Thing #17 – Wiki Sandbox

I just posted to the Wiki. The Sandbox idea is a great one. It allows us to play on a wiki without having to create one in case we are not quite ready. The comments are wonderful ideas that inspire me to think of new ways I might use a wiki.

Like I said, Wikis are wonderful!

Thing #16 – Wikis

Wikis are wonderful. No one person can know everything about a subject. Wikis allow many people to combine their information.

On this Wiki http://teacherlibrarianwiki.pbwiki.com/New:+Saving+school+library+programs+for+learners!

I found a new study

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005302.pdf

An interesting paragraph said:
Students. self-reported use and opinions of their school libraries

The ELS:2002 student survey contained several questions about students. use of and opinions about their schools. libraries. Students reported using the school library sometimes or often for research papers (54 percent), in-school projects (53 percent), Internet access (41 percent), and assignments (41 percent) (table 18). Females used the school library more often than males for assignments, in-school projects, homework, research papers, and to read books for fun. Students from different SES backgrounds used school libraries for different reasons. Students from high-SES families were more likely than students from middle- or low-SES backgrounds to use the library sometimes or often for assignments and in-school projects. Students from low-SES families were more likely than students from middle or high-SES families to use the school library sometimes or often for homework, leisure reading, to read magazines or newspapers, to read books for fun, and for interests outside of school. Students with different test scores also used the library for different purposes. Students with high test scores were more likely than students with low or middle scores to use the library for assignments, in-school projects, and research papers. Students with low test scores were more likely than students with high or middle test scores to use the library for homework, leisure reading, to read magazines or newspapers, to read books for fun, and for interests outside of school.

Like I said, Wikis are wonderful!

Thing #15 – Library 2.0

I think this is one of the best “Things” yet. There are so many powerful thinkers writing about what Library 2.0 means and what Librarians with these social networking tools can do. I would love to see Libraries with the technology and Librarians with the attitude and willingness to help students create videos like the one about the "A Vision of Students Today". What I do not understand is how to get teachers and Librarians working together to inspire students to want to learn. It seems that wonderful teachers inspire students and wonderful Librarians inspire students, but wonderful teachers who don’t know if their Librarian is wonderful will not give the Librarian the opportunity to contribute. Seems like we all lose.

Thing #14 - Technorati

What I like about Technorati is that I can search web sites chosen as meaningful to others similar to del.icio.us. Searching by tags is useful if I happen to think of the same tag that others used. I claimed my blog. I will go back in later to see if anyone has linked to me. Technorati has the best tag clouds.

Thing #13 - del.icio.us

What I like most about del.icio.us is that I can search web sites chosen as meaningful to others. Searching by tags is useful if I happen to think of the same tag that others used. When I find a web site I like and want to remember, I can use the tool bar links to go directly to my del.icio.us site to save the web page. Unfortunately, I have to set up the tool bar links on each computer I regularly use. And I have to remember the username and password I set up for del.icio.us. I found another site that might be useful for keeping track of my usernames and passwords called OpenID.

Thing #12 - Rollyo

Okay, I see now. I have read many postings about Rollyo and like so many others; I did not quite get it at first. However, now I think I do. If you typically go to several sites to look up specific types of information, then you could create a Rollyo search engine designed specifically to search your several designated web sites all at once.

For example, if I was doing research on multimedia and I had discovered that almost all my answers were found at 7 different sites, then I could create a Rollyo search engine to search those seven sites. So, the next time I wanted to look up anything about multimedia, I could just search once.

Or another example would be if I wanted to find videos. I could create a Rollyo search engine to search all the many sites that have videos.

Or if I had found 27 sites about World War II I could create a Rollyo search engine to search those 27 sites all at once for anything I might want to know about World War II.

Or maybe I could create a search engine containing all the museums I could find.

The ideas go on forever.

Thing #11 – LibraryThing

I created an account at LibraryThing. I added 16 of my all time favorite books by Science Fiction Author, Isaac Asimov (I can’t believe he has been dead for 16 years). Even though I checked out the “Suggestions” tab and found some books that I might like to read based on what books the social network folks read that also read my favorite Asimov books, the act of re-reading my Asimov titles made me want to re-read them again instead of any new ones.

I also joined a group and am watching a group. One of the most recent posts in one of the groups was titled “I want to be a Librarian because I love books”. The writer explains that loving books is not enough to be a good Librarian—a sentiment to which I agree.

The ideas I have heard of using LibraryThing in education include setting up third graders with an account and having them add and review every book they read. If they continue that activity through 12th grade think of the rich history and journal of part of their life that will exist.

Here is another use of LibraryThing. Groups of folks are entering book collections from famous people from the past. See this blog posting “Dead People’s Books”. The idea for schools is that by looking at what books famous people read, we get an idea of who they might be like today in tastes and attitudes. Just another idea for a social networking tool that happens to transcend time.

Thing #10

Image generators are fun and easy. It has been inspiring reading many others’ experiences with them. They are great ways for students to summarize almost any topic they are studying. Brevity is always appreciated (IMHO).

Here are a few that were created during a time of testy technology torture.

This one I think is from ImageChef.

This may also be from ImageChef.

The one above is particularly apropos because when I tried to upload two more guess what I got?

Oh well, better to stop now than to write something I will regret.

Update:

From Happy Face Generator

And from Comic Strip Generator:

Thing #9

I tried several blog search tools. I had not used the Bloglines Search tool before. It was easy to use. The results were plentiful, but there was no quality control. I really liked the Edublog’s award winners because I assumed the results were quality and there was a small enough number that I felt I could check all I wanted. I did in fact find a site to put in my blog roll. I did not bother with any of the news feed search because I don’t care that much to know the news.

Thing #8

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders? I like the efficiency or the magic of the information I choose coming to me in one place rather than me having to go to many places to check on the information I want.

How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life? I am intrigued by the “share” possibilities. The Librarian Philosopher’s “Library 2.0 news” RSS feeds shared contains more information about the Library 2.0 world than any one person could possible assimilate. At A Library By Any Other Name there is a great RSS feed shared about books, books, and more books called “Check Out Blog Posts About All Things Books!”. I could see each department chair finding the ten best blogs or news feeds or association feeds about their subject and put them into a reader for all the other teachers in that department to read in order to stay current in their fields. Maybe the other teachers make suggestions as to which feeds to add to the reader.

How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology? To extend the example above, the librarian could take all the shared feeds from the department chairs and post them on one blog or web page so that anyone interested in staying current in any subject could go to one page.