Thursday, July 31, 2008

#19 Week 8 ---Thingology (LibraryThing's ideas blog): LibraryThing at ALA—with reviews in your catalog!

Thingology (LibraryThing's ideas blog): LibraryThing at ALA—with reviews in your catalog!

I'm really looking for different ways to have students post book reviews..... so what can library thing do?

Here's what I found.... As you can see I've added the 5/6 and 7/8 battle books and created a book cover widget for each. The tool for doing this is very easy and intuitive. I like the ability to see what it will look like before you commit to the java script. (though this seems to be a common feature on script generators).

It all was really cool till I clicked on a book cover and it took me to amazon. I thought it would take me to LIbraryThing. I was hoping to use this to get kids to go to library thing and add book reviews. So I don't know....

My other idea for this widget was to put one on the school home page of books that teachers and/or students are reading now-- or maybe the most popular books of the month... (will have to figure out how to get that data from our system!)

Anyway, I'll keep playing with this and if anyone has any ideas on this- chime in!

#18 Week 8 web 2.0 connections

This is my Zoho Doc that I posted directly to the blog. The zoho editor has lots of formating tools including special math symbols. Easy to jump right in! There are quite a few collaborative tools on zoho, though some of the require money... Like the database application. There are many times we use Excel when we should really be using a database, but we either don't have access to one or they are too much work to set up. This looks pretty easy (like the old appleworks database) and you can also create web forms and integrate into web page... might be worth the $25 if you had a need for a database!

Blog responses by Robin Turk

1. library livin’ Week 4 - #9

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5320793857891507038&postID=1264451810103566433

2. Sonic Shade Week 9 - #20https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7500539252511721651&postID=8913490489812165777&page=1

3. Book 2.0 – chapter 5 Professional Development

http://book2library2.blogspot.com/2008/07/chapter-5-professional-development.html

  1. Janet’s Raven 2.0 - No Week—on Library Blogs

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7552621841919542937&postID=5016056705828158665&page=1

  1. Aunt Book – Week 6 # 15 https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5186509637097213927&postID=7036547893740821174&page=1

Curriculum Connections

Motivational Posters
There are many uses for these motivational posters found on several of the image generator sites, such as BigHugeLabs or Imagegenerator.org. Our sixth grade teachers are always trying to come up with new projects for the beginning of the year to help socialize kids. We also explore ways for students to identify themselves with character traits. I see students making posters with images of themselves illustrating a character trait, or just with that trait as the text. Comic pictures would be great too. Giving students a choice of several of these tools would be the best approach! RobinT July 08

Group work notes and sharing: not a new idea- I learned from David Loertcher at th e AASL 2007 conference. The trick is to have at least one computer per group. Set up a page for the project with directions etc and insert a table for each group. Label each cell and link to a new page. Then each group has their own page to record notes and it is easy to share. Suddenly being the note taker takes on a new meaning! Robin T July 2008

#17 wiki curriculum connection

Group work notes and sharing: not a new idea- I learned from David Loertcher at the AASL 2007 conference. The trick is to have at least one computer per group. Set up a page for the project with directions etc and insert a table for each group. Label each cell and link to a new page. Then each group has their own page to record notes and it is easy to share. Suddenly being the note taker takes on a new meaning! Robin T July 2008

There is a lot of potential in wikis to use to manage group projects. I really want to have about 10 laptops in the library so I cans use them with group work with students. We'll see!

#16 Week 7 Wikis

I really think, no surprise, that the wiki is the best tool of all. Yes, I like blogs too, but a wiki makes managing a website a whole new experience. I found that I just had to accept that a wiki is not going to be as fancy as a regular fully developed website, but I don't need or have time to mess with bells and whistles anyway.

I have wikis on both pbwiki and wikispaces.

Wikispaces for teachers is add free and allows you to lock pages. This is a great feature if you have content you don't want others to edit. (You have to pay for this on pbwiki) Wikispaces has very basic editing menu. No fancy stuff here! The other great feature on wikispaces is that it has a real navigation bar. A unique feature is a discussion tab on each page of the wiki that allows threaded discussions. Need wikispaces account to join and edit.

PBwiki-- just came out with a 2.0 version. This version requires user accounts to join, The old version, 1.0, uses "Invite key" as a password for users to be able to edit by just entering the invite key. Right now you can create either version, but I don't know how long that will be available. PBwiki has a robust edit menu with many tools. I don't really like their menu, but I know there is a way to modify it if you can research and figure it out. And, as mentioned above, you can't lock pages without paying $25 a month.

