This week provided me with the opportunity to interview a librarian abut the OPAC software they are using. I chose to interview myself and it provided a great opportunity for me to actually sit down for a minute and think about the software I have. I didn't pick it, it was just sort of here when I started and all of the other schools..3 in total are on different systems. I have Alexandria software. It seems okay but then again my only other experience was with Millennium in the public library. Millennium did seem much easier for cataloging. You would just type in the ISBN then click on the record, assign a barcode and voila...it was ready for processing. Alexandria requires me to import records, which means I need to save them and then import them into the database. The other thing I really don't like about it is the search interface. It looks very elementary. I have tried changing it but you can't it is what it is. Plus there is the spelling thing...if you don't spell something correctly it says we don't have any results for that keyword..and never offers any suggestions. This really got me thinking...maybe I am not really that crazy about what I have. I decided to call the librarian at the middle school to see what she was using..last I knew she had some software that she hated because it was difficult to catalog and search. She shared that she was in the middle of converting to Koha, an open source software. Well, I knew which software I was going to use for a comparison for the project...I ended up interviewing her about Koha.
After trying Koha myself there are a few things I really like about it...It had a sort of amazon.com feel. You can create a cart, write reviews and assign stars to items. I also like the ability for patrons to assign their own tags to items. I think these features mimic the type of web 2.0 sites that our students are already using. They are used to being able to comment, share with others and organize thing the way they want to...Diigo, anyone?
Also seems like a great tool for teaching 21st Century skills...I also think that our students are much more comfortable with open source then we are. We have been reliant on tech support that comes with Windows and Microsoft office while our students rarely pay for software and find things to use for free n the internet. No wonder file converters have become such an integral part of our day... With a good IT department and collaboration between the departments Koha would be a good choice. If you are not as confident there are companies like LibLime that provide tech support as well as record conversion.
The comparison has opened my eyes to what some of the other options out there are. Also that it is a good idea to evaluate what you are using from time to time to see if there is anything that would work better for you and your students.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Cataloging Part 2
Cataloging continues this week...from the Caribbean. Luckily Catalog It is nice and light and flexible which makes it travel well...plus there is the added bonus of the funny looks and questions you get when you are reading "a guide to cataloging school library materials"
It was nice to read about all of the different tags and exactly what each is used for. I have to admit that with copy cataloging you really do get out of practice. I always know the common ones like 245 and 650 but I hardly ever see 511 or 590's. It has been nice to go back and refresh my memory.
I especially enjoyed the ext to the last chapter...and not just because it was next to the last chapter! but because it was about the future of cataloging. I always wonder what the future of cataloging will hold. With users assigning tags to their information do the library of congress headings still have meaning? or will we migrate away from formal organization systems like LOC and dewey and toward a more arbitrary and user defined system. I don't think that the formal organization will go away completely but I do see a mix of the two systems being used along side each other. Librarians will catalog the materials and users will have the opportunity to organize the things they use the way they would like and to share their tags and ratings with others.
The section on websites was informative although I have not decide yet if I will catalog websites in the library catalog or just online with the library's diigo site.
It was nice to read about all of the different tags and exactly what each is used for. I have to admit that with copy cataloging you really do get out of practice. I always know the common ones like 245 and 650 but I hardly ever see 511 or 590's. It has been nice to go back and refresh my memory.
I especially enjoyed the ext to the last chapter...and not just because it was next to the last chapter! but because it was about the future of cataloging. I always wonder what the future of cataloging will hold. With users assigning tags to their information do the library of congress headings still have meaning? or will we migrate away from formal organization systems like LOC and dewey and toward a more arbitrary and user defined system. I don't think that the formal organization will go away completely but I do see a mix of the two systems being used along side each other. Librarians will catalog the materials and users will have the opportunity to organize the things they use the way they would like and to share their tags and ratings with others.
The section on websites was informative although I have not decide yet if I will catalog websites in the library catalog or just online with the library's diigo site.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Cataloging
The idea of taking a class on cataloging brought back all of my memories of the hours spent in the cataloging lab at Simmons during my first class on cataloging. In 2007 they opened a new renovated library, so it doesn't even exist any more...boy that makes me feel old. I have to admit I was surprised when I got my first “real” library job and discovered that most people don’t really catalog but rather copy things that others have cataloged. The only time that I actually had to originally catalog was when we acquired some unusual item that no one had cataloged anywhere else yet.
When I started working in a school the copy cataloging was a matter of necessity, there just was no time to even think about cataloging or process books for that matter so normally all of the new books came with a disk which would import nicely into the circulation software. With a little tweaking these records were pretty good. For my teachers I assign class tags so that they can search for resources that cover topics covered in for example “World History II”, Some vendors provide better records than others and some use Sears Headings instead of Library Congress, so all of those would need to be changed. Eventually I began looking to the internet. For most common items I use CWMARS. For the unusual I use Sunlink which is comprised of the school libraries in the entire state of Florida. It contains lots of unusual items that school libraries tend to have in their collections. I have found Library of Congress to be useful as well although I do find their website to be somewhat difficult to navigate and I don’t always find what I am looking for.
