Pink iPod nano

Pink iPod nano, originally uploaded by JJSlash04.

Oooooh, I just found a new color! I want this one!

Apple Ipod Nano 8GB

Apple Ipod Nano 8GB, originally uploaded by web_guruAish.

Oh, yeah! What a sweet payoff! Thanks, Mary and Debbie!

Reflecting back on the 23 . . .

First of all, let me just say this . . . WHAT A GREAT FEELING TO BE FINISHED! But the question emerges: what will I do with myself now that I AM finished? (Besides the laundry, read all those books stacked up from Christmas break, and clean the house) This has been a lot of fun. Not always -- certainly not at first. At the beginning, when everything was so new and foreign to me, it was slow going. Putting the avatar together was a big learning curve, but the end product was very rewarding! And now I'll actually have time to change that poor girl's outfit once in a while! Flickr was undoubtedly the hardest lesson for me, and the one I spent the longest amount of time on (like, the whole weekend!). I think the biggest thrill for me was the RSS feeds. First of all, the knowledge of what that symbol meant was heady in and of itself! I had seen it for so long, and now I not only knew what it meant, I could actually manipulate it and use it for my own benefit! Then, thrill of all thrills, my tech-savvy brother knew far less than I about it! I think that's when I began to feel empowered with a capital E by the 23 Things.

I used to be very timid towards using technology in the library, but after getting into this project, I turned a huge corner in my behavior and habits. I am now very eager to use technology, setting up blogs for students and teachers in the Thompson Book Club, embracing the laptop computers that were delivered to our campus last semester and using them with third graders during research, spreading the word among teachers that wikis can be useful in collaboration, and encouraging Boxtop profit dollars to be spent on LCD projectors and ELMO 22O2 document cameras. If we were to do another 23 Things-type project, I would gladly participate, because this has grown and stretched me in ways I could never have imagined before last October. This has been great.

Thing #23 (wow!) Creative Commons

"Creative Commons" is a term I seem to remember Mary and Debbie talking about during one of our staff development sessions--maybe last spring? But it didn't become real to me until I started working with Flickr. That's when I had to pay attention to that term to make sure I used the right pictures in my blog.

I think this new turn of the corner on the traditional copyright is very interesting. It directly reflects this digital generation's collaborative nature, embracing technology and creativity (changing the image in some way) yet still retaining some of the original rights. On one of the creative common sites, I noticed that the CC has been updated. How typical. Ever changing and evolving. That's progress. I think we had no other choice in this age of changing and emerging technology but to change and mutate, if you will, the old, traditional copyright laws. They were hardly working with the world of paper and pencil, much less something as slippery as the web.

Creative Commons allows us a lot more latitude in working with images, videos, and other things we borrow. It's a whole new caveat in the world of educating our students about copyright.

Thing #22 Animoto

That was cool! Almost like being a movie director or something. (Okay, not quite. Let me dream big.) However, like other online tools, I do wish Animoto had come with a few more instructions before I had begun. For instance, I uploaded a lot more photos than I needed to before I noticed the note in red on the right sidebar warning me that some of my photos might be dropped because I had more than 15. Unless, that is, I wanted to go ahead and make a full video. (Are you kidding?) So I started deleting. And now that I've viewed it (or in director-ese, "now that I've screened my film"), I will go back and rearrange pictures so that my daughter and her fiance will be the first and last on the "reel", so to speak. However, you can remix the whole thing instantly while saving the original and have a whole new video short. That's cool.

As for the music selection, shall I say slim pickin's? ! That's definitely an area that could use some broadening. But overall, it was a fun experience, one I will definitely return for!

Thing #21 Podcasts

Podcasts are nothing new to me, or really to any of us, because we've have staff development on this before. Because of our training, I already knew that podcasts were audio broadcasts of information using a source like itunes (most commonly), and that these broadcasts are provided on an episodic, consistent basis. I also have had personal experience with podcasts through receiving them through itunes and listening to them through both my computer and my ipod. The podcast I listen to the most is a church service provided by a church I went to a few years ago. Because churches have services every week, they are a natural for podcasting.

I looked at several directories for podcasts, and ended up enjoying Yahoo's service best. I took a "tour" of New York City's Bryant Park and 7th Avenue, and found a cool reading site designed for reluctant readers (Reading Rockets) which also features several interviews with children's authors. I was disappointed when these interviews wouldn't feed into my Google Reader, but I did subscribe through Itunes for the latest interviews (Brian Selznick on The Invention of Hugo Cabret included!). However, I did add a very geeky podcast to my Google Reader: The Typical Mac User Podcast. And if you don't think it's geeky, just click here and have a listen.

