Week 9 Thing #23 THE END. NO, JUST THE BEGINNING!!

Thanks for this great opportunity to propel me into a lifelong learner. Web2 is so interesting. Web3 and 4, here I come. This really has been quite an experience. I am so glad I got on board.

My favorite exercise has to be online generators. My most treasured, has to be del.icio.us.

I have tagged my sites and now am tagging everyones elses. I have created blogs for my grandkids. It is a great way to keep up with them. I see their school work as they tell me about it.

I did reach my goals of viewing problems as challenges. The challenges were many. This did take many more hours than I expected. I was feeling pretty challenged mentally most of the time. Then ......satisfaction when I was able to compete the task. I know I drove my friends nuts with my enthusiasm, BUT.....there isn't another feeling as strong as satisfaction

Change this tutorial? No way! It may be helpful to include a few ideas on how each excercise can be used in the school library.

Would I sign up for more tutorials? - You bet.

Describe my learning experience in a word or sentence? Mind boggling!

Thank you to the entire CSLA School Library Learning 2.0 Team

I really appreciate your kind words and support. Thank you to the other lifelong learners for your kind comments and e-mails.

To quote and answer the team, This is not the end of my learning journey, but the start of something amazing.....................Thank you.

Week 9 Thing #22 ebooks and audiobooks

I checked out Librivox and the Gutenberg Project. I have downloaded a book from Librivox in the past. The books aren't the ones I normally read. It did motivate me to renew my library card. My public library subscribes to CALIFA. I just checked out What Was She Thinking by Zoe Heller. I downloaded to my mp3 player. This is the first time I've done this. I can choose up to 5 books at a time. They are checked out to me for 14 days. After that, they just disappear from the mp3. Hard to believe. I can't wait to see that.
Best Places to get "free" books, looks to me like more of an advertisement. Most seem to be get 2 free after you sign up for a monthly fee. Buy 2 get 2. I may have gotten the wrong impression, but that is what I got from it.

I will however use my public library instead of purchasing them. I hadn't used the public library for years.

I just returned from vacation. I took a short road trip with my grandchildren 5 and 7 years old, and their parents. The 3 of us were in the back seat.They hate to be in the car long. After the first 10 minutes, both kids pulled out their players, put on their headphones and seemed to be in heaven listening to their books. The 5 year old was listening to Where the Wild Things Are. He was clearly getting a kick out of it. The 7 year old was listening to Freckle Juice. I put my headphones on and listened to my book. The kids' parents were probably thrilled to get to hold a quiet conversation. No fighting or bickering.

Special thanks to Jackie S.

Jackie,
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I can't believe it! I have been looking for a tutorial on second life that I saw a month ago. I failed to save it then. I have spent numerous hours searching for it. I've tried every combination possible. Then ,I post on this blog that I couldn't find my favorite video. Jackie S from the CSLA team knew what what I was talking about. I am sooo thankful. Jackie, if you read this, THANKS!!!! You have no idea how badly I wanted to rewatch this video. I appreciate your help. www.vbpresenter.com/kbeedon/chrisduke
This has so much information on second life. I'm still not sure if I will do it or not. It is quite interesting, but not sure I would be interested.
All this Web 2 , Web3, and now even talk of Web4 is mind boggling.

Week 9 Thing #21 Podcasts

I thought this excercise would be a no brainer done in 10 minutes. I am very familiar with podcasts. I listen to them constantly. I helped my brother-in-law create one for his algebra class and he now does them daily.

BUT..... I decided to check out a few on the recommended list. I thought Michael, a teen volunteer at Hennepin County Library, did a great job on his podcast of Guy Reads. He does audio recordings by teens for teens.

I watched a couple podcasts on second life. I am actually searching for one I saw when I first started this tutorial a month ago. It was on second life created by someone in the Texas University system, I believe. It was so good. I can't find it. I will eventually, I am sure. I must have gotten to it from a link in this tutorial somehow. I watched Machination again. I even watched a few Pottercasts. They were not done very well at all.

THEN.... I discovered Google Sketchup. I have spent 3 entire days and nights here. I watched each tutorial at least 3 -4 times. It is fascinating. I found this sketchup by Josh Wilson, of the Library of Congress (see below). It is incredible. My grandchildren are the recipients of all my experiments from this class. They love it.

I am going to add a few podcasts to my school website on research. I will try to involve the students and my new mimeoboard. Fun stuff.

