Monday, November 23, 2009

#12 Reflection and Evaluation

There were so many things new to me that I can't choose a favorite!

Blogging, RSS and podcasting seem the most helpful to me as a librarian. I see the most applications from them.

A lifelong learner, me? This exposure has definitely whetted my appetite to learn about and try these methods. Before this experience I was afraid to try, but now I'm ready to jump in and keep learning and using these technologies and the ones that will continue to emerge. Thanks for making me feel successful!

I hope you will continue to offer similar trainings in the future. I really liked the hands on practicing. The info was easy to understand, but what a lot of it there was. I will spend time over the holidays playing around with the things I learned, which will reinforce what I have learned and increase my confidence.

I hope you keep this site up and running . . . I would love to use it with my teachers.

#11 The Wide World of Podcasting

There are some really great podcasts out there and you can narrow your search down to things that are so relevant to your interests. I love that! Some things are considered podcasts that I didn't even think of! Youtube, for example. I'm really motivated now to go spend more time with Teachertube, which has been a frequent topic of discussion on a library listserv I subscribe to. I learned that you can access podcasts from a PC, which I totally did not know. There's so much information available electronically that it boggles my mind!

Some concerns I have are that my district would probably be very restrictive with podcasting because of their concern over the safety and privacy of our students. When I wanted to do book trailers with FLIP video camcorders I was highly discouraged.

Another red flag that I saw when I was exploring some of the recommended podcasts on this module was a disclaimer about whether the content of the podcast was appropriate. That scares me!

Also, I did select some podcasts that were no longer available.

#10 This Wiki World

I really liked the video. It was a great description of how wikis work and how helpful and timesaving they can be. It seems simpler and quicker than using email.

When I tried to play around with pbworks wiki I couldn't add or edit anything because I got a message about "stealing the lock." What does that mean? It certainly sounds sinister!

Another concern that I have about wikis is their accuracy. Doesn't give someone the opportunity to post inaccurate or misleading information? In the past I have cautioned students about relying on wikis rather than encyclopedias. Am I mistaken in my thinking?

#9 Chat and Instant Messaging

Several years ago, my teenage daughter set up an IM account on our home computer. She was worlds ahead of me in a way, because I had not seen or heard of IMing. However, she was still in the learning stage, because the way she had set it up, any time anyone turned on the computer, her IMing screen popped right up! Of course, I took advantage of the opportunity to play with the technology and IMed some of her friends. I was honest and identified myself and had fun as well as time to learn about the technology.

This said, it makes me think that when we use this feature at our schools, we really need to train students to know how the technology works, privacy issues, etc.

Currently, we do have the chat feature available on our school email. I spend a lot of time communicating with my staff via email and love the chat feature, because it is so quick.

I will be watching to see how libraries are using this technology.

Method 8

I have had limited experiences with Facebook and can certainly see the ways that vast amounts of people can get connected without ever physically meeting each other.

I think that this offers a wonderful opportunity for librarians to get kids excited about reading books. If you were to create a library facebook account and get linked up with students, you could really get the excitement going. You could do book reviews and send those out to your library facebook "Friends." If each one of your "friends" were to do a review or booktalk there would be so many great reviews available! Imagine the conversations at lunch . . ."Did you hear about _________. Kelsey said it was the best book ever!"

There could also be issues limiting the use of this resource: school district blocking the site, no control over comments made by individuals and posted. I expect we will see some ways to control such comments in the near future.