Dragon Lady

More on Wikis

2009-05-07T10:31:00.000-07:00

I find that wikis are very convenient as a place to store things (pictures, video, lesson plans, PowerPoint projects, etc.) In addition to my library wiki, I also maintain a wiki for the school called the DSMS Best Practices wiki http://dsmsbestpractices.pbworks.com/. This is where I keep the library and laptop calendars. While some teachers use this wiki, it is definitely under-utilized. Next year, I would like to work on increasing the publicity for this wiki so that teachers will see the value and will use it to collaborate and share with their grade level departments and teams.

This year, I decided to put my end-of-the-year report on the wiki http://dsmsbestpractices.pbworks.com/Library+End-of-Year+Report . I used our new evaluation tool as the format for my report and added some statistics. Advantages of this format are that everything is in one spot and I was able to include examples. Next year, I would like to start this page at the beginning of the year and just add the projects and information thoughout the year.

Wikis

2009-03-23T11:25:00.000-07:00

Some of the activities that I learned about in School Library Learning 2.0 changed how I do some things in my library. The most helpful to me was learning about wikis. I set up a library wiki for my library aides. I place all of their assignments here. In addition, they post their completed assignments here. Students can access the wiki at school or at home. I find it extrememly helpful to have everything organized in one spot.

My library wiki is located at: http://dsmslibrary.pbwiki.com.

Week 9, Thing 23

2007-08-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

This has been a great opportunity. Last spring I began hearing about Web2.0, but I really wasn't sure what it was all about and what the point was. I really can't believe how much I've learned!

I especially enjoyed using the image generators. I was able to use some of my creations as part of my PR campaign for my author visit so this activity was very timely. Library Thing has also been a great find. I am continuing to add books from my home collection so that I'll be able to track what I have. The social aspect of this site as well as the social bookmarking sites has been fun too. However, I think that learning about wikis and the collaboration tools on Zoho and Google Docs may be the most useful for encouraging collaboration at school.

This week I created my first wiki for school. It is called DSMS Best Practices and can be found at http://dsmsbestpractices.pbwiki.com/ . The password is dsms in case anyone would like to add something to it. It's new so I'm still figuring out what to do, and I'm just now introducing it to some key teachers before I share it with the whole staff. I plan to share it with our new teachers before school starts. It will be interesting to see where it goes.

The first week of July, my husband and I, 3 administrators, and 9 other teachers from our school attended the Model School conference in Washington D.C. This conference tied in wonderfully with this program. These 2 experiences propelled my husband and me into moving forward with technology on a personal level. It was time for new cell phones and we decided that we needed to upgrade to phones with Web2.0 capabilities. I now check my email, my rss feeds, and library thing regularly wherever I am. Already I wonder how I lived with a cell phone that only made phone calls. I also bought a new laptop just for me. We have just a few laptops at school and that is often a problem. While I keep one in the library there is still the problem sometimes of too many users. Now I have what I need when I need it. Next, it was time to make some upgrades at home. We live in an area with no cable access so we were still using dial-up which really was not effective. So we decided to install a satellite system (which is wonderful). Then we decided to install a wireless network system at home so my husband and I can both use our computers at the same time and I can go anywhere in my house (or on my deck) and use my computer.

I appreciate that this class was set up to allow people to work at their own pace. I was gone most of the summer but was still able to work on this class at my convenience. The only suggestion I would make would be to possible have a page on the wiki or a blog for tips, suggestions, and technology support. I learned some great tips on how to make things work by reading other people's blogs, but it would be nice to things in one place.

I would definitely participate in another program similar to this and I will recommend this to others. This has truly been one of the most useful learning experiences that I've had.

This is just the beginning!

