Learning 2.0 Summary (Thing 20)

Well, I have to say that I've really enjoyed the Learning 2.0 assignments. Many of the technologies we've explored have been fairly (or entirely) new to me, and it's been fun becoming more tech savvy! I quite enjoy learning new technology skills, but it seems I never carve out time to learn them on my own. It's nice to have been "forced" to play because I think many of them will be extremely helpful tools in a library and to pass along to teachers to use in their classrooms. I've had quite a few experiences this year that have demonstrated the important role technology plays in our students' lives and the levels of engagement and enjoyment kids get from technology-driven lessons. This new-found understanding has required a bit of a shift in thinking for me. I've tried to incorporate more technology into my lessons over the last few years, but I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that I've barely scratched the surface in my attempts. Kids today are capable of so much if given the opportunity and the framework to be successful.

As far as introducing these technologies to teachers, I think it would be fun to have an optional teacher training on a different skill or program every month. Once or twice a year, I would also have a celebration for teachers to share how they have incorporated the skills into their class. I'm thinking I'd like to make this an informal gathering with teachers bringing in samples of student projects that are placed around the library's tables for people to peruse as they enjoy some treats and chat. It would also be neat to document students' learning throughout the school year by talking with the kids about their process and product and their feelings about using technology skills in class. I think a short video featuring the students and their thoughts would be a great way to open our technology celebration and a fantastic way to show teachers the positive impact their lessons have had on students and hopefully encourage them to do even more!

Google Docs Survey (Thing 19)

Learning 2.0 - Tag Clouds (Thing 18)

Here is my Wordle that I created about Web 2.0 topics.  Too fun!

I also found a couple of articles about ways teachers can incorporate the use of Wordle in the classroom.  I think these would be great ideas for librarians to share during collaborative efforts with teachers.

Word Clouds: 125 Ways...And Counting...To Use Wordle in the Classroom

45 Interesting Ways to Use Wordle in the Classroom

Learning 2.0 - Podcasts (Thing 17)

After browsing around iTunes, I chose to listen to a sampling from the following podcasts...

Tech Chick Tips - This podcast was created by a professional development consultant (Helen) and technology specialist (Anna) from Texas.  In their podcasts, they introduce different technologies and share ideas about how to implement them in classrooms.  They also have a website at Tech Chick Tips with links to the different programs and websites they mention on their podcasts.  Since we're working on creating a wiki, I listened to their podcast on blogs, wikis, and podcasts (0001 Tech Chick Tips).

I've used a blog (through Blogger) in my classroom in the past but was never really comfortable with the idea of giving students access to post directly to it.  Instead, I would have them fill out a Google Doc, which I would then look over before posting to the blog.  This always felt a bit cumbersome, and I was interested to hear some new suggestions.  The Tech Chicks mentioned two blogging sites that I'm going to look into using in the future.  Edublogs was the first hosting site they mentioned.  At first glance, it looks to be a pretty well-laid out site, but their premium features (including teacher moderation of comments) come with a $40/year price tag.  Class Blogmeister was the second site they mentioned, and while it is free (along with all of its features including teacher moderation of comments), it doesn't look quite as professional.  Hmmm...I'll have to do more research, but I may be sticking with Blogger.

I also took a look at two student-produced podcasts from a middle school in Wisconsin, Coulee Kids, and an elementary school in Nebraska, Radio WillowWeb.  These podcasts showcase student projects from different grade levels and content areas, and I think they'd be a great place to go to look for ideas for using podcasts in the classroom.  I particularly liked the Coulee Kids podcast on poems for two voices and think it would be a great way to practice and develop reading fluency.

Learning 2.0 - Online Video (Thing 16)

I really liked how this video hit on the many aspects of being a school librarian.  From creating a welcoming environment to teaching digital literacy skills to students (and teachers) to fostering a love of reading, I thought this video presented a powerful picture of the important role librarians can play in schools.

Learning 2.0 - Twittter (Thing 15)

Hee, hee!  I have a Twitter account!  I found the process of setting up an account to be relatively painless, but it was a bit daunting to come up with people to follow as part of the set-up process.  Luckily, most of the blogs I looked at for my RSS Feed post are by people who have Twitter accounts, and I also found some people and organizations to follow from the UELMA article.  I also added a few authors to my personal feed.  Figuring out how to add a Twitter feed widget to my blog wasn't necessarily intuitive, but a quick Google search led me to some good tutorials.

I found the article "How Librarians Can Leverage Twitter" to be very helpful in suggesting easy ways to implement and use this new (to me!) form of social media into the library.  Here are a few ideas:

Report Library Happenings - This is probably the main way I was thinking of using Twitter.  I thought about sending tweets about new books, special program reminders, contest winners, and upcoming book club meeting dates.  I also liked Burkhardt's suggestion about letting patrons know about unusual occurrences such as early closures or machines being down.

Sharing Recommendations - I also liked the idea of having kids tweet book recommendations to the library and then embedding a widget on the library's website for the tweets.

Build Community - I hadn't thought using Twitter for building community ties, but I liked the ideas about retweeting information from students and other patrons about upcoming community events or interesting content.

Engaging Users - Burkhardt also talked about helping users with library questions.  In this article, he talks about setting up tweet alerts using the advanced search feature in Twitter in order to alert you to library related questions from users in your area.  You could also share articles about authors, the importance of school libraries, or the positive effects of reading with your followers.

Learning 2.0 - RSS Feeds and Newsreaders (Things 13 & 14)

Mighty Little Librarian - This looked like a pretty great site for ideas.   Tiff Whitehead is the school librarian at Central Middle School in Louisiana. In my browsing of this blog, I found quite a few ideas for engaging readers and promoting literacy that would be fun.  Whitehead shared ideas for a "Book Crush" display that would be fun in February, a March Madness bracket based on the books that have been checked out the most so far during the school year, and reading challenges that sound like they'd pull in a lot of readers.  She also has a lot of Web 2.0 tool tutorials and seems to be very involved in a lot of professional development activities and presentations.  I also liked that she seems pretty open about sharing her ideas and even files she has created for lessons and projects. 

Librarians on the Fly - This blog was recommended by one of the librarians I visited with during fall semester.  Like The Mighty Little Librarian, it has a lot of ideas for implementing Web 2.0 technologies into the library setting.  One of the ideas I particularly liked was about mounting iPads around the library for students to use for catalog browsing.  These librarians suggested this as a way to keep the other library computers open for student research, and I thought it would also be a nice to have the ability to search for books from different locations.  Sometimes I think it's hard for kids to go back and forth and back and forth from the shelves to the computer banks.