Geotech Librarian

Moodling Around

2012-02-09T15:54:00.001-09:00

Using Moodle as a course delivery system is quite interesting, while not replacing real-time, face-to-face contact, it is a wonderful way to give and get documents, share resources, administer quizzes, upload content, and many other things. So much easier (& cheaper than Blackboard), using it in teaching Alaska History for Educators has helped me learn more about Moodle, and value its strengths. Tomorrow I am to to train teachers how to use it, so it will become even more important to learn how to use it. Some teachers do not want to learn another system, interface or web-based teaching tool. I can't say I blame them, with all of the user-unfriendly programs that ae a part of their day, this is one more burden. We will try to make it fun, bring candy...games...puppies...

Technology Training

2011-11-16T11:01:00.002-09:00

The Ed Tech team has been immersed in training for the past two weeks. From Digital Storyboarding, podcasting, and using the math tools on the Mac. Learning quite a lot every day!

Join Me on a New Journey!

2011-10-07T06:48:00.005-08:00

I return to this blog to post observations and reflections about teaching and learning in a new environment. In addition to working as an educational technologist for Kodiak Schools, I am starting a new journey as a teacher: teaching adults! Spring Semester, I will be teaching Multicultural Studies course and in the Fall, 2012, Alaska Studies. Both of these courses are for new teachers needing to meet the State of Alaska's requirements for a teaching credential.
I also have a new job as an ed tech, and get to travel to rural sites again. This week Akhiok, where we hiked up a hill to gain this gorgeous view!
The students were wonderful geographers naming sites, and helping us tell the poisonous berries from the edible ones.

Join Us!

2010-03-01T17:37:00.003-09:00

I will be presenting a sectional at the AkLA (AK Librarians' Association) conference in anchorage on Friday, March 5th from 4:00-5:00PM in the Whitby Room of the Captain Cook Hotel. I look forward to sharing and collaborating in this short period of time.
I will be posting documents to the wiki check it out, and leave a comment if you have any questions, or ideas for inclusion.

Grants for School Librarians

2010-02-23T19:05:00.002-09:00

Grants available in 2010:

AASL's 2010 Awards and Grants: Download the brochure detailing 10 grants - February 1 deadline

Grants & Grant Writing for Alaskans: Details various grants from the Alaska State Library - including links to applications, guidelines & previous grants awarded - April 1 deadline (Interlibrary Cooperation Grant)

We the People Bookshelf, a collection of classic books for young readers, is a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ (NEH) We the People program, conducted in cooperation with the American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office. - January 29 deadline

thing 23 - Feedback

2009-08-10T16:46:00.002-08:00

This class has been an excellent eye-opener about how much the technology has evolved in such a short period of time. I appreciated learning about the wealth of free tools out there that allow teachers and librarians to be very creative and capitalize on skills our students possess. I can see myself using many of these tools, and have already started a local wiki for our school library aides and I to stay in touch. I have much more to do to make it viable, but didn't want to get sidetracked.
The course was a great deal of work, and as usual with the internet, it's so easy to get sucked into playing around and searching; and if one doesn't budget one's time, it's so easy to get distracted!
I finally got all the ducks in a row, and finished up; between cataloging a new library, helping a relative with back surgery, and summer, I am at the final hour I know. thank you for your patience Ann, it's been fun.
Laurie

Implementation Plan

2009-08-10T16:28:00.003-08:00

I am developing a Kodiak Librarians wiki to enhance collaboration and communication between the school librarians and aides in the Kodiak Island Borough School District. Kodiak High School employs the only certified school librarian in the District, the five other schools’ libraries are staffed with classified aides. These positions are often filled with aides who are new to libraries and specifically to new to an OPAC and library procedures. In the next year two of the long-term aides are retiring, and their expertise and knowledge will be missed. I hope they will use this wiki to leave a history for the next generation filling their positions.
The Kodiak Librarians wiki will serve as a training tool, collaboration tool, and enhanced communication device I plan to post RSS feeds to share library news and content concerned with school libraries, links to cataloging resources, book reviews, and best practices in school libraries. I would host an inservice presentation to share the wiki with the library staff, encouraging them to contribute their own set of best practices, and news. The wiki would include a question/answer page to encourage sharing of techniques and sticky situations. Comments options will be available on all pages, and all members will be able to post pages, edit and make changes. I am beginning to add to it, and want to work on gettting it ready for the new school year.
The biggest hurdle will be making the wiki attractive and encouraging its use by the aides who lack technological skills and the time (always a hurdle). I hope that through inservice training and personal help that I can provide, these aides will be involved with the wiki. It will evolve as it is used, and I hope that they will be encouraged and interested in participating.
Link: http://kodiaklibrarians.wikispaces.com/

