Thing 23 - The End

The ending of this course it only the beginning for what I will be able to do this school year!
I am so excited about everything that I have learned and have had the opportunity to play with this summer. From my summer experience I will be able to continue to "play" and share these wonderful experiences with both fellow professionals and students.

1. My favorite discoveries have been photostory and rollyo. I had heard people say how easy photostory was but I was skeptical...not any more! Being a librarian on multiple campuses and working on research units for different grade levels and school I find rollyo to be user friendly and very practical. I am very excited about including these two discoveries into my school year. Personally I have really enjoyed the rss feeds. I don't know that I will use this as much professionally as I will on a personal level.

2. This class has provided me the opportunity to stretch my wings with technology in a very practical and comfortable setting. I found being able to work on my own time frame to be very helpful and non -intimidating which is very comforting in learning new things. As a life long learning goals continue, I can see that I will look back on this program and recognize how instrumental it was on my growth in technology.

3. I was unexpectedly surprised when rollyo was my choice over delicious. I had used delicious before and was familiar with it. Therefore I went into rollyo thinking I would never really use it. However once I started playing and exploring rollyo I quickly discovered this was my choice! I was amazed that I switched my way of thinking and will only be using rollyo this year.

4. Library2play was a very pleasant educational experience. When I did have trouble with uploading my photostory a comment was quickly posted to help me. I never found myself in a panic that I couldn't make something work. I knew that the support I needed was available.

5. I would LOVE to take part in another discovery program like this. I especially enjoyed it being over the summer where I actually had time and didn't feel rushed. This has been a wonderful opportunity.

6. This learning experience has been like the heartbeat of technology.

Thing 22 - Nings

Maybe I am on technology overload and everyone just needs to find their own niche. I found Nings to be very similar to wikis and blogs which today seem to be easier for my mind to grasp. I think for students who are open to more technology and ways to communicate with others Nings would be good. I do like the idea of trying to tie them into educational formats, but then again that could be done with Blogs or Wikis. As an elementary librarian I really see Nings being used more in the middle to upper grades. I can see myself exposing Nings to fellow teachers and students and let them run with it if they chose to. I think as librarians it is our job to expose students and teachers to many different formats. Just like books of different genres and we all have our favorites technology is the same way. But just because we don't care for a certain format doesn't mean we shouldn't try it and even share it. Who knows, maybe it is like your taste buds and some technology can be an acquired taste!

Thing 21 Podcasts and Vidcasts

I have heard about photostory and had never used it. NOW I am so excited and my mind is racing with all the things I can do with it. I'm also thinking about how the students will enjoy using this for book report and or various projects. Photostory is very user friendly even for the novice!

I have a friend who lives in California who went and took pictures of all the Michael Jackson tributes after he died. I asked if I could share these photos with everyone and of course the answer was yes. I hope that everyone will enjoy this.

I have tried for 2 hours to post my photostory. I keep getting a message that I've listed below. The only customer support I have found is to post a question which I have done. I think my brain is fried today so I am going to move on and try this tomorrow. I am going to go ahead and post this to keep things in order and will come back and edit...hopefully getting my photostory uploaded! Aarrrrggg

Sorry, there was an error uploading your video. Please contact support and include the following information:
Blog Id:2378420211455348434Video Id:edeb014a0828e5f3

Thing 20

Of course, I am familiar with Youtube. I think this is every teens favorite site! I know at the elementary level we are not able to access Youtbube. I heard of Teachertube this springs but hadn't looked until today. Constitution Day is a subject that is wanted one day a year. I have a few books that of course teachers have to share. I have used United Streaming in the past but Teachertube will be a great resource to use.

Thing 19 - Web 2.0 Awards

I had to go to something fun first....music! Of the listed music sites I liked Last the best. I liked the free downloads and videos to watch. I have a friend who owns a radio station and I asked him his view on the sites listed...Last and Pandora. He told m that most station owners are not big fans of these sites since they prefer for people to be going to their websites and use the streaming.



I became familar with Urban Spoon this spring. My group at TLA didn't want to eat anywhere we could eat back home. One of the librarians was familiar with Urban Spoon and it was fun. I was in LA this summer and also had fun using Urban Spoon . I think Urban Spoon is a great source for people traveling as well as for those who like to try new foods and or restuarants



I was interested in self publishing and checked out Lulu. My mother self published a geneology book my grandmother had written before she died. This book is a family treasure. I would like to take the stories from my mother and other family members to publish for my family. The cost is not absorbadent being $500 to about $1,500. Obviously this cost would be prohibative in most school settings.

Thing 18 - Online Productivity

I started using Google Docs this last school year. I go to multiple campuses and work with another librarian. I like that we can not only share but collaborate on a project. Using Google Docs is great resource when you travel from computer to computer and work with different people on a regular basis like I do as a traveling librarian. Sometimes we have had difficulties getting google documents to print the way that they preview, but overall I really like using it. In fact getting other teachers to use Google Docs is something I am planning on encouraging this year.



I was not familiar with Open Office but found it exciting. I think there are many students and adults who could benefit from this free resource. There are many that do not have the resources to purchase microsoft office. I like the templates that are readily available with Open Office. This will be a benficial site to share with many to be able to use wherever they are....work or home! I'm sure there are probably some drawbacks to Open Office although I have not played with it enough to find them. But as with any software or freeware there are pros and cons.

Thing 17 - Rollyo

I like the idea of creating you own search engine. I was more familiar with Delicious so in the beginning I was lost. I enjoyed watching the video of how to use Rollyo. It was very helpful! After watching the video it was very simple for me to go in and create. I realized that being on different campuses I could have search engines for each campus since I am always doing something different. This is something I will play around with more. I think I can see me becoming a Rollyo user!
http://rollyo.com/index.html