Katyroo

cpd Thing 3: Consider your personal brand

2011-07-03T04:53:00.000-07:00

Well, having an unusual name certainly helps with this cpdThing!

My first go-round of searching for "Katy Manck" brought up my real-blog http://BooksYALove.blogspot.com and my work with the International Association of School Librarianship www.iasl-online.org especially our GiggleIT Project (free online writing & creativity showcase for students 10-14, with lesson plans & ideas for TLs as sponsors) http://www.iasl-online.org/sla/giggleIT/index.htm - most results related to my book reviewing & IASL.

Checking for my name as "Kathryn" netted fewer results, specifically those relating to me as an alumna of the University of North Texas graduate library school or of Austin College (undergraduate).

Not too many crazy photos, although I do wish that the pix of me riding the camel at Uluru in Australia hadn't been mangled in the camera's memory before I could upload them!

cpd Thing 2: Explore other blogs

2011-06-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

Trolling through the Delicious list of cpd23 participants' blogs was a bit like our first visit to the neighborhood Chinese restaurant in Beijing in 2005 - the very brief English descriptions gave fragmentary and puzzling glimpses into what might arrive at the table if those items were selected!

Many cpd23 blogs had cryptic names (as mine admittedly does) which don't tell the reader what to expect. Other blog names were subject-specific yet painfully plain. Experience levels range from newest of newbies (blog set up, but not even an intro post) to average library folk (know the tech, have a fair-decent blog, perhaps LibraryThings veteran) to the superstars (customized blog w/uber-relevant blogroll & detailed posts). If the blogger told us their location & library type, that was a definite plus.

So, I wandered through the list, checking on blogs by librarians in different sectors and geographical areas, and selected 9 that I've subscribed to during our cpd23 voyage together. I've learned that it's far easier to have a workable number of blogs to follow and comment on when it comes to these sorts of LibraryThing online 'classes' than to try to rush through a section of the blogroll for this Thing, then another section for the next Thing.

And to add to the fun, I've also signed on for the eduMOOC (Massive Open Online Class) about Online Learning from the University of Illinois Springfield USA which begins June 27 and runs for 8 weeks, discussing "Online Learning Today...and Tomorrow." Almost 2,000 other folks are already signed up, so this ought to get interesting! Earlier I tagged along on CCK2011, a MOOC about Creativity, Connectivism & Knowledge, so the broader-yet-narrower scope of eduMOOC looks to be a bit more manageable.

Plus the Ultimate Blog Challenge begins on July 1 for my "real" blog - BooksYALove - where I recommend YA books beyond the bestsellers, especially books by first-time authors and smaller publishers, so that's 31 days of specific blog-a-liciousness to play with...

Also dipping my toes into Thomas Dolby's new sorta-MMORPG called The Floating City, which requires cooperative trading strategies to discover the detailed rules of the game. Completed my first trade and received download of "She Blinded Me With Science" (love that song!) - ultimate prize for winning team is live concert...ooohhh.....

Let's get rolling, cpdsters!
**Katy

Running with cpd23

2011-06-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

Ah, more tools for my arsenal of research & social connection skills! I did my first 23Things a few years back (the impetus for starting this blog), and I know how much has changed in the social media spectrum since then.

Then, I was a high school librarian; now, I'm sorta-retired (not working, but no retirement pay coming yet), and busier than ever as an independent book reviewer (as guest on www.abookandahug.com - best books for babies, kids, tweens, and teens) and blogger (my own http://BooksYALove.blogspot.com - recommending YA books beyond the bestsellers).

I remain active in the International Association of School Librarianship http://www.iasl-online.org/index.htm as Treasurer and continue to promote IASL's GiggleIT Project http://www.iasl-online.org/sla/giggleIT/ our free online student writing project, most recently at the Texas Library Association annual conference in April.

Looking forward to the 'new' Things which have appeared since my last go-round - Zotero, Prezi, etc. I'm finally on Twitter ( @BooksYALove) and am having such a good time following YA authors (some even follow me - eeep!) and movers/shakers in the library world - adding to that useful folks list will be great.

**Katy M
Recommending YA books beyond the bestsellers at http://BooksYALove.blogspot.com
Follow me on Twitter @BooksYALove

Pretty darn wonderful

2011-01-29T14:21:00.000-08:00

Some things are just flat-0ut wonderful and must be shared:

Jake Shimabukuro performs Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" - on the ukelele!
http://blog.ted.com/2011/01/28/bohemian-rhapsody-jake-shimabukuro-on-ted-com/

If the Moon were centered over Alice Springs, Australia, using BBC's Dimensions mapping app
http://howbigreally.com/dimension/space/moon

Today's front pages from over 750 newspapers in 79 countries - Newseum
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/default.asp

Dogpaddling in CCK11

2011-01-27T06:20:00.000-08:00

In the vast MOOC of CCK11 http://cck11.mooc.ca, trying to get a handle on Connectivism as a theory and as practice, I feel like I'm dogpaddling against the current. The gRSShopper comment/thread system is still a bit hard for me to navigate - I wind up replying to a whole herd of folks instead of the thread I intended to answer... perhaps with practice...

But I may be getting just a bit closer to the other swimmers, as I've found the CCK11 Facebook group, where there are real people to 'talk' to, including fascinating discussions about PLNs (personal learning networks) and the personal search for information.

Hoping to find a place for the K-12 folks in the MOOC to hang out and share ideas. Compared to those in higher education and business, we have rather a different take on connectivism and learning.

Thing #11.5

2009-08-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

1. Favorite discoveries - I loved finding out how easy Screencasting is! Wish I'd known about it long ago so that I could have created myriad "how-to-do-it-online" demos.

2. Toward lifelong learning goals - Rather than being drowned in new tech apps, I am at least treading water! Many school librarians that I know haven't even put on their floaties yet...

