Reflection

My favorite 23 thing has been Facebook. The reason is that I am connecting with my former students at the Masonic Home and some of the teachers. Some of these students I have known since they were in Kindergarten. I am so proud of how they have turned out. Most of these students lived at the home because their parents could not provide for them. It is heartwarming to find out that they have overcome many obstacles.

My least favorite was the Instant Messaging because I do it at work but don't care about it at home. I do more at home than being on the computer, I love to read and garden.

I plan to use Library Thing in my library. I found another school that has students recommend books in the library and put them on Library Thing. This library has a link on their webpage for students to see Library Thing and what is being recommended. I will also use Google Docs in the library. I have an IGoogle account and create custom searches for teachers.

I also want to show teachers the Big Huge Labs website and Image Generators. I had not attempted these and do believe these sites will connect students with technology in lessons. This is another favorite of mine. Of course, best of all I can set up a blog and plan to have one in my 23 things.

Developing Your Own 23 Things

I have already begun developing a 23 Things for our district librarians. I am hoping I have permission to use this 23 Things as my guideline. Doing this has provided me with a plethora of knowledge in Web 2.0 technology. As a school librarian, one does not get with the outer world as much. We are usually in our own bubble. I love technology and want to get this out to others in our district.

I believe keeping up with technology will attact teachers to bring their classes to the library. We can aide both students and teachers with the new techology. I am certified in technology applications and find that students know they can come to me with help for various assignments. Librarians need to know technology in order to provide more connection with students. Technology changes quickly and I plan to keep up. Besides students think you are cool when you know this stuff.

Podcasts

I have listened to podcasts when I was taking classes through Region 11. I really do not like just listening on the computer and ipods were not invented then. I listened to some book talks on podcasts but I just don't like that there are no pictures, I prefer the book trailers. The students at my school are more visual with the video world and would prefer a video than a booktalk on a podcast.

We have used podcasts with classes when they presented a radio show. I know how to use Audacity and have used it for a radio show with music in the background. We used Audacity with our book trailers so students could remove the voice from the music or cut the music down to 30 seconds.

I really think our students would use the Voicethread. I am going to try it out with books next year. There is voice, text and visual. A variety of media will work with them. As I listened to the variety of podcasts available many were low in tone and I could not understand, but most were very good.

High school students at my school might enjoy making podcasts for classes but would not listen in the library unless it is an assignment. Podcasts would be useful for teachers to record lectures. Students who were absent could then listen to the lecture. As a librarian, it is important for me to know this technology to help the teachers and students. My goal this year is technology in the library.

YouTube

You Tube is blocked in our school district, it is understandable because of content on it. However, I do believe it can be used educationally. Students can create book trailers and post to YouTube or teachers can browse through the trailers for authors who talk about their books. As I librarian, I would aid teachers in locating these. One can use http://convert.playtube.com to convert YouTube videos to be show on windows media at school.

I browsed through Renaissance Music, clothing, etc. on YouTube and found a variety of videos teachers may want to use when studying the Renaissance. Even better, let students have a project to create videos for the classroom assignment. As a school librarian, I work with teachers to provide create outlets for the students and this is an alternative. Many other subjects are on YouTube, such as the President of the United States speeches.

Of course, as fun, my grandson and I attended the Jonas Brothers concert in Dallas so we can relive it watching some of the YouTube videos.

Google Docs

I have been using Google Docs for one year. We have used it in the district when librarians were needing to know who had books, for a teacher. We could share a document and show how many we each had. I use it with my library assistant to share documents. I created a series book list and add to it frequently. My aide can check it out if she is helping a student who is looking for certain series we have and the order the series come out. Ex: Harry Potter series

I have shared Twilight questions, inventory, Graphic Novels and various booklist with my aide. She also adds to what I have. We love using Google Docs!

Wiki Page

Here is the link to my wiki page: http://dfw23things.wetpaint.com/page/Kathy+N

I found it easy to add except that when I wanted to add pages to my own, I had to make sure they were not named like others on the wiki.

The librarians use a Wiki in my district. We put together a newsletter for the district and have helpful information on it. We use the pbwiki.

LibWorm

I looked up my school on the website but it only came up with Grand Prairie Public Library, an ad for a librarian. The one thing I noticed on LibWorm's feed is that many are older and the link may have been broken. I was interested in a newsfeed about a girl who paid a fine for $620.00; however, the link was broken, then I looked and the story came out in 2007. One really needs to watch the dates of the feeds.

I really enjoyed reading an article on bing.com and have added the feed to my Google Reader. I also have added a feed to my Google home page on search watch blog. I found an article on bing.com and tried out the selection engine. I do like that this site is about libraries and believe it will guide me to some interesting information. This is a favorite.

