Library Learnings

Dragonfly Lifecycle Video

2009-09-25T20:05:00.000-07:00

Week 9 Discoveries (Thing 23)

2009-08-05T20:26:00.001-07:00

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
There were a few weeks in which I couldn't figure something out. As I proceeded through the weeks, I would learn something and could go back to a previous post and make additions/changes. This happened with Rollyo. I wanted to post the search box into my blog, but couldn't figure it out. When I worked through the YouTube exercise and added a video, I went back to Rollyo and was able to post it as well. It seemed if I kept returning to things that confused me, eventually I could figure them out.
I used YouTube quite a bit to watch tutorials to figure out how to use various tools. I think this is one of the biggest things that will stick with me. If I am stuck or need a basic overview of a particular tool, I can search to find tutorials to help.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
I feel like it has been difficult over the past few years to participate in staff development because I have a 3 year old and 1.5 year old at home. I have been wanting to learn more. I saw a two day course on Flip cameras that I was interested in, but don't have daycare during the summer. Participating online during hours that worked for me (nap time) was exactly what I needed. It has also sparked me to begin thinking about the upcoming year and how to incorporate more 2.0 tools into my life and my teaching. I am still thinking about what is appropriate for the elementary school level. I would love to have more conversations about this.

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I don't think I knew exactly what web 2.0 is or how HUGE web 2.0 is. I still have some uncertainty about the way many things are positioned due to their popularity. There could be quality research hiding...

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
I would like to see more classroom applications of various tools at all levels. Concrete examples how some librarians/teachers are using various tools would help me envision possibilities that might work for me.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? Yes.

How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote CSLA learning activities?
Challenging and gratifying.

Week 9 Ebooks (Thing 22)

2009-08-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

When I was working on my library credential at SJSU, I had an assignment to read an ebook. This was my first and last experience with ebooks until now. I don't remember what I read. I think I downloaded it from a Los Angeles public library. Reading on screen took some getting use to.

I looked at LibriVox and my public library catalog. I found it a little difficult to search for books. I think the biggest reason I had trouble was I didn't have a particular title in mind. Browsing isn't really that easy. I tried numerous titles, but there seems to be a limited offering of ebook titles.

One of our parents at school came into the school library with a new Kindle. She was so excited! I had a hard time being excited for her. However, I read a blog post from a middle school librarian who thought it would be a great tool for students to carry their textbooks, instead of lugging all those books around. In my mind this would be an excellent use for a Kindle.

Audio ebooks would be good tools for both ELL and resource students. One of the titles our fifth grade teachers read every year is My Brother Sam is Dead. This is a difficult title for many students, but it wasn't offered as an ebook. Audible.com has a good selection of children's books, but it is $7.50 per title. I will have to explore audio ebook sources more.

Students at my elementary school love books-on-tape. I now provide portable tape players for students to check out because many children don't have a way to play tapes at home anymore. I'm not exactly sure where I am going to go with this collection: Books on CD, Play Aways, ... , but it seems like audio ebooks may fit some where.

Week 9 Podcast (Thing 21)

2009-08-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

I thought Podcast.com was the most user-friendly directory out of the ones I previewed. I subscribed to two NPR shows: Terry Gross' Fresh air and StoryCorps. I was also able to add my podcast page to Bloglines.
The most useful piece for me was the Educational Podcast Directory. There was a link for Elementary School Podcasts that illustrated the possibilities for me. I worked with a second grade teacher who wanted to try podcasting with his class: interviewing older generations and having students draw comparisons about life then and now. I didn't know enough. I still don't know exactly how to orchestrate a podcasting project with kids, but I would love to try.
Last year one of the fifth grade teachers at my school did an oral history project with kids. She received a grant to buy the equipment she needed. The students interviewed immigrants to the United States. I believe they created short videos, but this could also work as a podcast. I'll have to keep my ears open this year and see if I can get my hands into a project. We are still on a fixed schedule in the library, so seeing classes once a week doesn't really allow the time needed to assist students through projects. I fit in a lesson here and there and most of the work is done in the classroom or at home.