Week 9, Thing 22

2007-08-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

I am a huge fan of audio books when I am traveling. As I stated earlier, I checked out Full Cast Audio http://www.fullcastaudio.com/ and really like it. I listened to some samples and I think this format would be very appealing to students. When I get back to school (next week - hard to believe that we're starting a new year!) I plan to order a couple to see how they go. Also, I haven't tried the playaways yet, but it's time. One of the communities in my area offers small grants for schools so I think I'll apply for one and see if I can get some playaways that way. (I think it's important to check the quality when using free audio books - we're trying to hook readers.)

I have several reference eBooks from Gale that I am really happy with. However, reading eBooks for pleasure seems much more limiting to me. I definitely can see using excerpts or short stories for class projects though. The World eBook Fair has already ended for the year, but I did check out the Gutenburg Project site. I saved the Grimm's Fairy Tales http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext01/grimm10.txt to use in preparation for our author's visit with Michael Buckley.

Funny Teacher Rant

2007-08-17T05:51:00.001-07:00

Those of us who have been in education any length of time identify with this.

Week 9, Thing 21

2007-08-16T09:05:00.000-07:00

As I was exploring podcasts, I focused on educational ones. In the Educational Podcast Directory, I discovered Mabry Middle School which is a good example of how a school could utilize podcasts. I listened to an interview with Bruce Coville done by Book Voyages. I found it interesting that Bruce produces Full Cast Audio Books http://www.fullcastaudio.com/ . I enjoyed his discussion and will explore this further when I work on Thing 22. Bruce also stated that the books he's most proud of are Skull of Truth and My Teacher Flunked the Planet. I really enjoyed Skull of Truth, but haven't read his Teacher series yet. Bruce also talked about passion as being key to getting students excited about reading.

I also found Nancy Keane's Book Talks Quick and Simple http://podcasts.yahoo.com/series?s=7ead099872bb0870a7b5211f91661d84&i=2 that I really enjoyed. I plan to subscribe to this one.

On Tuesday, August 14, our local newspaper had an article on the front page dealing with iPods, "Banned: School to students: Leave iPods at home" http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007708140316 . This article led to the opinion page on Wednesday being dedicated to discussion on utilizing iPods for educational purposes. "Digital natives" is a label being used to describe this generation of students. There is definitely a "digital divide" between these students and many of the adults in their lives. This is why offering this class, School Library Learning 2.0 is so important.

Week 9, Thing 20

2007-08-16T07:05:00.000-07:00

Using video to make a point can be very efficient. Today there are so many choices available that it is can be overwhelming. (I spent a lot of time this week on You Tube and Teacher Tube just browsing.) Students and teachers often seem to have short attention spans (inservice meetings start Aug. 29 for us and no one wants to sit and listen) and appropriate short clips can engage the audience and share a message quickly in a manner that interests the viewer.

One of my pet peeves at school are the teachers who overuse and abuse videos and DVD's. We have way too many teachers who frequently show videos and waste valuable classroom time. The students are bored and don't pay attention and the teacher grades papers or does other paper work during the time so there is no interaction with the medium. Instead, a focus on finding video clips to visually demonstrate the lesson would be productive and powerful. At school we have a subscription to United Streaming and it is underused - I plan to work with teachers more this year in utilizing this resource.

Week 8, Thing 19

2007-08-10T06:12:00.000-07:00

Library Thing is a wonderful find. As I posted earlier, my husband and I had discusssed cataloging our home library and this is perfect. It's very easy to use. I borrowed a scanner from school and just scan in the ISBN number (some paperbacks have to be entered by hand). I also added the mobile feature to our cell phones so that we can search our home library while in book stores, etc. Tags and reviews can be added quickly. I've also enjoyed exploring the groups and seeing how many other people own the same books that I do.

As I started adding books from my collection, I decided to tag my autographed copies. Using the blog widget under tools, I added some of my autographed books to my blog (scroll down and look on the left).

I see the advantage of using Library Thing at school to share the new books we've added to our collection. I also think I will use Library Thing with my library aides to write reviews and add books that they've read and books that they are interested in. (I usually have 2 - 4 student aides each period and I like to have an activity for them to work on for those times that I do not need their help; I've had them make posters, create PowerPoint presentations, create newsletters, etc.)

