Week FINAL, Thing 23: The Pit Bull Librarian

I participated in a 6-hour workshop today about online learning, including an overview of BlackBoard. The instructors were prepared, knowledgeable and experienced. They modeled what they wanted us to learn and utilized Web 2.0 technologies. Overall, it was a good session.

But in six hours not one word was said about copyright. Granted, 6 hours isn't much time to discuss online learning even to an audience that had some online class experience and previous training. But I'm not too surprised because I seldom hear copyright discussed in other trainings either outside of the library field.

It seems as though only librarian-based (Is that a word?) workshops engage participants on copyright. In many schools only the librarian and maybe a few administrators even think about copyright.

Do you want to be the Pit Bull (no complaining about dog stereotypes please; I LOVE all dogs!) of copyright in your school? Sometimes I think my teachers see me that way.

"No, it's not really legal for your to transfer those VHS tapes to DVD for your convenience. Yes I know it's crazy for you to pay $49 per movie when you could make it yourself for free. I just thought you would want to know about copyright." Pit Bull Copyright Librarian

"OK, don't look and I won't tell you what I do...." Earnest Teacher

The copyright video in this lesson was certainly clever but 10 minutes of clips was a bit much for me. I can only imagine that it took the producer/directors an eternity to find and piece those clips. I appreciated the work and creativity but think HS students would get impatient. I thought that copyright comic book was very graphically appealing and hip but perhaps too sophisticated for HS students. However, we need to be sure we are teaching our teachers and students about copyright, especially if their work will be posted online. We also need to educate them about creative commons.

For teachers or librarians who want an in-depth lesson on copyright, Carrie Gardner teaches a great class on intellectual freedom at Mansfield University.

Open Source software and Open Course programs, such as MIT OpenCourseware, are very fascinating. All educators should be following the trend. Web 2.0 seems to me to be part and parcel of that concept.

Week 9, #22 Can E-books Kindle Readers?

Although they've been available for quite a while, I hadn't known anyone who personally owned an Amazon Kindle until last week. My acquaintance, who is a minimal user of technology, is very excited about the opportunity to have books delivered to him and to have the ability to store so many books in one small place. He likes the idea of reading anywhere (as opposed to reading from a laptop that you can't physically take quite as many places) and he likes that Amazon will let you remove but later re-download a purchased book. In the short time we talked before a meeting, I didn't have a chance to try it for myself but I will soon as our public library has purchased at least one.

In PA, we've had netLibrary as a part of our state-supplied databases for several years. Many kids think it is cool to have a whole book on the computer, but fewer chose it as a source when given the freedom to select their own sources. I know that academic libraries use ebooks, particularly in the computer field; therefore, I try to expose the students to using them. If I had to say why they avoid the e-books, I would list two reasons: one is that they feel Google is faster; two is that they just don't have access to the widest variety of ebooks.

The links in this lesson show the many books students can use. Project Gutenberg is one of the older projects for digitizing books. Consisting of mostly books out of copyright, Gutenberg preserves the classics but loses appeal to the youth because of the age of the materials. It's the same with Internet Archive, which seemed to have a great screen appearance and good searching ability. Ebooks About Everything had some high prices for book downloads ($180.00!) which makes it impractical for HS students.
The British Public Library books were awesome looking on the screen! However, I had some problems getting the audio to work on the few I tried. I will have to explore those in more depth.

I've been introducing my students to Google books and to the some of the university projects such as Universal Digital Library from Carnegie Mellon University (http://www.ulib.org/)and MBooks, a collaboration between the University of Michigan and Google (http://www.lib.umich.edu/mdp/). While they have some of the same drawbacks of Project Gutenberg (dated materials), they have many books that are excerpted with links to purchase. I like to get the students to discuss why anyone would put his/her book free online, in part or in whole.

