WEB 2.0 TOOLS: WHICH ONES ARE FOR YOU?

In Closing

2010-04-15T20:44:00.000-07:00

http://gwegner.edublogs.org/

Canada Geese coming home

2010-04-15T20:32:00.001-07:00

Canada Geese coming home
Originally uploaded by NaPix -- Hmong Soul

Web 2.0 The Final Frontier

2010-04-15T19:52:00.000-07:00

Signs of Spring
Melting snow
Ducks and Canada geese arriving
Robin sightings
Ice break up on the lakes
Last assignment due for EDES 544

Successes and Failures
We have finally made it to the end and have come so far since the beginning of January. In the middle of winter, many of us were beginners when it came to web 2.0 tools. Three months later I feel like a member of an exclusive club. I pass on websites to fellow staff members and district colleagues. I ask our district tech guys to unblocked websites like VoiceThread and educational blogs. I talk about using web 2.0 like I almost know what I'm doing with colleagues at our technology meeting. I go to my iGoogle page to check on updates to the blogs I follow after I have read comments on Facebook and Twitter. And yet I know that this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to social networking sites on the Internet. I worry that once this course is done I will once again be out of the loop and not know what is happening in the world of technology.

How will I make sure that I don't lose this new found knowledge and window into this world of web 2.0?

Out of all the new and interesting things we learned this term, learning to post a podcast had to have been the most frustrating. It was time consuming and I never did get it posted to my blog the way I wanted. I think podcasting has a lot of value and I can see students enjoying using this tool but more time is needed in perfecting my skills. Will Richardson says "the key to turning your or your student recordings into podcasts is to publish them. That's what the Read/Write Web is all about: being able to share what you create with others." (p. 115) This tells me more time is needed to become comfortable and knowledgeable in the area of publishing podcasts otherwise I probably won't use it.

VoiceThread may also be an alternative to using podcasts if the side of publishing proved to cumbersome. Or if your district is using ePearl, podcasts could be posted there as part of their portfolio. I read today about a site called Gabcast where you can make a podcast and post it to your blog. You make the podcast using your phone or VoIP and this sounds like it may be a simpler method than the one I tried.

I think the highlight of this course was learning to blog. I knew it was part of the course when I started but I was really nervous about the whole idea. I spent the first two weeks doing everything to get ready for the course except set up my blog. The idea of having everyone read my writing was a little disconcerting but through this whole process I have learned a lot and my writing is improving. I have come to enjoy doing our posts each week as we learn more about web 2.0 and I have enjoyed watching my blog improve as I added more tools, pictures or videos. This has been a wonderful learning experience.

The time constraint of one week to get a handle on each of these tools did not give me enough time to become adequetely familiar with them. To give these tools the opportunity they deserve, I need to spend more time with each one, becoming comfortable enough to share them with staff and students.

So where do I go from here?

As this course draws to an end, I have been thinking alot about the question of where do I go from here. Now that I feel I have an edge on learning about technology, I don't want to lose that. How do I maintain my learning and interest without the support of my professor and classmates? That is the joy of this class - we have been left with the tools and skills to now dialogue with others who share our interest online. I liked what Rob had to say on his post about the use of our learning. "I hope to take my knowledge of Web2 and apply it to second language learning, which is what I love to discuss. I feel confident that I will have success with using the tools when I take more time to create accounts that reflect my true self, take more time to follow people with the same interests as myself, and post work that I have created so others can take it and use it to inspire and encourage." We have been given the tools, now it is our job to take what we have learned and go and use them in our classrooms, libraries or where ever it is that we work and play. I will continue to follow educational blogs, adding and deleting as I go, add sites of interest to Diigo, and follow educational leaders on Twitter. I will try to actively participate in the TLNing and learn from other teacher-librarians. This course has made the job of teacher-librarian less isolating. There is a world of other teacher-librarians out there, just waiting to be contacted, with similar concerns and questions.

How Do I Integrate My Learning Into the Classroom/Library
In reading the article "Old School" Meet School Library 2.0, I had some revelations when it comes to web 2.0 learning and how I run my library. Brooks describes web 2.0 as an attitude, not a technology. In my school, part of the stumbling block to getting teachers to move forward is that they think what they are doing now is good enough. Why change something that isn't broken? But often the tools they are using are the tools of yesterday, not the tools of today. we can't stay still. We need to go where our students are if we want students engaged and interested in learning. "It is no secret that students who are excited about coming to class and are engaged in class will perform better. Technology in and of itself does not create engaged students, but using web applications that allow students to create new content does engage students in learning." (Byrne, 2009) I have shared some of the tools I have learned about this term with other staff. I showed off my VoiceThread and Animoto slide show to the technology support teacher and another grade four teacher. I often share links to webpages with classroom teachers when relevant to curriculum and interest. In this way I hope to create the sense that I am someone who is involved and up to date on new technology.

Brooks comments that, "as media specialists, we're never done learning technology. We can't truly learn in isolation and we're not ever settled in our roles as collaborator and teacher. Selecting literature and managing collections is an "old school" role. Just like language evolves, just like the town grange has evolved from a listserv, forum, to a wiki, we must too evolve to meet the 21st century needs of both our students and colleagues. We must know how to select, adopt, and promote new technologies to bump our media programs to a place of prominence as innovative models for teaching and learning in our schools." (Brooks, 2008)

Although I disagree with her statement about selecting literature and managing collections is "old school", I do feel that we need to add the technology piece on so we are not left behind and become obsolete. "We will become the most innovative resource in the 2.0 school." (Brooks, 2008)

We need to remind ourselves that the old adage “What was good enough for me is good enough for ‘your’ children.” is no longer true. (Warlick, 2010) It's not good enough any longer and it is through courses like this one, that we strive to bring our skills forward to meet the needs of our students.

Tools to Share with Others
From this course I would like to take my learning and share it with my staff. I would like to do some after school workshops on social bookmarking, blogging, wikis, flickr, and podcasts just to introduce teachers to some of these tools. I need to create excitement and interest in web 2.0 and give teachers the opportunity to see the value that web 2.0 has to offer.

I chose these four/five tools because a) they're not blocked (with the exception of Flickr') b) they are the easiest to use (with the exception of posting a podcast) and c) they give the best bang for your buck.

Flickr - I am including Flickr because there is great access to pictures that are under the Creative Commons signature and it allows us as teacher-librarians to talk about copyright and give an alternate route to finding copyright free photographs.

Social bookmarking
Social bookmarking sites such as Delicious or Diigo make me want to have a coming out social so I can introduce them to all my colleagues. Diigo has since become a good friend. Being able to highlight and write comments about the sites you mark make this an invaluable tool. The ability to share sites with teachers is like having a sharing session after school.

Blogging
Like I said before, blogging has been one of the best tools I experienced within this class. If it can improve my confidence with my writing, it can improve my students. Richardson suggests starting out small - use it to communicate with parents or post daily homework assignments. Post a question about the week's work and have students respond. This will give them the oportunity to get a feel for what it is like to communicate on a blog. I would have to say blogs are now my favourite tool. They give staff and students a wonderful opportunity to put a voice to their writing and the ability to share with others. As well, for teachers to gain professional development without leaving their home community, blogs provide a broad range of information.
Wikis
Wikis are a tool to be shared because of their simplicity of use. They take no time to set up and are a simple tool to share with others. This year I used a wiki with a grade four teacher to post research links on famous Canadians. She has since set up her own wiki to use with her class. I would like to try using a wiki for I-Love-to-Read month like Karen B. suggested. I wonder whether teachers will be willing to try it out but I think it would be worth the try. Even if it is only to attach links where teachers could find other ideas of activities they could do with their class, it would allow them to see a purpose for this tool.

Podcasts
I chose podcasts because here is a tool that the students would enjoy using. Although this tool gave me the most difficulty, it would be worthwhile to figure out the problems and become adept at using it. I have watched students make podcasts before, and they get a thrill out of hearing their own voices. and then to be able to share their final work with their peers, friends and family make their work that much more worthwhile. Here is a tool that is under utilized for sure.
Animoto
And if I was to choose a tool for the pure fun of it, it would be Animoto. I can see students having a real blast with something like this.

As I look back at each of these tools and how I would use them with students and teachers, I see how they all can be utilized in a different way.

Key Things I Have Learned From Others in My Class
As we all struggled with finding our voice for our blog, there were some who just seemed to have it right away. I think everyone enjoyed reading Brandi's blog. Her sense of humour and way with words stood out form the crowd from day one. Brandi does not appear to be afraid to think outside the box. One day we will all be saying "I know that famous person!" Keep on blogging Brandi girl.

I liked Mel's message (March 25) that "everyone's voice (whether weak, improving or strong) has value and the fact that we are all sharing our struggles, successes, and thoughts is something to celebrate and encourage." I thought this was really important as we struggled to find our voices and at times felt very unsure of oursleves and whether we had anything pertinent to say.

I think one of the best things about this course were our numerous conversations where we were quite open about our lack of skills and confidence in using web 2.0. When Lois shared about her timid venture into Twitter, (and survived to tell about it), this caused a conversation to occur which gave me the courage to finally make my first tweet.

