Thing 23 I'm Finished!

The end at last!  I started slow and then went quickly the last two weeks getting one or two every day.  Some things have become commonplace to do and others I will need to read the directions over again because I can't remember how to do them!! I've got blogging down.  Enjoy it even!!  Del.icio.us is the other thing I'm making use of.

I've enjoyed reading the blogs of others.  I like being able to look at the blogs by region so I can find others nearby. That was the easiest way to find them and several of them I added into my RSS feed so I could follow how they were doing.  Finding people will similar reactions was helpful to encourage me to continue.

My favorite discovery was blogging. Being reintroduced to RSS feeds and podcasts was helpful.  The ELM stuff wasn't new.  Facebook was a stretch for me. Don't know if I will keep that account.  Flickr was a new discovery and very interesting.  Still haven't decided how I will use it.  The badges and mashups were fun.  The trick will be to remember where to use them creatively and appropriately.

I met a couple new people because of this project.  

23Things may be too much for some to get done during this time period.  I was able to complete mine at home once we got high speed access.  It arrived just in time!! I know many were unable to work at school because blogs were blocked.

Yes I would participate again.

My one word description: Totally AWESOME!

Learn Web 2.0 by doing! That's 23Things on a stick.

I'd like to thank everyone responsible for bringing this program to Minnesota.  It's been awesome.

Thing 22

This certainly has been a very worthwhile course.  I've learned many new things--and yes--now to keep up.  I've subscribed to a number of blogs.  Use over time will tell me which ones will be most helpful.  I really can't decide that yet.  I do keep up with webjunction--the drop in the email box is a big help. I do webinars from minitex--they are wonderful and minitex is wonderful too in helping us keep up to date. Of all the things in the 23things, I'm excited about creating and maintaining a blog.  I've done one for our book club and I'd like to do one for the NWSC. If someone will read them...?  I've sputtered on RSS feeds before but will try again.  One thing that's been very helpful is the creation of an igoogle page and having it as my home page.  I hope that the 23things ning will stay on an refine itself.  It would be good to have a Minnesota ning.  Thanks Ruth for being such a leader on this 2.0 stuff and getting NW MN involved.

View my page on Library 2.0

Thing 21 Other Social Networks Ning

View my page on 23 Things on a Stick

My other network is the MemoNing listed as MEMO under Blogs to the left. I enjoyed doing the Ning thing.  I actually did it the very first thing, when I didn't know what I was doing with 23 Things and got into it by mistake.  It was frustrating then because I didn't have directions.  A lot easier now that I've done all these other Things.  I'm getting anxious to finish #23 so it's hard to stay focused. I like the idea (and practice) of a social network for a target group.  I think MEMO SID one is a good way to get one started and get us stodgy media people up to speed.  As I read other people's comments I discovered I wasn't the only one who felt like a fish out of water doing this. The more one does it, the easier it becomes and of course it all depends on who the audience is. 

I have been a member of WebJunction for a couple years.  Never thought of it as a social networking site.

Thing 20 Facebook

I felt like I was moving in dangerous territory!!  This was definitely stretching my limits!!  Must say I felt uncomfortable doing this.  Goes to show my age!  and I like my privacy!  I joined the Library 2.0 Interest Group.  It seemed to fit this project.  I did find someone from college!  Only 5 from the class of 1970 listed!  When I searched on our high school I found lots of students listed. On the one I looked at it was easy to find out a look of information about the person, not identity info but social info.  Guess I was brought up to be more private than what I see here. The Denver & Hennepin library pages were very hip and would invite kids to use the resources listed.  Since so many kids do create myspace or facebook pages it may be a way to get them into the electronic library door!

Thing 19 Podcasting

I did a workshop on Podcasting last summer.  We used Garageband to create an enhanced audio podcast. Enhance meaning the audio also had pictures but not motion video.  I enjoy doing podcasts.  They require less work than creating a full slide program or a video program.  As I went through the various directories available, the number of podcasts has certainly expanded.  I'm disappointed that you didn't include iTunes directory of podcasts.  iTunes is available for windows as well as mac and it has a great directory for finding podcasts.  Probably better than any on your list.  Not only does iTunes categorize into popular headings, but under education it has topics broken down for schools.  It is also very easy to use iTunes as a RSS feeder so you are updated with your newest episodes if you subscribe to a series.  Of the Directories you listed, I found podcast.com the easiest and cleanist to use.  I liked the education podcast site but found it very difficult to read.  With that said it's easier to use iTunes. 

