The perspectives given on Library 2.0 were extremely thought-provoking. I found the "Away from Icebergs" article extra-ordinary in that it made me questions my own views of what a library should be. Libraries have been many things to me throughout my educational career. In grade school they were used for research papers, checking out books, and "free days" in the classroom. As an undergraduate, I spent most of my time studying there studying individually with classmates but did use it for the occasional research paper. Finally, in my graduate studies, I can honestly say that in the 6 months it took me to research and write my thesis, I think I may have spent a cumulative 3 hours inside the actual library and instead, spent the majority of my time using it's online resources and the resources of other libraries across the world.
This experience has pushed me to agree with Mr. Anderson's labeling of the icebergs... especially in questioning the necessity of print material or the "just-in-case" collection and the idea that libraries are only buildings that people must come to in order to use the materials.
Now as an educator, my experience with school libraries will certainly change. Our school library has done a fantastic job of providing online resources for students and I can't help but wonder what the actual library will look like in twenty years? Will it have any printed materials at all?
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Thing # 14- Technoraddicted
I truly think Technorati is a useful tool as I have used it mutiple times since discovering its existence. As a new mom, I constantly have questions that come up about baby products, food, behavior... anything! There are THOUSANDS of Mommy blogs out there to pull from and it would be nearly impossible to try and find an answer to a single questions without the use of a tool like Technorati. Obviously, tagging makes this all possible so consider me pro-tagging! I have started using delicious regularly... no more bookmarks for me!
Sidenote: I tried searching for "School Library Learning 2.0" in tags, blogs, and the blog directory and did not come up with ANY results... did I do something wrong? Additionally, the "popular blog searches and tags" function was unavailable when I tried to use it. Anyone else have the same expererience?
Sidenote: I tried searching for "School Library Learning 2.0" in tags, blogs, and the blog directory and did not come up with ANY results... did I do something wrong? Additionally, the "popular blog searches and tags" function was unavailable when I tried to use it. Anyone else have the same expererience?
Monday, July 19, 2010
Thing # 13-- The new game of tag
Delicious...where have you been my whole life? Done with the endless list of bookmarks in my web browser, I only wish I had discovered this tool sooner when I was researching my thesis in graduate school. I'm pretty sure I use to copy website addresses into a word document... if only I knew.
These tools could play an incredible role in school in the way the example showed about keeping track of good teacher websites with ideas for class and any other random information that is dug up. On a personal note, I will definitely be using this as an online recipe box... no more wasting paper on random recipes to file haphazardly at home.
The social aspect of these tools is useful with sharing good information with other colleagues... I will see if I can get my team on board with this next year!
These tools could play an incredible role in school in the way the example showed about keeping track of good teacher websites with ideas for class and any other random information that is dug up. On a personal note, I will definitely be using this as an online recipe box... no more wasting paper on random recipes to file haphazardly at home.
The social aspect of these tools is useful with sharing good information with other colleagues... I will see if I can get my team on board with this next year!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Thing #12 -- Comment Commentary
Well, I can honestly say that I have never put much thought into the concept of "successful commenting". I think the two most important points for me from the multiple readings were:
1) Commenting is necessary in blogging because it allows growth and learning through conversation rather than a soliloquy
2) When you comment on a topic it adds worth to what the blogger has written about... a indirect vote to continue to write on this topic
The two blogs that I found of interest to me are:
1) http://theconfusedhomemaker.com/-- good recipes and funny anecdotes of her kids that moms can relate to
2) http://healthyindulgences.blogspot.com/-- This blog has excellent recipes for my sweet tooth!
1) Commenting is necessary in blogging because it allows growth and learning through conversation rather than a soliloquy
2) When you comment on a topic it adds worth to what the blogger has written about... a indirect vote to continue to write on this topic
The two blogs that I found of interest to me are:
1) http://theconfusedhomemaker.com/-- good recipes and funny anecdotes of her kids that moms can relate to
2) http://healthyindulgences.blogspot.com/-- This blog has excellent recipes for my sweet tooth!
LibraryThing #11--
LibraryThing is an interesting site that I had never heard of until this experience. It was easy to join and add books to my profile. I tried searching for groups but had a hard time locating ones that were active. I ended up going back to the Group home page and looking through some of the ones highlighted on that page. I found one that appeared to be essentially an online book club for different novels.
As a science teacher, we don't assign books for outside reading, however, it's clear how Language Arts teachers could utilize this site to help students keep track of the books they read as well as a portal for commenting on or reviewing them. I saw there were a few groups set up by teachers that allowed students to review books they had read, but few were still active.
As a science teacher, we don't assign books for outside reading, however, it's clear how Language Arts teachers could utilize this site to help students keep track of the books they read as well as a portal for commenting on or reviewing them. I saw there were a few groups set up by teachers that allowed students to review books they had read, but few were still active.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Thing #10-- Picture this
YAY! I LOVED this THING assignment. I was most attracted back to Big Huge Labs as I liked the feature of using photographs from your facebook or flikr accounts rather than having to upload. I also enjoyed Image chef's Word Mosaic tool and decided to create a tribute to a favorite song of mine. Finally, I could help myself by making a work of art out of my newborn son using Dumpr's sketch feature.
