Thing #23 - I see the Light

That's the light at the end of the 23 Things tunnel (which was pitch black a few times) as well as the light shining on all things Library 2.0.

OK, my favorites...Google Reader came in handy, especially for keeping up with the other players. It is also overwhelming as some of the professional blog keepers are certainly have much to say and say it often.
Lifelong Learning...I'm glad to know a little more about a few things. This program absolutely made it easier for me to tackle the first layer of Libray 2.0.
Take-aways/unexpected outcomes...Google alerts has let me keep up with my brother a bit. He's in the music biz so whenever he puts a new song on his MySpace page or another person writes about him, I get an alert! That's been fun. I'm in the middle of doing trading cards with the 2nd graders with the dreaded bird research and we're starting with 3rd grade states. I didn't realize how l o n g it would take 2nd graders to type in 3 facts that they already had written on their research sheets. Won't do it again. It was nice to realize that I already had a little experience with some of the tools (blogs, wikis, podcasts)
Improve this program...Well, it really was TOO much. There were way more than 23 things. Thing #7 had 8 things all by itself! SO, pare it down a bit. Maybe split it up so someone can be successful even if they can only get through half of the program. If you have smaller bites, someone could then move through the different levels?
Another one?????? I'm not sure if I would sign up to fully participate but I would certainly look at what was there that I needed/wanted to learn. Let me get over this one first.
One word or one sentence... Self-paced introduction to a variety of web 2.0 tools that can be used in our schools for, by, and with our students. How's that?
Thank you to our kickball captains. I know that setting this up wasn't easy and keeping up with all the players had to be more than time consuming. Once again, I've been pushed to go places I didn't think I could go. And I survived. Now let me go see if my daughter did.

Thing #22 - Ning

OK, I wasn't really getting it. I mean I sort of understand but, being over 40, and not a joiner, I don't get it. Maybe if you worked somewhere rural and didn't have a built in network the way we do, I could see joining the teacher or librarian nings as a place to start. So, since I wasn't convinced yet, I searched ning for the popular ones and found SXSW 08 which is an Austin music conference/party that my brother has dropped in on a few times. OK, I get that this could be useful to him on the East Coast before he hits town. Maybe if TLA had a ning, those who couldn't attend could pick up some conference remotely...but there are other ways to do that. So I kept searching. Lots of Moms groups, schools groups, tv fan groups, yadda yadda yadda. Nothing in my life that I searched for had a ning. Somehow, that didn't upset me. I did see that it could (and does) serve as a closed network for student groups, school faculty, far flung friends and relatives. I'll have to think about whether this is the best place to start for a few of my teachers who are ready to have their own space but aren't sure how.

Thing #21 - Podcasting

Yeah! One thing that I've already done before. Now, I'm not expert but podcasting was something I decided to play with this year (before I signed on for 22 other things!) I started with a session by one of our own and then a session at Region IV's Technology Applications Conference which is well worth the day and the $25.00 (they even feed you!) Anyway, I learned about Jodix converter to get the photostory into mp4 from wmv and about Media Max to host the podcasts. (This is where you get the url to link the podcast to your blog, etc.) All free, just another user name and password! Anyway, my students started in the fall and then I received a grant from the ed tech department so I was committed to doing more. I've been doing them myself but hope to get back to using the students once all the testing hooha settles down. They can be found at My Pod or Yours. But for the sake of the 23 things, here's a little sample.

Thing #20 - You tube, we tube...

These are two videos I saw at TCEA that struck a chord, for different reasons of course.



I'm trying the Zamzar thing but, while they keep saying they'll send me an email in 24 hours, I've yet to receieve one. I searched Blinkx but came up emptyhanded in my specific search but I want to remember it exists. I've seen some interesting curriculum videos on Teacher Tube though they are usually geared a little higher than elementary. There was a cute claymation that had the 3 pigs and Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White's dwarves in each other stories. I do wonder what kind of schools have the time to do these projects. Seems that all we have time to do is test, retest and test again. I use the streaming video in the library but I do suffer from flashback to junior high when they turned off the lights and put you in front of a movie. I hope I do a better job of relating it for the kids and doing something with it after we've viewed it. There is still that question in the back of my mind that I'm bringing kids to the library and putting them in front of TV? Now if we could make the video... (that's going to take another 23 things!)

I know that my teachers have appreciated the science clips I been able to share and work together with kidspiration or other activities to help reinforce the science instruction in the classroom. It's been great using digital stories in various forms with first grade's Around the World unit, for changing up holiday presentations such as Valentines Day or President's Day, and of course, just for fun!

more things

OK, my Google reader has sent me far afield tonight. I can't even remember where I started but it led me to Will Richardson, and then in his blog responses to Mrs. V, a third grade teacher, then through her tech conference experiences to some Top Ten web sites and I think, honestly, I'm writing this just so I can keep track of where I've been in case I wish to return. And who says a full time working, single Mom never gets to go anywhere!

OK, back to the real things.

In honor of Education - Go get it week

Thing #19 - Web 2.0 Award Winners

Now I expected this would be fun as well as time consuming! I looked at One Sentence which challenges you to tell a story in one sentence. This could be used for story starters, writing prompts, leads, etc. EXCEPT we need a kid friendly version :) An enterprising teacher could cull through and find some to use.

Just for fun - Guess which keyword search yielded these pictures.

Then I spent a lot of time looking at useless things. Or maybe they just weren't good for elementary education, or maybe I'd already seen stuff that was similar, or maybe I'd just seen too much. I'm with Froggy and I'm going to go play with image generators.

I am awed by the creativity (and time) that many people apparently have.

