HS Media Musings

Tech Adademies

2009-08-26T12:37:00.000-07:00

Today we are learning about Web 2.0, specifically Google Tools.

Thing 33: Travel 2.0

2009-06-14T14:29:00.000-07:00

Now this one is giving me the itch to get out of Dassel for awhile!

I like the idea of getting feedback from other travelers. This seems more credible than from the booking companies. Of couse, one needs to wade through the cranky people to see real insight. Some people are just always negative no matter where they go, but these bits of feedback can show a "trend" of feelings toward a destination. We used this when we went to Florida over spring break and found a GREAT pleace at a GREAT price. It was actually a nice timeshare resort that was not full to capacity so they were selling the empty space on Travelocity at a discount rate. It was a great deal!

WindowSeat and TripAdvisor looked good. I especially liked the TripAdvisor in that it gives a lot of good advice for first time or repeat travelers. I was checking out the first time Cruiser visitors section, and it looked great. After reading that, I'd feel more confident booking a cruise, and that's important during these tighter economic times when we must make every dollar count.

I did notice that the top two mashups were Twitter related. Maybe there are more decent applications than I gave Twitter credit for earlier. I'll try to keep an open mind on that one.

One that was not listed is WikiTravel. That's sort of a travel version of wikipedia. It's not too bad.

I think the most logical implementation for the media center is in the area of social studies. I could see some lessons that incorporate these tools. I'll definitely link some as reference tools.

Well, that's Thing #10 for me on the More Things on a Stick program. I plan to do more later since I'm teaching three Web 2.0 Tech Academy courses in August for our teachers, but I won't have time to officially complete more than that before the program ends on June 20th. I did want to at least meet the first threshold of achievement on this session, however.

Thanks again to Patricia Post and all those who have worked to make this program such a success. They have been GREAT and have allowed me to better stay up to date on the latest in the ever expanding world of web 2.0!

Thing 32: Google Maps and Mashups

2009-06-14T14:19:00.000-07:00

I like this one. I like the interactivity of it. You can check out a map of downtown Dassel I created by clicking this link. I wish you could upload images instead of linking to them. The chance for link rot on these is pretty high, but I can understand space issues at Google if they start letting everyone upload images. Maybe they could automatically compress the images to allow for it in a smaller server. This would make the tool more attractive. I could see students using this in Geography to show us around different areas around the world. It would be a more interactive way to talk about all things geography. It could also work in a history project. For instance, you could have a student map out Paul Revere's famous ride or the path of the underground railroad.

One mashup I could see going over really well at my house is safe2pee.org – Find a public bathroom anywhere in the country. That could be invaluable on a road trip!

I could see this one being useful for current events: Gaza Conflict YouTube Videos Map – This mashup shows the latest YouTube() videos about the Gaza conflict attached to their locations along the Gaza Strip and elsewhere.

This one of Obama's life is really cool. It makes the history more interactive and puts a place on the story.

There is some real potential with some of these applications.

Thing 31: More Twitter

2009-06-14T13:14:00.000-07:00

Oops. The White House Twitter link does not work. That one looked interesting too!

I have to admit, I'm not a Twitter addict. It was interesting to setup an account and see how it works, but I feel like my life is too busy for this--especially since it often has less than important information in the tweets. Adding to my lack of enthusiasm for this tool is that Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows is addicted to posting. I think that is all he does. It was cool when he posted photos from his cell phone of shows he was at. That was sort of interesting.

I did put my Twitter badge on the site. I could see that as a way of recruiting more followers. Followers. This seems a little like a vanity pursuit for some people. I think the Counting Crows guy is one of them, although, in his defense, his profession is all about having followers. I have captive followers already at school . . . students. I suppose by getting them to follow a media account, I could get them more involved, but I think there are other tools I'd prefer to use.

I did add my name to the directory, but I'm not sure how long I'll keep this Twitter account. We'll see. Maybe I'll change my mind. The alerts would be helpful if I find some critical accounts that I need to stay up on.

OK. I'm at stage 2--presence. As I mentioned, maybe that will change. At least I know what it is and how others use it. Most teachers at school don't even know what it is. For that matter, students don't know what it is. I don't find that students tweet. They Facebook.

Twitter is . . . another web 2.0 tool that could quickly become a diversion, a distraction or an addiction. For some people, I think it is a pool of self-absorption. It does have potential as a tool for distributing bits of news or updates. I don't see enough people using it that way, but that's what I'd want to do as a user. For me, the jury is still out, but I will continue to monitor it as it develops. For now, it's still a crying baby.

Thing 30: More RSS and Del.icio.us

2009-06-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

There are some tools here I just won't need, but a few look useful. I like the tracking feed to send UPS or FedEx updates to a feed reader. This would be great with my eBay orders or even my orders at school (although I usually don't need to track them that closely).

The calendar link did not work for me--forbidden.

I could see the .gov feeds be useful to my Social Studies teachers, especially in current events.

I was really excited about Feedmysearch, but every term I put in returned 0 results. I may have to try this again another day.

