#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

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

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

5. 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!

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!

#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!