I've also tried promoting audiobooks. My student library advisory council suggested we buy audiobooks and promote them. I let the students choose the format and the titles. They chose CD format b/c they felt that not all students had an MP3 player, but those who did could "rip and burn." Those who didn't have an MP3 player could listen on a computer. They decided against Playaways because they could get twice as many books on CDs as on Playaways. Their selections were a mix of popular YA novels and books used in English classes. While we've been trying for a year to gain readership, we've not been successful. Students will wait for a paper copy of Twilight rather than take the audiobook. Teachers have used some of the audiobooks in classes, especially in the learning support room. We have only a handful of ESL students but I would like to be sure they know about all of the titles. As MP3 players are forbidden in our school, I have to promote audiobooks for home use only, which is a drawback.

I believe that future libraries will have a huge amount of digitized texts so that patrons can access them remotely at all hours. Presently, I use ancestry.com to research census files. The Mormon Library is in the process of digitzing their microfilm collection--millions of rolls. We've had digitized magazine articles for years. Books are the next step.

It just might take me a while to adjusting to reading a book on my computer in the bubble bath.....

Week 9, # 21 Podcasting

I thought I knew how to create and use podcasts--until this lesson. I've listened to Mugglecast, Grammar Girl, a Spanish cooking podcast and several others. I've created them to accompany visual displays and to post online. My students have made travelogues, public service announcements and Elizabethan-era newscasts. So far so good.

However, I was not as handy using Primetime Podcast receiver software to grab and play my podcasts. The documentation was weak and my intuitiveness wasn't intuitive. I'm still working my way through it.

In the meantime, I've decided two other methods are much easier. The first is bloglines. I went to the site of the podcast I wanted for my subscription. Click, click and it plays. I also find it easier to go to the site of my podcast and click on the episode I want to hear. Windows Media Player has it rolling in seconds. I had Legal Lad playing within a minute using both of the ways listed above.

Both podcastalley and yahoo podcasts have been useful to me in the past. Itunes has given me technical difficulties in the past so I've stayed away. Of the links you've listed on the CSLA wEB 2.0 page, the tutorials by Jason Van Orden are my favorite. He is quick, easy to follow and good at "chunking" the lesson into manageable pieces. He uses Audacity software, which we also use at our school.

For YALSA's podcast page, go to http://pod-serve.com/podcasts/show/yalsa-podcasts and click the RSS feed button to subscribe.

I'd like to hear more about how others are using podcast aggregators with classes.

Week 9, # 20 You Tube

To show my students a YouTube video, I logged into my account while the computer was projecting on the large classroom screen. One of my students said in astonishment, "You have a YouTube account?"

Duh. Did he think they set an age cutoff on YouTube? Probably. I can't say I upload my own videos but I will say I search YouTube for great tutorials. Sometimes I find better tutorials on YT than on Teacher Tube.

Here is one I found:

Students like YT videos because they are short and direct. They respect the videos (in that way we actually rightfully discourage) because YT is their technology.

I like to have the video independent from YouTube in the event of an Internet connection problem. I use TubeSucker and Lame Library (an FLV player)to pull the video from YT and have it work on my laptop. This allows me to use the video in any room in the school.

I also found a few good tutorials on Photostory 3 and a politically incorrect Mercedes ad called "Blonde in the Library." (I'm blonde and confident enough to think it's funny.)

What astounds me about YT however is the way students use YT as though it were a private site. They upload videos of themselves doing things they wouldn't want parents and school officials to see, sometimes illegal things. And then there are the incidents of young professionals not screening what they post, things potential employers can see. That's a discussion for a much longer blog.

Week 8, #19 What's a Reader to Do?

Friends who aren't techie (and have called themselves luddites) have raved about Library Thing for a while. It was one of the first Web 2.0 applications I learned about that my library colleagues praised. No wonder. It's great for promoting reading and more importantly discussions about reading. It allows people to catalog their own collections and it gives you yet another widget.

Student or adult book clubs could use this as home base. Adults might be even more enthusiastic as students can use myspace etc to share fav books.

No surprise that my list was also popular with other Library Thing users b/c Breaking Dawn was one of my titles. I was pleased to see the number of people reading a favorite author of mine-- Walter Mosley.

