Thing #22 -- Your Cellphone as a Tool

After visiting http://www.cellphonesinlearning.com/ I see unlimited use for this tool in classrooms!! As we all know, kids with cellphones don't leave their phones in the locker or at home, they take them to class and even text their friends while they are supposed to be paying attention to us!
Snapvine was one of the sources in this website, and I liked the idea of having oral quizzes that kids can call in from a cell or a land line. So it doesn't descreminate against the"haves and the have nots". The only draw back is that the calls are not free.

I also checked out Jott ! Man! I need to learn to text! But with Jott I don't have to! It will convert Voice to Text for you!!! Now that is a tool I will try and use!! I also need to make more money so I can get a blackberry to have all these new tools in one place! Phone, Internet, email, RSS feeds, etc.... What else.... Oh Yea... It will weigh a lot less because I won't need the laptop that I don't have yet.... :)

Thing #21 Copyright and Freedom of Information

Having worked in a library now for 7 1/2 years now, I feel pretty comfortable with copyright and citation for the printed word. But when it comes to using materials from cyberspace...... I'm still confused about what is okay to use, how much you can "copy and paste" where to find the citation information. Can we really use this? How do I tell if a student is using the found information correctly? did they cite it correctly?

After checking out: copyright comic book I was thinking that this would be really great to have in the library. I think it would get more info to the students then just having us drone on about what they can and can't use. Besides, comics make things more fun to read when there is "action" involved. Right???

#20 - Social Networking

The only social networks I belong to are this class and a ning I set up for our library. I don't see the use of one in my every day live. I think it's a great tool for networking with others in the same field as you to communicate, about new ideas or how to solve problems.

As a tool to use in a school setting, I can see some potential. If you require kids to blog for your class and give them a set amount time to visit and post as an assignment, I think this could be a great way to communicate with students in a way that they feel comfortable. However, if we start using one of these networks in class inside of the school day, I think that most students would visit their own site and not do the work required by the teacher.

#19 - Micro Blogging

I spent just a little bit of time in Twitter. I think I have better things to do then spend time blogging on Twitter. As several of us said at the beginning of the class, Time is the issue! There is never enough time!!!

As far as using this in the library...... I'm not sure that is the best way to get to the kids. However as a way to communicate with other people working in libraries....this might be a quick way to find out what is happening out in the rest of the library world. There also might be better blogs/nings/ websites for that kind of thing. I wish I had more time to check into all of these thing.........

YouTube, TeacherTube - Thing 18

I have really enjoyed watching all the Common Craft videos in class! I have also spent some time watching YouTube and some of the TeacherTube videos on my own and really like some of them. I could definitely see a use for the TeacherTube videos for students. There are many of them for science, history and literacy. Kids really like to watch videos, so this would be a fun and easy way to learn about what ever subject they are working on. I tried to download several TeacherTubes but for some reason, I can't get it to work. If you go to TeacherTube and type in the search for "Introducing the Conceptual Age of Web 2.0" you should see the video I've been trying to get on my blog.

# 17 - Award Winning Apps

After looking at several sites, I came across www.arcaplay.com A site that has free games! My husband and kids love to waste time playing games and they loved this site. My daughter really likes the Panda Golf 2, and my husband likes the card games!

I liked www.onesentence.org . I thought this site would be a great one for writing prompts. It was also very entertaining just to read! Some of those one lines brought some very vivid visuals!! OOH My!

Thing #16 Learning a Language Online

I think this is a wonderful way to learn a new language!! My children having taken 3 to 6 years of a foreign language from middle school to high school and were afraid or really couldn't speak their chosen language! I think that is a tragedy! The whole point in my opinion is to learn to speak a new language! I think this could have a huge potential in the educational field! I could easily see this as an extension of the classroom learning!

I think I'll use this to brush up on my own limited Spanish!

Thing #15 Audio Books/Ebooks

Last night after several hours of looking at some Ebook sites, I decided that I don't think this is for me. I also don't see a use, at this time, for ebooks in an educational setting. That doesn't mean I will change my mind in the future however. I realize that I am not the type of person who can sit and read a book off of the computer. After a while my eyes start to ache and I would have to stop. I prefer to have the book in my hot little hands!

On the subject of audio books, I enjoy them on long road trips. I also see a huge potential in school libraries! Audio books are a great way for students who have issues with reading a book. It's a great way to reinforce language acquisition, and for low level high interest readers who might not pick up a higher level book to read. They might more readily listen to an audio book instead. One site that I liked was:
http://www.audible.com/

This site looked to have some of the most recently release books. It sounded very simple to down load books, to a listening device. I was discussing this with my Teacher Librarian and we thought it would be a great inexpensive way to get the most recent titles in to the LMC. It looks and sounds cheaper than the Follett Play Aways we have looked at. They are just a little to costly for us at this time.

I don't really see Ebooks and audio books as an issue for public libraries. I seem to be a people person, and I feel I get instant help with a really person versus online where you are "chatting " with the help. That doesn't really help me. I do however see that this might effect bookstores. More books online means less customers in the stores.

Podcasting #14

I can see many uses for podcasting. I've seen many very well done podcasts from "how to" to book reviews, and we have used several in this class that would benefit teachers and students. However, these educational podcasts are very hard to view on most school computers. Some times you can see the video and not hear the sound or you can get the sound but no video. I find that a little frustrating, as I'm sure the students and staff have found. I have had great success at home in viewing all kinds of podcasts. I hope that we will be able to utilize this tool to it's full potential in our schools very soon.

#13 Experimenting with Google Apps

I will be editing this at a later date. I am waiting to share out with Mr. F. More to come!

Thing 12 - Open Source Apps

We seem to have major problems with computers having difficulty creating Power Point presentations. Getting school projects done, saved, loaded, and sent to teachersis a big issue. Just the other day a sixth grade teacher came and said he didn't think he would ever do another power point again unless we got newer computers. I spent some time, 30 minutes, in Google docs and created a power point presentation for this teacher. If I can do this in less then 30 minutes, I'm sure the students will be able to publish their projects in several class periods. I can't wait to share this with Mr. F.

#11 - Wikis

After viewing our Media Clerks Manual, I have discovered we have a lot of work to do. However, I think that this will be very helpful for everyone, new people, and also for when it is time for the district is ready to review our job description. As this will be a living document, up for editing and revision by all Media Clerks, I know that this will only benefit us.

On a personal level, we always plan a trip to Lake Powell with our relatives in Colo. Springs, I can see big potential for getting all our stuff better organized. Since we take EVERY THING but the kitchen sink for this trip it will be much easier to have lists in a wiki of the haves, have nots, what I'm getting, what your getting and what we can't find!! It will be SOOO much easier!! I can't wait to share this with our family!!! YEA!!