Week 9 / Thing 23: Copyright, Creative Commons & Congratulations

I loved the fair(y) use tale. Very creative. Wonder if the creator got permission! I've also explored creative commons before and need to spend more time there so I can steer teachers and students that direction.

Final Comments:
I feel like I've been on an internet marathon and instead of having tired legs, my brain is a little strained. I'm looking forward to sharing and exploring the use of these tools with students and teachers. Thanks Ann and Katie for making this class available to us.

What Worked
I liked the blog format. It was a good way to make comments as I explored. Often I had several tabs open at once and navigated between them looking at a tool, writing my blog, reading other participants' blogs all at once. I think the choices of "Things" was a nice mix and though I'd heard of or even played with some of them, it was good to take more time with those and fun to learn about those that were new to me.

I really liked reading other participants' post and seeing where their explorations led them. I often discovered something cool this way that I hadn't found on my own. I'm also looking forward to spending more time reading some of the curriculum suggestions on the wiki. I think this class has great possibilities for building connections.

Suggestions
Maybe we can create a place on the wiki and encourage participants to write about how we are using these tools in our schools. I want to know how others are applying web 2.0 in their libraries and classrooms so I can steal ('er borrow) ideas. It would be nice to continue the collaborative, creative communication.

web 2.0: new tools, new schools Chapt. 5

I picked Chapter 5: Professional Development as my choice chapter because I think it is the essential and often missing piece in creating school 2.0 or library 2.0. The problem of inadequate professional development (pd) has been around as long as I've been an educator. In 1985, my school got its first computer lab: 10 apple 2e's (or whatever the latest version was back then). There was one copy of apple writer (I think that's what it was called). The computers were set up and that's it. We got fussed at our monthly faculty meetings for not using the lab. But gosh, most of us didn't know how to turn the things on, much less how to use 10 of them with a class of 35 high school students. Fast forward a few years and every teacher had to take a computer competency class: half day inservice that including using a mouse, saving a document and printing. There weren't enough computers in the lab so we had to share. My point in taking us down memory lane is that without good, appropriate pd that includes ongoing support and follow-up, technology doesn't get used to its full potential.

The authors recognize this and make some excellent suggestions for effective pd. One idea is the community of practice or learning community. I was excited to see designating a team librarian included in the list of strategies to support communities. Again, as in chapter 1, communication, connection, creativity and collaboration are key concepts. Many of the suggestions are common sense such as embed the tools in the PD; model and use the tools even as you are introducing teachers to them.

Alaska librarians are doing this. AkASL, ASD library curriculum (Ann M) and others use wikis and nings to engage us, present new material, archive documents, gather input and more. I'd like to explore some of the websites listed in this chapter. This is another chapter that I think would be beneficial for administrators to read.

web 2.0: new tools, new schools Chapt. 9

WOW. Is this the future? I'm overwhelmed. I love the idea of teachers being able to choose from an infinite selection of products and not be tied to approved text books. I actually see is heading that direction with curriculum tubs, supplementary lists, more choices.

I'm interested in learning more about the idea of an electronic personal education assistant (p179) that gives suggestions for chapters and lessons to read and even pairs the student with another student. Gosh, that sounds a lot like what good teachers do and how would this epea be programmed to know the students' learning styles, interest level, eagerness to collaborate, etc?

Love the what if list on p 182.
What if a file-sharing network emerged? I've been borrowing from and sharing with my fellow educators for years. In the early days I retyped my mentors mimeographed handouts -think blue fingers, sharp fumes, the frustration of trying to erase, ah the good ol days.

What if we stop buying textbooks and use the money to provide access? As an old English teacher who hated those big ol' anthologies that cost $60 in 1989 (what do they cost now?), I love the idea of spending the money on tools and books that support student needs.

Professional development is so essential for all of this. And a quickie one-day inservice doesn't cut it. We need on-going prof dev that builds on what we're doing in the classroom and library, that helps us tweak tools to fit our styles and our students' needs, that checks in with us to see how it's working. Hey, this could be done online with web 2.0!

I love thinking about all this. It's a wonderful dream and I hope we can get there. There are so many roadblocks and yeah-buts. It sure is fun watching it all unfold.

web 2.0: new tools, new schools Chapt. 7

OK, I just put on the blinders so that I can totally ignore that soap box with copyright written on it. I'll try not to rant or sound shrill.