No surprise either that the reviews are of uneven quality, but few are truly bad. Some are outstanding--full of analysis, deep but readable. Great fodder for writing classes here.

The question soon becomes "which?" Shelfari? Goodreads? librarything? MySpace? What's a reader to do?

Week 8, # 18: David and Goliath

Zoho writer is impressive. It has most of Word's functionality; it's free; it makes documents online accessible; it allows for group access; and it gives you the code for posting into blogs like this. The only things I ponder are these: security, privacy in relation to the Patriot Act, the use of the emails to which we send the documents. I'm pretty sure these have all been considered.

The question becomes: Will people move away from the established industry standard Microsoft Word for an upstart program?

Here's the silly sample I did. You can look at it by accessing it via a link: http://writer.zoho.com/public/msm114/csla-%2318

Or you can view it on a webpage because I inserted the HTML code provided by Zoho:

Week 7, #17

The amazing talents of librarians are evident everywhere and the wiki entries were no exception. In the sandbox are of the CSLA 2.0 wiki, I found enough workable ideas for my school's curricula to fill an entire school year. Some were ideas I have considered and others were ones I should have thought about! My entry was past item 50. I was impressed that people were able to devise so many different ideas. My favorites included the history of the town and the battle of the books (even though we don't do that I could see its use in book reviews elsewhere).

My students created a wiki in world cultures class during a unit on Japan. The students love wikipedia so we decided to make our own for one country. This was a project using two classes that met at different times and never worked F2F. Each pair received a topic from the unit. First they had to create a list of 10 essential facts with sources. Then they submitted a draft essay. Next they posted the essay. They then received a second topic, one which had previously been assigned to someone else. They did a fact sheet for their second topic. After that, they edited the essay on their second topic, an essay that had already been posted to the wiki. Students then added multi-media to the wiki. At the end, the students submitted a reflection on the wiki process, including their feelings on peer editing/being edited. All of this was spread over the course of the Japan unit. I would definitely make changes in the process, especially to resolve some tech issues we had that caused essays to disappear! You can't do this with large numbers of classes at a time because you have to correct a fair number of essays in a quick turnaround. This is the idea that I will post in the Curriculum Connections area.

Week 7, Thing #16: Or What Am I Missing

What's the difference between a wiki and a blog? Why use one vs. the other?

I THINK I know the answer to that but I'm worried I must be wrong because I seem to be more concerned about this than most people.


To me, a blog is software that enables a person to post thoughts/opinions/essays, and have others respond. I might post a book review and have my peers give their comments on the book. In another blog I might send a committee the minutes from a discussion and ask them to comment on what steps we should take next. All of these I have done with students. The common thread here is that I post and others comment. This is what I see in many of the sites provided as examples.

To me, a wiki is software that enables groups to edit the same document. Wikipedia is the most known, but also most appropriate example of this. The whole is more than the sum of the parts is the theory here. When people work interactively, they are inspired to create something that wouldn't have been created had they simply added parts, or posted comments. Many of the wiki examples I see do not contain this critical aspect of peer editing. Instead, many wikis are blogs posted on a wiki site. I find the history and discussion tabs of a wiki to be the most underrated and underused aspects of the wiki software, but they are the most unique and fascinating. Again, to me, a wiki should more resemble a google doc than a blog.



In online adult classes I have taught, my students are very, very reluctant to criticize, change or comment upon a classmate's work. My HS students are less reluctant. Asking them how it feels to have their work peer edited, they comment that they appreciate having someone help them.

Sometimes it's difficult to tell if the wiki site has been created as an edited site by a group of members b/c without a membership you aren't permitted to see the editing--ie teacherlibrarian. So I can't always comment on specific sites. Some sites are a collaboration without much editing, but that is better than the blog response wikis I see so often. For example, the St. Joseph's site is collaborative but probably not much discussion, debate or editing is done. That's ok by me because the end result is a collaboration. I find the same in the albystaff wiki.

I like the discussion in the student wiki example This shows these students were collaborating and debating.

If I look at the history of the blog and only one user (usually the teacher) has posted, then I think the wiki is underused.

