My final thoughts

I mentioned a lot of this in my last post on Warlick and his tips for setting up and maintaining a personal learning network but, for my final post, I wanted to specify a few important things that I will take from this class.

First, I am very appreciative of Evernote and wish I would have come across this during our first semester in this program. What I love about this and all the Web 2.0 tools we discussed is that you can access it at any time or any place. I like adding to it with any new piece of information I come across. Because I will be teaching a technology class, I was constantly keeping several notebooks going at the same time this summer...one for notes from Multimedia, one for YA Resources, one for Ideas, one for Resources, one for my technology class, and one for yearbook/newspaper. It is now a "one-stop shop" for all things I need to refer back to.

As I wrote in my other post, I will continue to follow "weblogg-ed" because I think it is full of ideas, but also great talking points for our line of work. I also love Wes Fryer, Arnie Abrams, and Debbie Abilock. I want to explore Doug Johnson's work a little more. I will be glad to be able to refer back to the texts from Warlick and Richardson. I also plan to follow some of my local AEA people (I've heard Norma Thiese from Keystone has a great wiki.)

As for diigo, I immediately transferred all my bookmarks to my diigo account and now use it regularly to log in to all my accounts. I have not yet made my bookmarks public or used diigo to see what other people's bookmarks are. With a little more time, I hope to do this right away.

I thoroughly enjoyed voicethread and moviemaker and know I will use these for both personal and professional projects. Just last Thursday, I put together a movie for my economic development group that I'm involved with for my hometown. It was very professional looking and I received a lot of great comments.

Although I felt overwhelmed at many times this semester, I agree with Sandy Reishus' post that floundering a bit is part of the learning process. I've felt my confidence improve over the semester...I might not have all the answers but I feel like I can figure it out or seek help. I will continue to consult with my fellow cohort members. As Sam said during our joint cohort meeting, we will be some of the main people in the library and information science field over the next 20-30 years. What an amazing thought. I really hope I can be a person that others will look to for advice or ideas in carrying out the roles of the 21st century librarian.

In my flip video, I mentioned that I want to establish a climate of creating within the school library. I want my library to be a busy place, a place where students are engaged, and a place that they look to seek out the answers they need to be successful. To be successful, students need the 21st century skills we discussed in class. The following is a note that I wrote on my evernote page...
"21st Century Skills: Creativity & Innovation, Communication & Collaboration; Research & Information Fluency; Critical Thinking & Problem Solving; Digitial Citizenship; Technology Operations & Concepts - use this with administrator."

This was a great class. In fact, the two classes this summer were probably my two favorite classes so far...Although I was overwhelmed, I was mostly excited about all the things we were doing and discussing...thanks so much to Kristin and to everyone in the class. I just felt like we shared and learned so much from each other.

Podcast 2: I Feel A Little Jumpy Around You

Here's my second booktalk podcast. Click below to view...
http://libraryhab.podOmatic.com/entry/2009-07-14T14_19_56-07_00

My experiment with Toondo

Warlick: Tips for your Personal Learning Network

Warlick has a great couple pages on managing your Personal Learning Network, beginning on page 167. The idea of PLN is new to me, but makes such good sense. I hope I can get organized and really make this effective. Like Warlick suggested, I plan to follow a few blogs first. I'm thinking weblogg-ed for one because I think there are so many good arguments on there for why "libraries matter". I also want some very practical blogs with lots of examples of technology projects. Just need to decide which are my top ones. I don't want so many that I become overwhelmed. Sometimes I think bloggers need to think quality vs. quantity.

Warlick then goes on to talk about Twitter. Again, I'm afraid of being overwhelmed, but I think it would be very fun and interesting to get into this. I really like the idea of picking of valuable tidbits of information, like when a new 2.0 tool is released or an upgrade or something. Just don't want to sort through days and days of stuff just to get something useful every so often. Anyone else feel this way?

Probably the most useful part of Warlick's PLN suggestions is on "pruning" -- limiting the number of blogs (conduct a Google blog search), use folders effectively (email, bookmarks, etc.), and for me, personally, set aside a limited amount of time regularly to explore the PLN -- key words being "limited" and "regular".

Authentic Intellectual Work

The article about the Norfolk 17 and the digital library reminded me of the program by Iowa Public Television where oral histories were recorded. I went on the website and couldn't find it anymore. Does anyone know what it was called or if they're still doing this?

While searching the web, I did not realize all the other resources available from IPTV for schools and the specific content areas. I had looked at this when my daughter was doing her Iowa History Project. Now I realized there's an area for Library and Media too. Might be worth adding to our list of resources.

Anyway, back to the article...

I think the real power behind primary source documents is the word "perspective"...for so long the majority of the history that our students learned was through textbooks...content that is edited and filtered over and over. The more our students are exposed to different perspectives, the more successful they will be...in our global society.

