Thing 23 My Thoughts

Wow! I finished.
1. There were so many discoveries for me in this program. I really enjoyed playing with Flickr, making a video on Photostory, how to do a wiki, and finally blogging for the first time. The image generators were so much fun to play with also.
2. This program will enable me to do things that I had always wanted to do, like blogging and making videos and to help my teachers and students with using 2.o also.
3. I am surprised that I was able to learn online and do most of the activities. I was not confident that I could do a video. I found that it was really easy and with more time, I will make better videos to use in my library. I will probably make one as an introduction to the library.
4. I did struggle with embedding my found videos in my blog. I spent way too much time trying to do this and finally gave up and provided a link instead.
5. I would take another course like this in a heartbeat.
6. This is a user-friendly way to learn about 2.0 without getting in your car or leaving your home.

Thing 22 Nings

I checked out the Texas School Librarian Ning. This was a great forum for many things. One interesting question that got a lot of replies, was What is the most frustrating thing about being a librarian? This is a great forum for discussing and venting problems that may be unique to Texas librarians. Users can sign up and create their own member page and comment on others blogs or in the forums. Users can also share instructional or book review videos with each other. Photos can be shared also. Groups can be formed that are specific such as the group of Middle School Librarians. I am going to pass this Ning on to my librarian friends. There is power in numbers and we need to stick together especially when Texas librarians face so many obstacles with lack of funding, raising the bar on education for librarians when the job is not very secure, and as stated earlier, lack of job security.

Thing 18 Online Productivity Tools

One big advantage to using free online productivity tools is that they are free. Another advantage to using Google docs was the collaborative element one can make use of with this tool. Teachers can work together on documents to create the perfect document that is edited and updated by the group without being in the same room or leaving their classrooms. I liked using the templates in Google docs. I looked at calendars, cards resumes, certificates and more. When looking at OpenOffice, I found a drawback to be that you have to download it and this takes time. It did take more time than I would like to open the documents in Google docs because I kept getting a message that said I needed to verify my e-mail account.

Thing 17 Rollyo

This is a helpful site for organizing those bookmarked sites when you are searching for a topic. This would be especially helpful when students are doing research . They can search specific sites that you have approved rather than Googleing and getting anything and everything. I created a searchroll with Rollyo called ShannonLib. This contains three sites at this time that I found useful to librarians. http://www.rollyo.com

Thing 16 Wikis

There is so much information out there on different wikis. We are trying to get a wiki together for librarians in our district to keep from having to e-mail back and forth. This would be a great time-saver. I would like to create a wiki for our teacher book club to discuss our next books and movies. It is difficult to collaborate with teachers when you don't see them. A wiki would solve the problem.

Thing 21- Podcasts and Videocasts

This was a fun discovery exercise. I wish I had more time to spend on it without a 7 year old and dog playing in the background. This is why I added music rather than try to add my own voice as a recording. I will definitely use this for personal and professional use. I am motivated to take pictures and create videos. My mother-in-law will thank me.

Thing 20 YouTube-TeacherTube

I had no trouble finding videos for this assignment. I had a lot of trouble embedding the videos in my blog. I finally gave up and put a link to the video. I found a cute video for learning the states and capitals for social studies on TeacherTube.

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=15395&title=50_States_and_Capitals__cartoon_song_

I found another video on learning 2,0 on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd2gV9FZWd8

I tried to embed the videos for 1 1/2 hours before putting a link instead. The strange thing is that I have done this before. I could not see the directions on the blog on how to do it.

Embedded videos would be great in a blog in that the reader could watch them without navigating from the page.