Rob says (Jan. 28) "I am thankful for everyone who is feeling the same thing as myself, and are assertive enough, and articulate enough to find the 'right' words to express themselves. When I read your posts I am encouraged and inspired to break out of my shell and find voice for my own ideas." I think that summed it up for a lot of us. As I reflect on the past three months, in many ways it felt like a first year undergraduate course. Many of us were unsure of what we knew. We were timid in our first steps into the world of web 2.0. Because many of us are older learners, we are perhaps more willing to share our concerns and hesitations which saved us all in the end.

I appreciate Brad's total immersion into the web 2.0 world and his apparently easy way with a world that is very foreign to me. Checking out his blog is like walking downtown in New York at lunchtime. If you have ever experienced this, you will know what I mean. It is a whirlwind of activity and no matter where you look, something is happening. Brad's blog is like that. There is always a surprise - a new video or comic strip, always something to catch the eye. He is not afraid to delve head first into this world. While many of us are running scared of Second Life, Brad makes himself at home and designs himself a "new crib". I envy him this level of comfort I am sure I will never have. Always after checking out Brad's blog, I always feel a little more compelled to add that video or to find something of interest to add to my blog.

The excellent discussions allowed us to push our walls back and look at ideas from different perspectives. My ideas broadened and I continued to grow as a thinker and learner. I am proud to say you can teach an old dog new tricks. I admire all of my classmates, who, dispite many personal and family challenges, made it through. We have all grown in leaps and bounds. Nancy, how you did it all is beyond me - congratualtions.

Conclusion
I love this quote taken from the blog Technology Without Borders: "Sometimes the invention that makes the biggest impact on our daily lives isn't an invention at all, but the convergence of existing technologies, processes, and ideas."

When I first began this journey three months ago, I was very leary. I was looking forward to the learning but I was also hesitant in immersing myself in things like Facebook and a blog. I compared it to learning a second language (as I am presently learning Spanish) and I have since discovered that that is a good analogy. I have been immersed, I have used the tools, I have taken risks and I would now describe myself as being much less reluctant and can see real benefits to many of the new tools that we used. I am now a web 2.0 learner.

Sources
Byrne, R.. (2009). The Effect of Web 2.0 on Teaching and Learning. Teacher Librarian, 37(2), 50,52-53. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals.

Cunningham, J., & Gonzalez, L.. (2009). Collaboration: the library media center and educational technology. Teacher Librarian, 36(5), 33-35. Retrieved April 11, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals.

DiBlasi, H. (2010). Tools for schools: What's new with web 2.0?. Retrieved from http://www.nmsa.org/Publications/MiddleGround/Articles/February2010/Article2/tabid/2120/Default.aspx
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.

Blogging - Writing for Who?

2010-04-05T19:17:00.000-07:00

Created by Wordle

What's the Big Deal About Blogs?

Blogs in Plain English from Common Craft describes blogs as websites that are organized by individual posts. Each post is like a news story and the blog becomes a collection of these posts. As I am beginning to write down my thoughts and ideas for this week's topic, I am truly excited and looking forward to the readings on blogs and RSS feeds. Here are two topics that I knew nothing about and above that, was quite fearful of. The thought of writing my own blog posts - preposterous. I am not a writer, nor am I a risk taker when it comes to my writing. But here I have been, for the past three months, sharing my views on web 2.0 tools with the world. (Okay, really just my class, but that has been enough) It has been difficult finding my writing voice. After our many class discussions, I realized that I write for an audience of one - Joanne. I know that she will read my work and assess it, so that has been my goal.

When blogging first began, it was considered a web log or an online diary, but blogging has become much more than that. It is now a place to share and exchange ideas on any number of topics. It is a place to show the world what you are made of (or not) and divulge your thoughts and feelings about what you are passionate about. We have discussed in our class about how so many of us are afraid to put our thoughts in a public forum for others to read and how difficult it has been to find our "blogging voice".

As I work through this week's assignment I am quite excited about this topic. I couldn't quite figure out why this blog post was different for me but I think it's because here is something I am more familiar with. No, I didn't really have any experience with blogs before this course, but for the past three months I have been posting to my blog on a regualr basis and reading other blogs regularly. And on the odd occasion, I have even made a comment. For many of our topics I have found that a week has hardly been enough time to get your head around what it was all about let alone actually try it out. Here is one that we have been trying out - for three months. That gives me a feeling of comfort and a sense that I know a little bit about this topic.

As I began to learn about blogs in the beginning of this course, I found it difficult to find interesting and relevant blogs to follow. There were a couple that I was aware of like Blue Skunk Blog and Joyce Valenza's blog but I was unaware of such treasures as Stephen's Lighthouse and Talking Smartboards and Much More. I now find it easier to find other blogs and often many are linked or recommended within a blog site to other worthwhile blogs. Checking out the winners of this years Edublogs I discovered was a very valuable tool in finding relevant educational blogs.

Personally
I have already mentioned this year how we plan to do some traveling next year. We have finally decided that I will be taking a leave of absence in September. In the fall I will work on the last two courses for my teacher-librarianship program. Next winter, we will home school our daughter, who will then be nine, and we plan to travel throughout South America for two months. Throughout our trip I envision us maintaining a blog where we post once a week about where we have been, what we have done and seen. I already have an idea that as a family we will each take turns writing - a week at a time. I imagine the opportunity this will give our daughter as she tells her perspective of our trip. My hope is that our friends, family, staff and our daughter's class will follow us in our adventure. Perhaps they will leave comments and we can have an ongoing dialogue. When I return to work the following September, with this journey behind us, perhaps this will then give me the courage to try blogging at my school.

There are so many great reasons why to blog.
-to share ones thoughts/ideas on their passion
-to share information about a trip while traveling (if they have access to the Internet)
-a way to express yourself
-you are a writer and want to share your writing with a larger community
-a space to showcase videos or photos

Professionally
Blogging? It's Elementary Dear Watson! is a very intersting article with some great ideas on how to blog with younger students. If I were a classroom teacher I would be very interested in incorporating blogs into my teaching. It lists some blogging websites that are available and easy to use, especially with younger students such as Blogmeister and KidzBlog. Another one to add to this might be ClassPress.

In this article Jackson describes blogs, as being "a highly effective way to help students to become better writers. Research has long shown that students write more, write in greater detail, and take greater care with spelling, grammar, and punctuation, when they are writing to an authentic audience over the Internet." (Jackson, 2005)

While reading the article Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library's Services by Darlene Fichter I thought about how a blog could be used for my school library. Blogs are not widely used in our district (actually I am not aware of any) and so I am hesitant to have a library website or blog because I feel that it won't be used. (That also might be an excuse for me not trying.) This article did not provide me with any examples of blogs in elementary schools and so I went looking elsewhere. I discovered a wiki called School Libraries and from there found an excellent blog called Voices From the Inglenook. This looks like a great blog by the teacher-librarian at that school. One of the reasons I like this blog is because I like her style - her voice. She appears to know who she is writing for and that comes out clearly in her posts.

Why Should Librarians Use Webblogs?
Greg Schwartz on WebJunction lists six reasons why librarians should blog and why they should care about blogging. As I read through this blog, I wonder to myself, could I do this too? Am I courageaus enough to give this a try?

-writing a blog keeps you current
-blogs are advocacy tools
-blogs build community
-you are uniqe (Haven't we all been saying that?)
-do it for you
-because it's easy. (I love this last one - it alleviates any excuses)

Why Should Librarians Care About Blogging?
-to provide up to date information on community events ( in my case, any school or library events such as our upcoming book fair)
-to provide library news
-to provide information on new resources
-promoting library services

Godin, in this video by Seth Godin and Tom Peters explains why blogging is important, even if no one is reading your blog.

There is laughter from the audience when Godin expresses his idea that it is not important that anyone reads our blogs. He says that it is all about the humility that comes with writing your blog and the metacognition of thinking about what you are going to say that is important. When I read Joanne's comments about our posts on Twitter, I think that's us. Not a lot of people have been reading our blogs, but we have improved anyway. Our writing and our ideas have progressed and we are less fearful of expressing our thoughts and ideas. So maybe Godin has a point, that is it not so much as to who reads our blogs but the simple fact that we are writing and expressing our thoughts and ideas.

There were many great sites listed in this week's trailfire and one I would like to mention is Kim Cofino's blog - Always Learning. A grade four class has come up with a set of Student Blogging Guidelines to use when blogging. These guidlelines would be useful for any class and I will be sure to use them if I ever have the opportunity to blog with some of my students.

RSS News Feed (Real Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary)
To really take advantage of following blogs or have people follow your blog, you need to have a news aggregator or an RSS feed. This seems complicated at first, but like most technology, once you get into it, it works pretty slick. For my RSS feed, I use Google Reader, as "you can access it from anywhere you have an Internet connection." (Richardson, 2009, p. 73) No special software is needed. After having used Google Reader for some time now, I found the video RSS in Plain English from Common Craft described it perfectly.

