Tired and Musing

Today I am wishing I could spend time looking at fun and interesting things to do with my Library 2.0 skill that I learned. But instead I need to shelve books, process books, and go to meetings. On the plus side, I got to see my son's photos from Pompeii. On the down side, it makes me feel more trapped in Minnesota, the land where winter is seeming to never end.

Sigh... Maybe next week will bring greater optimism.

To Infinity and Beyond

Today I read my feeds on Google Reader, checked my Yahoo account, and checked my Facebook account. I got to see new photos that my son posted from his spring break in Italy (he's studying in Greece this semester), which I wouldn't have known about except for the fact that he posts them on Facebook. I was able to do some quick searching to find an interesting interactive map for our 6th grade teachers, and helped a teacher find some beginning materials for the Junior Great Books program. All in all, a highly successful post 23 things day.

Now if only I could convince the powers that be that staff should all get a naptime...

Thing 23 -- Evaluation

Doing this program has made me much more comfortable navigating some aspects of the web. I no longer assume that my students or children know more about things that I do. In fact, now I can see how much more I do understand than they do. That makes me aware too, though, of how much more I need to teach them. They may be digital natives, but sometimes those of us who are immigrants understand the nuances of language better.

My only disappointment in this program was how little other people seemed to comment on each other's blogs. I only received occasional (2 or 3) comments from people who weren't my friends who were reading my blog in that light. I tried to go out and comment on other people's work, and will continue to do so. I would have benefited from, and greatly enjoyed, more commentary from my professional peers. Perhaps you could try to sort people into groups--school librarians, public librarians, etc.--as a way to create a focus for people to "meet" electronically.

I have enjoyed so much about this program it's hard to be very specific. I found much of it directly linked to teaching that I have been doing or am now planning to do. But for sheer fun, I loved the photo sites like Flickr and Big Huge Labs, and I annoyed my family for several days after playing at being a pirate in Puzzle Pirates. What I have learned is already enabling me to help fellow teachers as well as students, and we are building many of these skills into our curriculum maps for the future.

I do hope to repurpose this blog--or create a new incarnation with a new name. I will certainly post it here if I do so.

It has been a pleasure, and I appreciate having the opportunity to participate in this program.

Thing 22 – Planning Ahead

I find that I will miss the demand of 23 things. It’s easier for me to meet a challenging deadline than it is to make time for things I want to do. But I am glad that I am being asked to create a plan—I do have the capacity to create a plan and stick to it. (Sometimes, anyway…)

So here goes—

1. I have signed up for Web Junction and subscribed to the Crossroads newsletter. That will get me to look in at specific times.
2. I am already enjoying getting emails from the Ning sessions that I commented on. I plan to stop there when I have an occasional question or to see what people are talking about.
3. I have made “iGoogle” my home page, so that I check the feeds I subscribe to on a daily basis (at least). I also can check my Yahoo mail there with a widget and I subscribed to technology and education news sites so that I frequent updates.
4. I will be using many of the early tools on a regular basis. I have already used Flickr and Big Huge Labs for signs, I will be using them for a student project soon, and I will be exploring podcasts in the not too distant future. We will also be considering having our students use Blogger to correspond with our partner school in Israel, since Blogger is Hebrew capable. How cool is that?
5. Given that I am a former writing teacher, I think I will be able to make time for blogging. My only fear is that no one will read what I write. (That is what Site Meter has suggested lately.) Still, that never stopped me before. I may, however rename it or create a new one. If I do, I will put the link into my 23 things blog.
6. I will share with my fellow teachers. One of the best ways that I have discovered to sharpen and to retain my skills in any given area is to share what I have learned. I plan to offer opportunities for the teachers at my school to learn some of what I have learned during this course. They may not be sure at first, but…
7. I plan to teach students how to use some of the tools we have been exploring. I especially want to show them Google Docs and the power of Wikis, the value of using a Research project calculator, and the wisdom of using something like ELM.

I have benefited greatly from the experience of doing these things. I look forward to looking forward to Library 2.0 and counting!

Thing 21 -- Other Social Networking

After reading the articles that you listed, I found myself somewhat curious about how I could use these social networks. I don’t live on line at home, and wouldn’t really want my elementary and middle school students contacting me that way anyhow. (Not that they would want to talk to the librarian outside of school—EWWW!) Anyway, I joined Ning for the 23 Things on a stick Group and the Teacher Librarian Ning. It was pretty interesting to look at and comment on some of the forum issues being discussed. The Teacher Librarian Ning had a forum on blogs, which I both subscribed to and added my own for some more traffic (I hope!).

