Week #9, Thing #23, Reflections

It feels good to have completed the 23 things, but I feel that I am far from being done. Now I have lots of new tools/toys to keep track of and try to incorporate into my library and program. There are some that I need to revisit just to see if second try works out better.

Blogs in general were my favorite part, along with all of the enhancements. I also had a lot of fun with the mashups. (I'm looking to share those with our technology teacher to see if he might be able to use some of them with his students.) I feel like I have had my batteries recharged and I've been reminded that I need to keep learning and not just settle or be content with what has worked in the past. Since completing the 23 things my view of Wikis has improved and I have realized that Web 2.0 is not as difficult or scary as I thought it might be.

I was very happy with the way the program was set up. One suggestion might be to require participants to set up their blog, aka complete things 1-4, by a certain date, early in the course of the program. If this were not done, then they would be "eliminated" from the program, thus allowing someone on a waiting list to step in. (Yes, this would have burnt me, or it might have gotten me going sooner.) Sometimes the hardest part of any job is dreading getting started - I know I put it off numerous times because I thought for sure that I would not have enough time to complete one of the things.

While you miss the personal face-to-face interaction, the online learning experience is a good one and more of the direction I think we are headed, both as a profession and in regards to our patrons' needs. Online learning permits people to work at their convenience.

funtastic

Week #9, Thing #22, eBooks & Audio eBooks

It took me a little bit, but I was finally able to get somewhere with this venture. After much searching and exploring dark corners I found a cute digitized book which appeared to be an early children's story. The illustrations were simple black line drawings.

Our local public library has a link on their website for Tumblebooks, audio eBooks which have been animated. Students can select to read the books themselves or have someone read the book to them. Many of our primary teachers are utilizing this resource in their classroom centers.

Week#9, Thing #21, Podcasts

Okay... this was my first venture into the world of podcasts, and I am not impressed. I looked at three of the directories and was not able to find anything that struck me a stellar. I tried to download a podcast receiver, and I think I now have at least two of them, but still no real idea or understanding of how to use them. Probably the easiest thing I was able to do was to randomly pick one to add to my blog reader account.

I'm not giving up on podcasts just yet - maybe I'll wait until my daughter is home on break and she can guide me down that path. I will try this again.

Week #9, Thing #20, YouTube

I've wandered through YouTube before, often with my daughter after she had seen something funny from a friend or at school. I am often amazed and befuddled at how long kids can sit and flip through YouTube. Every visit is something new, depending on where you begin.

You can find a video about almost anything, both the good and the bad. I like that anyone can post a video, from the amateur to the professional - they run the gamut. I came across a classic clip from Sesame Street: Cookie Monster in the Library.
If nothing else, the librarian in the skit can serve as a visual reminder of what we do not want to become. (Originally I found a version from Sesame Street which was a little more clear, but they had disabled embedding and I really wanted to include the video in my blog - so I went with the one above. The original can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3ZHPJT2Kp4.)

It would be neat to have video booktalks on a library website, along with previews of other video booktalks on the side similar to the "more" and "related videos" boxes in the sidebar on YouTube.

Week #8, Thing #19, LibraryThing

Where was this when I was taking cataloging?! It's almost too easy - I had to pinch myself to make sure I hadn't fallen asleep at the computer. Admittedly I only added the five titles required and it was a mix of personal, professional, and "on the job", so my catalog is very eclectic a this point. The popularity ranged from 16 to 869. However, I didn't find any discussions about them.

It was super easy to link to my LibraryThing catalog. I might have to try adding a widget in the future. At first I was a little skeptical as to how likely I might be to use this. Then I had my AHA! moment. I am always questioning if I have a certain title in my collection of children's books, many of which I use at school, but keep at home. If I catalogued my collection in LibraryThing then I could always tell at a glance if I had the book here at home. Further I occasionally raid my mother's collection - if I catalogued her books as well in another "library" I would know which books belonged to her and to look at her house rather than mine.

I am also thinking I would like to share this with my colleagues to keep track of their classroom libraries or personal collections. Thanks so much for this great tool.

Week #8, Thing #18, Zoho blog

This is my experiment with Zoho. I like that all of the tools are so close and handy. I'm thinking my daughter and I could have used this just today. She has MS Office 2007 and I have XP, so when she sent her paper to me as an attachment I could not open it. Wouldn't it be great if she had used Zoho - then no problem and I could easily edit it bymaking my correction in a different color. Or I could have added a comment. This would be great for group projects too - there were a few times in my online course work at Mansfield¹ that it would haved saved endless attachments in groups of three or more.

I just posted this from Zoho - it was REALLY easy.

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¹ Go Mounties!

Week # 7, Things 16a & 17, CA & PA Curriculum Connection Wikis

I was really impressed with some of the ideas included in California's wiki. How great that you can quickly share ideas with colleagues without having to go through extensive formats or forms to submit that idea. One thing that came to mind as I was reading the posted ideas was that some of the ideas suggested would require students to register - how does this work with COPPA? Or is it okay as long as they are over 13 years old? Doesn't this unfairly exclude our younger students - or is there a way around this?

I was equally impressed with the PA version as well. It will be interesting to see if what I posted gets edited. I like the idea that there needs to be an "invite key" to be able to edit which helps to control who can alter your wiki. One wiki/blog I saw, which was created for student use, included a disclaimer reminding students that AUP guidelines applied to the use/posting of the site. The only negative thing I could see was that I couldn't find an easy way to include a link to an image I created elsewhere other than hyperlinking the URL. It would have been nice to include a thumbnail of the image.