Now Playing…

Wow–I made it through!!  (It was looking kind of “iffy” there for a while…)

When Stacey first informed me that I would be taking this course, I remember thinking, “Oh, no, not one more thing to do.”  (Little did I know, it would be 23 “Things”!!!)  Being in my first months as a first-year Media Specialist and also going to grad school (and also being a wife and mother), I was feeling pretty overwhelmed at the time and could not imagine taking on another responsibility.  I kept up with the “Things” in the beginning, then got a little behind, but I managed to complete the tasks and the course (with the deadline extension).

I have continued to feel overwhelmed over the past few months, but I’m learning that it’s kinda just a way of life for me right now.  I think maybe one day I’ll be a little more in control of things, but right now I’m still struggling as I’m juggling.

I am glad, though, that I took this course right now.  (Even if I came into it kicking and screaming…)  It has been beneficial in so many ways, personally and professionally, both at work and in grad school.  I’ve found many of the tools to be useful already, and I know several more of them will be useful in the future.

I’ve enjoyed blogging and will probably continue.  I will probably create a different one and create entries more appealing to students and teachers: book talks, technology tips, etc.  I will probably also incorporate podcasting and wikis in the future.  I was excited to see the really cool slide show options available out there.  I am learning to appreciate and manage the RSS Feed!  It can be pretty overwhelming, but I’ve tweaked it by deleting the feeds that seem to clog it up and that I’m really not as interested in as I thought I was, and by learning to “skim” and STAR!!

Learning to embed was really cool for me.  I’ve used this skill in my blog and on my school webpage.  Also, linking/hyperlinking has been very useful.  I think I’ve gone a little crazy with that!  (I’m resisting it on this post!)

It’s been a great ride.  Even though it’s the end of the course, it is by no means the end of my experience with Web 2.0.  We’re buds now.

For this “Thing,” I explored Ning.  (Hey, that rhymes!)  I had heard of it, but I had never seen it.  I didn’t even know what it was.  Actually, what I looked at was Ning in Education, which is a little more specifically tailored to education, I guess.  I think it has some good possibility, but before I looked at it, I looked at Classroom 2.0 (going in order of the Exploration Exercises) and I found it to be more interesting.  It seemed to have more to offer.  I think that both will be good resources for information and great for networking.  It’s really cool to connect with people around the country and around the world who are doing what I’m doing.  I know there are people out there who use technology to much greater extent than I do.  I like integrating technology into what I do, but I’m not expecting to do it all right away.  I know I’m really behind a lot of the people on Ning and on Classroom 2.0, but I also know I’m ahead of the game in comparison to some.

I may not be able to “keep up”, but at least I’m headed in the right direction! : )

Title of my blog sounds like a lame librarian parody of “Back to the Future.”

It’s amazing to me how the creator of this class knew that I would need these prompts to peek back in my RSS reader.  It’s a really cool tool, but I honestly have not made it a habit to visit it daily or weekly or whatever.  I probably check in more than I realize, but it would be better if I did more frequently and on a more regular basis.

So, at this visit to the Reader, I deleted a few Feeds.  Some combinations of diminished interest, overwhelming amount of information coming in, or just lack of application.  I feel a sense of relief knowing that at least THOSE sites aren’t going to keep spitting stuff my way!

Then, I checked a few feeds that I know have somewhat brief posts–they are more digestable.  Okay, I’m not sure if that’s even a word, but what I mean is, it’s easier to get through them quickly without getting bogged down.

I starred several entries, and even checked out a few of them.  I particularly enjoyed the Free Technology for Teachers feed.  Lots of good stuff there.  (I starred several of those.)  The entry that I investigated further and thought was really cool was the 60 Second Recap site, which offers sixty second booktalks on classic books in a “hip” format.  They are videos made by a fairly young girl who is energetic and makes the books come alive by making applications to topics to which anyone can relate.  The site just launched in September of 2009, so it is brand new.  I checked out the entries for Pride and Prejudice, one of my favorite books.

I think the 60 Second Recap site would be more useful in middle and high school grades, because of the titles covered.  BUT the idea could be adapted for use with elementary students, using books and series in their area of interest: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Harry Potter, etc.  This would be a fun thing to do for my media center webpage…maybe one day.   The video clips could also be played during the morning news show at school.

Okay, I’ll TRY to do a better job of checking my reader.

Okay, I sort of “flaked” out on Pageflakes.  I created my page, but I’ll have to get back to it to really set it up.  It looks really cool.  I set up an iGoogle page a couple of years ago and enjoyed it for awhile.  I hardly ever go to it anymore.  It was my homepage for awhile, then that changed, I guess when I changed computers.  Pageflakes seems like it allows for more to be added.  I don’t know if iGoogle lets you embed anything.  I know you can change the theme and add and delete widgets and move them around.  I’ll play with Pageflakes later.

I think it will be a good place to “keep” everything.  Links to all my pages: school webpage, blog, etc.   Anything that saves time by keeping me from having to look elsewhere for links is a good thing!  It just takes the time to set it up initially, which I don’t really have at the moment.  Once the semester of grad school is over, I’ll be able to breathe a little bit.  Things are about to get even busier at work, so I’ll be pretty consumed with that.  (Forget cleaning the house….)

I haven’t had tons of experience with Google Docs, but I’ve played with it some, both with documents and presentations.  In a way, it’s a little easier and more user-friendly than some of the Microsoft Office products which have more bells and whistles than I will ever know how to use.  Google Docs seems to have all of the features I need for creating documents or presentations (like PowerPoint).  Well, maybe not as many cool fonts, but I bet I could download and/or import some.  (Haven’t investigated that…)

For this assignment, I went into Google Docs and made some notes for a Copyright lesson I will be teaching to the staff at my school.  I included a table of some of the outline points, as well as some notes, ideas, and references.  I stuck a picture in there from Flickr Commons that went along with one of the ideas.

One nice thing about using Google Docs is that your work is stored online; therefore, you can access it from any computer.  Nice when you are working on something in stages and at snatches of time and using several different computers!

I am also currently working in Google Docs with some of my grad school classmates.  We have a group assignment which requires a document and a presentation.  We are also using it for compiling our notes on the topic (grant writing).

Another use for it would be for teachers/media specialists to work together on a collaborative project.  For example, I am working with a 3rd grade teacher on a unit on Famous American Freedom Fighters.  This unit was created last year by this teacher and our school’s former Media Specialist, Mrs. Stacey Buckalew.   The teacher and I had a couple of ideas we could use to add to the lesson.  One of the great things about the lesson was that the students dressed up as the person they researched and presented the information as that person.  The teacher thought of having them create a PowerPoint slide about their person, but I was afraid that might be more of a distraction.  I would hate for people to be staring at the screen instead of the child…  I had the idea, though, to try to find pictures on Flickr Commons which could serve as “backdrops” for the people.  (Civil War, Civil Rights, etc.)  I will be digging around to see what I can find.  Then these pictures can be put into a presentation in Google Docs to be used for the students’ presentations.

Also, the Media Specialists in our district work on many things collaboratively.  We typically use wikis, but there may be opportunities when Google Docs may work a little better.

I couldn’t find an embed code on the library video I found on TeacherTube, so I’m putting this fun one in! This mixes two of my favorites: Harry Potter and LOST! Enjoy!