I agree that even for simply commenting the wiki page flows better than the blog page which can be harder to navigate. I can understand why someone would use wikispaces over blogger for that reason alone. I just wonder if I'm the only person who makes that distinction between the two types of software, and thus activities.

All that said, I'm impressed with any class using either wiki or blog software. I'm just splitting hairs.

Week 6, #15

Everything Old is New Again?

When I read Dr. Schultz's article outlining the Library 1.0 to Library 4.0, the above cliche came to mind. In the end, what patrons/students really need and want is personal attention.

Dr. Schulz said people will want "...the LIBRARY: a WiFREE space, a retreat from technohustle, with comfortable chairs, quiet, good light, coffee and single malt. You know, the library."

Maybe. I almost can't imagine the world giving up its technology. How many of us are willing to live "off the grid"?

Her point about superstar Avatars was interesting. Will libraries be more competitive against each other with the ease of online access? And what about money concerns? More digital divide when the next wave of "3-D" technology hits, or Library 3.0, as she calls it.

What we have to consider is not just the change that the technology is making in our libraries but the change technology is making in the society, particularly in face to face interactions. I recently read a fascinating article about the changes social networking is making in teenage behavior: Subrahmanyam, Kaveri, and Patricia Greenfield. "Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships." Future of Children 18.1 (2008): 119-46.

Think about these statements from their paper:
--the anonymity of social networking increases negativity, and negative comments, esp. racism
--teens can safely use social networking (hereafter called SN) to try out new roles, part of their development
--technology is having a substantive effect on family relationships, with parents losing much of the control they previously had
--the majority of teens get at least 11 text messages per day, and are more comfortable texting than talking f2f
--harassment is quite likely to come via electronic means rather than in person, often through texting
--most SN reinforces existing relationships rather than establishing new relationships, esp. with older teens
--SN changes the emphasis from family communication to peer communication

As Rick Anderson said in another article, if we don't change with society, we hit icebergs. Mr. Anderson made astute observations about serving the public. I agree that more and more people will expect access to all materials online. However, this seems to me to be generational and research-oriented. At our public library, circulation continues to increase each year. The 40+ users and the 8- users are the ones I think who still use books almost exclusively. Mr. Anderson, probably because he works in an academic library, ignores the patrons who use the library for pleasure reading. Kindle is seemingly popular but it hasn't overwhelmed the library patrons. Users will still want children's books and fiction. I'm presently using microfilm to do genealogy research. Sure, I was it were online (and someday soon it will be) but I still accept that I go to the information. It will be some time yet before our collections disappear. I can envision Digital Books on Demand...... As a school librarian, I've known for decades that teaching is my main role. And it will continue to be that. The Flickr one button he mentions will change tomorrow, and I will be needed to teach patrons where the new button is. I believe that most libraries have already accepted that we will "go where they are" (the third point)in providing 24/7access to as much info -- and library help-- as possible. Most of us are not as oblivious at the Titanic Captain when it comes to icebergs. Maybe it's because we've had much better advice.

Courses like this will help librarians keep pace with change, even if that change isn't so different.

Week 6, #14: Technorati

Technorati is the key to finding information in blogs--if you assume that finding information in blogs is a worthy activity. Yes, authority helps, but is authority a popularity contest or an accuracy measure? But that's a discussion for later.

When I searched initially, I included a quotation mark around my search string. Very librarian-like, right? I found nothing that way, in blogs or in blog posts. Removing the quotation marks changed the search, as it should. I guess sometimes you have to unlearn. I found 8 hits under blogs and 19 hits under blog posts. I expected to find more so I will need to review what I did and see what else I could/should have done.

I have used the ping aspect to add my blog to the technorati rolls, and added the HTML code for the tag. This is an interesting aspect of student blogging. If you had a blog for your class, say a book discussion blog, would you consider tagging it? My initial reaction is no for privacy reasons. If a student had a personal blog, he/she might want to tag it for technorati, but depending on the age of the student, that would definitely require plenty of parental dicussion.

