ED 566E - May 1, 2008, No. 15

Everybody did some really interesting things. I'm surprised by how different each site was from the other sites.

The leftovers did an impressive job, especially considering that they had to start over again. The links are great and very helpful. I also liked the idea of using a wiki for the summer reading lists and including supplementary material like the character chart. I know Becky created the Webquest for another class, but it was very created and probably would be great to use with students. The site was organzied in a very accessible manner.

The future school librarians site was full of great content and made use of a lot of different applications (i.e., widgets, blogs, wikis, etc.). It was organized a very easy to navigate manner. I liked that it included links to sites related to many different aspects of a high school students life.

I thought this project was the best part of the course. I learned a lot by creating the different parts of the Web site.

ED 566E - April 25, 2008, No. 14

The Destiny presentation was interesting. I think it would be nice to be able to devote an entire class to some time of circulation software. It was nice to see the presentation, but it would have been nice to try out some of the features ourselves. It looks like there are a lot of really nice features. We had a Follett presentation last semester too and they demonstrated their collection analysis tool and collection development tool, both of which are free. The rep told us we could all get a user id and password to play with. You might want to look into doing something like this for next year.

I loved the bookmark demo. That is something that I have wanted to do and it was nice to get a demonstration and then do it ourselves. This is my preferred way to learn.

Your feedback on our paper was very helpful. We went and reviewed our paper as a group and added some additional reflection and application. The Web site project has been really helpful and I usually dread group work, but this has been a very good experience. I think that is mostly because of the other people in my group, but also we've used the wiki to communicate and compose our paper and that has really helped. I would highly recommend the use of a wiki for group projects in the future.

Using the idea of creating a Web site at the beginning of the semester to try out various applications I have a few other suggestions.
1. Link the blog to the Web site and indicate from the beginning that it is for the entire class. I would have liked to have read what others wrote about.
2. Have everyone create a del.icio.us site linked to the Web site and add relevant Web sites as the semester progresses. Be sure to tag them 566E. I ran across lots of neat Web sites during the semester, but fell I had a forum to share them.
3. Have people share a little (5 minutes) about paper topics the week they are turned in. I think I could have learned a lot from other people's papers. I couldn't cover all topics by myself.
4. Require the Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts book. It looks good. My one complaint was that I was not at all happy with the text. It had some interesting information, but it was poorly written.

ED 566E - April 19, 2008, No. 13

I thought this week's discussion about internet security was interesting. It was interesting to see the wide variety of issues that fall into that category - protecting private information to inappropriate sites to internet predators. I can see how as a librarian balancing the right to access with protecting children from inappropriate sites could be very difficult. This issue has been a hot topic on LM_NET recently. Many librarians were discussing the librarian who was recently fired for notifying police that a patron in her public library was viewing child porn. She violated the right to privacy. Its a sticky issue.

Once again I enjoyed getting together with my group. This group project has been interesting. We've had to figure out how to write a paper together when we don't have much opportunity to get together. I think we've solved the problem by dividing the paper into sections and writing it on a wiki, so we can see what each person is doing. This has truly been a cooperative effort. Usually, there is a dominant person in a group project, but that has not been the case with this group. We all think about things differently. Some of us are technical, some of us are creative, and some of us are problem-solvers.

ED 566E - April 11, 2008, No. 12

At last I was able to connect in Skype. While it was a lot of fun to try I'm not sure how much I will use it as a librarian. I'm going to have to keep my eye out for ideas. Audacity was interesting. I would like to learn how to podcast and then edit what I've recorded. I think kids would really enjoy recording their voice and manipulating it. I'd have to find an educational spin, but it would be a good hook.

I wanted to write a little bit about what I've found the most useful about Web 2.0. At this point I'm still more of a finder and receiver of information than a give of information, but I think this is the first step. In looking for podcasts and book trailers for our group web site I've discoverd many kids lit blogs. In Millie's class we talked a lot about collection development and the various resources available to the librarian (i.e., journals, book reviews, etc.), but we didn't consider blogs. I think that is because it is a relatively new phenomenom. In the last month of added close to 20 kids lit blogs to my RSS feeds. I've discovered several great new books for kids. I think this will be one way I look for new and hot books for my library. I share my discoveries with several friends who have suggested that are start blogging about my discoveries. I think that may be how I ultimately enter the blogging world outside of a class. You may heck this blog in a year and find it full of kids lit raves.

I think that this blog and the del.icio.us page that I started will be two things that started as class projects that I will maintain on my own. I've also started a wiki for my sister and I to use to plan our cross-country trip with our kids. I'm definitely going to be more of a contributor to the Web in the future.

ED 566E - April 6, 2008, No. 11

The copyright information was interesting. I liked the site that walked you through the process of determining whether or not something could be considered fair use. Carol Simpson's book about copyright in the school media center really brings the copyright issues into focus. I think it is something that people really need to study closely and repeatedly to have a good grasp of. I still feel confused. We have discussed copyright briefly in both Millie's class and Ilene's class. After listening to both of them it seems to me that many classroom teachers are frequently at of compliance and maybe even some librarians. As a librarian it seems that one needs to be well-versed in the copyright laws and guidelines. Since I've had to deal with copyright in previous jobs and because my father is a minister who insists that the choir director buys enough copies of music of every choir member (rather than photocopying the same as she was doing) copyright compliance is very important to me. People frequently think they are "only one person," but when everyone does that the owner of the copyright loses out on income and that is not fair.

The other neat thing this week came in the discussion with my final project group. We came up with some additional parts to our site, including adding our avatars.

ED 566E - March 30, 2008, No. 10

Some of the tools that Joyce presented to us on Thursday I had seen before. I have browsed her Web site and wiki in the past and have found it to be a gold mine of ideas related to Web 2.0. Of course there were many things that I had never looked at or couldn't determine an application for. I've spent some time exploring Voicethread and it was nice to hear a librarian using it. I think it would be a great place for multimedia presentations. One idea would be to have a class draw pictures and write a script to narrate the pictures. The video would be of the pictures. This would eliminate the problems involved when students' faces appear on Web sites.

She said her goal was 3 "take-away" ideas for each of us. For me those ideas were creating wikis for projects, the use of iGoogle for students' information spaces, and "Death by Powerpoint." I sat through 3 Powerpoint presentations at work on Thursday. All of which were boring. Using her ideas could really liven up a presentation. I'm not sure that the corporate world is ready for this "new" type of Powerpoint, but I believe its a great way to convey ideas in a school environment, at a conference, or perhaps during a multi-media sermon. I have a feeling you may see 3 innovative Powerpoints about our Web sites.

I'm looking forward to further exploring Joyce's Web resources and professional lessons available online. Not all may be immediately useful, but her site will be a good way to stay on the cutting edge of technology.