Final comments on Web 2.0

This has been a fascinating and exciting experience. I have learned so many new things that it is impossible to talk about them all. There are things that I will defnitely use in my library, and just as many things that I will use in my own personal life. I am excited about teaching these things to my colleagues and students in my school.
Some of my favorite things were creating my blog, Flickr, the RSS feeds, getting comfortable exploring sites such as YouTube and image generators, and using Rollyo. I have learned more in this tutorial than I ever would have on my own or even in a one-time workshop or class. It was perfect for me in terms of when I could work on it and how it was set up to lead us through the activities. I was amazed at how easy it was to navigate through most of these sites and activities.
I think that one of the things that surprised me the most about what I was learning, was that the activities had personal uses as well as library-related uses. I have never learned so much in so short a time as I have done here. I now have so many ideas for using these things in my library and in my personal life, that I barely know where to begin - but I am coming up with a plan.
I would keep the format of this program exactly as it is - it is the perfect way for busy librarians to get updated on the new and emerging technologies.

I would definitely take this course again, and if future ones are offered in a similar format, I will do those, also.

My comment: This program is the first amazing and wonderful step to revolutionizing my library so that we can serve the needs of our 21st century users.

Activity #23

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by the discovery exercise, but if you are talking about the Web 2.0 experience, obviously it was done in California for the librarians there first, and then has been adapted for use by the Pennsylvania school librarians.
It has been obviously changed and adapted from the original.

Activity #22 - eBooks

I was quite surprised by the variety and scope of the collection of eBooks and Audio eBooks on the Gutenberg Project site. It was interesting to see the wide variety of things - everything from literary classics to CIA books, to science fiction. Although I knew of and used eBooks in the past, I was surprised by the number and variety of the ones available on The world of Ebooks site and especially in the Gutenberg Project. I also found the history, philosophy, and goals of the Gutenberg Project to be impressive.

Personal Notes on Activity #21

While doing this activity, I had some trouble getting some of the podcasts to download onto my computer. I don't know if it is because my husband has the settings done for his frequent news-related podcasts, or if I was just not trying the right aggregator. Also, some of the links in the Web 2.0 blog came back with messages that the page could not be found. I'm not sure what that was about.
I did, however, have success with several of the podcast sites, and enjoyed exploring and downloading podcasts from them.

Activity #21 - PODCASTS

I have been famliar with podcasts for a while now, but I have enjoyed browsing ones specifically for school libraries. An interesting one that I have found is a book discussion of literary classics. It can be heard at this link:
http://booklogpodcast.libsyn.com/

I think this is an excellent way to get students interested in talking about the books they are reading, and I can see many uses for podcasts in my library. I also especially liked the informational library podcast - the "how-to" ones that I found.

Activity #20 - YouTube

When I was exploring YouTube, a video that really spoke to my librarian's soul was this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZblrRs3fkSU

Laura Cohen's Librarian's 2.o Manifesto really embodies the philosophy that I believe all librarians should have seared into their souls if they want to really serve their patrons. The video also encapsulates the entire philosophy of the Web 2.0 learning experience and makes me want to move forward with all that I have learned in order to make my library a better place.

(Activity #17 - Web 2.0 - out of numerical order here)

In case someone notices that a post for Activity #17 is missing, I am waiting to get a password to be able to sign on to the PA Library Curriculum Connection wiki. I tried to do so, and was unable to get in, so I contacted the site administrator, and I am waiting to hear back.

Activity #19 - LibraryThing

I think I just died and went to heaven. Someone had once told me about a website like this, but I didn't realize just what it was. I fell in love with this site immediately, because I need a way to keep tracks of the 2000 or so books that I own (according to my indulgent husband's count of them, anyway!), as well as how they come in and out of my life and house.
I wasted no time in setting up an account, and since I love to review books and already do so for my library and state library association, I signed up also to be an Early Reviewer.
I have really enjoyed this course, but this is my absolute, fall-in-love-at-first-sight site! I will be visiting it often.

First use of Zoho - Activity #18

This is my first use of the Zoho application. I believe that I will like this tool. I had heard of this last year from a teacher on my faculty, and I have wanted to do some exploring with it. I am constantly carrying documents in my Flash Drive back and forth between computers at home and school, so I think this will be a much easier method of creating and using documents.

  In addition, I have a huge document that my boss has asked me to do, and I was wondering how I was going to access it from my several computers - this application in the answer.

Activity #16b (?) - California Conference

That is a great page for the California librarians on which they can meet and share their experiences. It would be great if we could do something like that in Pennsylvania. I already participate in a great wiki for our own PSLA conference along with the other members of the "Not-Ready-for-Newbery" materials reviews committee, and we have a lot of fun with that.

Activity #16a

I visited the California Curriculum Connections wiki and looked through some of the ideas there. I didn't log in and post, but while browsing I got a good idea to use in my school to help teachers learn about all of the exciting new online tools I am learning about in Web 2.0. Here it is: Every Friday, we have a faculty meeting in my library, where there are computers available as well as projection capabilities. I think that I will show them one new idea a week to introduce them to the exciting new possibilities. Some of the teachers will readily embrace and love the possibilities; some will continue teaching with the stick and dirt like Socrates, but at least we will give it a try.

Activity #16 - wikis

I liked exploring the wikis, and was already familiar with them. I thought the student ones were interesting, and a nice possibility for class projects. I also enjoyed the variety of sites that appeared on the list, and of course, found many things to intrigue me as I explored.
The only problem that I have seen, in some cases, is that the editing feature does unfortunately allow people to make changes that are not always good and the changes do not always agree with the intended purpose of the original author/group. That has happened already with a local one that I know about, so I am wary of that when perusing wikis.