There are some nice Delicious features that I could use. I added the badge to my Blog. That could be a nice way of posting school sites on my media center page. I also like the "Bookmark This" feature that is on many news sites. I'm putting a tag roll there as well. That may even be more useful although kids don't seem very familiar with this yet.

I really like that RSS feeds can be imported into the Blog tool. Again, I think each user needs to decide how to manage all this information. This gives another method. I like that you can import right from the reader. That's what I did--very fast.

I read my feeds every now and then, but I should probably do it more. I like it to keep up with professional reading. I still need to set up a delicious account for my library. That's one of my goals for this fall. I want to put all my research sites in there so kids can search them. I have so many available that they can get lost in the lists (they can't see the link for the list . . . like the forest for the trees). I love it though. What a great tool.

Thing 29: Google Tools

2009-06-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

Google Alerts--Now this one I will use. I love it, especially for HS research projects. We have our advanced composition class research very recent topics. This would be a great way to keep up with the new writing on their topics. I think this one will be invaluable, and I plan to require every student to set one of these up next year!

Google News--This one is cool too. It's a little confusing to know where I'm logged in now that I have the alerts, the email and the news. I know I don't have to log into the news, but it gives me my login email at the top plus a series of tabs. It looks a lot like my igoogle page, but with a few tabs different. That's a little confusing. I hope they join all of these. For research, this could be very cool indeed, much like the alerts. I'm not sure if students will need both or now, but it's nice to have options. I like the timeline view too, but I'm not sure if students will use it too much. What I like most is that you can see when the most was written about the topic. On global warming, for instance, most was written in 2006.

Google Search Wiki--Interesting idea. The negative article was a little too negative. This is an optional feature. If the writer doesn't like it, he certainly doesn't need to use it. The other article gave some nice examples. I liked the idea of weather--put your local forcast information at the top, so to get a forecast, all you have to do is type in weather. That could be a nice time saver. I do agree with the naysayer, however, in believing that Google is not completely altruistic. I'm sure they are harvesting data to make them more money. I can't blame them. We do live in a capitalistic society, which means much of the motivation to improve is financial. If that motivates Google to improve its products, I guess that's oK with me. People just need to understand that. I'm not sure I'll be using this much, but I don't have a problem with it being there.

Google Web History--Cool or creepy? A little of both. I decided not to sign up for this one. Maybe it's because I am a digital immigrant (though I immigrated a long time ago, I did not grow up with this). Maybe it's because I've grown up more conservative about giving out my personal information. I do think it is a bit generational, but I don't think that means the old generation is wrong. I worry about my students who don't worry enough. They suffer from information prmomiscuity. I love that term. I heard it at the MEMO conference a a couple years ago. They leave their digital footprints all over the place and have little awareness of it. I try to teach them this at school, but I worry it does little good. They think online activity is as private as a conversation in their bedroom with a friend. While I'd like being able to review my web history, my need for privacy outweighs the need for convenience. Google says it gives you total control, but I question that. Nothing is every totally gone on the Internet. I think I'll pass on this one for now.

Thing 28: Customized Home Pages

2009-06-12T20:38:00.000-07:00

I went with iGoogle. Yeah, maybe that's boring, but I still like Google. They have a lot of great things to offer . . . and they should with their $500,000 per year R and D department. It's also the one that would connect most to kids. They often equate the Internet with Google. I try to teach them otherwise, but there are good reasons Google is so big. While others do parts of the search industry better, Google probably does the most well of any of them . . . and the page is very easy to set up.

I added a few neat tools to my page. I put a translater on there as well as a clock and weather update. I also have some of my favorite news feeds on the main page, and I check the headlines daily when I log on. I found a neat new gadget (iMusic) that lists local concerts although I was disappointed to see that I missed Big and Rich at Winstock today. They are great, and that is only 15 miles from my house. I see Three Doors Down is coming to Mystic Lake, however. I might need to check that one out.

For me, the biggest application in the media world is for putting RSS feeds and news feeds for media topics on my screen more frequently. If they are there, I'm more apt to read them. That's a good thing. I doubt I'd do anything with the students, however. There are more important things I need to teach them, and I have only a limited amount of time.

Thing 27: Twitter

2009-06-10T19:41:00.001-07:00

OK, so I finally got in and tried Twitter. It's definitely been the media darling this past 1/2 year. I think it translates well with media folk because it embodies what they do--get information out to people. I've noticed it has gotten really hot with celebrities and news personalities. They seem to be almost panicing to get people to follow their posts, as if their worth as a reporter was dependent upon how many followers they have on Twitter. I've also noticed multiple sports figures using Twitter--and getting themselves into trouble because they don't think before they post. It'll be interesting to see if this sticks.

My account is http://twitter.com/HSMediaMusings

I first put my account as private and then opened it up again. I probably won't post too much here. I honestly get a little fatigued with information overload, and I don't want to compound the problem by posting pointless personal ramblings like I'm seeing on some of the posts I'm following. For instance, I'm not sure I need to know Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows pulled his hamstring on a treadmill and then used a friend's sports cream to heal himself.