3. Unexpected outcomes - Delighted with the sheer quantity of offerings on Slideshare for great presentations that I never could attend in person. I'll never run out of things to explore and learn there.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? Thing 10 took so much more time than the other Things because SL has a steeper learning curve than most of the other tools explored. Perhaps need to divide it into smaller parts with specific focus, like reading about SL in education in one Thing and exploring SL with your avatar in another Thing.

Thanks again to Spring Branch ISD, Dr. BB and all our great Lifeguards for developing the 23 Library Things and the 11.5 Things and allowing the out-of-towners to come over and play! I would have never discovered all these things on my own...

Next stop - Italy! Heading for the International Association for School Librarianship conference in Abano Terme, Italy (with a few days in Venice, too!)

Thing #11

2009-08-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

Digital Citizenship lesson for 9th graders (H.S. Freshmen) - based on Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship found at http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html
In junior high, students have limited access to technology and online resources due to equipment and scheduling constraints. Therefore freshmen need to be introduced to the ground rules of digital citizenship before they are set loose in the more freewheeling world of high school online access.

The lesson will focus on 5 Key Principles (conversation points for librarians to present are in quotation marks):
1) Digital access - "School technology resources are tools for all students. Using just your fair share of computer time, bandwidth, printer ink/toner, and paper are ways to show you are prepared to be a good digital citizen." [Reinforces school rules on computer time and printer limitations in a positive way]

2) Digital rights & responsibilities - "With the right of free speech online comes the responsibility to communicate appropriately online. The right to use information found online brings the responsibility to give proper credit for the sources of that information. By signing on to any computer in OurSchool ISD, you agree that you will act responsibly as you exercise your rights." [Reminds of rights & restrictions contained in AUP which they and their parents have already agreed to in writing]

3) Digital communications - "As a school user of information technology, you will use a more limited set of digital communications than you would at home. Your use of school-approved e-mail, wikis, blogs and other communication options will continue as you prove that you can use them effectively and correctly." [Reminds that responsible online communication is allowed on school computers even though several limiting factors prevent use of cell phones, instant messaging, social sites, etc. at school]

4) Digital law - "You are responsible for your actions online and must act ethically when it comes to the property of others, including their websites, coding, music, and so on. Avoiding unethical behavior online means knowing the difference between sharing and stealing - it's not just a good idea, it's the law!" [Remind that downloading music, plagiarism, hacking, etc are illegal and unethical and can result in real legal penalties from the school district and law enforcement agencies]

5) Digital literacy - "Learning to locate, assess, and utilize information from online sources should occur in many of your classes and projects, not just in computer/BCIS class. It's up to you to practice these skills until you are good at them so that you will be prepared for the new technology tools and skills that are ahead of you." [Reinforce IT-based skills and learning throughout the curriculum and as widely applicable to a wide range of projects and problems].

Applicable portions of the AUP will be briefly noted in each section. Finishing off with an exploration of a "spoof site" like Tree Octopus or Whale-Watching in the Great Lakes can reinforce that all online sources are not equal, that digital literacy tools will help students sift the true from the false, and will foster critical thinking.

Thing #10

2009-08-14T13:37:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's harder to walk and turn and pick things up than it seems when "your fingers do the walking" on keyboard to keep your SecondLife avatar moving... I don't think I've graduated to being a toddler yet!

I love the museums and demos in SL and can see the benefit of allowing students to view, try, and do things in those scenarios. Alas, most school districts won't allow students to experience SL and the problem-solving that it takes to accomplish the smallest functions because of the the small potential hazards on SL. Also, the 'strain' on the school/district networks and computing resources for such graphic-intensive app usually limit the use of such resources at school.

I tried to attend a virtual seminar, but had so much trouble getting from place A to place B that I decided to step out of SL for a while (so I can read up on using movement commands and such).

Someday, Katri Easterwood will stroll with confidence through SL, discovering new, cool things serendipitously, just like wandering the stacks of a new library to see what neat books come into view! Except I cannot fly in a physical world library!

Thing #9

2009-08-12T07:20:00.000-07:00

What a treasure trove Slideshare is! I'd definitely use Jean-Luc Niezette's "Presentation Cookbook" to show PowerPoint novices how to effectively create their presentations, then have them upload their work to Slideshare.

Presentation CookBook

View more presentations from Jean luc Niezette.

As Joyce Valenza notes, the ability to add voice to AuthorStream presentations would make it an ideal place/way to store class presentations by students - for later grading, as peer-teaching tools, as part of student portfolios. Of course, teachers could save presentations on AuthorStream so that substitutes could show those lessons in the teacher's absence, for use of homebound and distance learning students, or just to ensure that identical content was presented to each class.

Thing #8

2009-08-10T12:12:00.000-07:00

Oh, I've always wanted to be able to create screencasts, but never dreamed that it could be this simple...and free!

Here's one way to use Follett's Titlewave in a way you might not have considered before -

The GoView interface is pretty straightforward, and I found that editing was simple. It was easy to add titles, too. The screencast was available for sharing in under a minute after saving.

Thing #7

2009-08-10T11:53:00.001-07:00

Loved the Remix Culture video! Covers the subject well, in interesting way.

One video that I'd use in a high school library deals with learning how to tie a necktie - http://www.blinkx.com/video/how-to-tie-a-tie-expert-instructional-video-on-how-to-tie-a-tie/uywPsE-ceEq9QSrEGFIx3w - for our jobseekers and prom-goers. Yes, a number of young ladies wear ties at their workplace and as a fashion statement, as well.

And we'd bring "Tornado in a Can" to spark discussion on using physics and math to design houses and buildings that can withstand tornadoes.

So many cool videos! Let's go learn how to do something else...

Thing #6

2009-08-10T11:31:00.001-07:00

Too bad I wasn't on this LibraryThing when Josh and his iPhone were visiting us in July! The number of cool, free Apps that are education-usable seems to grow daily.

Wouldn't it be fun to load the iLevel app, then have students guesstimate the angles of objects (whether it was level or not), then verify their observations with the iPhone? (Always looking for ways that the library can support the math department!)

