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.