Thing 15--Gaming

I hate it when I sound like a stick-in-the-mud.  I read through a lot of blogs to see if there were others out there like me.    I am so relieved that I am not the only one of the 23 Things participants who doesn't personally like online games!  I tried to care, spent time on the Puzzle Pirates, even tried to slog through Doug Johnson's suggestions about SecondLife.  But I zoom right past bored to IRRITATED.  I have never been a fan of digital games, from pac-man on.  I have tried many times, read reviews of supposedly well-planned, interesting, HOTs-building games.  But they just don't hold my interest for even a few minutes.  It is great to make available to those who are interested.  To each her own.  The Wii games remind me of the Japanese game shows--how silly are you willing to look in public?  I don't mind if you want to,  just please don't make me.

Thing 14: Library Thing

I know I missed the deadline, but I am going to keep going to the end of the 23 things anyway. It is so interesting to see what is avaliable online!

I have been waiting to get to #14, LibraryThing. I have seen it on other's blogs, and enjoy seeing their selected books and reading their comments. Since I am behind, I am going to move on with only 4 books on my LibraryThing shelf. But hope to return and share more great reads!

Thing 13 Online Productivity Tools

I added a countdown gadget to my blog, counting down to the last day of school. I could just have well counted down to official golf season! I am always amazed at how quickly the last couple of months slip by.

I have fallen somewhat behind, so am going to move on to #14, LibraryThing. I've been waiting to see that it is all about.

Thing 12 Do You Digg?

These sites were new to me. After exploring web 2.0 for several weeks now, I was not surprised to see services like them. A very democratic way of receiving and commenting on news. I spent a couple of hours visiting Mixx, Digg, Newsvine, and Reddit. I kept thinking that I just don't have time! For the same reason I don't tune it to the 24-hour news shows on TV. I don't need to know everything going on in every corner of the world. These would definitely be productivity detractors for me personally. But would they have a use in my work as a Library Media Specialist? Not at the elementary level, even middle school is questionable. There is a huge range of quality of writing, reliability of sources, and many of the comments left by readers tended to be more in the category of opinion (even ranting) rather than furthering the news value of the story. The best uses I see would be as an example of the democratic right to express your opinion, examining comments for bias, and discussion of how to craft your own comment to show a well thought out argument that might actually sway others to your point of view. At the high school and post secondary level these sites would be a way of staying current on popular stories and trends.

On to 13!

Thing 11 Social Media, Tagging

OK, Del.icio.us is great. I like the man-in-the-street flavor of the tags. Now we can search for cars and not have to remember that the official subject is automobiles. Finally! But--what about that PAGEKEEPER?! Is that the coolest ever? No ads! Free! Geared to teachers and students! Really? Just for us? Who knew we had a fairy godmother (or godfather) all this time? I am going to be building something there!

Thing 10 Wikis

I have had a wiki for about a year, but haven't done much with it yet. I started it to collaborate with my sister who lives 1,000 miles away on a writing project. She wasn't as interested in the project as I was, so I reworked the site. I started creating a site where students could share and find favorite books. This also was disappointing with the district ban on student accounts.

I like the idea of sharing information and projects on wikis. I draw the line at recommending them as authoritative sites for research. Because of the opportunity for anyone to edit the information on a wiki, I warn students of the possibility of inaccurate information. I suggest that if they plan to use information they find on a wiki site they confirm that information on a site that has been written by experts. Too often students still assume that if they read something it must be true. Wikis provide a good opportunity to show how easy it is to falsify information and to discuss ethical online behavior.

I visited the 23 Things wiki and commented. It looked so much like my own wiki page that I felt right at home!

Thing 9 Online Collaboration

Google Docs is amazing! I have not seen this before, but can see great applications for use in group projects. Collaborating with colleagues and use with students would be so easy. The ability to comment without changing the original document and the login and date stamping improve higher order thinking skills and accountability.

On to Thing 10!

Thing 7 Communication Tools

This was a busy thing!
Starting with email, I have, out of necessity, this year made my work email account more efficient with folders and flags and such.
I really like the idea of online meeting schedulers. Meeting Wizard starts its FAQ with the promise that they won't sell any user information, saying their long-term success is based on the trust of their users. Again, mention of trust as a basis for the web 2.0 community. I love it!
I have in the past 'attended' webinars, but hadn't for a while. This was a good reminder to check what is new out there. It really is great to be able to access them either live or in archive files and catch up on something new. I am usually more a fan of in-person presentations, but for the sake of time, money, accessibility and convenience, you can't beat the them.

On to Thing 8.

Thing 6 Image Generator

Thing 6 is so much fun, and I can see so many uses with students. In fact, this is one of the tools that got me so excited about participating in 23 Things in the first place. I had just finished a collaborative project with a 7th grade teacher in which her students created trading cards of famous people. It was a fun project and the kids were doing a good job of using resources to find the needed information. Their information was transferred to 5 X 7" index cards. I saw this fun tool on Flickr and knew that it would take this project to the next level--authentic learning with 21st century tools!

Thing 5 More Flickr Fun

I'm trying to do some catch-up here, so am running through Thing 5 kind of quickly. I had been to several of the sites in my initial exploration of the 23 things site a month ago. This time instead of just oohing and ahhing I played around with the tools. I read the comments on the Thing 5 link to see what experiences others had had. It really helped when I was ready to upload my spellings to my blog. I easily found the 'add a page element' link and then, because I had read the Thing 5 comments, knew to choose the html/java option, and paste in the html language from Flickr.