Thing #5

2009-08-06T09:56:00.001-07:00

I do Facebook, but not Twitter (at the request of my 20-something kids). I'll "friend" former students on my personal account, but not current students, just as a matter of form.

If my library/school had a Facebook account, it could be used to put out information quickly, highlight new services, answer reference questions, and such.

For the dual-credit classes and others taught on campus by non-ISD personnel, having a back-channel capability would be critical, since questions from students so often arise after class time is over. Backchannelling could also facilitate study groups, project brainstorming, etc.

But as long as the average ISD and its administrators put the big nix on accessing social networking sites at school, none of these simple-to-implement scenarios will take place. As well-meaning, but reactionary, school officials continue to deny that Facebook & Twitter have any educational validity, their districts and schools will continue to present an environment that is further and further removed from the ways that so many of our youngsters learn and discover information today. And what about the future??

Thing #4

2009-08-06T08:25:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness for TeacherTube, especially for schools without access to Discovery Learning or other for-fee educational video sites.

A well-selected video can quickly demonstrate a concept that would take much time to explain. Additionally, many of our students are visual learners, so being able to "show" as well as "tell" is a plus for most classes.

And having student work uploaded gives our kiddos an opportunity to be the teachers for their peers. (Gotta watch that performances of copyrighted works aren't uploaded to TeacherTube without permission, since it's an open-access site.)

Thing #3

2009-07-20T04:28:00.000-07:00

As long as the school library has sufficient bandwidth to carry a Skype (or Skype-like) conversation without audio blips or video stutter, it can be a hub for all the wonderful opportunities for learning 'extra muros' that are outlined in the articles (esp. 50 Awesome ways to use Skype in the classroom ) .

In fact, with travel costs rising and school budgets shrinking, using Skype et al. can be the best way to expose our students to the Big World through visual field trips, author conferences, class-to-class exchanges, and the like.

My favorite idea is performing live for another group, like having the High School drama kids acting out a scene for the elementary students across town. Imagine the savings in bus costs, time, etc, as well as the potential for the big kids to watch the littlies perform in turn!

Thing #2

2009-07-16T08:24:00.001-07:00

Enjoying Wordle, of course http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/1002052/Sunshine_Foundation_grants_wish but in comparison, Wordsift's results seem rather staid. The Wordsift related images and potential links are okay, but after Wordle-ing, it would be boring to have so little control over layout & color of the word cloud in Wordsift.

I think that VoiceThread may have a slight edge over Glogster for student projects, because it allows comments from viewers/listeners and is more linear than the all-on-a-screen layout of Glogster. It is cool that video & audio can be embedded on either one.

Animoto wins easily in the next pair of tools, since students could concentrate on selecting the best photos and the arrangement that conveys their story/text/presentation best, accented by nifty music and professional appearance. Not sure how much educational value there is in Voki after the novelty of changing accents and the animated-paperdoll features of changing the avatar's appearance wears off.

Bookr is seriously fun! I can well imagine the searching practice that students could get by finding the best flickr photo to illustrate a set of terms, define colors in foreign language, and so on.

I like kangaroos...

Thing #1

2009-07-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

Of course, you could substitute the term "school librarian" for "teacher" in the Networked Student video. (that's why "teacher-librarian" is the preferred term in Australia, etc)

Helping students learn how to discern authoritative information sources, to use the best tools for capturing and keeping up with their info, and to create knowledge products appropriate to the source, focus and audience - these are all tasks which fill the days of secondary school librarians - WHEN their administrative teams allow such learning strands to exist and thrive in the school library.

We must prepare our students to be learners-in-community - no one will have skills or knowledge enough to go it alone in the future (or even now). As the saying goes, "All of us is smarter than each of us."

Give a look at what Elvis says about learning and knowing (not that Elvis...) related to music
http://chriscollison.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/elvis-has-left-the-forum

Will it turn out that our students have left the building to learn what they need to succeed in the info world, or will school librarians give them the knowledge tools that transcend the walls?

Not-so-cool kangaroos??

2008-10-19T07:06:00.000-07:00

Oh, nooooo! Science Daily reports alarming possibilities for our friend 'roos Down Under:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081015120734.htm#

Tell me again why some folks don't believe that human activities can affect global climate changes?? Even if our individual choices make infinitesimal differences, those teeny-tiny bits do add up!

end of sermon.

Looking ahead

2008-09-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

Banned Book Week is coming! Are we ready?

Sunday, cloudy Sunday

2008-08-03T09:48:00.001-07:00

I know I am not in East Texas when I can sit on a patio this August 2nd with splashing fountains, scampering squirrels (very brave ones, at that), and twittering birds nearby, checking my e-mail... and have to wear a sweater at 10 a.m. I do look forward to exploring Berkeley today (chocolate!), realizing that the trek back to Clark Kerr Campus will undoubtedly be uphill all the way!

After this wonderful week of IASL, might I be back in oven-hot places, perhaps surrounded by squirrelly dealings, gossip birds, and recirculating pools of words that might or might not be relevant information? Nah, of course not... but everything will be uphill all the way, as it always is this time of year.

in Berkeley - cool breezes!

2008-08-02T15:25:00.000-07:00

Nice flights from Austin to Oakland, and my luggage arrived when I did. I picked up Stephenie Meyer's new book Breaking Dawn at the Houston Airport - wow! Four hours and 751 pages later... no spoilers here - read it yourself!

Lovely breezes here in the conference center Clark Kerr at UC Berkeley - good thing, since these buildings aren't generally air-conditioned. Blue skies, lovely grounds with big trees, pretty fountains... photos later.

Just sightseeing until Sunday evening's IASL kickoff dinner. Touring the Scharffen Berger chocolate factory tomorrow!!

Thing #23 - My thoughts about the 23 Things

2008-07-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

Wow, wow, and oh wow! I learned so much in a relatively compressed amount of time, but spent much more than 18 hours exploring along the way. Our district requires that we earn continuing ed hours every summer, and this has been the most relevant and usable course that I have taken!