Activity # 15 - Library 2.0 and my library

I can see many uses for this technology in my library and with my students and staff. It is exciting to be able to introduce many of these tools to people who have not seen them. Already, we have staff members who are excited to learn about these things, just from hearing me talk about this course.
Our library is already fairly up-to-date with technology; I can see Web 2.0 moving us even farther along as we attempt to grasp all that we can from the tremendous amount of resources on the web.
It is an exciting time to be a librarian - or information specialist - media specialist - or whatever you want to call us. In any case, we are the link between our students and staff and the world.

Thoughts on Library 2.0 articles - Activity #15

Three of the articles I read evoked a reaction in me upon reading them. In the first, "Away from Icebergs", there are some things that I definitely agree with, and several that I do not. I believe that we need to move away from the library as a "fixed" collection of items in a single room, and we need to view the "library" with a much wider view, both in terms of the collection itself and the physical space. In my school, my "library" encompasses both the physical collection that we own, but also the entire collections of all of the libraries in Pennsylvania through our state-wide resource sharing progam, ACCESS PENNSYLANIA, as well as the entire web and all of the information contained thereon. I truly believe that we are educating information-enriched students. Where I part company with Mr. Anderson is the concept that we don't need "physical books" - I believe that people will always read books, and that they will also always need a real human being to connect them with good reads and good information, and with the wealth of technical know-how with which they can use all kinds of emerging technologies.
I can also relate to Dr. Schultz's vision of Libraries 4.0 - that is the ideal, to me, of where libraries will be in the future - encompassing the best of all possible library worlds.
The third article with which I can relate is Mr. Bishop's "A Ripple Effect", because my library is currently in the process of developing, and hopefully, developing along the same lines as the one discussed in this article. We are doing many of the same things he describes in this article, and we are seeing great results.
It is very interesting to contemplate the future of libraries in the light of Web 2.0 technologies. With this course, I am learning just how useful all of these technologies can be for a student audience.

Technorati - Activity #14

Exploring Technorati was interesting - there is a definite difference when you search the blogposts, tags, and Blog Directory. It was also interesting seeing what the most popular blogs are, as well as the favorites.

I set up an account but had some trouble claiming my blog. I will go back to work on that later.

I like the idea of tags - I had already been using that technology in another application for photo, so I was familiar with the concept. The only disadvantage that I have found is that I may think of something that I should have used as a tag after I had previously tagged items, but in most cases, I have been able to go back and add tags.

Just found this while exploring the Technorati site

While exploring the Technorati site, I found this bit from YouTube, and I think it is hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB4HvVEMFig

We librarians must be able to laugh at ourselves!

Technorati address

Technorati Profile - This is the Technorati claim code as mentioned in Activity #14.

Del.icio.us lesson - week #6, Activity 13

This was so much fun that I spent several hours just exploring. I started my own account, and got so excited about some of the sites that I spent another hour on just one of them alone. I also subscribed to the RSS feed as was suggested in the lesson. This is awesome resource, and I can already see many uses for it in my library.

Young Adult Rollyo

Try this site for some good YA books.

Select...Reader of Good BooksYoung Adult BooksSearch The Web

Activity #12 - Rollyo

This was a fun lesson, and I can see a lot of uses for this in the high school arena - we already have some teachers who would love this for their class projects. I will be sharing this with them.
In the interest of time, I had to limit myself to creating just one rollyo, but I am interested in creating several more. I will be back later to add to this.

Awards List from Web 2.0 Activity #11

I love this list! There are so many places to go and things to play with that it was hard to decide on just one to play with for this blog. I finally chose the MyHeritage site and I created a family tree. I am into genealogy and the feature that allows photos to be added is awesome. I have a huge family and I am going to do more with this site later, since I really enjoy creating family trees and looking into family history. This seems to be a very good site with lots of opportunities for postin and especially for communication.

Library Slogan - Web 2.0 activities #10

I loved playing around with the Image Generators. It took me awhile, though, to figure out how to get this last one posted to this blog, but I finally figured it out!

Library Slogan

ImageChef.com Poetry Blender

RSS Exploration and Stup - Activities #8-9

I just did the lesson on setting up the RSS feeds, and I have already setup a Google Reader account and subscribed to several feeds. I agree with the one tutorial that said that this could be addictive - especially the book review ones. I could spend hours and hours just reading these and catching up on new books. I also subscribed to a fun one since I like humor and funny articles, bloopers, etc. I will definitely need to set a time limit when I start looking at these feeds every day or I won't get anything else done!

Technology and Library Interests - Activity #7

I am getting lots of ideas about how to use this technology in my library. I have wanted to create blogs for teachers and students to use to share book reviews and ideas. I have also wanted to create a lot of visuals to place around my library to brighten it up with photos, posters, etc. linking students and books. There are so many ideas that it will be hard to choose which one I would like to do first.
Our students are already very computer savvy, and I am always looking for ways to link them to book lists, good reviews, and other things related to books and literature. Through this course I am getting good ideas about things I can create, and teach my students to create.
I am excited about this course.

My creation

My creation
Originally uploaded by Reader of Good Books

Here is the Librarian Trading card I created for Activity #6 for Web 2.0, This is a great fun way to create things using Flickr and other applications. I will definitely be using this with classes.

Exploring Flickr

I just spent several hours exploring the Flickr site (activity #3), and I love it. I set up an account, and I was able to upload one of my photos and play with it. I even put it on the map. I am planning to take some photos of my library and I will try to post them on my blog. This was so much fun that I didn't want to leave the site. There is lots more I would like to do with the options there. I will have to save that for another day.