Thing 23 -- it's the end?!

My first thought is, "awwwww, I'm finished?" I'd love to keep going with this learning -- and one thing I've certainly learned from this experience is that I will keep going. 23 Things was an excellent structure through which we could explore technology in a meaningful way -- it wasn't willy nilly just wandering around the internet, but rather a guided tour of quality stuff where we could choose different interesting side paths then return to the main thoroughfare.

I couldn't possibly list everything I've learned from this experience. But some specifics that I'll continue to use once learned here are: RSS (once you get going it's such a wonderful learning tool), Blogging (I have set up a DCF blog at school, helped a teacher get a class blog going, and got my family keeping in touch with a blog), digital photo stuff (I constantly do mashups for fun signs and activities and family gifts!) and perhaps the thing that has most surprised me (and took the longest to get going) Facebook. I am now pleasantly addicted to Facebook and have found that my social skills and ability to connect with people has actually improved due to Facebook! I also feel better about interacting with students now that I have actually ventured into social networking instead of just dismissing it in ignorance.

If there is one area I would still like to explore that wasn't covered in 23 things it would be Twitter. I think it's another activity that will take a while to get going with but could be very interesting.

Learning in this way and trying 2.0 activities has taught me patience and acceptance of failure and mistakes. I started with such a self-conscious attitude just about the blogs I was going to post that it was really getting in my way. By allowing myself to look silly or go down dead ends or "waste" time on things that wouldn't necssarily get me to a direct result, I found a freedom I had never felt in school. I always wanted to do the assignments the right way from point a to point b and not call attention to myself by making any mistakes. I am learning to let that go and it sure makes learning more fun. I hope it also makes me a better teacher.

Thanks so much, folks at Vermont's 23 Things, for giving me the best professional (and personal) development experience I've had as a librarian.

Congratulations on a job very well done!

Thing 22 -- Podcasts

I am a big podcast listener. I couldn't clean my house or go on my walks without them at this point! I want to make the jump and get my students podcasting. I have basically used iTunes to find podcasts, but this exercise was wonderful because it opened up some great new sources to pass on to my teacher colleagues for education podcasts.

It takes so little tech equipment to do a podcast, and it's such a great literacy exercise that there is no excuse for not trying it with students. So that is a goal of mine to get going in that direction.

Thing 21 -- You Tube and Video sharing

It was great to learn more about You Tube, a phenomenon I thought I knew a lot about until I read the 23 Things article. Less expensive bandwidth led to video sharing, and what a change that has made in our learning and culture. Goes to show you that almost everything always comes down to money; something to think about when we advocate for internet use with lawmakers.

The non-linear nature of internet learning is something I think I am finally coming to not only accept but celebrate. Looking at various video sharing sites besides You Tube led me to explore videos by a blogger I had learned about from my first RSS experience of education bloggers, and his video gave me a great idea for my media literacy unit with 6th graders in January. It is the first step in learning to give up control, this online learning, and it hopefully helps me to do the same thing with my students -- let them have some more control so they can compete in this new era we are in.

And some of the library videos -- what a hoot. And again, I was led by the nature of You Tube related searches to one teenagers diatribe against mean librarians -- funny and yet disturbing in an eye opening way -- and then heartened by some comments that not all librarians are mean. This is a whole new world of sharing we are in now folks!

Thing 20 -- Web 2.0 Awards

This was an extremely interesting and important exercise. I had just read about the edublogs awards and forwarded that site on to my colleagues as a quick and easy way to find great education blogs. The web 2.0 awards site is even better, though. All the cool stuff in one page.

I looked at a couple of travel sites, a couple of the book sites, then I settled in to examine Swivel fully. I thought it was great. The ability to explore data and share data in one site was exciting. I am always looking for places to get data, as are many of my colleagues. The search function was OK, but it will be a bit hit or miss. It's not totally comprehensive, and there is always the chance that the data is inaccurate or crazily skewed, because of the 2.0 nature. But I liked that they include official sources who join. That raises the profile of the site in my opinion.

I could see public and school libraries using this site quite a bit.

Thing 19 -- online productivity tools

I had used Google docs for word processing and really liked the sharing feature. But I found the presentation feature difficult so I was determined to use this assignment to give it another go. I found it easier this time and there were even some features I preferred in the google version.

Thing 18 -- play with Wikis

After being in the sandbox a bit of several Wikis, I feel much more confident in using them. It makes a difference when you are completing someone else's assignment rather than following my own plan. It challenges me to have to learn something new that I didn't come up with.

Thing 17 -- Wikis

I had known about Wikis, created and used them, and was thinking I wouldn't be learning much of anything new with this assignment. Wrong again.