I can see some potential in libraries and schools. I've been toying with the idea of posting school news updates (upcoming events, etc.) on a school account, but I'm not sure I have the time to religiously post to it. I know that if I do it, it needs to stay updated or people will never check back or get annoyed. I liked some of the things Hibbing was posting--events, library updates like added wifi. I liked one blogger's suggesting of informing patrons of new books. These all have potential. However, my tech guys are not very big on Twitter. They see it as a virus nightmare. This puzzles me a little as I haven't heard much talk about this part of it. I'll continue to follow it and think about it, but for now, I don't have big plans for it.

This activity, however, was good for gaining a better awareness of this popular tool.

Thing 26: Join Ning

2009-05-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

I actually joined the Ning during the first 23 Things on a Stick, but it was good for me to go back into it. I must admit, I haven't really used it since the first round, but I've always meant to go back to it. It might be a way to get an online community going at school. My teachers would probably be a bit apprehensive about anything that is too public since kids have a way of pulling information from the web and doing odd and embarassing things with it. We'd have to work through those potential conflicts.

For this go around, I updated my account, posted a response on the discussion forum and added a badge to my blog. As time goes on, I will continue to dig deeper into this. I've investigated several groups, but I'd be interested in becoming more involved in a few and possibly starting my own.

Thing 25: Blogger Toolkit

2009-02-26T08:28:00.000-08:00

I'm not to excited right now. I had finished this post with the addition of 6 blogger tools, and then the whole post disappeared, even after I'd gone in and out several times. I guess I'll post again, but I've already speant about 3.5 hours on this "thing." There are so many of them. As I mentioned in my deleted post, I'm most interested in fuctionality that could also be pasted into teacher web pages built with Publisher. All our teachers are required to have one, so these tools could be slick. I had uploaded a picture from Flicker CC. I'll try again. Here is the attribution. Image: 'untitled'
www.flickr.com/photos/68114626@N00/103450022

I also set up a Site Meter Account to check on site visits. I set up a gVisit account, but it didn't work correctly. I pasted in the code, but it didn't do anything.

In inserted a PollDaddy poll which did work. I'll post it again below.

I also put in a search box to the left. I really like that one.

Finally, I put in a Google map below. That's easy too. I think pasting the code works well. I wish it was easier to see what you'd get before posting, however.

Thing 24: Refresh Your Blog

2009-02-20T12:31:00.000-08:00

It was good to get back into the blog again. I haven't really used it much since finishing 23 things, except as a way to get back to some of the resources I worked with.

I did give my blog a new look and added some links at the bottom. Some of the new gadgets might be useful if I get into using this more consistently. I switched out my avatar for a traveling photographer. We're heading south for spring break, and I'm ready!

As for blogging, I'm still considering setting up a media center blog to post on my main media center page. I just haven't had the time to get it done. We've been heavy into technology training for our teachers, and that has taken most of my time.

I did work with one of my English teachers this winter to start a blogging activity in his Explorations in Literature class. He had all the students set up blogs in blogspot. They put the settings to private and shared access with him as the teacher. It seems like a nice safe way to set it up in the classroom. We also took the advice of the teachers in Edina and sent a parent permission slip home. So far, it has been a nice way for him to get his students writing and reacting to literature.

So with Thing 24, I start my journey discovering more things on a stick.

Thing 23. Final Thoughts

2008-03-02T19:39:00.000-08:00

I am certainly more aware of what's out there. I have had a general understanding in the past, but having to actually "do" the things in this program helped to make it more real. I also really liked the informational links provided and the short video segments. Those helped to give integration ideas which are so important.

As for a tool, the file type converter will be awesome! I've already used it. I was never a big blog guy before, but I think I will start that now. It can be a way to connect with my students and staff if I promote it well. Also, the RSS reader will be great to keep up on trends and topics.

Much of my connecting has happened in-district as several of use have undertaken this journey.

There's something about completing all the things that provides an overall understanding that you can't get from just one or two. It was also good to see how many of these tools intersect and interconnect. That is where much of the power comes from.

Yes, I would do this again, but I think I need a little time to better digest what I've now done. As I said, it did take a pretty big time commitment.

The 23 Things On A Stick program has been a great way to stimulate learning and growth among library staff in regards to web 2.0, and it has provided many tools to help us be more productive and to better connect with others. We need to keep up with the ever changing web, and the 23 things has allowed us to do that.

Thanks again for this opportunity!

Thing 22. What Did I Learn Today?

2008-03-02T19:30:00.000-08:00

I resolve to keep up with web 2.0 tools. In fact, we're planning some summer tech training, and one of the courses will be web 2.0 tools. That way I can share what I've learned with my colleagues. Also, by teaching it, I will better remember and keep these tools at the front of my consciousness.

I have a lot of irons in the fire right now with new technology--tech training, new video server, website work, project lead the way, a Moodle online classroom for my independent study students and TV staff, staff websites, etc. but I will find time for web 2.0. I'd like to try a couple new tools each year and really integrate them. I'd like to make my main website page (library research page) the place where I can link these tools. That way students/users would regularly see them. After all, if no one uses them, it's a waste of my time. Again, I think if I do one or two at a time and really concentrate on those, I can better commit to keeping up with them.

Also, I do intend to keep up with my RSS reader. I'd never used that before, but I've already learned several things that way that I'm glad I didn't miss!