This week’s reading from “Catalog It” by Kaplan and Reiding has been a great refresher. I ordered it through the library system for this class but will purchase a copy because I think it will be a good resource to keep on hand and is a nice compliment to the four big green books of Dewey that I now own. I liked the Genesse Valley resource and when looking for it on the net stumbled across this link
http://www.caclibrary.org/Cataloging.htm
Which lists a whole bunch of sites to use for cataloging. I also like to use Auburn University's page
for a quick listing of Marc tags for when I need to quickly look up what a particular tag is.
So far this has been a nice trip down cataloging lane. I am re-learning some of the things that I have forgotten and it is so much less stressful knowing that I am not going to be sitting in a library with an item in my hand and a blank screen in front of me. Now I know that I need to know how and why it all works and the basics but that there are a lot of resources out there to help.
When I started working in a school the copy cataloging was a matter of necessity, there just was no time to even think about cataloging or process books for that matter so normally all of the new books came with a disk which would import nicely into the circulation software. With a little tweaking these records were pretty good. For my teachers I assign class tags so that they can search for resources that cover topics covered in for example “World History II”, Some vendors provide better records than others and some use Sears Headings instead of Library Congress, so all of those would need to be changed. Eventually I began looking to the internet. For most common items I use CWMARS. For the unusual I use Sunlink which is comprised of the school libraries in the entire state of Florida. It contains lots of unusual items that school libraries tend to have in their collections. I have found Library of Congress to be useful as well although I do find their website to be somewhat difficult to navigate and I don’t always find what I am looking for.
This week’s reading from “Catalog It” by Kaplan and Reiding has been a great refresher. I ordered it through the library system for this class but will purchase a copy because I think it will be a good resource to keep on hand and is a nice compliment to the four big green books of Dewey that I now own. I liked the Genesse Valley resource and when looking for it on the net stumbled across this link
http://www.caclibrary.org/Cataloging.htm
Which lists a whole bunch of sites to use for cataloging. I also like to use Auburn University's page
for a quick listing of Marc tags for when I need to quickly look up what a particular tag is.
So far this has been a nice trip down cataloging lane. I am re-learning some of the things that I have forgotten and it is so much less stressful knowing that I am not going to be sitting in a library with an item in my hand and a blank screen in front of me. Now I know that I need to know how and why it all works and the basics but that there are a lot of resources out there to help.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Online Safety
This week’s topic was Internet Safety. I chose to concentrate on a popular topic these days, Cyber bullying. Cyber bullying has most recently been in the news because of the case of Pheobe Prince in Massachusetts. There have been many articles such as “Sticks and Stones” in Time Magazine in the media about online bullying and the need for parents to be more informed.
I compiled a list of resources for parents; websites, articles, and multimedia. Parents need to be educated on what cyber bullying is, how they can help their children cope and prevent it and how they can become more informed about their children’s online presence.
Websites
Wired Safety
The site claims to be the world’s largest online safety and help group; it is headed by Parry Aftab, author of The Parent's Guide to Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace. The website provides education, resources and even one on one assistance to victims of cyber crimes and harassment.
Netsmartz
This comprehensive site contains tips for parents as well presentations. There is a lot of information including statistics, news and definitions. The “Real Life stories” really brought the topic home.
Education.com
I compiled a list of resources for parents; websites, articles, and multimedia. Parents need to be educated on what cyber bullying is, how they can help their children cope and prevent it and how they can become more informed about their children’s online presence.
Websites
Wired Safety
The site claims to be the world’s largest online safety and help group; it is headed by Parry Aftab, author of The Parent's Guide to Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace. The website provides education, resources and even one on one assistance to victims of cyber crimes and harassment.
Netsmartz
This comprehensive site contains tips for parents as well presentations. There is a lot of information including statistics, news and definitions. The “Real Life stories” really brought the topic home.
Education.com
A site that is dedicated to providing parents with quality information they need. It has an excellent resource list which is divided into a number of topics with questions on each. The links provide easily understood tips and a link to the article where the information originated from.
Articles
“Tips to help when your child is being bullied online” by Christine Loftus
Explains what cyber bullying is and provides 6 tips to help protect your teen against cyber bullying
“Cyber Bullying Quick Reference Guide for Parents” by Patti Agatston
This article describes how bullying happens and why it is not okay
Also defines Cyber bullying and provides a list of warning signs. Helpful tips for prevention and intervention are included as well
“Parent Guide to Cyber Bullying and Cyber Threats” by The Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use
A 14 page article which provides in depth information on cyber bullying. The causes are described as well as the various roles that teenagers take on when they are online.