The idea of having students use technorati to review election blogs is a great idea. Students could comment on the factual content, the structure of the argument presented, a comparison to traditional editorials, etc. Then they could create their own blogs. However, the blogs I saw doing a general search were very diverse. The teacher might want to use Technorati to find a list of blogs, or preapprove student blogs to keep the focus workable.

Looking at the top 100 blogs I was not surprised to see Huffington as number one. This blog has come closer to legitmizing blogging than any other blog. Another "unsurprise" is the number of technology blogs in the top 20. Tech geeks who blog would be the most likely to read technology blogs. I wonder how many of our computer teachers have their students read blogs?

Tagging is a mixed topic for me. The librarian in me likes the idea of search terms but the librarian in me (I can't help it!) feels frustrated by the lack of a controlled vocabulary. I wouldn't be surprised to see a controlled vocab in the future. After all, isn't that what is happening when the software shows you commonly used tags?

I did a search on Technorati and then put the same info into Google. If I did a general search with one or two search terms, the blog didn't appear. If I put very specific info in the google search, the blog did appear. Conclusion? Google can find the same info IF you already know the story, but otherwise not.

[School Library Learning 2.0]

Yummy, Or Delicious or something like that

If you have been seeing this message for over a day...." What? It could take more than a day to import bookmarks? Other than that first scare, Del.icious.us was a useful site. I imported my bookmarks, added the popular tags and added the delicious (I just can't keep typing those periods)button to my browser.

I've tried Delicious in the past but didn't have the time/motivation to stick with it. The biggest use for me personally is to have my bookmarks available whenever/wherever I go. Having school bookmarks at home would simplify life (without the hassle of exporting/importing.

I could use delicious to prepare bookmarks for a class or assignment. I would create an account for the assignment or class, then add what I wanted. Students could also add, or maybe I should have them create all the bookmarks from the beginning.

Tagging could get students thinking critically about searching and word use.

I'm going to have to simmer these ideas & think of the drawbacks or concerns.

Week 5, # 12: This Could Be the Golden Snitch

Granted that title is pretty extreme but for librarians Rollyo is a tool with potential. For HS students, this is too good to be true--the best sources searched with one click. The sites were selected by the teachers so no argument on the quality of the source. Pretty magical.

At first, I wasn't impressed. The "sponsored links" gave me pause for concern. It reminded me of those early free Geocities sites. Searching by domain is already easy so that wasn't an advantage.

I created my first searchroll on sites I like to use to find the best airfare. All the sites are great in their own way, and about 20% of the flights they list are unique to that site. It really pays to check them all. But I realized that this type of searchroll wasn't practical. It just gave me links to the sites in general when I wanted flight comparison. Kayak and Vayama already do that. Bad design on my part.

Then the obvious hit me. I often provide my students with a list of links suitable for a specific assignment, such as a research paper on American authors. Creating a searchroll for that assignment, I then tried it with Jimmy Santiago Baca. Whew. Great sites filled the page. Confession: My first thought was--this is great. My second thought was--this makes it too easy for my kids. Every now and then that thought pops in my head, but I'm kicking it around.

Next I'm going to make a genealogy searchroll.

Here's my searchroll:

Search American Authors now by typing the author's name in the box that says SEARCH, moving the pull down box on the next line to American Authors, and clicking the word GO:

Select...American AuthorsSearch The Web

Week 5, #11 Hall of Fame

Exploring the Web 2.0 Hall of Fame was, in simple words, fun. There were many sites that were relevant to my personal interests as well as to my professional interests.

Because I've been learning genealogical research, I started with My Heritage. I wanted to compare it to the databases I have learned. Although it would take days to explore this site to its farthest reaches, I can already see that it focuses on sites that are not likely to be found in the large pay-for-use database Ancestry.com. Most of the info is either more current than Ancestry.com (such as phone directories)or a bit off the beaten path (local basketball results from a Jamaican newspaper. But a search engine is not a social network site. I wondered what made this Web 2.0. The Web 2.0 aspect is the ability to contact each other and share data. Family trees can be public or private. In this way, My Heritage is similar to the free Family Trees portion of Ancestry.com. The first six member trees were private --not so social :) -- although you can email to be allowed to view the site. Sometimes you end at a pay site, such as in the obituaries. The message board gave me no hits. The free message board at ancestry.com provides 20+ hits. The social networking aspect seemed to include younger people, more hipsters than Ancestry. Overall, it's a site worth exploring but not up to the quality of the leader Ancestry. Still, as a free site, you could use it with oral history projects, immigration projects, etc.

