Trading Card

The End

Wow, it was kind of fun to title this one The End. This has been quite a process for me. I'm not a big fan of technology because when it works, it's wonderful. When it doesn't work, it makes for a big headache. It was interesting to learn more about technology through this 2.0 project. I especially liked learning about Twitter. I don't think I'll use it much, but at least I get how it works now. I also liked learning how to add photos and videos. That will be very helpful in the future. What frustrated me about this project was that sometimes I spent a loooooong time trying to figure something out that was simple--I just couldn't figure it out without instructions. I think it would have been helpful to have more direction during the project. If Anne could have shown us how to do some of these things in class, it would have made it more fun for me to play around with them on my own instead of being so frustrated because I couldn't get it to work. This is one of those projects that I'm just glad is over. I did learn from it so in that sense, it was a good thing.

Book Genre Tag Cloud

Podcast

Technology is a big part of what we librarians do so I looked for a podcast related to that. I used epnweb.org to find one by the Technology Teacher. The podcast was about an earthday photo contest from NASA. Students were supposed to take a picture of some part of the earth that is changing. I like the idea because it gets kids interested in their environment and allows them to do a hands on activity. The podcast listed ways for classroom teachers of all curriculums to use the activity, but I thought it would be great to do for the library. I'm already picturing lots of cool photos all over my library next year. I'd heard podcasts were complicated, but I found I could find and listen to them easily.
http://www.mevio.com/episode/105460/016-www.techteacherlive.com-earth-day-photo-contest

Thailand Video

In the late 1980s I served a mission for the LDS Church to Southeast Asia. I lived in a small village about three hours south of Bangkok. Monday through Friday I taught English in a Vietnamese Refugee Camp and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I grew to love not only the Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees but also the Thai people who were my friends and neighbors. It was fun to find a video about school libraries in Thailand and that's why I chose it. I'm hoping to be able to go back to Thailand someday and when I do I will definitely check out the libraries.

Twitter

I first heard about Twitter from the Ellen show. She was really into it for awhile and kept encouraging viewers to read her tweets. I'm glad I was able to learn about it for this class, but it's just not something I will use a lot. I chose to follow NPR news, School Library Journal, and Borders. I've already received many tweets from Borders. As I read about school libraries it was kind of disheartening to read some tweets by teens who were dissatisfied with their libraries. They seemed to think they were lame. I guess we school librarians have to be vigilant about promoting our libraries and making them teen friendly. With that in mind I can see how using Twitter would be a fun way to let kids know about new books in the library, give a review of a book I've recently read, or reminding kids about book club. Maybe if I did that I wouldn't have any of my students tweeting about my library being lame.

RSS Feed

My RSS Feed Search subscription went really well. I was nervous that they said they had to verify my email address because I thought it might take them a day to get back to me with the link to click on for verification. It actually just took about ten seconds to get an email from them and the link worked immediately. I liked being able to sign up for the US News blog updates right away(I'm a news junkie). I really like Technorati best. It's really quick, user-friendly and I really like being able to see how many people liked it with the up arrows instead of the down arrows for negative responses. I tried topix.net and was annoyed with the pop-up advertisements. The layout was also "busy" with lots of information to sift through to get what I wanted. I also tried syndic8.com and it wasn't helpful at all. I searched for school libraries and only one entry popped up but I couldn't just click on it to open it. I just gave up on this one. I'm going to follow a couple of blogs. One is The Best of Pub Lib. The posts were recent and the topics were current. there were also a variety of topics all relevant to libraries. Another blog I'll follow is ReadySteadyBook. This blog had book reviews, interviews with authors, and titles of books. It will be fun to be notified of new posts to these blogs. Since I rarely have time to do a lot of surfing for information, it's nice to know I'll get regular updates without the extra time involved.

Library 2.0

Christopher Harris's article was really interesting. I totally agree that students need more than our traditional libraries. They do need "exciting activities" that will enable our school libraries to adapt to a new digital revolution. If we ignore all the new technology that's out there kids will be turned off and won't come. I love that students can use LibraryThing to create their own personal libraries. I want kids at my school to share book reviews on a blog or wiki--they would love that. A lot of kids would feel part of a digital community and would have conversations via technology that they wouldn't have had before. The part of his article that I totally disagree with is that teachers will bring thier classes to the library but that the librarian would be off doing something else. I value the job of librarian so much because of the interactions I have with students. Thier teachers don't have time to read all the books that I do and I'm the perfect person to help them in the library. I'm willing to use technology because I think it's great for kids and teachers, but not to the point that it replaces live contact with me.