I've created a podcast link on the side. I set up an account with Gcast but haven't uploaded my podcast yet because it's stored on another computer.

Just as with so many other 2.0 tools, finding time to listen to everything you'd like to is overwhelming.  Last summer I had subscribed to a number of them but gave up as it took too much time.  This Thing was a good chance to get back at looking at podcasts.

Thing 18 YouTube

There's useable stuff on youtube for the classroom, but it may take awhile to find it.  I was impressed with the quality of this clip.  The audio was very clear in comparison to alot of the other things I saw.  While this is a dry, boring clip (?), if you want to learn something about the brightness command in Photoshop CS3 it's great  and short!

I found alot of suggestive titles, some of which were blocked thank goodness. I think if a teacher is to use a youtube video you've got to find it first.  No letting kids look for stuff as a class project. I'm sure they'll look enough at home the way it is.  Remember it's free and that's what you get!

Thing 17 Elm databases

These are really great resources for our students.  Often they like to Google for things but here are valid resources. If teachers and media people, show students how to access information here kids will use them.  It's important too to point out the how access.  This is my first real successful access from home, because I finally have high speed access instead of dial-up.  Even with dial-up I would use resources for students.  It's been some time since I used by account in EBESCO  but its STILL THERE!!  I like using the magazine alerts.  I couldn't get the RSS feeds to work. But the email alerts work well.  I was too a workshop once on using the web page creater in Ebesco, but I don't get very excited about it.  Seems too tedious.  There are other ways of creating web pages. It should be more like the blogger. That's easy and the finished product looks create.  It's been awhile since I've visited netLibrary.  It's come a long way.  I will definitely back here for research and reading.  The accounts that one can set up to email articles will certainly help collaboration.  Remember elm4you to locate the databases.

Thing 16 student tools Research calculator

I like the research project calculator better because it allows the student to prepare for projects in different formats, ie video, powerpoint, as well as the traditional paper.  It is neat that it provides not only a timeline for organizing the tasks, but it also gives helpful resources such as storyboards and on-line resources such as links to windows moviemaker or apple's imovie.  Teachers should know about this site and show ask their students to use it.  It will help students to be more organized and to understand the research process better. Just a couple weeks ago I had a student tell me that you could plan all the steps if you had a month to do a project, but not when you had 3 days.  My point is regardless of how many days you have, you need to do all the steps to make a good project.

Yes you could use this to manage a timeline of your own.  You could also use it to look for helpful resources when doing planning with teachers.

Thing 16

I saw the vision of of education before this from an email I received. There are several other responses to this on YouTube as well.  Look at this one on What's it Like being a highschooler.

Thing 15 gaming

Over the past year I've change my thinking about computer games in the media center.  Since I'm retired I suppose what I think doesn't really count!  Used to be games took up precious computer space and bandwidth.  Now schools have more computers and usually more bandwidth available too.  I see games as a way of getting students in the media center. I also think that games (looking at the pirate game) require a high degree of thinking, planning and creating strategies to win or move to the next level. While I'm not a gamer ( too many other things to do--like good books to read!), I think they have a place.  Not all games are created equal of course.  Some are just shoot 'em up, but I remember how much fun it was to play PacMan when it was one of the first computer games.  It didn't require much high level thinking!  School libraries will need to rethink their stances on gaming.  Computers availability and bandwidth will enter into those decisions on whether games are allowed.

Thing 14 LibraryThing

This was really interesting and I spent alot of time here.  Seems like I'm always spending alot of time on each one of these!  I found that this would be a useful thing to have on my book club blog so have added it.  Great way to get other peoples opinions for books that are currently being discussed.  This would be a good way to let people know what is new in your library. Also a great way to keep track of books you've read personally.  Think I'll delete my lazybase account which was easy to update but doesn't have all the nice features, reviews, book covers, etc that librarything does.

Thing 13 On-line Productivity tools

I created an iGoggle page since I already have an account; I'm using the blogger and the rss reader so it made sense to expand on that.  I did like the looks of the PageFlakes--seemed easy and simple.  iGoogle isn't bad.  I may make this my home page.  With the Mac some of these things can be dropped into Dashboard and you have the widgets available on your desktop without using the browser.  iGoogle of course has the advantage of always being there for you no matter where you are.  Lots of features available.  I put a weather link on my blog.  Seems like we always what to know the weather forecast.

