A great experience. Many things that I had used before, but also many new things. Great to dig a little deeper into the things.
I definitely would like to see another round of things next year.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Thing 22 - Keeping Up
How to Keep Up - follow those links, add them to del.icio.us. It seems that it is always worth it to take a minute to follow a link to explore a new idea. Keeping the "post to del.icio.us" button handy makes it easy to then add the link to my account with some tags that are descriptive and then go back to them later when I have more time.
I think that there are so many ways to track items of interest that it is good to pick one and work with it for a few weeks to see if it fits my work habits. Del.icio.us has been good for awhile, but as a result of 23 Things I am looking at a few sites with more features.
Helene Blower's LibraryBytes is one of the blogs that I have added to my list that I will read often.
I also like to look at things from the out of the box perspective of thinking - how can this be used in education and in my library. It's powerful to have this perspective when someone comes through the door and asks "What do you know about GoogleEarth and how can we use it in the classroom?"
What I found useful - in addition to del.icio.us I really have found GoogleReader to be useful. A quick way to read a lot of favorites quickly. I like the star ratings so I can go back to important posts.
I think that there are so many ways to track items of interest that it is good to pick one and work with it for a few weeks to see if it fits my work habits. Del.icio.us has been good for awhile, but as a result of 23 Things I am looking at a few sites with more features.
Helene Blower's LibraryBytes is one of the blogs that I have added to my list that I will read often.
I also like to look at things from the out of the box perspective of thinking - how can this be used in education and in my library. It's powerful to have this perspective when someone comes through the door and asks "What do you know about GoogleEarth and how can we use it in the classroom?"
What I found useful - in addition to del.icio.us I really have found GoogleReader to be useful. A quick way to read a lot of favorites quickly. I like the star ratings so I can go back to important posts.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Thing 21 - Other Social Networks
I don't participate in many social networks, but found Gather to be new to me and I think that the groups would be interesting to many adults outside of the Facebook crowd.
I would like to have Ning sites set up for some of the work that teachers do for professional learning communities. I set up a page on the 23 Things Ning - easy. I need to add photos, but am away from my work computer so will get that done tomorrow.
The specialized social networks were especially interesting - a great way for people to engage in the passions in a focused environment.
Great sites to be aware of so that I can pass the info on to others.
I would like to have Ning sites set up for some of the work that teachers do for professional learning communities. I set up a page on the 23 Things Ning - easy. I need to add photos, but am away from my work computer so will get that done tomorrow.
The specialized social networks were especially interesting - a great way for people to engage in the passions in a focused environment.
Great sites to be aware of so that I can pass the info on to others.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Thing 20 - Libraries and Social Networks
I have had a Facebook account since last fall - my only friends are my children so it was fun to try some new things. I joined Facebook last fall after the death of a teacher in our school and I learned that a couple graduates had created a group and hundreds of past students had posted memories about the teachers - a neat way to use Facebook.
My children also really like the fact that they are able to connect with people that they have not had contact with since high school or college. I would love to connect with some of the people that I knew in college and through adulthood, but I probably won't find them on Facebook.
I joined the group: Sound Africa Nellmapius Primary School Library Project - looks like a fundraising project - will be interesting to learn more about this project. I also added a birthday greeting to my daughters wall.
When I first joined it would not accept my registration with my real first name "Gay" so Ihad to register with the name "Gayle"
Anyone can friend me with my last name "galles" and I will be your friend.
My 20+ year old children like Facebook for the connections that they can make. I think they also like to one-stop features of the site - photos, walls, groups, etc.
I heard a recent discussion on public radio about the use of the information on social networking sites by employers and college admissions. They compared it to looking in someone's briefcase or desk drawers - something that we wouldn't do in order to gather information about someone. My daughter didn't agree - she says that you can keep your personal information private even on Facebook and that the owner of the facebook account should make efforts to do that. An interesting discussion.
My children also really like the fact that they are able to connect with people that they have not had contact with since high school or college. I would love to connect with some of the people that I knew in college and through adulthood, but I probably won't find them on Facebook.
I joined the group: Sound Africa Nellmapius Primary School Library Project - looks like a fundraising project - will be interesting to learn more about this project. I also added a birthday greeting to my daughters wall.
When I first joined it would not accept my registration with my real first name "Gay" so Ihad to register with the name "Gayle"
Anyone can friend me with my last name "galles" and I will be your friend.