Thing #18 - Open Office, Google Docs

Obviously, the main thing about Microsoft Office is that we're already comfortable with it. But I switched from Mac in the late 90's I guess I could switch again. As Grendel experienced, it did take a LONG time to download so I don't think it was a computer issue.

OK, the writer (word processor) functioned much like Microsoft but I loved that inserting a picture did not bring up the drawing canvas which I hate! It was much more flexible. I found the presentation module, Impress, a little less intuitive and I wasn't impressed. Granted, I have access to Powerpoint. If I didn't, maybe I would be raving about Impress. Since I don't love Excel to begin with, I wasn't expecting much from calc. It seemed to work the same in as far as I use it. I don't calculate or run formulas so someone else will have to test that.

Now Google docs seems to have an interesting twist. I guess wikis would achieve the same thing but I'm going to pass it on to my father who does newsletters for various groups and does end up waiting for the work of others.

Thing #17 - Sandbox

Ok, I added an entry to the sandbox. Is that really all there is to this Thing? I didn't spend my usual three hours so I'm thinking I missed something....

Thing #16 - Wiki

I was once asked to teach others about wikis. I try not to let people down but I didn't know what a wiki was. As mentioned before, I love the Common Craft Show but I noticed that their wonderful explanation wasn't created until May 2007. I was struggling to understand it earlier that year. The light finally dawned between a TLA PreConference given by Michelle Boule and Gary Wan and another TLA session by Michael Stephens and Jenny Levine in April 2007.


So I have played with wikis. I find the hardest part is getting others to play with you. This summer I began 2. Just today I got my most techy teacher to come (finally) and be shown how to add to one of them. She has participated in that she sends me stuff to add to it but now she has the power. (She's had the power all along but now may know how to use it).


I liked the idea of the Summer Reading Club wiki. It would be fun to have librarians and teachers participate in this so we can all catch the good books! I'll have to go back and investigate the must have graphic novels from the teacher-librarian wiki but I didn't like that every "post" was a new page. At TCEA, there was a presentation on Google Maps where they used a wiki for their 3 classes so that there was enough info to use even if a student missed a day(just go to the other class' page) AND the wiki provided a web location for the pictures that were saved to it which is necessary in order to use them in Google maps.

Enjoyed the Hong Kong school (Library Zone) that had podcasts and movies to go with their wiki work! I noticed many used wikispaces but I have found wetpaint to be fairly user friendly. I created a table and was able to paste it in but it is limiting. It's still easier than DotNetNuke which the district wants us to work with.

So, my goal is now to get others to wiki with me!

Thing #15 - Perspective

Reading these thoughts on Library 2.0 first made me wonder if I needed to find a new career. If all the information is at the users fingertips and all barriers removed, yada yada yada - why do we need libraries or librarians. As I read further, I caught a few thoughts that made me feel a little better.

Dr. Wendy Schultz made the point that we are/will be needed because we know/understand the relationships between documents. So, if we (I) can see the relationships between the info, the web 2.0 (or 3.0 or 4.0!) and the users, maybe I won't have to switch careers. She also said that libraries have to offer a compelling experience, others referred to the library as a conversation and Michael Stephens challenges us to meet the user's needs in a new or improved way. I guess you have to find whatever it is that makes people go to Starbucks rather than use the coffee maker in their kitchens. Not sure I have the answer there but I do think it will be easier as an elementary school librarian to bring something extra to the experience. Perhaps I'm naive.

Things 24 and beyond

Just returned from TCEA and I'm still digesting what I heard and saw. A lot of attention to blogs and wikis but I wanted to list here a few of the other things that caught my attention. I haven't had a lot of time to play with them yet so a listing is not an endorsement, just an note to take a look. Of course, you'll probably need to sign up for a free account or two!

Mixbook - make a digital book. Look at the World War I book by a high school class.

Kerpoof - digital storytelling in cartoon format. You pick a background, pick characters, tell them what to do. I played a little bit, it would take more but the kids would would probably be faster! There's a section for Fairytales.

Gcast - Haven't has a chance to look at this myself. The presenter said it was podcasting over the telephone so the kids were able to podcast straight from their field trip in real time-ish. They called, spoke and the podcast was up for others.

Flickr-storm - This allows you to search Flickr, select photos to put in your tray and then it gives a URL so that the students can be focused only on the photos you selected for the project. You can filter the flickr photos first by non-profit so you have the creative commons permissions.

Scrapblog - Another way to present info using your photos, text and voice if you choose. Haven' t had achance to play with it yet but the presenter said it was easy enough to use with his young daughter. You can embed your project but not download. Meet the teachers? Welcome to 3rd grade?

I'm sure I haven't done these programs justice in my quick explanations. There were many, many more of course and many of the more are listed on presenter Randy Rodgers website.

Thing #14 - Technorati

This particular thing has taken a long time. Technorati updated their site so our directions had to be changed but then I found that it still didn't function the way they said it would. Oh well. I get that it is a gateway to find blogs, blogs, blogs. They seem to be doing many other things as well now (photos, videos, popular books, etc) and maybe this made it hard for me to see past it all to the point. OK, I get the point, I guess. It's just all overwhelming.

I did find the thought about tagging your own stuff interesting. Tags are more meaningful for the consumer when made by the consumer. I rarely pay attention to movie ratings and don't get me started on Children's Book Awards but without something to guide us through the masses of stuff, well then, it's just masses of stuff. At this point, I don't see using Technorati personally unless a pressing needs arises to find a blog or blog post on a specific topic, or I find tons of idle time on my hands. The tag cloud widget didn't work for me! Now, raise your hand if you're surprised. Perhaps I can't see the forest for the trees. As with other things, I'll mull it over but I'm moving forward.