I love the Stephen Colbert videos, because they encapsulate the pitfalls of Wikis -- a lot of people sharing and collaborating does leave us open to a lot of bad information and just plain silly stuff, but on the other hand, getting to see the Simpsons wiki shows a great upside -- passionate people can create a great source of information on topics that are not generally covered in traditional media.

I haven't seen wikis work all that well in my school yet -- just haven't taken off. A class blog has already worked faster and better for the students to put work up than a wiki we created last year. And we have google apps, which I could see as a more effective way of teachers collaborating than a wiki.

BUT---I had a DCF blog going, and so I added a general book review blog and it hasn't worked at all. A schoolwide book review wiki would be much better, I think. I'm going to take down the blog and try a wiki.

Thing 16 -- Library 2.0 perspectives

I read "Away from Icebergs," whose 3 pitfalls to avoid were right on, I thought. First, most libraries need to move away from the "just in case" collection; we will have even greater specialization (as we do now in the global economy) where a few libraries are archival and the rest are more "just in time" libraries. Second, we can't rely on educating the user. This one is also spot on, but difficult for those of us who are school librarians to give up on. I find it hard to give up the control feeling that I will be the one to impart all library and tech knowledge, yet every time I do manage to give it up, it is more rewarding and more effective. The students teach themselves, each other and me, and there is true learning going on. I am trying to encourage my teachers to give up the same element of control -- tough in an elementary school. Third, the users won't always come to us. Again, it's tough to let this one go; I keep them coming to the library sites even at home by ensuring they can get to my portal of sites. I also know they won't, so I have as many conversations as possible about evaluation and internet safety. I should think about how this works with print sources too, not just technology. How to help them to navigate the whole world of information and explore it as their own guides.

I also read "Into a New World of Librarianship," which really got me going. I really liked his thoughts about controlling technolust (purchasing for the sake of gadgetry, which can be a challenge) and making quick decisions yet good ones (really tough for me to act quickly). And of course, how much the 2.0 librarian will be creating a lot of useful tools on his or her own in the library. Daunting but in an exciting way!

Thing 15 -- Technorati

Technorati is a great tool. 23 Things' explanation was comprehensive and helpful. I had been using Technorati during the week or two before the election. It was pretty fascinating to keep track of such an important American phenomenon through the bloggers' perspective. It's a whole new way of experiencing news and so many bloggers have become unintentional media moguls through their reactions to important news stories or the fact that they were in a certain place and time.

This assignment led me to explore it further, taking a look at the photo and video features. It's also exciting to see what is out there in images right now. This meant an hour long detour checking out "where the hell is Matt?," the guy who dances around the world. I got a chance to show my husband and kids, and this led us to a fun hour of thinking about the world and places and people; it was wonderful, totally non-linear, and not at all how I'm used to learning things. It's good for me to open up these new possibilities of learning, but it does keep me from doing things like cleaning my house!

Thing 14 -- delicious

I was so looking forward to this lesson, because I have wanted to try delicious ever since the BLC conference when presenters were easily sharing great links with us, all within seconds!  I found it a little difficult to get started with adding the browser toolbars, but now that they are added, it's a piece of cake.

I actually use a social bookmarking site as a makeshift library home page.  It's a site called "portaportal," and while not as snazzy as delicious, it allows me to put links our students and teachers need to use in one place.  there is no tagging, however, and it's more of a practical way to keep all of our websites easily in one place.  I do recommend it for that situation.  I was actually thinking of setting up my own portal, but I thought I would use delicious for my stuff and see how I liked it.  So far, so good!

Thing 13 -- Library Thing

Library thing is cool. It was fun to make this list of books I have read, see others who shared my interest, and have the chance to easily read and write reviews and make connections. I hadn't expected to see a tag cloud, but of course, it makes sense, and it was fun to see which authors were bigger on my cloud. I am thinking of all kinds of uses for Library thing among students and teachers where I work.

Thing 12 FD toys

I just added the code for a gadget on the blog; I tried the fd toys gadget of the "where have you been" map. It worked the first time and I was quite surprised. Not sure if I can add to it, though. I wanted to try this one so I can create a family blog and we can keep track of my niece's travels as she studies in England this semester. Hope it can work.

Blogging Workloads

Now that I have a reason to have a blog (assigned for homework) it feels more legitimate to me. And now that I have several very good blogs I use for work-related information RSS'd to me every day, I find that I have even greater respect for bloggers. I used to think it was a self-indulgent exercise, keeping a blog, and now I find I am very disappointed when a blog that I like has nothing new for the day. It's a lot of work for these good bloggers and a different sort of pressure than, say, writing for a newspaper.

We are all out there waiting in the "cloud" for great stuff; it feels more connected and personal than just reading a book or watching a commentator on TV. I guess that's the point everyone is making about web 2.0. It's just taking me a while!

