I had never heard of Creative Commons before, so I watched several of the videos to see what it was all about and how it worked. It is the type of thing that you want to be aware of so that you can recommend it to others who may be searching for an answer to their personal copyright concerns. I would like to explore copyright with my elementary students next year and Creative Commons would certainly be a part of that.
Now, on to the summary of this wonderful class.
1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I have to admit that I was interested in almost everything I learned. My favorites were blogs, RSS feeds, del.icio.us, LibraryThing, and wikis.
2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
I have always been very excited to learn new things, esp. in technology.
In the past 3 years, it has seemed that I've become stagnant because budget cuts have taken away all my staff. To get through each day, I've been doing what is necessary and cutting out experimenting with new things, because the time just isn't there. The joy in the job used to be trying to figure out new and creative ways to have students engage in research and that has taken a back seat to all the other tasks. With this class, I have given myself myself a chance to be excited about something again. Even if I can't implement it all, at least I have my old enthusiasm back again. I feel so much better.
3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I have been surprised at how many of the new technologies I have comfortably adopted and now use every day. Of course, I enjoy the blog and will start another one after this about my travels this spring. That will free me up from feeling like I have to write to everyone while I'm away. Every morning, the first thing I check on my computer is Google Reader. The RSS feeds save me the trouble of checking out my favorite sites. Now, they come to me. I have the "subscribe" tab on my toolbar, so I can easily add others. I also now add websites to del.icio.us rather than bookmarking them to my favorites. I like being able to tag them, thus enabling me to find them more easily. Nine weeks ago, none of this was on my mind. In addition, my husband has gotten interested in what we learn each week and he has investigated several of these Web2.0 technologies and adopted them also.
4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
I think that there was a lot crammed into 9 weeks. It might have been good to spread it out a bit more. At one point, I felt like I was getting mixed up about all the new things I'd learned. Also, I often felt like I wanted to explore even more of the recommended sites, and ones that others in the class had mentioned, but at some point had to stop because the hours were just slipping away so quickly. I enjoyed reading everyone's posts through Google Reader. If it hadn't been for that, it would have been tough to keep up with all the posts every day. I liked commenting on others' posts, and wished that we could have had more of that kind of dialogue. I think that with so many people in the class, it was hard to comment on more than a handful of posts. Perhaps a smaller group would have been better. On the other hand, as a late enrollee, I wouldn't have wanted to have been left out.
5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
Absolutely! I hope that it will happen. I'm sure there's plenty more to learn and even more still on its way. I just learned to use Skype this past week and love that.
6. How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote CSLA learning activities?
INVIGORATING
Many thanks to the people who set this class up and who advertised it. It's been a lot of fun to get to know classmates through their blogs. I think that we are a highly motivated, interesting and adventurous group of people. Maybe we can have a reunion at the next MSLA Conference!
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Week 9, Thing #22 - Zoho
I will try Zoho writer again in writing this post. Maybe this time I'll figure out how to have the emoticons upload along with the text. 
I looked over the Project Gutenberg site and was taken with the idea that it was just 100 years ago that the hottest item was libraries with books that could be borrowed and read for free. Now, 100 years later, there is this effort to provide free audio access to books for patrons to download. I looked at the free children's literature in audio and of course, found that most of the audio books are quite old, and I'd never heard of many of them. I assume that they can be recorded and offered online because the copyright on them has expired. That will be the big difference between libraries offering free books and the Gutenberg offered free audios; books can be current and free to lend, audios most likely can't. Nevertheless, it's a tremendous and valuable project and seems like a logical next step.
