Thing 23: Reflection, or the final “thing”

It’s hard to believe it’s over! I’ve learned so much! As I stated in my voice thread, there are several things I am taking with me that I hope will, in the words of Emeril, put some “BAM” into my Media Center and in my instruction!

I really like Pageflakes, and plan to make a Pageflake “homepage” for the student computers. On this homepage I plan to have the current list of “new” books, booktalk podcasts, and other useful and fun things related to what’s going on. Maybe even a link to students with overdue books!

I want to collaborate with the English teachers. I found a really cool thing while browsing Classroom 2.0—something called Google Lit Trips. Which reminds me that I have come to use my delicious bookmarks quite a bit, actually more than I thought I would!

Personally, I enjoy taking pictures. I’ve used kodakgallery, shutterfly, and snapfish to make picture books of our vacations for the last several years. Since taking this class I’ve enjoyed taking my pictures and making some slide shows on rockyou and posting them to my facebook, which takes me to social networking…

I LOVE Librarything! I didn’t think there would be anything better than Anobii, but I have been converted.

A new duty that I’ve been given for next school year is maintaining the school web page. I’ve learned some tricks that I think will definitely come in handy.

I enjoyed doing the booktalk podcast. I thought I sounded a little like Andie McDowell. (L0L)

Honestly, I thought I knew enough about technology that I would breeze right through this class in a weekend or two. I was wrong. There’s probably something on the classroom website that has kept track of our comings and goings, but I guesstimate that I’ve spent 40-50 hours.

I stated in Thing One that habit 3, viewing problems as challenges, would be the most important habit to me during the course. What I didn’t confess is that I hate to read instructions. With a passion. Taking an on-line course, then, was often an experiment in torture for me. Especially when I couldn’t figure out how to embed a slide show into a blog. I wasn’t really sure if it was by design that the “help links” didn’t work. I almost threw my computer out the window on more than one occasion. But I persevered, read ahead, and figured it out. Does that give me a 21st century learner badge? I hope so! Face-to-face is probably still my preferred method, but if I ever had the opportunity to take another on-line class, I wouldn’t be intimidated by it.

All in all, very cool class.

Thing 22: Ning, or Social Networking in Education

I confess, I got my feet wet in social networking via facebook. I was born the same year of the most famous Chevy. And yet, I have a facebook. Actually, many of the teachers at my school are on facebook as well. Even though we see each other in passing all work day long, many of our most enjoyable exchanges take place after school. Electronically.

My next venture into on line social networking was through Anobii, and then Library Thing, both for reading enthusiasts.

I am thoroughly appreciative of social networking. It’s fun and it can have purpose.

Now, I am waiting to see if I have been “accepted” into the ranks of Classroom 2.0, which appeals to me since their focus is Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in the classroom. Well, I’ve never had to apply for admission to an on line community before, but maybe they’re trying to weed out the teacher-posers, and goodness knows there are enough of them out there!

After spending an hour or more on Classroom 2.0 and Ning, I have already gotten ideas I want to take back to school in August. One is Google Lit Trips which I haven’t investigated thoroughly, but wondering if I could link it to my Media Center website and get student participation. When I added GLT to my delicious bookmarks, I noticed that there are 1210 other people who consider it worth saving. So here in a nutshell is the beauty of social networking for teachers—sharing of ideas and information. How much easier this is than the struggle I went through as a new teacher coming up with lesson plans and reinventing the wheel?

I found at least one other Media Specialist while surfing Classroom 2.0, and I’m looking forward to exchanging ideas with others in my profession.

I also think that being a part of Classroom 2.0 and/or Ning will be advantageous after I retire from education in a few years (assuming that happens!). Undoubtedly, those of us who don’t stay interested and current in technology and educational trends will be left in a cloud of dust. As I stated on my Classroom 2.0 profile, I feel fortunate to have been part of the technology revolution in education, even if it has come at the end of my career. I hope that I can take some of this back to my space and make it work!

7c The Digital Footprint (from the Google Reader)

We used to talk about footprints in the sand. Now it’s digital. And while the first kind will wash away with the first good rain, nothing washes away the second kind. Hmmmm….privacy issues.

In a blog I found on Librarybytes, Helene Blowers discusses this footprint phenomenon. She writes that “while digital content exploding is not earth shattering news…what I found interesting…you only personally have control(of) less than half your total digital footprint.”