Thing 11 -- Facebook

I have actually done it; I have joined the scariest part of the web 2.0 world -- a social networking site. And it is less scary in some ways, yet just as scary in others, as I thought it would be. I was happy with the controls I could put on my privacy and I found that it was easier than I thought to upload a picture of myself for the world...but within a couple of days I was contacted by people wanting to be my "friend." How did they know I was even on Facebook, I wondered? And now I am getting information on their friends (and I guess they see me as well). That is blowing my mind a little, still. I find it amazing and still somewhat intrusive to know that so-and-so is having a beer right now, especially if they are a friend of a friend. I am still an uptight Yankee at heart, I guess, and it is good for me to have these social connections broadened for me.

I joined the Library 2.0 group and already I have found some interesting stuff on it. And I have gotten completely distracted by fun apps like "flair." So there have been productive and totally non-productive aspects of Facebook for me.

But this is the best part of all; I just read that very few educators have Facebook or MySpace accounts; this is a problem if we want to be able to work with students who all do. We should know something and have tried some of these 2.0 tools, so that we can lend our opinions to our students with some kind of authority. How can I really talk about online safety if I haven't exposed myself to the risk and seen exactly how it feels to be online and whether it actually is risky?

It was the exercise I dreaded the most but it has turned out to be an excellent learning (and very real life) assignment.

Blog Dating Correction

I just learned, by looking at my blog posts, that the date for the BLC conference post is correct. Since I wrote it on 7/17 and the draft was saved before I lost wireless, that is the date on the post, even though I published it today 7/20. Very exciting.

Week Four, Thing 1 -- RSS Feeds

Ahhhh, technology!

I just published the blog entry from the November Learning Conference (Building Learning Communities 08) because the wireless in the hotel kept going in and out and I couldn't publish while I was there. So even though it's dated today, the post was actually written days ago.

Which brings to mind, how do all these bloggers keep their sites updated? Some do, some don't. And you really have to be attached to your computer to be a force in the blogosphere. That's not going to happen for me anytime soon; there are too many other humans in my life pulling me away from the keyboard (and that's a good thing, I think.)

Anyway, RSS feeds and readers were something I already knew something about, so I thought this week would be a piece of cake, but I found it just the opposite. I got very confused trying out different aggregator options, from easy to hard. Some of the RSS out there is so available and user friendly that my 7 year old is doing it -- the downside of those is that you are limited by what you are offered. For example, you can make a fun iGoogle home page with tons of changing feeds in about two minutes. Most of the feeds are games and silly stuff that wastes time and bandwidth but it's so FUN!

When I tried to make a serious attempt at finding good library blogs worldwide and adding them to google reader (because that's the reader I had settled on) I got frustrated and overwhelmed. The technology definitely took over. I am still trying to decide on the best aggregator and then just use it. This takes time. I know my students don't have the time or the background to make these decisions, so it's been an important lesson to me in how we help them navigate all this information. We need to demystify, simplify, and remind them why they need a certain technology; or maybe that they don't. Right now I feel like I'm serving the RSS machine rather than it serving me. I'll keep plugging away and something will click eventually.

Greetings from the November Learning Conference

I am writing from the Alan November Learning Conference in Boston (BLC-08). It's an amazing opportunity to meet and learn from educators from around the world about using technology. It's a wonderful combination of big picture ideas and nuts and bolts tech tips. The best part is that it's not about the latest gadget and how to use it; it's about teaching in meaningful ways and perhaps using technology to do that. The keynote speakers have been funny, inspiring, creative and tech savvy. The other professionals are an enthusiastic and hard working bunch. And it's really interesting to meet people from other countries and learn about how they do what they do.

I felt fortunate to have learned a lot this year, through 23 things exercises and my own professional development, about technology. I have noticed that in the course of just a year jargon that was politely being explained in a speech is now just mentioned as if we all know what it is (ex: blogs, wikis, RSS, aggregators, twitter).

Anyway, I recommend visiting the November Learning site to find conference notes from presentations. there are also tons of podcasts being produced from the conference on all sorts of topics of interest to librarians.

One of the main tenets of Alan November is that students need to be taught how to work through and analyze all of the information and media they encounter, and he has an excellent book and program on the subject. I highly recommend his stuff.

Librarians and Tagging

Just a thought; someone should do a study to see whether Librarians' blogs have more meaningful tags than other blogs. You would think ours would be better, wouldn't you?

Week Three, Thing 3 -- Technology Post

There is a lot of talk about the denigration of personal communication that the internet has wrought. I'm inclined to agree with some of it. I do believe we lose something when we choose to text, email, instant message or even use voicemail to avoid personal contact with people. I think the internet has provided a way for people who already have trouble interacting humanely to go two steps further, either with their hatred or with some terrible perversity they may have.