While at the Project Gutenberg site, I saw links to the Kindle, Amazon's new reading device. I spent a tremendous amount of time really learning about Kindle. I read about it and all it offers, I read customer reactions and watched the 3 videos that they have: Jeff Bezos talking about Kindle; Jeff Bezos being interviewed by Charlie Rose; and Toni Morrison telling of her experiences with Kindle. I was pretty taken with Kindle. Here are some of the things I liked about it: you can download a book anywhere because it uses cell phone technology, not the Internet; best sellers are $9.99; you can read the first few chapters for free, the high resolution screen looks like the pages of a book; it will keep your place when you turn it off; it only weighs 10 oz.; it holds 200 books; and there are 100,000 books available. There are many other features that will appeal to people. In listening to Bezos, he expects that in about 10 years, all books in all languages will be available on Kindle. He feels that printing books "on dead trees" is in our future. He is able to offer some features that books can't (e.g. linking vocabulary to a dictionary, having reviews available) and says that you have to play to the strengths of the new technology. The interview is very interesting and I encourage you to watch it. He doesn't discuss what will happen to libraries. It still seems to me, that even at the low price of $9.99, many patrons still couldn't afford to buy all the books they might want to read, so there could still be a place for libraries providing free reading material. But will we be lending out Kindles?
So, will Kindle make it big - it just could happen. But what about children's books with their many colorful illustrations (Bezos says color is coming to Kindle in about 3 years.) Will book lovers be happy having their whole collection on Kindle - maybe. On Tuesday, I'm leaving for a 2 month stay in Switzerland and the books I want to take are taking up quite a bit of room in my suitcase and I may have to leave some behind. Right about now, I could go for a Kindle - but they're all sold out!
I looked over the Project Gutenberg site and was taken with the idea that it was just 100 years ago that the hottest item was libraries with books that could be borrowed and read for free. Now, 100 years later, there is this effort to provide free audio access to books for patrons to download. I looked at the free children's literature in audio and of course, found that most of the audio books are quite old, and I'd never heard of many of them. I assume that they can be recorded and offered online because the copyright on them has expired. That will be the big difference between libraries offering free books and the Gutenberg offered free audios; books can be current and free to lend, audios most likely can't. Nevertheless, it's a tremendous and valuable project and seems like a logical next step.
While at the Project Gutenberg site, I saw links to the Kindle, Amazon's new reading device. I spent a tremendous amount of time really learning about Kindle. I read about it and all it offers, I read customer reactions and watched the 3 videos that they have: Jeff Bezos talking about Kindle; Jeff Bezos being interviewed by Charlie Rose; and Toni Morrison telling of her experiences with Kindle. I was pretty taken with Kindle. Here are some of the things I liked about it: you can download a book anywhere because it uses cell phone technology, not the Internet; best sellers are $9.99; you can read the first few chapters for free, the high resolution screen looks like the pages of a book; it will keep your place when you turn it off; it only weighs 10 oz.; it holds 200 books; and there are 100,000 books available. There are many other features that will appeal to people. In listening to Bezos, he expects that in about 10 years, all books in all languages will be available on Kindle. He feels that printing books "on dead trees" is in our future. He is able to offer some features that books can't (e.g. linking vocabulary to a dictionary, having reviews available) and says that you have to play to the strengths of the new technology. The interview is very interesting and I encourage you to watch it. He doesn't discuss what will happen to libraries. It still seems to me, that even at the low price of $9.99, many patrons still couldn't afford to buy all the books they might want to read, so there could still be a place for libraries providing free reading material. But will we be lending out Kindles?
So, will Kindle make it big - it just could happen. But what about children's books with their many colorful illustrations (Bezos says color is coming to Kindle in about 3 years.) Will book lovers be happy having their whole collection on Kindle - maybe. On Tuesday, I'm leaving for a 2 month stay in Switzerland and the books I want to take are taking up quite a bit of room in my suitcase and I may have to leave some behind. Right about now, I could go for a Kindle - but they're all sold out!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Week 9, Thing #21 - Podcasts
Like YouTube, I am amazed at the number of people out there posting podcasts. I listened to podcast tutorial for La Leche League, a group I belonged to many years ago. It came up when I did a search on podcast tutorials and it explained podcasts very well. The speaker talked about listening to podcasts while cooking and doing other home chores or driving (if you put it on your ipod, which I don't have). I had been wondering when I would ever find time to listen to podcasts but there are those times when it could fit in.
I tried podcast.net to look but the link doesn't seem to work. I tried yahoo podcasts but those seemed to be mostly music. So, I just went to google and typed in podcasts in conjunction with other search terms, such as elementary school libraries, knitting, and gardening, just to see what's out there. I listened to a knitting podcast, Knitting News Cast, that a woman in Texas puts out and signed up for it. I was happy to find the School Library Journal podcast and signed up for that. They discuss various topics that I'm interested in and if I can squeeze them in when I'm doing dishes or straightening up,then that would be great. It's hard keeping up on professional materials and so this would be a great help. I usually read right before going to bed, but with podcasts, I could just listen. So many choices, so little time.