Parents are encouraged to stay involved and given tips of how to prevent their child from being bullied and what to do if their child is the bully.
Multimedia
This heart wrenching video shows what cyber bullying is like first hand. It follows an English boy through his days as he is bullied using many different types of cyber tools. It was striking how technology has made it easy for bullies to follow students anywhere. The site contains resources, teachers guide and lessons.
A collection of articles, worksheets, activities, quizzes, family contracts and pod casts to assist with the prevention and addressing of cyber bullying. A informative collection of resources for parents.
Notebook: Cyberbullies by Katie Couric
This segment describes the results of cyber bullying and includes tips for parents on how to help prevent bullying. The most important was to have dialog with your children and to know what they are doing online.
For the presentation I chose to create a Glogster of resources for students to use as a type of web quest to explore the topic of cyber bullying. My idea was to not only use it as a web quest type of activity with a class, but also to put it on the library website. In that way it can be a resource they are able to come back to later for further exploration or when they have specific questions. Several of the sites contain vast amounts of different resources far too much for students to absorb at one glance.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Professional Deelopment
This week's assignment was to create a professional development plan and presentation. I chose to follow the organization of this class and developed a 5 workshop series on web 2.0 tools and applications. I attempted to show teachers the basics of each of the tools as well as some examples of uses in the classroom or on way that can help them to organize. I think the workshops cover a lot of tools and it will probably be necessary to do some follow up workshops on specific tools for the teachers that use them and then want to do more. I don't think that all of the teacher will like each tools but I hope by presenting so many different options that everyone will be able to find something that works for them and is applicable to a current topic or lesson.
Introduction to Blogs and Wikis
In this hands on workshop teachers will develop the beginnings of their own blog and wiki. The workshop will cover an introduction to blogs and wikis as well as concrete examples of their use in the classroom and lessons. Additional topics include; a discussion and demo of Wikipedia and it’s educational application., Internet safety and ethics and the choices for access will be discussed, as well as the various free online options and the pros and cons of each.
Help me Organize my Stuff!..and be able to find it
In this workshop we will explore all of the online tols out there to help us keep track of all of out stuff plus a lot of them have great potential. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to keep up on what is new at the sites or blogs we read most often? Setup an RSS feed. Have pictures or even books o keep track of? Try Flickr or Shelfari. Want to collect all of those great links you come across or have your students use specific ones fr an assignment? Try Delicious. We will explore these applications and more as we take a look at all the tools to make it easier to keep track of everything
Apps you don’t need an i-phone for!
Online applications are easy to use and many are free. Discover applications which can convert any type of file, create word posters, enable multiple people to work on one document, from home. Develop online tutorials and discover web links. Create surveys, photo albums, and brainstorm. Even create a talking avatar of a character or a professional looking movie. The possibilities are endless. This workshop will introduce you to the multitude of tools out there, provide ideas for using each within the curriculum and provide resources for locating more.
Online Multimedia- How to find it and create it. It’s easier than you think…
Youtube in school? There are some treasures to be found. If not than Ted or Teacher tube. Explore free video sites on the web. If video isn’t your thing than how about audio? Discover tools to create your own pod casts and explore ways to locate ones others have created. Even explore an online radio station which chooses the next song based on what you like.
Now what do I do with all this new stuff?.
Use it! In this last workshop we will talk about lessons. Great resources for lessons, ones we have done, ones we have heard about and begin to figure out how to use all these tools with students. Bring along a lesson that you would like to integrate technology into or one that you would just like to do some thing different with. Not all of the tools we learned about are for students but a lot can be used for fun applicable assessments that are interesting and less time consuming to grade.
Web 2.0 Tools and the Curriculum
A 5 workshop series
Introduction to Blogs and Wikis
In this hands on workshop teachers will develop the beginnings of their own blog and wiki. The workshop will cover an introduction to blogs and wikis as well as concrete examples of their use in the classroom and lessons. Additional topics include; a discussion and demo of Wikipedia and it’s educational application., Internet safety and ethics and the choices for access will be discussed, as well as the various free online options and the pros and cons of each.
Help me Organize my Stuff!..and be able to find it
In this workshop we will explore all of the online tols out there to help us keep track of all of out stuff plus a lot of them have great potential. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to keep up on what is new at the sites or blogs we read most often? Setup an RSS feed. Have pictures or even books o keep track of? Try Flickr or Shelfari. Want to collect all of those great links you come across or have your students use specific ones fr an assignment? Try Delicious. We will explore these applications and more as we take a look at all the tools to make it easier to keep track of everything
Apps you don’t need an i-phone for!