I think the forum questions and responses might be useful to look at occasionally or to post to if I run into a professional question. But I find the feeds more useful because I can glance through those more easily in the morning when I get to work.

Again, given that I don’t live on line at home, I probably wouldn’t spend quite so much time looking at all this material if it weren’t for doing this program. But I am glad to get the exposure and to know that the opportunity is out there for when the time is available.

I will say that I found these options more useful for what I do and plan to do than Facebook. Being on Facebook simply makes me feel old. Sigh.

Thing 20 -- Social Networking

Whew! I never knew just how big a deal this whole issue is until I (perhaps naively) invited my 14 year old son to be my Facebook friend. He just said, "Mom, all my friends would see. I'm not really comfortable with that." After spending several days as the only person in the world with NO Facebook friends, I invited my 20 year old son who took pity on me. Ah, it sure makes me feel like I'm in the ostracizing land of middle or high school again.

I can, though, understand the appeal, given how my sons use this site. I have been able to view my older son's photos while he is studying abroad, my younger son has stayed in touch with former school mates, and they each use it to connect with friends near and far. When I think about how I fell out of touch with classmates in the various years of education I have gone through, I am glad that this newer generation at least has an easier technology to help them keep in touch, if they choose to.

I joined 2 groups, "Librarians and Web 2.0" and "Librarians and Facebook." I did like a video that I found on the first, which I posted below.

So, please "friend" me so that I don't feel like that sad 13 year old that lives inside all of us!

My Facebook status is:


Lydia Schultz
is learning how to be a true library geek.

Web Tools and Teaching

I found this video posted on the facebook page of the "Librarians and Web 2.0" group. I thought it was interesting and worth sharing further. I have mixed feelings about teaching students only how to do things that are interesting or fun or comfortable. However, I also have issues with doing ONLY things that they find boring or hard or difficult. As a school librarian and teacher, I find that I have to work to find an appropriate balance to make work interesting and challenging without making it only fun or too difficult.

Thing 19 -- Podcasts

I listened to a podcast from MN Public Radio called the "Grammar Grater" since I am a card-carrying member of the Grammar Police. I think that site was the easiest to find a podcast I wanted, given it was clearly organized. I enjoyed the podcast and have subscribed to it. I've included a link here as well. (The title is a hot link.)

I hope to figure out podcasting to do as well. My school has already occasionally posted mp3 recordings, so I think we can do one more formally as well. My teacher-partner and I are going to work on learning this, so if we figure it out, I'll post our effort here.

Thing 17 -- ELM

I was a bit frustrated because I did manage to find the feed information on the ELM site as instructed, but my Google Reader account wouldn't accept the URL as a paste. Still, I find the site useful and as a small private school that can't afford to subscribe to data bases, this access provided by our state government is fabulous.

Thing 18 -- You Tube

A teacher at my school discovered this song explanation to help her math students learn the differences between mean, median, and mode. It was frighteningly effective. I heard fifth graders walking around singing it for days after she showed it to them. It really makes clear what sort of learners our students are!

I guess that experience made clear that You Tube could be helpful. I just find that as a teacher I have to moderate between the students and the site, since there is also much that I would prefer they didn't find.

Thing 16 -- Student 2.0 Tools

I foudn both of these sites marvelous. In my previous life as a college English teacher, I had to break down my writing assignments for my students much as the one from the U of Minnesota does. But how wonderful that someone else can walk them through both the timing and the reading of the assignment!

The Research Project Calculator is also a wonderful tool. The teacher materials are quite helpful and the activities suggested for students are also great. (My tech teacher partner and I are planning to use the one for evaluating web sites today with our 5th graders!) The calculator can help both teacher and student navigate how much time the various parts of the project should take, and that allows students to make good use of their planners (which the school requires) and helps them break up the tasks appropriately.

All in all, a great tool. While time management is one of my strong skills, I plan to pass this tool on to my 9th grade son to help him sort out his assignments.

Thing 15 -- On-Line Gaming

I experimented with Puzzle Pirates. I learned both to bilge and to carpent. I think the games are very appropriate for students in the upper part of my school (5 through 8), but I probably didn't play long enough to get a sense of how the interactions would go. I only interacted with the captains of each ship, and while entertaining, I found that I would forget to respond. I'm more accustomed to participating in games that involve my reading and solving puzzles, but not me interacting with other characters. I could see that this could be fun if people signed up with friends, so that you were interacting together.

Still, I'm not sure how much of a role this can play in school. Any games that are out on the Internet inherently are harder to control, and that makes it harder for parents and teachers to know how appropriate they are.

Nevertheless, I say, "Arggh! The Pirate Shalera bids thee fare well!"