I love the SEOmoz short list version of the award winners. That should be posted for students and distributed to faculty. Here are some of the other programs I tried from the short list: Twitter (can't feel the enthusiasm other people do; my Twitter circle must be too small & I don't have phone internet); Craig's List (giving newspapers a run for the $$; good for apt hunting if you want to avoid the agencies); Google Docs (many school applications, esp. for group projects); Wikispaces (I've been using that for a while actually); Yahoo Answers (makes Wikipedia look scholarly); Del.i.cio.us (I want to try this more when I have time; great for those who move from lab to lab; may get obsolete if one-to-one laptop program gets prevalent; do I really want everyone to know my bookmarks); YouTube (another old fav; I get tons of great tutorials here for kids/staff); Google Maps and Yahoo maps are pretty standard stuff now.

Next to explore: LibraryThing (I've tried it but need more time) and GoodReads.

Of everything on the chart, I think Craig's List, YouTube and Google Docs are the most well known. Kids are addicted to YouTube. It connects them with their culture, but could be seen as so much more if students were pushed into using it for serious endeavors. I think Google Docs is the application we should teach, but often don't. The wiki programs are the ones most often used at my school.

Week 5, # 10: Do You See What I See?

Image Generators are an easy way to manipulate photos, especially for classroom labs that don't have access to Photoshop. Using an image generator is also faster when you don't have the time to teach a photo editor, even when you have access.

I created the above phone photo using a picture of the Colleseum from our recent vacation (Yup, I've used our vacation in just about every exercise) in the program ImageChef. ImageChef was one of the easiest programs to use that I've tried for quite a while. What impressed me more was the ease of placing the photo directly into Blogger.

The library photo below was also created with Image Chef. I had some problems with the embedding code Image Chef provided. Blogger told me I had to add an end tag, which I had forgotten how to do. I figured it out. Generally, I don't like flashing graphics but having one now and then might be OK.


ImageChef.com Poetry Blender

In HONOR of the return of Mulder and Scully, I used Comic Strip Generator to make an Alien cartoon. This program has many school applications: teaching satire, interpreting characters, analyzing history, mocking the principal (maybe not). Is school supposed to be this much fun?


Made with free image tools @ TXT2PIC.com

Weeek 4, # 9: A Few of My (Not So) Favorite Things

I tried several of the sites listed here: Technorati (which is revered by tons of techie people I know), Syndica8, Moreover, Topix, BlogPulse, Google Alerts, Bloglines search and Google Blog search.

My favorite would have to be Google Alerts. For the past 4 days, I've had Google Alerts feeding me info via email on articles on the Isle of Capri (Italy). I prefer this type of topic searching to the broader site searching on services such as Bloglines. I did find myself listed in a few blogs (presentation summaries) that I hadn't seen before. It took me by surprise.

Topix seemed to have potential to be a localized, more personal Ebsco Host type search interface. It pulled from a wide variety of local sources so provided more perspectives than simply doing a search on our small local newspaper. However, the comments with the articles were, to be blunt, inane. One obituary on a local paster had a reader comment posted from a woman whose husband left her for another woman and later committed suicide--all with first and last names for all the people involved. As far as I could see, the comment had no connection to the article. This happened several times. Topix also encouraged readers to apply to be an editor, a position which allows one to edit the stories, ala Wikipedia. If the editing is anything like the commenting, articles would have no credibility. I think Yahoo's "Local" feature did a better job of gathering mainstream stories on my region from the news sources than did Topix because the comment section in Topix is distracting. I will say that Topix was able to pinpoint the small town news better. Yahoo found news from the larger city 15 miles away

And speaking of credibility.... An issue we should consider is the credibility of Web 2.0 information, especially now that Google has begun to include blogs in its search results.