Online applications are easy to use and many are free. Discover applications which can convert any type of file, create word posters, enable multiple people to work on one document, from home. Develop online tutorials and discover web links. Create surveys, photo albums, and brainstorm. Even create a talking avatar of a character or a professional looking movie. The possibilities are endless. This workshop will introduce you to the multitude of tools out there, provide ideas for using each within the curriculum and provide resources for locating more.
Online Multimedia- How to find it and create it. It’s easier than you think…
Youtube in school? There are some treasures to be found. If not than Ted or Teacher tube. Explore free video sites on the web. If video isn’t your thing than how about audio? Discover tools to create your own pod casts and explore ways to locate ones others have created. Even explore an online radio station which chooses the next song based on what you like.
Now what do I do with all this new stuff?.
Use it! In this last workshop we will talk about lessons. Great resources for lessons, ones we have done, ones we have heard about and begin to figure out how to use all these tools with students. Bring along a lesson that you would like to integrate technology into or one that you would just like to do some thing different with. Not all of the tools we learned about are for students but a lot can be used for fun applicable assessments that are interesting and less time consuming to grade.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Web 2.0 Tools and Teaching
My top five tools from this unit...5 really, only 5...It is hard to pick there are just so many great tools out there.
In no particular order...
1. Youtube and teachertube and ted and...can I count all these as one? Great reources for videos on anything you could want and a lot of them are good too! I love all of the commoncraft series...
2. Delicious- great for keeping all of those great links organized and best of all share them with others!
3. Jing- Great for online tutorials and to show how to do just about anything...much better than screen shots.
4.Animoto- Love it, Love it...So easy to make a really cool video that looks like it took hours...
5.Podcasting- although this is not really one particular site...A great tool with so many uses.
I liked www.go2web2.0.net, although as a resource it is a bit overwhelming. The search works well and you can narow it down to the type of tool that you are looking for. I did discover tons of sites that I had never heard of before...but were they any good or useful?? not sure...
My mother received the Kindle for Christmas and loves it. She was skeptical at first but has come to love the ease of it. Now she wants me to get one... We can share books just like we do now except without actually needed to see each other. or even "touch" the same pages. I don't know if I am ready yet. I will admit the Kindle does feel nice in your hand and the screen really does look like a printed page. here is just something about the feel of a book and the pages, the cover and the cuddling with it. I don't know if am ready to give that up. However, she can pre-order books and have them "delivered" as soon as they are released, no driving to the store, no waiting on the hold list at the library or even forgetting the book came out...She also loves that when she finishes a book...no matter where or when...she can have another in minutes. The Kindle also highlights and defines words for you plus all sorts of other features but don't know if i would use all those..
Surprisingly, students at Princeton were given Kindles with all of their course work loaded on it and didn't like it. They missed the interaction with the printed page and didn't think it was functional enough.
Hmm I still haven't decided if I will get one or not but I am also not in a hurry to go out and spend the $350...
2. Delicious- great for keeping all of those great links organized and best of all share them with others!
3. Jing- Great for online tutorials and to show how to do just about anything...much better than screen shots.
4.Animoto- Love it, Love it...So easy to make a really cool video that looks like it took hours...
5.Podcasting- although this is not really one particular site...A great tool with so many uses.
I liked www.go2web2.0.net, although as a resource it is a bit overwhelming. The search works well and you can narow it down to the type of tool that you are looking for. I did discover tons of sites that I had never heard of before...but were they any good or useful?? not sure...
My mother received the Kindle for Christmas and loves it. She was skeptical at first but has come to love the ease of it. Now she wants me to get one... We can share books just like we do now except without actually needed to see each other. or even "touch" the same pages. I don't know if I am ready yet. I will admit the Kindle does feel nice in your hand and the screen really does look like a printed page. here is just something about the feel of a book and the pages, the cover and the cuddling with it. I don't know if am ready to give that up. However, she can pre-order books and have them "delivered" as soon as they are released, no driving to the store, no waiting on the hold list at the library or even forgetting the book came out...She also loves that when she finishes a book...no matter where or when...she can have another in minutes. The Kindle also highlights and defines words for you plus all sorts of other features but don't know if i would use all those..
Surprisingly, students at Princeton were given Kindles with all of their course work loaded on it and didn't like it. They missed the interaction with the printed page and didn't think it was functional enough.
Hmm I still haven't decided if I will get one or not but I am also not in a hurry to go out and spend the $350...
