Saturday, March 28, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Week 10
Blogs, Wikis,...- This chapter was all about using Flickr. I had heard of Flickr and had looked at flickr but because I am not into taking pictures I never explored it further. I am not sure if I like the idea of everyone sharing their photos with the world (my issue is what if someone takes your picture and now they upload it into Flickr?) but it is a nice way of storing your photos, and organizing them! I hate putting photos into albums and then what do you do with the extra pictures? Throw them out? There are only so many pictures that Grandma wants! It is also nice to be able to get pictures from Flickr. If you took a trip or your class is doing a project and you need a nice picture from somewhere you probably can find it on Flickr.
Richardson, the author of the book above feels that Flickr is one of the best sites on the web and that it's educational potential is huge (pg. 100). I had never given much thought to how flickr could be used in a learning environment other than getting some nice photos from someplace other than google images. There are many good ideas for using in a classroom. The first thing that I have to check is to see if whether teachers and students in my building can access it. It really is beginning to dawn on me how being in such a restrictive environment when it comes to technology really thwarts creativity. It would be nice to hear about all of these great uses for technology. I feel a responsibility as a library media specialist to be on the forefront on many of these ideas but as mentioned earlier it gets frustrating to not be able to use so many of the things that I learn about. Even if I can use them sometimes setting up the technology is such a pain that I find myself avoiding it; and forget about getting others to use it!
Again the collaborative nature of Flickr is what makes it such a great learning tool. The ability to connect with students around the world is incredible. This is supposed to be a global economy and yet schools act as though students will be staying in their town for their entire lives. I think the quote on the back of the book from Erica Boling, Asst. Prof. of Literacy Education at Rutgers sums it up quite nicely, " Hits the nail on the head by emphasizing how technology can be used in ways that go beyond one-on-one student use of software programs and teachers use of PowerPoint for presentations. The book emphasizes the collaborative work and learning that can occur when educators take advantage of all that the Internet has to offer." To read more about Dr. Boling's current research which investigates the impact of technology on teaching and learning and how the integration of technology can challenge the fundamental beliefs that educators hold about literacy education click here.
Richardson, the author of the book above feels that Flickr is one of the best sites on the web and that it's educational potential is huge (pg. 100). I had never given much thought to how flickr could be used in a learning environment other than getting some nice photos from someplace other than google images. There are many good ideas for using in a classroom. The first thing that I have to check is to see if whether teachers and students in my building can access it. It really is beginning to dawn on me how being in such a restrictive environment when it comes to technology really thwarts creativity. It would be nice to hear about all of these great uses for technology. I feel a responsibility as a library media specialist to be on the forefront on many of these ideas but as mentioned earlier it gets frustrating to not be able to use so many of the things that I learn about. Even if I can use them sometimes setting up the technology is such a pain that I find myself avoiding it; and forget about getting others to use it!
Again the collaborative nature of Flickr is what makes it such a great learning tool. The ability to connect with students around the world is incredible. This is supposed to be a global economy and yet schools act as though students will be staying in their town for their entire lives. I think the quote on the back of the book from Erica Boling, Asst. Prof. of Literacy Education at Rutgers sums it up quite nicely, " Hits the nail on the head by emphasizing how technology can be used in ways that go beyond one-on-one student use of software programs and teachers use of PowerPoint for presentations. The book emphasizes the collaborative work and learning that can occur when educators take advantage of all that the Internet has to offer." To read more about Dr. Boling's current research which investigates the impact of technology on teaching and learning and how the integration of technology can challenge the fundamental beliefs that educators hold about literacy education click here.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Week 8
Blogs, Wikis...- I had been introduced to blogging in another class, Current Issues also led by Dr. Joe Martinelli. I wasn't sure how I was going to react to blogging. I had participated in a blog set up by my brother-in-law but wasn't really sure how to set up a blog. Once I set up my account on blogger.com I realized how easy it was. I then used blogging in my technical processes class. Most everyone enjoyed it. I had one concern and that was actually a concern voiced by someone else and that is how can we keep up with all of these blogs. I thought it would be nice to have a library blog (assuming my district would allow it) but I did not think that I could keep up with it on a regular basis. My brother-in-laws blog is illustrative of this problem. He started it in 2007. At first he posted several times, as did I. One or two other relatives made a few comments but since the summer of '07 none of us has posted a single new entry.
The chapter on setting up a blog wasn't as valuable to me as I had already set up a blog using google's blogger. I glanced through the information and found it very easy to understand. It would be a good resource for someone setting up a blog for the first time. I agree with Richardson that in order to really get students involved in something is to do it yourself.
Although I enjoyed blogging I never really thought about what a great educational tool it could be. I had thought of some ways to use it in a classroom (and I guess I didn't think about it too much because I know that blogs are blocked in our district; although one teacher found a "safe" blog and she was able to get permission to use it with her class) but hadn't thought about all of the different ways that author, Will Richardson proposes. He says he is from NJ. I would love to meet this guy. He had his class do a blog with the author of one of my favorite books, The Secret Life of Bees. How neat is that? He says that her book had just come out and he contacted her publisher. I am not sure that she would be willing to do something like that now, but what a great experience for Richardson's students.