The very technical explanation can be found in a document entitled The Diverse and Exploding Digital Universe. Since I am not educated in astro-techno-geek speak, most of this is beyond me. But there were a couple of key points that even I could be amazed by:

By 2011, the digital universe will be 10 times the size it was in 2006.

Of that portion of the digital universe created by individuals, less than half can be accounted for by user activities —pictures taken, phone calls made, emails sent — while the rest constitutes a digital “shadow” — surveillance photos, Web search histories, financial transaction journals, mailing lists, and so on.

Okay, now for one key point that is beyond my mental capacity:

Contemplating the digital universe is a little like contemplating Avogadro’s number. It’s big. Bigger than anything we can touch, feel, or see, and thus impossible to understand in context. For the purists, Avogadro’s number — the number of carbon atoms in 12 gramsii — is 602,200,000,000,000,000,000,000, or 6.022 x 1023. And no, the digital universe is not that big. In 2007, the number of “atoms” in the digital universe — the digital bits, or binary 1s and 0s created, captured, and replicated during the year — was less than a hundredth of Avogadro’s number.

Well, that’s a relief. The digital universe isn’t as big as Avagadro’s number, whatever the heck that is. Wooops! Hang on, we’re not safe yet:

But the number of digital “atoms” in the digital universe is already bigger than the number of stars in the universe. And, because the digital universe is expanding by a factor of 10 every five years, in 15 years it will surpass Avogadro’s number.

Obviously, I am taking a rather “tongue-in-cheek” attitude. And while this is deadly serious as far as privacy issues are concerned, you might want to calculate your own digital footprint, just for kicks. Interesting reading.

Thing 21: Pageflakes *

Unlike some other Web 2.0 features, I had never heard of a “pageflake” or any other custom start page application. But, as in almost every other activity I’ve participated in during Web 2.0 class, I’m hooked once again!

I have begun to customize my own flake with delicious bookmarks, world clock, message board, blog, and even a slide show that I made for my mother as I was working on homework on Mother’s Day! I’m using my blog to “book-talk” a bit, my first entry being Life As We Knew It (which also happens to be the subject of the slide show in an earlier “thing”). I embedded a 48 second blurb for Laurie Halse Anderson’s Wintergirls from Youtube. I can see pageflakes, for me, being a great way to promote reading and literature.

I’m wondering if my little reading community at the high school would respond to my message board where I’ve asked the question “what are you reading?” The 11th grade lit classes are using photo story and I’m wondering if this could be posted to a page flake. Given the popularity of Facebook and Myspace, I think students would like this concept of personalizing web content. The students would also like that you can change the theme and the color of the magic “change” button. For anyone, pageflakes could be a great way to organize your favorite sites and gather your favorite “tools” (dictionary, calculator, etc.).

The use for content specific courses is obvious. Posters are out, page flakes are in!

Thing 20: Google Docs

As I write this reflection, I have just sent out a request using Google Docs to the Language Arts teachers at my high school to collaborate with me on a list of desired book titles for the next school year (in the event that money magically becomes available). What genius thought this up and what is the catch? It’s free, it’s compatible with Microsoft, stored on line and accessible from any computer.

There are many ways this application has potential value in the operation of a school. One is any task that requires collaborative thought, such as the request I have sent out. Another thought that comes to mind is grant writing and SACS committees. Upon a little investigation, I googled “Google Docs” and I found a Google Docs Template Directory, with 436 templates, including calendars, scrapbooks, research paper presentation, course syllabus, and semester grade book and attendance, just to name a very few. I actually pulled up a calendar template and created a Media Center schedule for the month of May. I think that would be really cool if I could do it without the old fashioned hard copy. I’m going to give it a try in August, along with some of my other new Web 2.0 tools!

What’s not to love? Easy, useful, and maybe best of all for teachers…free.

Thing 19: Teacher Tube and You Tube

I must admit, this was one of my favorite tasks of Web 2.0. As instructed, I spent some time in YouTube just looking up something nostalgic. So I spent about 2 hours looking at numerous videos of Peter Cetera circa 1970′s singing “If You Leave Me Now.” Oh, wait, that was supposed to be just one video?…oops. Oh well, I did find the obligatory “how to” video (knitting) and I did find not two, but many videos relating to my content area.

