School Library Learning 2.0 Week 9, Exercise 23 -- Summarize/Reflect

What were our favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

I really enjoyed trying new tools and then blogging about it. The blogging forced me to take the time to actually consider what I was doing. Flickr and its mashups were just plain fun. And how did I survive without an RSS feed and Del.icio.us? I use them everyday now. I know that I’m going to return again and again to the Sandbox wiki and Ning when I need inspiration.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

Parts of the learning stretched my comfort level, but yet I completed each task. This provided me with a sense of accomplishment that I have noticed is transferring into other areas. I’m creating a PowerPoint presentation with photos & video in it. Haven’t done that before, but how hard can it be? (says the woman who completed the Library2.0 class).

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

Well, by using mashups I can put very cool messages in my two nieces MySpace accounts now. They like that.

And I was surprised to meet so many interesting library people via Ning and blogs.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? Nothing comes to mind off hand.

The most important thing to do now is to create Library 2.1 :)

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?

You betcha and now that I know how great it is, I’ll talk my library friends into joining me.

How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote CSLA learning activities?

Empowering

Enlightening

Inspiring

Librarians should, no must, lead the way to empower patrons with the technology skills that are needed to succeed in today’s quickly changing world.

This isn’t your mother’s reference service!

What do you want to say to the folks that brought you this online learning experience? (I added that question).

Thank-you so much. It’s been a blast!

School Library Learning 2.0 Week 9, Exercise 22 – eBooks & Audiobooks

I went to World EBook Fair’ Site and explored the free downloads available from the Gutenburg Project. While there, I downloaded Basil by Wilkie Collins. I’ve recently enjoyed Wilkie Collin’s other books including The Moonstone and Woman in White.My elementary school library has some books on tape and CD and the students check them out with a copy of the book.

I especially enjoyed the LibriVox: free audiobooks. While many of the works are just too old for my students, the Aesop’s Fables would work beautifully in my fairy tale & fables unit. I also discovered many of the traditional fairy tales.

I also tagged Best Places to Get Free Books - The Ultimate Guide in my delicious account for future reference.

School Library Learning 2.0 Week 9, Exercise 21 - Podcasts

Oh happy days, I already know something about podcasts since I do enjoy an iPod. I explored several of the directories and found iTunes the easiest with Yahoo Podcast in second place. I added Science Friday to my Google Reader and noticed when I opened by iTunes account that it was also downloading there. Just can’t get enough of Science Friday!

And on a note that has nothing to do with libraries or education – my daughter and I have a favorite podcast called DogBlog TV. The link is http://www.dogblogtv.com/. It is available on iTunes and YouTube or right on their webpage. This is a great example of individuals creating a podcast and getting international play.

My daughter wants to create a podcast now. Sounds like a job for Library 2.1!

Dragonfly

Dragon Fly,
originally uploaded by Gexydaf.

From our trip to Vermont

School Library Learning 2.0 Week 9, Exercise 20 -- YouTube

Yikes, I’m falling behind and really want to finish this class. So, I’m working on #20 while on vacation! I explored YouTube and enjoyed many of the videos. I especially liked March of the Librarians, which is set at the recent ALA conference in Seattle.

I found this video on bald eagles, which is cool. Great images to share with the students – maybe when reading an eagle book.

A note of caution -- be sure to review the videos first! I was going to use one showing prairie dogs. But the video I picked showed the cute little things popping out of their burrow and then exploding as someone shot it! I can just imagine explaining it to the children.

School Library Learning 2.0 Week 8, Exercise 19 – Library Thing

Until recently, I had written down books as I have read them. I really enjoyed looking over past favorites (and duds) when friends would ask for recommendations. Well, I guess I don't have to write them down anymore.

So I set up an account, joined the librarians group and posted the link to this blog (on the right, towards the bottom). The groups and discussion portions of the site are particularly impressive.

School Library Learning 2.0 Week 8, Exercise 18 – Online Productivity Tools

Well, it has finally come to this. I am using the tool to actually create the product. Let's see if this actually lets me post to my blog and if I can really insert a picture. I have high hopes for the WUSIWYG. . Wow, that's really something when you hit the toggle and the HTML shows.

Alright, the photo imported alright, though I had to use one of the sample photos that came with the computer because it didn't download my photos. Wait, let me try linking it to Flickr.

Well, that worked very well . I wish my text would wrap my images, but then I've been trying to do that in my blog also.

(Alright, me again in an edit. The photos came through beautifully and it is nice to have 2 in one entry and in the middle of the text. The emotions show up as words not smileys - and that's amusing. They are the words undecided and smile. There are weird arrows in the body of this post. But for all of those little things, it is a very cool application! The other Zoho features look interesting too,)