Tuesday, December 16, 2008
#23 Copyright
The example of attribution occurs right on the first part of the video where the title is given and then it says where the video is really from. When using resources that are not your own it is necessary to always credit the author. We try to teach our elementary kids that and how important it is. They are just beginning to learn that skill. Learning to do that with books or websites is one thing, but when placing technology tools in a new context it is also necessary and another skill that must be taught.
Del.icio.us
I enjoyed playing with this and think it would be a good bookmarking tool to use. Right now I have 23 computers to bookmark things on individually which takes a lot of time. Del.icio.us would help keep everything organized and I wouldn't have to worry about bookmarking sites on every single computer.Right now my district blocks this site, so I will need to talk to someone to share with them how beneficial it could be.
Monday, December 15, 2008
# 21 - "Robinson Crusoe"
To listen to a chapter, press the blue play button.
A podcast powered by FeedBurner
Readings courtesy of http://www.candlelightstories.com/
First of all, I am looking at these assignments so late in the game (yes, I am a procrastinator) that the links I have tried no longer work. Again, podcasts are totally engaging to students. Listening to audiobooks would be a great help to my students who cannot read so much themselves. The other way my students could benefit from this is if they were required to make a podcast themselves. I have asked my district for permission to do this, but am still waiting on that. So far they have told me that podcasting is not an option for us.
# 20 YouTube - Billy Joel "We Didn't Start The Fire"
I chose this youtube video because it is one my daughters request time after time to hear and sing with. I have looked at teacher tube for educational things and there are so many to use. The one drawback at my school is that youtube is blocked and teacher tube takes too long getting the video. We can only watch a few seconds at at time and then have to wait minutes, literally. My other favorite youtube video is the funny wedding dances. I can see why schools might want to block this site because I admit I wasn't using this site just for educational uses, but more for entertainment!
#22 eBooks and Audio eBooks
Right now I am a teacher librarian in a low income urban school. For over a year now we have been trying to think of ways that our non-English speaking population could listen to books in their native language. Since most of our non-English speaking families are low income they don't have access to ipods. While we would like to purchase some to check out to families, we also know that is taking a risk with some higher price items we are not guaranteed to be returned. Ebooks would also be another great option for our non-English speakers (it would be good for our English speakers, too!) because it would provide an opportunity to hear things in their native language that we don't have access to in print. I am going to talk to our ELL teacher since she would be able to access these things in her classroom, or we could find a way to provide some evening services to allow families a chance to try out some of these resources.
When exploring some of the sites available I enjoyed seeing how there are sites that have first editions of books, rare books, and even educational books that I could listen to.
Looking at these sites makes me feel like there are so many resources out there available to people that it is impossible to know about all of them.
When exploring some of the sites available I enjoyed seeing how there are sites that have first editions of books, rare books, and even educational books that I could listen to.
Looking at these sites makes me feel like there are so many resources out there available to people that it is impossible to know about all of them.
#19 LibraryThing
I really like LibraryThing. I like the ability to review books on the site, read others' reviews, organize my collection of books I have read, and chat with other readers.There are probably many more options I have not yet had time to play around with. I have had to stop myself from logging on too often because I could spend a lot, if not all, my free time on this site. It reminds me a lot of goodreads.com which one of my friends emailed me about. I chose to catalog books I had read most recently, so I just took the last five books I had read and catalogued those. I wasn't too surprised by anything I found, although I did find it interesting that some of my books were quite unpopular-hardly anyone else had read Lake Effect at all. It would be a good way for students to start keeping track of their reading. I still have a reading journal where I log all the books I have read. This would help them keep track and might seem more fun than taking the time to write about each book.
#16 Wikis
The ideas of wikis are not new to me. I have heard about wikis and used wikipedia a bit myself from time to time. As an elementary teacher librarian it is an interesting issue -whether or not to use wikipedia when looking for information. On one hand, sometimes we can find information using wikipedia that we cannot find on official websites. Yet, because the information is from wikipedia we do not know for certain that it is accurate since anyone can post things there. Elementary students are just trying to figure out how to evaluate websites so taking any website's word for things without knowing the background is not something we are trying to promote. I do think wikis are interesting for students to be aware of, and when my students did a project on biographies we ended up finding more useful information on some famous people on wikipedia than any other place.
