2 Roads Taken

week nine (finale)

2007-08-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

This type of instructional programming is fantastic! I really enjoyed going through the exercises and learning a lot of the different things that were presented. I would suggest adding a video component (not You Tube per se), but one on creating your own videos. I can see many areas for this need: textbook check out, library procedures, library orientation, etc...

One sentence: You haven't lived until you're in the Web 2.0 world.

I would definitely participate in more of these types of activities.

week nine (c)

2007-08-23T13:26:00.000-07:00

Pretty cool: eBooks. I wonder if you can download these books into your iPod?

week nine (b)

2007-08-23T13:22:00.000-07:00

Podcasts: I think a neat feature for schools that employ podcasts are the daily bulletins that are read. Having a podcast of this would keep parents more informed of what is happening at the school.

week nine (a)

2007-08-23T13:02:00.001-07:00

Sure enough, instead of looking for productive videos on the topic at hand, I started looking for music videos. Here's a song that's so kewl:

week eight (b)

2007-08-23T12:49:00.001-07:00

Library Thing: Site is very slow. Will have to come back to it later. Tested out one book, and it took forever.

week eight (a)

2007-08-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

Tried both Zoho and Google Docs. Created accounts for both, and I think it's really cool. If we can get ourselves over the digital divide nationally, I can see these types of online software to very beneficial to students. I used to have students who would come to school with their research reports typed on a specific word processing software only to find out the school did not have their particular software with which to open the file. Zoho and Docs would certainly eliminate this problem.

week seven

2007-07-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

I really like the curriculum idea of note taking and wikis. Students who are absent from a class can access these notes. The teacher can review these notes to make sure students are taking the correct notes so they are learning the correct materials. I had tried a wiki with a group of friends. We were planning a dinner, and I used the wiki to see who wanted to go, where they wanted to go, and the time and date they were available. It worked out really well because everybody was able to post to it, thereby taking the middle man (me) out of the process of having to organize the event.

week six (c)

2007-07-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

I couldn't agree more with Rick Anderson's assessment:

"We need to focus our efforts not on teaching research skills but on eliminating the barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need, so they can spend as little time as possible wrestling with lousy search interfaces and as much time as possible actually reading and learning. Obviously, we’ll help and educate patrons when we can, and when they want us to, and the more we can integrate our services with local curricula, the better. But if our services can’t be used without training, then it’s the services that need to be fixed—not our patrons. One-button commands, such as Flickr’s “Blog This,” and easy-to-use programs like Google Page Creator, offer promising models for this kind of user-centric service."

I've always had a problem with certain "library skills" that would become outdated within a year or two, such as using one search engine that is only available in one district or one school setting to find materials. When the student moves on to the next level in his/her education, they may encounter an entirely different search engine, with different icons, different ways of presenting its search results, etc... I would rather focus on making the "sources" we have easily accessible without more than 3 minutes worth of manipulating it and knowing how to use it in the general sense.

http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/2.htm

week six (b)

2007-07-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

Tagging reminds me of all the terms associated with the current generation (Gen X, Y, Z, 1.5): non-conformity. I think it's pretty cool because it allows for a creative thinking process. Some of these tags reflect a stream-of-consciousness process, and what may be a thought for one person may not be for another. But then the web belongs to the world and not just an individual.

week six (a)

2007-07-16T14:42:00.000-07:00

De.li.cious: There's definitely potential to use this tool to help students research. But I think we really need to concentrate on a paradigm shift in education, where staff development and tools like this are not teacher focused but student focused. For example, instead of the librarian, in collaboration with the teacher, bookmarking sites that may be useful to students in their research, the students should explore and create a compilation of these bookmarks for themselves to use and for future generations of students who may enroll in the same class.

week five (c)

2007-07-15T23:38:00.000-07:00

I can see many uses for Rollyo, especially for classes coming in the library to conduct research on a particular topic. It's almost creating a cart of books for students to use, but these books have been prescreened to be age and content appropriate. I created a search for "education jobs in California." Hope this helps others.

week five (b)

2007-07-15T22:44:00.001-07:00

Web 2.0 Award Winners:

I thought these sites were rather "kewl":

(1) Omnidrive: One can actually store up to a gig of info on the web and be able to access that data anywhere using a browser.

(2) LinkedIn: Professional networking site focusing on education and industry backgrounds.

(3) Pandora: Music site. Type in your favorite song, and app looks for similar songs to play. Really awesome!! I am definitely bookmarking this one.

week five (a)

2007-07-15T22:37:00.000-07:00

Created using

Image created using Comic Strip Generator:

http://comicstripgenerator.com

Created using

week four (b)

2007-07-15T22:29:00.000-07:00

The most interesting blog search engine I came across was Google's. I had typed in new cars for my search term, and the first blog that appeared was "Used cars." Go figure!

week four (a)

2007-07-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize that a real estate bubble web site I had been reading for the past several months was actually created using google's blogging software. The possibilities for blog use, I would imagine, are endless. English teachers can use blogs to replace the paper and pencil journal writing. Any assignment that requires a process can use blogs as records of that process; students can simply write what they did at what stage and who did what (science projects, economic games that include stock purchases). More importantly, the results of these decisions can be recorded for others to analyze and metacognate.

week three

2007-06-29T14:29:00.000-07:00

At first, I thought Flickr was rather mundane, and I still do. However, the programming that others have applied to it are awesome. I especially like the trading card concept. I can see that being used in the library as a business card that not only has a picture of the library staff but also information on hours of operation, various software subscriptions with their passwords for students to access from home, and brief library policies (overdue fines, number of books students can check out, etc...). It's too bad the site does not offer two-sided cards, or else it'll really be spectacular.

week two

2007-06-26T00:16:00.000-07:00

I have heard of blogging for quite some time, but haven't had the time to set up one. This part of the project was really "kewl." However, I was a bit disappointed by blogger's lack of interface changes and its limited template selections. Of course, I can't complain too much since it is free for all to use.

week one (b)

2007-06-26T00:12:00.000-07:00

"Life-Long Learners"

It's a rather obvious presentation, but I see good use for it in an AVID class or one focusing on study skills. Definitely have to check into the "Articulate Powered Presentation" software used to create this piece. I wonder how closely related it is to PowerPoint and how user friendly it is.

week one (a)

2007-06-26T00:04:00.000-07:00

This project is the best stuff yet I've seen from CSLA. I like the self-paced, trial and error learning process. I am hoping CSLA will leave this as a resource on the web site so that I can use it later on to train library staff and students; it would be a great complement to any library wishing professional growth for its personnel.

a new day

2007-06-25T23:22:00.000-07:00

"The Pasture" (Stanza I)

I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;

I'll only stop to rake the leaves away

(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):

I sha'n't be gone long. You come too.

--Robert Frost