Thing 16

Wikis offer a wonderful "committee meeting on my time schedule" that works for so many educational uses--from the group faculty discussion on improving the science curriculum to research projects. Unfortunately, most of the examples I found were for middle and secondary students. I would like to explore wiki use for elementary students. I think that, by setting up the structure and dividing the tasks among groups, this would be an excellent way to research a topic.



I found a wiki used to provide information about Roland Elementary School. When I consider how difficult it seems to be for some teachers to update webpages, this is probably a quicker way to provide information to parents. Here is a list of suggested ways to use wikis in schools--the idea to use a wiki for literature circles is one I'll think about.



The Texas Bluebonnet Award Reading Program will soon be inaugurating a wiki for suggestions of activities and displays to use with the reading list. This is will be a very useful collaboration if librarians and teachers across Texas will be willing to add their unique creations to it.

Thing 15

Wikipedia defines Library 2.0 in this way: Library 2.0 is a loosely defined model for a modernized form of library service that reflects a transition within the library world in the way that services are delivered to users. The focus is on user-centered change and participation in the creation of content and community.

To me, in an elementary library, it means organizing services so that they are user-friendly and listening to feedback from students to allow student participation in design and/or creation when possible. For example, I am anxious to begin school and show students how to use the new Destiny update which allows them to rate books or leave a text review.

For school libraries, it means continuing to move towards flexibility, participation, and collaboration. My greatest concern is in the area of participation, not for myself or for my students, but for staff who continually feel that time doesn't allow them the time to explore online tools. And, just in case one of them stumbles across David Warlick's guide for becoming a 21st century educator and reads step one (Find two or more other educators in your school who are interested in learning and using emerging information and communication technologies. It would be of enormous advantage if you can include your school's library media specialist.), I need to have some of these 23 things ready to pull out and dazzle.

Thing 14

Investigating Technorati and watching the videos was fascinating. As an elementary librarian, I compare the origin of the service to Jack who planted a bean and got a huge beanstalk. I admire people who have that sort of vision for the future.

When I used the phrase "School Library Learning 2.0," I found that results were more similar for posts and tags. And I also found it different from day-to-day. What a serendipitous experience to have looked again today and found that School Library Journal is beginning a 23 thing program of its own entitled "All Together Now - A Learning 2.0 Experience." The blogs were full of that news today. <http://librariesinteract.info/2008/07/18/all-in-together-learning-20-for-school-librarians-and-the-rest-of-us/>

I spent more than one session working with Technorati because I would get caught up in pursuing some thread I'd found and then ended up either working on a book order (because of wonderful recommendations I'd found in blogs) or adding to my del.icio.us bookmarks because of other goodies I'd found.

What I found that was useful for me were the number of sources of book, site, and learning tool recommendations that are available through blogs. I also enjoyed looking at some of the blogs for different forms of artwork in which I have an interest.

I understand the importance of tagging and worry about whether I'm doing an adequate job, even when I'm only doing it for my own use. I despair of my own inconsistency in terminology and think about the number of tags I add as I do prunes: Are 3 enough? Are 7 too many?

Thing 13

The tutorials were helpful, especially the first video and the podcast. I had registered at Furl at some point in the distant past, but I hadn't used it since my initial experience. For general use and adding tags, I prefer Del.icio.us. For importing all my bookmarks at one time, Furl was helpful.

I see tremendous potential for use of this tool for the following:
Collecting sites for research projects--teachers could add the link to their webpages.
Sharing sites with other librarians when we're all working on the same topic.

I can see myself using my own bookmarks as I move all over the campus working with teachers in their classrooms.

I would like our curriculum directors in the district to consider this option to build lists for specific areas.

Thing 12

One of the things that interested me was the necessity or importance of comments. I am by nature a lurker--my off-center sense of humor doesn't translate well in my comments and I usually just end up getting myself in trouble. The other side of that, however, is the realization that one who blogs daily is probably looking for a conversation somewhere along the way--at least an acknowledgment or validation.

Along that line is the necessity of being positive and adding comments that are helpful or useful. I get turned off very quickly by negativity, whether it's the blogger or the person making the comments. I found the article How to comment like a king (or queen) useful.

My niche for comments is usually posting a question, but I'll try to learn to use other meaningful ways to comment.

So, I did post to five different Learn2Play blogs, but it was painful. However, I do post to a private blog for the Texas Bluebonnet Selection Committee and I have no problem there, probably because I know each of the other bloggers, I know that each of us is expected to keep up with the discussion, and I have a vested interest in the comments.

I had added non-library/education blogs (to my RSS feed) that interested me and I WILL make comments when appropriate and when I can add something to the discussion. The blogs to which I subscribed are cloth/sewing/wearable art blogs--things that I have no time to do right now but with which I'd like to stay current.

Thing 11

The enrollment was easy on Library Thing and I had no problem setting it up and quickly adding 9 books. It was interesting to see how many others had entered each of those books. I looked at the groups and chose to enroll in the children's literature group.


Its use to my situation--hmmmmmmmmmmm, it might be helpful if a teacher were looking for a class novel. Others who've read the book might be able to recommend it or suggest an alternative.

Thing 10

I looked at all the sites listed as image generators and I really enjoyed ComicStripGenerator. I created several images from that program. From an online search for other image generators, I found txt2pic.com and created several there, also.

By thinking more creatively, perhaps I could develop more graphics to add some spark to library orientation at the beginning of the year. I think that they might also be useful for generating graphics for reading programs and for RIF distributions.

Because of the content of several of the generators, I'm guessing these are blocked by my school district.

Thing 9

Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use? I didn't find one easier than the other. I think I'm a browser who really likes to see multiple avenues and cruise each one.

Which Search tool was the easiest for you? Just because it had a long list to choose from rather than actually searching, I liked "The Cool Cat Teacher Blog."

Which was more confusing? Topix

What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels? I already had some blogs in mind that I wanted to locate: Joyce Valenza, Doug Johnson, for two. I also worked off their blogs for others. In addition, I liked several of the blogs from School Library Journal list so I added some of those.

What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds? I sometimes just used one blog to lead to another and that kind of browsing method was preferable to the search method.

While I'm appreciative of those who have oodles of blogs in their list, I don't have the time or the focus to go through that many. I found the easiest was to add lots, then read for several days and see which ones were really on the target for my needs and unsubscribe from the rest. So, although I originally signed up for a whole component of "Thinking" blogs, I narrowed it down to NPR's "This I believe."

Thing 8

RSS-feeds are not an area with which I was familiar so everything here was new ground. I set up mine with Google Reader and had no difficulty doing that. I explored some of the groups that were available and quickly realized that I needed to be choosy or I would spend my life reading blogs instead of books.

However, I did find that, once I explored and became more selective, I could limit myself to those things that I really needed to stay up to date on: technology and book reviews. And most of these blogs weren't those that had daily postings, so masses wouldn't accumulate if I didn't look at them daily. As per personal life, I need to investiage the RSS-feed/eBay connection.

I'm not sure how my elementary school library would make use of this, but it would appear that there's much current information available via blogs for users of academic, public, and secondary school libraries. I would like to review the other Library2Play blogs to see how others foresee use.