Eventhough I haven't used a blog in my work experience yet I feel comfortable that I could set one up and could discuss the merits of blogging with coworkers. But when I saw the subject of chapt. 5 was RSS I began to feel a little guilty. I went to a workshop on Web 2.0 for librarians at least a year ago. At the time I felt that RSS was something that I as a librarian needed to do. I also felt that it was something that should be introduced into EDST 6216 Digital Research and Information Literacy. Did I do it? No! I got the concept of RSS feeds but just never got around to setting up any feeds. In my defense I often feel so overwhelmed by all of the information that is out there that I just don't know how to keep up with it all. The book includes directions for setting up an RSS feed using google. I will try it out as soon as I am done blogging. I think for me as a school library media specialist the most important aspect of RSS is that when you are doing research you can set up a feed so that you get instant notifications of new information. How neat will that be for students doing research. Now they can follow a topic of interest without doing much digging. The information will come to them!
The information in Chapt. 6 wasn't new to me. As mentioned above I had attended a workshop on Web 2.0 for librarians. The speakers discusses RSS, Twitter, Face Book, and bookmarking sites. I liked the idea of twitter but didn't get into it. I am not sure that I will because no one that I am close to "tweats." So I am not sure what or who I would twitter about! But as a librarian I do need to keep up with these things. I sometimes feel like I work in a technological backwater. I learn things at SHU or at conferences and come back only to find that none of these innovations can be implemented. It gets very discouraging. I have used de.licio.us but not on a regular basis. Again, I just don't have the time. I have tried to get teachers interested in it but so far we haven't done much. I have to get back on, although I may have to use something other than de.licio.us as I read recently that their entire server crashed and they lost everyone's files. Not a good thing. They were hoping to get it back up and running but I am not sure that they did that. Shows one of the dangers of keeping everything stored in only one place.
I think that the social nature of the web is very fascinating. Something like Wikipedia shows the strength and the weaknesses of the common man as expert. Some of the entries are phenomenal. I once worked with a class on German musicians and looked up the Wikipedia entry on Mozart. It was extremely detailed and appeared to be very accurate. We used that entry as an example of how to use Wikipedia for research. But there are other entries that appear to be written by 6th graders and the information is sketchy at best. But Wikipedia can give you information on topics that you can't find anywhere else. The connectivity of Web 2.0 now means that people aren't sitting isolated behind a computer screen but can rather reach out and meet or reconnect with people with similar interests or backgrounds.
The chapter on setting up a blog wasn't as valuable to me as I had already set up a blog using google's blogger. I glanced through the information and found it very easy to understand. It would be a good resource for someone setting up a blog for the first time. I agree with Richardson that in order to really get students involved in something is to do it yourself.
Although I enjoyed blogging I never really thought about what a great educational tool it could be. I had thought of some ways to use it in a classroom (and I guess I didn't think about it too much because I know that blogs are blocked in our district; although one teacher found a "safe" blog and she was able to get permission to use it with her class) but hadn't thought about all of the different ways that author, Will Richardson proposes. He says he is from NJ. I would love to meet this guy. He had his class do a blog with the author of one of my favorite books, The Secret Life of Bees. How neat is that? He says that her book had just come out and he contacted her publisher. I am not sure that she would be willing to do something like that now, but what a great experience for Richardson's students.
Eventhough I haven't used a blog in my work experience yet I feel comfortable that I could set one up and could discuss the merits of blogging with coworkers. But when I saw the subject of chapt. 5 was RSS I began to feel a little guilty. I went to a workshop on Web 2.0 for librarians at least a year ago. At the time I felt that RSS was something that I as a librarian needed to do. I also felt that it was something that should be introduced into EDST 6216 Digital Research and Information Literacy. Did I do it? No! I got the concept of RSS feeds but just never got around to setting up any feeds. In my defense I often feel so overwhelmed by all of the information that is out there that I just don't know how to keep up with it all. The book includes directions for setting up an RSS feed using google. I will try it out as soon as I am done blogging. I think for me as a school library media specialist the most important aspect of RSS is that when you are doing research you can set up a feed so that you get instant notifications of new information. How neat will that be for students doing research. Now they can follow a topic of interest without doing much digging. The information will come to them!
The information in Chapt. 6 wasn't new to me. As mentioned above I had attended a workshop on Web 2.0 for librarians. The speakers discusses RSS, Twitter, Face Book, and bookmarking sites. I liked the idea of twitter but didn't get into it. I am not sure that I will because no one that I am close to "tweats." So I am not sure what or who I would twitter about! But as a librarian I do need to keep up with these things. I sometimes feel like I work in a technological backwater. I learn things at SHU or at conferences and come back only to find that none of these innovations can be implemented. It gets very discouraging. I have used de.licio.us but not on a regular basis. Again, I just don't have the time. I have tried to get teachers interested in it but so far we haven't done much. I have to get back on, although I may have to use something other than de.licio.us as I read recently that their entire server crashed and they lost everyone's files. Not a good thing. They were hoping to get it back up and running but I am not sure that they did that. Shows one of the dangers of keeping everything stored in only one place.
I think that the social nature of the web is very fascinating. Something like Wikipedia shows the strength and the weaknesses of the common man as expert. Some of the entries are phenomenal. I once worked with a class on German musicians and looked up the Wikipedia entry on Mozart. It was extremely detailed and appeared to be very accurate. We used that entry as an example of how to use Wikipedia for research. But there are other entries that appear to be written by 6th graders and the information is sketchy at best. But Wikipedia can give you information on topics that you can't find anywhere else. The connectivity of Web 2.0 now means that people aren't sitting isolated behind a computer screen but can rather reach out and meet or reconnect with people with similar interests or backgrounds.
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