Project 23

Thing #6: Image Generators

2008-07-03T16:25:00.003-05:00

I had fun using the online image generators. I can think of a million uses for these! I created the above image using Image Chef.

The trading card was not hard to make, although I don't see how I could use it in my library. An elementary school library could use them in some interesting ways, though. For example, you could make a certain number of trading cards for each of a set number of books. When a student reads the book and passes a quiz, they get a trading card as a reward.

It might also be fun to use them in my classes. Students could trade a "late assignment allowed" card for a "+ 5 points extra credit" card, or something like that. Hmmm...

Peace,

Ms. P

Thing #5: Flickr Mash-ups

2008-07-02T16:21:00.004-05:00

After learning about Flickr and imagining all of the creative ways it can be used, I checked out some of the flickr mash-ups which were even more creative. I can see using them for website design, making posters, bookmarks, and library newsletters or email announcements. "Spell with Flickr" was one of my favorites.

Check out this website, though, for even more ideas: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/

Imagine all of the potential for social studies classes, literary maps, science projects, even name badges...the possibilities are endless!

Until next time,

Thing #4: Flickr

2008-07-02T16:02:00.005-05:00

Today I worked with Flickr for the first time. It was fun and easy---a tool I will probably use a lot. For example, I needed to send a set of photos to the faculty at my school, and it was so easy to simply upload them to flickr and send the link rather than try to upload each individual picture as an attachment on an email. Tagging was a simple process, too.

DSC_0019
Originally uploaded by mysCindy

This is a photo of the school hallway leading to the library. The flags represent the countries of our many international students.

There are many uses for flickr in the library or classroom. For example, I plan to post photos of new books with links to book reviews.

Ciao,

Ms. P

Thing #21: Other Social Networking Sites

2008-03-19T23:39:00.003-05:00

You mean there are sites out there besides Myspace or Facebook?! I'm happy to say there are...there are a lot of them. People should be able to find networks focusing on anything they are interested in. And it is refreshing to find places where adults (people over the age of 30 no less!) can congregate and share more sophisticated pursuits. I had fun checking out Classroom 2.0 Ning, for one. I found several articles and links there that I intend to go back to.

I also enjoyed Gather for its wide variety of articles, news, politics, health, and family oriented groups. There is even a place where you can publish your own articles, photos, and videos. And, of course, there are about 35, 000 people to become friends with.

I joined the 23 Things on a Stick Ning network to fulfill my Thing #21 duty: http://23thingsonastick.ning.com/profile/CindyPeterson It was fun to set up, I like the features that it has, and I can see using Ning to build a class or a school club of some sort. I have a Moodle site for my writing class and it is nice for keeping individual classes private, but I want something more public for the library. I tried a website, a blog, and emails to promote library related activities at our school, but nothing has worked to get kids interested. I'm excited to try something new and I think a library social networking site is the way to go. Steve Campion gives a good overview of the steps I can take to build this kind of environment for my library in his article, "Building a Social Networking Environment at the Library."

Thing #20 My Face & Space Book ;)

2008-03-19T15:18:00.009-05:00

Much to the dismay of my teenaged offspring, I've joined the world of social networking at last. I set up sites on My Space: http://www.myspace.com/myswriter and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=93404323. It was pretty easy to do---maybe too easy. I ended up spending countless hours on both sites after being sucked into their endless virtual landscapes.

I started out on Myspace. It's dark, seedy, and I don't like it there. There's too much exploitation and swearing and advertisements bombarding you constantly. Maybe I've heard too much about all of the sex offenders lurking on Myspace to feel good about it. One thing about the site that I do like, however, is that kids can set their profiles to private and only somebody who is accepted as a friend can then interact with the child. That's the only way I feel safe about my kids having memberships on Myspace. I can check anytime to make sure their accounts actually are private.