Week 9 #20 YouTube

I was a bit leery about the YouTube assignment. I was watching YouTube constantly. It is like a dead brain just glaring at the screen. I think I watched every single YouTube on Web2. All the instructional ones. Then I started to watch all the ones referred on blogs. All the videos posted on Second Life would lead to more blogs that led to more YouTube. My grandson is very interested in Claymation.He has been posting on YouTube for the past 3 years.

Introducing the Book, March of the Librarians, Web2 have been on all the listservs in the past 2 months. I think posting videos and podcasts on library websites would be very helpful. I was planning on posting a few powerpoints. Maybe I will have to rethink it.

Week 8 #19 LibraryThing

My LibraryThing

I cataloged 15 of my books in LibraryThing. I thought it was easy. I really enjoyed looking at it with the tag cloud. That is very cool. It will be awesome to see when you have lots of books and tags. I put both a search widget as well as the cover and titles on to my blog. The print is big, so I will play with it and see if I can change that. It is cool that you can link to author pages. I will do that at school. I think I will just LibraryThing new additions to my book review page. I'll see what works best. I checked a couple of the sites where people linked LibraryThing to their existing catalog. I don't see the point. Maybe I just don't get it. I am amazed how it pulls the info from Amazon. You don't have to copy and paste.

I even purchased LibraryThing t-shirts from the CafePress store.

Tomorrow, I am teaching my sister to catalog her classroom library books in LibraryThing. She will have to purchase the yearly or forever subscription.

I downloaded the Mosaic Maker to my computer. When I add more books, I am going to make a poster.

I didn't like the talk feature or blog feature. Too much or just confusing.

Overall, I liked this site and will definetly use it.

Week 8 #18 Online Productivity Tools

I tried both Zoho Writer and Google Docs. Both were easy to create, save, change and post. (See both below)
I think Zoho Writer is easier and faster. I will probably use it when I need this. I can recommend this to students also. I do know some students used the Google docs last year.
Many of them had google accounts because we used G-mail to transfer student work from school to home and back.

Week 8 #18 Google Docs

Last	First	Street	City
Buffet	J	1st St	Key West
Bush	G	2nd St	Washington
Cartman	E	3rd St	South Park
Cyborn	T	4th St	Tahoe
Doe	J	5th St	Washington
Gates	B	6th St	Redmond
Jefferson	G	7th St	In the Sky
Kong	K	8th St	New York
Munster	H	9th St	Fargo

Week 8 #18 Zoho Writer Book Reviews

I created this document in Zoho writer and exported to my blog. It was easy and accessible from any computer with internet. If our district doesn't get our drives available by remote, this will be very handy. I also saved some templates for later use.

Book Reviews

Share what you read.

Please write a short book review about what you are reading. Please do not give away any endings or anything that would ruin the story for others. Please keep your post to 1 or 2 paragraphs.

Please include title, author, short synopsis, and if you recommend the book or not by giving it stars,with 5 stars denoting the best. If we do not have this book in our school library, please let me know if you feel it should be included n our collection.

You may also comment on other students reviews, agreeing or disagreeing. Be kind.

Keep in mind that I have the right to delete any posts that are inappropriate.

Thank you for contributing to our "Book Reviews".

Sample:

Right Behind You by Gail Giles ***** 5 stars

Kip is nine years old when he sets his neighbor on fire and the boy dies. The book is all about Kip trying to live with it. He spends time in a juvenile facility and when he is released, he realizes people still think he is a "monster". The story is about Kip coming to terms with what he has done and accepting the love of his father. The story is full of suspense.

Gail Giles is one of my favorite authors. I recommend this book to grades 7th and 8th graders.

Week 7 #16 Wikis, #17 Add Entry to Sandbox Wiki

#16...I created a wiki for our students to "talk" about books. I created it in Wetpaint. It was very easy. I'm so glad to have this. Students not able to come to our book clubs have asked for this. It will be fun to see what they write and what they suggest. I know some students will write often and others occasionally. I will have to come up with something good to get more kids involved. Our circulation is huge, but I don't know how many students will take part in our new wiki.

#17 ...I added 2 different ideas in the sandbox. first, I added pictures, but deleted them in favor of text. I will use book covers in the wiki I created for school.
I still prefer ning to wiki. Maybe I just need to get more acquainted with wiki.

I found a wiki created by a district tech person for the classes offered in professional development. No one has posted at all. I want to do it, but I am not sure what I would write.Maybe about my new mimeo board.

Libladylib in Zombies

Zombie Letters from e-zombie.com

I need a break before I begin the wiki assignment.
I'm going back to "Play Week". I used sketch generator to make this picture of my grandkids.