The idea of using wikis to have students write a fact or two about a topic is very interesting to me. I think I could utilize this right now with my third grade group who are trying to find information on presidents.
After having looked at some of the example websites for the discovery exercise I liked that there was a collection of school websites on one wiki so that they could be easily accessed. As always, I think some of this has more opportunity to be used at a middle or high school level, but there are certainly some uses at the elementary level, too.
The idea of using wikis to have students write a fact or two about a topic is very interesting to me. I think I could utilize this right now with my third grade group who are trying to find information on presidents.
After having looked at some of the example websites for the discovery exercise I liked that there was a collection of school websites on one wiki so that they could be easily accessed. As always, I think some of this has more opportunity to be used at a middle or high school level, but there are certainly some uses at the elementary level, too.
#15 Perspectives
It is interesting to me to read the different articles on the future of libraries. I am from a small, rural area where our public library has three computers for its patrons. For the most part this satisfies our patrons. When I read about how libraries are changing I can see that this is happening and the need for it to happen, but I also realize that with an aging population in rural America we have many patrons who still like to find information in print sources. Things have changed a great deal already in this regard over the past decade and will continue to do so. Our librarians will have to work to make the patrons feel like they have access to more and better information using the computers than they do by looking everything up in books. Right now our economy is doing poorly. Libraries are more important than ever during this time. Resources are found at the library for free. Entertainment is free as well. Instead of spending budget dollars on the "just in case" collection that may never be utilized it is important to look at how the budget dollars can best be spent so that people and communities are best being served.
In a school library the idea of finding information on on line sources is interesting as well. High schools and middle schools may do this more than elementaries. I am in an elementary library in an urban setting. My budget dollars get reduced each year, it seems. Yet, I am still purchasing books. However, my students are not doing the heavy research like middle and high school students might. They are focusing on reading easy readers and chapter books. I don't have a lot of "just in case" stuff in my collection. We also suffer from random and all too frequent problems with our internet service. This makes for major problems when an activity has been planned using the internet and we are unable to access things.
Librarians will need to continue to look to the future in order to keep up with the changing roll of technology.
In a school library the idea of finding information on on line sources is interesting as well. High schools and middle schools may do this more than elementaries. I am in an elementary library in an urban setting. My budget dollars get reduced each year, it seems. Yet, I am still purchasing books. However, my students are not doing the heavy research like middle and high school students might. They are focusing on reading easy readers and chapter books. I don't have a lot of "just in case" stuff in my collection. We also suffer from random and all too frequent problems with our internet service. This makes for major problems when an activity has been planned using the internet and we are unable to access things.
Librarians will need to continue to look to the future in order to keep up with the changing roll of technology.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
#14 Week Six - Technorati
Technorati is something I could use for hours. It is so interesting to look at blogs when I search. I think students might have a little too much fun with this! :)
I am definitely registering my kids book blob on this so that I have more visitors. And, I will probably keep exploring this myself since there is so much to see.
I am definitely registering my kids book blob on this so that I have more visitors. And, I will probably keep exploring this myself since there is so much to see.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
#12 - Rollyo
As you will note from my blog, I have added my own Rollyo to my site. I have linked three of my favorite book websites into one location in order to be able to search quickly. As I find more websites that I feel are of value to me, I will be able to add them as well which should help in my searching. By using Rollyo I am able to more narrowly define my needs and interests, which helps speed up my own searching.
#11 Week 5 - 2.0 Award Winning Websites
LibraryThing is a great website for people who love books. It allows people to get together and discuss books they enjoy. There are capablities to blog about books, read reviews and review books yourself, chat with other readers, join groups of readers with similar interests, and be a part of author chats. This website would be a great tool for a public library. Since I am in an elementary media center and my students would not be able to engage in the discussions, it would be more beneficial to me to connect with other readers in this way.