Thing 22-Audio & Ebooks

2009-08-10T16:25:00.001-08:00

Ebooks are a great way to spread the wealth to all users in a system, specifically Reference Books for students needing them. I hope we will begin to purchase more of these in the near future, as the costs of printed REF books have sky rocketed.
I tried using the World ELibrary that the youtube video embedded on the World ELibrary page to be a sales pitch; and when I tried to read or download a book I found that is was not allowed as I hadn’t paid for it. I then tried searching for Ebooks in various libraries that I use, but lack my library card! So I fouled out on this activity. However we have a Kindle and I use it to read the SFO Chronicle, rather than worry about the internet connection to hold out while I surf the paper, we simply download it and read it as I can.

Thing 21-Podcasts

2009-08-10T16:06:00.001-08:00

I looked forward to podcasting, as it is another great tool for students to collect evidence, such as oral histories; or to inform users without the drain that video causes; and is very simple to use. I searched several of the links from the class page such as: Education Podcast Network: “We are a multicast society of speakers and listeners, listeners and speakers, teaching and learning in a life and time of change.”
I spent time wandering through their posts, I used the Educational Directory, found Information Skills – Open Stacks—“Promoting information access and literacy for all”. Interesting posts on Greg Schwartz’s blog, but I didn’t get the idea he hosted podcasts, rather commented on others…then I found some of his blogs linked to his podcasts…and he really forgot to follow the list of dos and don’ts of podcasting, breathing into the mike, telling about the snow in D.C., etc. Then I found BrainWave, another blog for teachers and technology, which essentially is a blog with audio attached, profiling different eras of computers in education.
The most promising results for me were from the Podcastalley.com which returned many podcasts useful to librarians. I subscribed to Library Geek “Welcome to Library Geeks, where librarians, geeks, and geek librarians geek out about libraries.” And have included their feed at the bottom of my blog below.
I think podcasts hold great promise for teachers to send out information, as so many students don’t read well, or comprehend completely, having an audio version of a printed text could enhance instruction tremendously.

Thing 20 - TeacherTube

2009-08-10T12:21:00.003-08:00

I like to resources available on the Teacher Tube, especially this Boolean Operator video. I think it would be an excellent resource to teach high school or college students the nuances of Boolean operators, research tips and how to frame queries, especially because it uses EBSCO Host! I think that by showing several of these how-to videos to a class of students, that they might be encouraged to create their own.The largest problem I had was that because of the low bandwidth i had, it took 30 minutes to watch the 9-minute video. Perhaps if I went to town and plugged directly into the network, it wouldn't be so slow. This being said a warning to teachers encouraged to use this tool, YOUR BANDWIDTH MUST BE BIG!

Thing 18 - Zoho Writer

2009-08-10T09:08:00.001-08:00

The Zoho writer is very easy and intuitive. I wish I had known more about this before buying into yet another version of MS Office for the new Mac; this is simple, and powerful. Being able to share docs between users, makes it very powerful. I can see using this in many ways within a school and library community; between family members; or anyone seeking to create a shared doc. I decided to use Zoho Writer as it was new to me, and I have some familarity with Google Docs. This has the most wonderful "Welcome" page, that I saved it! Nice tool.

Thing #17 - Wiki uses

2009-08-09T22:33:00.000-08:00

Posted on the ravenaboutweb2.0 wiki: I believe that wikis could be an important collaboration and communication tool.A school librarians wiki could serve as a training tool, collaboration tool, and enhanced communication device. RSS feeds could be included to share library news and content concerned with school libraries, links to cataloging resources, book reviews, and best practices in school libraries. Laurie August, 2009

Thing#16-Wikis

2009-08-08T10:47:00.002-08:00

The wiki links listed on the Raven site were an interesting collection, although many are outdated. I searched Blogging Libraries wiki:
The purpose of this wiki is to collect links to library blogs, which is a different type of wiki, more of an index, one must register to have privileges due to spam. AkLA is listed there, and I found this there: "Since everyone is busy and we hate to spend time on things that aren't being used, we've decided to stop maintaining this blog at this time.”