Thing 21. Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks

2008-03-02T19:26:00.000-08:00

I like Ning. In fact, I like it much better than Facebook or MySpace. It's probably because the network more closely meets my needs. I also find it more user friendly. It is easy to navigate and easy to add elements or use the widgets.

I have used the webjunction site before and have an account there. I like the training pieces and have used some with my paraprofessional for training purposes. The interface is not real dazzling, but I'm OK with that as long as the content is good.

I liked the Teacher Librarian Ning. I might actually start using that one. It's sort of like a list serve, but more personal. There's also something nice about seeing a face with the words. It's much more personal.

Thing 20. Libraries and Social Networks

2008-03-02T18:17:00.000-08:00

I prefer Facebook over MySpace. I like the increased privacy of it, and it seems a little more mature, even though Facebook is supposed to be open to younger people. My Space seems to have sillier and more raunchy material visibly posted. As I was searching library groups to join, however, I ran into a group about having sex in the library, so I guess neither are perfect.

I joined the Library 2.0 group. That would be interesting. I could possibly get some ideas.

I was able to find my brother and sister-in-law to add as friends. Because of the different networks, it takes a little while to find people you know. Also the email search didn't help too much because I didn't have one of the more commone free emails. I have a school email and a home one from a local network. Therefore, it couldn't search my contacts.

It was cool that Hennipin County Library has over 1200 friends on it's MySpace Page. That's an interesting idea. If you can get kids to join, that would be a good way to communicate. Because it's blocked at school, it wouldn't help there, but it might help at home. I like that it offered way to put the Hennipin Library book search tool into their own MySpace pages. I wonder how they did that. Cool.

Thing 19. Podcasts

2008-03-02T17:57:00.000-08:00

Here is a great podcast on grammar. It's a dull topic, but this podcast is great. As a former English teacher, I appreciate it when someone can make grammar interesting, and this does it. I subscribed to it in iTunes, but I'm not sure I like it when iTunes automatically downloads things. It bogs my Internet down at home.

I was interested in listening to the Saint Cloud State podcast too. They were actually just starting it when I saw a conference session with them at MEMO this fall. The key with these is promoting it enough so people actually listen to them. Otherwise, it's a little discouraging to put in all the work and not have anyone listen to them. I subscribed to this one too.

I've looked at some subscriptions in iTunes too. That's pretty easy to use. There is something for everyone there.

I dug around a little and found the spot to submit my own podcast, but it wanted a RSS feed. I now know more about those, but I don't know how to make one. How do I make a RSS feed, so I could syndicate my own podcasts? We've had students make podcasts at our school using Audacity, but we've only posted them on our local website. That works well for us, but how would we go about making them available for subscription? I'll need to investigate more to figure that out. I believe we can host them locally and still put them on iTunes. Maybe we'd need to enter a new url for each podcast. I also believe there is a way to password protect it. I'd like that too. People could subscribe but only get the podcast with our local password and login. That would make parents more comfortable. I believe Buffalo is doing something like that.

The other thing we post weekly on our website at school is our 10 minutes weekly newscast done by students. It would be neat to put that up on iTunes as well.

Thing 18. YouTube & Other Online Video

2008-03-02T17:51:00.000-08:00

Here is my real attempt at placing a YouTube video into my blog. This one is about promoting reading comprehension. It's an example of something a library could do themselves and post on their website. It would be good PR and it could help promote reading skills in the home, something that would help academic achievement at school.

When I used YouTube here, I was a little surprised at how much junk I got right away. With Library, I got several porno pieces. I had a much easier time searching for guitar playing tutorials, some of which were excellent. I know several teachers at school have been using YouTube videos in their instruction, some very effectively. It was partially because of this increased interest in using them that we purchased a new filtering system which allows us to unblock YouTube for teachers while keeping it blocked for students. At some point, I hope we can block searches within YouTube like we do within Google. We don't block the whole Google because there are bad sites, but we do that with YouTube because there is not a good way to screen and block the bad within it.

TeacherTube is another good site worth visiting.

YouTube Posting Practice

2008-03-02T15:13:00.000-08:00

This is not a library video. It's a guitar video on playing the blues. YouTube was having trouble loading while I was doing this project, so this was the only video I had access to. I wonder if YouTube is down right now. Here's a try with this one at least.

Thing 17. ELM Productivity Tools

2008-03-02T14:36:00.000-08:00

I did the infotrac search and did not find the rss feed as others noted. I did see the explanation further down on the blog responses as to where it should appear, but it wasn't there either. There was no option to add a search alert.

I did the EBSCO web page generator. It's fairly simple and straight forward although I prefer to use Microsoft FrontPage for my media center web. I could see making some webpages with search results from Proquest, saving them and then linking them off of my media center page. This would be a nice, quick way to add these search results.

I'm curious about using the personal accounts for students. If they each set up a username and password, they could archive their search results for the duration of the research project or longer.

This tool could assist in collaboration with teacher as they could each create an account and build a larger list of resources. These could direct students to the resources they desire them to view. In the same way, this could be useful in getting research out to teachers in the district.