My 20+ year old children like Facebook for the connections that they can make. I think they also like to one-stop features of the site - photos, walls, groups, etc.
I heard a recent discussion on public radio about the use of the information on social networking sites by employers and college admissions. They compared it to looking in someone's briefcase or desk drawers - something that we wouldn't do in order to gather information about someone. My daughter didn't agree - she says that you can keep your personal information private even on Facebook and that the owner of the facebook account should make efforts to do that. An interesting discussion.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Thing 19 - Podcasts
The best thing about listening to podcasts is that I can listen when I want to without being tied to the schedule of a radio station or a one-time presentation.
I especially like listening to archived presentations at the SirsiDynix Institute. It is so easy to have them playing in the background while working at my desk. Easy to pause if needed and pick up listening later.
I think this would be a great way for grandparents to read stories to their grandchildren. Save the story in gcast and send the book to the child.
Subscribing to podcasts is very easy in iTunes and I use that application to search and subscribe to those of interest. I think that MPR and NPR has done a great job of making their broadcasts available in podcast so I can listen a second time or easily share something of interest with others so they can listen.
In our school district we are able to use a Macintosh application to easily record podcasts and some teachers use the recorder to save class lectures for students who are not in class. There are a lot of possibilities for other uses.
I own an iPod and occasionally will save a longer podcast to it and listen while exercising.
I especially like listening to archived presentations at the SirsiDynix Institute. It is so easy to have them playing in the background while working at my desk. Easy to pause if needed and pick up listening later.
I think this would be a great way for grandparents to read stories to their grandchildren. Save the story in gcast and send the book to the child.
Subscribing to podcasts is very easy in iTunes and I use that application to search and subscribe to those of interest. I think that MPR and NPR has done a great job of making their broadcasts available in podcast so I can listen a second time or easily share something of interest with others so they can listen.
In our school district we are able to use a Macintosh application to easily record podcasts and some teachers use the recorder to save class lectures for students who are not in class. There are a lot of possibilities for other uses.
I own an iPod and occasionally will save a longer podcast to it and listen while exercising.
Thing 18 - YouTube and Other Online Video
I really like all the instructional videos on YouTube - especially the ones by CommonCraft such as this one about Twitter.
Our school district has a filtering system that allows us to set a limited amount of bandwidth for playing YouTube videos so we allow YouTube and the teachers really appreciate being able to use them in the classroom.
Our students link to YouTube videos in their presentations for classroom projects and I think that they would be very frustrated if it were not available. We do try to limit their use of YouTube during free time, but it is a losing battle and I suspect that next year we will not make a great effort to police it.
We also have access to TeacherTube, but YouTube remains the favorite.
I didn't spend much time with Jumpcut, but it would be a way to do some video production without all the concerns of dedicated computers for that purpose.
Thing 17 - ELM Productivity Tools
I have set up journal alerts for teachers and principals so that they get an email with details of articles in tables of contents in professional journals. I have set up a journal alert of School Library Journal and other journals that I am not likely to purchase through a print subscription.
We have set these up as emails - seems to be more reliable than the RSS feeds, but we will get that figured out.
The multimedia files in InfoTrac Student Edition were new to me. Great to know that these are available if students and teachers ask about these. Appeared to be only from NPR, but I guess that is the main producer of audio of this type.
A teacher recently told me that she had discovered the searches that can be set up in Google to search specific sites and topics. I told her about the ability that we have with our subscription databases and she is interested in that, but somewhat difficult to sell a concept when it is put up against Google.
It would be great if teachers would require students to use journal alerts to set up a search of a topic over time and do an analysis of the perspective of a news event as it changes over time.
I think the adult patrons of libraries would be very interested in the latest articles related to a personal interest. I have some personal alerts set up for myself.
We have set these up as emails - seems to be more reliable than the RSS feeds, but we will get that figured out.
The multimedia files in InfoTrac Student Edition were new to me. Great to know that these are available if students and teachers ask about these. Appeared to be only from NPR, but I guess that is the main producer of audio of this type.
A teacher recently told me that she had discovered the searches that can be set up in Google to search specific sites and topics. I told her about the ability that we have with our subscription databases and she is interested in that, but somewhat difficult to sell a concept when it is put up against Google.
It would be great if teachers would require students to use journal alerts to set up a search of a topic over time and do an analysis of the perspective of a news event as it changes over time.
I think the adult patrons of libraries would be very interested in the latest articles related to a personal interest. I have some personal alerts set up for myself.
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