There are so many ways video production could be used. I hate to keep flogging away at this horse, but book talking is obvious. I saw many examples on Teacher Tube of students book talking Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight and Ellen Hopkins’ Crank, presently two very popular YA novels. I also saw video highlighting historically banned books.

Typically, many of the LA classes do author studies. Many videos can be found on YouTube featuring YA authors. Here is one I’d like to share. I saw Laurie Halse Anderson recently at the Kennesaw State University YA lit conference plugging her new book Wintergirls, which deals with anorexia. She also spent time talking about her award winning Speak. Here is a video of Laurie reading a poem she wrote based on Speak.

Thing 17: Podcasting

“Podcasting” sounds a little futuristic to me—I have this visual of people growing in pods at the bottom of a swimming pool like in the movie “Cocoon.” I guess it really is kind of futuristic, considering I’ve spent my whole life listening to folks lecture the old fashioned way—my beloved minister in church every Sunday, for instance. The closest I came to a close encounter of the futuristic kind was my junior year of college in 1978. Our Ed Psych professor was going to be out of town during one of our class meetings; rather than give us the day off, she had herself videotaped! This was one weird looking chick, and early, poor quality video did nothing to enhance her presentation. A podcast might’ve helped her immensely.

I found a few useful podcasts on the Education Podcast Network site and downloaded them to my Google Reader. One that will be extremely helpful to me is the Hopkinton NH High School Library Podcast. The Media Specialist had someone with a really nice voice “book talk” several YA titles—I assume the equivalent of our “GA Peach” nominees. I had already had the idea to try a few booktalk podcasts and putting them on my media center website, but having theirs as a model will be very helpful. I also thought I would suggest booktalk podcasting to the LA teachers which would provide a fun activity for the students and a means of alternative assessment for the teachers.

I also found something called Storycast. From their list I listened to a snippet of Huckleberry Finn, provided by Librivox, which provides free audio books from the public domain. One thing I think is important to point out is that for a podcast to be effective and useful, the voice has to be good. One reviewer wrote that the voice reading Huck Finn made me “want to tear my ears off.” Yikes!

In an earlier “thing” I found a podcast where students acted out parts of a book. I think that could be used very effectively as long as students were coached to speak clearly and with animation.

“BookVoyages” looked promising but the links to the episodes didn’t work, which just goes to show that the technology is only so good as the people backing it up!

I would like to find more podcast ideas to use at school, and to use for my own personal growth—to “sharpen my saw” as Stephen Covey would say. It’s cost effective and easy.

Thing 16: I am a Library Thing convert

My first experience with on line book sharing was Anobii. A friend & colleague introduced me to the website last year and I was immediately hooked! Being a visual learner, I loved being able to “see” the books I’ve read/planned to read on my personal on-line bookshelf. There is a lot of good in Anobii. If you want a bare bones, scaled down, simple book site—this is the place for you. However, if you want to experience the mother of all on line book sharing, Library Thing is for you!

If you love books and reading, I don’t know how you cannot love Library Thing. It took me one visit to transfer my undying love. I haven’t upgraded to a paid account yet because I just listed about 50 of my recently read books to generate recommendations. I’m sure I’ll eventually cough up $25 to further pad the pocket of Library Thing’s founder, and to ensure my place among other nerds. Where else for such a small fee can you spend hours perusing book reviews and reading posts of other demented book lovers?

I already belong to two groups: Librarians who love Library Thing, and Read YA lit. I belong to the 50 book challenge on Anobii. I will probably finish the challenge there before I join that group on Library Thing—call me crazy, but when I start something, I like to finish it. Oh! I almost forgot, I also joined the Library Thing/early reviewers group, which is kind of a lottery—you agree to do book reviews on as yet to be published books in exchange for a free copy. I just signed up today, so I haven’t gotten a free book yet.

I can see endless possibilities for Library Thing with my high school readers. Having just recently issued gaggle net accounts to our students, I am anxious to see if it will allow them access to Library Thing from school! If so, it would sure simplify documenting the 25 book campaign for next year.

Who says you can’t play in two sandboxes? If you want to visit my shelf on Anobii, I’m marionthelibrarian.

Below, you will see my Library Thing widget!