So think about your needs before you choose which will best suit your needs. There are other wikis I'm sure, but these are the two that are most visible on the net.

You can check out a couple of wikis I manage
Colony Middle School Resource wiki - we also have a staff wiki, but it is not public. the staff has been very slow to jump in!

Alaska Association of School Librarians- askal2 -- this is a second wiki for AkASL- the problem when a group tries to maintain something and looses the person who was responsible and the access goes with it! akasl2 actually is 'owned' by akasl instead of a person. Oh-- the invite key is .... puffin

There are great resources on wikis linked in Raven About Web 2.0--- it pays to look at quite a few to see how others are using wikis. It is also good to link to examples of wikis if you want teachers or students to join in the fun.

Las comment-- don't get discouraged if people don't just jump right in. Keep working and promoting... It's still the easiest way for you to get content on the web!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

EBSCOhost: Minds at Play

EBSCOhost: Minds at Play

This article is from Ebsco through the Databases for Alaskans and originally appeared in the May 2008 issue of American Libraries.

Myers describes implementing video game development programs with children and teens Wilmette Public Library. Article identifies free software and considerations for libraries.

Think about this in your school library...

Most research has focused upon the learning behavior of young people as players within the gaming environment, where it has been observed that during play, gamers exhibit intrinsic motivation and a highly exploratory frame of mind--qualities known to optimize the learning experience.

Some studies go even further to suggest that by allowing kids to design their own computer games, educators can facilitate deeper learning and promote the acquisition of literacies that will be crucial to success in tomorrow's professional and social environments. These studies suggest that kids' best learning experiences come when they are engaged not simply in interacting with materials but in experimenting and inventing with them.

What I like about this idea is that the development occurs offline. Collaboration can occur in person, and sharing techniques and results online.

All very interesting. They chose to programs to use...

Game maker
and Scratch for younger children...

I love this idea, but Game Maker starts right off with first-person shooter games to make. Not sure I love that!


Friday, July 25, 2008

#15 Week 6

Library 2.0

Interesting series of articles from OCLC. I am always fascinated when I read these kind of articles... the ones where our future is painted for us. I rarely really disagree I just can't imagine getting a fraction of what they are saying accomplished. Imagine working in a public or academic library where you actually have time to work on things during your work day. anyway.

I do appreciate this comment by Rick Anderson in the Iceberg piece:

The “just in case” collection Crazy as this may sound, the time has come for us to look skeptically at the very idea of a library “collection.”

I have not "developed" a collection in a traditional sense maybe ever. Now especially I am very careful where I put money for resources, and am trying to expand formats and delivery. It's not easy though.

In the "new world" article Michael Stephens makes a couple of points relevant to me... One I have to tell myself all the time...

This librarian does not create policies and procedures that impede users’ access to the library.
You know how it's so easy to just make a bunch of rules at school? I find myself doing that and then realize it is ridiculous!

While all of Michael's points are worth considering the other that sticks with me is about content...
Librarian 2.0 gets content This librarian understands that the future of libraries will be guided by how users access, consume and create content. Content is a conversation as well and librarians should participate. Users will create their own mash ups, remixes and original expressions and should be able to do so at the library or via the library’s resources. This librarian will help users become their own programming director for all of the content available to them.
We at least need to know a variety of ways to create and make content accessible. This is the big important part of knowing Web 2.0 , and Alaska librarians are right here- using it!

Chip Nigel's ways to cooperate sound great for OCLC and I'm impressed that they are going "Open" - I look forward to see where that goes. I think they are looking at google book...

I probably won't be alive to see library 4.0, but it sure sounds cool!

For Web 2.0 I'm in the recognizing "key emerging technologies" phase as noted in the Horizon Report. such as
Grassroots Video, collaboration webs, mashups, collective intelligence and the whole social system thing. This report is a bit academic in application but I think we can take a bit of the purpose and run with it. Being in a place to help students know about and use these tools... and being in a place to convince teachers that it is ok for students to use these tools for school work-- is where I'm at. I just love all the possibilities.

#14 Week 6

Technorati-- Looked at this when I was working on my masters and thought it was so cool... Well haven't done anything with it. Though it is a good place to gather statistics about the web!

So today one of the first things I questioned on my search results was the "Authority" links... Here's what they say:

On Fri. May 4th, 2007 we updated Technorati.com to include the Technorati Authority for blogs listed on the Blog page and in search results. This update changed the earlier references of "N blogs link here" and "X links from Y blogs" with the single Technorati Authority number. On the blog page, we also show the Technorati Rank.

Technorati Authority is the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months. The higher the number, the more Technorati Authority the blog has.