Now I need to upgrade to a lifetime memebership and just begin scanning in our books.

Week 8, Thing 18

2007-07-31T08:25:00.001-07:00

I really see the value of these online productivity tools. Both Zoho and Google Docs are very easy to use. For me, one of the main advantages is the ability to upload documents that I have already created. I have tons of lessons that I have saved that would be great for interested teachers to have (one teacher that I collaborated with extensively has transferred to another school and this is a great way for her to continue with those lessons that we have already successfully used). I practiced uploading a Word document with an image to both Zoho and Google Docs. The only thing that I needed to do in both was to space between paragraphs. I now have access to these wherever I am and can make these documents public, share them certain people, or link them to my wiki. I am currently creating this in Zoho Writer and will publish it to my blog when I am finished (hopefully).

Of course, the collaborative aspect is huge also. Two years ago, a 6th great teacher and I collaborated on an Ancient Civilizations Diary project. After planning, I created a Word document detailing the project. We successfully implemented the project, but needed to make some changes. It was the end of the year, so we didn't get around to making the changes. The next year rolled around and it was time to the project again. The teacher couldn't find her paper copy. I had to search a little to find it on my computer. I make the changes we discussed then attached it to her in an email. With Zoho or Google Docs, both of us have access to this lesson and we can now share it with the other 6th grade Social Studies teachers. We will be able to weed out those filing cabinets and binders and update our projects easily.

Zoho has a presentation system (Google Docs currently does not). I uploaded 2 PowerPoint presentations to Zoho (most of my presentations are at school so I was limited in choices). The first one was too large (26 slides with lots of images) and the last few slides did not show up. The 2nd one was fine and can be accessed at http://show.zoho.com/public/dragon_lady/CSLA%20Presentation%20Opening%20PPT.ppt2 . Some of the images need to be repositioned and the animated graphics are now stills. Zoho recommends that the upload be read only. When I deselected the read only option, the PowerPoint did not upload as nicely - not everything transferred and words like header, etc. showed up. On the other hand, it is very easy to create a presentation, and while Zoho is more basic than PowerPoint, it would be useful as a collaborative tool for short presentations.

I do plan on using Google calendar this year for my both my library calendar and for the laptop carts that teachers check out.

Week 7, Thing 17

2007-07-28T15:19:00.000-07:00

I really like the idea of sharing curriculum ideas and a wiki is a wonderful way to do it. I would like to see us start a best practices wiki at our school (encouraging others in our district as well as other interested people to participate). We have a wealth of knowledge among us, but so often do not share it - there's never enough time, we don't think anyone is interested, what we're doing seems so obvious, we have an idea but it needs to be tweaked, etc. Wikis allow us to work at our convenience from anywhere so it invites participation at a different level than face-to-face interaction (which is still important - we don't have to exclude whatever works for people).

I added two ideas to the Photos and Images to California 2.0 Curriculum Connections:

Idea #12: Create a CD cover. When collaborating with your music teacher, go to Foxy Tunes Planet http://www.foxytunes.com/planet and select the criteria and widgets that you want students to use when researching a musician. Students can read a biography, listen to music, watch a video, look at pictures, read song lyrics, etc. Using information from this site, have students create a CD cover using Flickr Toys http://www.bighugelabs.com/flickr/ adding a picture and text.

Idea #13: Create the front page of a newspaper. Using the newspaper generator at http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp, have each student create their own front page. This would be a great activity for Back to School night. Each student could write a brief article on the most important thing they have learned so far. This would also be a good activity to use to have students summarize content covered.

Week 7, Thing 16

2007-07-28T06:46:00.000-07:00

I became aware of using wikis for educational purposes last spring. We have a new administrative team and one of our main goals for this year is collaboration (we are a low performing school in a low income area with obvious test score problems). Wikis just seem like an obvious tool to aide in this endeavor.