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Social Networks and Gaming
This week’s topic is one that I have little interest or experience with; social networks and games. I do think that these will eventually have their place in education. We are already using Facebook at my school to get messages out to students and have a page for each extra curricular club. I am just not sure how these applications fit into my life and why I need to be online socially interacting with everyone…
My experience with World Of Warcraft has primarily been telling students to stop playing it on school time with the library computers. It doesn’t seem all that interesting to me but then again I was never a big fan of Zelda or any other ongoing games either. I revisited the site this week and it looks very complicated plus I don’t think I realized that you had to pay to play. I have heard some interesting stories of people meeting in the game and then dating in real life. I also watched a Dateline special about adults who were so addicted they did not do anything else with their days and nights other than play. I know my brother is into X-box live which seems similar and my parents are always complaining about the charges on their credit cards. I can see how these virtual worlds could be used in education to create an online virtual school with different classes or assignments that the students need to master in order to move on but I just am not sold on the whole gaming realm that it is in now. I also think there are a lot of issues with content that need to be resolved...kindof like the real world soo maybe I will just have to let that one go...
I also checked out Second Life, which I read and hear about often. I have been invited to meetings in Second Life but have never actually been there. I learned that a Slurl is a map link in Second Life. I looked at the quick start guide, which is 7 pages long… It seems easy enough to get started and then there are keyboard shortcuts you can use and…I guess it is still not enough to get me to login and create my second life. Do I really need one?
I have been on Myspace to look up different people when it was popular but have had almost no experience with Facebook. It just doesn’t interest me and seems like a big waste of my time. All of my students, friends and neighbors have accounts and are constantly on it. I signed up for the first time for this assignment and am stll unsure of what I will do with it. Maybe I am too private? But I don’t really want to upload photos to share with anyone. It did come up with some people that I should befriend, like classmates from high school and some people that I know in “real” life from my address book. The high school classmates were interesting to see but I don’t really feel the need to reconnect with someone that I haven’t spoken to in 15 years. I found my mother and requested to be her friend but I email and talk to her anyways so I am not sure if I need to “know “ her on Facebook as well. I guess the whole experience has left me wondering what is wrong with me that all these people just love and are a little addicted to Facebook and I really don’t think I need it in my life? Hmm maybe I am just showing what a digital immigrant I am?
My experience with World Of Warcraft has primarily been telling students to stop playing it on school time with the library computers. It doesn’t seem all that interesting to me but then again I was never a big fan of Zelda or any other ongoing games either. I revisited the site this week and it looks very complicated plus I don’t think I realized that you had to pay to play. I have heard some interesting stories of people meeting in the game and then dating in real life. I also watched a Dateline special about adults who were so addicted they did not do anything else with their days and nights other than play. I know my brother is into X-box live which seems similar and my parents are always complaining about the charges on their credit cards. I can see how these virtual worlds could be used in education to create an online virtual school with different classes or assignments that the students need to master in order to move on but I just am not sold on the whole gaming realm that it is in now. I also think there are a lot of issues with content that need to be resolved...kindof like the real world soo maybe I will just have to let that one go...
I also checked out Second Life, which I read and hear about often. I have been invited to meetings in Second Life but have never actually been there. I learned that a Slurl is a map link in Second Life. I looked at the quick start guide, which is 7 pages long… It seems easy enough to get started and then there are keyboard shortcuts you can use and…I guess it is still not enough to get me to login and create my second life. Do I really need one?
I have been on Myspace to look up different people when it was popular but have had almost no experience with Facebook. It just doesn’t interest me and seems like a big waste of my time. All of my students, friends and neighbors have accounts and are constantly on it. I signed up for the first time for this assignment and am stll unsure of what I will do with it. Maybe I am too private? But I don’t really want to upload photos to share with anyone. It did come up with some people that I should befriend, like classmates from high school and some people that I know in “real” life from my address book. The high school classmates were interesting to see but I don’t really feel the need to reconnect with someone that I haven’t spoken to in 15 years. I found my mother and requested to be her friend but I email and talk to her anyways so I am not sure if I need to “know “ her on Facebook as well. I guess the whole experience has left me wondering what is wrong with me that all these people just love and are a little addicted to Facebook and I really don’t think I need it in my life? Hmm maybe I am just showing what a digital immigrant I am?
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Online Media
It was interesting (and time consuming!) to investigate online media this week. I always started out looking for videos and pod casts for the assignment but then oh..this looks interesting and before you know it hours have gone by and I am miles away from where I was supposed to be. I think this is what happens to our students as well. When using online media it would be best to download the media or to have the links on a website ready for the students to use to prevent them from getting “lost” looking around.
Teacher tube and Youtube are both great resources for video but I wish there was some way to restrict the content on youtube. There is a lot of great videos but a lot of not so great stuff too. I did find Carpet Skates though and they really do work! Who knew there could be so many videos? Sooo I ordered a pair…
Will have to let you know what color cast I pick...
Animoto is a great resource for students to quickly and easily create their own videos. It is easy to upload photos, pick a song and viola your video is mixed. The students and teachers have used this website to create book trailers, a video introduction to the high school for eighth graders and even made videos for the Constitutional amendments. Creating the videos also provides the opportunity to discuss copyright and what they can and can’t take off the web to create their video. The only complaint I get is that the 30 second free videos are too short. The students have a hard time limiting themselves to the thirty seconds. The teachers like the limited content because it makes the students really think about what to include. For this weeks assignment I have linked a video I created about the school and media center where I work using information from the DESE website.