Another wiki I searched through, the teacherlibrarianwiki! Its introduction reads:
"Wikis are about collaboration; so are teacher-librarians! This is your wiki! (If you'd like to contribute, please write me at joyce_valenza@sdst.org)… Let us demonstrate how teacher-librarians can use new landscapes to create serious professional tools." Page history last edited by Joyce Valenza 3 yrs ago.
After searching through the list of outdated wikis, I looked at pbeducators’ wiki. There is a page about best practices for using a wiki with your class. The librarians success wiki was a great choice in explaining why a wiki is powerful and ways to use it successfully

What I think is powerful about wikis is that they go beyond the blog (which is pretty self-centered) and can be well organized and full of shared information that can be edited and commented on. While blogs can do these things, the wiki is the larger platform for this type of activity. I enjoyed viewing what has been done on those wikis listed; I found that most all of them had dated information, which tells me that the biggest obstacle is time and input. Many people lack the time to give input! I think the best success story in the wiki environment is our Alaska School Library Handbook which because a state agency has spearheaded it (Alaska State Library) and is the driving force in getting it done; it is successful and active. It will continue as it has gained acceptance and popularity among school librarians throughout the state, and is not dependent upon one person to maintain it, but rather numerous people share in its creation and maintenance.
This is what I would like to propose for my implementation project: a Kodiak school library wiki, for sharing tips and questions about our work. More on that soon!

Thing #19 Library Thing

2009-08-06T23:04:00.004-08:00

I skipped ahead and used Library Thing tonight, added a list of books, and most were not too popular, perhaps because they were children's titles. I found two had extensive reviews, which would be helpful for the 520 tag in cataloging. I'm currently working on an intensive cataloging project for the District and was looking for some of the foreign language and obscure titles (curriculum titles) that aren't found in most Z5930 servers. so I had a purpose when I started.

I was hoping that this could be used for a variety of library tasks, like circulation, cataloging, but didn't find that tool; I was able to find records for several books, and posted them. The power I found on this site, are the discussion groups which debated a variety of topics.
Someone asked how to use the LibraryThing as a circulation system and the response was that it is not a circulation system, "LibraryThing isn't designed specifically for this, but maybe the best way to do it would be to use a combination of tags and the "private comments" field. You can tag a book as 'checked out,' then in the Private Comments field, enter the student's name, date checked out, then date returned, each time the book is checked out (keeping the old information if you want to have a record of past books checked out)." This seems like a lot more work than using OPAC software; but perhaps that lies in the real purpose of the site: to create a social networked library

I found this searching hint to be interesting:
"Hints for searching: Be sloppy with Amazon. Do what you want. Amazon will probably catch it.

Be strict with libraries. Libraries have rules! Enter phrases separated by commas. The words in each phrase must occur together."

I made a widget to paste on my blog, which is pretty cool!
My Library at LibraryThing

Thing #19b - Alaska Digital Pipeline

2009-08-05T20:25:00.007-08:00

The Digital Pipeline is one of my most-used resources that I depend upon for accurate, up-to-date information. I have used the reading level limiter with college-aged students this past semester in CA when students expressed frustration over their being unable to understand some of the scholarly articles. while they didn't realize I was sharing with them the part of EBSCO meant for HS students, I was able to help them find what they needed.

The new features I found on EBSCO Host are very useful! I searched the professional development database for info on school librarians and web 2.0 and found many familiar journals. I wanted to add an alert to my iGoogle Education tab for Teacher Librarian, and it was not too difficult to use EBSCO's help for a step-by-step directions to do so! Then I was able to save the search as an alert, again with the guidance of the help desk. I am so happy to learn of the new features.
As with many things, once something is working well for what I need, searching further or trying out new things isn't something I'd have taken the time to do, if I hadn't been taking this class.
time to ponder, transition, grow.

Untitled.

yesterday, today, and tomorrow: transitions of the work but not the mission.
These three articles from Teacher Librarian are already on my iGoogle desktop, WOW.

Thing #15-Library 2.0 articles

2009-08-05T20:20:00.001-08:00

I read three articles for this Thing: Where will the next generation Web take libraries?, Away from the “icebergs”, and Into a new world of librarianship: Librarian 2.0, and I began to feel that I could label most of the points made by the authors as NOT NEW. Librarians are providing many of the services they have always provided, just in a different medium. For example, in Into a new world of librarianship the five descriptors of Librarians 2.0 are things that good librarians always practice. From customer service to embracing new tools, Librarians 2.0 aren’t much different from Librarians 1992 or 1952: providing service, using the available technology to deliver the service (be it a typewriter, audio cassette, or card catalog). I think the fundamental change that Library 2.0 brings is that locus of control, the user controls the content and publishes and shares. Like I learned in LOGO 30 years ago, it is the user controlling what the turtle does; today’s digital user controls what and how the information is gathered, used and shared.