Would I use any of these with my students? So far these wouldn't be top priority lessons. D

Week 4, #8: RSS Aggregators and Thoreau

Let's start with the fact that I really don't like Thoreau. Sorry. Any guy who has time to sit and watch ants for I can't remember how long doesn't mesh with my Type A personality. But still, when chaos threatens to consume me, I have only 2 options: 1. Eat a large bag of BBQ chips; 2. Repeat the manta, "Simplify, simplify, simplify."

In theory RSS Aggregators should simplify life for me. I choose the sites or areas that I like/need to read. The software advises me when new articles arrive. The problem is that I am a kid in a candy shop. I want to subscribe to many sites, thus getting many articles. Suddenly the software that was supposed to help me simplify is putting me in information overload.

The solution would seem to be to minimize the number of sites. However, if I didn't want to subscribe to many sites, why would I need an RSS Aggregator? I could use my bookmarks, or even Live Bookmarks from Firefox, if I only wanted to see a few sites. At the risk of seeming shallow, I browse the general news by using Yahoo as my home page. I bookmark a few of my favorite sites and visit those. I don't even look at My Yahoo any more.

I tried Google Reader a few years ago. At first I was really excited at having articles delivered to my screen. Soon I wasn't opening the page--for weeks.

What I really need to do is spend more time learning tags, or programs such as FeedRinse. I need to look at Moreover too. The potential of APML could help me better use RSS feeds. The tutorial included for this lesson demonstrated Feedster, which seems to be defunct now??? I'm going to spend the rest of my lesson time on that function. It seems to me that previously I set up screens/filters in Google Reader. That appears to be part of the next lesson so I'll hold off on that, but that' where my interest lies.

I like Google Alert and want to see what use I can make of it, combined with RSS feeds.

RSS feeds have other advantages, however. I like looking at the top 100 lists to see what is popular. RSS feeds are great for a website creator to develop an audience. I see RSS as much more valuable for the business than the consumer. If I am a small town newspaper, I would put an RSS link on my page in hopes that people would automatically view my updates daily, or even hourly, and thus drive up my usage and advertising rates.

How are others using RSS feeds in the classroom? I read an article by Will Richardson on using RSS feeds in the classroom. He mentioned that you could subscribe to the blogs of your students (where they post assignments for you) and then the RSS feed would keep you apprised of their current work. Another use might be having the share function in Google Reader send relevant materials to your students, especially in a class like current events.

Obviously I need to spend more time refining my skills to see an application of the RSS feed to my teaching, not just my learning.

I'm pretty sure Thoreau would disapprove of the Internet in general, but after a few nights in jail for not using it, he might concede to trying RSS feeds.

Week 3, # 7: Technology Post

Does this sound like anyone you know: "I'm not thinking the way I used to think. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do."

It certainly sounds like me. A recent article in the Atlantic Monthly by Nicholas Carr entitled "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"(http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google) expounds on the notion that we have become "power skimmers" because of nature of the Internet media. Carr provides personal anecdotes from friends who agree that they no longer read longer pieces of literature. Text messaging has reinforced this emphasis on communicating in the briefest manner possible.The article also reviews how earlier technologies, even the typewriter, impacted communication-both writing and reading. Carr concedes that the research hasn't been done yet to explain why/if the Internet is impacting reading. But, he explains, the real question is this: Does the new Internet-type reading change the way we think?

I'm fascinated with Carr's explanation of reading as being non-instinctive, and thus easily lost. Carr intrigues me with his idea that today's Internet encourages us to think efficiently but not reflectively. He claims that the business world wants us to move quickly from page to even shorter page, thus putting their ads in our vision. The traditional media, he insists, has no choice but to bend to the way of the Internet. Carr includes many examples of how reading and thinking were impacted throughout history. He also quotes famous people from antiquity to the 20th century on the impending doom on society because of changes in our we process knowledge. This gave the article a feeling of perspective and history.