Students would have a blast with these tools. I worry most about the limitations of the district technology. I am doing most of my work from home because the network at school is maddeningly slow. It is a major obstacle to any of these new web 2.0 tools. The next discussion would have to be blocking of sites that would make education relevant to students' lives.

Thing 4 Flickr

Yes, I would agree with the person who said that these things are taking longer than the ~15 minutes daily. But mostly because it is all so new, and takes time to ponder how these new web 2.0 tools might fit into our work with students/library patrons.

I have really struggled with how to make use of the cool capabilities of Flickr with my students. I've gone in and set up an account. I uploaded a photo, just one, to Flickr and from there to my blog. Most of my work has been with elementary students, and so I am still wondering how I might use these in an elementary library media center setting. We do need to be mindful of student privacy. For the time being, I think the internal district intranet, and building closed circuit systems looping PowerPoint slideshows is a more appropriate venue for the youngest of our users. At what point will this become so common place that we don't even think about it for intermediate students and older? I have heard the echo of "radical trust" from the first few articles in Thing 1. I forget now who wrote that statement. But it is certainly an issue that needs to be discussed with all users/stakeholders.

Doggone Good Books!

This was a fun display that brought a lot of students to the media center to look at the doggies (and cats and one very popular pet rat!) in the window. Staff members were asked to snap pictures of their pets reading a book! The choice of books provided clues to the owner of each pet. Students were invited to guess which pets belonged to which staff member. A doggone good time!

Thing 3 RSS feeds

I have to admit that I hit a wall here with Thing 3. I have spent several hours over the last few days following the links to read just what RSS feeds are, do, and why I would care. I understand now, and do care because it can save me time and help me keep up to date with news that I personally find interesting. So far, so good. But I really struggled with how to subscribe, and then how to get back to my list of feeds to read the new posts. I have signed on to 4 now. One was totally by accident. Another hasn't had a new post since Nov. Guess I can delete that one. In a way, it was fun to struggle, knowing that it could be done, others are doing it, and I consider myself fairly intelligent, and not at all afraid of technology (like I used to be). It is a great way to learn--making mistakes and figuring out why. Do we give our students enough chances to struggle like that? I will try to not be so "helpful" the next time I see a student headed for a struggle. Just hang around close by to encourage when need be.



Just to finish this Thing 3. It has been 2 weeks now and I am reading the blogs that I have found useful and interesting. It is great to read various opinions on up-to-the-minute topics, and to find out about pertinent websites and periodical articles. In many cases the links are even provided. Makes it 'virtually' dummy-proof!



On to Thing 4!

Thing 2: Library 2.0

My mind is spinning from the enormity of Library 2.0! I try not to get bogged down in the semantics. What matters is functionality and accessibility. I was teaching a lesson on the Dewey Decimal system last fall, and found a quote about Dewey's goal of "organizing the knowledge of the world." Imagine, over 100 years ago wanting to organize all of the knowledge of the world! That has been useful for archival purposes, but we need to do more than that. We need to make that knowledge accessible to the world.

How to find time? I have no problem there. I have to remind myself that some things have to get done today, before I GET to sit down and work on my 23 Things. I found time during conference nights last week to watch the video of Stephen Abram, and read John Blyberg's blog. Not all at one time, but here and there. The articles from Library Technology Reports and OCLC Newsletter lead me on and on. Fascinating stuff!

This is one of the best staff development activities I can remember participating in since I finished my masters classes. And it is free! I love having this progression of steps, giving some direction to what can be for me, at times, a dauntingly vast online tangle of resources. Very much like the pathfinders we create for students. The internet has been compared to the Library of Congress all dumped out in one huge pile. (Sorry, of course I would never even think of doing that!) It's all in there, but do you know how long it would take to find what you are looking for? It would be wonderful to create a similar challenge for students. >And I'll bet I'm not the first one to think of THAT!< I would love it if someone would send out info on such a program! I have only begun to scratch the surface. But I'm looking forward to digging in some more, and finding a way to relate it to lessons I teach, and share it with teachers I work with.

Adding my avatar

I am really glad I printed out the directions for how to do these 23 Things. I am having fun, but the network at school today was up and down (and VERY slow), so I gave up and waited until I got home. I have so many tabs open right now, that it is easier to follow along on my printed sheet than to keep track of which tab I can find stuff on.

It was fun to see all of the options available for the avatar. I also went with pretty much real-life me. I did wonder if there are other such sites to choose an avatar that maybe are more geared to professional uses. Not that I don't like all of the fun versions. But since this will be a reflection of my professional work, I decided to not go too casual. Adding the avatar to my blog was very easy, following the directions. It wasn't real intuitive on the screen, but maybe that will come with more experience out here in bloggerland.

I have read through several other blogs from Metronet. They give me confidence that I can do this, too. I have many of the same feelings (Who will be reading this? Should I admit I didn't know how to do this or that?). I appreciate everyone's honesty and openness. I will try to reciprocate.

I was a little ahead of myself, too. I registered my blog before I did anything else. I need to go back now and see how I edit that. Mostly my default email. Because of the network instability at school, I think I will go with my home account.

Thing 1 Set Up a Blog

Here it is, my blog. Day 1.

I named my blog after the book that I always use when someone asks me what my favorite book is, and they won't accept "Why, the book I just read, of course!" It is Travel Far, Pay No Fare by Anne Lindbergh.

I have been an elementary media specialist for the past 9 years. This year I am at a middle school, and also trying to meet the needs of staff and students at 3 elementary schools. A challenging year, to say the least.

I am so excited about this project.

More later!
Ann P