My Windows Movie Maker Video on Immigration

My Itsy Bitsy Spider Video

A Booktalk on Fat Kid Rules the World

Check out my second podcast. This is one of the required podcast booktalks for my Resources for Young Adults class on Fat Kid Rules The World by K. L. Going.

http://libraryhab.podOmatic.com/entry/2009-07-12T14_58_11-07_00

Digital Storytelling

I've talked about this before, but my daughter had a huge Iowa History project due last year (like a lot students do)...there are just so many applications for digital storytelling within this type of project. While trying to help her with parts of the project, I just wanted her to really get into the lives of these people who walked on this ground before us. After watching the first example in Wes Fryer's video, I immediately thought how this would have had so much more impact than the project did as it was assigned. She ended up with a series of typed reports on 15 or so topics, one of which was the typical "Interview With An Older Iowan". If she could have taken some of the old photos from my grandma and told her story in a presentation like this, she and her classmates would have learned so much more and enjoyed it so much more. Oh, the skills that could have been incorporated.

I like the word "storytelling" - we all have a story to tell!

Webinar - Digital Photographs

Arnie Abrams' webinar was very practical and useful. I love the way it had ideas for all ages and all stages of learning. Lisa Snitker has a great list on her blog for those interested in a summary. The flash card idea was very simple but very appealing...I want to share that with our foreign language teachers. I just really believe that when you create things, you learn better...just like Abrams noted about the 'phoetry'!

Two good points I liked: 1. It's not the product, it's the process!, and 2. With most of these projects, there is as much writing going on as if the students had written a paper.

I also think I want to incorporate the 'Each Teach' concept from Janie Schomberg's class. Let students explore a little and then teach others. Provide a framework and rubric and let them create. A big part of the Iowa Core Curriculum is moving away from sit-and-git teaching to "facilitating" learning.

This all fits so well!

Flickr

I want to like Flickr, but I'm still uncomfortable with it for some reason. I like all the creative products you can make from your photos, but haven't had a chance to see how expensive things are. I like some of the editing tools, but find they are limited. And I like the tagging/organizing capabilities but don't know if I want to do that for every picture. And the creative commons / copyright still seems overwhelming to me. I just need time to explore, but I want someone to really sell me on this...

Photo Editing Tools

I've commented on few other people's posts already, but I'm very interested in finding the right photo editing tool to use. I love Photoshop. There are so many things to do, though, that I'm sure I'm barely scratching the surface of it. I feel like it is more of a 'one-stop shop' for publishing. You can crop, change colors, add effects, add text, etc. My concern is the price for schools. We have it on 7 computers right now that we use for yearbook. This year I'm teaching a technology class and I want to know how Photoshop Elements compares. It's likely that it does everything I want it to do. Anyone know for sure?

As for Irfanview, I need to explore this more but it seemed so limited compared to Photoshop. It is on all the school computers now, though, which makes it appealing.

Did I miss the true cropping capabilities of Picasa? Picasa reminded me of the photo stations at WalMart or Walgreens to print my digital pictures. While it's very easy, I wanted more.

Any suggestions?

Let It Snow

This is a perfect article for those naysayers out there that resist project-based learning or integrating technology. Our principal has a poster in his office about how students learn, with the top two items being 'by creating' and 'by teaching others'. The project described in this article crosses so many curriculum areas.

I'm reminded of Kristin's checklist for multimedia: 1. Plan, 2. Create, 3. Publish, and 4. Promote. Following these steps makes it so much easier to incorporate technology into learning.

Visual Literacy

The quote in the box at the beginning of the article by Debbie Abilock is very powerful..."A photographer who is out to persuade you of his "truth" will make choices to support his view rather than reveal the truthfulness of the moment."

What necessary skills that need to be taught to our 21st century learners: visual literacy and critical evaluation -- whether it's photography, websites, commercials, magazine articles/ads (like airbrushed models!)

My First Podcast: A reading from Looking for Alaska

Check out my first podcast...a reading from Looking for Alaska by John Green

http://libraryhab.podOmatic.com/entry/2009-07-09T12_24_22-07_00

My Voicethread - Jillian's Story

Richardson Ch. 7 - Flickr

Ooohh....another toy to play with!! I love taking digital pictures and I think this tool could be so interesting! As I'm thinking about this, I want to come up with better ways to incorporate this into a journalism class that I'm teaching. I'm also thinking about our science teacher who received a grant for GPS/GIS tools. He is always plotting longitude and latitude points and this could make the application more real for his students as well.

Sometimes I think I have to know all the 'ins and outs' of a program before I can possibly teach it. I'm trying to change that mindset. I'd like to experiment with being more of a "facilitator" of the students' learning by introducing some of these Web 2.0 tools and then letting them teach each other. Then, as Micki has stated in other classes, I worry that the students will be "catastrophically naughty" in some way...what do you guys think?

Richardson Ch. 6 - The Social Web

Duh...the social web...It's getting clearer and clearer all the time.