Overall, these databases are invaluable! They are a major staple in my students' research diet. We are so fortunate to have these available to our students. It goes a long way toward shrinking the information divide that could occur between poor and rich library systems and school districts. Information is the great equalizer, and these products go a long way toward equalizing.

I still need to learn more about NetLibrary. I attended an ELM session on this at a conference, but it's still a bit hazy to me. I think the whole process is still being refined to make it more user friendly. It's a little complicated yet--at least to me. Maybe I just need more information. I will continue to look into this.

Thing 16. Student 2.0 Tools

2008-03-02T13:58:00.000-08:00

I've looked at research calculators before. The one from ELM is good. I like the U of M one. They are very similar and offer solid suggestions for steps. I've introduced these tools to my English and Social Studies teachers on several occassions,and while they all liked them, I'm afraid none are currently using them regularly. A few have used the teacher materials available and some of the links within the calculators for students to get more examples and help.

I really like the examples for MLA citations on this calculator. I will need to pass that on to my English teachers. I may also link that off my media center page, so students have that guide available to them as well.

The other thing I've found is that the students who need these most do not use them. That's a bit frustrating. I think the remedy to this (at least in part) is go get a teacher to require it's use, so kids buy into it and see it through to the end. I might even try it for our inventory routine or something like that.

Yes, I can see using this in the media center. It would be good for organizing projects that I'm undertaking or my para. We don't do as much writing or researching in this way, but occassionally it could help.

Thing 15. Online Games and Libraries

2008-03-02T13:48:00.000-08:00

We've struggled with the whole gaming phenomenon just as most libraries have. I totally understand that students love games and that game developers are genius in how they motivate players to continue in the game. However, our tax payers get really uncomfortable when they see kids playing games on taxpayer provided computers. As a compromise, I have developed a web page full of links to games with at least some academic nature to them. They could be logic games, history role playing games (BBC has a ton of good ones) or academic skill games (typing, vocab, etc.). Some, like Text Twist, are more popular than others, and I still need to ask kids to log off the "dirt bike over the hill" type games. PR-wise, I just can't allow them.

I tried out the second life option because I was curious about it. I can see where kids get sucked in. It's interesting and much like the other video games they play. The library application are interesting. I'd be curious to see usage stats on this. While it has potential, I don't think I can invest the time it would take to create a virtual library world for my students in second life. Not only that, it would suck up even more of our band width. That may change over time, but for now, I'll let others take the lead on this one.

Thing 14. LibraryThing

2008-03-02T12:21:00.000-08:00

This is a pretty cool tool. I need to do some thinking about how to incorporate this into my library web page. Since I'm a high school teacher and don't have regular access to students through a fixed schedule, this may be a way for me to do virtual book talks. I could highlight different books on the main library page each week or month. We're also doing in-class projects with my English teachers. We had talked about a top 10 list from the class. This would be a neat way to post them. I think I'll try that. It would also be a way to post book reviews by me or students. I love that the covers are displayed.

Thing 13. Online Productivity Tools

2008-03-02T10:52:00.000-08:00

I checked out each of the home page options. I have had an iGoogle page for about a year now. I like it for getting quick access to the news I want, but I don't like how it slows down my page loads at home. At school with a faster connection, it's no problem, but at home, it can drag. I thought the Yahoo option had some nice features. If I were a Yahoo mail person, I'd like the quick link on the page. There were a lot of quick, easy to follow links on the right as well. PageFlakes was the most interesting to me, however. I loved the NPR iPod feature to listen to their podcasts. It was fast and easy. There was no buffering delay, and by putting in my town and zip upon login, it gave me local news automatically! I got to read about our swim team winning a state relay and the hockey team qualifying for state. That was awesome.

I just got done looking at the calendards, specifically the Google calendar. That led me to lose about two hours. I kept letting myself be led into more parts, like the link to my Google Reader, which led me to a neat candidate survey I forwarded to my social studies teachers. It's a cool tool that is more user friendly than our current GroupWise calendar. My concern would be how to get all staff to use it. Also, if our internet connection went down, so would our calendar.

Remember the milk is a neat tool. We have a task list tool in our current Groupwise calendar. I like that the milk tool can be added to Google calendar. That was smart on their part. It's nice to have appointments and to do ideas on the same page.

The pdf converters were nice to have. We recently purchased the Adobe Production Suite which allows for this with Adobe Professional, but the suite seems to slow our computers down and requires 1GB ram, something not all of our machines have. This will be a nice alternative for converting documents that will be posted to the web.

I love ZamZar. We run into conversion problems a lot. Just last Thursday, a student made a video on her Mac at home for our TV broadcast, but when we brought it into Pinnacle, it wasn't compatible enough in the mp4 format she used. I would have loved to have been able to convert it to wmv. That would have saved a lot of stress. Now we can do it. Sweet.

Overall, there are a lot of products here. I think cutepdf is a must for my teacher workstations.

Thing 12. Do You Digg?

2008-02-29T15:29:00.000-08:00

Since the point of this is to tag and rank, let me start by adding my rank.