Week 9 YouTube (Thing 20)

2009-07-31T20:14:00.000-07:00

I have spent too much time on YouTube! I started with Sesame Street, ABC Songs, the Wiggles and everything that caught my 3 year old's interest. We do not have a TV at home and she was very interested. Then I started searching under current news stories. I also found and watched Michael Wesch's "An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube" presented to the Library of Congress in 2008. I knew YouTube was huge, but he said over 9000 hours of video are uploaded each day. He also showed how videos can connect people all over the world. I learned the term, "vlogs." I was amazed at the YouTube home page, dividing videos into categories, even displaying ones that were being watch at a particular moment in time. While the majority of YouTube users are between the ages of 18 and 25, the videos show people of all ages.

I work in an elementary school, so I searched for book reviews, information literacy, and lessons that would be appropriate for a younger crowd. I read about King County Library's teen program, Read. Flip. Win., in a School Library Journal and looked up 2009 entries to watch. Above is a video introducing the project and showcasing the winners for summer 2008.

Throughout the 23 things, I have been watching videos by the Common Craft Show giving Explanations in Plain English. I really like watching these for basic background. I was looking ahead to Podcasting and went right to YouTube to watch "Podcasting in Plain English." I think YouTube will become my source for "how to" videos for technology.

Week 8 Library Thing (Thing 19)

2009-07-28T14:28:00.000-07:00

I tried to add a variety of genres to my Library Thing list. The adult novels seemed pretty popular. The children's novels were less so and the educational title only had 15 other readers.
As I added tags to the titles on my account, I felt like I should be a little more thoughtful. I typed in the keywords that popped into my head. I thought I should be more systematic by thinking of genres or books that I would like grouped together.

We have a teacher summer book club at my school and we decided to read, Teaching with Intention by Debbie Miller. I noticed David Loertcher was one of the members who read this book and was curious to read his review. It was not very favorable. The school library, library teacher, technology are all absent from Miller's book. From the comment I clicked over to Dr. Loertcher's library. It was fun to look through his titles and than to look for other name I recognized.

I am amazed at all that is connected in this site: reviews, recommendations, discussions, public libraries, book sellers...

Week 8 Zoho Writer (Thing 18)

2009-07-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

Below is a document, Summer Reads, that I created in Zoho Writer and posted to my blog. I also made it a read/write document and shared it with the other librarians in my district.
I found Zoho Writer very similar to Google docs. It took a little while to figure out how to share the document. I spent some time looking at the templates that are available to use. I think these are great in Google docs. One of my colleagues used one of the templates to assess 6th graders \ and the template helped analyze each answer by putting it in a pie chart and figuring how many students got various questions correct, etc. It looked pretty cool. I would like to try more templates and really survey the teachers that I work with and find out how I can help them better.
The great thing about Zoho Writer is being able to work offline and sync the changes later. I also really liked the speech bubbles that collaborators can add to offer feedback on a document. I thought I should try creating a spreadsheet, but I hardly ever use them. Importing photos was easy. Google docs/Zoho Writer -- which one to use?

Summer Reads

2009-07-24T13:51:00.001-07:00

Lisa's Summer Reads -- 2009

Sisters of the Sword (Maya Snow)
Set in ancient Japan. Jealous, power hungry uncle kills brother, the Jito, and his sons. Two sisters disguise themselves as boys and enter a school for samurai. Their goal is to gain the skills needed to seek revenge against their uncle and restore honor to their family. This book took me a while to pick up and get into, but then it was fast paced. The end definitely leaves the reader wanting more -- the sequel which is out - and now that I look so is book 3! I am going to buy book 2&3 in paperback for EM.