 I think I need to write out my to do lists . Mac computers have sticky notes and I use them occassionally as notes and as to do lists. I have iCal for calendars. Don't know that I would use an on-line one.  I know they don't travel with me from site to site, but it works for me. Backpack looks good for sharing calendars.  I could see that for the NWSC office staff.

 I didn't know about Zamzar the file converter.  I can see where that would be handy in school or even at home.

Thing 12 Do you Digg it?

I was able to submit an article to Mixx without being a member.  Not true with Newsvine. I was surprised with the ugly language on reddit.  I wouldn't want students using that site.  Newsvine on the other hand seemed too stoddgy, too formal.  Mixx had the best introduction to their site with the video and I liked the categories that you could set up and how your could personalize the account.  This is all new stuff to me. Wasn't aware of these sites before.  I could see wanting to keep up with what is popular, especially in a public library setting.  I don't think I would Digg it, but I would certainly Mixx it!!

Thing 11 Del.icio.us

This is something that I will use.  I first created a delicious account two years ago.  Then, I rather forgot about it.  I think it has grown and changed since that first experience.  I also learned more about it from this thing than I knew before.  I like the bookmarks being accessible from any computer. But I also like the connections. When I look for photography I found so many more possibilites for new information than just searching on the web. I think schools should encourage staff and students to make use of del.icio.us. The idea of shared bookmarks(tags) is great for staff development topics or department topics. Some of the library sites didn't even look like delicious so  that bears further exploration.  I found some really cool sites using Pagekeeper and selecting 10-12 and other for subject area.  Many of these are media folks and they neat lists of helpful sites for library/media people.

Thing 10 wiki

The wiki video was a good explanation.  It seemed so simple but the sites I checked weren't!  I edited the 23things wiki.  While I just added stuff, this practice wiki is alot of rambling.  A wiki with a defined purpose would be more helpful to the participants.  (This was great for us.)  I think wiki's are too unreliable to be used for research. I think students should be told they can read them for background info, but not to cite them in their research.  Reading list wikis for school libraries and wikis for class projects could be good uses in the school setting.

Thing 9 on line collaboration

Didn't spend much time on these.  On-line collaboration tools have their place and something to remember ?!! for the future.  The Google one appeared easier. At least it was easier for me to get into and leave a comment as well as get into the actual text and change.  I was able to leave a comment in zoho but couldn't get into the document even though I had permission. Probably wasn't doing something right.  

Thing 8

Well, I bit the bullet and created a flickr account.  Seems like you can't do much if you don't have one!  Anyway I should have one with all the pictures I do.  It's just that on a 56k modem uploading takes awhile. So I have a yahoo account, a flickr account, and a bighuge labs account!

I created a database with the lazybase.  I didn't do much with it but I can see some handy personal uses for it like a reading list since the library can't tell me what I've read.  This way my list is available wherever I have a computer.  Books to Read 

I did the big huge lab thing with the photo mosaic.  I like it.  It could create some cool prints of an event that would be easy to share. I also found that it didn't work in Safari so I moved to firefox.  I couldn't get the code for the mosaic to work so I saved the mosaic to my desktop and then uploaded it as the picture you see here.  These are all MY photos too!

Blogging

I took my newfound knowledge about blogs to create a blog for our bank bookclub.  I wanted to use  the name of the bank and our coffee/travel group but found out I couldn't as the bank has some strict rules about the use of their name and the clubs name.  I thought the blog would be a great way to inform people about the books we are reading and a chance to share comments about the books especially if they didn't make the book club day.  The blog has only been up a couple days so not many know about it yet.  Will let you know how it goes.  

Click the here to get to the book blog.

Thing 7 Communication tools

It isn't the email overload as much as it is the listserve overload.!  I do put messages into folders for projects that need archiving. The listserve messages are usually scanned and deleted except for those that I want to follow through to the links that are there--that's what takes time to read.

We use email in our media center for online ordering and for scheduling problems.  Of course I use it to communicate to sales people as well as others in the office.

I have not done instant messaging. I watched my daughter do it when she was in college.

Nor have  I done text messaging.  It's one of those add on features on the cell phone that I don't have a good reason to pay for. So I'm not into all the shortcut words that are used!

Web conferencing I have done quite a bit of doing Minitex webinars as well as some online seminars from Adobe.  This has been a great way to self inservice on my schedule.