Huge understatement on p. 139: "Copyright law is confusing." I think educators and students often try to sit under the umbrella of fair use, but forget that sources must be cited. For copyright to be taken seriously in the schools, it must come from administration. Librarians can preach until we are hoarse, but unless administration puts emphasis on ethical use of information, only those who want to will hear us. I can't tell you how many times I've refused to copy a video only to have the teacher just check out a VCR (wink, wink) or tell me just not to watch what they are doing.


Ethical behavior is one of the skills librarians try to teach our students and teachers, but it is so hard these day with the ease of copying and downloading. I like David Wallick's list on pp 147-148, but getting our patrons to read (or listen to) and apply these may not always be easy. OK, I'm preaching to choir I know.

I think Internet Safety is being addressed in ASD at the middle school with librarians mostly leading and collaborating with teachers and other staff. At HS, it seems to be hit and miss.

I waver on blocking. I know that a determined student can get around the block. I know that good sites with valuable information get blocked and I know that much on the Internet can be distracting and inappropriate. I also know I don't have time to monitor students. I like the idea of a walled garden of safe web 2.0 tools.

I think our administrators need to read this chapter.

web 2.0: new tools, new schools Chapt. 1

While reading Chapter 1, these words kept jumping out at me: communication, connection, creativity and collaboration. I think this sums up web 2.0 pretty well. I bought right into their argument when the authors quoted both Daniel Pink and Thomas Friedman as well as several other forward thinking authors.

The bullets on page 18 highlight key points for me, particularly that we need to focus on more than content mastery and unless teachers are well-trained and supported, students will not master 21st Century skills. Our administrators must be on board with support and our teachers must be willing to learn new skills and how to apply them to their styles of teaching. After 20 plus years of teaching, I know change is difficult for many educators who see no reason to change the way they teach. I agree with David Jakes' list of how to make innovation "stick" (p. 22-23). I won't list them here, but so often in education we skip these steps and just wait for innovation to happen.

Literacy today has a very different meaning than literacy of the past centuries. We test on the old skills (and I'll try to ignore the soap box that just appeared with NCLB written on it) but our students need these new literacies to succeed in their futures.

Finally, I was taken by this quote on p. 19 from Learning for the 21st Century "Today's education system faces irrelevance unless we bridge the gap between how students live and how they learn." I think for many students we are already irrelevant. High achieving students "play the game" to reach their goals of graduation and higher education. Other students hide with their ipod buds under hoodies and tune us right out. I want to be relevant. I want to excite students and get them jazzed about learning. I think web 2.0 tools may be the vehicle for many of our students.

Week 9 / Thing 22: eBooks and Audio eBooks

I'll start by saying that I read really, really, really fast, and I love the feel of a new book, especially a quality trade paperback. I love to feel the cover, flip the pages, even smell the book. I don't love eBooks and audio books. . . yet.

When I lived in NC and SC and was driving back and forth on 3 hour trips, I often listened to a good audio book in the cassette player, and I loved the old NPR radio reader with Dick Estell (I just found out he's still reading --cool!). But at home, I read too fast. I've tried listening to CDs and Playaways, but find myself grabbing the book instead. Often this is because I'm trying to do something else while listening and my mind wanders to attend to the task and I tune out the reading.

That said, I think students enjoy listening to books. As an English teacher, I've read to kids of every age and ability. My AP kids in Charleston loved to be read to as much as my freshmen remedial classes. As for reading a book on the computer, sigh, I don't know. I don't enjoy reading more than a page or two. I try not to print out anything unless necessary, but I much prefer paper to electronic. Again, our students have grown up reading online and are much more used to it.

So I'm off to explore the world of audio and eBooks. My friend Teri Lesesne was on the Odyssey Award committee this past year and listens(ed) to a ton of books. She has many resources for audio books and more on her website, Professor Nana. I read her blog almost every day. It's listed on the side bar. Teri's powerpoint titled Why Listen, lists these reasons:
•Listening comprehension precedes reading comprehension
•Dialects are made easier
•Can help start the “movie” in the head
•Serves as model for oral fluency

She also lists some ways to use audio books:
•ESL/ELL students along with books in unabridged formats
•For reluctant readers paired or not but still unabridged
•For dyslexic or learning disabled readers paired with text
•For kids who are too busy to read
•For intergenerational use—family literacy
•For ADD and ADHD kids
•For adults, too

There's more if you're interested. It was good for me to review this ppt to remind myself of reasons and ways to use audio books. Teri backs up her assertions with research and anecdotal support.

As I browse the free ebook collections, I see that most of them are from the public domain which means for school purposes, they are mostly classics. This is good for those students who come wheeling in the library to check out a required book that's due tomorrow and all our copies are circulating. As I browsed, I see many of the titles that HS students often request. I downloaded the pdf of Walden just for fun and found myself wanting to either print it or go find my copy. By the way, I love Walden, so it wasn't because I was bored or not interested.

