ED 566E - Feburary 23, 2008, No. 6

What a fun class this week. I've heard of and seen SmartBoards before, but was never given such a great demo of the multiple capabilities. My mother actually won a grant to have a SmartBoard permanently mounted in her classroom. She uses it for everything.

What I enjoyed even more was the opportunity to see the subscription websites Doris has for elementary kids. I'm familiar with what the public can access through the public library, but I don't have a way to access the educational subscription websites. Demoing these sites right before doing this week's reading (on educational sofware) really gave me a lot to think about. The sites have all sorts of cool graphics and the videos are fun, but I think as teachers we have to use these resources cautiously. They should enhance the learning experience, not replace it. Doris is obviously using it to enhance what she is teaching, but I can see some lazier teachers relying too heavily on websites and software. The other problem is sometimes it seems like you click through lots of layers to get to something interesting that doesn't last very long.

Of course it always good to get into an actual library to see how each librarian organizes the library and makes use of the space they have. Doris has done a lot with a very small space.

ED 566E - Feburary 15, 2008, No. 5

What a lively class last night. It was interesting hearing how others thought they use blogs and wikis in a library. And we touched briefly on a few other web 2.0 tools (i.e. widgets, bookmarklets, atoms, etc.). There is so much happening out there that it is good that we can ask about various things that we discover during the week or during class. I also had fun exploring "More" on the Google search page. I never realized how much was available. I felt like I got quite a lot out of the first half of class.

I also felt the second half of class was useful. If was good to hear what everyone's expectations of the class were and I am very excited about creating some type of Website using the various tools we are being exposed to. It doesn't need to be a library web site, but perhaps a web site focusing on one aspect of the library. One example would be literature. It could include blogging about book reviews the students have read as well as links to author sites. I'm looking forward to exploring these ideas more.

ED 566E - Feburary 9, 2008, No. 4

This week's class was extremely useful. Talking about how people can and do use blogs and wikis in the classroom gave me some good starting points for using some of these Web 2.0 tools. I even went to wikispaces and created a preliminary personal wiki just to get used to some of the tools available.

One of the key things that came out of class is that these tools may be available, but many schools have put significant restrictions on what sites can be accessed from schools and many of these sites require e-mail addresses. These are both significant obstacles to implementing these types of tools in a school situation. As blogs and wikis and other web 2.0 tools become more common schools are going to need to address how they will handle access. Will schools manage blog and wiki spaces of their own for students and teachers to use in the school environment? Will schools provide e-mail addresses for all students? How will these needs be balanced with the increasing need for privacy and security of students?

I think both tools could be used with students and that the library is a particularly good place to pilot some programs.

ED 566E - Feburary 2, 2008, No. 3

I think it is great that we are looking at a lot of Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis, rss feeds. Unfortuantely, I think there is so much out there that we aren't getting a chance to look at things as deeply as I would like. I was glad to learn about the web-based rss aggregator because I had only used the tool built into IE.

Typically, after class I come home and end up looking for things we talked about in class on the internet. This week I did come home and set up several ProQuest alerts for searches related to my projects this semester. I received several alerts this morning.

The school library listserv that I subscribe to had someone post her blog and web site. I posted the Web site on the class discussion boards. She had some ideas on how to progressively introduce yourself to Web 2.0. I've spent some time the last two days exploring the blogs, wikis, etc. that she recommends. My favorite so far is VoiceThread. I can think of lots of uses for this in and out of the school setting.

I would like to have more discussion in class on how the various tools we have been introduced to can be used in the school library environment.