Thing 15 Wikis

This video from YouTube really helped me to understand what a wiki is and how it can be used. The important thing about a wiki is that it is a way to collaborate with others. Teachers to teachers, librarians to librarians, students to students, or a mixture of all can easily plan and organize information. A wiki can be used to organize ideas for using books to teach specific skills. There could be a list on a wiki for teaching realistic fiction using children's literature. Teachers can post books that work well for certain grade levels. A wiki can be used to help grade levels communicate daily without calling a formal meeting. There could be a page for math lesson reflections, field trip ideas, or additional resources. Wikis can be used for student teacher communication. Students can post homework. Students can help others in their class. Librarians can use a wiki to communicate about lesson ideas. I think it would be great to have a wiki for Mockingbird books where librarians can post lesson ideas to share. Wikis are easy to create and use. But the important thing about a wiki is that it is a way to collaborate with others.

Thing 14 Library 2.0

The best perspective that I have found on Library 2.0 can be found in this article. It basically says that Library 2.0 is a collaborative way to better meet the needs of your community. My favorite part says that this makes libraries relevant to people's lives, instead of being an afterthought. I could not agree more. The face of the library is changing because communication and information are expanding rapidly. The thing that I love about this project is that I am seeing first hand the amount of time people spend online, searching for answers. Someone could have told me, but I wouldn't have believed it without experiencing it for myself. My philosophy on the library is that we have to join this virtual society so that we can better serve our community. The number of tools that are available on the web is astounding. One big question that is often posed is,"How do we use this in the library?" My question is, "How do we not?" Now that I know it, I can teach it. The cool thing is that I am learning something new and exciting everyday. This reminds me how it feels to learn: uncomfortable, nervous, anxious. Isn't that how kids feel? Sometimes teachers? By stepping into the role of a learner, I am better connected to my school.

During this task, I have relied heavily on the aid of my peers. This has been a huge help to me. Imagine have the help of all the librarians in Texas. Ideas are meant to be shared. Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 allow librarians to expand lessons, ideas, and tips for a better library. I have found so many ideas for things that are relevant to me, such as Bluebonnet Voting ideas. I am looking forward to the Things left to do. . . .

Myspace idea

Today I thought of a way to use myspace to help students analyze characters in books. I think it would be an awesome product for students to make about a main character after completing a book. Students could create a myspace page for that character. Think of all that they could add: songs, friends, graphics, a bio, a blog. There are mood icons. That in itself is a huge vocabulary lesson. I am trying to see how this would look. I guess students could browse some pages or I could copy my page so that they can see what all is included. Students could create a paper myspace page? I haven't exactly figured that part out yet, but I think kids could be wildly creative and really analyze a character. The motivation would be high because myspace is so popular. I read something today from the Library 2.0 sites that said not to wait until something is perfect to share, but to get feedback and continually work on improving an idea.

Thing 13 Social Bookmarking

I will admit that I was a little hesitant on this task. It didn't seem like that big of a deal, but I watched the video and did some exploring. I looked at the MISD page and did some playing there. Then I created my own account. At first, I struggled with what to add. I was almost embarrassed that I do not visit a huge number of websites. And besides that, who would want to see sites I like? So, I started small. I go to the learning 20 blog sites almost daily, so I posted that. That led me to add image chef and other online sign generators. What else have I done that might be interesting? I found a cool flyer from TLA about ideas for Bluebonnet Book voting ideas, so I went back and posted that. My realization was that I was going to have to retrain myself to use this awesome tool. The more I post and search other people's posts, I find this to be a fascinating tool.

In the library, this will be a huge help. So many times when students come to the library or go to the computer lab time is wasted searching for quality websites. I know that kids need to learn to filter websites for themselves, but with the time crunch we feel, I think using the del.icio.us site will benefit students tremendously. It reminds me of filimentality (sp?). Obviously, this could be used to post websites for Internet research. I would love to show students how to create a del.icio.us account and find sites for something that is being studied, such as Ancient Greece. Then students could search other sites for good info. I think teaching kids to tag will improve critical thinking skills. Tagging is essentially coming up with synonyms. This is a skill that is needed in traditional research. A great lesson would be to compare and contrast the way a traditional encyclopedia is organized and how tagging works on del.icio.us. With an encyclopedia, students can be stuck if there is not an article about exactly what is being researched, like midnight ocean zone. Tagging could help students see what else something might be labeled as. This is a great addition to my ever- growing toolbox of web tools. Love it!

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.. . . .