Facebook is definitely geared toward younger adults and high school students. It has a friendlier, lighter feel. It's not so secretive. Everybody's feeds, or "stories," are recorded and displayed in public for anybody to instantly see. I find myself constantly deleting my feeds---everytime I change something in my profile, join a group, or write on a wall it feels like everybody is watching...maybe I'm just paranoid? Nope. My daughter explained to me that it's a way to keep people in check. If they know everybody else can see what they do, they're more likely to behave themselves. I like the fact that you have to join a specific network to have a membership on Facebook. You can be part of one network or many. Highschool networks don't allow adults into them.

I think there is great educational potential for these kinds of sites. Kids hang out on social networks. They talk to each other there, they blog there, and they entertain themselves there. Why not promote our libraries there? Or history? Or science? The only concern I have about mentors connecting with kids on social networks is that boundaries would have to remain very clear. This could be a good opportunity for librarians to teach students about the different boundaries necessary for online social, educational and business related situations.

Cheers,

Ms. P

Thing #3--RSS

2008-03-16T23:59:00.006-05:00

This RSS feed thing was a bit confusing to me. Although I subscribe to a couple of feeds already, they are not the same as using an aggregator...I think. The feeds I subscribe to are emailed to me when new postings are made. One such feed is Tracy Gardner's "NCTE Inbox Blog" using Feedblitz. Another blog subscription goes right to my MySpace account.

I watched the CommonCraft video which describes how to use RSS and it all made so much sense and looked easy to do, but when I tried to follow the instructions, it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I signed up for the Google Reader, and after several attempts I added three feeds. I thought the feeds would go right into a folder on my toolbar, or someplace easy to access, but instead I have to go to the Google Reader site, log on, and then access my feeds. I can see how this would make things easier if I had several subscriptions, but I don't, so it's not. :)

Maybe Bloglines, or some other aggregator, is simpler. I don't know. One thing I do know: if you would like to understand what RSS feeds are and how they work, watch the CommonCraft video...it's an excellent presentation that makes it all make sense.

Until next time...

Ms. P

Thing #2--finally!

2008-03-16T14:30:00.005-05:00

It's been awhile since I've posted, but now that I'm on spring break I have time to catch up with my 23 Things. I found Steve Abram's video interesting. While it's true that we should be able to commit ourselves to finding the time to do the things we want or need to do, it is much easier said than done. However, I do agree with Abram that web 2.0 is something that I must immerse myself in if I am to keep up with the changes libraries are going through. I do find the tools interesting, fun, and valuable and, like John Blyberg, believe that they matter: "L2 is not an option. If we don’t acknowledge the weighty significance of L2, we will not just be running the risk of sliding into obscurity, we just wont be that important to society."

I have tried a few of the Library 2.0 tools in the past, and I've seen many of the tools used in interesting ways by other libraries, so I have some ideas in mind already about how I would like to incorporate L2 technology into my school library program. In fact, the university library that I am connected to has an "Ask the Librarian" meebo link, a Flickr "book shelf" so that students can browse new books and check availability, and a library blog. I would like to start a book review area (wiki? blog?), where students can read books and share reviews.
I look forward to learning about the other 21 things to see what the possibilities are!

Peace,
Ms. P

1st Things First

2008-01-27T14:38:00.000-06:00

This is my first post to 23 Things on a Stick, which is a program designed to teach librarians around Minnesota how to use web tools. Here is the 'official' definition: The 23 Things encourage all of us to experiment and learn about the new and emerging technologies that are changing how information is used and created on the Internet today. The first thing we had to do was to make a blog and design an avatar. That's my avatar there to the left.
I found this to be a rather easy procedure, probably because I began my first blog about a year ago (http://sjplibrary.blogspot.com/). Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun playing around with some of the new features. In fact, I can see I am going to have to set time limits for myself because before I knew it, 5 hours had gone by...
I will keep you posted as I learn about the 22 other "things" over the next few weeks. If you would like to learn to use any of the tools I try, I would be happy to show you how.

Until next time,

Ms. P