Thing #16 (Wikis)

This is my second semester using wikis, and I'm beginning to feel much more comfortable using them as a way to learn from my colleagues in the Library Science classes and also to share what I've learned with them. I've not had much experience using them to collaborate on a project or topic where everyone can post, edit, and upload documents as needed. I can see how teachers can incorporate wikis into their instruction.

Thing #15 (Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and the Future of Libraries)

The future of libraries is extensive and dynamic collaboration with librarians taking an active lead role. Librarians can integrate their knowledge of technology tools and their applications to the teachers’ knowledge of the curriculum. They can help their patrons tap into all types of resources and media...printed and digital.

Thing #14 (Technorati)

I did a keyword search for “School Library Learning 2.0” in Blog posts, in tags and in the Blog Directory. I got ZERO results for both postings and blogs. This absolutely surprised me, since I fully expected tons of both.
I can see the value in having a tool like Technorati...as long as it works. It should save time searching for blogs of interest.

Thing #13 (Learn about tagging and discover Delicious)

Delicious successfully organized and tagged the 148 bookmarks I had in a master list that was NOT organized. By using this website, I can quickly click on a tag and view all of my bookmarks for that topic. At this time I do not want to share my Delicious bookmarks with anyone.
I wish I had used Delicious a few months ago before I lost the bookmarks I had saved in Speed Dial and on my laptop. When I updated Firefox on my computer, I lost many bookmarks for sites I liked. This website makes an excellent backup site so that this doesn't happen again.

Teachers can use this site to provide their students with pre-selected and pre-approved websites for learning. Students can access specific content through the tags from any computer with Internet access. This is a huge advantage for making the list public.

Thing #12 (Creating Community Through Commenting)

Part 1- These are two comments from blogs that resonated with me:

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog

You show the blog author that "you hear them"

Sometimes authors (like me) feel like they are only posting to themselves. You can actually influence those you admire with a meaningful comment, blog writers change their opinions all of the time. You can also reinforce opinions you agree with when you have real world examples.

From 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog

Ask Questions – Including specific questions in posts definitely helps get higher numbers of comments. I find that when I include questions in my headings that it is a particularly effective way of getting a response from readers as you set a question in their mind from the first moments of your post.

I agree that bloggers sometimes feel that they are on an island all by themselves, and comments to their postings can let them know that they are writing for a real-world audience--and that someone values their opinion (or disagrees with it).

Questions automatically spur action from readers, and bloggers would benefit from including them in their postings. (Gotta remember this for myself.)

Part 2- I commented on 5 blogs from Library2Play.
Part 3- I found 2 blogs of personal interest. One belongs to a friend who is blogging about his weight loss journey. My attention to this blog was drawn by our friendship (and his insistence that I follow his success). The other blog I found deals with cheap world travel-- which is a HUGE draw for me. I can't wait for some free time to explore some of the places I read about.

http://transformations-mcushing.blogspot.com/ - my friend's blog about his weight loss

http://travel.booklocker.com/ - Cheap Travel Blog

Thing #11 (Shelfari)

I used Shelfari instead of Library Thing. This website is very easy to use. I like that it suggests tags to add for the books on my shelf and allows me to include the date of completion for each book. I am definitely recommend this site to my students, so that they can start their own accounts.

I explored the tab labeled "Members Like You" and read suggested books by people who share my interests.

Thing #10 (Image Generators)

I used the comic strip generator to identify a Greek god to demonstrate how this image generator can be used to provide succinct information about a character. Students or teachers can use this application with little difficulty.




I searched Big Huge Labs and found the Badge Maker application. I used this to create badges for book club student roles.