With blogs and RSS feeds, you can have one (blogs) without the other (RSS feed) but why would you? Before RSS feeds, "if you had 20 websites you liked, you had to visit all 20 of them just to find out if anything new had been posted. Enter RSS, or “Really Simple Syndication.” RSS is a way of publishing a stream, or “feed,” of online content that makes it easier for the public to subscribe to it." (Carvin, 2006)

Conclusion
Will I continue to blog? Perhaps not right away but I think it will be a part of our travels next year for sure. And I might, if I come across ideas that I want to share with others post them on my blog or I may choose Twitter instead because then I know that someone will actually see them. I am much more comfortable here than when we first started. That first two weeks I did everything I could possibly do until I had no choice but to start my first blog. It was not my most comfortable moment. I have grown quite a bit since then.

I will continue to weed out and find new blogs to follow. The use of Google Reader on my iGoogle page has been an invaluable resource. I have passed on links to websites to numerous teachers and tech support people in our district thanks to the blogs that I follow.

Sources
Carvin, A. (2006). RSS Feeds: Making your favorite websites come to you. Retreived from http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2006/09/rss_feeds_making_your_favorite.html

Cofino, K. (2009). Student blogging guidelines. Retrieved from http://mscofino.edublogs.org/2009/09/06/student-blogging-guidelines/

Commom Craft. (2010). Blogs in plain English. Retrieved from http://www.commoncraft.com/blogs

Common Craft. (2010). RSS in Plain English. Retrieved from http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english

Google Reader. (2010) Retrieved from https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?hl=en&nui=1&service=reader&continue=http://www.google.com/reader

Jackson, L. (2005). Blogging? it's elementary, my dear Watson! Education world. Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech217.shtml

NCTE Inbox. (2008). RSS: bringing what's new to you. Retrieved from http://ncteinbox.blogspot.com/2008/06/rss-bringing-whats-new-to-you.html

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Crowin Press: Thousand Oaks, California.

School Libraries. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/links/index.php?title=School_libraries

Schwartz, G. (2008). Blogs for libraries. Retrieved from http://www.webjunction.org/social-software/articles/content/430713

YouTube. (2009). Seth Godin & Tom Peters on blogging. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=livzJTIWlmY&feature=player_embedded

Voices from Inglenook. (2010). Retrieved from http://csslibrary.wordpress.com/link to article on RSS feeds http://www.llrx.com/features/rssforlibrarians.htm

Just a Little Tweet From Me

2010-03-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

Illustration by Tom Bloom

He rocks in the treetops all the day long
Hoppin' and a-boppin' and
a-singing this song
Every little bird, every little bee
Loves to hear
the robin go tweet-tweet-tweet

Tweet. Tweet. Tweet. Tweets are the actions that make Twitter work. Each message sent out on Twitter at 140 characters or less are called "tweets" and can share with the world what you are doing at that moment, the score of a hockey game, ground breaking news or a link to a fabulous website you just came across. Twitter is gaining momentum and is quickly becoming a useful tool in many professional and personal areas.

I am new to Twitter, three months new, and am just beginning to understand its possibilities. When I look back, way back to the beginning of this course where I read that I must join Twitter, I thought to myself, what have I got myself into. Twitter, what is that? I spent the first few weeks trying to figure out what possible value it could have in my life. Honestly, I felt it was a complete waste of time. It wasn't until this topic was brought up in class that our professor, Joanne de Groot finally clarified things for me: use Facebook
for social gatherings, and Twitter for gathering professional ideas. That was the direction I needed. I continue to follow a couple of people for fun, but mostly I follow links that catch my interest professionally, much as I do with Google Reader.

However, even after this discussion, I continued to feel challenged as I simply did not feel that I had anything to offer in this fast paced social network. By the time I thought I had something to add to a topic, everyone had moved on to something new. Or by the time I got to my computer, I would have forgotten what wonderful idea I had to share in the first place. (That really burns.) I became more hesitant after a classmate said she tried to add something frivolous to "test the waters" and found herself being chastised. It was a slow start.

I found the collection of sites from the Trailfire to be very good. Twitter Search in Plain English from Common Craft was once again a useful place to begin. There were many sites that described Twitter simply and clearly such as Suggestions for Getting Started with Twitter and Top Ten Twitter Tips for Beginners. I wish I had spent some time checking out sites like these when I was first learning about Twitter.

I was grateful for Joanne's reminders that if we didn't actually use Twitter, we would not get a very good mark. It has now been many weeks and 10 tweets later, and I am slowly getting the hang of it. I still only like to tweet when I have something "uber" intelligent to say so I don't post very often. :) I get what Mack D. Male says on his post: "...you can’t really explain Twitter. It’s one of those things that you have to experience before you get it." I remember this same conversation in our class about how I really didn't know what to do now that I was a member of Twitter. It is only after many weeks that I am slowly beginning to understand its purpose. I know Joanne, you have pushed us to use Twitter and to not leave it to the last minute and I now understand why. This same idea is once again expressed on the pdf Twitter for Beginners. On page 8 the comment "To learn about Twitter, you have to use Twitter." is so true. As you first take your baby twitter steps, you certainly question what all the hype is about? You don't understand the social niceties - when and where to jump in. I found it was like coming in in the middle of a conversation and no one being polite enough to include you so you had to just be pushy and say your piece. It was all very complicated. And so at first it was just easier to not participate.

However, slowly, with some more pushing from Joanne, I tested the waters. It wasn't too bad - but it does take a while to figure out that most people do not answer questions or give responses. Basically you are adding to the dialogue, giving out information, but it is not really a conversation. It's like a conference, we are all there for the same reason (mostly) and everyone has some information to share. You share it, put it out there, and what someone does with it is up to them. And that is the end of the conversation - mostly. Or at least that's how I see it. I did post a question, asking for links to websites for making an online photo album but I received no responses. Or if I did, I don't know how to retrieve them.

There were lots of helpful hints on websites to help you become a "twitterer". Mack Male, on his website shares his ideas on how to get started with Twitter:
-pick a good user name
-keep your tweets public.
-enter your website URL if you have one (I haven't done this as I am not confident enough to want to share my blog with others)
-make your tweets interesting. Now that just makes me want to start sending out tweets right away. (As I inwardly groan.) Whose to say what is interesting!

Personal Use
How would I use Twitter personally?
You can tweet about any topic:

-the score of a hockey game
-where you are having lunch
-a major crisis in your community or the world at large
-an interesting website on a personal topic such as books, quilting, swimming, etc.
-a community event

One of the things I have noticed when searching a general topic is how frequently people use foul language. The "f" word gets thrown around a lot and I was a surprised with this. I certainly don't see it in the professional tweets I follow but in other areas I do. This would be a worthwhile discussion with my students if they were to use Twitter. One of my grade sevens mentioned that she uses Twitter and this would be a good opportunity to open discussion on what one might say on Twitter.

Professional Use
Presently I follow people who interest me professionally such as people interested in technology in an educational setting or other teachers or teacher-librarians. I can see how the more you use Twitter, the more people you may find to follow. As I am a new cell phone user I haven't tried to use Twitter on my phone, only the computer which can be cumbersome. Having access through a Blackberry or iPhone would probably make it easier to access.

I haven't used Tweetdeck or any other tool that would collect my tweets for me but I would like to give this a try. Each time I download something, our computer runs a little less successfully so I thought I had best wait.

I don't really think I would use Twitter within my staff. I mention Twitter around my staffroom table and I get a blank stare. Perhaps sharing links with our technology support teacher in this manner might be viable. I certainly do not see using it with students. "Recently, many libraries across the nation(USA) have begun adopting Twitter as a means to keep on the cutting edge of new technology as well as keep patrons informed and interested in library services." (College at Home, 2010) The fact that you have access to so many people instantaneously is magic.

Twittering Successfully
I think there are some key ideas if you are to twitter successfully. First you need to have something to say that interests others. Whether this be websites, new ideas from a recent conference, there needs to be a point to your babble. Does anyone really care that you just did the laundry? Here are some suggestions from Brad Hughes, a school superintendent:
-Beat the 140 character limit by linking to a web page with more information.
-Add your Twitter address to your e-mail signature and school district letterhead.
-Limit the personal stuff unless you know followers care where you go or who you meet.
-Do it daily. People value online resources they care about and that are regularly updated.
-When news media outlets print or air a positive story about your district, tweet it, with a link to the story.

Personal Learning
How do I feel about Twitter after giving it a try these past few months? I am feeling more confident in understanding its purpose and am less hesitant to post my own thoughts and ideas. Twitter for me will be more of a place to gain knowledge and when the right moment comes along, I will also share knowledge.

In her article Library 2.0: Enter the Teacher Librarian Enthusiast, Wanchek quotes Joyce Valenza: "If school librarians are information specialists then they have to be users and producers of information in our time." I may not be a tweeter "extraordinaire", but as a teacher and teacher-librarian in the 21st century, I must be aware and cognizant of web 2.0 tools and the impact they can have on our students and on our own personal learning. I must be willing to at least give it a try before I say yeah or nay. For now, I will continue to use Twitter and the content it offers. That is its real value.

