Week #6, Thing #15 - Library 2.0

I read the five perspectives, the Wikipedia entry and one article from the Library 2.0 Discussions. The article was written by John Blyberg, a techi from Connecticut, who believes that L2 is essential for our survival. He states that if we ignore L2, "our libraries will just become storage rooms". I think he is right on. Look at how our students communicate with each other; instant message, text message, webcams, blogs. If they are active participants in everyday life, how can we expect them to be passive in their education? They are ready and willing to collaborate in group projects via wiki's or discuss books on a blog. L2 also emphasizes how our society is becoming a global one. Whether it's teacher's collaborating with teachers, librarians with librarians or students with students, studies show that collaboration, working and communicating with peers, increases learning.

Week #5, Thing #13 - Technorati

If ever a site needed to offer a tutorial on how to use the site, this one definitely does. Oh, wait...it does have a tutorial video but it doesn't match the Technorati page AT ALL. I kept looking at my address bar to make sure I was on the right page.I looked at Technorati a few weeks ago and got frustated because I couldn't find what I was looking for. So I tried it again, having a few more "things" under my belt, and it was even more frustrating. I searched "School Library Learning" in "blog posts" but couldn't find where to search for it "in tags" or "blog directory." I looked all over the site and couldn't find either one. I think they don't exist anymore. When I searched SLL, I did find that there were different results under blogs and posts but I couldn't figure out why. I also couldn't find out what "authority" means. I do get the idea behind the site. It would be really helpful to be able to use other people's tags when doing research. One disadvantage of tags would be if people put tags on topics that don't relate to the site.

Week #6, Thing #12 - Del.icio.us

I have used Del.icio.us for a few years now. I should say that I have been under-using it. I mainly use it so that I can access my bookmarks from any computer. After exploring this site more I can understand how valuable the tags are. I put a badge on the bottom of this page that shows my "tag cloud." I can see where this would be useful in a group research project. Students could learn from each other's tags.

Week #5, Thing #12 - Roll Your Own Rollyo

I looked at the search rolls listed on the discovery exercise. Seems having search rolls is an efficient way to find information. I explored the Reference site listed in SJLibrary's WIReD. That is a good example of how Rollyo can be used in the school library. A Rollyo search roll could be customed made with sites on a topic that a class is researching. I created an account and a search roll on school libraries. Since I am creating a web page for my library, I often refer to other school library sites to get ideas. Having all in one place will be much easier than searching for them on my bookmarks. I added the search roll to my blog page.

Week #5, Thing #11 - Explore Web 2.0

Naturally, this exercise took me much longer to do than I had planned because I couldn't just look at one site. I had to explore all of them. I went to the "short list" of Web 2.0 Award Winners and looked at every winner's site. Then I went back and concentrated on a few of them. I was so pleased to have found "feedburner." It answered my question from week #4 on how to get an RSS feed on my site. If I ever get my web based library newletter online, an RSS feed would be a greaat thing to have on the page. I also played with "Magnolia" and I didn't have any luck with it. I don't know if it was my computer or what but when I typed in a search item, it just kept searching and I finally had to stop it. I don't know why Del.icio.us wasn't on the winning list of social bookmarking. I have been using that since I first heard about it at a conference. I did join Ning and spent a lot of time on the TeacherLibraian site. I got a lot of useful information just by reading a few comments. I played the "Travel IG" game. That game could be addicting! I wonder if I will ever put the flag in the exact spot?

Week #5, Thing # 10- Online Image Generators

Magazine cover,
originally uploaded by Paperback Princess.

My magazine cover, made with fd's Flickr Toys, features a picture of Diamond Head I took while de-stressing on Waikiki beach last summer. If you click on the cover it will take you to my Flickr photos where you can read the headings in an enlarged view. I hope you will look at it in an enlarged view because it took quite awhile to come up with the clever headings and they are too small in this picture to read. Anyway to make the picture bigger on this page?

Week #4, Thing #9

Blick!! I did not like this exercise. It was all too much information for me to process. I am happy just to know what an RSS feed is! Think I'll leave it at that for now. Google Blog Search, though, was the easist to use and more on a beginner's level. I also liked fwicki which I think I got off of Topix. I checked out the Edublog award winning blogs and didn't get way they were award winning. I couldn't get Feedster to work and Syndic8.com and Technorati were confusing. The most practical way for me to use an RSS feed is to subscribe to one when I find a page that I like. But really, since I can barely keep up with my email, RSS feeds probably won't be part of my life for awhile.

Week #4, Thing #8 - RSS

I had heard about RSS before but didn't really understand what it was. I was always a little timid to click on the "subscribe" button next to an RSS tab for fear I would be innundated with junk email. Now, having explored with bloglines and after setting up my own RSS aggregator, I can see the value in them as I can stay current on topics I care about. I set up feeds for iTunes, Librarian's Internet Index, Reader's Club and Unshelved. In a perfect world where school districts didn't filter and block bloglines, this service could be of value to students by having them set up feeds for topics they may be researching. I spent quite a few hours trying to figure out how to put an RSS subscripiton button on my blog page but it just didn't work. I swear I was doing everyhing the instrtuctions told me to. I'm disappointed that I couldn't figure this out. I am going to have to revisted this "Thing."

Week #3, Thing #7 - Technology

I just realized that when I begin to learn something technology related, I go through a cycle of emotions. I start out excited to learn about the new technique or program or piece of equipment or whatever it is that has peaked my interest. Then I become so intent on studying and learning, I am almost obsessed and determined to master it. Soon, I am frustrated that I am spending so much time on it and not getting very far. I start to think that I should just be happy that I know what something is (flickr, RSS, wikis...) and leave it at that without ever planning to use it. Not being a quitter however, I plod on and spend more time until finally the task becomes second nature. When I became a teacher librarian four years ago, I came to a school library that didn't have a web page. I tried unsuccessfully to get students to make one, and then I looked into paying someone to do it. I soon realized that even if someone else made it, I would be the one to post to the web page and keep it updated; so I had better learn how to do it. I took a class in Dreamweaver, and thinking that I had enough of the basics, I attempted to build my page. It was not a pleasant eperience, as I didn't know enough and I had no one around to get quick answers. I took the class two more times and forced myself to keep building the page with a dog-eared Dreamweaver manual by my side. Today, it takes mere seconds to upload links, teacher assignments and images to the page. After all my hard work, I still get discouraged when I feel that not enough teachers and students are using it. But I have to think that they may be experiencing the same cyle of technology-learning frustrations that I do. Thus, I need to make sure that they get pleanty of exposure to the library web site and have lots of opportunity to explore with me by their side.