The Dewey Decimal Rap

This is great! Would serve as a great focus for introducing students to the Dewey Decimal System.

Librarian's Blues

This seemed personally relevant and funny, specially at the end of the school year.

Thing Twenty: You Tube

I enjoyed the video Introducing the Book and just like written in the comments area, it is indeed the reaction of many who are not used to computers, Internet, or many of the tools we have discovered this summer through this session.

Likes from YouTube: Suggetions in topic related videos, ease with which videos can be shared through e-mail or added to Blogger.
Dislikes: Little moderation of course in what is added or comments. One might be better of using TeacherTube.com

I believe some of the videos can be used as part of library instruction, such as the Dewey Decimal rap found although they probably have to be saved as many school districts will block YouTube.

The Biggest Losers

The Biggest Losers

Thing Nineteen : My Library Thing

Wow...My Library Thing is pretty interesting. It's a sure way to connect with others who are reading or have read what one is interested in. I also like the way that you can get recommendation of similar items to read based on titles you have added to your personal collection. It is a pretty extensive tool, with a lot more to learn from. It took me a while to add my widget, but I did it!

Thing Eighteen: Zoho Writer

With the requirements of creating new accounts for every new tool users want to explore, I was glad that Zoho Writer allows users to sign in with an existing Google or Yahoo account. One less username/password to remember!
In general, Zoho Writer seems pretty simple to use as it has many of the same features as Microsof Word. I'm wondering how it differs from GoogleDocs and which one users who have had the opportunity to use both extensively preffer?

**[1] This is a comment insert. Users have to click on the speech bubble to see the comment.
**I'm trying out the share component by adding e-mail recipients and enabling them to read/write on this document. This facilitates collaboration and sharing of ideas.
**I like the exporting/importing features. Users can even import from GoogleDocs
** Cool! What a relief. I had trouble getting my computer to process my request of posting to my blog and thought I had lost this document! Apparently, work is being saved automatically and remains on file to retrieve even after technical difficulties.

I've tried the posting to my blog option but have been unsuccessful. I am asked to sign in with https mode, however I don't know what I am being prompted to do. Any suggestions? Has anyone been successful with posting to Blogger through Zoho Writer?

Thing Seventeen: Region One Sandbox and Web 2.0

The California 2.0 Curriculum Connections wiki had some creative ideas of how to incorporate wikis into education. It helped in clarifying the value in this tool for student learning and engagement. I really liked the idea of using a wiki as part of a book club where members can post questions, comments, reviews, make suggestions for future reads etc. Several other ideas included collaboration amongst staff. One specific idea for the library was to have all district librarians use a wiki to establish district guidelines for the use of AR. I thought this was great because this program is big in many school districts, but it sometimes seems that teachers at each school each have their own understanding as to what is allowed and what should not be happening. A wiki could serve as a place for sharing thougts. Again, lots of great ideas not only for wiki application but also for other 2.0 tools.

Blogs vs. Wikis

I found this on YouTube and thought that while comical, it also offered some insight into using blogs vs wikis.

Thing Sixteen: Wiks

Both Wikis and Blogs can be used by students as collaboration tools where some of the main differences are on the format and type/extent of participation. Also, both are great opportunities to engage students in reading and writing. Through further research into Wikis and Blogs I learned that Wikis make it possible for multiple users to have editing capabilities whereas with Blogs, the creator has this ability and others can participate only through commenting. From learning about Wikis, personally the most concerning aspect about the ease with which members can add and edit information is that this right can be abused by purposefuly adding misleading information or by commenting with sarcasm or negativism although there can be some type of control with wikis because to edit, login is required.

Some classroom uses for Wikis are those projects or ongoing activities that require student collaboration for students to benefit from the experience and where the gained knowledge is being edited and shared.

Thing Fifteen: Web 2.0 Future of Libraries

In thinking about Libraries 2.0 and the the impact on the future of libraries, indeed the first thing that does come to mind is the integration of technology for learning. With Web 2.0 and Libraries 2.0, however, I think that the integration of technology goes beyond the lone, independent user and learner to a highly collaborative and social environment where technology is being integrated to learn from and with others. The effect on the future of libraries lies on how well libraries and those running these libraries address the newer needs of the patrons. As the "Away from the icebergs" principle describes, libraries are not now about the print collection that must be amassed in order to serve a need that may arise at one point. In this age, information is more readily accessible than ever through the Internet. So the question is, how do libraries continue to be of value in this new age? Something to ponder about...

