Thursday, July 24, 2008

Week 9: #23

I really enjoyed this class and learned so much. The information will be useful as long as I go back and start really using it and showing other people how great these tools are. At times all the info was overwhelming so I had to tell myself that I'm getting a brief overview of everything but I don't have to start using it all at once. At least now I know it's there. I plan to just pick a couple of things right now and really get to know them.

This class was perfect for such a rainy cool summer. I felt like it was perfectly ok to sit for hours and explore all the links and different sites. I didn't feel guilty when my husband asked what I did all day and I said that I "had" to work on my class. I'm not sure that it would be as fun during the school year - I probably would have spent a lot less time exploring.

I liked getting the comments and they all seemed so positive and helpful. Ann and Katie were very responsive when I had questions and I thank them for making this class happen.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Week 9: #22

E-books are a good option if you have an i-pod and want to listen to books in the car or out walking. I guess you could also burn it onto a CD and listen to it that way. I still prefer the written version, but a good story is a good story no matter how you get it.
About free books - I was looking for books that possibly teachers could use for their students that have difficulty reading but still want the option of knowing a story. I didn't find many of the books that my teachers commonly use, but there were some of the classics like Rudyard Kipling's books, and Frank L. Baum's books.

Week 9: #21

I have used podcasts in the past for listening to my son's hockey games when I can't be at the game. Also, I like listening to some of NPR's programs when I haven't been around to hear the program on the radio.
It was interesting to look at some of the educational podcasts - there are quite a few. I added a RSS feed for TechSavvyGirlz. They are a group of school aged girls, not sure what age, that use technology to talk about different topics in school such as class trips, digital art, authors - both student authors and adult authors such as Gary Soto. It would be a fun activity to do with a group of students - I think they would really enjoy it.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Week 9: :20




I picked this particular video because I thought that would be a fun activity for students to do to create more awareness for the election coming up.
I had fun looking at all the videos on YouTube as well as Teacher Tube. Some of the librarian video clips were quite humorous - is that really how the public sees us!
I think it would be fun to put a short video on my library web page introducing myself and my library and library program.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Week 8:#19.1

I took a look at Digital Pipeline again - I took a class about it a couple of years ago. This is such a valuable tool and I bet it is very underutilized. When I took the class I thought it was a bit cumbersome, but it seems to have really improved and I had fun exploring.
I saved articles to a folder - this would good if you are gathering info about a topic and might not have time to look at them right away.
A journal alert and search alert if you are looking for new upcoming info like the election or new research on "green topics".
My favorite journal is available - School Library Journal- but I didn't see the reviews. If it had that I would not subscribe to it anymore.
I loved the consumer health databases and found pamphlets, images, but the videos wouldn't work because I didn't have something on my computer in order to run them.
All in all - a very valuable tool and everyone should be using it.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Chapter 10: Web 2.0

Chapter 10 includes some of the web tools that we have been learning about in the class plus some others that sound quite interesting. Some that I would like to try and investigate are:

Try Tux Paint which is comparable to Kid Pix - a good tool in elementary school I think.

Also, Num Sum a spreadsheet. I know there is already one in Google docs but I'm going to take a look at this one too.

Audacity sounds like fun if you're into editing sound.

Photo Story 3 for Windows is other tool for working with digital photos. It seems like there a few tools with this capability.

Class Blogmeister will come in handy if I want to set up a blog with a group of students on a topic.

Google Earth I have used and is fun and is great for studying geography.

Google Sketch Up would be a great tool for studying geometry, structures, and building models.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Chapter 9: Web 2.0

This chapter was a little far out for me - I'm visioning a future where students don't ever "see" a teacher and everything is learned online. I know that is what we are doing for this class and it is working quite well, but I would have a hard time with this as well as with a lot of my peers. Will students miss out on a spirited in class discussion and instead blog? Will students miss out on doing a hands on project with each other and just use flickr and voice thread online? Hopefully there will be balance of both. I would like to think of Web 2.0 tools as just that - tools used along with all the other tools that teacher use.
Also we need a lot more computers, probably one per student as well as people who could keep them all up and running. At my school we have someone that comes in once every two weeks or so and if you miss him/her you're out of luck.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Week 8: # 19

Library thing will be helpful to me I think. I read a lot of books and it would be nice to keep track of them so I can remember what I've read. So many times people want suggestions from me, but it's so hard to remember all the titles and authors. Using the tagging ability I can keep them somewhat organized. I would love to get suggestions of other books to read although I don't seem to have any trouble finding books to read on my own. I was looking for ideas for elementary school libraries but haven't found anything on the site yet. It has to be there I'm sure.