It is important to note that we measure the number of blogs, rather than the number of links. So, if a blog links to your blog many times, it still only count as +1 toward your authority. Of course, new links mean the +1 will last another 180 days.

Technorati Rank is calculated based on how far you are from the top. The blog with the hightest Technorati Authority is the #1 ranked blog. The smaller your Technorati Rank, the closer you are to the top.

Since at the lower end of the scale many blogs will have the same Technorati Authority, they will share the same Technorati Rank.

The Technorati Top 100 shows the most popular 100 blogs based on Technorati Authority. The #1 ranked blog is the blog with the most other distinct blogs linking to it in the last 6 months. If your blog's rank is, say 305,316, this indicates that there are 305,315 blog ranks separating your blog from the #1 position.

The best way to increase your Technorati Authority is to write things that are interesting to other bloggers so they'll link to you. Linking to source material when you blog is also a great way to engage in conversation and help others find what you find interesting.

I like the last paragraph... it is just all there is to it- be interesting!

Then I was messing around with the little heart that says favorites and ended up adding someone's blog to my favorites and now I don't see how to remove it. oh well... They did still have my account since 2006 so that is good. As for claiming my blog I'm not sure it's all that interesting. It is ok now that we have class, but will I keep it up? I suppose I could claim it just to say I have and it can sit at the bottom of the authority list without hurting anything.

A feature of the search results that I do like is that it also lists others who have linked or commented on that post.

In the end, I will remember more to use Technorati as a research source, especially when looking for current events. check out Barack Obama's speech from Berlin.
Now the world will now I linked to this video!

Thing #13 Week 6

I've been really trying to use my Del.icio.us bookmarking this summer. I have figured out how to bundle, delete, and network. I love the tag button in the tool bar. This makes it easier to save then using the browser bookmark option.

As librarians I thing the network feature is a great tool to work with teachers. Not all teachers granted, but I do know a few who will jump on this. all it takes is some creative thinking about tags to keep our resources organized for us. I thought about creating an account like the SJLibrary2 group did, but that kind of means another account to manage, so I'm opting out on that idea.

As always, it is much easier to get other people to jump on your band wagon when you are a really good musician- and that just takes practice.

Thing #12 Week 5

Voice Thread has definitely improved and advanced since I tried it last fall. I was so excited to use voicethread with students that I tried it with several classes. Everyone was very excited, teachers and students loved, but it turned out to be quite a problem to manage.

I've since learned about identities. This is the secret to managing a whole class of students.

The new tutorial videos are great and will be sure to have anyone who wants to use voicethread to watch them all. It takes time, but well worth it.

I really like the imbeded video and posts on teacher tube too.

The other new feature that I love is the video of the person making the comments. I saw it on the tutorial for video doodling. I brings a whole other dimension to the comments.

Yes, we will be trying voice thread again... Teachers will have faith and give it a go!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The Thinking Stick | Stages of PLN adoption

The Thinking Stick | Stages of PLN adoption

Personal Learning Networks that is. This presents a very interesting view of intense learning... network or not. I looked at the graphic view of PLN and thought it would be a great thing to do with teachers and students. You just have to see it....

Thinking Skills Now- ASCD

Current Issue

Well, the 'blog this!' feature isn't working well this morning, but never fear we will prevail. As this class has re-ignited by interest in my RSS reader I have spent an hour this morning reading stuff!

The current issue - Summer only online- of ASCD Educational Leadership has a couple of great articles that I think connect to class and our work.... of course

Immersed in Inquiry

Jean Anne Clyde and Angela Hicks

Read how fifth graders become researchers as they ponder, "How has our county changed?" Then view their photo story to find out what they learned about investigative reporting.

Read the Abstract | Read the Article | Request Permission

Differentiating Math Through Expeditions

Brent Loken

Discover what happens when an algebra class applies self-directed learning, and view a musical math video called "Linear Is Everywhere."

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Thing #11- Week5 Award Winners

Well, I looked at the finals short list and chose Web Dev Yahoo! Pipes, but quickly discovered that it was way more techy then I was looking for! Then I looked at the recipe category and was quite disappointed with the winners. I like the idea of video taping making a recipe and sharing that! I have found some of those on Utube also.

So I finally settled on
Bookmarking Del.icio.usStumbleUponFurl
I took a few minutes to look at StumbleUpon and Furl, and not sure that I would use either. StumbleUpon may be fun as they say on the site for the "next time you want to wander the web.." but I don't wander much. and Furl may be fine, but our district has cleared Del.icio.us on our fire wall so that's what I need to spend time on learning more about.