Thing #20 YouTube: What Fun!

I've been a fan of YouTube for a while now. Who isn't? It's hilarious! I could obsess on it for hours. One of my favorites is the Cadbury Gorilla, a very intense gentleman. TeacherTube is instructional, and that's great for finding another way to present material, especially to our media-starved students. There's something charming about homemade videos over professional videos that keep us watching -- why is that? I think that is part of what sells YouTube, besides having instant hilarity at your fingertips. The absolute funniest, one that I could never present to students because of the occasional profanity, is the one that features a tiny little girl and Will Ferrell, with the child acting as if she is his landlady.

There are limitless uses of YouTube in the library and school, not only bringing the videos into the building but also creating a video (for Children's Book Week or National Library Week, etc.) by students, for students. That's what I didn't see when I was looking for videos on books, libraries, or school libraries. I saw some mighty boring looking things, too, believe me, but nothing that looked like it was celebrating those weeks, or nothing that looked like it was created by young students. This might be a fun challenge to take on.

Thing #19 Mind Maps and Flow Charts

Thinking and the different ways we think is what we strive to teach our students every day. Mind maps and flow charts are another way to process our thoughts, another way we can analyze stories, word problems, writing, you name it. These online tools are great ways to help our kids analyze problems we set before them, in addition to paper/pencil tasks or software like Inspiration/Kidspiration.

When I was working with these websites, I chose bubbl.us first. It was easy to figure out and I think it would be easy to introduce to faculty and students. Then I shifted to Gliffy. Not so easy. I wish it had come with a user manual. I'm not sure it would easily transfer to an elementary campus, at least not without a lot of explanation. However, these online tools are great to know about and wonderful resources to have at hand, especially when software like Inspiration is not readily available.

Thing #18 Web 2.0 Award Nominees

I played around with yourminis.com (widgits), which has a lot of youtube looking widgits to plug in to your blog. I saw lots of images I was familiar with (sports icons, TV series, etc.), but when I saw the Office, I knew I had to have it.

When I was perusing the list of awards, I was amazed at all the familiar and not so familiar sites listed. I'm glad that descriptors were used with those that placed first, second, and third. The ones that were honorable mention were just that -- mentioned. I was surprised in some cases. For example, Facebook was head and shoulders over Myspace. In fact, Myspace was an HM. Ma.gnolia and Furl were award winners, but Del.icio.us wasn't even mentioned. Hmmm. An oversight, maybe? It made me want to recheck Ma.gnolia! I do remember thinking how pretty the layout was!

A site I want my husband to check out is squidoo.com, a new marketing "lens" that was featured. Seth Godin, a marketing guru, is the co-creator, and my husband says he really "gets it". I think anyone who creates one of these award winners really must get it!

Thing #17 Online Productivity Tools

I had heard of Zoho Writer before, but I had never really investigated it before now. I like the idea of my words being instantly accessible online, and, like makingtheworldpretty said in her post, my college daughter would benefit greatly from it in terms of using it for her notes. My daughter has the Word program on her computer (and no, if I'd known about Zoho or Googledocs, I wouldn't have shelled out the $$ for it!)-- in fact, her response to my telling her about Zoho was, why is that better than Word? My reply was, remember when your computer had that awful virus and erased everything? If your notes were on a Zoho or Googledoc, you would still have them. Another thing to consider for my daughter is that she wouldn't have to tote her computer everywhere. She could just log in to her notes and start studying. Like she does with her Facebook or Myspace accounts. No matter where you go, log on and there they are. Portability.

I liked all the different things that my Zoho account offers me, especially the presentation tools. If I want to make a slideshow, I don't have to worry about PowerPoint being finicky between the computer I create it on and the one I present it with. I just log in to my Zoho account and presto there it is for the download. Hopefully it's as easy as they say. It's definitely worth the try.

I must say, I'm amazed at all the free tools offered online. Why are all these things available? How are these distributors/creators making money? I know you can upgrade, but come on. How many of us are really going to do that? I'm not. Not my Flickr account, not my PBwicki account, not anything that I've signed up for. I know I shouldn't worry about this, but I do. After all, there is a saying that is pretty credible: if something seems too good to be true, maybe it is. (Remember online grocery ordering? It was great the short while it lasted.) My point is this: will all these free sites be out there a year from now? Five years? Should we depend upon them in the way in which I wrote about above? I don't mean to be negative. Just trying to put a realistic view on things.

No pressure or anything.