Sources

Bloom, T. Illustration. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6573999.html?industryid=47079&q=twitter

College at Home. (2010). Twitter for librarians: the ultimate guide. Retrieved from http://www.collegeathome.com/blog/2008/05/27/twitter-for-librarians-the-ultimate-guide/

Hughes, B.. (2010, April). Twittering in the Hands of School Leaders. School Administrator, 67(4), 8. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals.

Kroski, E. (2008). All a twitter: want to try microblogging?. School Library Journal. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6573999.html?industryid=47079&q=twitter

Ludwid, S. (2009). Top ten twitter tips for beginners. Retrieved from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2341095,00.asp

Lynch, C.G.. (2009). Twitter tips: how to write better tweets. Retrieved from http://www.cio.com/article/491372/Twitter_Tips_How_to_Write_Better_Tweets?source=nlt_cioinsider

Male, M.D.. (2008). Getting started with twitter. Retrieved from http://blog.mastermaq.ca/2008/11/21/suggestions-for-getting-started-with-twitter/
Rene, L. (1958). Rocking Robin. Lyrics retrieved from http://www.lyricsdownload.com/hollies-rocking-robin-lyrics.html

Twitter for beginners. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.crowinfodesign.com/downloads/twitter_beginners.pdf

Wanchek, N. (2010). Library 2.0: Enter the teacher librarian enthusiast. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/03/25/library-2.0-enter-the-teacher-librarian-enthusiast.aspx

Will You Be My "Friend"?

2010-03-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

Social networking sites - what's to this? This week's topic has been a uphill battle. I think the part I am struggling with the most is the fact that we are focusing on more than one site and most of them I know little about. I have never signed up for a single social site before and really wasn't all that keen to do so for this course. Despite these feelings, I am now a member of Facebook (and somewhat active) and Teacher LibrarianNing. I haven't used the Ning much but can see it having more value after I am no longer taking courses and part of a regular teacher-librarian community.

As my 8 year old becomes closer to 12 & 13, I need as a parent to be well informed and understand the workings of these social networks. I want to know what my child is up to, who she is talking to and what she is saying. As a teacher-librarian I need to be aware of the web 2.0 tools our students are using and how they are being used. It is our responsibility as parents and teachers to teach our children the rules of the road, no matter what type of road that might be and to do that we need to be active participants in these communities.

To begin my learning I headed to the trailfire to read through the sites listed. Through the readings, many social networking sites were mentioned. I will discuss some of those listed below.
Facebook
Nings
Second Life
MySpace
LinkedIn

When it comes to learning anything new, especially when it comes to technology, I have learned that the best place to start is by checking out the Common Craft website. This time it is Social Networking in Plain English. This video gives an overview of the purpose of social networking sites, rather than explains any specific site in detail. I liked that.

Facebook
I became a member of Facebook when it became compulsory for this course. I would describe myself as a reluctant user but am becoming more comfortable in this space. I see the social side and can understand why so many people enjoy using it. With our very busy lives we often don't have time to converse with our peer group and this environment allows us this opportunity on our time. So once the kids are in bed and the house is quiet, we can sneak away and see what our "friends" have been up to.

Personal Uses
There are many personal uses for Facebook. I enjoy being able to post a website or video when you come across something cool. I think this may be a more appropriate place then sending out an email. Facebook allows you to socialize with people you may never have had the opportunity in your regular day to day life. It allows you to keep in contact with people you may not see on a regular basis. It allows you to find old school friends and reunite friendships. As explained in Social Networking in Plain English, Facebook gives you access to people that you don't really know, but are friends of friends and you are a bit more familiar with them. There are still parts of Facebook that I dont' get. There is a colleague at work that only speaks to you if you speak first, otherwise she would never talk to you. And yet she was one of the first people to ask to be my friend. I don't get that. If you won't talk to me at work, why would you want to talk to me on Facebook. I've been told I am missing the point. Am I?

It must be noted that as a teacher, we have been advised to a) either not have a Facebook account or b) be careful when posting to our Facebook site. As professional people in the community, how we are perceived is important and we could place ourselves or our jobs in jeopardy. This issue was the focus in Folger et al. paper on Moral Spaces in MySpace: Preservice Teachers' Perspectives about Ethical Issues in Social Networking. Journal of Research on Technology in Education. This is uncharted territory and working with preservice teachers to make them aware of potential hazards when posting on Facebook or MySpace is a good place to start.

Professional Uses
Attempts have been made to use Facebook in a professional manner. I can't see using it in an elementary school - not that our district would ever unblock it. When we first started using Facebook and Twitter for this course, a discussion ensued. Our professor, Joanne de Groot said that she uses Twitter for mostly following her professional interests and Facebook is for her personal life. This separation makes sense. I have no interest in using Facebook for school. The overwhelming diaglogue on Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog is that Facebook is more for personal use and not for interactions between students and teachers. Once relationships between students and teachers occur, one must be very careful that the professional line does not get crossed.

Now on all social networking sites, like all social activities, there are etiquette rules to follow. The video Facebook Manners and You goes over some general behaviours that we should shy away from when using Facebook. This was excellent and so funny that I had to post it on my Facebook page.

Although I would not recommend Facebook in a school setting, here is one example from Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog that I did find interesting.

"We are very focused here on Inquiry Based Learning programs and one of the components, alternative products and audiences. I would like to suggest that your principals hear a bit about how Facebook might be (and has been) used as a student product. For example, in a group of students each one creates a Facebook page for one of these folks: Abe Lincoln, Salmon Chase, Edward Bates, William Seward etc. Then they go in and create a Facebook Group. - explaining how these folks worked together. What were the controversies, decisions etc? Great way of demonstrating that they not only understand the history here but also the concept of leading and making decisions by listening to all sides and points of view... Projects like this require lots of research, knowledge and understanding. Facebook is a great way to demonstrate learning in the area of biography, history etc. One thought... Positive demonstration of kids using social networking for learning." (Fox, 2008)

Ning
The next social networking site I checked out was a Ning. "Ning is just another social network, like Facebook, MySpace, or LinkedIn. What makes it different is the ability to customize the features to meet the needs of a specific group of people." (NCTE inbox, 2008) After looking at the two suggested (Classroom 2.0 and Teacher LibrarinanNing) I decided to join the Teacher LibrarianNing. I very quickly realized that here is a world that I could be comfortable in. I continue to be reticent when it comes to being fully immersed but I am slowly putting myself out there and can easily see myself being actively involved in this network in the future - especially once I have completed my degree and do not have the constant contact with other teacher-librarians as I do now. This would allow me to discuss issues with others in my field. One teacher was looking for books to be added to her summer reading list for students and I added a couple of Canadian authors like Kenneth Opel and Deborah Ellis. Here is an arena that I feel I have something to offer.

A Ning may have more uses in a school setting as it is described as a "walled garden" and allows for more privacy than Facebook allows. This might be a place to hold discussions with students. A Ning is more like a wiki, you can design one around any topic you like but you get to choose the settings.

Personal Use
design a ning on any topic
group together people interested in the same things

Professional Use (NCTE Inbox, 2008)
Set up discussion forums based on literature circles, peer writing groups, different class periods, and so forth.
Create groups based on student interests—book clubs, favorite genres, other content areas.
Upload alternative book reports created as podcasts, videos, or photos.
Ask students to write their reading logs or journals online, using their own personal blogs.
Post information for students and their families in a shared space.

Here is a short list of some Nings you might find useful:
Ning in Education
Teacher LibrarianNing
Classroom 2.0

Second Life
Okay, now this site pushes me past anything I am comfortable with. I did not like this site at all and was very uncomfortable here. Why would anyone want to spend hours living in a make believe world when one can hardly handle the daily struggles of real life! I'm sorry, but I wouldn't recommend this site personally or professionally. I think, for so many people this would be an unhealthy place to hang out. I see this site attracting people who are struggling in real life and need an escape and that is where I see the pitfalls. I can see the attraction - being able to pick your own persona, pretending to be anyone but yourself. Obviously I was very uncomfortable here and did not stay long.

That all being said, I read an interesting report by Stuart Laidlaw where a law and technology conference was being held on Second Life. This gives an interesting and useful perspective of how this tool may be used in a positive manner but this was neither for a personal or educational use.

Conclusion
"Social media scales things in new ways. Conversations that were intended for just a friend or two might spiral out of control and scale to the entire school or, if it is especially embarrassing, the whole world. Of course, just because something can scale doesn't mean that it will." (boyd, 2009) But as we know, when it comes to the web, anything is possible. Social networking sites look like they are here to stay and as educators we must be prepared to work with our students in educating and protecting them from others and themselves. We need to teach "students how to be responsible "digital citizens" online. At their most basic level, these sites can be launching points to discussions on Internet ethics." (Blanding, 2009)

Whether we choose to use these tools in our schools is up to us and the people we work with. But as ktenkely: @karlfisch says on Twitter," Isn't it all of our jobs as teachers/specialist in our fields to keep current? how else can we be effective as teachers?" Let's remember who we are and our role in society. We are not students' "friends", we are their teachers, mentors and leaders. We need to be skilled users of social networking tools if we are to be relevant to our students.