Fourteen of our staff attended the Model School Conference in Washington D.C. in June. At the end of the conference we met to debrief and discuss how we would share our information and insight with staff members in the fall. We left with a vague plan of reporting out at the first staff meeting, then going more in-depth at subsequent staff meetings, but it didn't feel quite right. I think the missing component is the wiki. We can all contribute to the wiki; those that of us that attended the same sessions can just edit and add on to what someone else has written. We can provide links. Those of us that attended the conference can then have all the information together and we can share with everyone else who is interested.

At the end of the conference, my principal made a profound statement - he said that maybe our test scores aren't improving because we're focusing on test scores. I think this is a belief that many of us have. The Web 2.0 technologies can help us focus on student engagement and learning which is what will improve education.

As I looked at various wikis, I found lots of ideas that I think would work well and be easy to implement. I have been a proponent of literature circles for years (I had great success with them when I was a 6th grade teacher, but I haven't been able to convince my teachers - I think it goes back to test scores and pacing guides). I looked at an example of adding a wiki as a component to the literature circles and I think that's a great idea. Of course, having students and staff write book reviews is an obvious use. I also like the idea of using wikis to take notes and for group research.

I also read "Ten Reasons Why Your Next Pathfinder Should be a Wiki" by Joyce Valenza. This article puts it all together for me and is applicable for uses other than pathfinders. The idea of having everything in one place with whatever links and uploads you need is wonderful. The idea that the teacher(s) and I can both add content is actually liberating. I can see each grade level subject team creating a wiki for the year with each member contributing according the his/her strengths.

Now on to creating a wiki for our June conference...

Week 6, Thing 15

2007-07-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

One journal that I subscribe to is MultiMedia & Internet @ Schools http://www.mmischools.com/. In the May/June issue is an artitle that deals with Web 2.0, "Collaboration in Today's Classrooms: New Web Tools Change the Game" by Kelly Driscoll. This is a very good explanation of Web 2.0 that is easy to understand. The focus of Web 2.0 is communication. The appeal of these technologies is that they are easy to use, usually free, interactive, and give us access at home, school, or wherever we may be. These technologies are motivating and can be used in schools to engage students. We must involve students in their own learning. (In the July/August issue is an article titled "Mashups and Other New or Improved Collaborative Social Sofware Tools" by Robert J. Lackie and Robert D. Terrio that has excellent definitions and explanations.)

Tom Storey in the article "Where will the Next Generation Web Take Libraries" states, "The Web moves from simply being sites and search engines to a shared network space that drives work, research, education, entertainment and social activites." This is a philosophical shift that many in schools are just now embracing (if it is not being ignored completely). I feel that schools tend to be reactive instead of proactive. If we want schools to be successful, we must provide meaningful opportunities for students to be involved with the content. Web 2.0 technologies encourage students to be active rather than passive learners.

In many of the articles about Web 2.0 and Library 2.0, collaboration is stressed as a key advantage. With these technologies, collaboration is no longer limited to working with the person next to you - the whole world is a possibility.

My most practical concern at this point is access at school. Currently, all blogs are blocked in my district. This is going to be a dialogue that many educators are going to have to have with their administrators and IT departments.

Week 6, Thing 14

2007-07-26T06:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I think I'm at that point of information overload. I've just spent the last couple of hours exploring Technorati. There is just tons of stuff out there - good information as well as absolutely everything else. I read some blogs that I would classify as personal journals (and wonder what they were thinking to expose themselves this way ) and read some blogs that had book reviews or resources as well as some school blogs. Truly, I will save only a couple that I feel have some great information and insight and not spend time exploring everything else - it's just overwhelming.

I see tagging as being most beneficial on a personal level - I can tag resources that have personal meaning or connections so that I can find them again or group them in a way that makes sense for what I need (sometimes by location). I can tag resources so that teachers and students can locate what they need (listening to them so that the tags reflect how they would search).