Along this same vein, Library 2.0 means to me that in the school library it is the user who will define how the available tools are used. The school library will have to extend itself out to the user, via RSS feeds, online reference sources, social networking and digital books, and offer access to publishing and web-creation, and other tools needed to use Web 2.0 effectively. Perhaps the addition of a lending laptop library, in which students have needed technology in their hands, every day, and wireless access that permits anywhere, anytime creation and access will be common in the future. The idea that the bricks-and-mortar library will die is a fantasy, in the school situation at least. Students wanting a quieter, relaxing scene away from the hectic common areas in a school will continue to seek refuge and comfort in the library. Having a librarian understanding of their needs (both technological and emotional) will be a partner in learning to these students, and hopefully become invaluable to the teaching staff, as a supporter of their curriculum and their students.

Thing #14--Technorati

2009-08-05T07:08:00.007-08:00

I searched around Technorati, and searched for School Library Learning 2.0 and received almost 1500 hits from the blog posts, and 535 from the Directory. I was unable to search the tags, as I couldn't find a link to searching tags. I could open their links, but searching a specific tag wasn't intuitive for me. Technorati is considered a vertical search engine, a term I had never heard of before. I searched for more info in Kroski's Web 2.0 for Librarians & Information Professionals (2008) and found that these types of search engines try to present information "in a robust interface that is well-organized and easy to navigate" (p.121). This is so true!!
I explored the popular blogs and wasn't surprised to find that those blogs relating to tools of blogging, or web creation to be most popular, while Huffington Post and another news source to be the most popular by reliability. I had visited this site for a previous thing, and realize it is very complex, and will take awhile to use properly. I believe that tags are useful especially to glean the information useful to me or useful to a search, to help keep track of the myriad of blogs, pictures and sites that are out there. By narrowing the search and concentrating in a specific area of knowledge, the results are relevant and quite current!

To review the tools learned this week: In practice I am not sure how much I would use Flick.r, mostly because of bandwidth, and would probably use it on a need-to-use basis; not for a daily diet. Voice Thread holds great promise for school and library uses; with a faster connection I would play with it often. Del.icio.us is a useful tool, I'll practice with that as well. Using a social bookmarking is a great way to share the wealth of the web in all its various forms (podcasts, blogs, wikis). I see these tools very useful in organization, which librarians love, and structure, another linear approach to learning!
I created an account and hope to use Technorati for research to locate blogs of interests and quality. I have tagged this search for [tagging]

Thing #13-Social bookmarking

2009-08-05T06:19:00.003-08:00

I played around with del.icio.us and found the wealth of information almost staggering. I did bite the bullet and create an account and organize my bookmarks. Although the bookmarks or favorites on my own laptops are organized into folders for easy location, having the del.icio.us tool available seems powerful. I could spend an incredible amount of time to get it organized, and plan to do that in the near future.
I think it is a great tool when researching; and in my short wanderings found ten-fifteen sites I want to investigate further. I did look at the libraries whose Of particular interest I found sites from Smashing Magazine (to get free icons for my blog or webpage) to Indigenous Cultures, focusing on each continent’s native peoples. I like the idea of tags; perhaps word clouds would be nice as well. Being able to access my bookmarks when on a public terminal would be useful, although I use my iGoogle home page for my most important links already, and all the pages within each heading is full! Now I can add del.icio.us to the home page! I think librarians would find the del.icio.us site useful in tracking current articles about innovations and practices in the field, and the sharing allowed by del.icio.us makes it even more useful.

Thing #12 - Voice Thread

2009-08-05T05:02:00.004-08:00

This tool is cool! I wandered around the site, and thought that this is applicable to many different types of uses. I investigated the ed.voicethread and think that is would be a fantastic way for students to create, publish and share their work in a variety of subject areas. For $1 per student/per year it is quite a value. I spent time looking through the Voice Thread digital library which showcases projects teachers and students have created to help guide and inspire others to try out this inexpensive, quality tool. I found this in searching tthrough the library and found it inspiring, as Ms. Knee is a kindergarten teacher!:
"For example, Knee used VoiceThread, a tool for creating collaborative, multimedia slide shows, to let students in Australia comment on the work of her New Hampshire classes. That brought peer feedback along with international camaraderie. 'Most important is a supportive environment,' says Knee, who also takes advantage of webcasts, podcasts, and other vehicles for professional development that are free and available twenty-four hours a day. 'You won't know about a technology until you start using it. Just go and do it'"
Tools like these take up an incredible amount of set up time for teachers (several commented on this), once you were comfortable with using it, I would think you wouldn't have to recreate the wheel, like Ms. Knee says, "just go & do it!!" I would like to use this as others have done, with literature circles, book sharing and promotion, and for professional development and training. The interactive nature of the tool makes it powerful for all involved. I like it!