My learning for this week's topic was steep. I do believe that throughout this process I am not only learning about web 2.0 tools but I am learning about myself - my fears, my insecurities, my ablility to push myself past my comfort zone, even if they are only baby steps. I was not comfortable joining Facebook and am still not sure where that journey will end. I do enjoy checking in and seeing what everyone is up to. I enjoy reading your postings each day Joanne - it gives me a look at the other person you are besides the teacher.

I think if I spend enough time in the Teacher LibrarianNing that I would become very comfortable there. I sense people just like me, looking to converse with other teacher-librarians over a cup of coffee. I will need to make more effort to dialogue and reach out to the members of that group.

Sources
Blanding, M. (2009). Harvard Graduate School of Education. Retrieved from
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/blog/news_features_releases/2009/01/thanks-for-the-add-now-help-me-with-my-homework.html

boyd, d. (2009). Social media is here to stay...now what?. Retrieved from http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/MSRTechFest2009.html

Common Craft. (2010). Social networking in plain english. Retrieved from http://www.commoncraft.com/video-social-networking

Facebook. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.facebook.com

Fisch, K. (2010). Twitter. Retrieved from http://twitter.com/karlfisch

Foulger, T., Ewbank, A., Kay, A., Popp, S., & Carter, H.. (2009). Moral Spaces in MySpace: Preservice Teachers' Perspectives about Ethical Issues in Social Networking. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 42(1), 1-28. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals.

Fox, L. (2008). The blue skunk blog. Retrieved from http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2008/10/7/facebook-an-educational-resource.html

Johnson, D. (2009). The blue skunk blog. Retrieved from
http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2009/3/16/more-on-friending-students.html

NCTE Inbox. (2008). Social networking: the ning's the thing. Retrieved from http://ncteinbox.blogspot.com/2008/09/social-networking-ning-thing.html

Second Life. (2010). Retrieved from http://secondlife.com/?v=1.1

Stuart Laidlaw. (2010, March 16). Avatars to debate autonomy Virtual conference is a first for Canada with loss of privacy issues to be explored. Toronto Star,1. Retrieved from Proquest Education Journals.

Teacher LibrarianNing. (2010). Retrieved from http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/

VoiceThread, Animoto, Last.fm and More

2010-03-14T14:22:00.000-07:00

Multimedia
Don't you just love having to do an assignment on something you know nothing about? To try and alleviate some of those feelings of anxiety and fear, let's move forward and try and find out what multimedia sharing sites are. And what better place to start then at the Common Craft website with Social Media in Plain English.

After viewing this video I must say this is the first Plain English video that did not make the concept clearer for me. I had to go back and watch it more than once, not because I loved it but because my brain was still in a muddle after viewing it. I understand the multimedia sharing part but I think the ice-cream analogy was too much for me.

As I head into the readings from the Trailfire, I discover the tools that fall under this topic and they are quite exciting - for me as a learner and as a teacher. The first one I looked at was VoiceThread. VoiceThread is a tool for having conversations around media: video, documents, photos, images, presentations or a combination. Here is a tool I could see being used both personally and in the classroom. I tried to show it to the district technology teacher at school but it was blocked. I have asked to have it unblocked - we'll see where that goes. I have been sharing its possibilities all week with other teachers. Usually for these assignments, I use the technology we have been learning about at the end of my assignment but this week I couldn't wait. I tried each tool right away - they were just that much fun.

Bill Ferriter has produced an interesting wiki to help us learn more about VoiceThreads. There is a lot of useful information on how and where voicethreads can be used. Using voicethreads in the classroom helps to promote discussions and conversations between its members. VoiceThread could be used for story telling with kindergarten and grade one students. This would be a great tool for any struggling reader to tell a story with pictures instead of words. Using VoiceThread pushes students to think about what is happening in the picture and they get to put a voice to their thoughts. Often students do not get a lot of opportunity for this type of learning.

Professional Uses

social studies - discussing clothing, food, any aspect of a people's culture showed in the picture
two communities discussing similarities and differences of their respective communities within our province, country or abroad
opportunity for students to give voice to their ideas and opinions
young children telling a story of their picture
help struggling writers tell their story
gives students an opportunity to share their work orally and have others (students, teachers, moms, dads, etc.) respond to it.
Classroom 2.0 - using a map to share where you are from

Personal Uses

share and dialogue pictures of holidays/special events with friends and family
share your child's work with far away family
share and critique art work with other artists around the community or world at large
sharing and dialoguing of really anything you want

It has been very exciting learning about VoiceThread. I posted the VoiceThread I made to my blog early because I was so excited and had to share my learning - I would love it if you could respond to it.

Animoto
The next multimedia tool I discovered was animoto. I have come across both voicethread and animoto in discussions with classmates before but have never had an opportunity to experience either of these exciting multimedia sites. On the School Library Journal website, Joyce Valenza discusses the many uses of animoto and instantly I think of how it could be used to present an overall picture of your school to newcomers. This is a very cool tool to give a slideshow a professional look. She discusses how there was concern that this tool did not allow a lot of room for creativity as it does most of the work for you. I think I would have to agree with this statement but I think using animoto with students still has value. Using animoto with a group of junior highs just for fun or to bring a project to a conclusion would be a blast. But it could be used to introduce people to your library if you posted an animoto slideshow to your library website or made a movie of pictures of school special events. That's when this tool would be useful and powerful.

Animoto: another very cool tool. With this tool one has to be careful not to be breaking copyright law by using someone else's music unlawfully. The site itself has lots of great music that you can use.

Professional Uses
with students just for fun to bring a project to closure
present special events in the school posted on your school blog or website
slideshow of the library posted on the library website
slideshow of your school

Personal Uses
slideshow of family holidays (I did one of last summer and shared with my sister whom I often holiday with - she loved it and shared it with her friends)
used to present any special events
wonderful for a wedding or anniversary celebration
school reunion

Music Sharing Sites
Here is an area that I feel totally incompetent discussing. If I had quick access to a teen I would haul them in and have them tell me all about what they know of music sharing sites. From reading Web 2.0 for Schools by Julia Davies and Guy Merchant, I get a small glimpse into this amazing world. I understand the powerful role music plays in the lives of our teens - I remember back to my youth and how important music was to me then as well. Teens today have the ability to make their own music and broadcast it either as a podcast or on Youtube. So what does it mean to have the ability and capabilities to share music?

Sites like Last.fm and Pandora have a social networking side to them that allow their users to interact with each other to a degree. Last.fm allows its users to "show off your taste (in music), see what your friends are listening to and hear new music" while Pandora allows users to "provide feedback on the individual song choices that Pandora 'learns about' and uses in compiling subsequent selections." (which is based on music you have told Pandora that you like) At this time however, Pandora is closed to Canadian citizens due to licensing issues.

When it comes to talk of current music, it is like I arrived from Mars. My eight year old knows more about current pop than I do. I had to do a Google search on "Lady Gaga" recently as her name kept coming up and I thought I NEED to know who she is. As quoted by danah boyd in Davies & Merchant (p. 72), "Music is social glue among youth." "and functions as a fluid marker of what is cool and what is not." (Davies & Merchant, 2009)

As a teacher-librarian, the discussion of music sharing sites gives ample opportunity to discuss copyright of intellectual property. It is important for us to be aware of illegal downloading sites such as BitTorrent and LimeWire and to know where to direct students so they can access music legally such as Last.fm. However, I don't understand how you get to listen to the music for free - doesn't someone have to pay for the use of this music each time a song is played?

Talking to students about music is entering into their world. If we want to get students engaged in learning, then I think this is the place to do it. "If nothing else, school-based work on music sharing can serve as an early and relevant introduction to ideas about copyright and ethics, about the rights of producers and consumers, and about the more adventurous ideology that informs Creative Commons." (Davies & Merchant, 2009, p. 72)

Personal Uses
enjoy the sharing of favourite music
our daughter would love to be able to compile a list of her own tunes (parent approved)
compilation of favourite artists and genres
this evening we are having supper with some friends who are big music buffs and I will be sure to share Last.fm with them

Professional Uses
opportunity to teach about the legal and ethical sharing of other people's work
to engage students -bringing today's world into the classroom to make learning relevant to our students

The last idea I want to discuss is "mashup". After reading through Chapter 6 -Mashups and Web Services by Eric Schnell in Library and Beyond: Innovative Technologies and Tomorrow's Users, I can't say that I have a clearer understanding of what this term means. I head to Wikipedia and it tells me "a mashup is a web page or application that uses or combines data or functionality from two or many more external sources to create a new service." Michael Stephens in his blog gives three examples of different types of mashups that help simplify what a mashup might look like.