Finally, I have a blog, I know how to use RSSfeeds, and I have done my first podcast!

This course has given me Web 2.o tools for my lifelong learning toolbox, tools that I can also use to help my students, so that we can sip judiciously from the firehose of information, entertainment, and general hoo-hah that is the Internet.

I enjoyed being able to do the 23 Things course during the summer; it would not have been as much fun to try and accomplish the Things in the evenings during the school year.

I'll be ready for the next level of Library 23 Things next summer ... thanks again, SBISD and the Kickball Captains!

Thing #22 - Nings

2008-07-09T12:40:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I signed up for Texas School Librarian Ning a good while ago, but just keep forgetting to check in and add content! Of course, it was TX school librarian extraordinaire Shonda Brisco (soon to OSU as professor!) who started this Ning. And other heavy-hitters in our realm, like Naomi Bates of Northeast, Carol Simpson from UNT-SLIS, and VWB and Dr BB of Spring Branch are on this Ning, too.

A ning can be of much more manageable size than the biggies, but you do have to get to 'critical mass' - either of members with a little to say or a few with quality content to contribute - before a ning would be truly useful.

Perhaps a ning could be used in school for teachers to communicate with one another in group way instead of interminable rounds of e-mail to answer a convoluted question. Hopefully our district would be okay with unblocking a given, work-related ning, even though other blogging and social networks are off-limits from school computers.

Thing #21 - Podcasts and audiobooks

2008-07-09T10:59:00.000-07:00

Hmmm... I missed the part about needing a mike for this course, so had to borrow one and record under less-than-ideal conditions.
http://media.switchpod.com//users/katyroo/sciencedaily.mp3

I can certainly see the possibilities of these technologies for school use. Teachers could record explanations of particular math processes or chemical changes, for example, and have those podcasts/vidcasts available for students to access at any time, either for new learning or for review/remediation.

Of course, the book review/teaser is now ubiquitous, so it would be important to find a solidly memorable 'voice' for such recordings, rather than just contribute more tossaway content to a crowded field. And also be sure NOT to give away the endings of the books, as the example podcast did, without telling the listener/viewer that it's a "spoiler" - why would I want to read the book if I know the ending??

Thing #20 - YouTube, TeacherTube and Zamzar

2008-07-09T06:09:00.000-07:00

So many videos, so little time! (and the frustration of knowing our district blocks YouTube, even though it has much educational content that is not repeated on TeacherTube)

San Diego State University's edtech folks (yes, where Bernie Dodge of WebQuest fame teaches) did a cool video project using SecondLife (found on YouTube, not available on TeacherTube... sigh)

On TeacherTube, selection is rather sparse in many areas, but I did find this clear explanation of putting those leader dots (you know, the line of dots running between menu item and its price) in MSWord - now I can show folks how to make programs look great without typing in squizzillions of periods on the lines!

I did enjoy the Abbott & Costello math video on the high school channel of TeacherTube, but wondered about copyright issues.

Because I couldn't get the ConstructionChallengeFinals closing video to play at school, I had tried Zamzar in May at home, but had some trouble getting it to 'translate' the YouTube .flr into something that I could burn on a CD. I will try again later.

Searching on the Blinkx site for vacation info, I found an interesting video about Mesa Verde's 100th anniversary, which led to video about yesterday's lightning strike of Rocky Mtn NP hikers - since we are visiting both places soon, it's vital for us to know about the upswing in lightning activity in those mountains. Previously, I would not have had a way to check with the Denver TV stations!

Thing #19 - Web 2.0 tools

2008-07-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

Some 'old' favorites that I have used for months are on this list of Web2.0 award-winning sites.

I StumbleUpon videos from YouTube and MetaCafe all the time, regularly refer to Kayak to find travel deals, use Facebook to play Scrabulous with my librarian buddy in Australia daily and on occasion to check in with another group & share their photos.

First experiences probably have a lot to do with how you do Web 2.0 - since I did Picasa before I saw Flickr, I think Picasa is easier; I would place StumbleUpon (especially with the new bookmark integration with Firefox3 -wow!) before delicio.us, Pandora music project before Last, GoogleBlogsearch way before Technorati.

I do soooo love my GoogleMaps, PBwiki, and now GoogleReader! Couldn't live without any of them.

Omnidrive to synchronize files (free) may be what I am looking for to keep things flowing between home and school computers... IF it can be accessed at school! We'll see in August.

My students may be able to share sizeable documents through docstoc, if they mark as private and give private url to one another; worth looking into later, since sometimes large ppts and other image-rich docs don't go through e-mail well.

Myheritage.com looks like a good alternative to the $$ genealogy sites out there - but I will be playing with it more when I have plenty of time to spend entering names,,, looks addictive!

Zango - fairly standard gamesite; Galaxiki.org - whoa, buy your own star and create your own galaxy!? hmmm... No Doof for me - I don't really want the social aspect of gaming to be so open (I want to know who I am playing against, old fashioned me) and prefer single-player games anyway.

Thing# 18 - Online productivity tools

2008-07-07T08:17:00.000-07:00

I guess that I knew about OpenOffice in the back of my mind, but had kinda overlooked it because I have MSOffice at work and at home. But this will be great for my students who only have MSWorks on their home computers and find that their .wps documents won't print at school, as well as for those who have Vista-based MSWord at home and find that their .docx documents won't print at school. Definitely more full-featured than Works. I can see burning a few CDs of OpenOffice to keep at the circulation desk to send home with students who don't have the online access to download it.

And the collaboratability (is that a real word?) of GoogleDocs is just what I want to promote for our students who are doing group PowerPoint projects (and wind up not being able to work on their project when one person is absent because the ppt is on that one's school account). Being able to get to your docs from any web-on computer is great for those of us on multiple computers each day. Another plus is not having to download any software. A drawback is the potential for not having access to your docs when there are internet difficulties, versus having them saved on your own computer when the Net is out.