Visit the LibraryThing Visit TeacherLibrarianNing
#10 Week 5- Online Image Generators
This project was not only a lot of fun, but there are several ways I could use this in my own library when teaching lessons - it certainly would get students to pay attention. The idea of being able to add captions to my own photographs opens up a whole new realm of possibilities and allows humor to be infused into lessons.
Right now in order to do this I would have to spend a great deal of time because it is all new to me, but with practice I know the time using this would decrease.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Week 3 -Technology
After my day at work today I could probably say a great deal about technology. Our Accelerated Reader program didn't work, our FASTT Math program didn't work and an entire wing of the building had computers that were freezing up and working so slowly no one could get anything done. Luckily I am able to call in to a technology help desk and they were able to dispatch two people to help with the problem. And, I am also thankful there was a problem and it wasn't just me making something up, or not thoroughly thinking through things. I am still not sure if I understand the problem completely, but the people who were operating so slowly had a faulty switch their ethernet cords were plugged into. According to our networking guy they were "dropping packets" whatever that means. I do know that when we pinged our server from their computers they timed out a number of times. This problem created the AR problem for the entire building. Tonight everyone should have been happy when they left school because that problem was resolved.
However, my technology problem is not resolved. The kindergarten classes and I spent weeks taking digital pictures of them making the alphabet letters with their bodies. We are done with that and now I am trying to print the pictures out. In my haste to show them the new pictures we took each week I ended up downloading duplicate copies of the pictures and have hundreds to sort through now to find all the A pictures, all the B pictures, etc. ARGH! And, once I find them I need to edit them since they are too dark. And then I cannot seem to center the pictures correctly on a piece of paper. This project which I still think is very cute, is turning into a major headache.
So, my technology post seems to be my frustration with this very necessary part of my job. When it works, it is great, but if it doesn't it is a nightmare!
However, my technology problem is not resolved. The kindergarten classes and I spent weeks taking digital pictures of them making the alphabet letters with their bodies. We are done with that and now I am trying to print the pictures out. In my haste to show them the new pictures we took each week I ended up downloading duplicate copies of the pictures and have hundreds to sort through now to find all the A pictures, all the B pictures, etc. ARGH! And, once I find them I need to edit them since they are too dark. And then I cannot seem to center the pictures correctly on a piece of paper. This project which I still think is very cute, is turning into a major headache.
So, my technology post seems to be my frustration with this very necessary part of my job. When it works, it is great, but if it doesn't it is a nightmare!
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Reading Fun
This blog is meant to review books for my friends and let others know what great new books are out there. It is also a way for me to let people know some books that just don't quite make the cut and what not to waste your time on.
So far this week I have been going through my stack of old stuff and trying to read some books that I know will be OK, but are not things I plan on holding onto for forever. I have a long way to go!
I did get two of the Iowa Childrens Choice books for 2008-09 read: Tadpole by Ruth White and Do You Know the Monkey Man? by Dori Hilstead Butler. Both are fast, entertaining, great reads. Butler's book will keep kids in suspense the entire time- it kept ME in suspense, too. And, White's book is excellent....with one big BUT....there is a lot of dialect in it. For example, instead of except they might write 'cept. Good luck to kids trying to understand this. The story is still superb if the readers will spend some time thinking.
So far this week I have been going through my stack of old stuff and trying to read some books that I know will be OK, but are not things I plan on holding onto for forever. I have a long way to go!
I did get two of the Iowa Childrens Choice books for 2008-09 read: Tadpole by Ruth White and Do You Know the Monkey Man? by Dori Hilstead Butler. Both are fast, entertaining, great reads. Butler's book will keep kids in suspense the entire time- it kept ME in suspense, too. And, White's book is excellent....with one big BUT....there is a lot of dialect in it. For example, instead of except they might write 'cept. Good luck to kids trying to understand this. The story is still superb if the readers will spend some time thinking.
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