Week 6, Thing 13

2007-07-24T16:45:00.000-07:00

Bookmarking sites are great. I think most of us have tons of bookmarks or favorites and even forget what we've found in the past. These sites allow us to organize our bookmarks and, more importantly, access them from any computer. I've been using iKeepBookmarks for awhile. It is very simple and uses a folder system. It is much smaller than del.icio.us. I had never used the social aspect before so yesterday I played around with searching on the iKeepBookmarks site and I found some wonderful sites for a school project.

Then I went to del.icio.us and played. The tutorial was not working, but I went to some blogs that explain how to use it. There is so much great information that it really is amazing. I'm new to tags, but I really see the value. Sometimes the connections we see and that make the most sense to us are not the most conventional. Tags allow us to take advantage of these connections. I spent a couple of hours just exploring and will definitely spend some more time.

Week 5, Thing 12

2007-07-20T11:45:00.000-07:00

Well, Rollyo is not my favorite new thing so far. I decided to make my search applicable for our author visit and found some websites that I want to use. However on Rollyo, you cannot go to a specific page. For example, I wanted to include www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm but Rollyo only allowed me to include http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ . For my purposes, this is very limiting. However, it was easy to use and I was able to add the searchroll with thanks to PageSpace.

Week 5, Thing 11

2007-07-19T17:23:00.000-07:00

I've been looking at various Web 2.0 winners. I decided to look at the bookmarking sites. I am currently using iKeepBookmarks and basically wanted to know if there was something better out there. I looked at Ma.gnolia, Furl, and Clipmarks. I have not been using the social bookmarking aspect (something else I can now play with) - I have just been using this as an organizational tool for me. Ma.gnolia uses tags and iKeepBookmarks uses folders. All of the sites now incorporate RSS feeds (something I was not aware of until this activity). I have decided to keep iKeepBookmarks - it's working for me and I like the way it is organized. If anyone is not using a bookmarking site, however, I really do recommend it.

I also checked out Library Thing and am really impressed. My husband and I were just discussing that we needed some way to catalog our personal books and this site is great (we're both avid readers and have a huge collection). I also have already added the site to my cell phone so if I'm in a book store and want to check on books by an author or see if I already have a book, I just check on my phone. This site is definitely a winner.

Also, I decided to join the Teacher-Librarian Ning. I joined the middle school librarian group. There is currently a discussion on using Web 2.0 tools with students.

Week 5, Thing 10

2007-07-19T15:17:00.000-07:00

The online generators are a lot of fun. We have an author visit with Michael Buckley scheduled for September 27. I need to get the books in the students' hands as soon as school starts so I decided to use this activity to start my PR campaign. The Comic Strip Generator http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/ was extremely easy to use. Someone mentioned in her post that she plans on using this site to make library signs. I agree that this would be a great use of this site - humor is a great tool.

I used Flickr Toys http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ to create the movie poster and the magazine cover. I also played around with Image Chef, another very user friendly site. We live in a very visual society and these tools can help us get our point across. I definely plan on exploring more online generator sites and to definitely keep playing.

Week 4, Things 8 & 9

2007-07-16T13:53:00.000-07:00

While I had heard of RSS, I had absolutely no idea what is was. I like the quote by Jen Wagner on her Thoughts from a Technospud blog, "RSS is like a TIVO for your computer." This really simplified it for me and put it in terms that make sense for me. I decided to use Google Reader. It's very easy to subscribe to feeds and now that I'm aware of them, I see the RSS symbol everywhere. The problem, of course, is that it's very easy for this to become unmanageable quickly. I've played around with different feeds for the last couple of days, adding and deleting as I'm trying to find what I think will benefit me.

I recently got back from the Model Schools conference in Washington D.C. One message that I heard repeated frequently, was that we as educators must embrace new technologies and move forward. One small example that made this point is that in schools (certainly true in my district) is that we are expending a lot of energy telling students to not let us see their cell phones or we will take them away. In reality, most students don't wear watches anymore; they tell time by looking at their phones. Also, instead of fighting the phones, encourage students to take a picture of the example you just put up on the board, etc.