On either OpenOffice or GoogleDocs, we may get some flak at school because our BCIS classes teach the Microsoft products. I hope that the clarity of having a single version available (as opposed to the older version in the Library and newer MSOffice in the computer classrooms) and being able to work together in realtime-realspace (like in the real world of today's workplace) would override that concern.

hmmm....let's try shared GoogleNotebooks for gathering up information and sites, GoogleDocs-Presentation for putting together the group project... sounds like a winning combination - as long as we can access them at school! We will see in August.

Thing #17 - Rollyo

2008-07-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

Rollyo - meh, as my college daughter would say, just not that impressive so far.

I chose Travel searchroll from the starter pack, then did a search with it for Colorado factory tours (excluding Celestial Seasonings and Hammonds Candies, since I know them), to see if there was anything new to visit (last time there was 4 years ago). Lots and lots of sponsored results, i.e. commercial stuff, and had to slog through long pages on Frommers.com to find anything. Not much there...

Better results on google with exact same search terms (colorado factory tours -celestial -hammondscandies) because it was not just searching the high-profile sites (hmmm... does this mean they paid to be on the Rollyo starter pack for Travel??) that just had the same-old same-old.

So, I will be aware of this service as a potential helper when I want to take the time to put together a very targeted group of sites to save and search together. But for the nonce, no dice!

(And Library2play should have quotation marks around this entire entry, with first line as disclaimer that it's all from Rollyo site verbatim.... tsk, tsk)

Thing #16 - Wikis

2008-07-07T05:23:00.000-07:00

Oh, yes! I do wikis!

Since I don't have a school library website, or the time to handcraft one, or district resources to do that for me, I will be using a wiki as a stand-in! I've gotten started at http://gilmerhslibrary.pbwiki.com/ but haven't updated it yet for 2008-2009 - waiting for new bell schedule, etc. With luck, we can get this site as the start-up on all the Library Computer Lab computers by the time that students have enough AUPs in that we can allow access to the Lab (about 2nd week of school, I hope). This is a 'gold' pbwiki, so I have the right to lock all the pages, unlike a plain-vanilla wiki. It will be so easy for me to quickly add pathfinders to the wiki for incoming class projects, and so on! Also will be the one-stop database place (that other libraries have on their pretty, fancy websites... sigh) for GHS. If I can ever get remote OPAC services, that will be on this wiki, front and center!!

My humanities class pbwiki is password-protected for my students' safety, so I cannot share it directly. We use it for class calendar, all assignments posted there (they lose so many papers, never mind that they are seniors in HS), links to websites, etc. I even uploaded the Works Cited page from one of my SLMC grad papers so they could see proper MLA formatting (but I don't think they ever really got it right...) Last year, they didn't use it to post their own observations much, so I will encourage that more this year.

Right now, the incoming class is doing their summer reading of "Sophie's World," a novel about philosophy by Jostein Gaarder, so they are on the wiki already to have access to assignments (1 is due on first class day) and other pertinent info. So they are using this great tool for sharing links and asking questions to... post funny comments after their names on the group discussion page! Well, it is a start.

On PBwiki, it does take a little doing to get links to insert properly and sometimes the formatting just won't behave to suit me, no matter what I do, but the price is perfect! I like their support of educational institutions, and enjoyed a podcast/webinar in May on ways to use PBwiki with libraries. At least 1 PBWiki staffer is a degreed librarian, so they do understand 'where we're coming from.'

At start of school, I will again let our teachers know about this free service (and, yes, I know about wikispaces, too; I just have more hands-on with PBwiki) so that they can use it to post homework, explanations, links to sites, etc. for FREE!

Thing #15: Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the Future of Libraries

2008-07-03T07:08:00.000-07:00

I started this section in a positive mood, reading the articles, but after reflecting on the realities of the current school library world, well...

Interesting to read the OCLC interviews/articles on the future of libraries. Sure as shootin', we cannot expect to survive the inevitable funding cuts if we just sit in our physical school library spaces without bringing forth creative interfaces and products that will safely intrigue the power-players in our school hierarchy while also safely engaging our students in the hunt for relevant and authoritative information, providing brain-stretching and satisfying entertainment, and, yes, developing the love of reading for personal satisfaction.

Seeing David Warlick's comments http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?s=Library+2.0 on how much he enjoyed giving presentations outside the USA, in locations where teachers and school librarians can actually use the Web 2.0 tools that foster authentic student learning and products... sigh...

Yep, David, it seems that we are forced into being curmudgeonly gatekeepers of technology tools, guarding a single portal to keep students safe at school, while the students are learning, exploring, growing, and sometimes messing up outside of school. They invest enormous amounts of time in SecondLife or MySp@ce or Facebook when, given both latitude and direction, these same students might be creating new aggregations of knowledge and interactive-learning -somethings that will allow others to experience that part of Everything that is their particular passion. "All of us is smarter than one of us," the wisdom of crowds opines.

My vision of Library 2.0 is just so much cloud-gazing, in the practical sense. Since there is just one of me, and a whole lot of next-levels-up protection (of students, of the district's technology equipment, of the district itself), it seem fairly unlikely that I will be able to pull together Library 2.0 for my students and staff in the immediately forseeable future.

It costs money and/or time to have an online OPAC, therefore we don't currently have it. Realistic concerns about student misuse of interactive technologies, including chat and e-mail (a bit pre-Web 2.0, I grant you) , are specters haunting our teaching possibilities, so that train of thought is shunted onto a siding for an indeterminate time.

Looks like another chocolate infusion is required at this point to avoid becoming completely hopeless about the what-we-should-provide-for-our-users that is not-gonna-happen-anytime-soon,,, and some mood-uplifting music from http://musicovery.com/index.php?ct=us -- selecting Positive-Energetic, in Latino, Classical, Vocal,World, and Reggae styles - ahhh, that's better!