I have put a TAG button on my browser page so if I'm on a site that I want on Del.icio.us I just click on the button and a pop-up window allows me to add a description and tags. Very handy. So I do that. Then I have my browser (Firefox ) bookmarks set to ask me if I want to also add to delicious. So I do that too.

I'm beginning to think that this is a bit silly- at least I find it annoying to do both. Still I seem to have a notion that I don't want everything on Del.icio.us. Why not I ask myself. We'll see after I spend some time checking it out if I learn anything new.

I think I'll read through some of our other posts from this Thing to see what other people tried. Del.icio.us is quite simple... there is a list of your links and lists of links from the rest of the Del.icio.us community. I did choose the whole blog link and found some interesting sites.

There is a very active Classroom 2.o site where I read through a great conversation thread on the issue of choosing between a blog or a wiki! Yes, there are many replies with links to classroom examples. Seems like a great site to keep track of.

So, one feature of Del.icio.us is to use the tags to look for other resources on the same topic.

Another use of Del.icio.us that I have read about is for teachers to assign a tag for a class say CMSalgebra1 that would be unique and all of the students in this class could assign this tag if they found good algebra resources.

I discovered that in order have people share their bookmarks with you you have to have your network symbol setup, then you belong to a network of people to share with... Also you can have a list of your bookmarks on your website or blog, and a tag cloud... I love tag clouds!

So I did discover some new things!

Since I'm not really a classroom teacher I'm not going to join the Classroom 2.0 ning, but will recommend to teachers! Instead I will join the teacher-librarian ning and see where that goes. I'm not totally sold on nings. Just not enough time. Also not open in our district.

Finally as for the travel game... I stink! It told me so! My map skills are BAD- but sure would be a fun game for students to play... teachers could even keep a scoreboard. How do you get it to stop! I got to level for and 153 points. oh well!

Week 5- Thing #10


Image Generators-- Oh is my library ready for some new signage!

I used Image Chef, which I have looked at but never played with, and found if very easy to get through and fast. However the football jersey I made never posted to this blog. Maybe it takes a while for it to come through? After trying to send it to my blog I had to re-create to send as an email. That took all of 30 seconds but still, a bit annoying, and the re-do to save to account. No option to download- although right clicking on the image did work, so no big deal! I do love all the options and easy interface. Just need ideas!


On FD Flickr Toys I made a billboard- I wasn't feeling very creative, so it's not that exciting, but I know where to find it when I need it! I tried making a billboard with just text, and that didn't work. Then I tried getting an image from the flickr tab, and that was almost cool because all of my flickr images just show up on the page, but it did not load the image as it appeared it was supposed to so I quit playing with that. Still a nice tool.

In searching for text generators I found an old favorite in Cool Text. Still an easy to use site with ability to make buttons or just text as images to download. I tried a new one called Font Image Generator that is ok. Lots of different fonts and some tools for messing with the image. Very simple. Only now that I try to load the image I see that it didn't save properly- I'll try again- the png format was the problem... Noticed that this tool also has the ability to do layers.


Also tried YourGen, which is even more simple then CoolText. There's no editing, just pick a font and go!

On image generators I discovered an interesting site duo. imagegenerator.org and imagegenerator.net the .org site was cool and a few different tools like magazine covers, comic strips and the ever exciting face change. I played with the face changing tool a bit and found they have a video tutorial on how to insert a face of your own... I stopped there, but someday it may be worth the time. The .net site on the other hand I found very distasteful in content and would not share with teachers to students... or anyone really.

blog collision

I found myself suffering from multiple blog collisions this morning.


Somehow this blog got confused with a new Alaska School Library association blog and I was posting as AkASL! To make it more confusing the "About Me" for this blog was REPLACED with the About Me for the AkASL blog! No go figure that. Each blog has separate email addresses too. So for now, I just deleted the AkASL blog. Just don't need more confusion right now.

If you read my post about using RSS to update a webpage you will see what I was trying to do with the AkASL blog. That will all have to wait!

Monday, July 21, 2008

Week 4 Thing #9

Looking for librarian blogs... I'm sure there are many very good blogs. I have read in the past some that are for special libraries that really work for their particular library. I tend to lean toward the people who are on the national leaders list like Doug Johnson, or Stephen Abram.
From Stephen's Lighthouse blog just listed these two links below to lists of things to do with Web 2.0... Kind of fits right in with this class...

July 21, 2008

50 Ways to use Social Media

Jeremiah Owyang has another good post:

50 Ways to use Social Media, listed by Objective

Another good list is from Chris Brogan:

50 Ways Marketers Can use Social Media to Improve Their Marketing

It seems a shame that so many libraries don't engage in enough active listening to their markets of users. The annual (or worse every 5 year) survey just isn't enough anymore, if it ever was.