Curriculum Idea posted on the ravenaboutweb20 wiki:
Voice Thread is a powerful, collaborative tool that would be useful for students in literature circles or Battle of the Books teams who could retell stories, illustrate text-only books, develop questions about their reading or share different perspectives. I like the fact that it's inexpensive, and the ed.voicethread portion offers teachers needed security and control.

Reading Reflections

2009-08-04T20:46:00.002-08:00

My previous comments about Yahoo/Microsoft merge relates to the readings in Chapter 7: online safety and security. This chapter is directed to teachers, regarding students’ use of data, the CIPA funding requirements, security and copyright considerations. To use the free tools available, such as we’re using in this course, one needs to divulge their email addresses to a variety of companies that are interconnected, so much for security! With Yahoo! controlling Flick.r, del.icio.us and other useful tools, what’s to stop them from selling or bartering my email address? In my surfing last week, wading through the deluge of ads, I clicked on one that offered a free iMac. I began filling in the information to sign up, until they asked for a credit card, then I quit. The next day, and for 3 subsequent days, someone from an 877 area code tried to reach me as they had my cell number and wanted to know if I was interested in an online degree. I realize it’s my risky behavior (wanting something free) that caused this to happen, but it seemed to be lies in advertising, something that Yahoo! And Microsoft support. Now they have too much information about me because of my use of their free tools.

Using such tools with students comes with a variety of risks. Fortunately, I’m working in a school district large enough to have a network manager and tech staff which places these concerns to be addressed of by use policies, restrictions, and SPAM filters, and librarians and teachers are responsible for teaching appropriate ethical behavior. Actively teaching web etiquette or modeling appropriate and ethical uses for all online tools and resources of information is important for students’ understanding and acceptance of the policies. It’s challenging in many ways, as what’s acceptable use at school is not the same as the acceptable (or ignored) use at home.

If young people are taught appropriate use, it can serve them well. Their knowing how to appropriately generate or reply to emails, what not to post on social networking sites, how to cite information created by another source, how to design and layout web pages for ease of use are all tools of today’s media literacy. I think the Student and Teacher Information Code of Ethics by Warlick (p. 147) that was posted in the techLEARNING blog in 2006 is an excellent document that covers a wide variety of uses in the online environment, being general enough for whatever new online bling-toy is coming next. Its built on four tenets: Seek Truth and Express it: Minimize Harm, Be Accountable, and Respect Information and its Infrastructure. The sub-text of each tenet clearly states its meaning. Useful in creating accepted use policies, as a teaching tool, I would like to put this into use in addition to our district-created accepted use policy, which is too vague.

The final section of this chapter discusses the knotty problems of image sharing, instant messaging, and social networking basically. With the favored use of the cell phone, blocking IM or texting or trying to curtail how students communicate has become even “knottier”. Again, I believe that if students are instructed in cell phone etiquette and appropriate behavior, the school’s rules and expectations should be known. It helps when all staff members are on board with these rules, and model and follow them as well. I don’t believe blocking use of Web 2.0 tools, or restricting them to only the intranet teaches students appropriate behavior. If they learn how to deal with the weirdo, inappropriate content and wild world web, they are better off; stronger and more responsible, hopefully, as they should be well taught.

I am currently reading The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein (Penguin, 2008) who is critical the use of educational technology in teaching and learning, for its not being the panacea many proclaim it to be. His somewhat didactic yet intriguing premise is worth the read: “Digital habits have mushroomed, but reading scores for teens remain flat, and measures of scientific cultural and civic knowledge linger at abysmal levels” (p. 69). “If the young have acquired so much digital proficiency, and if digital technology exercises their intellectual faculties so well, then why haven’t knowledge and skill levels increased accordingly?” (p. 68) He contends that reading has flattened because students may not comprehend what they read as they scan screens, picking recognized words out of context, and copying and pasting texts into documents without understanding the concepts.

