Enjoying and exploring

I found this cartoon at the blog, LibraryBytes. Somehow, I couldn't resist including it here.

So I have further used my 23 things: I have chatted via Facebook with my son in Greece (soon to be home in Minnesota for 2 weeks!), I have found lesson plans on water usage and the Jordan River in Israel, and I have become wicked good at bilging on Puzzle Pirates. (Okay, maybe a little TOO good at Puzzle Pirates...)

Seriously though, I have gotten more comfortable and more efficient at finding materials than I was before, and I was pretty good to start with. This past week I even found a bilingual (Hebrew-English) picture book about desert animals in the Negev for a first grade unit on, wait for it, desert animals in the Negev. And it's even adorable.

Well, enough self-praise. But I wouldn't have been quite so successful at this without the 23 things on a stick. So now I almost have time to play Puzzle Pirates again!

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.

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 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!

Thing 7

Thing 7—Communication

I work in a small, k-8 school library which also has a specialized library for adults. (It’s a Jewish day school, so we have an adult Judaica section.) Email has not really been used by students, but I do respond to occasional adult requests by email. However, email is critical for my work with my teacher colleagues. It is the fastest and easiest way to make sure someone sees an idea or request without interrupting a class. (Voice mail seems like a parent thing at school, not a colleague thing.)

Right now, I can’t see the Web 2.0 tools being very useful to the students. Our catalogue, while computerized, is not easily accessible by anyone other than me. Our books are not bar coded. I still read Kindergarten handwriting on little cards from book pockets. We hope to upgrade (eventually), but as small private school, costs are somewhat prohibitive.

On the other hand, I found it wonderful to discover the Minitex web conferences. While I couldn’t do a live one, I watched the webinar on del.icio.us and it was wonderful. I immediately went and set up my account and have told a number of teachers about it. I also think that some of these videos we have been directed to would be useful for our upper-school students as part of our technology training.

I haven’t yet tried to use chat, although I am corralling some of my friends into trying it with me. But I steadfastly refuse to do text messaging. My spouse has a Blackberry, and let’s just say it’s a topic I am becoming increasingly homicidal about. ;-)