I tried podcast.net to look but the link doesn't seem to work. I tried yahoo podcasts but those seemed to be mostly music. So, I just went to google and typed in podcasts in conjunction with other search terms, such as elementary school libraries, knitting, and gardening, just to see what's out there. I listened to a knitting podcast, Knitting News Cast, that a woman in Texas puts out and signed up for it. I was happy to find the School Library Journal podcast and signed up for that. They discuss various topics that I'm interested in and if I can squeeze them in when I'm doing dishes or straightening up,then that would be great. It's hard keeping up on professional materials and so this would be a great help. I usually read right before going to bed, but with podcasts, I could just listen. So many choices, so little time.
Week 9, Thing #20 - YouTube
This YouTube, that I have embedded, is called "Thank You Note" and it's only 2:00 long. It's definitely worth watching. It is a very creatively done story of a young girl who discovers the author, Zilpha Keatly Snyder in her library and the impact the the author and the library has on her life and career. I chose it because it was so well done, had a good message and was inspirational for librarians. I found it by doing a search on "elementary school library" and then looked at the listings, looking for one with some stars which wouldn't be too long. I had previously searched under "Dewey Decimal" and found some very amusing, but way too long, videos. There are a number of library videos that were entered in contests, which are certainly amateurish but fun to watch.
I am amazed at how many people put videos on YouTube. I think the sight is very user-friendly, which explains its huge popularity. It is not overwhelming because you only see what it is you are searching. I was amused by the "Videos Being Watched Right Now" which changes every few seconds. There were some good selection there. Some of the snapshots looked X-rated. I'm not sure of the YouTube policy. I held my breath and tried clicking on one to see what would happen and was relieved to see that it said it was a violation and wouldn't show it. Of course, it seems that it got posted in the first place. Perhaps they get weeded out after they are posted.
You can really spend a lot of time on YouTube. My daughter has posted a little video of my granddaughter and we all enjoyed that. YouTube is certainly a fun aspect of Web 2.0
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Week 8, Thing #18 - Zoho
I started looking at Zoho two days ago and mentioned it to my husband, who became very interested
because he has been working on finding the best way to teach his physics class at UMass remotely to students at other schools. He quickly learned how to set up a Zoho meeting which allows others to view his computer desktop (he has a tablet PC). He can then teach his class, drawing equations in Powerpoint and the students at the remote locations can watch this on their computers. He had to combine this with Skype because Zoho doesn't provide audio with their Zoho meeting. He wrote to them and learned that they are working on doing this, which will be a great addition. My husband said he'd become their tester. So now, he'll be able to teach his remote students live with visual and sound. By using a webcam everyone can view one another also.
Last evening we tried out Zoho meeting between our two computers and it is interesting. I "initiated the meeting" and "invited" my husband as a "participant". So, his desktop became the mirror image of mine. Everything I did on my computer appeared on his but I was in control of the mouse. I could also allow him rights to control the mouse, and so he could go into my documents on his computer and view what was there and make changes if he wanted.
I didn't allow that for very long.
This week, the librarians in my district will have such a meeting with the Destiny (Follett) software representative to show us the program. We are trying to decide if we want to make the change from Infocentre. I guess that he will use a program similar to Zoho meeting to allow each of us, in our libraries, to participate in the meeting. So it's been interesting to see how we ourselves can do this through Zoho Meeting.
I'm using Zoho writer to create my blog entry and am curious to see how easily it will export to my blog. upload. I plan on exploring some of the other features of Zoho as time allows.