In chapter one of the Web 2.0 the author claims, “the shift to web 2.0 tools can have a profound effect on schools and learning, causing a transformation in thinking…because the tools promote creativity, collaboration and communication, and they dovetail with learning methods” (p. 21). This “transformational thinking” is yet to be the common practice among the net generation. Bauerlein would see this as the “Sesame Street effect, if learning’s not fun, it isn’t any good” According to him, these claimed transformations have not panned out. He believes the enhanced connectivity feed an “adolescent vice…peer absorption… the peer-to-peer contact never ends (p. 133). Bauerlein maintains that “the Web offers wondrous information and images…but those clips pale before the thrill of composing something about yourself, posting it online, having someone read it and write something back. That’s the pull of immaturity, and technology has granted young American ever more opportunities to go with it” (p. 136). With Facebook, Twitter and blogs taking the front seat of web-driven use, his point is valid. It is up to teachers and librarians and parents to guide student to use social networking in a useful, thoughtful manner, and provide activities and investigations that take students beyond the “Sesame Street effect” to sites with valid, appropriate information of the highest quality. To teach students to be discriminating users of information, to read for comprehension, and not to accept information at face value just because “it’s on the internet”, is of highest importance and should be a part of every lesson when the internet is the tool used for teaching. Chapter 9 of Web 2.0 gives us a glimpse of the school of the future using the wealth of tools we are just learning to use in this course

Thing#11 - Week 5 Playing with Award Winners

2009-07-29T22:18:00.003-08:00

Web 2.0 – with so much to explore, just start with ONE. :)

Yes, it is difficult to select just one site and narrow it down. I wanted to search libraries, but it was not on the list of award winners; education led me to language learning sites; so I chose “News and Bloglines” and looked at Technorati, 3rd choice in the category. Real-time search for user-generated media (including weblogs) by tag or keyword. Also provides popularity indexes. (http://technorati.com)
What I liked is that I could use the site without creating a user id/password; that I could search around and read the various postings without submitting my personal info as I’ve had to do on Flickr, yahoo, and Blogspot; since I was just dipping in my little toe, I didn’t feel like putting on the entire bathing suit, so enjoyed the anonymity of using this Technorati site.
I discovered it’s linked to a new site, Twittorati – “where the blogosphere and the twittershpere meet” It condenses the most-visited blogs and says, "Follow The Highest Authority Bloggers what’s percolating in blogs now" – condensed into their site, and tagged with such topics as “Technology, Business, Entertainment”, etc. Because it shows a snippet of blogs or articles, it pushes me to search further. I found out that this was posted in the Guardian’s (UK) blog: “A Palestinian militant organisation that was ridiculed in the new Sacha Baron Cohen film has threatened to "respond in the way we find suitable" against the London-born satirist.”
“Twittorati tracks the tweets from the highest authority bloggers, starting with the entire Technorati Top 100 and soon including many more of the web's most influential voices.” Technorati led me to other blogs:
Huffington Post was rated #1. I liked this site for its wealth and breadth of information, and that I didn’t have to submit my id, and remember yet another log in convention. The distracting thing was the Infiniti ads, fat stomachs hanging over waistbands of men’s jeans, and pop ups that pay for the site I think.
I also found BoingBoing Blog. Boing Boing is a weblog of cultural curiosities and interesting technologies. Technorati.com list it as “the most popular blog in the world, as ranked by Technorati.com, and won the Lifetime Achievement and Best Group Blog awards at the 2006 Bloggies ceremony.” (http://technorati.com/blogs/www.boingboing.net)

Many of these sites, especially those powered by Yahoo are filled with ads. I dislike the sheer volume of crap I have to wade through to find the information. While fun to play, again, the time-suck is overwhelming.

I am very concerned about the merger of Microsoft & Yahoo. It concerns me that MS will take over the world if they can. Because most of the sites that Yahoo hosts, such as Flickr, and other things we’ve played with here, have my email, information that could be shared far & wide. I wish these sites allowed use without submission of personal information. My concern is for privacy and being bombarded with hits of a commercial nature. In addition, what’s to stop MS or Yahoo from selling my info? Ah well, I enjoy playing I just wish I felt more confident of security of information.