Library Thing

I have just signed on to Library Thing and have really enjoyed looking at the groups, blogs, etc. I placed several of my own books on my collection as well as those I have been reading this summer from my library. It will take a while but I plan to put my books it. I have never looked at all of my home collection before. I especially like that I can place those I have read but do not own. I checked out the Library Things with Librarians and looked at suggestions for books to read instead of Twilight. I do believe this will be especially useful in my library. I also like to tag with my own keywords because Library of Congress and I sometimes do not mesh. Again it is just a matter of time to get all of the information in. What a great way to keep up with ongoing conversation between readers!

I almost forgot, check out their great page where you can try to get free books. I will check it out frequently. Today most were already full. I have emailed my aunt, an English teacher, about this site. What a great resource for English teachers!

Digg

Okay I will have to admit that there is not enough time in the day to get to all of this stuff I am learning. I think Digg is cool and would use it for news stories or just to look up various subjects. Since I saw the Jonas Brothers this weekend with my family, I did a search on them. I found more information than I really needed to know. The obscure stories are understandably the most interesting - naked man stuck in dryer. I will show this cite to our students (if not blocked). I think it will be a great read for them - we try to get our students to read. I am going to add to my Delicious bookmarks.

Delicious

I have really been wanting to use Delicious. The site is blocked at our school so I have been placing my bookmarks on GoogleDocs. I will slowly put them on Delicious and see if I can get our tech people to unblock the site. This is so helpful because I come across many websites for teachers and can now bookmark them. It will help with library sites and help me to keep up with all of the sites I use.

Here is the link to my site on Delicious:
http://delicious.com/kanichols

Tagging

I think tagging is a good thing and can be used in the library. Library of Congress has subject headings that many people do not think about - example: cookery - our students think of cookbooks. Language has changed and we need to keep up with everyday language that will encourage young people to use the library and find information quickly. I believe that tagging can complement the Library of Congress subject headings and help in locating information. It also would make sense to the person who is searching.

Twitter

I have had a Twitter account since January 2009. One of the middle school in our district allowed the students to Twitter the presidential election so I signed up to follow them. I do not get on Twitter everyday but do like the social network.

I follow several authors, google, Anderson Cooper, some bands and some friends. I have posted several times. Today I went to the settings and changed my background and checked on some of the postings. Again with summer and my schedule I have not been on it. However, my brother and I have sent messages to one another when his horse was born. He also posted a picture.

Today I also posted on picture on Twitter.

My name on Twitter is: kmnichols

Instant Messaging

Because I have a Yahoo account, I already have access to their Instant Messenger. I will not post my user name because I do not want my email on my blog. I really will not use Instant Messenger at home. I do not stay on the computer enough to use it.

However, I do use Grand Prairie ISD's Instant Messenger at school. It is worthwhile in a school environment. I have teachers who IM me about sending students to the library, asking various questions, or just connecting with me during their break. I see a need for IM in the school setting. I have been able to answer a variety of questions and it can be used throughout our district. The only problem I have had is forgetting to write something down because their is not a history on it.

I am in charge of setting up Blackboard and had an administrator IM me some information to place on it. Oops, I got busy forgot to write down the information, clicked off and had to email her for the information again. The district is changing our IM next year, so hopefully there will a history tab.

Ning

I chose to look at Ning and not create an account. I may create one in the future. I did locate the ALA and truly enjoyed two videos: "I've Been Everywhere" on the American Libraries magazine and the ILS song. These videos show the personalities of librarians and we are fun. It was overwhelming with all the information, blogs, groups, etc.

I also enjoy gardening and found a wonderful site on Ning by searching gardening, gardenersindex.com. I plan to visit that site quite often and it may be the reason why I end up signing up. There were great video tips. Did you know you can sprinkle garlic around your garden and it will repel mosquitoes for about 20 to 30 days? Yes it works according to Howard Garrett and he is a reputable gardener.

In my opinion, there are so many social network sites with little time to go on them. I think I will have to decide which ones will benefit me the most. I worry about the privacy issue with Ning, so as long as I can go one without being a member, I will avoid joining.

Facebook and Connections

I am so glad I am participating in the North Texas 23 Things because I now have connections through Facebook with several of the Masonic Home students I taught and worked with in the past 13 years. It is exciting to connect with those you have not heard from and know how they are doing. The Masonic Home closed so contact was lost with those students. Facebook is great in connecting people.

More Facebook

I now see why things cannot get done throughout the day. There is so much to do on the computer. I added a link to what I was thinking. One of my favorite links for series books is http://www.bettendorflibrary.com/bpl-bin/series.pl. So I placed that on my Facebook. I use it to keep us with all the books coming out in the young adult series.

