Keep on learning!

I have at least looked at Second Life and if I ever do get it figured out, I will play it.

There are still many things to learn and do and there will be plenty of time to do it this summer!

Good luck to those who are doing it for the first time.

Thing 24: Things I would still like to do

I did not get a chance to see Second Life or the Pirate Game, so I am hoping that I can look at it this summer. If either of them are rpg games, then I would be interested in playing them.

I would also like to start posting my some of my writings on Docs so that I can get some ideas on how things should happen. It may be interesting to get some feedback.

I may revisit other 2.0 items... Like Library 2.0. Check for me there

And I may be back here to blog and let you know what I have been up to.

Thing 22: Keep learning!

What did I find useful? Despite the fact that I was not able to access several items there were some things that I did find useful. LibraryThing, Library 2.0, gmail, this blog and some of the photo sites were good. I have already discussed what I thought was a waste of time.

What will I do to keep learning? Add more books to librarything, maybe check out Webjunction and listen to more podcasts from St. Cloud State.

What will I do with students? Have them work with photos more, start doing web pages and get more involved with what is on the web so that they don't use Google for their research.

Thing 21: Other social networking

I was not able to get into most of the social networking sites however, Library 2.0 was available. I set up my site and looked around. There are interesting things on this network. I think this is more valuable to librarians than other social networking sites.

This is something that I would consider joining rather than other places.

Thing 19: Podcasts

I listened to podcasts from St. Cloud State University. It was interesting to hear media specialists from two sides. One said that she would like to have her kids do pod casts, the other thought that since they did not allow MP3 players or anything like that it would be not necessary to do podcasts, since the kids could not listen to them anyway. They also do not allow things like music or videos in the computer lab.

I also attended a workshop on Staff Development Day in my district on podcasting and found that it would be quite easy to do. We also have a radio station in our district so there may be a possiblity that a pod cast would be interesting. However, since our kids are so far behind in their other learning of technology it is not even something I would currently consider, although for a special project, it might be fun.

Thing 20: Facebook and MySpace

this is the other thing that I have been fighting against since becoming a media specialist. People using Facebook and MySpace in the library when they are supposed to be doing educational pursuits. The first district that I worked in was more of a problem and I even got an answer from one person that, "no one sees it except from our zip code". I was wondering where they got such a naive idea.

YALSA has a presence on MySpace. I cannot say how a library could use MySpace since most school libraries have access blocked. One states national education association has asked it's teachers to not have a MySpace presence. There are too many problems with what is going on with MySpace. Like pediophiles and the girl who caused another to commit suicide. I have not really seen much good come out of these social networking sites. Mostly bad. Again it is another reason why people cannot use computers at the public libraries. People are on these social networking sites so that others who need library time for actual research cannot access computers.

Thing 18: Discover YouTube and Google Video

What I have seen on YouTube is not anything I would be remotely interested in. However, when I went to Google video, I found a copy of the Last Lecture. The Last Lecture was given by a dying professor and his story has recently been on Oprah and Primetime. I was able to watch this vide and found it quite moving.

It is possible that it is easier for students to use Google video as it will not be blocked as YouTube is in our district. I would prefer that students produce their own videos and use them as they need to.

I have also found that many videos on the internet are not things that I wish for my own children to see let alone those I am teaching. However, things on specific sites, like PowerMedia or United Streaming are better for teaching.

Thing 17: ELM productivity tools

How can these tools benefit your students? If they can access them, it will give them an opportunity to use reference materials that a school does not have. By getting access, I mean being able to get onto a computer, and have a library card. Some schools have ELM as part of their electronic resources. Students need to use these resources and not depend on search engines such as Google to do their research for them. My experience with students doing research is that they go on Google, type in their keyword and spend hours looking through what they could use, not really knowing the types of materials that are legitimate or even trustworthy. I am from the old school which learned to research by searching encyclopedias, dictionaries, card catalogs and research abstracts. Kids these days do not always know what some of these books are, so we as media people have to teach them how to do it.