I also took a look at the ebooks available for sale. It seems that most titles are $9.99 for Kindle. Books for Sony's ebook reader cost more. Maybe I need to try an ebook reader, I like the idea of toting many books without all that bulk and heft! When I travel, I take lots of books (did I mention I read really fast?) and that can get quite heavy. I'm seriously thinking of purchasing a Kindle. Hmmnn.

I will promote both audio and ebooks to teachers and students. I think more and more titles including text books will be offered online and our students will be accessing text this way sooner than later.

Week 9 / Thing 21 Podcasts

I have used podcasts often to listen to NPR articles and programs I've missed (I see I'm not the only NPR junkie in this class).

I used EPN (Education Podcast Network) and found myself drawn to a long list of poets reading their works and giving lectures. As a self proclaimed poetry addict, this was the best! So now after listening to some old favorites and discovering a few new poets, I'm in a very good mood.

For the librarian, I found some booktalks by Nancy Keane. I think I have some books by her and have seen her at conferences. Just One More Book has hundreds of podcasts with a huge variety of titles. Again, there's more than I have time to explore.

Here's a funny one by Ms. Sanders called "I'm Bringing Vocab Back." For some local flavor, you can also visit Alaska Readers' Theater and hear Lake Hood Elementary School students (and more).

Podcasts can be found by searching the links RAW has provided or through itunes. I had fun looking at the top podcasts at the itunes store including Dilbert, This American Life (no surprise there), other NPR selections, The Onion, Discovery Channel and one called Grammar Girl. I think Grammar Girl would be great for HS and perhaps MS. She does a little advertising at the beginning of each one so be aware of this.

Podcasting can be used in any discipline with all ages. I see so many potential uses.

Week 9 / thing 20: Teacher Tube Again

Here's a very visual lesson on what happens when you post on the Internet. I think this short video is a powerful cautionary tale for students.

Another 2 hours or so gone! This is fun, but who has the time? YIKES.

Week 9 / thing 20: Teacher Tube

I love Teacher Tube. I like that the videos are for both teachers and students to use as professional development and as a tool for teaching specific topics.  My favorite of all has morphed since I first saw it a little over a year ago. It's called Shift Happens or Pay Attention or Did You Know.  For some good discussion and background, visit the Shift Happens wiki. 

Week 8/ Thing 19.1: Digital Pipeline

As an ASD librarian, I've been promoting, praising, pushing, and presenting the Digital Pipeline since it first arrived. Over the years, I've gotten more familiar with its many features. I use it quite a bit for personal and school searches. 

I like the new EBSCO interface and look. I especially like that you can click the box for full text in the results page and limit the list. Students ALWAYS forget to click full text and they just don't get the abstract concept no matter how often I tell them about it. It's frustrating to a student to click on a result and only get the abstract. I just noticed that the student research center interface hasn't changed that I can tell. Maybe I'll have students use EBSCO host instead. 

Is it just me, or does making all the search terms bold seem a bit too much. I'm sure EBSCO did this before, but I don't remember noticing it. I just did a search for "When the Rainbow Goddess Wept." It's our next bookgroup title and I like to send out reviews. When I click on the html full text, the bold print for the word "the" is really distracting!

I had forgotten about the journal alert feature. This is a great way to get a look at content, but I seem to remember the emails pile up in the inbox just like the print journals pile up on my desk. And I'm interested in far too many subjects to limit that way.

The Consumer Health link is down. I'll try again later. 

I watched the flash movie, but there was no sound (on Safari or Firefox) and I just couldn't stick with it.

I'll show my students how to use the folder feature and how to save their searches. I'll show them the various types of databases and talk about how to choose between them. I may steer them toward EBSCO host instead of student research center. 

Week 8 / Thing 19: Library Thing

I can see loads of potential for Library Thing. I like that with just a click or two, you can get the cover and basic information. Again, I got very overwhelmed because I somehow ended up looking a list of all the things you can add to Library Thing before I even have had a chance to really play with Library Thing. 

I've only put a few books in so far (otherwise, I'll never finish this class). Most of them got very high ratings, but most of the titles I looked at did also, so maybe people usually catalog the books they like and that skews the results a bit. I don't think that's a bad thing, just something to be aware of. Libraryhiker from this class had 2 of the books I cataloged which doesn't surprise me since we traded books all summer.

