Week 4: #9 Locate School Library blogs and newsfeed

I searched through Google Blog Search and typed in library learning 2.0 and came across one blog that was real interesting. It was an article in the School Library Journal dated July 13 titled "AASL Released Best Web Sites for Teaching and Learning." It was mentioning that Facebook, Twitter, Wordle and many other websites have been singled out at being the best resources for curriculum development and learning because of the creativity and the active participation and the collaboration. I truly believe in bringing our students into the 21st century and develop these skills and making these real life lessons engaging and motivating. Google blog search was the only one I found useful for me.

Week 4: # 8 RSS and Newsreaders

I created a account for Bloglines and was able to view it but did not care for it all. I did not find it interesting to me and not very easy to manuver through. I could not figure out how to manage it through my blog account. I may come back to it later and play with it some more but for now "not a big hit for me!!"

Week 3: #6 Flickr Fun, Mashups, 3rd Party

I took the challenge of creating my own trading card. I finally took the plunge and learned how to upload pictures in Flickr. It took some time to figure that part out but creating the trade card was simple. I would love to see this activity used maybe with character traits for characters in books. That is something to might look into a little further.

Week 3 # 7 Technology blog

Yes, I am backtracking on my blogs to make sure I have done everything during this course. When I attended the TLA conference this year I sat in a session about using SMART boards in a library setting. I was so intrigued about the whole thing. While I was watching just a few samples of lessons on the awesome interactive boards, my mind went 100 miles an hour coming up with other lessons that can be done with the same tools. I have had the opportunity to use promethean boards during a research unit with 1st grade and loved it. My goal for my library is to eventually have these fantastic technology tools to really bring life into the lessons and for my students to be engaged in learning. I would rather use the SMART boards verses the promethean boards because it is more adaptable to convert existing power point presentations and have more features.

Week 7: # 16 Wikis

This is the week I have been waiting for!! The more and more I read about wikis, the more I get excited in adding to my wiki I started for my school. I know I am going to have lots of questions this week so I might have numerous postings. Here is one question: I came across a term several times as I was looking at ideas for wikis and still don't know what it is: Ning (school library ning). What is that? Have we had the opportunity to look at that earlier in the weeks and I missed that? It has definitely peeked my curiousity!!

Week 6: Tagging, Folksonomies # 15 cont'd

After reading Rick Anderson's "Away from the Icebergs" perspective, I am torn between believing and not believing in his ideas. In his comments about building collections, during the "Pre Internet" days, patrons only way to gather information was through the library informational materials. Information changes tend to be faster now then back in the old days. I do agree about the comment on building informational collections as if print is the only way of obtaining. The freedom to access information is not as easy in a school setting verses public libraries. The thought of my circulation rate dropping scares me as far as job security. Some school districts have so much control over budgets and the limitations of where the money can be spent does create "icebergs" to say the least. As a library media specialist, this can be discouraging in bringing the library to a level of informational age. I don't want to sound pessimistic, I am being realistic.
Another comment he made bothers me. He said we need to focus our efforts not on teaching research skills but eliminating the barriers that exist between the patrons and the information they need. How else are our patrons going to learn how to gather information they need if we don't teach them how to gather information? Did I miss something along the way? I would sure like to see what he is talking about.

Everyday I feel I have to fight harder for my job as I continue to reach out to the school community. As long as we continue to keep our educational focus on "TAKS", our profession will have to continue to paddle upstream and hopefully reach calming waters.

Week 6: Tagging, Folksonomies # 15

Well I have definitely fell behind on my blogs so I am going to try and play catch up this week. After reading Michael Stephen's blog about the new world of librarianship, there is so much of me that agrees with everything he says especially making the library a social and emotionally engaging center for learning and experience. Unfortunately, with our economy the way it is and school districts hit with cut backs, they tend to cut back in the area of libraries and librarians. It's hard to be what we call the "21st Century library" when school districts can't or I should say won't see us as 21st Century libraries. Reading his blog definitely gives me the opportunity to dream of what I would like for my library to become than what it really is. Who knows maybe someday our prince will come and our dreams will come true!!

Image Generators Favs

I spent some time searching a few generator websites and I can say my favorite is the comic strip generator. I did find some great images through Image Chef and plan on bookmarking that website as well. Right now my goal is to find images to use a I plan my wiki for my library. Of course I can relate more with Curriculum Connection Idea #3. Here is another image I found that fits just perfect with our school mascot.