Thing #14 - Technorati & Tagging

2008-07-03T05:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, I still find Technorati to be clunky and limited - is it just me?

So I searched for School Library Learning 2.0 in the Blog Directory and got 1,073 results... hmm, not as many relevant hits as I expected. Oops! I forgot the quotation marks (slaps forehead) - trying "School Library Learning 2.0" nets 33 hits. That's more like it. Most on the first page are about California's School Library Learning 2.0 classes, so I head for the second page of hits... no dice- I get message "There are no posts in English with a lot of authority containing "School Library Learning 2.0" ." Oh, well...

Guess what? Keyword search for exact phrase School Library Learning 2.0 also nets 33 hits, without having to use the quotation marks. More current/uptodate blogs, including fave Blue Skunk, but still can't get to anything past the first page of results... what gives?

Of the 10 blogs found using "School Library Learning 2.0" none are from folks I recognize or who have any/much authority, just learners like me who have created blog for similar class... dull as ditchwater. I want my searching time to result in higher knowledge, not MOTS (more of the same). Better get another cup of coffee...

Plunging back into Technorati again, to Advanced, then search TAGS for "School Library Learning 2.0" - resulting in 1 post, uno, a single message, that's all. And it's from the spring term of this class.

Looking at Technorati's 'what's popular in books' on 7/3/08 - mixed bag of obvious self-promotion, business books, and the occasional truly interesting entry... still not much of worth to me, personally or professionally, here.

So, even though I have "claimed" my Katyroo blog, I am not a Technorati convert; I don't expect my future blogs to get a lot of notice/press through this venue or any other, and I don't really care if I'm ever in the top percentages there. As their own marketing manager said in the video - do those top folks even have a real life, if they are posting responses to 20+ blogs daily, day after day??

Nope, I won't be checking in with Technorati any time soon, but I can see the value of being able to tag items on my own computer/learning space, to give them additional labels that might not be explicitly stated in the post/site /e-mail. For instance, an online catalog page with small eagle glass static clings could get tags as - Dad, gifts, Eagle Scouts - that would allow me to search my favorites and docs later on as I was finding last-minute presents (don't worry - my dad isn't online yet, so no surprises spoiled - I mean, if I did find those eagle glass thingies for real).

Thing #13 - Social Bookmarking

2008-07-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, so maybe it's just a function of my age, but I really prefer clonking a saved website into a subject-folder to having to tag it with one or more folksonomic tag-dealies that I have to remember - "hmmm, did I call it 'recipe' or 'recipeS'?" every time I tag.

Granted, it is annoying to have to wonder if I saved some wonderful site on this computer or that computer or both, but I think that I will be using GoogleNotebooks to synch between home computer, school computerS, and travel computer. That way, I can still have the subject-clumping-together that I prefer, yet not worry about whether I saved it on this or that computer.

I did set up a delicious account last summer, but only put 1 article in it. So I got back in, read (and discarded) that article, and now have an empty delicious account. I do understand the social-ness of it (having listened to the podcast), but just don't currently see the value in changing over all my bookmarks from various computers onto delicious.

Furl looked cool, in the 'your copy of the page, archived' aspect, but I just did not get any good vibe from Ma.gnolia at all = clunky start page, much less clear than start for delicious or furl. So, no Magnolia for me, maybe Furl, maybe delicious, definitely GoogleNotebooks for school-related and current projects. To synch home and travel computers' bookmarks, I will be using FoxMarks since I prefer Firefox to IE.

For school use, I am concerned about the social aspect of delicious - most social sites are blocked anyway. I think that the sharing of sites-lists could be fraught with potential problems for high schoolers at school - "just who is this person sharing sites/ accessing my sites list, in real life?"
The other invitation-based or password-protected tools like GoogleNotebooks would be a better fit for school use.

Thing #12 - Community through Commenting

2008-07-01T07:04:00.000-07:00

Nice to know that I got some of this 'homework' done early, by commenting on various blogs at earlier times in the course.

For instance, when I found the languagehat.com blog during RSS feeds searching, I read several fascinating posts about word origins (one of my personal passions) and was particularly struck by the discussion on "gabions," those wire mesh pillars filled with rocks that we see on construction sites (and as corner fenceposts in less-wooded desert country), as the comments led into the related "fascines" which are bundles of pipes/sticks which can quickly be dumped into a ditch to provide a stable 'road' for tracked or wheeled vehicles, then taken up again and carried until needed again. That reminded me of the word "fasces" as in the bundle of sticks bound around an axe, carried by Roman lictors as sign of office, sooo.... I commented with that observation. Made me feel so darn smart, finally using some college research work after all these decades.

I have also commented on Library2Play blogs when I can specifically know that they are also school librarians - sort of that common bond thing.

My pet peeve with commenters is the "This is Photoshopped" as first comment game - yeah, I know that they don't really think it's PSd, but it's still annoying to have to slog through those sorts of comments. Then the "me, too" or "really cool/cute" oneliners are pretty much space-wasters, as well. Unless the blogger is asking for a vote/consensus-by-comment, I won't post comments of the "great post" nature.

Some commenters on Drape's Takes Edublogger Etiquette series http://drapestakes.blogspot.com/2008/05/edublogger-etiquette-responding-to.html felt that they could not go back to comment on a post after taking the time to digest it and think it over, feeling that the blogger and readers had "moved on," but I think that it's okay to revisit a post with comments if you have something authentic to add to the conversation, whether or not it's within a quickie time window.

I'm not so sure about the continued interjection of the blogger into the comments-conversation when it's just "thanks for the comment" type comment. To me, that interferes with the flow of the conversation, unless the blogger poses further question for all =- but then, that would more rightly call for a new blog entry, with reference to the starter entry.

Thing #11 - LibraryThing

2008-06-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

Library Thing is a pretty neat tool, especially if you pony up for the full or lifetime membership so that you can enter more than 200 titles.

It could be especially cool if you access it from mobile phone - http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/LT_Mobile - no more buying/ checking out a copy of a book that you have at home waiting to be read!

