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.