Mappr - allows you to take Flickr images and paste them on a map
Flickr Color Pickr - lets you find public photos in Flickr that match a specific color.
Montagr – create a photo mosaic from photos found on Flickr.

I suppose once you start looking, you will find countless number of mashups people have developed.

After all this, do I have an understanding of this weeks tools? I understand the multimedia aspect of them, especially VoiceThread, where it allows different capabilites to exist together. Would I be able to have an intelligent conversation about mashups or music sharing sites? Probably not - but I now know where to start looking and am at least more aware of what is out there.

To get an overall look at some of the relevant sites on this topic, check out Let’s Get This Party Started: Pump up the Volume. Streaming Music is a Great Way to Connect with Older Kids by Kate Pritchard on the School Library Journal website.

Sources

Animoto. (2010). Animoto. Retrieved from http://animoto.com/

Common Craft. (2010). Social media in plain english. Retrieved from http://www.commoncraft.com/socialmedia

Courtney, N. (Ed.). (2007). Library 2.0 and beyond: innovative technologies and tomorrow's user. Libraries Unlimited: Westport, CT.

Davies, J. & Merchant, G. (2009). Web 2.0 for schools: learning and social participation. Peter Lang Publishing: New York.

Ferriter, B. (2009). Using voicethread for digital conversations. Retrieved from http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Voicethread

Pritchard, K. (2010). Let’s Get This Party Started: Pump up the volume. Streaming music is a great way to connect with older kids. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6720445.html?q=music+sharing+sites

Stephens, M. (2008). Thing #6 More Flickr Fun (Toys, Mashups, More!). Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/290000629/post/1020031302.html?q=mashups

Valenza, J. (2008). Announcing: Animoto for education. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/1560024356.ht....

VoiceThread. (2009). VoiceThread. Retrieved from http://voicethread.com/

Wikipedia. (2010). Mashup. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup_(web_application_hybrid)

Fun in the Summer

2010-03-12T07:09:00.000-08:00

Animoto

This was one of the most exciting tools to play with. After seeing Brad's on Facebook, I couldn't wait to try it out. I sent it off to my sister who sent if off to all her colleagues. This was just plain fun!!

Fun in the Summer

Voice Thread

2010-03-09T09:45:00.000-08:00

In beginning to learn about multimedia sharing sites, I spent the morning finding my way around VoiceThread. I had spent a little time on this when we were making podcasts thinking I would use this instead and then realized it was coming up in another week or so. I really like this tool and think it could be a lot of fun. I am posting this now to see if it works and have others check it out. Enjoy.

http://voicethread.com/share/945942/

Wicked Wikis

2010-03-08T18:25:00.000-08:00

Wikis - finally something I already have an account for.

If you are looking to work collaboratively with others, either in a work or a personnel setting, than a wiki may be for you. There are many examples of wikis but you may want to start familiarizing yourself with them by watching the tutorial from Wikis in Plain English. This gives a simple explanation of how you might use a wiki for planning an activity such as a camping trip with a group.

You may already be familiar with Wikipedia, an oversized wiki that just keeps on growing. The wiki I created for the grade fours Grade Four Bancken is a simple wiki that has been developed to provide an easy accessible place for students to access links to websites. I could of had the technology teacher add these sites to our school website but it made more sense for me to design it this way and then I can make changes when I want. Also, if students begin finding websites they would like to add, I can open the wiki and give them the opportunity to edit and change this site.

A wiki, described by Debbie Johnson in the article Wikis for Science Ed Collaboration, , is a "living document, easily accessible, ever changing, and yet always available." Take Wikipedia for example. Many people know what Wikepedia is as a searchalbe tool, but do not realize that it is a wiki or what that means. Here is a document that is constantly undergoing change by the people who use and contribute to it - a collaborative work in progress.

Personal Journey in the World of Wikis
Though not really knowledgeable about wikis as a whole, I did set up a wiki two years ago for a group of grade sevens doing a novel study. So I already had an account with Wikispaces and was a little familiar with the process of what to do. I did not find this process nearly as frustrating as setting up a podcast.

I did discover that I am not fond of all wikis. For many wikis, I find the font small and all the same colour and I find them very busy. Even Wikipedia, I find there is too much information and I do not enjoy reading the pages. There are so many links to different sites that I find it difficult to stay focused and on task. Now Davies and Merchant in Web 2.0 for Schools say that the "existence of hyperlinks seems to encouarage readers to trace back the provenance of the entries and to research further, so that the culture of online reading is to travel (or 'surf') from text to text, gathering information, comparing accounts and gaining background data. In this way, critical reading becomes exciting and 'usual' - the hyperlinks show the routes to follow." (pg. 92) I find it does the oppostite for me - there is simply too much going on. If I feel this way, how many others, especially students, feel the same?

Thanks to Nicola, I spent a little time wandering around the "Manage Wiki" area and discovered a whole new world. Becasue I have a free wiki, most of this area is unaccessible to me but shows what is available to paying customers. I did ask to have my wiki upgraded (for free) so that the ads on the side will be gone as part of a K-12 educational account. That is a really nice bonus.

Personal User
Wikis are useful for sharing all types of information. My sister is presently planning a trip to Europe with six other people. They are looking for the cheapest flights, where is the best place to fly out of, accomadations, places to visit, etc. If they had a shared wiki, they could go in and update any information whenever they found anything tht was pertinent to their trip. There are wikis for knitters where you can post what you are knitting or share your patterns. There are wikis for book clubs and sewers. You can set up a wiki on any topic you like. You can choose to leave it open to allow others to add and make changes to your information or you can lock it and only allow people to view what you have posted.
You can use different sites to set up your wiki such as Wikispaces, Wet Paint or PBWorks.

Professional Use
Now there are some wonderful educational wikis out there. This one I came across in our Trailfine School LIbrary Website I really like. There is lots of colour and the graphics are not so overwhelming. A lot of work and thought has been put into the layout and it catches my eye right away. It is also relevant to me and that might also make me more interested.

As a teacher-librarian I may set up a wiki to show all the activities that are planned for I-Love-to-Read month or an interactive wiki for junior high students to comment on the MYRCA books they are reading. Using a wiki as a pathfinder allows students the ability to search topics but can also be improved by students as they find websites that could be added or remove dead links. This way the pathfinder moves from a stagnant document to one that may constantly be changing and updated.

The list of what types of projects can be done with wikis and with who is endless. Projects can be shared within a class, a school, a city, a country and across continents. They can be on personal topics such as researching things to do while on vacation or school subjects such as writing and sharing your own piece of music. The possibilities are endless.

Sources
Common Craft. (2010). Wikis in plain english. Retrieved from http://www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english

Courtney, N. (Ed.). (2007). Library 2.0 and beyond: innovative technologies and tomorrow's user. Libraries Unlimited: Westport, CT.

Davies, J. & Merchant, G. (2009). Web 2.0 for school: learning and social participation. Peter Lang Publishing: New York.

NSTA Reports. (2010, February). Wikis for science ed collaboration. Vol. 21, No. 6. National Science Teachers Association: Arlington, Virginia.

School Library Website. (2010). Retrieved from http://schoollibrarywebsites.wikispaces.com/

Wikipedia. (2010). Welcome to Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://www.wikipedia.org

First Podcast

2010-03-01T17:46:00.000-08:00

I now understand why more time is needed to play and get to know this tool. Attaching a podcast to your blog for the first time takes some work - and it doesn't always go smoothly the first time.

I have tried many times and I cannot seem to post the link properly. However, if you run the mouse over the title (First Podcast), you may be able to access the podcast. Good luck.

What Is A Podcast?

2010-03-01T06:48:00.000-08:00

As I head into the world of podcasting I think to myself, here is a topic that I have some experience with. I have had some PD on podcasting as well as used Audacity with a class of grade fours last year. But as I begin to explore this week's topic a little more, my experience is but a drop in the bucket.

The description provided by the Common Craft website called Podcasting in Plain English gives an excellent explanation of what podcasting is, how it is different from radio and television and how we can use it personally. (I listened to it at least three times.)

Will Richardson in Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts and other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom describes podcasts as "basically the creation and distribution of amateur radio, plain and simple". I find this to be a rather simplistic definition because I see podcasts as having more to offer than just that. I don't think we see radio being used to the same depth as podcasts - especially in the classroom. "More and more, teachers are finding that Web 2.0 applications such as wikis, blogs, podcasts, and videosharing sites move learning beyond the walls of the classroom." (Riddle, 2010)

Podcasting gives you the opportunity to listen to what you want when you want. You can listen to your podcast on the computer or download it to your Mp3 player or iPod and take it with you. That's the best thing about podcasts - their versatility. It's surprising that they continue to be used so little in our classrooms.

3 Reasons Why Podcasting is so Popular
-anyone can do it
-subscriptions - you can subscirbe to podcasts for free (all you need is a podcatcher like iTunes)
-gagetry - you can download it and take it with you
It all seems pretty simple doesn't it?