And did you see that you can keep tabs on local bookstore's prices and availability of your books? http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Bookstore_integration

How about getting a :CueCat scanner so that you can add books quickly to your LibraryThing list by scanning their ISBNs? http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/CueCat:_Using_with_LibraryThing

No, I didn't check out any groups, nor recommendations from others - I have such a backlog of books that I already need to read for school and want to read for me that I surely don't need to add to the enormous mentally-held list of "next I will read this and this and this book." Sure to be a neat feature for those who do want some guidance on what to read next.

But I do plan to add my school library to LibraryThing, if possible, even though we don't currently have online collection searching capabilities (yes, we are working on it, but money talks, eh?).

Thing #10 - image generators

2008-06-30T08:03:00.000-07:00

Oh, my! Now that you've shown me more image generators, I'll never get anything else done on my 23 Things, not anything at all!
I will just use Custom Sign Generator to for license plates

and blogheaders

and those hysterical not-so-motivational posters (as you rethink how we as teachers, as well as our administration/management folks, try to motivate students/teachers/principals extrinsically, read this at Marginal Things blog http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/06/the-power-of-be.html - I got this by RSS this weekend - I feel so smart sometimes....)

And now I know where to find tools to make my cute kitty pix into LOLCats photos. Of course, my cats are the funniest of all; I just am laughing too hard at them to get good snaps!

Since I've gotten tapped to lead training at my husband's job this summer,
this smiley made at Happy Face Generator says it all.

My students will be able to use these http://bighugelabs.com/flickr tools (probably from home, unless I can get them unblocked at school) to make philosophy magazine covers, trading cards for their musicians & artists project, and much more. I'll print from home color laser printer, since small classes.

I hope that I can get the trading cards as hands-on fact-intensifiers for science, Spanish, and social studies classes. We have only black and white printing in Library Computer Lab, but that should be okay for these purposes.

Thing #9 - Library-related Blogs & Newsfeeds

2008-06-30T06:54:00.000-07:00

A weekend of RSS feeds to my Google Reader has exposed some feeds as "not worthy" of my continued patronage. One great post does not a great blog make, eh? So I've culled out some subscribed blogs, starred amazing posts from others (I do like the categorization that various Google tools give you), and am now searching out others.

I do love getting the "right then and there" reporting on ALA, EdubloggerCon Unconference, and NECC/ISTE from David Warlick (2cents), Judy O'Connell (heyjude), Doug Johnson (blue skunk), and our own dear Kickball Captain VWB through their blogs.

I will see some of these great online personas in the flesh at the IASL Conference in Oakland in early August - World Class Learning and Literacy through School Libraries - http://www.iasl-online.org/events/conf/2008/index.htm --- Yes, you should go! Meeting school librarians from other countries is amazing!

Since I StumbleUpon as a seredipitous exploration method of web perusal, now I can quickly add potentially-great blogs found through that avenue to my Google Reader, give them a few days to prove out, then either keep or kill. I really, really liked CoolCat's "circle of the wise" concept, and am striving to do this in my GReader setup, both for personal interest and library/education bits.

Being a good studenty-person too, I've tried some of the blog search tools listed in Thing#9.

Bloglines was easy to use; found some good things through that, and subscribed.
Then skipped down to Google Blogsearch since I use GR; found more good things, that linked to other good things. Took in some of their 'categories' as in groups of blogfeeds, dumped a few indiv blogs because of irrelevance of most posts, others because of sheer volume, kept some ... time flew by, then it was time to get back to Library2Play and get on task!

Tried SuprGlu - by the time I got to it, the blogs listed were all repeats found through earlier blogsearches.
Syndic8 - interface a little clunky, but interesting to see user-submitted choices, including a few goodies that may be keepers
Technorati - interface a little too slick, didn't pull up as many useful blogs as others, even including repeats. Probably won't go back to this, but will recognize the name as trend-watching site.

Best blogs found in this go-round:

	http://feeds.feedburner.com/k12onlineconference

- Oh, I can't wait for this fall's online conference! Distance prof.dev. with authority AND relevance! for FREEEEEE!!!

http://www.tk421.net/librarylink/rss.xml?days=1 -

Library Link of the Day -intl in scope, just the headline with link, quick & efficient
http://www.ccrls.org/woodburn/rss/teens.rss -Teen Reads - my HS kids will be asking for these books when we get back in fall, so I need to be ready

Thing #8 - RSS feeds

2008-06-26T08:49:00.000-07:00

OMG, you course designers are devious, devious people... not only is my summer getting eaten up by school-related pursuits, it's getting positively gluttonous on relevant info through interesting blogs that lead to >gasp< other interesting blogs with even more info, and on, and on!

I remember how excited I was in library school in the late 70's (back when computers filled entire rooms, we typed catalog cards, and Reader's Guide was everyone's research friend - yes, indeed, kiddies, some of us who remember such things are still working and ambulatory...) about the whole new concept of hyperlinks.

Suddenly reading was no longer completely linear (this predated Choose Your Own Adventure books by just a bit) - how on earth would we keep up with where we had been? Would we be lost in the digital woods forever (and never finish writing that paper about abstracts in PRECIS)?

Thankfully, the tech wizards who never sleep devised 'breadcrumbs' so we could find our way back to where we'd started on this serendipitous information search, and some less-romantic techie soul decided that back-arrowing would work too. 'sOkay...

Anywho, I have my Google Reader receiving some scrumptious cooking & baking feeds (try Homesick Texan and Baking Bites, from King Arthur Flour), 4 fun Geeky feeds (Make magazine is too fun), the biggies in Technology (Slashdot, Engadget, Wired, etc), and some more high-falutin' stuff in the Thinkers category (NPR, TED, even Languagehat.com - Oh, yeah, baby! Give me more on Indo-European loanwords in Finnish! Really! I studied Indo-European in college linguistics classes... I'm not kidding! I love the esoteric language bits).

