Thing #23

I can't believe I made it. This has been quite an experience. I have learned so much and may be almost as computer literate as my husband now. There are so many cool and useful Web 2.0 tools out there. It's a bit overwhelming, but I think I will have some great resources to access when I start school in the fall. For several years now, it has been one of my goals to incorporate more technology in my class. I have struggled because I did not always see how the new, cool Web 2.0 tools could be implemented. But 23 things has shown me how to accomplish this goal. I definitely will start a blog, and I think I have finally figured out how to use a wiki in my class. I am excited. 21st Century, I have arrived!!!

Thing #22

I joined the Ning Texas School Librarians. I find it very useful to be in a community of librarians even though I am not one yet. I love that it has discussions and blogs right there on the site. I am very much a one-stop shopper, so I love anything that gives me access to information in one place. I have a Facebook account, so I am already familiar with socialnetworking. I like how Nings narrows the focus of the group, though. I believe a Ning is useful because I can have professional discussions with colleagues. We can collaborate about common interests and help each other be better librarians.

Thing #20

(This video embedded from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ju3z-EtFQE)

Having access to so many video resources is fantastic. I have often used Discovery Education for videos to use in my classroom, but it is nice to know that there are other resources out there. Teacher Tube has videos specifically for education. I found one on story elements that could be useful in my 5th grade language arts class. The video I chose to embed from YouTube is just pure fun. Who doesn't like to see librarians go wild?

Thing #21

Here is my vidcast using Photo Story. I like this program. It is easy to use so I know my students can do it. Also, I'll be using it in my other class to make book trailers, so I'm glad I got to practice with it.

Thing #18

I downloaded Open Office. I like the idea that I can access the same types of programs for free that I had to pay for with Microsoft Office. I see an immediate advantage for my home. My husband recently bought a new desktop computer that came with Microsoft Works. My young adult literature professor wanted all our papers turned in using Microsoft Word. Fortunately I had Word on my laptop, but I would have had to pay for it if I hadn't. Now I know that I don't have to pay for it because I can save and print my papers as Word documents using Open Office. The only disadvantage I can see is that you might not get the same tech support that you would with Microsoft Office, but Open Office does automatically update the program on my computer. Support may not be an issue after all.

Thing #19

I chose to explore DocStoc. It is an online community and marketplace to find and share professional documents. Many of the documents are free to download, but some do have to be purchased. You can also sell your own professional documents. The site also provides technology through APIs and Widgets to facilitate the sharing and promotion of documents across the web. This could be a useful site when doing research and you are specifically looking for professional documents. It also allows you to embed documents in your blogs and other mainstream media. The advantages are that you have access to a large collection of information. A disadvantage is that you might have to pay for some of it. It's a very interesting site.

Thing #17

I have probably said this about almost all the tools we've explored in 23 things, but I truly love Rollyo. I created a Rollyo search engine for my 5th grade language arts classes. I searched hurricanes because we do a unit about the Storm of 1900. It is fantastic to be able to narrow the search for my students. I can't wait to go back and share this with my team. It will make research projects so much easier. Yay!!! Here is the link to my search engine: Rumsey 5.

Thing #16

After this lesson, I feel much more comfortable about wikis. I have a wiki in Wikispace but have not used it much. I just couldn't wrap my head around how to implement it in my classroom. I am going to be more bold and experiment with it this year. I would love to have a book discussion or use it to get ideas from the students on what they feel is relevant to their education. We need to do some exploring together. This is the year for exploration. I think we could probably use it for vocabulary also with each student adding a word and definition to the list. It could be my new word wall instead of the bulletin board on the wall. The ideas are flowing now. Wiki just might find its way into my classroom this year.