I have joined three groups: ALA, TLA and Organic Gardening. I love to garden and for the past 3 years have been using organic materials in my yard as well as garden. Currently I am growing organic tomatoes and lettuce. Yum! Maybe the organic gardening will have some great tips. I have been on this computer for way too long and must get away for now. For all my groups, I will check back later to see what they are doing and if anyone has accepted me as their friend.

Facebook

Today, I am now on Facebook. It made me nervous to put myself out there on the Internet where others can see. I put limited amount of information on it. I really am a person who does like to keep her personal life quiet. I did put my education and interests plus a picture. As I get more comfortable I may add more.

I have invited my brother to be my friend. He has been wanting me to get a Facebook account so I can speak to him. We do twitter messages. He has told me how he is connecting with friends from school. I am still concerned about who is out there.

I really think today's generation puts way too much information out for others to know. Could too much information hurt a person? Online social networking may be great but in school we are observing how our students do not have the social skills of older adults. So many are texting or just using social network sites that they do not have a great deal of face-to-face contact. I wonder what this generation will be like as they grow into adults and how they will deal with face-to-face confrontations or interactions.

Blog Readers and RSS Feeds

I am putting these together. I have added the Google Reader to my IGoogle and have put North Texas 23 and my blog on it. I found it to be very easy and like that it is in my IGoogle account. It is important to me to have my materials in one place. I have docs, blogger, reader and my customer searches all in one spot. I am showing students how they can also keep their information in one spot.

I have added a couple of RSS feeds to my reader. I have seen those on web pages but did not pay much attention to it. Now I know what to do. I am going through my "favorites" at work to see which ones I might add. It will be advantageous to have access to these websites in one spot. With so much information coming through the Internet, it is getting overwhelming to keep up with everything. Having the Google programs allows easy access and a one-stop place for me to find important information. I have begun sharing programs through IGoogle with my assistant. I am excited to be able to show her the Google Reader now so we can share information as well as with documents.

Image Generators

This was fun. I immediately was able to understand and create the poster. I am looking at all the websites for image generators and it is almost overwhelming. I am wondering what is the most popular with schools. I do like the website http://copyrightfriendly.wikispaces.com/Image+generators+and+clipart which will give teachers a choice in various projects. The problem is getting this information to teachers who are so overwhelmed with everything they are doing. I think students will be more engaged when using these sites.

Flickr Mashups

Oh my! I did not know there was so much out there. One could spend day after day on these. I enjoyed the spell with Flickr but could not figure out how to save the image. I saw how you could add it to a web page but was not sure if that would work on a blog. Oh but now I see edit html. Okay I am going back to try it.




I did it!



Alright now I loved going to The Captioner. I cannot wait to show this to our students. Students could use this with art projects. Students will use critical thinking skills to create the captions.This is easy to use and I hope to show the special education students a fun project.

Well in a few days I will be creating my flickr account so I can create more things. The suduko will also be good for teachers to use with students or just for fun in the library. Young people are so smart they will glide through these activities.

Flickr

We use Flickr in my school. Students go to http://creativecommons.org/ and check mark "search pictures they can modify, adapt or build upon." The pictures are quite different and more interesting than those on Yahoo or Google images. Most students love looking at them and using them in projects.

I chose to look at high school libraries but became uninterested when there were just a bunch of pictures of building a library or problems with building one. Since I love gardening I moved on to "flower gardens." The pictures were wonderful and many took me away. I plan to take picture of my garden once it is complete and upload to Flickr. Until then here is a link to one picture I liked: http://www.flickr.com/photos/encouragement/133130162/

I now have a Flickr account. For my school district, I just took an online PD Point class on Flickr. My name is Lemon Meringue Pie. I posted pictures of my garden and Christmas tree. For the class, I had to modify one picture and place notes on a picture. I loved working on Flickr and will continue to upload. I learned about the copyright and how to teach students to cite the pictures. Check out my pictures on Flickr.

Web 2.0

I work at a high school library. The district blocks many of the Web 2.0 sites; however, I am planning to promote Google Docs with our teachers next year. I would like to promote peer-writing and editing witht the teachers and students. Many students do not have Microsoft and can use this at home.

This year I have promoted Shelfari and students have created accounts and added friends.

I hope to promote Twitter also for assignments.

The Web 2.0 should engage students in learning more than notetaking on paper.

Many of our students are low income and it is essential to allow them to have opportunities that they might not have at home (no Internet). As I learn the 23 Things, I will be thinking how each one can be integrated at our school.

My First Blog

I have just created my first blog. How many older adults are having to learn this Web 2.0 to keep up with the younger generation? This is going to be fun.