Something to keep in mind when making podcasts is the use of copyrighted music. This topic is touched on in Podcasting in the Classroom: A Sound Success by Johanna Riddle and again by Stewart McLean and the Vinyl Cafe podcast. In Riddle's article she discusses how in introducing podcasts to her class of university students, a student used copyrighted music and was asked to remove it. At this time a discussion took place as to why - a teachable moment. In the Vinyl Cafe podcast, Stewart McLean discusses how they do not have the rights to podcast commercially recorded music on their podcasts although they are allowed to play the music on live shows. I am not sure I understand the difference here but that is what he said. With independent artists they are sometimes given special permission to use their music. The ethical use of artists' work is a very important piece of using technology and an easy one to teach students about in the use of podcasts.

How Can I Use Podcasts Personally?
I can -listen to my favourite radio show like the Vinyl Cafe by Stewart McLean when I want, where I want.
- access information that may not be available to me through regualar radio but can download it as a podcast.
- listen to an author visit to our local library that I missed.
-have my child make a podcast of herself reading her favourite book or a story that she wrote and share it with distant family and friends.

Using this Tool in the Classroom
As a school tool, I think podcasts have great potential. The hardest part is getting the word out and providing teachers the opportunity to try using this platform with their students. From kindergarten to grade 12, the possibilities are endless. In kindergarten students could tell a story about the picture they have drawn. In grade 1 you step it up a notch with students reading the story they have written or reading a book they love. By grade 12 these students could be producing any number of things with integrated music and sound effects. Podcasts can be produced on topics of interest or a specific school focus. Two years ago, our school fundraised $15,000 to build a school in Mauritania, Africa. Podcasts could have been made at regular intervals to tell our school and community about the progress we were making. A podcast could have also been made about our school and who we are and been shared with the school in Mauritania (if they had Internet access which is unlikely). So much is possible. Using podcasts as a music or language specialist adds a whole other dimension to music and language learning.

Show My Learning
I have downloaded my first podcast and downloaded Audacity with only a few glitches. I used Audacity to make my podcast and found this to be a simple process. I have uploaded my podcast to http://www.box.net/ but for some reason cannot get my podcast posted to this blog site.

Sources

CBC. (2010). Welcome to the Vinyl Cafe. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/home.php

Common Craft. (2010). Podcasting in plain English. Retrieved from http://www.commoncraft.com/podcasting

Riddle, J.. (2010, January). Podcasting in the classroom: A sound success. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, 17(1), 23-26. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals.

The Benefits of Social Bookmarking

2010-02-10T21:15:00.000-08:00

The Beginning
Social bookmarking - what is it? Social bookmarking is the practice of saving bookmarks to a public Web site and "tagging" them with keywords. Bookmarking on the other hand, is the practice of saving the address of a Web site you wish to visit in the future on your computer.(Educause Learning Initiative, 2005)

Social bookmarking sites are brand new to me. I have bookmarked sites on a regular basis on my computer but I am the typical bookmarker who bookmarks with little thought to organization and then never goes back to check it out again because it has become too difficult to find. I wonder if using a social bookmarking site will allow me to be better organized and give me easier access to websites.?

As I began my research on this topic, I found myself a little overwhelmed. There was almost too much information to take in. I followed all the websites posted on the trailfire and looked at many of the videos. But like many of the tools we have learned about so far, you just need to jump in and try it out. I signed up for an account with both Diigo.com and Delicious to give each one a fair shake.

The Process
What makes social bookmarking sites so special is the ability to tag your bookmarks - give them descriptors. This allows you to find them again and also lets others who are looking for a simialr topic find sites you have discovered. I find all the hype about "tagging" quite humourous. It seems like this is all new to everyone and that they have discovered something wonderful and exciting. And I suppose they have. And yet as a teacher-librarian, tagging is what we do, just in a more systematic way. In the process of "tagging" our bookmarks, we are using everyday "keywords" instead of very specific subject headings. However, I must ask, in the end, will we simply have too many sites all listed under "technology" or "blogs" or whatever the topic of the day may be?

Steve Hargadon, in his article Cool Tools: Best of Social Bookmarking describes three different sites that all provide social bookmarking cabilities. Each site has something specific about it that distinguishes it from its counterparts. Delicious http://delicious.com/ was the first site to introduce "tagging" and is probably the most popular. Diigo http://www.diigo.com/ allows users to import its bookmarks from Delicious and "allows users to highlight passages and leave comments on Web pages for other Diigo users to see." (Hargadon, 2007) I have also discovered that any bookmark I save to Diigo, I can have Diigo save it to my Delicious account as well. Now isn't that nice that they play together so well. With Furl http://www.furl.net/ you can rate sites as well as access any archived site, even if the site is no longer active.

I haven't quite made up my own mind yet which one best meets my needs. I had some trouble posting the little icon for Delicious and since Diigo is the one now on my toolbar, it may win out by default.

How Will I Use This Personally
How will social bookmarking benefit me and my family personally?

I love the accessibility of it. To know that when I am at work I can now access any website that I may have bookmarked for a later date is awesome. We can't control when we come across something interesting and now we dont' have to wait until we get home - we can bookmark it right away. I had sent an email with a link about cyberbullying to our technology support person recently. I received an email from him to let me know that I had forgot to add the link. I was at work at the time and had to wait to go home to access it from the bookmarks on my computer. If I had saved it to one of the social bookmarking sites, well you know what would of happened.

I also appreciate the fact that once you have a topic you are searching (for example Peru), not only will you have the bookmarks that you have saved but you will now have access to sites others have used as well. (Here is the social part.) As we come closer to our months of travel in South America, this aspect of social bookmarking will come in very handy. "Suddenly, it's easy to find all sorts of other people who have the same interests or passions as you do. And in doing so, you're creating your own community of researchers that is gathering relevant information for you. (Richardson, W., 2009, p. 89) This has huge benefits. "Social bookmarking sites provide a means for individuals to save their bookmarks and share them with a community of others. The advantage in using social bookmarking sites is the human collaboration involved in the searching framework." (Teaching Today, 2007)

There are some downsides to this tool as well. First, you have to use it. You have to get into the habit of saving your bookmarks and then going and checking them out. Secondly, you have to remember what tags you applied to your websites. If you are not consistent or use general enough terms, then it may be difficult finding exactly what you are looking for, especially if you are a prolific bookmarker. I find myself trying to use at least three tags so I have a better chance of finding the page again.

How Will I Use This Professionally
There are many benefits to be found by using social bookmarking in the classroom. Students actually have a place to store sites they find useful to their topic. Teachers can set up groups for students to use and share together using Diigo. "If a student or teacher searches for information on a topic, a social bookmarking site like Del.icio.us or Diigo provides links to sites that other people have found valuable. These sites are not always the most popular, but often they are much more valuable." (Teaching Today, 2007) Using the group bookmarking system, you can gather websites that anyone in the group can access - a wonderful way to work collaboratively with teachers.

Here are some other suggestions from Teaching Today on how to use social bookmarking in the classroom.

1. Students and teachers can move from one computer to another and still have full access to their bookmarks.
2.Students can share their bookmarks with their classmates. Students and teachers can also share collections of bookmarks they have found to be worthwhile.
3.Social bookmarking sites can also help students to quickly find links to important current events and historical events. Some bookmarking sites allow students to subscribe to news feeds on a particular subject of interest. They can then go daily to this site to find the most current news on the subject.

In a school library setting, social bookmarking can be a quick way for library media specialists to create and keep an updated Web pathfinder, without any knowledge of HTML or Web programming needed. Students working in collaborative groups will also find it useful to track one another's Web resources via these public pages. (Fontichiaro, K., 2008)

This may not be the tool for everyone but I am liking the possibilities it offers.

References

Bell, Mary Ann. (2009, September). Playing tag is good for you! MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, 16(5), 40-42. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals.

Educause Learning Initiative. (2005). 7 things you should know about... social bookmarking. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf

Fontichiaro, Kristin. (2008, May). Using social bookmarking to organize the web. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 24(9), 27-28. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals.

Hargadon, Steve. (2007). Cool tools: best of social bookmarking. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/ca6505695.html?q=cool+tools%3A+best+of+social+bookmarking

Richardson, Will. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Crowin Press: Thousand Oaks, California.

Teaching Today. (2007). Social bookmarking. Retrieved from http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/social-bookmarking

Video-sharing

2010-02-01T05:10:00.000-08:00

Wowie, wow, wow (to quote Junie B. Jones)! Wowie, wow, wow!! Those are my first impressions of video-sharing after spending a week weaving my way through YouTube. I enjoyed it so much I got my husband watching with me (although this was not new to him) and then my eight year old daughter. This week we finally had to make the move from "light" speed to "lightening" speed so we wouldn't have to wait while the videos downloaded. Well there is no going back.