Thing #15

I believe that it is extremely important that libraries be the leaders in ushering in Web 2.0 technology. I agree that there are some ideas that librarians need to let go as Rick Anderson stated in "Away from the Icebergs." Libraries need to move away from relying solely or mostly on print resources for their patrons. The digital generation is aging and seeking information in ways that are most relevant to them. They are looking to the Internet, e-mail, texting, podcasts, webquests, wikis, blogs, etc. Libraries need to be ready to provide their patrons with the digital and technological tools their patrons need.
For me, I am still a babe in the Web 2.0 world, but I am quickly growing accustomed to it. I have learned how useful it can be for me personally and professionally. I think I now understand why I don't always relate well with my students. I have still been using 20th century teaching on 21st century students. It's time to learn their language.

Anderson, R. (2006). Web 2.0: Where will it take libraries? Away from icebergs. Next Space: The OCLC Newsletter. Retrieved from http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/2.htm

Thing #14

I think Technorati is a very useful site. Searching the web can be overwhelming and exhausting. It is great to have tools that can help you narrow your search. I think tagging is very useful as well. It helps you narrow your search. I like the purest version of Schachter, that tagging was created for the user so they could access their information easily. But I see why businesses and bloggers want to use tags, also. It does draw attention to your site.

Thing #13

I actually have a Delicious account already. I took a Web 2.0 class with my district's technology supervisor, and she taught us about Delicious and helped us set up our accounts. I love it. It is so frustrating to have all your favorites saved on one computer and not be able to access them on another. This is a very useful tool for students because they may not be using the same computer they were using yesterday. As a librarian or teacher, you could bookmark all the web sites you want students to search in doing a project, and they would be able to access them from any computer. You would probably want to have a general account separate from your personal account, however.

Thing #12

The two points made that I think are most important are 1) watch out for and don't be a Darth Commenter (coolcatteacher) and make it easy to post comments (problogger). Both of these bloggers made other very important points, but these were the two that stuck out for me. I would certainly hate to think that I offended anyone with comments I've made, and so I would hate to be offended by someone else's comments (Golden Rule). I believe that you can disagree in a civil manner. Besides, ranting just makes people turn you off. If you truly have a valid point to make, no one is going to listen or respect your comments if you are rude and hateful about it. And I so love that problogger said to make commenting easy by not making the commenter login. Many of the sites that we have had to explore in 23 Things have asked you to login to be able to use the tools. That just means coming up with another username and another password. I just want to go to the site, use the tool or make a comment when blogging, and then go on about my business. Thank you problogger!

More later when I come back to this post.

I posted on a blog Edible Crafts. I'm not sure I did so successfully or not. I had to give my name and e-mail address (not published) which I did. I then wrote my comment and hit the submit button. It told me my comment was awaiting moderation. I don't know if that means they will review it before posting it or that I was supposed to do something that I forgot to do. Oh well. It is an interesting blog to me because I am an amateur cake decorator. I like to know what other people are doing in the cake decorating world. I also commented on Cool Cat Teacher. She wrote today about not "decking the hands." She was talking about how sometimes we criticize or lay blame unnecessarily and lose our workers, if not physically then psychologically. Very wise words.

Thing #11

LibraryThing is a great site. I have a huge collection of books in my classroom, and this site could help me keep track of information on my books. I can access the site to pull of information, especially books I haven't read yet, to share with my students. I think it would be great in my classroom and the library to search information on new books or books we want on our shelves. Students could search and be involved in the selection of books for the classroom or library (with supervision of course).

Thing #10

(This image taken by Bronwyn Rumsey, caption and stamp created at http://bighugelabs.com/captioner.php)

I enjoyed playing with the image makers. My favortie was Big Huge Labs. It seemed to be the most user friendly and had so many options. I think that librarians could use these image makers to design posters, bookmarks, signs, etc. to promote programs happening in their libraries. They could get students involved by allowing them to help make the products, and then maybe vote on the ones that will be used. Teachers could use the comic strip and cartoon generators to teach satire. These are also helpful to students who can't draw or have no interest in drawing. They can use these to create artwork for their projects.