Carr concludes that our society will lose it's richness if we allow this to continue: "In the quiet spaces opened up by the sustained, undistracted reading of a book, ...we make our own associations, draw our own inferences and analogies, foster our own ideas ...If we lose those quiet spaces, or fill them up with “content,” we will sacrifice something important not only in our selves but in our culture."

Because I believe that Carr is correct in his assessment of our changing reading and writing, I see the librarian's role as the "balancer." We need to show our students that reading is as cool as I-Life. We need to work with our teaching staff to have them require that students read deeply and broadly within each content area. I'm as addicted to technology, particularly the Internet, as anyone I know, but I'd give up the Internet before I'd give up books. Luckily, I don't have to make the choice. If our students aren't taught to read deeply, the choice will be taken from them.

These ideas are not too surprising coming from a person who entitled her blog Live to Read. I'd love to hear what others think about the article.

#6, Week 3: A Mashup

Remember the first time you ever saw a "customimzed" magazine, one with someone's personal picture on the cover? It seemed so cool and almost convincing. For that one second, you thought your friend was really on a magazine. (I guess you have to be of a certain age to remember this.) Now anyone can make a magazine cover. I chose to use our pictures from a vacation last week to Italy to create my own retirement magazine.

Other than just for fun, I'm not sure why I would use this mashup rather than Publisher, etc, but perhaps that's because I have creation programs on all of my computers, school and home.

I'm going to explore the other mashups to see how I might use them. I'm thinking of a project in which I make playing cards--some with book covers, some with characters from the books. Students would have to make sets matching the books and the characters. Or cards with books and actors. Which actor would best be suited to playing the main role?

I've seen a number of people using Flickr for writing prompts, an idea I enjoy. One of my personal favorite mashups is the use of Google/Yahoo maps in other applications, such as a library's contact page on the Internet.

Off to learn more Web 2.0

#5, Week 3: Flickr is Our Hero

Flickr was extraordinarily easy, at least in the basic mode. I can see how easy it would be to use this to share photos with family or to share info about the library. Random thoughts: This is a good way to "archive offsite" photos you would never want to lose in the event of a personal disaster such as a fire or flood. The idea that "someone" else holds my pictures makes me pause. Programs such as Flickr are very popular with my friends, especially those with children. I'm looking forward to trying some advanced features.

I chose to upload a photo that shows one of the students' favorite days in the library: Guitar Hero Tournament Day. As one of our celebrations during School Library Month, we have a Guitar Hero challenge. Earlier we select the five best players in the school. We set up two supersize screens with 5-channel sound. In one area, students can challenge one of our Guitar Hero Masters. In the other area, students can play against anyone. To participate, students pay a nominal fee, thus raising money for the library.

I'm pretty sure that if I think hard enough I'll find a way to relate Guitar Hero to reading and research. Until then, all I can say is that we do it because it is fun.

Tech question: Did most of you upload your photo from Flickr or from your hard drive?

#3, Week 2: Why I Love Being a Librarian --and learning to make lemonade

Today's Top Five Reasons I Love Being a Librarian

5. I work surrounded by computers, books and potential readers.

4. Kids think I'm a genius when I say, "Assassinations? Go to 364.1." The easiest thing can make you look great.

3. Teachers think I'm a genius when I say, "I can fix that for you. Restart the computer and everything will be fine." Another easy statement with big results.

2. My fellow librarians are the most dedicated, enthusiastic educators I have ever met.

1. Professional development includes creating my own avatar. How cool is that? I think this training program will be useful and fascinating.

Reviewing the 7 & 1/2 Habits online tutorial reminded me that professional development will have challenges, that everything won't work the first time, that lemonade can be made from those life lemons. Seeing problems as challenges will be the most difficult habit for me to develop. Maybe it's that half full/half empty glass syndrome. I think my aversion to problems is exacerbated by never having enough time, even if I am "off" for the summer. So now I'm going to think of myself as the librarian who is learning to make lemonade.