Word Nerd (Susin Nielsen)
Twelve year old boy, Ambrose lives with overprotective widowed mom. Ambrose is allergic to nuts and is rushed to the hospital after the school bullies plant a peanut in his sandwich. Mom decides to home school her son. Ambrose and his mom are renting a basement apartment from a Greek family who's son, Cosmo, recently got out prison. Ambrose and Cosmo become friends, join a scrabble club together and help each other through trying times. Fun, humorous story about fitting in and finding your place in the world.

Miki Falls: Spring (Mark Crilley)
Seems more middle school appropriate. High school, Miki, has crush on new student, Hiro. The part I keep wondering about are the first few pages of the book before the story begins. They show Miki jumping/being pushed out of a window. I keep thinking I have to read the other seasons for this piece to tie in.

Week 7 Sandbox Wiki (Thing 17)

2009-07-24T13:13:00.000-07:00

I went to the California Curriculum Connections wiki. It took a little time to orient myself. I went to the Sandbox page and read several entries, but didn't know what to write. I clicked and read several of the curriculum examples and decided to post under Podcast and Videos. The library team in Mill Valley have talked about writing a grant to purchase Flip camera for each of our sites. We would like to work with second graders to create a video of kids recommending books modeled after Reading Rainbow. I decided to try to add this idea, even though I haven't done it yet, to the list of ideas. First, I added it as a comment and that didn't seem right. But it is a Wiki! I was able to delete it and go into the edit mode to add the idea in the list with all the others. It is sort of funny not knowing any of the other contributors. I would hate to edit or change any of their postings. It feels different if it is your own post or a project you are working on with people you know. I am surprised how easy it seems. I don't know why we had such a hard time with the Wiki we tried to use to create our district tech plan.

Week 7 Wiki (Thing 16)

2009-07-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

In our district we tried using a wiki to write our tech plan with the help of CTAP. We were all working at the same time and for some reason there were lots of issues with getting all of us the ability to write on the wiki. Reading all the articles and the ideas for using this shared resource sound promising. However, it seems like you could do the same type of things with Google docs. I like the idea of adding everyone's notes on a topic to a wiki, giving students the facts and having them write a paper/letter/make a top 10 list using the information.

Week 6 Library 2.0 (Thing 15)

2009-07-22T13:44:00.000-07:00

Library 2.0 is the read/write Internet. It is meeting the user where he/she is and believing the user has value to add.
What does this mean for the elementary school library?
In "Away from the Icebergs," Rick Anderson talks about offering services that can be used without training. However, in the school setting, we are in a place to teach. Figuring out what kids need to know in order to navigate the web can be challenging. I find that with elementary students, I often assume too much. We want too much in terms of a finished project by a certain date to break the process down into little steps.
Some teachers in our district have created book blogs to share good titles students have read. This is something I would like to try. Until we have an intranet, I think the best way to get K-5 students blogging about books would be for the teacher to create the blog, add books titles, and students would add comments.
There was also a great article in a recent SLJ about a public library in Washington state that had students create book talks or trailers using flip cameras. Another idea I would like to try!
Making the library more interactive is library 2.0 to me. There are lots of ways I think we can share information and ideas with students across our district.
And being a person who barely carries my pay-as-you-go cell phone with three numbers in its memory, I need to s-t-r-e-t-c-h to put myself into the library 2.0 realm!

Week 6 Technorati (Thing 14)

2009-06-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

I only read a few blogs - usually ones in which I know that author and am interested in what he/she is doing. Technorati has too much for me right now. I understand the power of being able to search tags...

Week 6 Del.icio.us (Thing 13)

2009-06-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

I have been watching YouTube videos about social bookmarking. I really like the videos by the CommonCraft show: Social Bookmarking in Plain English. They have videos on several web 2.0 topics: Wikis in Plain English, RSS Feed in Plain English, etc.
I am currently an Internet user with nothing bookmarked. I used to bookmark sites, but I have abandoned saving anything as a bookmark. I like the way Del.icio.us organizes bookmarks and the networking part - that others can use your bookmarks. This seems like it could be helpful for our team of elementary school librarians. If we all bookmark sites for curricular topics, we can peek into each other bookmarks for ideas, resources, etc. Right now I visit their various websites to see what links are posted, but we try to provide access to resources for projects that are in progress.
I think what I need to do now is to create an account and start tagging to get the full experience.