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
For pod casting I have used Audacity but the teachers seemed to have some trouble with it. Our World Language department had used it for the AP exam and to have students practice speaking the language they are learning. Another product I like is Podium pod casting software by RM Education
It allows you to write scripts, edit and publish podcasts. It is easy to use and has a lot of options for students to tweak what they have recorded. You can also use the software with their Easispeak microphone which records MP3 files and has a USB for charging and download. Students can be roving reporters, the microphone has 128mb of memory, and then download it onto a computer to create a unique podcast.
I love, I mean loved my I-pod right up until the moment I dropped it on the treadmill and it smashed into the wall behind me…Kudos to Apple because although the screen shattered it still works..I just blindly hit the buttons until a song starts playing. My husband and I got each other the I-touch for Christmas oddly enough without even talking about it ahead of time. (Does this mean we are meant for each other?) While he loves his, I returned mine and bought a Wii…sorry Apple. The reason was that I already have a Blackberry and didn’t think I would lug the two devices around. Also, I discovered Pandora on my Blackberry and was hooked! I love the way you choose and artist and then it finds other songs you might like…and if you don’t just click on the thumbs down button and you are on to something else. Now all I have to worry about is not dropping my Blackberry the treadmill! Best of all it is free!!!! No more 99 cent and $1.29 downloads from itunes. Now I know I don’t own the songs but do I need to anyways? Just before my I-pod broke my computer broke and guess what? If you have not backed up your itunes they are gone…Lesson learned but Apple was unwilling to restore my songs even the ones I had purchased so bye bye to 5000 songs. I just don’t have it in me to rebuild so it is Pandora for now.
The I-touch does have a lot of other great things about it…music, movies, games and of course all those apps! There are some useful ones and some that just make for interesting conversations. Some interesting ones high school students might use…Drivers Ed, study for the driving test anytime, anyplace; Lumosity Brain Trainer, challenge you brain for positive effects and SAT Vocab Challenge.
Teacher tube and Youtube are both great resources for video but I wish there was some way to restrict the content on youtube. There is a lot of great videos but a lot of not so great stuff too. I did find Carpet Skates though and they really do work! Who knew there could be so many videos? Sooo I ordered a pair…
Will have to let you know what color cast I pick...
Animoto is a great resource for students to quickly and easily create their own videos. It is easy to upload photos, pick a song and viola your video is mixed. The students and teachers have used this website to create book trailers, a video introduction to the high school for eighth graders and even made videos for the Constitutional amendments. Creating the videos also provides the opportunity to discuss copyright and what they can and can’t take off the web to create their video. The only complaint I get is that the 30 second free videos are too short. The students have a hard time limiting themselves to the thirty seconds. The teachers like the limited content because it makes the students really think about what to include. For this weeks assignment I have linked a video I created about the school and media center where I work using information from the DESE website.
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
For pod casting I have used Audacity but the teachers seemed to have some trouble with it. Our World Language department had used it for the AP exam and to have students practice speaking the language they are learning. Another product I like is Podium pod casting software by RM Education
It allows you to write scripts, edit and publish podcasts. It is easy to use and has a lot of options for students to tweak what they have recorded. You can also use the software with their Easispeak microphone which records MP3 files and has a USB for charging and download. Students can be roving reporters, the microphone has 128mb of memory, and then download it onto a computer to create a unique podcast.
I love, I mean loved my I-pod right up until the moment I dropped it on the treadmill and it smashed into the wall behind me…Kudos to Apple because although the screen shattered it still works..I just blindly hit the buttons until a song starts playing. My husband and I got each other the I-touch for Christmas oddly enough without even talking about it ahead of time. (Does this mean we are meant for each other?) While he loves his, I returned mine and bought a Wii…sorry Apple. The reason was that I already have a Blackberry and didn’t think I would lug the two devices around. Also, I discovered Pandora on my Blackberry and was hooked! I love the way you choose and artist and then it finds other songs you might like…and if you don’t just click on the thumbs down button and you are on to something else. Now all I have to worry about is not dropping my Blackberry the treadmill! Best of all it is free!!!! No more 99 cent and $1.29 downloads from itunes. Now I know I don’t own the songs but do I need to anyways? Just before my I-pod broke my computer broke and guess what? If you have not backed up your itunes they are gone…Lesson learned but Apple was unwilling to restore my songs even the ones I had purchased so bye bye to 5000 songs. I just don’t have it in me to rebuild so it is Pandora for now.