Thing 15: Online games

I was not able to try this as I have no access. This is one of two things that I have been fighting against in the four years I have been a media specialist. It is apparently the only reason that teens believe that they need to use the computer in the library. It is one of the things that we have recently blocked so that kids are using computers for things like research or schoolwork.

In my previous district the kids who were the worst offenders (playing games) were ones who were using laptops and we could not ask them to get off the laptops as we did not know what they were doing.

The public library is full of people playing online games. It is disturbing to me who would actually want to use a computer for research or business to have to wait because people are playing games. A public library had to quit having 2 hour computers because so many people were using the computers for games instead of legitimate uses. So do I think online gaming has a place in a library? no. Sorry.

Thing 16: ELM Research Calculator

How can I use this with kids? I think this would be a good thing to keep kids on track with what they need to do for say a History day project. It tells them everything that they need to do and when things need to get done. It would give them short deadlines to give them success in getting a long term project done.

It would also inform them of the little bits that needed to be done, thus there is not a push at the end of the project to finish everything in a hurry. I really like it.

Thing 13: online productivity tools

Which start page did you use? Well, I looked at iGoogle and picked a start page that I thought was more outdoors, but it wasn't. Looking at all the calendars and stuff, it would be good if I had access to the internet 24/7. But I am living cheaply and still depend on my paper and pencil calendars.

I can see using these if I had a PC (also which I do not). Personally, I do not see me using any of these soon. However, it might be good to show kids especially iGoogle when they want to learn about web design.

There are a lot more things on the web than there ever was, it is hard to keep track of where everything is.

Thing 14: LibraryThing

I visited librarything once before, but never really did anything. I can see where this would be a good site for librarians. I have added several of my books, but since I really don't know what is currently in my library, I had to guess. I also added a picture of my favorite author, (Sue Grafton).

My books were not real popular, about 800-1000 hits, but then Grafton is fairly well known. Other books may be more popular, like Patterson or anything on Oprah's list. I need to spread out a bit and read things other than mysteries.

How could this be used? Maybe if there were children's books listed in the library, it would be interesting to see how many hits different books got and whether anyone had reviews on it.

Thing 12: Newsvine

Newsvine looks like it will be a great addition! There is some much more to explore in Web 2.0 than I could dream. I may not be able to use it as I accidently deleted the registration email, but there may be another chance to join in. They have a contest on the NCAA basketball games. I may not do very well, but it should work ok.

Thing 11: Del.icio.us

This has been a new idea. I heard about this site once before. It would be a good thing if I had more than one computer with access to internet. I could go directly to this site and obtain what I needed without having to remember all the addresses. I could also access some of the 23 things from a public library computer without having to jump through all the hoops.

thing 10: wikis

I attempted to add to the 23 things wiki, but all I got was into the comment area. I was not able to find out enough about wikis to actually learn how to do it. There really is a lot to learn. Well, I am not quite halfway through and there is only 1/2 of March left. So I am going to move on. Maybe I can come back to it another time.

Thing 9: Gypho

Gypho is something that I might try. I am currently attempting to write the "epic" novel. It might be interesting to see how far I can get. This I can see using with the kids. It may get them to do some writing. I will try it for myself first, and then maybe try it on the kids.

Thing 9: Google Docs/Zoho

Once again, I can see the validity of another type of web type editing tool. I did not find either of them to be usable unless you were invited. Right now, I am dealing with kids who cannot spell, cannot capitalize, nor are able to flat screen any type of paper. Some cannot write a sentence that makes sense.

I also do not see how this could be used in an atmosphere where many are not computer literate. To me it is just more confusing as to how to access everything. However, once there is the generation y in charge, they are used to the social networking and the virtural use of documents. I can see how it could work if someone has one version of a program and another person has a different version.

this has been a long day. I have now finished more of the things. This is an eye-opening experience as I did not realize how much was actually out there.

thing 8: slideshow

I tried the slide show and the acrobat cube. I can see where it might be useful to market the media center. I could not save nor could I upload it. I can see where kids might get a kick out of using it.

