#23 Reflection-

This was an incredible experience. It was fun and very worthwhile.
My most favorite thing was creating a Wiki. I didn't know anything about Wikis or how to create one but it was interesting to see the heirarchy of the pages. My least favorite thing was Instant Messaging because I just used my Yahoo account but no one was on the computer when I was to instant message. I think most of the students use texting instead.

The most challenging thing was Facebook. It was the most time consuming thing for me and I feel like I have only scraped the surface to maneuvering around it. However for me it was a worthwhile experience because I really needed to get my page set up and this gave me an excuse to do it.

I learned that if I have the time, I can pretty much figure out what to do on all of these things but the real test comes in using the 2.0 tool. This really boosted my self esteem and I was exposed to many tools such as Ning and Library Thing that I never knew existed.

I will definitely have the reading teachers in my school set up a blog for their students to post comments to. I will also use the Image generators and bookmark in Delicious more often. Now I understand RSS feeds alot better and will check my Google reader frequently. This was a worthwhile project and I will use the technology I learned.

Another aspect I really liked was having a mentor. Any time I had a question, my mentor responded very quickly so I didnot feel alone. I also enjoyed the comments posted after each thing and this sometimes provided helpful tips when completing that thing.

Thanks to all who rounded up the resources for this project and I'm sure there will be more Web 2.0 tools to come.

#22 Developing Your Own 23 Things

I have thought how I could implement this at my school. Most of the staff are not librarians but teachers so the "things" would help them implement these tools with our students. I went through the list of 23 Things and I would have them do at least 10 of the things plus I would add a book trailer thing. I would have them set up a blog just like 23 Things did and then post their projects to their blog. Our Library Director did something similar and we had 6 lessons to work through each resulting in a project. We did Google Docs, Shelfari, Animoto, Creative Commons, Delicious, and Podcasting. The projects were ones I could use with our students. I know this can be adapted to a school environment very easily. Is it possible to copy some of the 23 Things Lessons so I won't have to reinvent the wheel?

Our students are already using these Web 2.0 tools so it is very important that we as librarians become proficient in using them. Our reading teachers are wanting our students to blog their responses to books they've read. These type of assignments help engage the students and promote critical thinking. So to the teachers I day Web 2.0 ready or not, here we come.

#21 Podcasts

I listened to three podcasts.
County of Los Angeles Public Library Teen Podcasts- Volume was not loud enough. Lots of popping noises. The content was targeted to teen readers. There were book talks and recommendations. Content was great as students were doing the talking.

Boulder Public Library- Teen Webcasts- This was a news cast given by teens. Sound quality was good although there was lots of popping.This was top news stories given by teens from Boulder High School.

From Education Podcast Network, I listened to What is Romantic Love? There was a fuzzy noise in the background but sound quality was good. This was a series of podcasts based on a book.

I would not subscribe to any of these podcasts. I don't think there is a big demand for podcasts in middle school because the students would much rather watch a video than listen to a podcast. I think the application would be to let the students create a podcast for a project or possibly to do a playlist for a book.

#20 You Tube

I watched the following videos
Shout It Out For Your Library- A campaign to keep libraries open targeted to the New York City Library and sponsored by celebrities such a Bette Midler, Amy Tan, and Jeff Daniels. This video was geared more to Public Libraries but is great for advocacy.

A Vision of Students Today- The impact of technology on students today. This video gives facts about the amount of technology ie: facebook, Google Docs, cell phones, that students use every day. Does this prepare them for the future? This is an excellent video. It features college students but would be great for Academic Libraries or even to show to High School libraries.
A Vision of K-12 Students- same concept only the video uses younger students. This is a great video to show teachers in a K-12 school.

Book Trailers- I typed in YA book trailer and got alot of results. I watched Cynthia Leitch Smith's Eternal and Neil Gaiman's Graveyard. These really help promote reading to students. We can also use them as examples for students to create their own book trailer on a book they've read.

I really enjoyed this alot and found videos that I will use with my students and faculty. The videos I watched were effective and all of them can promote the use of the library either through reading books or promoting information literacy. The K-12video on technology will be perfect to show the faculty during my orientation.

You Tube is a great resource for my middle school library. I will use it more this upcoming year.

#19 Google Docs

I used Google Docs before and really like it. The purpose I use it for is to build bibliographies among my colleagues on different genres for YA Literature. This time I started a bibliography on Urban Fiction and sent it to one of my MS librarians. I will send it to more people later. I also looked at some of the templates which is a new feature. This was awesome to see some of the ways to use Google Docs. You can even search the templates.

I would like to see some examples of how to use the form since I have never used this document before. I have also been a collaborator on a presentation. This is a way cool 2.0 tool!

#18 Wikis

I really enjoyed creating a wiki and now can get a feel for the difference between a website and a wiki. I looked at the New Moon Movie article on Wikipedia and could see the revisions and history. I think it is very exciting that there can be more than one editor. When creating my wiki, I accidentally added 3 pages by mistake and then could not change the title to say what I wanted. Other than that it was very easy. I never knew I could actually make a Wiki. This was way cool!

#17 LibWorm

I really enjoyed this thing. LibWorm is a very handy search tool to find library RSS Feeds. By keyword, I searched Urban Fiction and Young Adult Literature. I got thousands of results. I then searched by Feed Categories and found School Libraries on the list. I found a very interesting MTV Blog that informed me that President Barack Obama's daughters are reading the Twilight series. When I searched videos under the subjects I found the same MTV blog. There are cross postings betweem topics.

When I used "faculty collaboration" in the exact phrase search, I got a lot of results and read a very informative blog on how to incorporate lessons with teachers. I enjoyed using all of these different methods to search but liked keyword the best.

I know I will use this tool again to find resources and I may possibly subscribe to a feed with my Google Reader.