Thing # 17: Rollyo

I have to say that Bruce's Rollyo Video was superb! It gave an excellent explanation of Rollyo and step-by-step directions on how to get started and use this wonderful tool. I loved it! I went ahead and set up an account and saved my first search roll on Physics (our first unit of study for the year). It was very easy! I am going to set up a search roll for each of our units in 4th grade. We use the internet with our students when we introduce physics and our other units because there are some great sites that put physics in motion and that makes it more fun and interesting for our strategy of teaching physics to our students. They really enjoy the sites that have simulations where they get actively involved in the learning process. It is nice to be able to go to a place and organize the sites to all be there at once. Students also have the ability to access rollyo from their school or home computer which is fabulous for us because we usually have to send them home with a list of the internet addresses to go visit and show their families. Now we just have to give them the rollyo address and all of the sites will be there for them. How convenient!

Thing # 16 Wikis

The Common Craft Video: "Wikis in Plain English" reminded me that I attended a session at a conference on this and I did not really "get it". When I saw it this go 'round it started making sense. I am the type of person though who needs to have hands-on experience with something like wikis in order to completely feel comfortable with it. I can see this being used personally with planning our family reunion. With relatives scattered all over the United States, planning a reunion with wikis makes so much more sense than using emails. My cousin in Oregon tried to get us all together this summer and he started last year to get it organized, but it mostly went by word of mouth and emails. In the end it was cancelled because of lack of organization. I am going to ask him if he has ever heard of wikis!
In the classroom I would love to see students use a wiki when working on a group project. Our students get together once a week for an entire day and a wiki would be a great way for them to keep in touch during the week and keep the planning going. If students did not have access to a computer at home then I am sure we would be able to work something out with our fabulous librarians for students to have computer time while back on their home campuses.

Thing # 15 Library 2.0

It just seems so logical to me that Library 2.0 would be the direction that our libraries are moving towards in this day and age. The video "A Vision of Students Today" had such a powerful message. It reinforced within me the old saying "times .... they are a changin'. Library 2.0 is the way of the future. In a way though I feel saddened that our students futures and their childrens' futures will involve less and less of going to the library and checking out real "books". There is just something about that and it bothers me. One of the statistics mentioned on the video was that one student read only 8 books vs 23 web pages and 1281 facebook profiles also they wrote only 42 pages for class vs. over 500 pages of email. I just hope that the 1281 facebook profiles they read and the 500 email pages they wrote were of some educational value and not just fulfilling their social life obligations.
I value the fact that Library 2.0 helps users find information, gather knowledge, and create content. Do I dedect a little Blooms or what? Library 2.0 is accessable from anywhere and this makes it so convenient for people who cannot get to a library or it is closed. It helps to build connections - you can actually gather opinions from people all over the world from your own living room! Library 2.0 ensures that library services are constantly updated and reevaluated to best serve library users. This is all just so different from when I was growing up and going to school. Students now-a-days literally have the world at their fingertips and that is so cool. Research is nothing like it used to be. The user of Library 2.0 actually has the opportunity to give feedback in order for them to stay current and make the library relevant to what they want and need. Students can actually shape this and take ownership in so doing. Yes, indeed, times they are a changin' and I am trying to go along for the ride.

Thing # 14 Technorati

Technorati definately saves time when searching for blogs. It is organized and user friendly. I looked at blogs, posts and tags and found my search for "School Library Learning 2.0" more efficient in blogs. I have been exploring this for most of the afternoon and it has been very consuming. I am still not much of a "blogger" yet and really see myself using a site like del.icio.us instead. I did find, however, that the video options in technorati will be of possible use in the classroom to incorporate in the science lessons we teach.

Thing # 13 Del.icio.us

I absolutely love del.icio.us!! It is so up my alley of organization! I got signed up on del.icio.us and was able to install the two buttons no problem on my task bar - it was so easy. I then spent time exploring and tagging various websites of interest. This is going to be so useful in organizing our units and the corresponding websites to go along with them. I love how you just type in a topic and all kinds of sites pop up in a list to choose from. The tag button on my task bar makes it simple to bookmark and leave notes about the site. What a useful tool for teachers to have! I can't wait to share this one when we get back to school!

Thing # 12 Creating Community Through Commenting

This Thing involved quite a bit of informative reading. I really liked the blog called "How to Comment Like a King (or Queen)". I will admit that I am not sure I will be able to become a full time blogger with my busy life of being a Mom of four great kids, a wife, and a teacher. Despite that I gained some very useful knowledge for being a "newbie" to all of this. I like the concept of "If you don't care, don't comment". I am not one to waste my time on something if it does not have meaning for me and I am not passionate about the topic. I also thought the idea of the CoComment site was cool. This would be a great tool for me. I like to be organized and this site keeps track of all the places you have commented and lets you read recent comments to those posts. I tried to download it to my computer, but I have to have administrator rights so I guess it will have to wait until I get back to school in August. I went ahead and left a comment on Vicki's blog thanking her and commending her on spelling out the etiquette of blogging so simply.
The "10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog" was also informative, but it seemed to be geared for those who have time to blog A LOT and are trying to attract commentors to their blog. Don't see me there yet.
I enjoyed the "Ten Commandments of Blog Commenting". This was a concise, quick to read list of blogging etiquette - very helpful for "newbies".
I joined a blog called "The Ridgewood Blog". I grew up in this town and there was a drowning in the town pool last week that was such a tragedy. For years people have been trying to shut that pool down and I wanted to keep myself posted as to the status of it. I also joined Vicki Davis' blog because I found it to be very informative and user friendly as far as blogs go. She is an educator and has many related topics on her blog that are of interest to me.

Thing # 11 Library Thing

Library Thing was definately fun to use. I added a few of my favorite books to my list which was easy to do. I like how other members make recomendations of books that have to do with your same genre. It would be great to sit and catalog my books I have here at home and also my own childrens books. This takes time though to sit and utilize and because of that I am not sure how much I would benefit from it. I have inserted my list below. Now I am going to check out how to make a bookshelf - that looks really cool.
http://www.librarything.com/home/read2menow

Thing # 10: Online Image Generator

I had so much fun with image chef! This would really be useful in the classroom as a way to engage the students when we introduce a lesson. I also like the comic strip generator and can just imagine how our students would be so creative with this. There are so many images to choose from, students would have a ball, yet still be challenged because the text needs to be short and to the point yet portray something they have learned.
ImageChef.com Flower Text

Thing # 9: Useful Library-Related Blogs and News Feeds

My favorite blog search would have to be Google Blog Search. I love using Google and I use it all the time so it was simple for me to search for blog topics with the Google Blog Search. I used it to search mainly news topics. Bloglines Search Tool was also easy to utilize and get news feeds. I really like Houstonist to see what is happening around Houston.