Thing #15- Library 2.0

Library 2.0 is here. Like it or not, it is here to stay! The library, needless to say, has evolved over the years. I love how Michael Stephens states that "a library is human." It needs to be an engaging center of your school. One of his key points was that a librarian 2.0 needs to be a trend spotter and actively seek out the newest applications. This is one of the elements of becoming a librarian that excites me!

I really enjoyed watching the Vision of Students Today video and I found it to be fascinating. (It really hit me when it stated that all their activities added up to 26.5 hours a day!) This video reinforces the idea that librarians need to stay current so they can provide support and reach students in ways that they will be motivated and engaged in their learning.

One last thing I wanted to mention was brought up by Rick Anderson. He made a great point for someone like me who has a difficult time weeding through things to get rid of. He says that with today’s digital age, there is no need to keep that “just in case” collection because you feel like you will never be able to find it again.

Thing #14- Technorati

Well, I have to say that I was a bit confused where to start when I first visited Technorati. When I searched for blog post under school library learning 2.0, I got zero results. I then continued to search for posts that contained the word "library." I found an interesting post from the New York Times entitled The Library Through Students' Eyes. Wow. Some of the posts were very positive, but the ones that stuck out in my mind were the negative ones. It is so sad to me that some students feel like the library is not an important part of a school. Something is not right with that picture!
After playing around with Technorati, I started to warm up to it and can see the benefits. Tagging your own posts can bring people to your blog to share your thoughts with the world! Like many "things" I have learned so far, tagging can help you become better organized and more time efficient!! (Unless you are like me and have a hard time not wanting to look at EVERYTHING when you search!)

Thing #13 Delicious and Diigo

I truly wish this "thing" would have come sooner! I was in desperate need of something like this after spending hours finding articles for a an annotated bibliography I have been working on. My bookmarks are a mess! I first spent some time looking at Delicious first and I thought the Common Craft guys again did a great job explaining the features and what it can do for me!

I also spent some time on Diigo and I really liked this site. I set up an account and got started right away moving some of my bookmarks there. We had a training at school on Diigo and it just happened to be on the day I was sick. I had heard other talk about how neat the features like highlighting and sticky notes were and I got to see it first hand today! This will help tremendously while I am finishing up my bibliography. I can simply highlight parts of the text that are important while I am reading it. I love the idea of organizing the bookmarks with tags. I think this will definitely be something I continue to use and I can see how teachers/librarians can use it for sharing ideas. I am interested in hearing the ideas everyone else has on how it can be used in school because to be honest, not many ideas are coming to mind! Can't wait to hear your ideas! Till next time.....

Thing #12- Commenting

Today I took some time to reflect on the importance of making meaningful comments. One thing that stuck out in my mind was from 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog. Jakob Nielsen states that 90% of us are online "lurkers." I have realized that most of the time I fall in this category! Being a new blogger, I sometimes wonder if anyone is REALLY reading what I post, so from now on I vow to be a more active blogger! I really enjoy reading everyone else's posts so I should comment more right?
I also enjoyed reading the Cool Cat Teacher Blog on this topic. I especially liked how she mentioned NOT to be Darth Commenter. I have seen this all too many times when people comment on online newspaper. Ouch! I guess people feel like they can say whatever they want through the computer screen.

I found several personal blog sites that perked my interest. I am a BIG fan of Texas country music and I spend a lot of time looking up concerts coming to the area and planning out my trips. I found that Leslie T's Texas blog organizes all this information for me! I already have my next couple trips planned! I am also a fan of the Houston Rockets and I joined the Rockets Locker so I can stay up to date with all the latest news!

Thing #11- LibraryThing

I found LibraryThing to be very quick and easy to set up and get started. This is a great site where you can create a list of books that you have read and search for books you would like to read next. I really enjoyed reading the reviews that others had posted. There are times when I am wanting to read a book by a new author and not sure if I will like it. Chances are if the reviewer likes the same type of books I do, I will like it as well!
I also found the Zeitgeist feature to be helpful while searching. It allowed me to see the most reviewed books, top rated books, etc.
While exploring the different groups, I did find a few that interested me. One group I joined was Librarians Who LibraryThing. I figure I can find some useful information here as I continue my journey to becoming a librarian!
I think I will continue to check in on LibraryThing, but I know I will get much more use out of it in the future when I have more time to read for pleasure!

Thing #10- Online Image Generator

So I have become a HUGE fan of Big Huge Labs. There are so many fun things to do here. I had already found this site during my earlier searching, but I went back to play some more.
I have always thought that my cat Morris is thinking "not so nice" things about my dogs when they get too close and this is the perfect way to capture that! This picture was create through Captioner.

I was thinking this tool would be perfect to use in my second grade classroom when we discuss the questioning strategy. A teacher could create a bulletin board using the students pictures and caption bubbles to display different questions they are having while reading a class chapter book.