BUT---

that being said, I think I have been most impressed with the generosity and opportunities to create community and communication through technology after starting up 23 Things. Flickr is just one example. All of the sharing and community that goes on is wonderful! Just looking at the other librarians' photos (the Playmobil library scenes really made my day) made me feel a part of that community. And the giving nature of the programmers who create and share their work and projects for everyone else to use -- for Free! The whole open source movement that wants more sharing, not less. The Flickr rules are incredibly human, sensible, and written in a friendly and open manner, an excellent model of communication skills and etiquette. Even blogs, something I had thought was the ultimate in selfishness (and they certainly can be) are more often a way to share expertise and opinions and are a two way street.

It's all in making the effort to keep the technology humane. And part of that is to open up lines of communication. So now I'm off to comment on another blog and try to do my bit.

Week Three, Thing 2 -- Flickr mashups

It is impressive how many skilled programmers are out there creating interesting stuff for the rest of us to do. So far I have made movie and inspirational posters from my photos, ID cards, spelled new words, compared photos of my town and places I've visited with my own impressions...the list goes on. I find I really appreciate the chance to be creative for its own fun sake -- not for any job-performance-related reason. Brings out the smile for sure!

Week Three, Thing 1 -- Learn about Flickr

This is more fun than anyone with a serious job should be allowed to have. I can think of endless uses, both for my students and personally, for Flickr. I am still getting the hang of the group thing, and once again, I feel shy about sharing. I guess I have to get out of "lurker" mode in all of these 2.0 situations; I find I want to stay in the background and not get out there.

Anyway, for a non-visual "word" person like me, it's great to spend some time just looking at and playing with images. And to remember how visual my kids and my students are.

Sites like Flickr are such a gift to the rest of us; technology at its best.

Week Two Thing 4 -- register your blog

I registered my blog and now it's official; I can be seen online with other participants and while I am not necessarily stymied by this while writing, I immediately feel regret after hitting that "publish" button.  It's an openness that this Vermont Yankee has a bit of trouble with, and yet my students and children don't, so it's helpful to try to walk in their shoes.

Week Two Thing 1 -- set up your own blog

Blogger was very easy to use.  I've used Wordpress and I think I prefer Blogger.  I would love to show my kids how to use it; I think they would enjoy writing on a blog, but part of me thinks it is either too risky (because of safety or just hurt feelings when people comment on their blogs) or too artificial (if you put so many protections on the blog that no one is truly reading or commenting on it).  

It's a whole new world for parents and librarians and we have to make individual judgments as best we can.

Week 1 Thing 2 -- Lifelong learners

I enjoyed the online tutorial about lifelong learning and this is, of course, a great exercise for someone who works in education to be gently forced into putting my learning process online for many to see.  (Of course, there are probably not many who will see it, but it isn't easy to put yourself out there, and students must do that every day).  So along with thinking about lifelong learning, I am thinking about my students and the value of seeing from their perspective.  So this group of exercises will have another layer of value to it for me.

Week 1 Thing 1 -- Introduction to 23 Things

Already I have learned a lot just by reading the 23 Things blog.  I didn't realize my home town library had started a presence on the web until I saw a link on the 23 Things blog.  I think of blogs as personal diaries, but I am now seeing many more possibilities.  I am very excited about taking this learning journey.

Back to Work

I just got back from a week long road trip with my family to Michigan. Yes, we planned a road trip when gas prices are at an all time high! It was fun to see some of the great lakes and the midwest, but we were glad to be home, and as always, impressed to see our beautiful Vermont again. We felt we were very objective in thinking it was much more gorgeous than the midwest.

We visited my niece, who works for Google in the midwest. What a great company to work for! It has definitely spoiled her for working anywhere else!

Now it is back to work; lots of projects for school librarians over the summer. Someone asked me if I worked in the summer. If I didn't do anything regarding my library, I don't think I would be able to start the school year! We have computers to set up, a wireless system to attack, DCF books to read, books to order and process, a collection to finish cataloguing online, never mind all the usual AV equipment maintenance, etc. It may be my poor time management, or it may be the nature of library work. What do you think?

First Post Ever

This is my first ever blog post. It's still hard for me to imagine that anyone needs to read what I am thinking, but if hundreds of celebrities can spend hours telling the world their every thought, why not a librarian? It's like that country song "everybody dies famous in a small town;" everyone can die famous now that we have the internet.

Vermont's 23 Things was the concrete reason for this post. What a great program for all of us; a way to get going and play with technology we may have all been meaning to try. I love Vermont!