Thing 12 Social Networking

I know what I am about to say will receive many gasps from some other librarians. I believe that social networking is a wonderful way to connect with people. I have had a myspace account for almost a year and I LOVE it. After reading some other posts, I realized that I am in the minority about the seeing the value of these sites. Isn't that what we should be all about? Connecting with people? Of course, like anything else, there has been some publicity about how myspace isn't safe for kids. You have to be 14 to have an account. Of course, kids know how to get around this. Many of my former students have profiles and I am on their friends list. I made a point to talk with these kids about the dangers of chatting with people they did not know. We talked about not giving out personal info, like phone numbers, addresses, or even where you go to school. I used it as a lesson rather than reprimanding them. I think that most kids are just curious about the myspace world. By having my own profile, I can see what the kids are exposed to as opposed to ignoring this huge part of pop culture. From a professional standpoint, I see having social networking sites as a great way to publicize what is going on in your library. Kids are online joining these sites. Why not create one for yourself so that kids can see you as a person with a life outside the library? Or create one for the library where parents, kids, and the community can communicate about reading? I see this as just another way I can reach out to people and I see that as a good thing.

Thing 11 Library Thing

I was checking our another librarian's blog and saw the Library Thing link and immediately clicked on it. I set up and account which was super easy. Then I went to see what Thing was next on my list and that was it. So cool! I read so many books, kids and adult, that I always think I should keep up with what I read. This provides a perfect way to do that. I also love to see what other people have read for ideas on my next selection. I think students would love to be able to do this, also. They would really like the virtual book shelf. This is definately a tool that all books lovers will utilize often. LOVE IT!!!!

Thing 10

Learning to use online image generators was so much fun. I began by looking at what some of the other librarians had created. This task can take as little or as much time as you have to devote. I spent about two hours looking through all the images on Image Chef and TXT2PIX. It was a fun task that I really enjoyed. I can see using this for the library website and on my myspace profile. I will continue going through many more of these generators in the future just because it's fun. Maybe I'll think of some more ways to use these.. . . .

My RSS Feeder: Thing #9

I have been working on this one for a week. I tried out all of the suggestions and I guess they were all ok. Technorati was a little confusing because you have to switch it from posts to feeder. My problem was finding topics I was interested in enough to read about on a daily basis. So I did what the article suggested and depended on my inner circle to guide me toward some good reading. I look at several other blogs from learning thru play and got some great information. This was the most helpful to me. I subscribed to Unshelved because it was suggested by another librarian. I like to think of myself as pretty good with technology, but I am finding that I like somethings better than others. I think this was for me very time consuming. I like to read about teaching and ideas, but I almost think I would rather pick up a book or magazine to get information. My kids see me on the computer and do not really associate that with reading and learning. I am trying to teach them that it is, but it is hard. The same thing goes when people come into my library and see me on the computer reading blog posts. I feel like the teachers think I am just goofing off surfing the web and not working. I am trying to implement what the article suggested about stealing 5-10 minnutes here and there, but I find that difficult. Once I get started, it is hard to quit. This is one of the areas I need to stretch my thinking and really grow.

I love the idea of a using feeders to get the information I want. I just need to decide what it is that I want to take the time to read. I am learning a lot about technology and myself on this journey.

Look what I made using Flauntr!

Thing 8

RSS is a super simple way to get the information you want delivered to you. I compare it to going to the store and getting a newspaper everyday or having it delivered to your house. Yes, there are still some of us who read an actual newspaper. I have never really read blogs before, so this experience was new for me. Professionally, RSS can help me see what other librarians are doing, reading, and discussing. Personally, I would like to find scrapbooking, parenting, and travel blogs. The most diffcult part for me was searching for blogs that interest me. Librarians could utilize this in the library by showing teachers and students how to use this service to save time and organize information on the web. This was a good experience but slightly overwhelming.

Hot Stuff

hot Stuff,
originally uploaded by colleenduke71.

I created this card with Flickr Toys. It was easy and fun. I tried rotating the picture, but obviously that didn't work. I saw that someone create a character card for George Crum. The possibilities are endless.

Thing 6

Wow! It only gets better. I tried out many of of the Flickr toys. I really liked the badge toy. I was thinking that I could use this one for creating a voting badge for Bluebonnet book voting. I also liked the motivational poster maker. We could make some of these with our kids and frame them in the school. There are many wonderful tools here that I can't wait to use.

Thing 5

Marlin & Dory,
originally uploaded by Wyscan.

I really think that I have a problem. I am obsessed with looking at this site now. I love pumpkins so I searched and found 48,000 pics of pumpkins. I can see this being a useful tool for teachers and librarians because kids are visual learners. Some of these photos show kids places that they may never see without a site like this to share. Flickr is a cool site that is slightly addictive.

Thing 4

I would love to see teachers use blogs to hold book talks. The teacher could post a question or thought and kids could respond. This would increase reading and writing about literature. The students would love it because it is kind of free form and internet based. I am using a blog on my campus to allow teachers to respond to various articles about reading and education. I like this better than a book study because teachers can respond whenever they like, even in their PJs.

Thing 3

Now after careful reading, I realize that I am supposed to be posting as "things" instead of "numbers". I am just like the kids, I have trouble following directions. :0)

Even though I have just this semester created two blogs for my campus, creating a new one can still be frustrating. I have to write down all of the passwords and usernames. I love creating the avatars. I could spend hours just doing that. After creating the blog, it seems pretty easy to use. I created my campus blog with blogger.com and the teachers didn't want to override to log in, so I switched to edublogs. This is kind of a pain, but I have had 3 teachers post comments about articles. I love using blogs and I hope it catches on with all teachers.

Number 2

After watching the 7 1/2 habits of lifelong learners, I feel pretty confident that I am a lifelong learner. The hardest habit for me is be ability to see problems as challenges. I see problems as huge drama and I really should calm down. The easiest habit for me is to accept responsibility for my own learning. When I need to learn how to do something, I read a book or take a class. I formly believe that I can learn anything.

Number 1

I hope to learn as much as possible on this technology journey. I love the idea of the 23 things. It seems very organized, which I love because I am slightly OCD. As teachers we are expected to use technology but are not really ever given the opportunity to explore and play like this.