Technorati

I usually search for blogs on google, but Technorati will be another fun way to search. I thought they could have some more categories. I'd like to see one on current events or what's happening in the news both on a local and national level. I also think education could be a great category, especially since budget cuts are looming from elementary schools to higher education. Schools could advertise what's going well or students could blog about their frustrations with rising costs. I got different results in my searching. I liked the results better when I searched the blogs. They were more relevant to what I was looking for (which was books). Blogs with booklists pulled up first which is just what I wanted. When I looked for books in blog posts, I got some obscure information (like individual schools with book fees). For me, I would probably search by blogs in the future because mainstream information comes up instead of random information.

Book Slideshow

Delicious

Delicious was kind of difficult to navigate through at first. There was a lot of information and I didn't find it overly user-friendly. After I was signed in and started playing around it got much better. I love looking at tags and having a bunch of wbsites pop up. I really like the feature of being able to see how many people liked a particular site. I found it saved me a lot of time to just go to the sites many people had bookmarked. I also really like that I can quickly bookmark sites and have a list on my screen for easy reference. This would be fun to include in my wiki for booklists for kids and easy references for teachers.

Library Thing

I loved the Library Thing website. It was really user-friendly and fun. I can see great use for it personally as a place to keep track of all the books I read. It also has great potential as a fun tool to let kids know what I'm reading. I could add a widget to my library wiki with my favorite books on it. I could also use it for the books kids love at my school. I love Library Thing!

Wikis

I have to admit I'd never even heard of a wiki before this class. After learning about them, I can see some fun possibilities for my library wiki. I really want to create a place for kids to be able to comment on books they are reading on their own and also books that we read in our bookclub. I've noticed during bookclub that some kids don't feel comfortable making comments. Being able to make comments on a wiki would be a great, safe way for them to express their opinions. A wiki will also be a great place for parents to find out what is happening in the library and what books kids are reading. I'm also going to include a place for teachers to get helpful websites related to their teaching and the curriculum. Let's hear it for wikis!

Sunset on Steptoe With Sunflowers

Sunset on Steptoe With Sunflowers
Originally uploaded by kevin mcneal

I love sunsets AND sunflowers!

Lecture Time / Love That Library

Lecture Time
Originally uploaded by Carlos Porto

This picture totally reminds me of the library at BYU. I can't even begin to count the number of hours I spent there, sitting at a table, with a book (or 10) propped open. I studied there, slept there (yes, I admit it), and waited anxiously for the Hawaii-Five-O them song to come on which signalled the closing of the library. Not only was it a relief to be able to go back to my apartment, but it was entertaining to watch the guys from my ward jump up on the tables and act like they were surfing--until a librarian would come around, make them stop, and escort them from the library. This picture brings back lots of great learning moments from my college library.

My Life-long Learning Habits

I've always loved learning and enjoyed going through the 7 Habits of Learning. I identified best with creating your own learning toolbox. I've had personal file cabinets forever and have a tendency to file articles I like, papers I've written for other classes, formal instructions on how to do things as well as informal post it notes with instructions. I view learning as a step by step process and file information on those steps. When I need to do a new task it's easy for me to retrieve the instructions or what I need to complete a new task. Creating a learning toolbox is easy for me because I tend to be really organized.
Another habit I find easy is to teach or mentor others. I've never had a problem sharing what I know with others and really enjoy teaching. I love being able to connect with other people or learners--it just comes naturally to me.
A learning habit that I struggle with is to view problems as challenges. I tend to just view problems as obstacles that stop my progress, not as hurdles to get over. I'm hoping somday I'll be able to change my mindset while doing research. I'd love to be the type of person who could see research as a fun challenge and a way to discover new information, instead of feeling frustrated when I can't find what I want or put it together well.
Maybe I just need to develop better research habits.