Thing #10-Week 5 - Image Generator

2009-07-28T01:49:00.002-08:00

willie with impression
Originally uploaded by geotech2009

Thing 10 - playing online with photos and image generators was the most frazzled activity yet for me. Due to variable speed of the internet and constant drops in bandwidth, working with photos is intensive. I was only able to save the photo of our dog, Willie. I tried several tools, again the Big Huge Labs, home of Flickr toys was the easiest, and smoothest. I tried the Cartoon Creator at the Image Chef, after two days, I got this message from them: "We're sorry - this feature is not compatible with Macs." NO WONDER...just wish that was noted on their home page. So, no ah has, and I wonder just how much I would use these generators in "serious" work for school or professional development, due to the time-intensive tasks. Fun, yet not something I feel is worth the time involved. Part of my learning style, sequential linear thinking, time = money; money = work; I like to work, but not this hard for the time required for the results. Cute dog however...

Thing #9 - Week 4 - Finding Feeds

2009-07-25T11:53:00.004-08:00

I found feeds in a variety of places, including those that are familiar, such as ALA or by searching terms such as educational technology or school librarians. The links from Edublogger Awards to other sites, provided on the RavenAboutLibraries (RAL), were very extensive. I found those easiest to subscribe provided the orange logo for RSS, or those that asked me to subscribe via Google, with the icon in an easily discernable location--usually at the top or bottom. Those sites with extensive advertisements were very distracting, and I tended to navigate away from them. While I respect Joyce Valenza and her ideas, the blinking ads and opportunities kept me from subscribing. While i know RSS feeds may leave the ads off, i disliked the clutter of some commercially supported sites that some educators use.

From the awards list, I found 2 that were suberb: Edublogger with several extensive sites, linked together, and her observations about US culture were humorous--Sue Waters has her own personal blog linked to it where she comments on everything from high fructose corn syrup in Coke to improving the looks of your blog. I subscribed to her RSS feed as her tips are timely and useful. Recently she has an excellent piece on "The 4-Cs of Social Networking". In addition this site hosts blogs for students, teachers, and librarians.
Another useful site I found was a Brit named Jane Hart who publishes "Social Media In Learning", "a FREE resource aimed at all learning professionals who want a quick, easy-to-use, structured introduction to social media for formal and informal learning as well as a practical guide to using social media tools." The links from this site, never end!

Viewing various blogs is beneficial, to compare and contrast layout, ease of use, friendliness, etc. and help me to try to emulate these professionals as I develop my Librarian blog. I appreciate having a choice of spots to recieve the feeds, and I chose the Education page of my iGoogle site, so that, like the Anchorage Daily News, or New York Times, I have the latest news from Edublogger at my fingertips! Very cool.

Thing 8 Week 4 - RSS Feeds

2009-07-25T09:48:00.002-08:00

Using Google Reader and igoogle as my home page has allowed me to subscribe to various RSS feeds, and have them available through those two sites, rather than clogging my email. I went to various news sites, adding some to the igoogle news page, and others as Google Reader, both of which eventually end up on the igoogle site--as I linked the Google Reader to the igoogle news page. I love the fact that I’m given the choice of where it’s delivered. I now understand how it's all tied together, and the simplicity of it is overwhelming!
I appreciated the tutorial provided in this lesson, and learned a lot about ways to increase use of RSS. Because I'm working on a blog for the local quilter's guild, many of whom have no idea what a blog is, let alone an RSS feed, I appreciated the help found on Problogger - How to make your RSS feeds pop!, specifically, "If your blog is on a non techie topic with a readership who doesn’t have much awareness of RSS write a post that explains what RSS is and how it can help them follow your site. Then add a link to that post under your RSS button to help educate them." This is great.
Providing simple ways for the library aides in our district to follow a library blog is important, and I found several useful hints on this site, and others linked from this lesson. I can forsee providing inservice instruction on how to use and get involved with such a blog.

Thing #7 Week 3 Technology Tools

2009-07-24T00:34:00.003-08:00

The wealth of tools available to create and communicate is marvelous, and at the same time overwhelming to try and learn quickly. I believe the tools that enhance creating, sharing and social networking, specifically in a visual format (i.e. Flickr, Skype, YouTube, and Blogger) are very powerful media. Easy to use, streamlined and quick; these tools offer eduators a means to communicate with students, parents and peers that can build rapport and diffuse barriers. I like that all the things I've tried thus far are fairly simple (esp. if directions are followed!), and offer so much. With time, I believe I will use these visual technology tools in a variety of ways. What I find powerful is the sharing found in the online community, no need to reinvent the wheel, USE IT!!