1. newsvine
2. digg
3. mixx
4. reddit

I thought newsvine was the easiest to look at and sort through. Digg is OK too. Mixx is not bad, and reddit is just hard on the eyes. It made me want to go away. I did set up acocunts with mixx and digg, but I'm not sure I'm interested in being a registered user. I'm more interested in using them as an unregistered visitor. I know this is a little counter-web 2.0, but I have found the greatest use with my advanced research students. When they are looking for contemporary, controversial topics, I like to send them to sites like digg, so they can see what the people are digging on. It gives them a better sense of what people are finding most important. For high school kids, that's a key. They need to develop a sense of what adults talk about and topics that are important in an adult world. Because of the ranking nature of these sites, it gives them a glimpse into that and helps them find topics. It also leads them to an initial article to stimulate their learning. So these can be enhancers. I've seen my students use them effectively, and I've discovered that they like to see what others think. As for being a registered member, I think I'll pass.

Thing 11. Tagging and Del.icio.us

2008-02-29T14:49:00.000-08:00

I've been familiar with this tool for awhile, but I never took the time to set it up. I tended to store my bookmarks with the Google toolbar feature. With the login, that follows me where I go. The advantage of del.icio.us is that it allows the metatags. That's a handy sort tool.

I think, as with any of these tools, you need to pick and choose. The mere vastness of web 2.0 will drive you crazy unless you zero in on a few tools you really want to use well. Otherwise, I think we get sucked into the "mile wide, inch deep" dilemma.

That being said, I think Del.icio.us can have some classroom and media applications if you want it to. I currently list websites on my media center website, and I organize them into categories. The advantage of Del.icio.us is that users could search by metadata. The appearance is not as interesting as my own website (which could be a problem for teens who are always looking for the flash). However, it might made the use of the links more accessible. I'm afraid now that students don't take the time to search through the links. With the booksmarking site, they could search, which would be faster and easier. The key would be applying appropriate meta tags. For that, it would be important to think like a kid when setting them up.

Kids could also use it as a way to organize websites they find during their researching. I'm not sure how the tool bar download would work with so many users. I suppose my tech guy would just need to install it locally on all school machines, so kids could use it.

Overall, there is potential here. I may need to explore it further. Maybe it could even be built into research units (if teachers give me more time with their kids).

Thing 10: Wikis

2008-02-17T15:00:00.000-08:00

I find Wiki's more interesting than thing 9. This could have some uses in the media center, maybe with book reviews as was displayed in one of the examples.

I did edit the 23 things on a stick Wiki. I added the following under "content suggestions:"

Another great tool

For those people who have website development skills, Google offers a neat tool to insert a Google-powered search engine into any existing webpage. It simply requires creating a Google account, go to more tools and click on custom search. http://www.google.com/coop/cse/ This allows you to create a search engine for whatever pages you want. We used it to search our school's webpage. Once the search is created, copy and paste the code into your page. It works very well. This may be more advanced, but I can see some people really liking it. For 23 things on a stick, the search could be pasted into the blog.

The whole wiki idea lends itself to an interesting dilemma. It's something that we adults do all the time--give and take information to form our own conclusions. The questions is: do kids have these skills? I'm not sure they do, so the next question is this: How do we equip kids with these skills? That's probably our biggest challenge.

Our English department bans Wikipedia as a cited source for research papers. I don't disagree with this, but I've come to find "good" uses for it in the research process. I've built Wikipedia into my research lessons, so kids can learn how to use it well. I have them use it to gain a general understanding of a topic and to find search words and subtopics. I find that Wikipedia is so well organized and easy to understand that it is the best tool available for providing students with this pre-researching information. Once they have gained this understanding, they are better equipped to use the subscription databases, books, etc. to find highly credible information. I also tell them this is a good starting point for finding web links. While not all the links are good, they are better than doing a general Google search because people obviously felt strongly enough about these sites to list them. They are generally better than average.

I'm very intereted in finding a way to add a library wiki to my website at school. that will be one of my goals.

Thing 9: Online Collaboration Tools

2008-02-17T13:47:00.000-08:00

I think this is my least favorite tool so far. While the online production tools aren't too bad (in fact, they are pretty good), I found the sharing cumbersome. Both tools are pretty straight forward and use easily recognizable tools shortcuts. That is helpful. I like how Google docs lets you revert to previous versions quite easily as well. It even has a trash can to store inadvertantly deleted versions. That could be a life saver. However, I'm not sure I see this as a huge time saver. I also wonder if several people could have the same document open at once. I guess if you were editing a shared document, it could be helpful. I had troubles opening the Jefferson piece. Maybe that's what turned me off on this.

Thing 8: Share Your Creations

2008-02-17T13:16:00.001-08:00

Wow. This one took awhile, but I think my own curiosity make it take longer than it should have. I couldn't help but dig into each. I even set up my efolio at http://paulbeckermann.efoliomn2.com/index.asp

I liked the picture tools a lot. I posted a couple of them on my blog. I could see putting them into school web pages. The only thing I didn't like about it was that the link back to the service's website would be visible. I'm not big on advertising on a school web site. We already have so much of that in school with pop machines, scoreboards, etc.

I like the eFolio, but I'm not sure how I'll use it. I could link it off of my teacher web page at school. I like it as a way to keep track of resume ideas in case I ever need an updated one. I know schools are more interested in using this as a resume device, which makes sense.

