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