Here I used sketch generator to see what Mary's Musings'

flowers would look like.

Week 6 #15 School Learning Web 2.0 Future of Libraries

I have learned so much from this 2.0 tutorial.
When viewing "Away From Icebergs", I thought, boy, this guy's (Rick Anderson) got it. We are rowing against a very strong current. The "just in case", I got that a few years ago after attending a conference by Pam Berger. I don't buy or keep anything "just in case". She is an amazing librarian and presenter ahead of her time.

"To a Temporary Place In Time", by Dr. Wendy Schultz scared the daylights out of me. I know I committed to being a lifelong learner. I know I committed to finish this tutorial, BUT....Library4.0?? Yikes. I hope I can stay committed. Surely, once I get better acquainted with the web, the easier it will be? We will see. I love how she states, Library 4.0 will not replace Libraries 1.0 through 3.0; it will absorb them.
Brilliant.

Week 6 Thing #14 Technorari and tags

Technorati Profile

Technorati is amazing. I love tagging. I have tagged everything in my bookmarks and favorites.
I spent quite some time (way too much) searching many tags. I just shocked to see 3 hours passed while I was searching second life and virtual worlds. All the talk of Web3 kinda freaks me out. At this rate I won't have to worry about NOT being a lifelong learner. I hope I can catch up and keep up. About a month ago I saw an amazing video on second life in the universities in Texas. I didn't save it, and I cannot find it. I am bummed. I am obsessed and it is driving me crazy.
I don't see a downside of Technorati unless you consider loss of time, obssesive disorder, and sitting for hours straight a downside.
I have always searched for blogs on Technorati to read on library issues and book reviews, so I was familiar with it, just had never claimed a blog to it until now. I tried to add the cloud widget of labels, but could not figure out where to paste the url. Braindead!
I would be in heaven if School Libraries on the Net could somehow get tagged. Our school district web master would love to have all our sites tagged. Most teachers have stated they don't want to share and don't want others to be able to use their documents or ppts or podcasts. He will make it so they have a choice to share or keep private. It would be great if he could add a link to every website so the eachers could learn more about Web2. I get a little too enthusiastic and send the staff e-mails about what I am learning constantly. They always thank me, but they are probably sick of me. My principal loves it! I'm sure when this class is finished, she will make a huge deal of me knowing web2. It seems I always start each e-mail with ,"I promise this is the last e-mail about web2, but this is so cool". They just laugh. Then they want to see how it is done. I even send stuff to our tech department at the district. No one had heard of a ning. I was so proud. They are scrambling to stay ahead of me because they know I will not let up. I told them we (5 of us from our district are doing this tutorial), are going to be dangerous. We will be geekier than they are. I can't wait!

Week 6 Thing 13, Del.icio.us

istockphoto..PaintedHearts.freetoall

I love del.icio.us! I spent most of the evening last night as well as most of today exporting and tagging all my favorites in Internet Explorer to delicious and tagging them. Then to Mozilla Firefox to import all the delicious bookmarks. I love the tags. What an easy way to find your info fast!I am going to try this with my school files. I have folders inside folders and it is so unorganized. I still want to investigate the links in de.licio.us. I didn't see where they are, so will investigate HELP.

In Mozilla today, I discovered BlogRovr. I will check it out more when I get to Technorati. I really like Mozilla better than Internet Explorer, but I have always used IE. I think I just may switch to Mozilla all the time.

I will definetely use del.icio.us daily! AND, to think I can access it from any computer. GENIUS!!!

Week 6 (pre)Thing 13

I finally got the del.icio.us video to play on my computer. The problem was in the settings on my computer, but I really have no idea where. I just kept changing things until it worked. Now, I am so enthralled in Library Thing, Technorati, and Del.icio.us that I haven't had time to post. I have watched at least 5-6 videos on web2 that have been great. I got stuck on Joyce Valenza's blog, then realized she is the one that created LM_NET wikispaces. Everywhere I search comes up with this lady's name. Springfield Virtual Libary, again Joyce Valenza. Sometimes, I wonder where these people come from? I want her to conduct a seminar in Orange County, California so we can see her. She will probably be on second life before I even figure second life out. Web2 ,defined by wikipedia, is overtaking my life. I had to catch up with web1 in order to understand web2.

The nings I joined are now producing e-mails sent to me asking to be my friend. This is pretty weird for me as I do not know what that entails. Do I have to join certain friends to comment or ? I suppose I will accept and see what it is about.