The tools in general are not hard to use, although each offers its own unique user interface. It takes a little while to get used to but not bad. I'm more concerned about remembering all these logins and passwords. I'm also not sure if I'll remember which site had which tool. There are so many! They are cool though.

One last thought: I'm beginning to think that 23 things on a stick is actually 230 things on a stick. Each "thing" has so many subparts to it!

Drumline Poster

2008-02-17T12:03:00.001-08:00

Drumline Poster
Originally uploaded by Paul Beckermann

This is a cool tool I can see using to make promotional materials at school.

Charger Thunder Home Show 2008

2008-02-17T11:44:00.001-08:00

Thing 7: Web 2.0 Communication Tools

2008-02-10T16:19:00.000-08:00

At this time, my library doesn't promote the use of email too much. Most of this is staff to librarian and not student to librarian. I've had a few student email me with questions, but they weren't solicited. It's something I may explore, although I may need to direct these to my para at the desk. I can hardly keep up with my emails the way it is with teaching so much and also trying to be technology coordinator for my building and running the media center. The only problem is that I'm not sure she'd be able to help with the online research questions.

IM would be a similar challenge. I'd probably need to train my para to do this. It seems kids text much more than IM now. That has really changed in the past 6 months. However, students are not allowed to use cell phones during class, and after school, there probably wouldn't be a reference person available to answer them. Kids do have IM access between classes, but that's a busy time for my para with passes and supervision. I think email would be the best unless we could set up some sort of integrated online chat within my web page, but again, time and training would need to be addressed.

Personally, I'm not a big IMer to text messager. My cell phone is a pay as you go unit, so texting is not economical. I have done IMs, but it's not my first choice. I'd rather email or call a person. I'll call if I want to talk now and email if the response can wait. A phone call is faster for me than IM and cuts down misunderstandings. The benefit of IM would be if it was a bigger group online at one time, sort of like a conference call. That would be OK. Texting is also slow for me, but my kids are addicted.

I checked out the OPAL on web conferencing. Actually, I've been involved in 3 web conference recently at school. One was for state online testing. One was for a testing diagnostic tool, and the third one was a training session on Moodle. I really like the web conferencing. It is saving us money with training too, which is nice. We plan to do some staff Moodle training with a webinar, and this will save us over $100.

I think with any of these, you need to pick your poison and go with it. Find what works for you and use it.

Thing 6: Trading Card

2008-02-10T11:44:00.001-08:00

Trading Card
Originally uploaded by Paul Beckermann

Here's my trading card. I liked the university use of them with the librarians being super heroes. However, I didn't see the options to make them as cool looking as they did. Maybe that was another template that I didn't see. I'll need to explore that some more. This could be a fun promotional tool. It could also be used in an English classroom to do Character trading cards when studying characterization.

Thing 5: Mashup Madness

2008-02-10T11:07:00.000-08:00

Here's my attempt to put in some lettering Mashup work from Flickr. I decided to put in my new band's name to see if I could find anything cool. It's not bad, but I'm not sure I'd actually use it. I have a question about copyright as well. I'm assuming that these are public domain, but you know what they say about assuming . . .

I could see using a mashup, but I doubt that I'd actually make one. I don't have the writing skills for that, and I don't have the time to invest in learning it. I tried the retriever tool too. That is interesting, but I'd say it's more for fun than usefullness. Possibly an art teacher could make use of it when study shape and color to make connections with otherwise unrelated objects in the world. It might be a fun study.

I like the idea of posting images online if you are willing to give up your copyright to them. Otherwise, it gets too dicy and confusing for users. I just ran into a pretty tech savvy person who had no idea images online were copyrighted. Things are so easy to do online that people feel that everything you "can" do is OK. That's where the education part of the equation comes into play, of course, but it's hard to find time in the teaching day to get all these in. I try, but I'm afraid that with our limited time, our students' knowledge of these things is also limited.

One more note on Flickr--We had a concert at our performing arts center last night with our high school band and Concordia College band sharing the stage. It was a wonderful show, and I posted a couple images from the show on Flickr, so the director could use them if he wanted to. That was one immediate use I found with it--an image sharing tool.

Here's my mashup.

Thing 4: Flickr

2008-02-09T13:52:00.000-08:00

I'm sort of a photo nut, so I found this to be fun. I felt a little restricted by the 100 mb limit on hosting space. That really doesn't allow for a lot of posting, certainly not if the images are print quality. For sharing online, I suppose you could get a couple hundred images out there, but print quality shots, you'd be lucky to host 25 or so. I understand why this is. Server space can get expensive, and they're giving this to us for free. I'm assuming there is a subscription upgrade, and that's how Library of Congress was able to upload more. I don't think I'll be throwing money into this, but it might be a neat way to share photos in a hurry.

As for a media center application, I could possibly see posting student work, but I think I'd opt for my local website first. We're also experimenting with Moodle, which is a more secure environment. I know I could restrict visibility on Flickr, but that sort of defeats the purpose in some ways.

I did really like the map feature. That was cool.