P.S. So, after many trials, I've now managed to upload my blog entry from Zoho Writer. I have deleted my first bad attempt but if you are getting it as an RSS feed you will see both attempts. At any rate, the emoticons didn't come out as images. Maybe I'll figure this out later.
because he has been working on finding the best way to teach his physics class at UMass remotely to students at other schools. He quickly learned how to set up a Zoho meeting which allows others to view his computer desktop (he has a tablet PC). He can then teach his class, drawing equations in Powerpoint and the students at the remote locations can watch this on their computers. He had to combine this with Skype because Zoho doesn't provide audio with their Zoho meeting. He wrote to them and learned that they are working on doing this, which will be a great addition. My husband said he'd become their tester. So now, he'll be able to teach his remote students live with visual and sound. By using a webcam everyone can view one another also.Last evening we tried out Zoho meeting between our two computers and it is interesting. I "initiated the meeting" and "invited" my husband as a "participant". So, his desktop became the mirror image of mine. Everything I did on my computer appeared on his but I was in control of the mouse. I could also allow him rights to control the mouse, and so he could go into my documents on his computer and view what was there and make changes if he wanted.
I didn't allow that for very long. This week, the librarians in my district will have such a meeting with the Destiny (Follett) software representative to show us the program. We are trying to decide if we want to make the change from Infocentre. I guess that he will use a program similar to Zoho meeting to allow each of us, in our libraries, to participate in the meeting. So it's been interesting to see how we ourselves can do this through Zoho Meeting.
I'm using Zoho writer to create my blog entry and am curious to see how easily it will export to my blog. upload. I plan on exploring some of the other features of Zoho as time allows.
P.S. So, after many trials, I've now managed to upload my blog entry from Zoho Writer. I have deleted my first bad attempt but if you are getting it as an RSS feed you will see both attempts. At any rate, the emoticons didn't come out as images. Maybe I'll figure this out later.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Week 8, Thing #19 - LibraryThing
I've had a good time using Library Thing. I enjoyed seeing the lists of others who had read the same books that I had. I can see that this could become quite addictive. I was amazed to see how many groups there are associated with Library Thing. I joined the Children's Fiction group. I also invited my daughter to join Library Thing. She often is looking for recommendations for her book group.
I'm thinking of also starting a library that lists the childrens' books that I always recommend - or should I do that in a blog, or a wiki, or which of the many tools we've looked at in the past few weeks?!?!? I really have to start thinking about the right tool for the information that I want to put out there.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Week 7, Thing #16 - Wikis
I've spent quite a bit of time looking at wikis, and then reading the blogs of those who have already done this. I appreciated the suggestions that many of you made as to how to use a wiki in a library setting. It seems like most librarians who have started wikis are in secondary schools. I would like to see more from elementary schools.
I think that until I try starting a wiki, I won't really know how much I like it and what the advantages and disadvantages are. I do like the idea of a book lovers wiki. I'd love to start one for students to add their summer reading selections to, along with their reviews and recommendations. I'm not sure how this would work out for elementary students. A few people suggested starting a wiki for library staff or volunteers and this sounds intriguing to me. I don't know how comfortable volunteers would feel adding to it.
I enjoyed the article, "Using Wikis to Create Online Communities" with all its excellent suggestions. Recently the librarians in my district have been working on long range planning documents as well as plans for the "Optimum School Library" (requested by the superintendent). We had several meetings and I see that we could have set this up as a wiki and worked on it collaboratively. I will be on the look-out for other opportunities to use this technology. I will be on leave for 2 months soon and perhaps I can use some of that time to start a wiki. As I said, until I use it myself, I won't really be able to evaluate its usefulness for me.
I think that until I try starting a wiki, I won't really know how much I like it and what the advantages and disadvantages are. I do like the idea of a book lovers wiki. I'd love to start one for students to add their summer reading selections to, along with their reviews and recommendations. I'm not sure how this would work out for elementary students. A few people suggested starting a wiki for library staff or volunteers and this sounds intriguing to me. I don't know how comfortable volunteers would feel adding to it.
I enjoyed the article, "Using Wikis to Create Online Communities" with all its excellent suggestions. Recently the librarians in my district have been working on long range planning documents as well as plans for the "Optimum School Library" (requested by the superintendent). We had several meetings and I see that we could have set this up as a wiki and worked on it collaboratively. I will be on the look-out for other opportunities to use this technology. I will be on leave for 2 months soon and perhaps I can use some of that time to start a wiki. As I said, until I use it myself, I won't really be able to evaluate its usefulness for me.
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