Thing 14 -- LibraryThing

I really like LibraryThing, at least at its most simple. I could see having a library blog with reviews, both of my own and of the ones on the site, which would allow students to see more information than they might otherwise. It could very easily be a way to construct some recommendations for summer reading, or for teachers to collect information on possible books for their students.

Personally, I want to go home and catalogue my own collection. My husband has been bugging me to do this for insurance purposes (I have a Ph.D. in English, need I say more?), so this seems the best tool out there.

It has been fun to play with LibraryThing, and I put two of its widgets on my blog already.

Thing 13

I chose to set up a home page with iGoogle because I had chosen Google Reader earlier for my Rss feed. I also found that it would let me put my yahoo email account on the page, so that made it easier. Unfortunately, I can’t connect to my Outlook calendar because that is protected from my school. I also can’t figure out if I can link my other email account to the site, so I will still have to visit it independently. Since I was able to link to the news through the NYTimes at iGoogle, I have just made it my home page. I condensed four tabs I usually open in the morning to just 2, so I guess that is something of a timesaver.

I don’t think I will use the calendar element much, although if I wasn’t committed to using Outlook at work, I might. I liked that I could link “Don’t forget the Milk” to the iGoogle calendar.

Many of the other items just seem like too much hassle for my everyday life. I can’t really see much use for any of this at my school library either. I think some of the other tools we have been exposed to—Google Docs or PBWiki—are much more useful for my applications.

I did, however, make a customized “gadget” for my remaining 23 Things on my iGoogle page. It was less able to do what I wanted though. I was hoping for hot links to the remaining tasks so that I could just click and work! You can see it on my iGoogle page--There's a link on the title.

Thing 12 -- Digg

I used Digg, because it was the one that seemed easiest to try after the introduction. I did find the attempt at contemporary slang somewhat annoying. And, sorry, I will always find the expression "to pimp" anything to be offensive, given its historical meaning. I can't get past that one.

I can imagine that I could use this site to condense material or collect material if I were working with current events or trying to research a particular event on-line. However, I don’t think it will really be too helpful at my school library. I have bookmarked a variety of sites that I look at when I have time. I don’t really think this would be something I would do on a regular basis.

Still, it might be an interesting way to assemble articles on a particular topic to ascertain whether or not bias is apparent and how point of view influences media stories.

Curriculum Planning and 23 Things

While I am still firmly in the middle of my learning from 23 Things on a stick, I am finding that this progam is helping spur my thinking in how to improve the curriculum for library and technology at my school. Our students (K through 8) need to know these skills to succeed in the world that awaits them.

My technology colleague and I have already thought of many ways to use what I have learned so far.

For example:
* blog in Hebrew with their Israeli partners (Blogger is Hebrew-enabled)
* podcast songs and other materials to help students learn
* compare and teach how to use bookmarks on the desktop vs. del.icio.us
* use wikis or Google Docs for collaborative work

This program has done a great deal to help us think of interesting and fun things to do to bring our classrooms into the 21st century. Thanks for providing me with this opportunity.

Thing 11--Social Bookmarking

I have recommended this process to colleagues before I used it myself. Now I find it especially helpful. We are going to start teaching the idea to our 7th and 8th graders as a way for them to understand the difference between “desktop” bookmarks and “on-line” bookmarks, and to encourage them to use the web based ones.

I haven’t really thought about using these sites for the library itself. I think it might be very useful for our staff and faculty to use a shared site as a way to make available all of the curriculum resources we have found. Maybe if we were a high school or adult library, these sites would make more sense insofar as it could preempt some questions for the reference people.

Thing 10--Wikis

I think wikis will prove a fabulous way to work collaboratively. I like that the changes appear seamlessly. My only issue is that a later writer might not know some of the intermediary steps that happened. I realize that a person can go to the archived versions, but sometimes it’s hard to return to a better phrasing or undo a worse one.

I think that reviews could be an interesting way to use wikis with older students, but I almost think a blog would be better. Because we are in the process of “teaching” students how to be respectful of other opinions and how to use appropriate language when reviewing materials, an intermediary might be important. But for a true collaboration among peers, a wiki could be heavenly.

Wikipedia is a tricky issue for me. I explain to students how it works, and I encourage them to use it only as a preliminary, deep background source. But given the research done on this issue, it has become clear that Wikipedia is about as accurate (and inaccurate) as any other encyclopedia out there.

I edited the 23 things on a stick wiki, in the messed up classics section. But I felt sad about doing it—I liked the messed up versions better!

Daniel's Greece Photos

To those of my friends and colleagues (and anyone from the 23 things too), my son Daniel is spending the semester in Greece. I thought I would share some of his photographs using the tools I am learning.