Week 9 - Thing 23

Well this is it. My final blog for this course. I have truly enjoyed learning about the variety of information out there on the web. So many people are doing such exciting things. It is true that a number of copyright issues are being raised and appreciated the tutorial. I will be interested to watch the way in which the creative commons evolves. I know my husband, who works in a university library, is very interested in the creative commons and relates that it is a topic of great interest among academics.

Rather than filling out the survey, which I believe will go back to CSLA, I thought I would answer the questions here.

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises?
I really enjoyed exploring a number of sites and plan to revisit several of them when I have more time. Among the one's that I found most intriguing were RSS feeds, Rollyo,
Del.icio.us and LibraryThing. In particular, I am planning to catalog my personal library collection using LibraryThing. I will be interested in finding works that are similar to my favorites and sharing my thoughts about literary works.
2. How has the program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
The program has opened my eyes to the vast possibilities of collaborative learning. By reaching out to others and finding those with similar interests, new areas of investigation, cooperation and sharing open up.
3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I guess I was surprised by how enthusiastic I've been about web 2.o. I have mentioned it frequently in conversations I've had with colleagues. When I started this program, I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I have, nor did I expect to find it so useful.
4. What could we do differently to improve on format or concept?
I thought both format and content were excellent. If I had one criticism, it would be the time element. I'm grateful that the completion date was extended since I would have found it difficult to finish within the nine week time frame. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to do all that I want to do and exploring these various sites can be very time consuming especially if you become engrossed in the information you find.
5. If offered another, would you choose to participate?
Absolutely!
6. Describe in one word/sentence, your thoughts on this program.
Transformative

One last word: I obviously enjoyed this experience and learned a lot. I do have some concerns as the educator of adolescents. I guess my fear is that, despite the collegial nature of web 2.0, the anonymity of working on line may be a bit isolating. Some students may get so caught up in their web world that there might be a reluctance to reach out in real life to pursue friendships and acquire social skills. As with my initial reaction to web 2.0, my fears may be unfounded and may be a product of my age and the narrowness of my point of view. There is so much that is good about web 2.0 and it is our job to teach our students how to navigate it to ensure that they are obtaining the information they need and establishing the relationships they want. Our role as teachers of information literacy becomes more crucial than ever as we discuss such topics as bias, point of view, authority of sources and so much more. What a responsibility!

Week 9- Thing 22

I'm so glad to see that books and other materials now in the public domain are being made available through digitization. For free or for a slight fee, we now have access to many of the classics. I especially enjoyed looking at some of the free children's books that were available. I took the time to read a bit of A Little Princess by Francis Burnett and discovered some titles by Kate Douglas Wiggin that I had never seen before. What a treat to visit some of my old favorites!

Having these eBooks available, will help those of us in cash-strapped libraries (and who of us isn't right now) provide a bit more depth for our students by making some of these older titles available. With initiatives like Project Gutenberg and LibriVox, more and more of our cultural heritage is being made accessible. These are sources that I will revisit long after this course is over.

Week 9 - Thing 21

After looking at all of the podcast directories and fumbling around trying to navigate to the podcasts of interest, I realize how far I have come and how far I have to go. I did find some podcasts of interest particularly those that have news content and the book reviews, which I found particularly entertaining.

I tried all of the directories mentioned and felt that itunes was the most comprehensive. The others seemed to provide a more limited list.

Podcasts are excellent vehicles for engaging children in learning and for disseminating information. In the past one of my colleagues had students write poetry and create a podcast for other 3rd grade classes in the district that were linked with illustrations created by a buddy class from across town. The artists listened to the poems and then each child chose one to illustrate. She also had fourth graders create travelogues of the United States which they were able to share with friends and family, near and far, via their podcasts. I have created a podcast about the evaluation of web resources that can be accessed from our library's home page that, hopefully, will benefit our students and faculty.

http://www.shrewsbury-ma.gov/schools/SHS/MediaCenter/shsmain.htm

Week 9 -Thing 20

It was interesting to experience a bit of what YouTube has to offer. I hear the kids at school talking about YouTube so it was great having the opportunity to play with it a bit. It obviously offers a great variety of videos, some of which would be very valuable to teachers trying to describe a particular historical event or have them listen to an interview. I did some searches on historical topics that I know our students study to see what would be available to show as clips during a class to illustrate a particular issue or time period. By providing students with the opportunity to see and hear the actual events and people related to a particular incident, we are able to make history more relevant to our students. I do see problems with sites like YouTube where students can be exposed to some unsavory materials. There are issues of privacy as well that present some real concerns.

Unfortunately, the opportunity to use YouTube at our school to show educational videos is not available. Our filter prevents us from accessing YouTube from any of our computers. It would be possible, I'm sure, if we had a particularly relevant clip, to have the filter disabled on one computer for a limited time. This does provide some access but does cut down on the ability to be spontaneous, i.e. to access a video on the spur of the moment as the need arises.

The clip that I'm highlighting is an interview with one of the leaders of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This clip would be an excellent way to open a discussion with students on the topic of Civil Rights in the 1960s.



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I'm having problems viewing my video on my MAC at school. It comes through on my PC at home. I don't know whether this is a problem with the MAC or whether, since YouTube is blocked at school, the video doesn't appear. I guess it points up the possibility of problems with incompatibility between platforms and the restrictions created by filters and firewalls.

Week 8 - Thing 19

I just finished entering my first eight books into Librarything and I love it! What an easy way to provide access to my family's book collection and at the same time connect with other bibliophiles who enjoy the same type of literature. By sharing with others who have the same book tastes, I will never run out of good reading materials in my subjects of choice. What makes this site even more enticing is the ability to communicate with other readers, have a book discussion or exchange ideas about our mutual favorites. I'm looking forward to entering more of my book collection and getting my husband to participate as well. It will even encourage me to evaluate my books and decide what I want to keep and what needs to be discarded. This is a site that I will share with others and will use on a regular basis.

If you want to check out my book collection check out:


www.librarything.com/catalog/cdonovan

Week 8 - Thing 18

Zoho has the potential to solve a number of problems in our media center. Lately, we have been having a number of issues with students who e-mail documents from home to the media center. When they attempt to print them, they find that because their computers have a newer operating system then the ones here, printing is impossible. We do explain that they can "save down" but that doesn't help when they need their essay for class immediately. Zoho would solve this problem. Zoho writer, Google Docs and the other productivity tools will make collaborating and communicating increasingly simple. Now, my only problem is getting the time to demonstrate the use of these tools to our staff and student body, not always easy in this time of standards based instruction!

Week 7 - Thing 16

I must admit that I approached wikis with some preconceived notions. I have never been a big proponent of the Wikipedia and, in fact, tend to steer my students aways from that source. I was impressed, however, with many of the Wikis that I looked at. The subject guides on the St. Joseph County Library System were great and very user friendly. Equally useful was the Library Sources website, which I saved as a favorite. I must admit, though, that I was most impressed by the teacher created Wikis that are being used to disseminate class information and to encourage collaboration among students. In fact, I e-mailed the English 10 Wiki to a couple of our English teachers and sent the APWH Wiki to our Social Studies director as an example of what we could do here for some of our classes. I have looked into establishing a Wiki and using it either with a subject teacher for one of our co-teaching experiences or as a portal into our media center. Each "thing" leaves me with so much to think about that it is hard to absorb it all!