Motivational Posters Made Easy-Week 3-Thing #6

2009-07-22T19:55:00.005-08:00

I spent some time touring around the various tools that work with Flickr. Ah if only I could remember my html a bit better. I created this motivational poster with fd's flickr toys, part of bighugelabs products that are great tools for the developer. I only wish the formatting didn't have so many spaces around the photos. like this photo: I want this text to wrap around it without the space to either side, but it isn't behaving!! It's an ongoing tweaking process.
I was amazed how many tools bighugelabs offers, one could play all day! I love the poster-making and playing card-making tools, and see that the use of these tools very useful in the librarian's teaching, Battle of the Books, curriculum planning, and communicating with students. Many possibilities exist. WOW is my reaction. I found a site that posted the trading cards made by librarians, with various projects profiled. One caught my eye, a local history project in New England, in which students took photos of local sites then wrote a paragraph about them and posted them on Flickr. when I search "librarians" on Flickr, it returned over 76,000 hits...some very funny posters, like Librarians in showercaps...who has all this time?

AASL conference coming up

2009-07-22T08:11:00.002-08:00

Going to Charlotte? ALA |
I just wanted to try sending this to my blog, cool tool

Shared via AddThis

Week 3 Thing #5--Flickr upload

2009-07-21T22:12:00.000-08:00

Below is my attempt at uploading some photos using the Flickr blogging tool. I tried messing around with the formatting because I dislike how far away the text is from the photos. What I discovered is that I have to edit it in Flickr first, before it's uploaded. But it sure looked better on Flickr than it does here, stay tuned, perhaps in Thing #6 I can figure out how to fix it.
Just wanted to share my family & hobby with you; not too library-like, but it's how the stress of cataloging, weeding, processing, and teaching is dissolved, with a good squeeze of the kid, and twenty minutes of free-motion quilting, oh yes, a bit of vino helps too! :-}}

The grandbaby

2009-07-20T23:58:00.002-08:00

The grandbaby,
originally uploaded by geotech-librarian.
This little guy is now 4 years old, my grandson and his parents

Week 2 -- Things #3 & #4

2009-07-18T14:35:00.001-08:00

My blog is posted and registered with Ravenaboutweb2.0, and I feel a bit relieved. For several weeks I've been procrastinating, and trying to make an avatar without registering with Yahoo, but finally bit the bullet and used the suggested avatar creator. I didn't want do sign up for yet another web-based service provider who would have my name, but trying to use other avatar-creating sites was very cumbersome. Thank you for introducing me to Yahoo's service, and its useful creator, it was simple, once I got rid of that feeling of constraint. Now I will see if I can delete my name from them! So, I guess there's another habit I need to work on: #3, view obstacles as Learning experiences, one I thought I was positive about!
I hope to hear from some of you to commiserate our challenges that provide us with new ideas!

Week 1 #1 Getting Started

2009-07-18T11:49:00.001-08:00

Hi, as you'll notice, I don't do things in sequential order as requested, like creating the blog (#3), then reading the 7 Habits (#2), and now Getting Started(#1)...don't know if there is a Week 1 #1, but everyone else has one, so why not?
I've read the Web 2.0 text, and find that it is a great reminder of how far educational technology has come since the Apple IIe...the locus of control, as LOGO always promised, is finally in the learners' hands. The creative commons is surely in the hands of our students.
I enrolled in this course to learn more about ever-changing technology that seems seamless to our students. I want to use the tools to learn to podcast, develop an online media literacy course, and have fun. I hope to do that this summer, although it's quickly slipping away!

Week 1 #2--Lifelong Learning

2009-07-18T10:17:00.001-08:00

After viewing the 7 Habits of Lifelong Learning, I find that the hardest thing to do is to avoid the temptation to attain goals in a scatter shot manner, like leaping ahead to lesson 3 when I've not started lesson one. Perhaps that's the hardest habit for me, #1--begin with the end in mind, and determining the steps in a sequential manner to achieve the goal. Although I try to do that when teaching and project planning, I get easily sidetracked, with all the ideas, conversations and activities going on out there. I do not consider myself a random learner, but rather a sequential, organized one. Perhaps I learn more like a flow chart..if this interests me, I'll go there, never mind that I've skipped the first step, and missed out on important information.
The easiest habit, perhaps because it comes naturally for me, is #3, to view problems as challenges, opportunities to learn. I enjoy learning, the growth and mind-expanding prospects of knowing about new ideas and interaction with them and the possibilities that exist.