I have a super bookgroup that meets once a month. I'd love to create a catalog of all the books we've read and the ones we've talked about reading. I like all the choices of information that you can put in. 

There are many students out there who would like this program. Many of my students like to keep track of the books they read and want to read. I'll be showing Library Thing to students and am excited to see where they take it. 

Can't wait to spend more time with this one.

Week 8 / Thing 18: Online Productivity

I'm using GoogleDocs to create this blog post. I also played with Zoho writer. I can't tell you how excited I am to discover these online production tools. I will share these with teachers and students asap. In fact, this may be the first thing I share. I will be the hero(ine) of those kids working on projects together who are passing around a flash drive or sharing their passwords so they can work on the project that's only available in one student's elocker. I will make the students who do their work on the newest .x versions of microsoft products or that antiquated wordperfect or other obscure word processor, but can only open them on certain computers in the school. I will show them how they can share their documents with their teachers and fellow students so they aren't in the library panicking and asking me to write a note to Ms. So&So that they did try to access the document. I really can't wait to play more with these products. As far as I can tell, the two I looked at (Google & Zoho) both have all the tools one might need for school projects: a variety of fonts, color choices, numbering and bullets, spell check, tables.

Writing Tools	Spreadsheet Tools
Presentation Tools	Sharing

I made that table without using help. It's very simple, but was so easy to set up. I also looked at making a presentation. Here are 2 slides I made in about 5 minutes:


I can't tell you how easy this was. Just a couple clicks and I published this post to my blog. I'm doing a little happy dance this rainy morning.

Week 7 / Thing 17 RAW wiki posts

I started posting on the RAW wiki. Not many posts there yet, but I can see the potential format to get ideas from others and share good ideas I have. We have a wiki for ASD librarians and it has been a good resource especially when there are "hot" topics. I think as more librarians discover the power of a wiki, more will contribute which will make it a more valuable resource.

Week 7 / Thing 16: Wikis

I've been looking forward to this exercise because I do have some experience with wikis and I like them. I know I'm supposed to be learning new things, but many of the new things need more exploration and time than I have to really get a grasp of their usefulness. Wikis, on the other hand, I can talk about.

I browsed some of the wikis the RAW team suggested and found several of interest including Library Success, Blogging Libraries and Teacher Librarian (this last one created by none other than Joyce Valenza, sigh, what doesn't that woman do?). I'm looking forward to having time to really explore these resources.

I'm reminded that one of my goals this past year was to move my pathfinders to wikis. I'm not there yet; maybe this year. I did start a wiki for my student library aids to write book reviews. I hope to open this up to English classes and maybe the whole school this year.

Robin Turk and I created a page on a wiki about wikis for a presentation we did at Conference this year. (http://akaslweb2-0.wikispaces.com/Why+Wiki%3F)
Some ideas for using wikis at school include:

• Find and summarize articles on the Internet.
• Plan and post group projects.
• Peer reviews.
• Post Book reviews.
• Collaborative writing, planning.

Week 6 / Thing 15: Web 2.0 and the future of Libraries

I read Tom Storey’s OCLC article: Web 2.0: Where Will the Next Generation Web Take Libraries? (http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/1.htm)
I think it’s noteworthy that the OCLC articles are from 2006. Tom Storey’s predictions that the web is changing are pretty accurate. The web doesn’t just provide content, it connects us and not just with our computers, but using our other many toys as well. Consider the recent run on iphones. With an iphone, one could leave the computer at home and do most of the tasks you need to do: email, surf the web, play music, watch videos, oh, and talk on the phone.

I don’t think that libraries will be the cutting edge necessarily since in this class we’re playing with every tool the 2-year old article lists: Flickr, MySpace, FaceBook, del.icio.us, YouTube, LibraryThing. Storey calls these the first traces. I’ve been aware of many of these tools, but my patrons are far more adept at using them than I.

I was thinking about this idea of how to keep up with my patrons and apply these new tools to library services so I can best serve them in the world they prefer, I read Michael Stephens article: Into a New World of Librarianship (http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/3.htm). Stephens lists some traits of Librarian 2.0. The first trait, plan for your users is universal and should underlie every decision a librarian makes in any century. We should include our users in any plans we make, our policies should be based on improving access and providing for our patrons’ needs.

Trait 2 is to embrace Web 2.0 tools. We should be using them to promote our libraries and to communicate with our patrons. Stephens suggests creating Library MySpace accounts. This of course is not feasible in a school district that blocks myspace, but we should be looking for other ways to engage and woo patrons.