Ok, it did work and you can see it if you are reading this blog. This was easy, kids may like to do this if they have their own pictures.

I took the pictures of the media center. This could be added to a web page as well. I am going to keep blogging on.

Thing 7: Email

I am not a slave to my email. Some days I only check it once per day. If I was in a profession where it would be purposeful to have IM, I could see using it. Right now, I think the only one I would instant message is my daughter, and I am sure that she would not be interested in what I had to say when she is messaging her friends.

I have seen it work for those who are working at a job where it would be important to keep up with others. For me, I do not see it working. For kids in the media center, no, IM is not the way to

thing 6: Creating trading cards

Trading cards. Kids these days love trading cards. What if we had trading cards with? Hmm. Right now, we are celebrating I Love Homework month. I am not sure there is something that could be used.

If I sat and thought about it long enough, there could be a few uses. Like favorite books, or something to do with a research project. Not quite sure. Kids like to collect Pokemon cards and Yu-gi-oh cards. How could we get them to collect cards for school?

This would be something that could be used for memories of a field trip maybe or something that there were plenty of pictures for. There could be several uses.

Thing 5: more flickr

I can see using pictures of the school to create jigsaw puzzles. It might even be fun to produce calendars with pictures of the school media center. There could be many ways to use this in a media center.

The one thing that I did manage to see was the interactive site from St. Ben's. That was really cool. I am not sure it would work here at Green as many students may not have home computers. I do like the idea of making things from my pictures.

thing 4: Flickr

Flickr is an interesting thing. One has to be careful about the types of pictures to add and who to invite. I can see adding more pictures as I get them taken and get a chance to work with it some more. Check out the site from my school windows! It is a very interesting site!

Thing 3: RSS feeds part two

I decided that I didn't want all those feed and found out where to cut them off. Now I am going to try to find a way to add blogs to these feeds.

Wish me luck!

This is actually sorta fun and exciting to experiment with so many new things.

thing 3: RSS feeds

Well, I tried Google reader. There is waaay too much going on. I really don't want news from the BBC. Hopefully, it will show me how to unsubscribe some of the feeds. I need to look around and find something that I am really interested in. However, I don't when I will find the time to actually look at Google reader.

I need to work on the RSS feeds a little more to understand how they work. Right now, I may be too tired (Friday night at 8:30 pm) to keep going.

Thing 2: What is Library 2.0 Anyway?

There are a lot of things to think about when reading about and viewing information about library 2.0. The one thing that was going through my mind was.. boy, do I have to change my thinking and do I have a lot to learn.

This is probably the main reason why I signed up for 23 things. To see what Library 2.0 was about, I have never blogged before and am totally against social networking, but... maybe my mind can be changed.

There are many changes that could come about with Library 2.0. Most of the information came from public libraries. I am thinking and wondering how it will affect school libraries, and especially those in the inner city where kids do not have access to computers at home. Some do not have cell phones or access in ways that most people take for granted. Some parents still think that kids should not be using the internet for research, let alone, blogging or social networking or anything like that.

I think it will take some librarians to change their thinking and maybe access to the web. Hmm, maybe, Facebook needs to be checked out??

Thing 1a: Adding an avatar and fixing the title.

Adding an avatar was interesting.

Now I am thinking about being more creative. Look for me under a new sign.

Thing 1: Creating a blog

Trying to get it write!,, I mean right.

This was an adventure! I almost wish I would have been more creative for the name of my blog. I still have to add my avatar. Maybe I should read the directions before trying something on my own. I hope to be able to add to this often.

These 23 things should be fun to do! It will be one rollercoaster. Well, adding the avatar was easier than I thought as was adding to the blog. I guess I am ready for Thing 2.
(not to be confused with Thing 1). Sorry Dr. Seuss.