Thing #23!!

I made it! I finished! I was really worried but am glad I finished.

My favorite discovery was NINGS. I love how they have evolved from when I first joined a NING years ago. This is one place I will go back to to get ideas and inspiration.


My favorite activity was the Photostory. I love it when I get "into" a project. I loved the activity so much I skipped lunch and only left my computer to go to the bathroom. Also the basic introduction into the web 2.0 world via hands on activities, like creating a blog (my first). Some activities I had already explored so I explored to a greater extent because I had the time.


This program has not only assisted my learning but had affected it. I have learned that it is OK to try new things and let the virtual world get to know me. Sometimes things work and sometimes it doesn't. You just have to get in and get your hands "messy."



One thing that was unexpected was my husband's reaction to my discoveries and my enthusiasm. He has always been very protective of his reputation and information about him that gets online. I guess that's where some of my fear and resistant was in opening up and letting the world get to know me online. He has realized that this has kept me from communicating and performing my job better and is now willing to spend the money to upgrade my phone so I can text (yes, I have never sent a text) and do all the other cool things my youngest son (22yrs) has done with his phone and all the apps he has. While I respect that he doesn't want to do a lot of these things he respects my feelings and supports and encourages me and my life online.


The biggest improvement I would make to the program would be to make sure when people click on the links it is on an active link. I don't just mean that it works. Make sure that what you want "students" to see is actually being used. When we were looking at wikis I found some from the Library2play site that hadn't been used in 2 years. It gave me the impression that this type of technology was no longer being used.


I can't wait until next year and participate in Library2play2. Could I do Library2play3 in the same summer as Library2Play2? I would expect to have to complete 2 before continuing on to 3. Otherwise I would always feel left behind.


My quote would be that "Many of these 'Things' are things I had been meaning to explore but never seemed to have time. This was the perfect setting for that."


I have already made many comments on others blogs and have gotten one or two from others. I'm ready to go out into "the world" and comment on everything that inspires me.

Thing #22

I really like NINGs. I now feel "plugged in." I had joined the TeacherLibrarianNING two or three years ago after attending TLA. At first I didn't see the point. I love it now! It is Face book/wiki/blog Teacher tube social net work especially for LIBRARIANS! It is the ultimate 2.0 application.

I can't wait for school to start so that I can get ideas from other librarians. I don't feel like I'm in this by myself anymore. There is a world of other professionals that is in the same boat I am. Sometimes at school I feel like I am an island. I have no peers to speak of that does the same job I do. Yes I have other librarians in my district but each of us has gotten used to "doing our own thing" that is special for our campus.

I joined the Texas Librarian NING after looking around. It is a fairly new or not well known NING. I can tell because there wasn't an Elementary discussion group so I joined and started one.

I will be visiting the NING more as I need great ideas and as I incorporate more technology.

Thing #21

I had created a PhotoStory in the past but this time I had the time and enthusiasm to learn about all the bells and whistles of the program. I love this program. It is very easy. You just have to upload your photos, add some music and go. Or you could take a lot of time and time the photos, or add some narration. I could see this used in many different ways. Students could take pictures of what they wanted to create a story and then narrate the story using the sound or type in the text to tell the story. They could create their own ebook. Students could create book reviews as evidence they have read a book. They could link pictures together to show steps in a process like an experiment or science project. The applications are only as limited as your imagination. I had a lot of fun creating my PhotoStory and look forward to teaching this to teachers and students.
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Thing #20

YouTube
While YouTube is a good source of videos, for those of us with less than high speed Internet, it can be a drain on bandwidth. I understand now why many districts block YouTube. There were many instructional videos that would be suitable for most high school or university teaching. There was even some videos for elementary. The majority of the videos are for the sole purpose of entertainment. If you have a lot of time and bandwidth on your hands you could spend hours, days, weeks, months, and possibly years on YouTube and never repeat a video.



Teacher Tube
Teacher tube was not kind to the bandwidth either but I believe the information was better. Teacher Tube seemed to have a different purpose. While YouTube was entertaining, teacher Tube is a better source when looking for materials to supplement our lessons. I like that they not only have a way to upload videos but you can easily download them to use so you don't have to stream them. They also have a place for you to upload and download documents.

Teacher Tube is more organized, social, and overall more complete. It better meets the needs of teachers and education. It has a way for them to find anything associated with education. Blogs, groups to chat, videos, documents, jobs, or things to purchase like on Craig's list. You might say Teacher Tube is YouTube 2.0. It is better and worth more of my time. I was very impressed with Teacher Tube and will continue to visit when I find myself in need. I just may have to go to Starbucks for a latte and some bandwidth.

Here is the video I found on Teacher Tube about the Dewey Decimal System which I teach to all my students each year. So I am always looking new ways to explain it to students. Besides it was cool and fun to watch.

Thing #19

I love cooking and watching the Food Network and the Cooking Channel. So I investigated the Imcooked site.

I love that it is free and so easy to use. People can upload their videos and show off their cooking and or video skills. It was like looking for recipes at first. Then I found one that was really good. It made me feel like I was watching the Food Network. It was very entertaining. There are even videos from famous people like Christopher Walken and Paul McCartney. Alton Brown is on the David Letterman show and that was very entertaining too!

They have different "Channels" which is different types of foods. They have Groups although not too many. I think it is a fairly unknown site as there were less then 4,000 members. There is a place to "Upload" your videos and a place to upload videos to help others on how to make videos,"Creating".

How will all this fit into education? I thought at first it would be great for my students in the library because we need to teach sequencing and step-by-step instructions, How to's. Also it would be good for summerizing or details. I showed classes clips from movies last year and they summerized those after picking out the details.

The "Creating" will be helpful this year because the TIS and I are starting a Technology club. My district just started a technology contest, videos, Photostory, Annimotos, That sort of thing. Students did not know how to create those as the teachers spend most of their instructional time on the basics of reading, writing, math and science. I'm hoping that when I get to school it won't be blocked like all the other video sites like YouTube.

Thing #18

I played with Google Docs. I figured since I had a Google account and have been doing all this stuff on Google I would use that so I didn't have to download any new programs.

The benefit to Google Docs is that the storage is on their server. All you need is a computer and an Internet connection and you could conduct business. People without computers or Internet could go to the library and create there as everything is FREE! I love free.

Another benefit to Google Docs is that you don't have to email anyone your documents. Just give them the address and you could actually collaborate on the document at the same time. There have been many times when I have read my husbands or son's college papers and if we had used Google Docs then we could look at them at the same time and make the changes together.

Thing #17

At first I didn't see the point of Rollyo but then when I watched Bruce's video and how it was set up and how easy it was I bought into it. I had my account started before the end of the video and started looking around. This is going to save me time!

When a grade does a research project I usually set up a page on my website specially for them with all the links they will need to include some cute pictures. This usually takes a day to a weekend and my eyes are all bloodshot. With Rollyo I can do the same thing but I won't have to have an entire page. I just have to give them the address of the Rollyo. They will feel more like they are searching the web and aren't limited to the few links they have on a website.

When I created my Rollyo I went to a website I had created this last school year for a 3rd grade Black History project and put in the major websites that I had searched. It worked great and because I was searching all those sites at the same time I actually found some articles that I had missed when just looking for that one topic.

Thank you for this great tool!