Friday, November 30, 2007

Future of Blogging

It's been quite a while since my last post.

Since then I've attended conferences that have discussed how to incorporate Web 2.0 tools in the classroom. Currently, I am attending the Cue conference in Monterey. I will be taking what I am learning here back to my school to share with the faculty. I am attending the conference with a colleague and we have already discussed ideas on what we are going to share and how we are going to share it. I look forward to creating the audio and video elements that we are going to incorporate into the presentation as examples of what can be done and how it can be done.

Many of the things that I have learned so far have been hands-on. I understand even more clearly now how students can become absorbed in creating their own media and sharing it with the world. Web 2.0 can be a great way to teach the content and technology standards and engage students in a truly interactive environment.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Classroom Learning 2.0

Participating in the School Library Learning 2.0 program over the summer was a great learning experience for me. Now CSLA has adapted the program for teachers and school administrators. Here is the link for the new program: Classroom Learning 2.0.

I am delighted to say that there are many teachers at my school whom are interested in learning how to use the web tools covered in the program. I'm very excited about all the great ideas we'll be discussing on how to incorporate them into the classroom.

I'm going to be acting as a cheerleader for the group. In the future, I'll create a blog roll for my blog with links to all of the participants blogs. I'm also happy that I'll be able to continue my own blogging adventure as part of our group learning effort.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Future Plans

Before beginning the School Library Learning 2.0 odyssey, I decided to create an email newsletter to send to the faculty. I designed it so that the teachers would be able to check out the sites I shared with them by clicking on the links in the email.
After completing the learning experience, I now feel like I have a wealth of information to share in future newsletters. I'm going to use the Del.icio.us account that I began in this program as a way of sharing all the links (and others) I'll highlight in the newsletters.
School will begin next week and I've shared the link to the School Library Learning blog with some of the teachers that have stopped by early.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Week 9 Thing 23 - The End

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
Some of the discoveries I really enjoyed:
Blogging, Creating images, Exploring the world of WIKIs, Listening to Podcasts, Del.icio.us
The idea of having a blog for the library appeals to me more and more. I like the interact nature of the medium. Also, it would be a great way to incorporate student participation in the library.

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
This program has assisted my lifelong learning goals by providing an easy to use platform for discovering Web 2.0 tools. I’ve wanted to learn more about the features in the discoveries for quite a while but thought I would have to take a class at a school or a library to gain exposure to the tools. Now, I have a firmer foundation of Library 2.0 skills to continue to build on in my pursuit as a lifelong learner.

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I was surprised by the difference in the learning experience when I worked on a PC compared to Mac. I’m really a Mac person at heart so I will be looking for more tools that I can use that work hand in hand with Safari and other popular Mac features.
I'd also like to be able to share this experience with the teachers at my school. I think many of them would be interested in doing these activities and thinking about how they could use the resources in their classroom.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
I joined the learning experience a bit late so I think I missed out on some of the feedback. It’s hard not to feel like you're blogging into dead air.

I would recommend that if any of the “discoveries” require specific software or system requirements that they be listed in the explanation of the task. I know it would have saved me a headache.

5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
I would be interested in participating.

6. How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote CSLA learning activities?
At times the School Library Learning 2.0 experience was awesome, frustrating, mind-blowing, confusing, but overall rewarding.

Week 9 Thing 22 - eBooks and Audio eBooks

The World eBook Fair - good resources for eBooks and links for available audio eBooks. My attention was captured by the link to the site audiobooksforfree. I noticed however, that it is the lower quality recordings that are available for free. Anything ranked form reasonable to very goog quality has a fee attached. It would be interesting to discover what the difference in recording quality really is on this site and a comparison across sites offering audio eBooks.
Project Gutenberg was also fascinating. I prefer to read a paper version of a book but I can see accessing the electronic version if I could view it without downloading in order to answer a reference question.

Week 9 Thing 21 - Podcasts

Searching for podcasts...
I tried to find some about School Libraries but didn't find exactly what I wanted. I did find one produced by a School Library that could serve as a model if I decided to create one for my library. This podcast consists of book reviews produced by students. Interesting idea.
What I was trying to find and didn't have luck, was a podcast for news specifically about school libraries. I did find LibVibe that seems to center on public libraries but was still interesting to listen to. I added it to my Google Reader.
Hosting a podcast series in the school library would be a job for more than one person. I think it's a good idea to get the students involved. It would also be a good idea to get the involvement of the art department. More and more schools are offering classes on video and audio production. What a great opportunity for a library partnership.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

ToonDoo









I was able to use ToonDoo to create a comic strip using my Mac and Safari.