Thing #9

I don't know if it is because it's late or what, but I had some trouble with this one. Several of the sites were unavailable to me for various reasons. Very peculiar. Anyway, I liked Technorati the best. It was well organized and easy to navigate. I found the news web site I like to follow and added it to my Google reader. So it was helpful to me. I also added the Atomic Learning blog. We have just started using Atomic Learning in our school district, so I thought it might be good to keep up with that one. Oddly enough, I thought Google Blog Search was too busy. It looked too much like Google Search, which I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by that. Edublog confused me with the voting buttons. I was not prepared to vote. I just wanted to look.

Bron-wyn

Thing #8

What do you like about RSS and readers? I like that I can view my favorite sites without all the advertising and other distracting material, and they are all in one place. It saves a lot of time.

How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life? I can subscribe to websites that I want my students to use in research or projects. I can also use it as a tool to teach students how to search the web. In my personal life, like I said, it definitely saves time.

How can libraries/teachers/administrators use readers or take advantage of this new technology? It can be used in libraries and by teachers and administrators to list favorite websites that they search often for educational information and products. It can also be used to set up websites ahead of time that you want your students to search so that don't have to weed through the vast number of sites that come up in a regular search engine.

Bron-wyn

thing #7

I played with Google docs and Google Scholar. I chose Google docs because my team for the final presentation asked if I used it. They wanted to use it to share the information we are collecting for our presentation. I had not used it yet, so I thought I better get on board. I like that I can save information here and share it with my group. This is perfect for collaborative projects for our students. They can access it via the internet which makes it easier for them to work on projects from home as well as while they are at school. I also checked out Google Scholar. What I like about this is that it searches more scholarly material, similar to subscription online databases. I don't like to send students out into the world wide web without direction, and sometimes that what it is like for them when they use the regular search engines. If we can give them more direction and narrow their searches, they will produce better products. I think Google Scholar help achieve this goal.

Bron-wyn

Thing #6

I am finally back to playing. I love the trading card feature that you recommended and created my own trading card. I can see the potential use in the library (or the classroom) for exploring authors or famous people from history or current events and having students create a trading card. They could then share there cards with each other and learn from one another. It could also be used as a getting to know you activity done in the library or in the classrooms. Here is my trading card:

Trading card created using

http://bighugelabs.com/deck.php

Thing #5

Flickr is pretty cool. I think my husband has an account. He's an amateur/hobbyist photographer. He has a group from church that shares their pictures. I definitely see the usefulness of Flickr: Creative Commons site for teachers and librarians. So many pictures!


I love the Beatles, so I had to download this picture. Now why wasn't adding my Avatar as easy as adding this picture? Hmmm...


Bron-wyn

Photo retrieved from Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/fmclean/4722705559/

Thing #4

Yay! I'm registered and can play. This is fun and kind of addicting.

Bron-wyn

Thing #3: Creating my blog

Creating my blog was fairly simple. I was able to follow the directions and click on all the right buttons to create my blog. Creating my Avatar was pretty easy, also. Adding my Avatar was intense. It took me a long time, but I finally got it done. Whew!

Thing #3-Going back to question in Thing #2

Of the 7 1/2 habits of a lifelong learner, I find that habits 1 and 2 are the easiest for me. I can easily see what I want to accomplish, set goals to get there, and jump right in by taking responsibility for my learning whether it be signing up cake decorating classes or dancing in my very first dance recital at the age of 30-something (I did both of those this year). What I find most difficult are habits 3 and 4 (viewing problems as challenges and confidence). I usually go through stages (much like the grieving process) when a problem arises. First, I get frustrated and tell someone about my troubles. Second, I panic and have an emotional melt-down because I can't figure out how to fix the problem or go around. Third, I realize how ridiculous I am acting and tell myself to get over it. Finally, I move on, and most of the time everything turns out just fine. About the lack of confidence, I usually have plenty when I am goal setting and planning my strategy to accomplish the goal. My confidence begins to slip when I realize how daunting the tasks truly are. Then I get it back when I realize that I am smarted and more talented than I give myself credit. After I get past habits 3 and 4, the rest come fairly easily, and I begin to enjoy the task at hand.