by the author; the one for the Doll People was a little over 3 minutes long. Great potential for this. Can use some of these on my blog and get our students to discover books that will interest them. Here’s the web address: http://www.teachingbooks.net/crc.cgi?id=5


I would share the More Great Websites for Kids page with our faculty, staff, and parents. It has something for just about every subject area. http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/ala/more-great-web-sites-kids-alsc





Found this website that I really liked. Want to pattern my own website or blog after it. Take a look I think you’ll like it. Think it has lots of kid appeal-maybe a little crowded but still great. It also has video book trailers another idea for my blog or maybe even the daily announcements
http://kids.librarypoint.org/

Blogger's Isalnd

The teachers seemed savvy, upbeat, and confident. Yes, I do believe that teaching and learning are relying more and more on technology to capture and involve students (not quickly enough to satisfy me). As a librarian I need to use technology more and encourage our teachers to do likewise. Students are attracted to computers and enjoy working with them. Technology also addresses learning style differences nicely. I would like to use a blog (or blogs) for scavenger hunts that will teach our students how to find information in the library more efficiently. Also, another blog with book trailers and author information to encourage and attract readers. I like the idea of communicating with students with wiki spaces. Embrace (change) is the verb I identify with most. It’s not enough to accept the Web 2.0 tools in a learning environment. We need to explore them, use them, enjoy them, and share our own enthusiasm with our students. Like this YouTube video because they used ExtraNormal to create a video that explained how a kindergarten teacher could use Web 2.0 tools in her classroom. http://youtu.be/e0glb9L5Dcc