YouTube was first introduced to the world in April of 2005 and has grown exponentially ever since. A definition provided by Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube states that YouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. There are many uses for YouTube listed by Davies and Merchant in their book Web 2.0 for Schools. A few are:
1. Watch videos
2. Respond to videos by leaving a written comment or rating
3. Watch videos and report them as offensive
4. Select any number of videos and embed them into other sites such as blogs and wikis

Up until this past week I could probably count on one hand how many videos I have watched on YouTube. When your life is busy with work, children, family and course work, you have little spare time and so I have stayed away from social networks such as Facebook and YouTube. This week I have checked out educational videos, music videos, movie trailers and videos on civic politics. I found the site simple to manoeuvre, and once we had high speed up and running, the rest was easy. It became even better after my husband showed me how to change the video into a full screen. Oh the simple pleasures of life. :)

In my exploration of YouTube I mostly followed the links provided in the Trailfire. One video really stood out for me - An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube by Michael Wesch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU. If you haven't seen it you really should go and check it out. After watching this video (twice - I had to share it with my husband) I felt I had a better understanding of what YouTube was all about. Wesch made some very interesting comments and observations. He talks about YouTube being a "celebration of new forms of community - global connections transcending place and time." and how Web 2.0 is about "linking people - in ways we don't even know yet." Isn't that true about the whole web 2.0 experience? I think my all time favourite quote was how he described Gary Brolsma, the guy in the suburbs of New Jersey who made the "numa numa" dance into a world phenomenon by saying that Gary is the "first guy on the floor of this global mixer." I just love the imagery this brings to my mind.

As I explored YouTube, I found my emotional experience to be much like Flickr. I became quite excited at this media format I was discovering for the first time. I enjoyed discovering all of the possibilities that YouTube provided. (And I only touched on a few.) As I wrote down my thoughts for this blog post I found myself easily sidetracked and another half hour gone as I surfed through more video. As much as I enjoyed viewing the videos on YouTube, I don't think you will find my face there. In this space I would much rather be a lurker than a full particpant.

Professionally I can see great value in having access to YouTube. As a teacher-librarian I came across an excellent set of videos by Bob Baker (no, not Bob Barker) on teaching information literacy covering a wide range of topics. It is recommended that if using YouTube with younger students (and wisely, I believe) that videos be embedded in a blog first so students and teachers do not accidentally come across offensive materials. (Davies & Merchant, 2009, p.54) In this way a teacher can transfer a video to their class blog and view and discuss the video outside the YouTube site. As you move into older grades, especially at the high school level, using YouTube gives rise to opportunity for discussion on how to deal with specific types of material. "We would like to feel that schools could play a role in discussing media with unpleasant messages so that students can learn something about how to deconstruct those messages and how to trace safe paths even in the face of undesirable and profane images and comments." (Davies & Merchant, 2009, p. 57)

For many of you, the use of YouTube in your classrooms is a pipe dream. The fear that our children will access inappropriate material has caused school districts across North America to implement the use of Internet filters. Is this a form of censorship or is it truly to create a safe place for our kids to learn? How are we limiting the scope of their learning if they do not have access to sites such as YouTube, Flickr, blogs, etc.?

If these sites remain blocked, can we ethically find ways to get around them. If we know a video is educationally sound, should we still use it to teach and engage our students if we are able to gain access to it through other routes? Joyce Valenza has an article called When YouTube is blocked (way more than eight ways around) which provides us with some alternate methods to using YouTube or perhaps ways of getting around filters. Many videos can be powerful tools to use in teaching and engaging our students, so what are we to do?

As teachers we do have access to TeacherTube but is it a replacement for YouTube? After a quick exploration, it felt like I was visiting its much poorer cousin. I searched the term "information literacy" and did not find any quality videos right off the top.

I believe that it is our job as teachers and teacher-librarians to give students the necessary skills to search the Internet ethically and appropriately. We need to provide them with a road map to journey the Internet without mishap, or to know what to do when a mishap occurs.

So where does this leave us? Personally, YouTube is a fabulous surprise and I know that I will come back to it again and again for both entertainment and to search out professional topics. Professionally, I'm not sure what role YouTube plays in our locked out district. I believe it to have great potential to teach and engage our students. If the videos are relevant, is there anything wrong in teachers using them even though the district has chosen to lock us out?

What would you do? Does the value of YouTube outweigh the decision makers of your district?

References

Davies, Julia & Merchant, Guy. (2009). Web 2.0 for schools. Peter Lang Publishing: New York.

Valenza, Joyce. (2008) When YouTube is blocked. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/1410038141.html?nid=3714

Wesch, Michael. (2008). An anthropological introduction to YouTube. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU

Wikipedia. (2010). YouTube. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

YouTube. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/

Success

2010-01-25T19:46:00.001-08:00

Pretty in Pink
Originally uploaded by PMACDON

Success comes in many forms: from learning to ride a bike or learning new technology. Posted from Flickr.

Flickr

2010-01-25T07:21:00.000-08:00

Photo Sharing 101

2010-01-25T06:42:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Photo Sharing 101. I am your most inadequate tour guide for this session. I was first introduced to Flickr last summer by a friend but gave no thought to its value. I was in for a surprise. Come on, let's take a look.

There are a variety of photo sharing sites on the web such as Snapfish http://www2.snapfish.ca/ and Photobucket http://photobucket.com/ but it is Flickr http://www.flickr.com/that we are going to discover. Flickr is a site to which users can upload images for others to see and comment on (Web 2.0 for Schools, Davies & Merchant, 2009, p.35)

As the authors Davies and Merchant state, this is a very basic definition, as Flickr does so much more. Flickr now allows users to upload video and is very much a social place such as Facebook or MySpace. The leap into Flickr was a big one for me. I have gone in and explored the site and searched other people's photos but I was very hesitant to create my own account. I am in a foreign world and although I think of myself as somewhat savy in the world of technology, I am quickly discovering I am not. And so I proscrastinate in doing these things I am most uncomfortable with.

To become familiar with Flickr I started by simply browsing the site. I checked out pictures of Thompson and the Miramichi which is my hometown. I also read the chapters on photosharing from Web 2.0 for Schools by Julia Davies and Guy Merchant as well as Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts by Will Richardson. Both of these helped to familiarize myself about the uses of Flickr. There was also a video that I found most useful. http://k12online.wm.edu/usingflickr/usingflickr.html This video is already four years old and some of the information may have already changed - one of the joys of the Internet but I think very helpful to a newbie like me just the same.

What does Flickr have to offer me personally?
I am very hesitant to post pictures of myself and my family for all the world to see. To start I have chosen photos where there are either no people or where the people in them are unidentifiable. I don't know how my friends and family would feel if they discovered photos of themselves on the Internet and without their permission?

In a year our family will be traveling for six months and will not have any particular place to call home. At that time, I see us maintaining a family blog and perhaps a site like Flickr where we will post our pictures. This will not only give us a safe place to keep them but also a way to document our travels. Family and friends can keep up to date on our progress and see where we have been. My hope is that my daughter's class will follow her through our blog and pictures and share a little of what her experiences will be. By sharing our photos and videos on Flickr we are given the opportunity to share with people our experiences before we even return home.

I really enjoy the ability to tag and give descriptions to my pictures. This is a powerful tool and is so much a part of my world as a teacher-librarian.

How can Flickr be used constructively in the classroom? As teachers and teacher-librarians, we are only limited by our own creativity and imagination. Having access to milllions of photographs provide an endless source of available pictures to our students. Last year I worked with a group grade two students who were making a digital scrapbook of pictures of objects around the school of specific shapes (square, circle, etc.) Instead of doing a power point project, these picture could have been uploaded to Flickr, placed in a specific group and a description written about them. When the teacher went to show them to the class, all she had to do was log in to her Flickr account and voila. Flickr is one of those sites that can be used from Kindergarten to grade 12. I am presently doing a research project with grade threes on African animals. Here is a wonderful place for us to find pictures and perhaps information on their specific animal. (If only we could access it!)

Flickr, or any other photo sharing site gives students the place to save, organize and display their digital photographs. Kathy Frederick in her article Launching Library 2.0 What's a Picture Worth? makes several suggestions on how to incorporate Flickr with students. She suggests making an online photo album of school events or post pictures to use as writing prompts. As well, it is a useful teaching tools for a teacher-librarian in teaching about issues "regarding intellectual property and the need to respect copyright."

The possibilities of Flickr are endless but the biggest obstacle in my school district and possibly yours is access. Without access to Flickr or any other such site, this discussion is a moot point. But I will save those thoughts for another discussion.

Learning About Web 2.0

2010-01-18T19:16:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the world of EDES 501/544 - a course on Web 2.0 tools for graduate students in the teacher-librarianship program at the University of Alberta. The purpose of this blog is to chronicle our learning of web 2.0 tools and their relevance in our personal and professional lives.

This technological journey is one I'm a little leary of. I don't know the rules or the street signs and I don't speak the language. Our family is planning on traveling to South America in a year or so and in preparation we are learning Spanish. What do I need to know before being totally immersed in Web 2.0?

I have been aware of the various social networking tools available but have chosen not to participate. That has now changed. In the past week I have subscribed to 25 or more RSS feeds and added them to my Google Reader. I have joined Facebook, sent out my first tweet and will soon join a Ning.

What surprises are in store for me over the next three months as I learn about the world of web 2.0 and what it has to offer!