The I-touch does have a lot of other great things about it…music, movies, games and of course all those apps! There are some useful ones and some that just make for interesting conversations. Some interesting ones high school students might use…Drivers Ed, study for the driving test anytime, anyplace; Lumosity Brain Trainer, challenge you brain for positive effects and SAT Vocab Challenge.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Apps and more Apps...
Wow! What a great week of exploration. Tons of online tools to explore; some I was familiar with others I had heard of but never used and others I had never even heard of…
My favorites..
Using this site with Big Huge Labs and the possibilities are nearly endless. You can create magazine covers and billboards plus neat things like a Rubic’s cube with your photos. Check out my new flickr set of photos from Martha’s Vineyard ...
Survey Monkey has so many uses…to survey faculty about new classes to offer or professional development options…By students to create surveys for everything from assignments to Senior Superlatives. A really interesting video creation site, Animoto can be used to create book trailers or to highlight a student club or collaborative lesson between the librarian and a history teacher. A teacher and I recently had history students create videos for each of the Constitutional amendments. Rollyo is a tool I have not used before but can see I will. I can use it to create custom search engines for the different topics my students research. Last but not least Zamzar is a site I use all the time, with all the different files that students bring in I am constantly converting something...
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Organizational Tools
Online organizational tools...this week topic instantly makes me think of summer and Google Calendar. My family uses the calender to organize the use of the family summer house. Every was invited to join and can now reserve the times they want to use the house. No more arguments or mis-communications. especially important because there are 6 siblings, their 10 children and their 12 children that all use the house. Needless to say Google Calender has been a blessing.
Besides reminding me that there are approx 16 more weeks until summer...it also reminded me of my bloglines account which I had not logged into in about 6 months. I had created it and linked all these great blogs that I was going to keep up with and alas have not. Even if it does organize my information and prevent me from having to search all over for what I want to read I still have to login in and read it. I love having all of this information at my fingertips but there should be some online class I can take that teaches me how to manage my time. Maybe I need to make it a habit to log on everyday and check my feeds. Is this something that digital natives find easy to do? Do they need to try and make it a habit or does it just come naturally? Ha or maybe I am just lazy... Soo I decided to check out Google Reader. I set up an account and added a few blogs to it; The Blue Skunk blog by Doug Johnson, Web 2.0 Tools and Applications, The Shifted Librarian, The Cool Cat Teacher blog and ALA's job listing site. I like Google because I can have a lot of stuff in one place plus my calender, mail and documents. Now I just need to set aside the time to keep up on it...
In terms of social bookmaking I started with Delicious and created my collection of sites..linkasaurus but then I discovered Diigo and loved the functionality of it. I have 240 links on delicious but have not been maintaining them or adding. I have 498 on linkasaurus at Diigo and continue to add to it. The button that you can add to your browser makes it so easy to add new sites. I have used it with the students for particular projects or when a teacher wants them to use a set collection of resources. I have a link to my collections on the media center website and encourage studentss and faculty! to use them when they research. I need to work on encouraging the students to add to the collection. I think it can be a great resource but also something I will have to maintain...double checking the quality of the links added.
Shelfari was another tool that I had always meant to try out but had not yet. It was also discussed at my book group this month. One of the members was describing what a great tool it is. She uses it to keep track of the books that are recommended to her that she wants to read. Also to search for books that she would be interested in reading. I set up a site and added my shelf to this blog. I listed books that I want to read. I think it will be a nice way to keep track of what I want to read. At school I am thinking of creating one of recommended books. The students could select the books and write reviews..This would also be great for the forensics class book assignment. The students could recommend or not the book they read and then we could add the information to the media center website.
Besides reminding me that there are approx 16 more weeks until summer...it also reminded me of my bloglines account which I had not logged into in about 6 months. I had created it and linked all these great blogs that I was going to keep up with and alas have not. Even if it does organize my information and prevent me from having to search all over for what I want to read I still have to login in and read it. I love having all of this information at my fingertips but there should be some online class I can take that teaches me how to manage my time. Maybe I need to make it a habit to log on everyday and check my feeds. Is this something that digital natives find easy to do? Do they need to try and make it a habit or does it just come naturally? Ha or maybe I am just lazy... Soo I decided to check out Google Reader. I set up an account and added a few blogs to it; The Blue Skunk blog by Doug Johnson, Web 2.0 Tools and Applications, The Shifted Librarian, The Cool Cat Teacher blog and ALA's job listing site. I like Google because I can have a lot of stuff in one place plus my calender, mail and documents. Now I just need to set aside the time to keep up on it...
In terms of social bookmaking I started with Delicious and created my collection of sites..linkasaurus but then I discovered Diigo and loved the functionality of it. I have 240 links on delicious but have not been maintaining them or adding. I have 498 on linkasaurus at Diigo and continue to add to it. The button that you can add to your browser makes it so easy to add new sites. I have used it with the students for particular projects or when a teacher wants them to use a set collection of resources. I have a link to my collections on the media center website and encourage studentss and faculty! to use them when they research. I need to work on encouraging the students to add to the collection. I think it can be a great resource but also something I will have to maintain...double checking the quality of the links added.