We need to deal with the new realities. When I got back from this conference, it was time to upgrade my cell phone, so I chose a model (okay, most of them now have online capability) that enables me to read my email on my phone. I've had this feature for a week now and love it. Well, I also discovered that on Google Reader if you go to Goodies, it explains how to access your RSS feeds on your mobile phone. This is great! I can now check my email and my feeds anytime, anywhere. I can utilize small chunks of time instead of needing to commit a large block of time.

Week 3, Things 5, 6, 7

2007-06-28T11:11:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of fun exploring Flickr. I found myself exploring in a rather scattered manner. I jumped all over the place - one thing just led to another. This is a site that I will definitely go back to. I took some pictures of my library at the end of school. We were in the middle of collecting textbooks so I added a picture of the unique way that we stack our books to keep the tables clear so that we can function until the last moment. (I tagged this and 3 other photos "School Library learning2.0" and made them public.)

I appreciate the curriculum connections. This is a great starting point to incorporate these new ideas into lessons. I've been out of town and am heading to a conference in Washington D.C. tomorrow so I haven't been able to spend as much time as I would like working on this. When I get back, I plan to start a file of ideas using this technology to liven things up next school year.

I already have a Smugmug account http://coble.smugmug.com/ that we have used to share photos with family. Unfortunately, I am really behind on posting photos so I think that may be another good summer project.

As I am working on this project, it just reinforces for me that technology is often not a time saver at all. To really become comfortable with new technologies, a person must spend time "playing" and experimenting. This I believe is the problem with schools - there is never enough time. With the testing pressures, pacing guides, and reactive (verses proactive) stance that schools take, it is difficult to move beyond the worksheet mentality. I have teachers who tell me that they want to do a research project, but allocate 2 days. This is frustrating for all. Somewhere in recent years, it has also become the norm to take all the fun out of learning. Yet, if we truly believe that our goal is "lifelong learning" we must acknowledge that that we must derive pleasure in the learning process. I am thankful for this opportunity this summer to explore these Web 2.0 technologies so that I can become proficient and then share my new found knowledge with others.

Week 2, Things 3 and 4

2007-06-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

This has already been fun. This is my first experience with a blog. I had no idea what an avatar was, but had a great time playing around. And that is the key to this experience: take time to play around with everything.

I've enjoyed looking at other people's blogs and am looking foward to exploring Flickr. I'm also looking forward to having a little more time for this project once school is out.

Week 1, Thing 2

2007-06-04T11:02:00.000-07:00

Lifelong learning should be the goal of schools. (The teaching to "the" test, overuse of worksheets, everyone on the same page at the same time philosophy is definitely not the way to achieve this.) One quote from the tutorial that I especially liked was "Lifelong learning is attitudinal - learners believe that one can and should be open to new ideas, decisions, skills, and behaviors."

As I was thinking about the 7 1/2 Habits, I decided that the easiest for me was Habit 2, "Accept responsibility for your own learning." I enjoy learning new things and always have a project (or 2 or 3) going on. Habit 3, "View problems as challenges" is the most difficult. I tend to go right to crisis mode. I am working on stepping back and approaching things in a calmer fashion. What can I control? What is the challenge? How can I manage it? What additional information do I need? Will it matter in the long run? Sometimes, I have to acknowledge that it just is what is. (I've recently been dealing with a health issue and I'm applying this to my personal life as well as work.)

Week 1, Thing 1

2007-06-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited about this opportunity. We have a new principal who is young and enthusiastic. His focus for next year is collaboration which, of course, is a huge part of what I already do. (It was a big advantage to go from the classroom to the library at the same school - I had wonderful support and people who were comfortable working with me.)

My goal is to take a lead in using Web 2.0 in collaboration.