Thing 6 on line image generators

This would be a fun activity for kids to create.  You could create trading cards on books.  This came from big huge labs. bighugelabs.com
  This came from imagechef.com. They have good, easy to follow directions for creating the images and good directions for posting them to a blog or elsewhere.

Not sure why I ended up with blue, underlined  type above.

These image generators could be a lot of fun and time consuming. But a great place to create a project that involves creativity at no cost to the students or teacher.  I could see using them for creating eyecatchers for bullentin boards as well. Of course, if you had a library blog you could use them there.

www.Toondoo.com allows you to create comic strips. What a cool idea for English!  I didn't want to create another account that I may not use  so I didn't create a comic strip.

Thing 5 Mashup

Spell with Flickr was fun. Has some possible uses.  I read thru the 10 Best Flickr mashups and think I could get hooked on the picture Sudoku as I'm already hooked on the numbers one.  I think these things are for people with too much time on their hands!  Offers a chance to be creative and to exercise the brain but so far, I'm lost as to a function in the library/classroom.

Thing 4 Flickr

There are even a few thiefriverfalls photos tagged! For those of you who remember the church along Hwy 59, here's a picture.  I miss seeing that old church. See if the link works!  It was fun exploring the site.  I haven't set up my own account yet.  Something I think I should do. Whether it's flickr or another site.  With a child in AZ it would be a good way to share photos.  I personally like the idea of a photo club setting up a site to share photos.  I thought the like to the College of St. Bens was a very creative way to use flickr for a library.  It would be fun for a school to try the same thing. Hopefully it wouldn't be blocked by zealous tech people.

Thing 3-- RSS

Wow!  last summer I did some workshops on podcasting and had experience with podcasts.  I put several links into my iTunes, but so many podcasts came that I quit and haven't been back to them since.  This reminds of that only on a larger scale.  This brings out the author in anyone who desires to write!!!

I used the google reader to set up my list.  I found it easy to do.  Now to find time to read all the ones I put in!  I searched thru the list of blogs under worldwide >united states.  I didn't find any that sounded like k-12 media centers although I found some for teens.  One that looks good is done by Worthington Public Library in Worthington, Ohio.  I'll see if I can actually create a link to it in my blog. Yes, I was able to link to it!!

This was a fun thing! Fun and informative because I really hadn't expanded upon my knowledge of RSS since doing podcasts.  There is so much more.  This should  make it easier to keep up with new information--IF I can find the really good blogs to link to!

I can certainly use this in my personal and professional life. I think blogs have their place for exchanging information.  A big drawback is that many schools have blogs blocked by their filters making it difficult for teachers to create, utilize blogs for professional growth as well as student projects.

Thing 2

Library 2.0 is a good tag to generate discussion, just as Web 2.0 is a good way to generate discussion and note the changing way of the internet.  In the 30+ years I've been involved with libraries, they have constantly been evolving.  If we want to get some mileage out of someone else's term, fine.  I do believe that libraries will have more to do with the internet than they already do as the years go by, just as society does.  If we want to use this term to generate discussion and ideas for this change fine.  I'm not so sure that Library 2.0 is "all new".  Rather, libraries have been evolving for a long time and this is just a continuation, perphaps a faster change just as everything else is changing more quickly.

Reaction to my first attempt at blogging.

Blogger was easy to set up.  It wasn't very that hard to change the colors of my chosen layout.  The hardest part is thinking up what to say that is worthwhile to everyone.  I hope I can discover how to connect to all the other blogs libraries in the NLLN region have set up.  The Avatar was fun to create but a bit of a challenge to get on my blog.  I succeeded but not sure how.  Maybe my problem was due to the 56k modem at home .  When I pasted and clicked on save it either didn't come back or gave me an error message, but when I looked at my page, it was there.  Go figure.  Anyway creating an avatar was fun; I'd never heard of it before. However, I don't see a real purpose for putting it on my blog.

As I'm working on this I find that cutting and pasting don't work well.

Congratulations to Eileen

Thursday is the last day on the job for Eileen S from Bagley as she is retiring.  I've know Eileen for many years.  NW Region of MEMO will miss her smile and help.  She was one of the faithful members of Region One meetings.  Best wishes in retirement Eileen.

First Post

Welcome to the blog for the NW Service Coop Media Center.  This is my first attempt at doing a blog and it's all due to the 23 Things on a Stick project.  I'll be making comments on that as I proceed through the course.  I welcome other members of the NWSC family of schools to join in this exciting learning project.