Week 5 More Rollyo (Thing 12)

2009-05-06T19:57:00.000-07:00

Here is my Rollyo - Kid's Resources.

This is pretty cool. I think it would work well for the Rain Forest Animal research kids are doing in the library right now. I have compiled a long list of websites for them to look through, but I could make it a Rollyo. Students would be able to type their animal into the search and the results would take them right to the information needed.

Creating the Rollyo was really easy. I just needed an idea to try.

Here's the link to the above idea with Rain Forests. Just emailed it to one of the teachers I work with... I'll see if she thinks it's a good thing too.
Rain Forest Animals

Week 5 Rollyo (Thing 12)

2009-04-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

I have explored Rollyo, but I can't think of an application for it. I tried creating a search roll for all our school library catalogs in the district, but it didn't work. We don't have formal inner district loans, but when we need a specific title we share. I usually go to the same sites for things - Craigslist (looking for a trike right now), Greathomes (to check out homes for sale in the neighborhood),... Don't usually check numerous places.
I'll keep thinking...

Week 5 Web 2.0 Awards (Thing 11)

2009-04-20T20:23:00.001-07:00

I went right to the short list of Web 2.0 Awards. I wanted to figure out how Google Docs works because I have heard it is a great tool for our students. We have had trouble with compatibility for kids working on documents at school and home. I was surprised at how easy Google Docs is to use. All the templates are a great resource. We struggled with formatting my husband's resume, searching for examples and there are several templates right in Google Docs. However, I recently heard on an NPR discussion that said the resume is outdated. One of the women on the show said her job asked for a YouTube video and ...

I tried to think of a way the librarians in our district could use Google Docs - possibly work on summer reading lists together or lesson plans or ... ? Ultimately I would really like to find more ways for us to collaborate online because the time I have is in the evenings after my children are in bed. I would like to explore PBwiki more as a tool for collaboration and would like to see how others have used this tool. Our district used a PBwiki to put together our tech plan with CTAP's help, but I'd like to see more teacher driven examples.

I clicked around on several other sites. Watched a few YouTube videos of people making dinner, played around with previewing hairstyles, ... And as you can see, explored widget sites.

Week 5 Image Generators (Thing 10)

2009-04-06T20:02:00.000-07:00

I clicked and created a bunch of stuff on Flickr Toys: a trading card, a magazine cover, a jigsaw puzzle, a map of places I've traveled... The image generators were easy to use. I am wondering about how/when to use with elementary students. I could have students create a trading card or a magazine cover about a topic of study in the library. Are they easy to print? I also tried the comic strip generator and image chef. I see more use of something like Comic Life where kids get to create more of the images than comic strip generator. I'll need to search for more elementary school uses/lessons.

Week 4 Exploring Blogs (Thing 9)

2009-01-05T19:58:00.000-08:00

Now that I know what an RSS feed is, I am seeing them everywhere. I just added a Mill Valley weather report to my Blogline. We were looking for some garden tools for our backyard and I was able to add "Craiglist Northbay Garden" as a feed.

Each of the teachers I work with have a classroom website and keep a blog to some degree. It would be great if these could be Blogline feeds. I wouldn't have to check all the individual sites to see what is happening in their classrooms. I would be alerted when I new entry was made.

I spent time looking at the educational blogs. I found the Park School book blog. I also found two blogs created by Marin Country Day School: Duck Diaries and Trout Blog. It was great to see an example from another elementary school. MCDS recorded kids observations and wonderings using KidPix and Voicethreads. They also included video of their trout release. These were projects that included several grade levels. A great way to keep home/public informed and involved in various studies. Inspiring.