Week 8: #18

I am still waiting for the e-mail confirmation but explored a bit around the Zoho site. It is very cool. I can see this web based tool as being very useful. How many times do you have to drag your computer or thumb drive around so that you can continue to work on document! Using this program its always right there online and you can use any computer. My kids are in college and I know this is hard to believe but they still e-mail home documents for us to preview and add comments. With Zoho we can just go online and make corrections for them.

Ok, Zoho never came through on my e-mail so I'm trying Google docs and like that quite a bit. Wrote a document and shared it with me husband so we'll see if he gets it tomorrow and can do anything with it. He didn't seem to be too impressed when I tried to explain it to him, but I think it's great. It just seems like it's a lot easier to work with then an e-mail as far as editing.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Chapter 7: Web 2.0

Chapter 7 discusses online safety and security something that we all think about and worry about for our students and our own children. I know that every day kids are exposed to things that we have no idea about - it almost seems impossible to stop it. We have to be really vigilant about talking, talking, and talking to all these young people about the dangers of the internet!

I didn't really think about the safety issue of all the things that we have been learning about in this class - I was just thinking about how cool everything was. Now I'm hoping that I can share these things and still keep the kids safe.

Week 7: #17

I went to the curriculum wiki for the first time and people have really been adding some good ideas! I know I should have adding as I've been going along, but I was leaving what I thought to be the hardest for the last. But looking at what other people are coming up with I think I might be able to do it!

So the wiki seems like it might really work in a library setting. I liked the ideas of reviewing books - ones that are classroom projects as well as YRC and maybe Battle of the Books. Internet safety discussion on a wiki might be good too. There's a lot of students that don't really participate in the discussion in class but they might in a wiki.

Also, I was complaining in a previous blog that I didn't see many library lessons for elementary librarians so we elementary librarians could set up our own wiki for library ideas.

Week 7: #16

I looked at two Wiki's. One was the Booklover's Wiki from Princeton Public Library. I liked it a lot - people gave reviews about various genres of books but the one that I was hoping that they had they didn't have - children's books. Otherwise I liked it and probably visit it again.

I also looked at the Libary Instruction Wiki and didn't like that so much. Not so much applied to my situation as an elementary librarian. Also, I looked at Library 2.0 ideas and they are all computer based and I have limited computer lab time with my students.

As for using Wiki's in the library - I like the idea of note taking and then writing a report about it. I think that I would work with a teacher on that - possibly space with the 6th graders. Maybe another idea for teaching internet safety also.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Chapter 1 - Web 2.0

Chapter one explains what Web 2.0 is and why it is the wave of the future and why it is so important that we as educators get on board. Our world has become "flattened' meaning that there is competition all over the world for services and if we don't promote creativity, collaboration, and communication we are going to fall behind other nations. Because of web tools the user has much more capability to change the way things are done. Web 1.0 was one sided with the user not having the ability to interact, but now all people have the chance to make a difference. So as educators it is our job to now enable our students with these abilities and tools and the time is now.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Week 6: #15

I read the article "Away from the Icebergs". I agree wholeheartedly with the author - libraries have to adapt to the times. I have wondered for several years - what is going to happen to libraries with so much information on the internet that is at times easier and more convenient to find then the limited information in most library collections. Libraries are going to have to change the way they operate. First of all the author says that the "just in case collection" is going to be a thing of the past. It's too expensive and is not being used as much as before because of the internet. Also, we're going to have a hard time teaching all of our patrons and we have to make it easy for them to access tools. Third, patrons aren't going to be coming to us all the time - we have to go to where they are using the internet- at their home, workplace, etc.
I also read Wikipedia about library 2.0. I think the article there is saying that the user is much more of a participant in how the "library" operates by being co-creator, builder and consultant.
I imagine this all applies more to high school libraries and public libraries. In elementary schools children still love books and the information that they get from a book. My older students - 5th and 6th graders though are quite aware of so much more of the web tools then I am. (but maybe not so much after this class!) We need to start with them I'm thinking.

Week 6: #14

Ok, this assignment was overwhelming and not as much fun. I do have a bad headache so maybe that's it! I really don't see myself using this much but maybe I'll try it another day and I will like it better. I did a search on school library web 2.0 and came up with quite a few posts but not very many seemed very useful. They were just picking up key words so a lot didn't have anything to with what I was looking for. I then looked at the blogs and almost every one was had potential so I thought that one was better. I hope I was doing it right.
I think it would be hard to always think of the right "tag" to search. Not everyone's mind works the same way - even my mind doesn't always work the same way every day. Doing a search in Webcat I type in what I think is reasonable sometimes and I don't get anything. As a whole, though, I think that tagging is a great idea to organize your websites and favorite blogs.