I hate to admit it but, until I read this chapter, I didn't get the "social" part of diigo or del.icio.us. When I signed up for that diigo account a few weeks ago, my thought was, "Great! Finally a way to organize all these bookmarks and be able to make notes to myself about each of them." I didn't get the whole idea of tapping into what everyone else is looking at and collaborating with others on finding the best information that is out there.

I can see so many personal applications for these social bookmarking programs. As I read this book, I keep coming up with ideas that I need to bring up to my administrator. As part of this blog, does anyone have advice on how to be a leader in getting some of these Web 2.0 tools to be used in the school more?

Richardson Ch. 5 - RSS

I don't know why, but it seems like I've been resisting RSS for awhile. We've talked about it in other classes and I understood the basic premise, but I just didn't seem interested. While Richardson is clearly excited about it, I'm still having a hard time getting started with it. I think I'm stalling because I'm not sure which sites to subscribe to and I question whether I'll keep up with it. Still, Richardson seems to think "everyone will be doing it" soon...

I do like the idea of the personal learning network and this is obviously a great way to do this. I also think I need to be subscribing to sites that will perhaps help me with my poster session research. And I can always 'unsubscribe', right? Anyone have similar feelings of being resistant to RSS?

I agree that students who learn to navigate all the available information out there and who have the skills to critically evaluate information will be the successful students of the future. Time to get on board, I guess!

One thing I thought that was interesting was the idea of the superintendent subscribing to RSS for any time the school district is published about. While exploring Facebook, I found a lot of interesting things said about our school (some great, some not-so-great). It would be interesting to see what a person would do with all the information they could gather.

Evaluating School Blogs

I explore two interesting, yet very different, teacher blogs. One is by a junior high classroom in Manitoba, Canada (http://mr-fisher.edublogs.org/) I really like the "About" section of this blog, which states, "This blog is our classroom portal. It is the space for a combined grade 7 / 8 class at Joseph H. Kerr School in Snow Lake, MB. We are a class that works hard to connect with other learners around the globe. We blog, we shoot videos, we podcast, we use wikis to help us plan and to connect ourselves with what we are learning. We think globally."

What a powerful message about technology and globalization. It's obvious, at least from the student bloggers, that they are engaged in their learning. This website didn't have a great introduction or description of itself but it was easy to navigate and see the various assignments the students worked on and their interaction with the teacher. It's meant to be shared between teacher and classmates, but its application is a great example of what can be done in any classroom.

The second classroom blog was 'A Chat With Mary' (http://achatwithmary.blogspot.com/). This site was more of a resource center for other teachers. It has a wealth of information within it to help integrate technology into any classroom. One of my favorite links from this blog is to 'Mary's Portal for Teachers'. While it isn't the most attractive site, it has almost every imaginable topic and application a teacher could want/need. I didn't see a lot of interaction with this site, but I do think it is a great resource for others.

Evaluating Educator Blogs

I compared Will Richardson's 'weblogg-ed' (http://weblogg-ed.com/) with Jeff Utecht's 'the thinking stick' (http://www.thethinkingstick.com/)

Following Kathy Schrock's evaluation of blogs, I found that both blogs include bios on the authors, other works, information about their professional affiliations, etc. As for the purpose of the site, Weblogg-ed is a little more specific about its intentions, but both are pretty clear. The credentials of the authors are mostly stated by the authors themselves, but both can easily be corroborated with a little more research. The nature of the discussions with other bloggers lends credibility to the authors.

There is a feeling of expertise, especially in Richardson's blog, but it’s clear that the intentions of the blog are to be more of a forum of opinions. Both authors are challenged, which makes for a better discussion.

Overall, I enjoyed Richardson's blog more. I found so many useful items in there that I have saved for future use. His blogs are more detailed and I really enjoyed the conversations he had with other bloggers. One of my favorites is "The Future of My Kids' Work" (http://weblogg-ed.com/2009/the-future-of-my-kids-work/). This reminded me a lot of the "Cognitive Backpack" article we read in Information Literacy and I noted it as a possible use for looking at the Iowa Core Curriculum and the teacher librarian's role.

Richardson Chapter 2

Weblogs: Pedagogy & Practice

One of the ideas that stood out from this chapter was the idea of "community building" -- the connections and sharing of ideas around common interests. I knew that was what blogging was all about, but as I reflect on its use in the school system, I think it's important to keep that goal in mind when planning classes and assignments that require blogs.

It isn't true blogging to simply post assignments or to ask a student to journal about his/her feelings or activities. True blogging happens when connections are made and thinking is expanded.

One of the first applications I considered for a potential blog was using the tool for my journalism class. My initial thought was to have a place where students could post ideas for stories/yearbook pages, upload photos, etc. While this is probably an efficient way to do these things, I later expanded my idea to include a place for peer editing/review -- where the teacher, other students, even parents could challenge the journalism students to think more deeply about the subjects they are writing about.

I also like the idea of creating an entire portfolio for a student's school career. As technology continues to grow, it would be important that the previous work could be incorporated into new technology applications.

Very interesting chapter!