Sunday, August 31, 2008
Week 9, Thing #23: The Liberated Library Media Tech!
My favorite exercises were many and they include playing with the image generators, subscribing to blogs via RSS, discovering Pandora and Del.icio.us (these are the websites I use everyday!), learning about wikis and how to apply them in libraries and classrooms, and recording all my thoughts into this blog. This my first time blogging professionally, and I plan to continue posting in this blog.
One important take-a-way I culled from the program is the power of collaboration and how instrumental it is to the learning process. Before I completely understood wikis, I castigated Wikipedia as a reliable source of information. After this program, however, I have an understanding of its origins and its aim that makes me look at it more positively. I was also surprised with the number of online tools that would be beneficial to libraries and classrooms. I want to know how to choose which web 2.0 tools are useful and applicable to my school and library.
My learning experience was LIBERATING. It gave me the confidence to break my chains of self-doubt in my ability to utilize web technology in the classroom and in libraries.
Thank you CSLA School Library Learning 2.0 team!
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Week 9, Thing #22: Looking for an older text? Check out an ebook!
You can search for audiobooks in the public domain on the LibriVox catalog. I found whole audiobooks for free! The books are read by volunteers, and if you're questioning the quality of their readings I suggest you listen to some sample audiobooks and you'll find that they are quite good. I found whole audiobooks of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. You can also browse for audiobooks by genres like "Horror/ghost stories" and "Teen/young adult."
It is nice to know that if I am ever in a bind and require instant copies of older texts, I can download them as text or audio.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Week 9, Thing #21: Podcasts, Radio On Demand
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Week 9, Thing #20: YouTube and Your Library
I do like how when you do find a video that you like, YouTube has a section for related videos and even suggests them to you after the video is finished. After a while of viewing a whole bunch of videos, I chose this one:
I like this video because it was created by and for teens to promote the public library. My favorite line is "The-Books-Only-Library?!" and I like how the teens mentioned Chris Brown, namedropping the popular R&B singer to get them to the library. This video is an example of how video projects and events in the library can now be shared online through YouTube. Sharing videos on library websites can be informative and create a buzz of interest that will inspire more of the public to check out their libraries.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Week 8, Thing #19: LibraryThing is *MY* Thing
After getting over the excitement of LibraryThing's ability to individualize libraries, I explored its features for connecting with other book lovers. Within my library I could see that my favorite book, Little Women, is shared by 8873 members. By clicking on the "Talk" tab and "Your books" I can discover what other people are reading and discussing and even which discussions mention any of the books in my library. In order to find the specific posts on just Little Women, I have been clicking on the main discussion and then using CRTL + F to find where my favorite book is exactly mentioned. I also found that you could find talk about the book when you looked at its record in your library, and to the left click on "Conversations" (which are the same results when going through the "Talk" tab). Most of these conversations, however, merely mentioned the book as their favorite or not so favorite and did not go in depth about it so much. Perhaps it was just for Little Women, but I enjoyed reading the member reviews better than the conversations on it.
LibraryThing-ing might turn out to be one of my new hobbies. Other than that, I shall explore more to see how this catalog fun would prove useful for public and school libraries.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Week 8, Thing #18: Google Docs...Your Virtual Flashdrive
The capability to create slide show presentations and word documents seemed immediately useful for me. As a graduate student starting my library studies at San Jose State University, I foresee using Google Docs when I need to co-author essays and create slide shows with classmates.
I had fun with the forms feature of Google Docs. You could use this feature to create surveys and tests quickly and publish them on the Internet, administering them to people via online. By administering it online, you could receive responses to your surveys and tests quickly. I think that this would be a good way for librarians to create surveys to receive feedback from their patrons about their services. Of all the web 2.0 tools, I think I will use web applications the most since its format is identical to the current computer applications that I use everyday.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Week 7, Thing #17: Wikis, The Online Bulletin Board...and more!
I put up these changes in the Sandbox:
I'm just testing out to see how this post comes up on the Wiki Sandbox! Also, last week I listened to the radio program "To The Best of Our Knowledge" on August 10, 2008. Its theme for the day was "Collaboration" and it featured an interview with Ward Cunningham, the inventor of the wiki. You can view that programs audio archives here: http://www.wpr.org/book/realaud.html Look for the August 2008 calendar and look for the episode titled "Collaboration." It was very interesting to hear the inventor's perspective on this web 2.0 tool.
After I posted this, I realized that a wiki can be like an online bulletin board. A place where people can post and share important information.
I am glad that a wiki was created to provide a space where we could all share our ideas. I know that many people who participated in this online workshop posted up ideas in their blogs, but it is so much faster and easier to see all our ideas posted in one place! I tagged this page and intend to refer to it often for ideas on how to apply web 2.0 tools in the library and classroom.
After reading through some ideas, someone suggested that a wiki be created for the California Young Reader Medal nominees, and it would be a place where students could post their thoughts on the nominees and any information related to the themes brought up in these books. I really like this idea and hope to find some examples of these types of wikis and connect with their creators to see how they worked for them.