Reflection

I really enjoyed this whole course. I learned so much! I think one of my favorite things to learn about was Flickr. I'm a scrapbooker, so I was interested in all the tools for use with photographs. It was a lot of fun playing with some of them! I had also thought about writing a blog. Now I feel confident that I can do that, and I know all the basics for getting started. Delciious was another favorite. My least favorite thing was probably Digg. I don't see a lot of use for it in my job, and I don't really have time for it. Some of the technical information presented in the "things" was challenging for me to understand. I still don't understand RSS feeds.

I learned so much about so many ways to communicate via the web. I knew there were a lot of ways to communicate, but I didn't know the half of it. I was amazed at the creativity of people all over the world and overwhelmed by the amount of information that is available at my fingertips. I would like to use Delicious this year with fellow librarians and even parents and kids. I would also like to use podcasting and YouTube (if it's not blocked) with the kids.

All in all, this has been a great experience. You made it fun and attractive by letting us know that we could "play" for 15 minutes a day and learn at the same time. Although I spent a lot more than 15 minutes on each thing, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you very much!

My Own 23 Things

Since I am the only staff person in my school library, I would use this program with the teachers and staff at my school. In fact, I've shared a little about it on Facebook and have already had two people ask if I would teach them something about Facebook and YouTube. Teachers are interested in being technologically savvy, and it is my job to help them as much as I can.

I feel that this was a very important class for me to take and one that will be useful to me in the future. One other librarian from my school district took this class, and we will probably encourage all of the librarians in our district to sign up for it. We've thought about creating one for our district librarians. We could adapt it to include using flip cameras and Flickr, digital projectors and videostreaming, scanners, etc. or the free databases available through Region XI. It could include anything they are interested in that would help them become better communicators and teachers.

Since I am not an upfront type of person, I like the idea of teaching the class via the web. But then again, I guess that's the whole point--using the web to communicate!

Podcasts

Although I have an IPod, I did not know much about podcasting. This was a good "thing" to learn about. I listened to several booktalks from Nancy Keane's website called "Booktalks Quick and Simple." They lasted less than a minute each, but I thought they were a little boring. They did not really make me want to read the books. I think podcasting could be a good tool for booktalks though. You could make it exciting for the kids. It is something I might like to try this year. The audio quality was excellent!

I found another podcast site called "TechTeacher." I did subscribe to that one because it had some very good information on it about all things tech and teacher-related. I couldn't figure out how to get the player on my blog, although the instructions were there. Maybe I'll work with it later and see if I can find the spot to add the html stuff. I subscribed on a biweekly basis via email. I'm looking forward to listening to these podcasts this year. I think they will be very helpful. The audio was clear and the speaker held my attention.

I went to the DeKalb County Public Library's website and found their podcasts. They also had a YouTube video on their page that explained podcasting. It was very good.

I'm not sure yet how much lower elementary grade students would use podcasting, but it might catch on. Ebooks and podcasts would be great things to have for long vacation trips on the car or on a plane. They would probably be interested in podcasts by their favorite teen idols--Miley Cyrus, etc. or in podcasts about their favorite sports teams. It will be interesting to see how podcasts are used in public elementary schools in the future.

YouTube

Wow! There are so many creative people out there!

I watched several videos that I found on a blog called "Best of Library Videos." My favorite was one called "Thank You Note." If you haven't ever seen it, it's worth watching. It's the story of how going to the library influenced someone's life. Very inspiring!

YouTube can be used for so many things. Some of the videos I saw could be used for recruitment ("Work @ Your Library PSA"), inspiration ("Thank You Note"), new ideas and innovations ("Mindspot the Movie: The Library as a Universe"), and more. The possibilities are endless! Some of them were quite effective.

One school made YouTube videos for National Library Week. I thought that was a great idea. You can use YouTube for booktalks or to make announcements or to share author or research information. What can't you do with YouTube?

You can also share the videos on Facebook. I did that with a couple of them. My favorite YouTube video of all time is called "Annoying (but very funny) mom sayings." If you're a mom and want a good laugh, you'll enjoy this video even though it's not school-related.