Thing #23

Whew! Thing #23!

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? My favorite discovery was the Rollyo simply because it was the one tool I had honestly never even heard of before!

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? This program has made me actually put my hands on technologies I hadn't experimented before, and it made me think about real-world applicability of the different tools. By discovering how I could actually use the resources discussed, it made me take ownership of these tools and I feel confident I'll use them moving ahead.

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
The amount of Web 2.0 tools out there surprised me. Looking at the list of Award Winners was inspiring...albeit a bit overwhelming!

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? I really felt it was easily accessible as was. I know this program has been done a few times now, so I was unable to find any glitches aside from a couple broken links.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
Most definitely! I loved the learn at your own pace style and the fact that I was invited to actually play around with the tools!

How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities? An adventure in Web 2.0 tools that allows you to play while you learn!

Now go and comment on some of the other Players' blogs? Yes, I will!

Thing #22

Nings are the new wave! I love how the Ning combines blogs, wikis, Twitter, and so many other Web 2.0 tools into one! A Ning can be used by a group of librarians where each library has it's own page and can feature what their library is doing. Users could browse each other's pages and share professional ideas and discussion threads and communicate about each librarian's page and what's going on in each other's libraries. While many of the capabilities of a Ning are present in other Web 2.0 tools, the Ning has combined these capabilities into one neat package!

Thing #21

My two favorites: my son and my daughter!

PhotoStory is fun, easy, and extremely applicable to the library setting. From making booktrailers, to presenting research, to creating music videos, the kids will have a blast using this resource...and so will I!

Thing #20

As with many school districts YouTube is blocked for me, but the good thing is, you can still download and convert your videos using http://www.zamzar.com/. So, finding videos at home and converting them is always an option. TeacherTube is not blocked and is therefore useful in the classroom itself. Students can explore different topics and download videos. Teachers can also upload to TeacherTube and make their videos accessible to other teachers and students. Both offer a plethora of opportunities like finding information on topics being researched to pique student interest, the capability of having students "publish" their finished video projects, a resource to find book trailers to advertise books in the library, and much more.

Below is a booktrailer I found for the book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher.

Thing #19

DonorsChoose - http://www.donorschoose.org/teachers

I chose to explore the DonorsChoose website. This website is philanthropic in nature and allows you to post projects (similar to grants) where you explain what you'd like for your classroom, library, or other educational venue. Then you create a shopping cart so to speak filled with the materials. You can leave your project up for 5 months at a time. Donors then search and choose which projects to donate to. If you're lucky, your project is funded and you receive the requested items. You then provide thank you letters from yourself and students as well as pictures of the students using the materials you received. You don't pay anything for this service! It just takes a little bit of time! What a great way to get some much needed materials into the library! You could write grants for book club books, to bulk up a smaller section of the library, to receive decorating supplies to enhance the look and feel of the library, to get equipment in the library which the library budget can't cover. There are endless possibilities! Incredible! And highly useful as you aren't just applying for a single grant from a single organization, but you're putting your project out there for a multitude of people to review and choose whether they wish to fund it or not.

Thing #18

The great thing about both Open Office and Google Docs is the accessibility and the interactiveness of both. These are aspects completely missing in Microsoft Word which is neither free (and therefore less accessible) or interactive (you can produce a static project that could then be emailed and changed and emailed again and changed...and eventually you end up with multiple copies not knowing which is the most recent). A problem comes in the fact that Microsoft Word is so well-known and these two free alternatives are not. That means a learning curve would need to take place. As with all of these tools, playing around with them is necessary to encourage people to acutally utilize these tools and resources.

Thing #17

Rollyo is fun! I felt extremely cool making my very own search engine. I didn't even know this was possible. I love the idea that it is customized to me and I don't have to wade through so many irrelevant sites to find the one site I found useful before.

I created a searchroll for young adult series and authors. I often get questions in the library about what the next book in a series is or who the author of a series is or when the next book is coming out, so this makes it very easy for me to do a quick search!

http://rollyo.com/brightwt/book_series_and_authors/