Week 9, Thing #20

The following links to one of my favorite "education speeches". From TeacherTube: "A must-see for every parent and teacher. Education guru Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it."
I will not embedd this as it takes "a while" to download.
I also looked at vimeo - another social video site, but did not find anything that I really liked.

Week 8, Thing #19.1

One feature I have used before is the "folder". I created an Ebsco account a while ago and had information in my folder, but did not know you could make multiple folders. This screen shot shows the content of my new "MultiMedia & Internet@Schools" folder. This magazine is new to me, but I will be following it with the RSS feed I first sent to my bloglines account, then to this site.
Another good feature of the ebsco databases is the Subjects list that shows to the left of the results list. This gives related subjects to search if the information needed wasn't found in the first search.
After a visit to Alaska's Digital Archives (SLED), I tried to save a page of photos I had selected as "my favorites" and save as a web page then download it to this blog. This attempt failed. Any suggestions? Here is a photo that shows the location of Juneau's Thunder Mountain High School. I added the "X-marks-the-spot" using Windows Paint.

Mendenhall Valley and Glacier, accessed April 5, 2009, from http://vilda.alaska.edu/u?/cdmg21,2515.

A new Digital Pipeline feature coming soon is Notetaking. "Write notes associated with the articles you are viewing. Notes will be stored in your folder for future reference, with links back to the original context." This will really help with student research. They could have "virtual note cards" instead of 3x5s falling out of their binders!

Week 8, Thing #19

I used LibraryThing to make a widget showing the 2010 High School BOTB books. If you click on the book cover, you can see all the tags attributed to each book and there is a link to amazon if you want more information, (or to purchase!).

Week 8, Thing #18

I looked at both Zoho and Google docs and found them to be quite similar. I played around with Google docs because I thought it would be better to use since I already have a Google account. This would be a great way to write those "group documents" that sometimes come up during the year, like letters to the school board, new district-wide library policies, etc. There were templates for almost every conceivable use. I would back up all my documents on my school server, but Google docs is another safety net.

Week 7, Thing #17

This is the cartoon I added to the Image Generators and Web Award Winners section of the ravenaboutweb20 wiki. I made this to show on a library web site to generate interest in looking at the "best of" lists and our BookLooks (what our freshmen have decided to call their digital booktalks) that our freshmen groups are currently producing.
Click on the toon to enlarge.

Week 7, Thing #16

I have had a couple of experiences using wikis before. While I was completing my library endorsement through the University of Montana (online), we had a couple of group projects that were successful because we could collaborate using our wiki. In my group, we had two folks from Montana, one from Arizona and me, from Alaska! What a great tool for our students for their group projects also. The AP History wiki example was an excellent use of a wiki for an entire class because the instructions, tasks, resources and finished products were all gathered in one place.
One wiki I have read occaisionally is Joyce Valenza's teacherlibrarianwiki. Once and a while I find a very useful idea/resource there. I especially like the booklists sections.

Week 6, Thing #15

After reading "Into a new world of librarianship" by Michael Stephens, I thought alot about the importance of my "embracing" Web 2.0 tools to help all our library users find information, gather knowlegde and create content. Mr. Stephens listed 6 traits of Librarian 2.0
1. Plan for users - allow users access wherever they are, strives to NOT impede user's access to library in any way.
2. Embrace Web 2.0 tools - how library services can be enhanced, uses Web 2.0 tools to further mission of the library, building connections online.
3. Controls tecnolust - creates a flexible technology plan that puts service to users first.
4, Make good, fast decisions - perpetual beta, redesign for ease of use, user involvement, and easily added pieces, locates and shares evidence from journals, blogs etc.
5. Be a trendspotter - seek out information that could impact users in the future, watched impact of technology on users.
6. Gets content - have an understanding about how users ACCESS, CONSUME, and CREATE content, help users control content.

Taking this class and using and exploring many of the Web 2.0 tools is a step in meeting the traits of Librarian 2.0. If I have an understanding of what is out there, I can try to assure that our patrons have EASY access to the information they need and be a "strategy guide" to their finding, gathering, and creating. I especially liked the comment that one has to "allow staff time to play and learn". I will try to schedule time into my week to play and learn Web 2.0

I thought I'd try a Google map mash up of Juneau's local libraries after reading about the Chicago libraries in this article. Look to the right on my blog to find it. It was fun, but a little time consuming.