Week 6 - Thing 15

I have read with interest four of the articles posted on-line for this exercise. I really enjoyed reading "Away from the ícebergs'". It made me rethink my collection development goals. In this time of decreased budgets and students who believe that everything they need to do research can be found on the web, the time has come to rethink what we do and how we meet the needs of our patrons. After having experienced a bit of what Web 2.0 has to offer, I have become increasingly aware that I need to spend more time developing my skills in the use of this amazing collection of connections. I need to find ways to make my students aware of how best to utilize the sheer volume of information that is available digitally. We may assume that students are "web savvy" but do they really know how to use the breadth and depth of the web to obtain the information they require from authoritative, reliable sources?
I also enjoyed reading "Into a new world of librarianship". The 5 descriptiors of the "Librarian 2.0" gave me pause and made me take a better look at myself as librarian. Am I equipped to be or to become a Librarian 2.0? By acknowledging the need to update my thinking and to become a proactive Web 2.0 user, I will become better at my profession and increase my ability to offer the best to the students and faculty that I serve. These articles gave me much food for thought!

Week 6 - Thing 14

I'm just now getting around to playing with tags and looking at Technorati. I can certainly see why you would need a search engine specifically designed to access the millions of blogs out there. I do have some reservations about tagging. Potentially, you could create millions of tags and in some cases defeat the purpose by not being able to find what you need since you never hit upon the right tag or you could tag each entry with innumerable tags just to make your blog entries accessible. I imagine that as we construct our tags and use those of others that match the contents of each post that a lexicon will naturally develop so that we will build from one another and a certain amount of standarization will result. I can see both the beauty and the difficulty in deviating from the standard "subheading" based system.
I did find that I was able to access more blogs by going to the posts than by searching by the tag. Most helpful was going "search.technorati.com"

Week 6-Thing 13

I love del.icio.us! It is the function that I have been looking for. I do intend to set up an account and spend sometime entering all of my "favorites". The ability to tag and sort will be so helpful as I spend time both at school and at home looking for appropriate sites for my students. I'm particularly interested in great primary source sites and sites that are specific to certain disciplines. The del.icio.us site will enable me to do this as well as benefiting from the experience of others. I may be exposed to many great sites that I have missed or that I have overlooked. I'm anxious to spend some time setting up my account and getting started. Perhaps the only negative will be the time that it will take to actually organize all of the bookmarks that I currently use. However, since I haven't done a very good job of keeping up with their organization, this should provide me with the perfect opportunity to end the chaos! To really do an effective job, I may have to wait until I have time

Week 5- Thing 12

Today I worked on Rollyo. I have to admit that given the name I wondered what type of tool this could be. After exploring some of the existing rolls, I began to understand the potential of this site as a teaching/reference tool. I explored several of the existing rolls, including those about "quotes". Often when I am writing grants or just want to highlight a particular theme in my writing I look for appropriate quotes that will elucidate my ideas the rollyo quotes site is an excellent place to start in looking for an appropriate quote. It will also be a place where I will send my high school students when they are trying to track down a quote or if they are looking for one to highlight a particular issue.

When I return to school next week I intend to create a couple of rolls dealing with some of the subjects that we most often research. This may help my students with their research and save me time in the long run.

Week 5- Thing 11

Some of the sites from the Web 2.0 Award Winners were great! I particularly liked LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com/). This is a site that allows you to create examples of your private "library" by posting a selection of your favorite books on-line. You can catalog on line, share your lists with other and connect with people who have similar reading tastes, a great place for bibliophiles! Regarding classroom/library use, I could imagine setting up something in LibraryThing that introduced students and others to reviews of newly acquired books and allowed them to comment.
Another site that I found useful for our health classes. The website is Medstory (http://www.medstory.com/) and it is a search engine for questions about health related issues. The researcher can find information about diseases, medications, diet, etc. I will use this search engine with my health teachers and their students. A great find!

Week 5- Thing 10

I just can't get over how many resources are out there! I've just spent some time looking over a variety of image generators. I can certainly see why our students might enjoy playing with them. They could also be very useful as advertising for clubs and other school related functions. They might also come in handy for students who might not possess artistic ability but were interested in creating a graphic novel for an English class or a political cartoon for social studies.

Of the generators I explored, I think my favorites were Image chef. and Comic strip generator

Week 4- Thing 9

I guess I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by all that I am learning. I'm realizing that I could spend hours and hours just exploring all of the interesting blogs out there. It amazes me how diligent some of the bloggers are. They keep abreast of lots of blogs and are so enthusiastic about the whole technology.

This time I looked at some of the Edublog award winners (maybe that's why I'm feeling so inadequate.) In particular I enjoyed reading "The tempered radical" and learning how some of our new teachers are feeling about their jobs. I well remember how I felt first as a new teacher and then as a new librarian. So much to learn, so much to do!!
The blog really gave the young teachers a chance to share and to realize that they are not alone. These teachers may branch out to form their own learning community of new educators who can share their triumphs and their fears.

I also enjoyed looking at Technotuesday"" and A library by any other name" both of these blogs appear to be authored by very savvy web 2.0 users. They gave lots of ideas and referred to other technologies and other influential bloggers. It was after viewing these blogs that I began to feel that I have soo much to learn.

One concern I do have is the sheer amount of time that could be devoted to the blog quest. I guess when you find a "jewel" it's worth it but you may have to slog through a lot of dross before you ever find it.

Oh well, on to my next challenge. Until next time....