And, eventually, once I get caught up on the new feeds from these yummy, clever, tech-cool, intellectual blogs (so much, just since yesterday!), well, then, dear instructors, I mean, Kickball Captains, I will get a chance to see what wonders of the Library world I can add in... I wonder if Biblia, Warrior Librarian from the UK has a blog??? hmmmmmm

Thing #7 - Cool Google Tools

2008-06-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

Yes, seriously cool! Once I make sure that we can get to Google Notebook at school (we cannot get to Gmail, sigh), that will be the vehicle of choice for all group projects running through the Library Computer Lab - so frustrating for teacher and other team members when the kid who was saving the ppt on his/her server-drive account is absent during research, ppt creation and/or in-class presentations!! The kids also go a little bonkers when the ppt version on one computer is older than on another so that their animations don't work right. Since too many times they concentrate on the appearance of the ppt without enough content, using GNotebook for presentations may just force them to put some thought into what they create...

I will also strongly promote Google Scholar for our advanced placement students, as well as teachers doing background research for lessons.

Personally, I've spent all day starting up my first Google Notebook as our vacation planner, so I can access everything from any computer - wowsers! And all our grown kiddos and other family will know when we are going to be where via Google Calendar (once I decide on it all) and see our routes on Google Maps. I already use Picasa to store pictures (and have bought an external hard drive to save them all - now I just have to do the backing up~)

Since it's summer and I'm on the job with my husband often, I set up a Google Alert for construction safety, astounding him pretty regularly with news of international mishaps that he hadn't heard of yet. I will be showing this tool to the safety dept this week.

As for school-relatedness,

Thing #6 - Mashups

2008-06-19T07:59:00.000-07:00

More fun! But I had a bit of trouble getting my trading card of an ancient Chinese village (Cuandixia - you've seen in "Crouching Tiger" and other films) onto the Flickr map, since there were few cities as landmarks in China there.

The trading cards could be super-fun in our GHS Library as students made promos for their favorite books, being careful not to give away the ending, of course. We could use these Top Titles trading cards as screensavers... hmmm... as long as I can get the Tech folks to allow access to Big Huge Labs. I know that we cannot access Flickr itself at school, so it may take some wizardry via saving files on home computer and then flashdriving the cards onto the school server. It's worth a try!

And making those inspirational poster (you know, the ones with black matting and white words) with fun/crazy quotes for my Humanities and Creative Problem Solving classes - oh, yeah!!

Wonder if we could do this for my husband's construction job? Trying to create community and increase safety awareness - could post some great stats regarding number of safe workdays/weeks/years, top safety tips, etc.... more hmmmm!!I know that I will be making trading cards of all the grandkids soon - everyone needs to get a lift now and then.

!! Just ran into a fav mashup again -Tunnel through the Earth! So you'd have to be shoveling in Argentina to "dig through the earth to China" - who knew? These clever critters did http://www.freemaptools.com/tunnel-to-other-side-of-the-earth.htm

Thing #5 - Flickr

2008-06-18T05:49:00.000-07:00

Wow! Such fun looking at Flickr. This one will make a great opener for any presentation - online or not - that refers to our GHS Library.

I am still working out how the various components of CC license work - for instance when just adding photo to instructional site rather than making giveaway bookmarks using the photo, etc.

In one way, searching Flickr is a lot like looking at vacation snapshot collection by a distant aunt - a good bit of self-congratulatory dreck to sort through in order to find the occasional gem, even when using the search box.

Why some Flickr photos have the tags they do - a complete mystery. At times, it seems like they're trying for every possible tag, like those rotten spammy sites that include the good search terms in their backgrounds so that the spiders find them and bring the crud into the stream of 'real' finds.

Thing #4 - Registered my Blog

2008-06-18T05:47:00.000-07:00

Yay! The Kickball Captains have registered my blog, so now I'm official! On to exploring Flickr ... I may never emerge from the image search...

Thing #3 - setting up my blog

2008-06-16T14:37:00.000-07:00

Gracious sakes, that was easy! The most difficult part about setting up my blog was not the blog itself, but was remembering my Yahoo log-in... or maybe it was choosing hair for my avatar when there aren't any selections for brown-turning-gray.

As I was driving from school-hometown to summer-home, I was thinking about starting a blog about all the weird and wonderful road signs, road names, and just plain gosh-awful amateur signs that I see as we travel. I'll sure be ready after playing with these 23 things!!

I read lots of blog entries that I StumbleUpon, but haven't yet read any from this group. I was trying to get everything done so that I could get set up with the Kickball captains. But I promise I'll read and make cogent, witty comments when appropriate.

My least favorite part about reading blog comments are the doofus posters who just say "me too" or the like. I do understand that being the first to claim "it's photoshopped' in comments is just a "ha-ha, I'm first" thing and not actually accusing that the original poster manipulated the photos... shoot, sometimes there's not even a picture on the blog... it's just how some folks are. sigh.

Thing #2 - Easiest of the 7 1/2

2008-06-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

Among the easiest of the 7 1/2 habits of effective lifelong learners for me is number 4: "Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner."

Learning is just what I do, all the time. I tell my students that if I haven't learned something new and interesting, then that day didn't even exist for me!

Teaching my Humanities class keeps me learning, since I must stay at least one step ahead of my students!

Thing #2 - Hardest of the 7 1/2

2008-06-16T13:35:00.000-07:00

While none of the 7 1/2 habits of effective lifelong learners is very far out of my comfort zone, I guess that for me personally the hardest of these habits for lifelong learners is number 3: "View your problems as challenges."

Usually problems are just that - problems to conquer or get done with. Seems like the view here is that some folks view problems as obstacles, then stand around, worrying about the problems instead of doing something with them, to them, at them, whatever. But I don't often whine about problems or lollygag around while not doing anything about the problem.

So I suppose that I should sometimes just pause for a bit and see the different ways that a problem could be seen as challenging, instead of just tackling it by the first method that I come across.