I think the trading card creator could be used in my classroom as part of a research assignment on animal behaviors. I created a (very very very) simple one for a dog below. I can also see myself using some of these tools to create images to enhance some of my classroom presentations as the ability to personalize animations, comics, etc could make a lecture more entertaining and applicable.
Here are a few of my creations
Big Huge Labs- Trading cards
Image Chef-- Word Mosaic -- Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon"
Dumpr-- Image of my son taken from photo on my desktop
I think the trading card creator could be used in my classroom as part of a research assignment on animal behaviors. I created a (very very very) simple one for a dog below. I can also see myself using some of these tools to create images to enhance some of my classroom presentations as the ability to personalize animations, comics, etc could make a lecture more entertaining and applicable.
Here are a few of my creations
Big Huge Labs- Trading cards
Image Chef-- Word Mosaic -- Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon"
Dumpr-- Image of my son taken from photo on my desktop
Thing #9-- Search me
After a week long hiatus, I am back in full swing to tackle the the next thing-- searching for (quality) RSS..'s...es?
I played with a few of the listed tools and have comments for each:
Google Blog Search: Not surprisingly, using this engine returned the most results for my search term which may be good for getting an idea of what's out there on a topic. It might prove to be overwhelming though if you are not exactly sure what you are looking for. Additionally, other than the Google Blog home page that details "popular" topics at the time... there is no rating system and would therefore make it difficult to find quality work as emphasized by the post on enlisting a "circle of the wise" on the Cool Cat Teacher blog. Out of the few that I played with, I think I would definitely give this one the credit for "most confusing". Sorry Googs... though I did find an interesting blog of a middle school science teacher entitled Mr. Brovont's Science Blog. I wonder though how many others I am missing simply because they don't have "science" or "education" in their title.
Edublog Award Winners: I found this site to possess what I was lacking with the Google Search... a list of blogs that have been validated by a third party as quality work. After looking at the winners (and subscribing to a few... most notably Free Technology for Teachers) I have found useful information to enhancing my practice as a teacher as well as seeing examples of how I might incorporate blogging into my classroom. Look forward to the 2010 winners. Note: the link on the Library2Play page takes you to 2008 winners.... here is the 2009 page.
Topix: I admit I didn't spend much time with this guy... but I did think it was worth mentioning that just by clicking on the link it brought me to a list of new stories for my zip code. So without in-depth exploration, I can only see it's use to keep abreast of local news stories which was interesting!
Technorati: I liked this site as it seemed to be a prettier and less overwhelming version of Google Blogs. It advertised the most popular posts at that time and seemed to cover many topics including entertainment (a commentary on the television show Big Brother), world news, and health. It kind of gave the vibe of being the YouTube of blogs... I think this one was my favorite and was the easiest to use overall.
So the results:
Most Confusing: Google Blogs
Easiest: Tecnorati and Edublog Award winners
Newly discovered feeds: Mr Brovont's Science Blog, Free Technology for Teachers
Adios!
I played with a few of the listed tools and have comments for each:
Google Blog Search: Not surprisingly, using this engine returned the most results for my search term which may be good for getting an idea of what's out there on a topic. It might prove to be overwhelming though if you are not exactly sure what you are looking for. Additionally, other than the Google Blog home page that details "popular" topics at the time... there is no rating system and would therefore make it difficult to find quality work as emphasized by the post on enlisting a "circle of the wise" on the Cool Cat Teacher blog. Out of the few that I played with, I think I would definitely give this one the credit for "most confusing". Sorry Googs... though I did find an interesting blog of a middle school science teacher entitled Mr. Brovont's Science Blog. I wonder though how many others I am missing simply because they don't have "science" or "education" in their title.
Edublog Award Winners: I found this site to possess what I was lacking with the Google Search... a list of blogs that have been validated by a third party as quality work. After looking at the winners (and subscribing to a few... most notably Free Technology for Teachers) I have found useful information to enhancing my practice as a teacher as well as seeing examples of how I might incorporate blogging into my classroom. Look forward to the 2010 winners. Note: the link on the Library2Play page takes you to 2008 winners.... here is the 2009 page.
Topix: I admit I didn't spend much time with this guy... but I did think it was worth mentioning that just by clicking on the link it brought me to a list of new stories for my zip code. So without in-depth exploration, I can only see it's use to keep abreast of local news stories which was interesting!
Technorati: I liked this site as it seemed to be a prettier and less overwhelming version of Google Blogs. It advertised the most popular posts at that time and seemed to cover many topics including entertainment (a commentary on the television show Big Brother), world news, and health. It kind of gave the vibe of being the YouTube of blogs... I think this one was my favorite and was the easiest to use overall.
So the results:
Most Confusing: Google Blogs
Easiest: Tecnorati and Edublog Award winners
Newly discovered feeds: Mr Brovont's Science Blog, Free Technology for Teachers
Adios!
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