Let It Out CD Cover

2008-02-09T13:50:00.001-08:00

Let It Out CD Cover
Originally uploaded by Paul Beckermann

Here's my attempt at posting a picture from flickr to my Blogger blog. This is the cover of my 5th music CD. It's a self-portrait of my and my Gibson.

Thing 3: RSS Feeds

2008-01-26T18:32:00.000-08:00

This was very informative for me. Thanks for all the great links to tutorials and video clips. Those are awesome!

I did have an iGoogle account previously, so I used the Google Reader. It was a little short on directions, but not too hard to figure out.

I used a couple of the recommended feeds and added those to my list. There were some interesting ones regarding library media and library 2.0. For me, the key will be making this a habit. I need to develop a routine of visiting my Google Reader page to check these out each day. I'm not sure where I'll find the time. I realize that if it's important enough, I'll make time, but there are a LOT of important things for me to do each day. This will be my challenge.

At home, I tend not to use my iGoogle page as my home page. For one thing, my family doesn't like looking at my links. Second, it takes a lot longer to load on our connection. I may start using it more at school, however. Currently, my school page is my home page because that's where I have all my resources, but I may need to use this one too. Maybe I'll make iGoogle my home page in firefox and my school's page the default in Explorer.

I do like how easy it is to skim the headlines. It showed me quickly topics I was unaware of--like ebooks for cell phones. Interesting.

I do want to explore how to use iTunes to syndicate podcasts of our students and teachers. I'm not sure how that works. I know a local school uses it, and I think it could be a good tool. Otherwise, I'm not sure how I'd syndicate feeds of our own. Viewing others' feeds is one thing, but I'm also curious about how to set up a feed of my own.

Thing 2: Library 2.0

2008-01-26T17:27:00.000-08:00

I feel a little embarassed to admit that I hadn't heard of library 2.0 before. I'm well aware of web 2.0, but the library connection had escaped me. That being said, I have definitely been aware of the issues involved. More specifically, how do we bring the "interactive world of our students" to the educational setting?

I am in charge of upkeeping our school's website, so I have worked hard to make my media center page a useful place for kids to visit when conducting research. In fact, I've spent a lot of time and energy into embedding its use into many curriculum projects in our school. My goal is to get the best resources to the most kids as many times as possible, and I feel it is working pretty well. Our links to research databases are prominent on the media center page, and we encourage students to go to these places first and often. I've also added a series of other links including: class projects and resources, a virtual reference desk, teacher materials, subject area links and online books. I still have a ways to go in getting all these things utilized as much as I'd like, but I'm getting there.

The place where I feel the most need to improve is in the area of web 2.0 tools. I do not currently use blogs, wikis, etc. on my site, but I want to explore these options. Our school is currently planning to use Moodle for the first time. I'm excited about the interactive possibilities this tool presents, such as forums and chats. I'd also like to migrate to Follett Destiny, so we can make use of the review feature that I've heard is included. Students are used to being able to post their opinions about things in their social network settings. This would be a way to bring this to the OPAC stations. The cost has been a hinderance to this point, but I'm hopeful I can find a way to get there.

The part I struggle most with regarding library 2.0 is the balance between using these tools and keeping my patrons secure. In this age of information promiscuity, I worry about kids exposing too much of themselves on the web. Maybe my thinking is just outdated, but I feel we need to find a "safe" way to use these interactive tools. Moodle excites me because the interaction takes place behind a secure login. Each student would have a username and password. Some of the other free tools do not offer these measures.

I will definitely keep investigating these tools. I do want my media center to stay relevant with today's students, and I'm constantly reminded by my own teenaged children that the interactive web is where they live. The challenge is to find valid uses for these new tools, not just use for the sake of novelty.

Thing 1: Blogger

2008-01-21T19:20:00.000-08:00

This was not too difficult to set up. I had a little trouble with knowing what would appear as my identity at the top of the blog and which would appear in the URL. That part could have been clearer. It would be cool if you could enter into a screen that actually looked like the product you'd be creating, so it would be clear where everything would end up.

The Avatar was pretty easy too once I found the tabs for the clothing. For awhile, I thought I'd be stuck with the poker player guy. I'm not sure if it adds too much to the blog for me, but kids would probably get a kick out of it. It is safer than an actual photo, I suppose. It gives a little exposure to Avatars too since they're pretty popular with the kids.

I think a blog could be a good way to get out general musings on a subject. It could also be used as a message board, but I think the biggest problem would be to actually get people to read them. If no one reads them, then they are a waste of time. No one wants to waste time. I suppose this means a person would have to promote the blog, starting with a known audience like a staff of teachers or a body of students. I could possibly make a link from my main media center page to the blog. The advantage of that over just posting news on the media page would be the potential interactivity.

Secondly, the blogger would have to post something worthwhile or nobody would ever come back. As a high school media specialist, I could see blogging a research tip of the day or a website of the week. The blog could also serve as a newsletter in blog format. Allowing for responses would make it more interactive than a traditional newsletter which could be appealing to some.

I'll have to give this some time to see if I like it or not. I've never spent too much time with blogs, but I'm willing to give it a shot. I'm also going to post a picture of my media center on here to see how that works. That's it for now, I guess.

HS Media Man