Week 4 Bloglines (Thing 8)

2009-01-01T20:20:00.000-08:00

Created a Blogline. Added 5 feeds: SF Gate, Reuters, National Geographic, Librarian's Internet Index, and Celebrity Gossip. The sites I think I frequent the most when I go online are Marin IJ and SF Gate. I understand that having these all in one place is helpful. I now understand how people can spend hours on the computer. There is SO much out there! I am usually pretty directed when I visit the Internet. I don't think I wander as much as others.
It took me a long time to figure out how to maneuver around the Bloglines Site and how to add feeds. I liked the way the Bloglines home organized the feeds into little boxes listing the headlines on the page. I liked having the choice to go to the entire article to read. It was interesting to see the actual SF Chronicle paper and zoom into various articles.
Libraries and Schools using this new technology? I will spend a few more days perusing sites and reading my new feeds and maybe I can wrap my brain around how to make this useful.

Elementary Library

2008-12-23T12:30:00.001-08:00

Elementary Library
Originally uploaded by lisa.monge

Finally figuring out how to upload a photo from Flickr directly to my blog. I took photos of my school library and gave them tags: library 2.0 edna. I made them public, but I can't seem to find them when I search.

Week 3 Technology (Thing 7)

2008-12-07T12:15:00.001-08:00

I feel like I need an overview, a chart (like a family tree) of Google and Yahoo and... showing how they have developed and all of their features - how various sites are related. I feel like I have such a limited view of what is out there. Google - Picassa - Google Maps - Google Earth - and I know there is so much more... Yahoo - Flickr - ...

Week 3 Flickr Mashups - (Thing 6)

2008-12-03T20:26:00.000-08:00

I've gone from being completely overwhelmed by Flickr to being completely wowed by Flickr and the mashups. To the right you will see the playing card I created while fiddling around. I am wondering about the options suggested for creating mission trading cards with students and how much it would cost to order. How would that work? There did not seem to be much of a chance to edit work.
I looked at the color picker and the mosiac site. Cool, but I'm not sure what their use would be for my school setting. I'm not sure I fully understand the mappr site. I'll have to return to it.
I tried to upload photos of my library onto Flickr, but I haven't been able to find them when I've searched. I will keep playing.

Week 3 Flickr Photo - Siena (Thing 5)

2008-11-30T19:58:00.001-08:00

Time just goes...
I went on Flickr and found photos of Dora, the explorer for Sarah and 500 other things using keywords, the calendar, and the map to search. I stopped on a photo of Siena - reminiscing about studying abroad in college and spending many afternoons sitting in the campo.
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/onblack.php?id=2579324869&posted=1
Spent too long trying to upload this photo onto my blog for you to see. Still haven't figured that out.

Started exploring all the photos that others have posted for library 2.0. Need to give this a try.

Then I started playing with my own Flickr account. I uploaded a few family photos and started to organize them. We use Picassa from Google to organize all our photos and Flicker seems to be very similar. My sister-in-law uses Google to set up albums and invites us to view them. I started to play with the tags and collections. Still don't know what I will do with these photos I uploaded. If I had more time I would like to play with the creating tools - cards, books, etc. etc. We have much of this with iPhoto.

4 DAYS LATER - I added a photo of Siena found in Flickr. I ended up saving the photo to my desktop and then adding to my post. I was looking for a way to export a photo directly from Flickr into this post. I also didn't give credit to the photographer...

Week 2 Habits of Lifelong Learners (Thing 3)

2008-11-11T20:46:00.000-08:00

I am not sure I know what tools I will need for my toolbox or how I will get them. With technology I always feel like I am on the surface. You don't know what you don't know... I feel very limited in my world on technology because I have not spent very much time with all the tools that are available.

I was wowed by my sister's new iPhone as she flipped through all of its features for me. Her phone has better resolution than my digital camera!

For this assignment, I could not figure out how to get my avatar moved to my blog page. I had to play with the settings. - Thank you, Dee!