Week 6: #13

Social bookmarking and tagging can be a very useful tool to anyone I think. There is so much information out there that it can be so overwhelming and I'm always up for anything that makes collecting info more organized. (I'm a librarian for goodness sake!) The bookmarks that I make on my browser is so disorganized that they're hard to use plus other people can't benefit from them. Using delicious at school would make make my bookmarks much more organized plus my peers could make use of them as well as me making use of others.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Week 5: Thing 12

Voice thread is a very interesting tool. I can really see the advantage of using it over powerpoint. I imagine a lot of students know about it - if they don't they should learn about it. One place that I might use is with internet safety instruction. I could use it as a culminating activity with the students making their own voice thread presentation.

Wendy had some good ideas about posting mystery pictures or text from a book and having kids guess. That would be a good way to get the kids using voice thread.

Week 5: Thing 11

I just checked out Revolution Health and registered. I looked up info about acid reflux because I would like to find alternative options for treating that. I found lots of helpful information. I also went to a blog written by an orthopedic surgeon because I have issues in that area too. One of his recent entries was about Tiger Woods and why he is having problems with his knee which I thought was interesting.
One of the directions for this lesson was to sign up for a Ning. How do I do that?
Travel IQ was fun - I only got to level 6 though. There were some places that I had no idea existed or where it might be located.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Week 5: Thing 10

ImageChef.com - Custom comment codes for MySpace, Hi5, Friendster and more


This was fun and oh, so easy! I used Image Chef for this particular picture. I also looked at Comic Strip Generator and Fd Toys. Amazing what's out there and free. It would be fun to make up my own birthday cards, etc.

Week 4: #9

I explored some of the blog finding tools and liked Blogline's search tool and Google's search tool. I ended up adding Joyce Valenza and the Shifted Librarian. With Topix.net I put Anchorage News in as one of my feeds. Now I have 15 feeds and I don't know when I'm going to have time to keep up reading all of them. Hopefully there will be two or three that will be useful. Oh - and I added Boing Boing. Pretty unusual interesting stuff - probably not at all useful but fun to read.

Week 4: #8

I had absolutely no idea that this tool was available. I set up my account with bloglines - I tried first with Google Reader but the information was never sent to my e-mail so I tried bloglines and was successful. I added about 12 feeds to my account such as Rave Reviews log that previews children's books, About Dogs since I just got a new dog, Unshelved - a comic strip about library. I was reading some of the other feeds that other people added and I think I will add some of the feeds that Wendy talked about. Hopefully I will eventually have some good feeds that will help me save time especially for book reviews and if I can a good feed on lesson plans for library that would be great. So if anyone has any good ideas let me know!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Week 3: thing 7

OK, I know if I "play" around with something long enough I can figure it out - like getting my avatar to where it's supposed to be!
The main problem I have with technology is that it can be so time consuming. I don't think that I could do this class during the school year! I like to do so many other things like exercise, read, watch tv (gasp!) It is fun though. This year I bought the Library Read cds for my school and had a lot of fun learning how to use that along with photoshop and a new digital camera. I think that it's good for us to learn new things especially for my over 50 year old brain that's needs to be challenged.

Week 3: thing 6

I had fun with flickr and just a little frustration and I loved the flickr toys and other added features. I can see that this could be addicting and I could spend countless hours on this, but I can see how these tools would be useful.
Another note - I would like to be able to redo my blog in some ways like put my avatar in my profile. How do I go about doing that? I feel like I want to just drag things around, but that doesn't seem possible.

My creation


My creation
Originally uploaded by jorgensen_audrey

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

A late, late winter storm


Week 3: Thing 5

I set up an account on flickr, but I wasn't able to transfer my picture to my blog. I think I'm going to have to call Suzanne, my personal computer expert! I ended up just taking a picture that I had on my camera from a rainy women's run. At least I got that far!

Week 3: Thing 5

Week 2: Things 3 & 4

I must say that it is a little nerve wracking knowing that whatever I post can be seen by everyone. Every little thing that I do I probably spend twice as long as I need to because I know that everyone can see it. Setting up my blog wasn't too hard and the avatar was fun. Trying to find the true representation of me was a little challenging - there was so many choices. Students must have fun with this program. I might have to show some of my sixth graders next year.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Week 1: things 1 &2

This class is going to be so good for me! I absolutely have no confidence when it comes to technology so this is going to prove to me that I can do this. So I guess the hardest of the 7 1/2 habits for lifelong learners is having confidence in myself as a competent effective learner. I need to step out of my comfort zone once in awhile and try something new and scary. I almost always find out that I can do whatever it is that seems so difficult.
The easiest habit I think for me is play. If I know that what I'm doing is not such a serious thing and I'm just "playing" and having fun then I am able to relax and learn.