Thing Fourteen:Technorati

"School Library Learning 2.0" search under Blog Posts yields 0 results.
Search under Blog Directory also yields 0 results.
When I opened the "Tags" link I was unable to find the option for typing in a keyword for searchings. All I was able to view was a listing of most recent tags used in the last months. Was anybody able to search results for "School Library Learning 2.0" under Tags? If so, what was the difference?

The value of using tags is that they serve as a way to organize information and make it more accessible to others. Technorati makes use of tags to facilitate a user's location of desired material by keywords. These tags are assigned by other bloggers to classify their posts or articles.

Thing Thirteen:Using Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us is another great Web 2.0 tool to be familiar with. I had heard of it, but had not really looked into it, which is why I am glad I decided to sign up for this course: it requires that we dedicate some time to hands on exploration of tools that can increase productivity and collaboration.

As the narrator in the Common Crafts Del.icio.us Video mentioned, adding websites to one's Favorites tab or Bookmarking them is the "old way" of doing things and this is where I was still at with a long, long list of favorite websites which I had attempted to organize in folders but yet somehow still kept losing track of. I like the idea of using personal tags for organizing websites and being able to access these bookmarked sites from any computer, not just from home. After registering I followed the steps for exporting my already bookmarked sites under Favorites to Del.icio.us.

There is good potential for use in the professional and/or educational setting. Researchers could keep track of any relevant sites to a topic and then have accessibility from any other computer as well as being able to share bookmarked sites with other student researchers, building a community of learning and collaboration. Being able to view what others have already bookmarked makes the researching process more time effective since one can view what others have already found useful.

The value of this tool for collaboration is big. I liked that the concept was explained as a huge file cabinet where bookmarked and tagged sites where thought of as files in which others could peek into to borrow information which had already been acquired. I'd imagine that having an account for a school would benefit teaching staff through the sharing of valuable resources found.

Thing Twelve: Rollyo

The Searchroll created through Rollyo is "Help With Parenting". I decided on this category because it is something that is on my mind now more than ever as I strive to make the right parenting desicions with my 4 and a half year old who seems to be gaining more assertiveness and independence as she grows. (not that these are bad qualities, but they do interfere with our requests from her at times) Besides, I think that this will be an area of concern and/or interest for all parents wanting to bring up well disciplined and emotionally stable children.

So, creating this Searchroll was not a difficult experience at all. As with most Web 2.0 applications there is a need for registering in order to make one's Searchroll public, which means that other Rollyo users will be able to access it. The information required for this, however, is minimal.

One concern I have, though, is that I am only able to view my Searchroll after signing in. If I sign out and select the link provided here, the search option of Help with Parenting does not seem to be available to the general user (I'm thinking users have to be registered users themselves?)Does anyone have any ideas about what to do about this? I do not see a FAQ or Help link for Rollyo...

Thing Eleven: Web 2.0

I know this may seem strange at this point in time when the application has been around for about 2-3 years now (I think this is when I started hearing about it), but I have yet to make personal or professional use of GoogleDocs. However, I have heard others raving about it so I decided to give this a try for evaluation in Thing Eleven. I gained alot of useful information from Google for Educators
such as use in education, components, and how to share docuements through Google Docs. For those of us who are new to this, it is well worth taking a look.

Likes: Love that this is so easily accessible and easy to use. Really, if one if familiar with using Microsoft Word Document, then there is not much to it with the exception of learning how to share documents. Also, for those of us who often worry about losing data (oops, lost my pin drive, my computer picked up a virus, I forgot to save, etc.) this option practically eliminates all these worries because all that is needed is access to Internet and all of the data is stored and can be accessed at all times from anyplace.

Dislikes:
Although when I signed up for GoogleDocs, I really didn't take the time to really read through the Terms of Service statements (I know I should) I learned through Google for Educators that users must be at least 13 years of age in order to make use of GoogleDocs meaning that Elementary students would not be able to benefit from classroom application (although their teachers could for tracking progress, making spreadsheets for grades, etc.)

Useful Features:
One of the most outstanding features in GoogleDocs is the capability of sharing which promotes and facilitates collaboration. Whereas some of us are still using the "I'll e-mail you my document so that you can add/delete as needed, then you e-mail me the revised portion" idea, with GoogleDocs, users can add collaborators to share their work with enabling them to add comments and revisions. Each subsequent draft is saved and history of these changes is available. Also, final drafts can be published in a student's or classroom's blog easily.

Classroom/Library applications:
The sharing feature in GoogleDocs makes it a fun way for students and teachers to participate in collaborative projects. Some ideas found were that of using this tool as part of the Writing process whereby collaborators contributed with comments and revisions to help improve a student's draft.