Traits 3 – 5 include good advice. Control tehnolust and buy technology that fit into your mission and goals, not just for the sake of the latest, cool stuff. Making good, fast decisions that provide for ease of use and user involvement is just good advice in any service industry. Being a trendspotter can be valuable if you don’t get overwhelmed and can pull out and apply those trends to your particular library needs.

Finally, Trait 6: Librarian 2.0 gets content resonated with me. Stephens writes that content is a conversation and patrons will want to “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 have to let go of this idea that the collection is contained within library walls and is static. This is exhilarating and terrifying. I hope I’m up for it.

Week 6 / Thing 14: Technorati & Tagging

I searched for “School Library Learning 2.0” in blogs and in tags. The first time I searched blogs, I found the RAW site, the second time, I got no results: interesting. When I searched tags, I got 11 results. Interestingly enough several were links to blogs from participants of the original Web 2.0 class, 3 were for bikini girls from Japan, and the rest I only found mildly interesting. There were quite a few videos to browse. Clicking on Web 2.0 in the directory yielded many blogs.


I looked at blogging central and browsed the top few of the top 100 by authority. The Huffington Report was number 1? I didn't expect that at all. Many of the other top blogs focus on technology of one kind or another, and that didn't surprise me at all. I would think that many people go to the internet for information on technology since it tends to be the most up-to-date.

Boing Boing (number 1 by popularity) is like reading the headlines on the magazines in line at the grocery store: sort of fun with a little guilt mixed in; you know you'd never buy the things, but what's the harm in reading them? And I think Boing Boing is more legit. It's number 5 in the top 100 by authority.

The top tags were an interesting mix, and I'm not surprised that sex and technology are both there as well as Eva Longoria.

The internet is this big unruly mix of everthing, and tags reflect that. As a librarian, my tendency would be to want to standardize it all, but I know that even if the tags are all standardized, the quality of a search depends on the search terms. I can't even remember how to search WWII in our catalog, how can we expect millions of internet users to become standardized? So tagging is a good thing, but only as good as guessing what terms people will use to search.

I decided not to claim this blog.

Week 6 / Thing 13: Tagging

If you're like me and need remediation or extra help in Web 2.0, then here's another video tutorial for del.icio.us. As with some of these other tools, I had a del.icio.us account that I had forgotten about. I even have the buttons in my browser and have just been ignoring them.

I must say, I'm really excited about social bookmarking. My bookmarks on my browser are a mess, unorganized, outdated, hard to use. By adding them to del.icio.us, I can use them both at school and at home and organize them in a way that makes sense to me. I do see one area that needs some work and that is tagging. I'm not consistent in my tags and sometimes I think I've added too many tags. I need to practice more with sorting and bundling. Have any of you bundled your sites? I'm trying it out with a bundle called YA lit. I think you can go to http://del.icio.us/suzmet and click on YA Lit on the sidebar to see my first attempt.

To create your own bundles, click bundle tags on this same sidebar. I think this will be one more way to organize and sort because I can group sites with more than one tag. Gosh, will the catalogers of the future be using tags instead of Sears to organize?

I also created network badge.

I also like browsing other people's lists. Here's a very cool site I found while browsing: Classroom 2.0. Once again, I got very off track because I found this site and had to spend and hour or so playing around with it. YIKES. And if you want to be so overwhelmed you have to just get out of your chair and go for a walk try the Go2Web2.0 directory. And off I go, I'll be back after my walk.

Week 5 / Thing 12: Voice Thread

We learned about Voice Thread last summer when Joyce Valenza was here. I can see lots of good uses for this tool, many of which other participants in this class have already mentioned: book talks, art criticism, historical perspectives, character points of view and so forth. I enjoyed viewing some of the examples.
Here's an interesting discussion of the classroom of the future (http://voicethread.com/#q.b42094.i220636) using voicethread as the medium. The many comments bring up such issues as the roles of teachers and students, structure (and lack of), and digital equity. I like the irony of the tool being used to discuss the value and relevance of the tool.


As with much of this technology, from a secondary librarian's point of view, there are challenges:

1. We have to get our teachers on board so will bring their students to experiment and explore the tools. This means working on collaboration and creating relationships with our teachers.
   
2. We have to have the hardware available, and there has to be enough so that students have access.
   
3. We have to have enough expertise to be able to instruct, troubleshoot and understand how to optimize the tools. That said, if we wait until we are experts, then we'll never get anything done.
4. We have to be able to let go of control and let those teachers and students explore and experiment.

I get really excited about all the new stuff, but if I don't apply it right away, I either forget all about it or forget how it works. (This could be a result of a 50 year old technology immigrant's brain.)