Shelfari was another tool that I had always meant to try out but had not yet. It was also discussed at my book group this month. One of the members was describing what a great tool it is. She uses it to keep track of the books that are recommended to her that she wants to read. Also to search for books that she would be interested in reading. I set up a site and added my shelf to this blog. I listed books that I want to read. I think it will be a nice way to keep track of what I want to read. At school I am thinking of creating one of recommended books. The students could select the books and write reviews..This would also be great for the forensics class book assignment. The students could recommend or not the book they read and then we could add the information to the media center website.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
On my Wiki way...
On my way exploring technologies this weeks assignment is to explore wiki's. I knew what one was, had used many of them, I mean who hasn't at least peeked at Wikipedia.. but had yet to create one of my own. I was unsure of what to create my wiki about and was thinking of doing one for my library with links to resources on different topics.
In the mean time... a history teacher and I have been developing a book assignment. Students are going to be divided into groups of five. Each group will read a different assigned book. Since technology has obviously been on my mind, I suggested rather than traditional book discussions we could have the students create a blog and have the discussion online. They would be graded according to a rubric we developed for their posts. Something like...1 point for agreeing with someone, 2 points for agreeing and then pointing to another example in the book, 3 points for commenting and providing a link to some other resource which adds a new perspective to the discussion. The only thing we were worried about was how to make sure the students had to read the book and think about what they had read. Even with the rubric, students could get by with reading sections of the book that were being discussed and kind of ignore the rest.
Then it hit me...a wiki! We could have the students create a "sparknotes" wiki for each book. The students could read the book and then create a sketch of the book including character analysis, a quiz, background information, paper topics and information about the author. Each student would sign up to be primarily responsible for one heading and be required to contribute to all of the headings.
The teacher liked the idea because he would be able to look at who and when the edits were being done. He also had the idea to post them to the library website, where they could be viewed by other students.
So the dilemma about my assignment has bee solved. I am going to setup the wiki for the assignment. I created a table of contents and created a page for each entry. I then added a brief description of "what we are looking for" and links to ideas and resources. Creating the wiki was easy, just create a login and you are on your way. As with anything you can get all caught up in designing it or just pick a template and start writing.
In the mean time... a history teacher and I have been developing a book assignment. Students are going to be divided into groups of five. Each group will read a different assigned book. Since technology has obviously been on my mind, I suggested rather than traditional book discussions we could have the students create a blog and have the discussion online. They would be graded according to a rubric we developed for their posts. Something like...1 point for agreeing with someone, 2 points for agreeing and then pointing to another example in the book, 3 points for commenting and providing a link to some other resource which adds a new perspective to the discussion. The only thing we were worried about was how to make sure the students had to read the book and think about what they had read. Even with the rubric, students could get by with reading sections of the book that were being discussed and kind of ignore the rest.
Then it hit me...a wiki! We could have the students create a "sparknotes" wiki for each book. The students could read the book and then create a sketch of the book including character analysis, a quiz, background information, paper topics and information about the author. Each student would sign up to be primarily responsible for one heading and be required to contribute to all of the headings.
The teacher liked the idea because he would be able to look at who and when the edits were being done. He also had the idea to post them to the library website, where they could be viewed by other students.
So the dilemma about my assignment has bee solved. I am going to setup the wiki for the assignment. I created a table of contents and created a page for each entry. I then added a brief description of "what we are looking for" and links to ideas and resources. Creating the wiki was easy, just create a login and you are on your way. As with anything you can get all caught up in designing it or just pick a template and start writing.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Blogging
I had a great time setting up my blog. There are a lot of things that you can tweak if you want. I thought it was nice too that they offered a lot of templates... if you want to be up and running in 5 minutes that is possible too. I got all caught up in playing with the font colors and pictures. I explored the settings and then decided to create a Voki. I have been having the hardest time inputing the code so that it comes out in the sidebar. I finally got it to show up but in the middle and I have a feeling after I publish this post it will be somewhere else. Oh well, I will have to play with it later. So far I have enjoyed the experience and look forward to chronicling everything I learn in this class on my blog.
I am thinking of the different ways I could use blogging at work. I think it would be a great way to keep teachers and students informed of the resources available and of what's new. Blogs could also be used for different types of assignments. I am curious how many teachers in my building are using blogs in their teaching...
I am thinking of the different ways I could use blogging at work. I think it would be a great way to keep teachers and students informed of the resources available and of what's new. Blogs could also be used for different types of assignments. I am curious how many teachers in my building are using blogs in their teaching...
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