Next search-- I went to Suprglu and found Infomancy blog which led me to the Fish4Info site. Now this is interesting and I hope to get back to reading more about it. The Fish4Info uses DRupal (which I have heard of and that's it) and a quote from the page says:

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Week 4 - #8 RSS

Well, I could say that I have used RSS for a few years and that would be true, but the definition of 'used' would be more like occasional. It seems to come back on my radar in the summer when I feel like I have time, but wait, RSS is supposed to save time too!

I am sure that I can use it effectively at work, but I tend to use if for more professional development type reading for myself. I tried some of the reading review blogs, so we'll see how those turn out.

So here's my current blogroll.

Now I would like to show a teacher how to use RSS and blogs with students. Then this technology has a whole different meaning besides just reading stuff out there. I do love seeing all the different ideas on how to use RSS and readers. I did use the reader when I was getting ready to go to China last year. I was able to gather news easily, and now I still browse through the China news section, but I don't have to read it all.

Some of the teachers at Colony Middle have been using Moodle for writing with students. I have Moodle has RSS, but I'm not sure if it would be easier for them to use RSS then to just check Moodle. I'll have to take a look at that when we get back to school.

We've got teachers doing moodle and podcasts and it's hard to work on too many new things. If it saves them time and works into existing projects they might try it.

OK- I could try teaching a special group of students how to setup RSS feeds and use that for some research.... OR I can use RSS to put new articles on a wiki or library page for students to access. They would still have to know how it works. Still mulling these ideas over. I know there is a lot being done, but there has to be just the right project to start out on....


As mentioned in week three thing #7 I want to try using RSS to post to my school homepage and my library page. I can setup a blog to do the school news and the secretary can just post to the blog and it will show up on the school web site. I think this will be handy.

I can't imagine trying to review 900 some entries a day as the Shifted Librarian mentions in her Google gears post.
Google Gears does sound like a great tool for someone who commutes on a train or doesn't have a connection at home... and does have a laptop. That might just be handy for some rural Alaska folks to try out.

Week 3 - thing #7 -- Tech -- So What is "Feed to JavaScript"?

So What is "Feed to JavaScript"?: "So What is 'Feed to JavaScript'?

An RSS Feed is a dynamically generated summary (in XML format) of information or news published on other web sites- so when the published RSS changes, your web site will be automatically changed too."

Yes-- this is very cool. (both the blog this and the feed2js) Got this link out of American Libraries May issue. This site allows you to creates the java script that lets you update your webpage from a blog or other RSS feed.

I want to try this bad! So, this is my big web 2.0 goal to start school with. Our school web page is a pain to work with and I hope this lets us be more flexible and more importantly up to date. Nothing is worse than an out of date web page!

I'll let you know how it all goes....

Week 3 Thing #7 What is BlogThis! ?

What is BlogThis! ?: "BlogThis!"

I'm trying out the Blog This feature. I've used a similar thing on other blogs and it makes posting a comment about web page very easy.

this appears to also grab highlighted text from a web page at the same time. I'll try it out with my newest RSS discovery. next

Week 3 #5&6 Flickr mashups

Last year I actually paid for a pro flickr account so I could upload more pictures. I have been using it more recently, but can't say I got my money's worth. We don't have access to flickr at school, or I would use it more there.

This summer I tried shutterfly and a couple of other free image sites, but they don't have what flickr has. I like the commons area and really wish we could get at that at school!

mashups.............................

OK-- this is so addictive! So many times I have looked at these things and said- 'oh this looks cool' and moved on...

Now, I have to try some of them and they are just too fun!

Though I didn't think much of montaqr, because I couldn't see how to make your own and save it. I suppose there is some thrill to think your photo is part of the collection... Is that it?

Now the trading cards are another story! Here's mine. Never having been a trading card buff I'm not really sure what to do with them or put on them. Going with the hiker librarian theme I can find plenty of pictures, but not sure about the icons. It's all in collecting - which I know nothing about! Would be easy to work these into a project with students... love it.

Took me a while to find this line on Mappr-- "Note: As of 2007, Mappr is no longer processing images from flickr. Take a look at flickr to find images on maps." : (

and finally-- here's my China mosaic. I think I'll try using this at the academy for Visual Literacy. Teachers can use too, families of course and wow.... I have to get off my computer!

When all else fails- delete and start over

For whatever reason my old blog with this name would not give me a title space for posts, so I deleted and started over and hey it works now!

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