Thing #16 Learning Through Play Sandbox

"Playing around" with the LTPsandbox was very helpful to me in terms of creating my own wiki. I'm glad I did it for that reason alone. Also, it was really interesting to read about the ways others are going to use wikis as a resource. One person mentioned using it as a library pamphlet -- how very 2.0! Someone else said using a wiki during writing instruction could be useful, and I can see that, especially now that my school has laptops available for classroom or library use. The sandbox will be a great resource as more people contribute their ideas. I look forward to revisiting this site.

Thing #15 Wikis!

And now I feel like I know what I'm talking about! I've heard about them for awhile -- certainly Wikipedia -- but I also felt very ignorant. The concept was a strange one to me, especially Wikipedia: people contribute to defining the meaning of something that ordinarily would've been amply described in Britannica or WorldBook? How can this be? The problems seemed obvious. But in our collaborative world, where the next generation is all about putting forth their say-so and not being defined by something predetermined, wikipedia is iconic.

And what is a wiki? My way of defining it for a teacher on my campus was to say that it's kind of a happy medium between a paper and a webpage. It has the flexibility of paper in that it's easily rewritten and quick; yet it's able to be viewed by many people as a webpage is. However, you don't have to jump through hoops to make it change the way it looks, like you would with a webpage, because it doesn't require special software. So really it's the best of both worlds.

Now I'm not going to pretend that I have a handle on wikis -- I don't. I'm in the process of creating one for my school, and it's taking some concentration on my part. But what new thing doesn't? Once I get it down, I think the teachers and I will love it (I plan on using it heavily in collaborative planning for research), and I hope the students will use parts of it (like the Book Club) for gathering information about upcoming meetings and assignments. And if we use it extensively in this venue, maybe things like Wikis will find their way into the classroom with teachers creating them for students to use as projects, or data analysis, or classroom newsletters.

#14 Library 2.0 Wow.

I'm blown away by the articles I've just finished reading on meeting the ever changing needs of library users in our ever changing world. And what's more, I'm filled with guilt. I'm pretty 1.0 in how I meet my patron's needs, with the exception of the online library catalog. And that was not my doing! (Thankfully, I might add!) And yet, as a patron myself, I'm very 2.0: I dread the thought of walking into a library and asking a person for help, and then of all the antiquated, out-of-my-control ideas, that institution is going to make me bring that book back in two weeks! For Pete's sakes! I want to keep it for however long it's going to take me to read it -- and what if I need to access it later? Better still, I just want to download it from home. I don't want to leave my comfy couch, by golly. I want to listen to that book on my Ipod. Or read it on my computer screen. I want to leave my options open. Maybe have an online discussion about it in a chat room with other book lovers, or blog about it.

So . . . how can I become the kind of librarian I strive to have serve me? And still work within the confines of an elementary school? I think first of all it begins with always questioning myself. Am I serving my students the way they want to be served? Second, I need to question them. Third, I need to stretch them the same way that I'm being stretched right now -- this assignment (23 Things) has so expanded my small techno world into a much bigger world of possibilities. Now I'm looking for ways to get my students blogging, thinking about how I can do this in a practical sense (do they need an account? can I do that? could they piggyback onto an account I set up?), wondering about how they can be served by technology in my library. This won't be stretching to some, just extending what they see parents or siblings do. But to the majority, it will be leading them toward a new use of the computers they usually play games on. And after blogging, maybe podcasting. Who knows where it could lead?

Thing #13 Social Bookmarking

I've wanted to know what the big deal is about Del.icio.us for a while, and now I get it. To me, the big deal is this: no matter what computer you're on, at home, school, at someone else's house, you can access your bookmarked websites. At the outset, that doesn't sound like such a big deal. But when you think of research, suddenly that takes on huge proportions. How long do you sit in front of the computer looking for good websites in the first place -- a long time! Then you have to leave the computer and live life (humph!), and when you come back, maybe someone else is on the computer you were on previously -- or maybe you are in a different locale, trying to pick up the thread of research from a few hours before. If you didn't save your bookmark to a portable device, you're up a creek! That's when Del.icio.us or Furl or Ma.gnolia swoops in to rescue you. You've saved to a universally accessible site, and all is well with your research world.

But that's just one way these social bookmarking sites are good. Another is that they are "social" -- others can see how you've identified or tagged them, and can add them to their own bookmarks, and you can do the same with other people's bookmarks. You know the old saying, two minds are better than one. How much better would it be to be doing research on an obscure topic and come across others' identified articles on the same thing? I'd call that a lifesaver!

In my elementary school, I'm not sure I'll be using this, for 2 reasons: 1) the district filter probably won't allow it (but it's worth investigating); 2) more importantly, since every student has their own password i.d., I believe that everything they do under their password transfers to whatever computer they're working on, including bookmarks. However, this is a good topic for discussion to have with my technology representative! Any of you smart librarians know the answer?