Wiki's. They are very similar or rleated to blogging, but more powerful. Of course, I'm familiar with the world famous Wikipedia - which somehow with the evolution of wiki's doesn't actually seem like one at all anymore. When I'm working with classes and ask them if they know what a wiki is, they never refer to Wikipedia. To them, Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia - just like World Book or Britannica. They really don't see any difference until it is pointed out to them by someone.
I enjoyed looking at several of the wiki's that are linked to CSLA 2.0 It's amazing to me that there are many public libraries with wiki's. I did especially like the St. Joseph Subject Guides.
As for classroom or school library applications - Yes - I can definitely see the possibilities. Book Reviews seem to lend themselves most prominently to this web tool, and classroom postings by teachers with individual responses by students is great for cooperative learning situations. When our school began going through the WASC accreditation review process a few years ago, we could definitely have used a Wiki. We had an attempt at that - provided by a company - but it was awkward and difficult to navigate. With today's technology it would be much easier to just have our own Wiki - and at no cost!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Week#6 Thing#15
Library 2.0 - the future of libraries. We have had much discussion on this exact topic in my district. How do we change to keep the library a viable resource for our students and staff? The traditional mode will not continue to work - and I found the three iceburgs that we need to avoid to be very aptly described. "Just in case, reliance on user education and (especially) come to us model" to be exactly what most school libraries would still look like. We are however, trying hard in a time of record budget cuts, to move forward. That's what this whole project is about - trying to predict which trends are "keepers" and which will fade away in a very short time, to be replaced by the new best thing. How do we allocate those precious few resources to best serve or school community, to provide the best resources where they need them most- and that isn't sitting in the library which now may have reduced hours of operation. It's from home, or a friend's house where they are collaborating together on their group project. It's making the library available to them 24/7. It's assuming a completely different role as a librarian. One who welcomes the chaos of change and reorganization. That's what I see as the future of libraries and librarians - someone who can help tame and harness the energy of that chaos and make valuable meaning out of the unlimited web resources. I think I'm up for it!
Week#6 Thing#14
Technorati exploration. So here finally is the tool to locate all of the blogs. A search engine if you will specifically for this portion of web 2.o - and it is very efficient. I like the way it includes video, , photos, etc. And yes, searching different portions of Technorati does get you different results. Each search gave me different results, and it seems it all has to do with the Tagging.
Tagging, of course - is very much like subject headings, and they are very effective. However, the one drawback is that people have to know the correct headings or tags to use to be successful in their searching. And right now, those Tags seem to be up to the individual user, there isn't a great deal of uniformity, although I can see that some organizations and groups are making an effort to do that.
This is one of the most useful resources so far. I like it!
SJLibrary2.0
Tagging, of course - is very much like subject headings, and they are very effective. However, the one drawback is that people have to know the correct headings or tags to use to be successful in their searching. And right now, those Tags seem to be up to the individual user, there isn't a great deal of uniformity, although I can see that some organizations and groups are making an effort to do that.
This is one of the most useful resources so far. I like it!
SJLibrary2.0
Week#6 Thing#13
Del.icio.us isn't a new idea, I have a vague memory of setting up bookmarks on the web that could be accessed from any of my computers many years ago. It is however, much improved. The capabilities have increased dramatically. You can view other's recommended sites, and the tagging and organization of the websites is just awesome!
So, I like the concept and will create my own account. I will demo this with my studentst when time permits - isn't that one of the most common problems in education today - too much to teach and not enough time to do it. It certainly applies to library instruction and collaboration as well as the regular classroom. I have some teachers that I know will love this for their students and we will incorporate it into our teaching. Many others will not be interested YET. Soon, maybe. I think students will like it, because of that social aspect - sharing with friends. That's the trend right now, and we might as well take advantage of that eagerness and use it as a valid tool for organization and research.
So, I like the concept and will create my own account. I will demo this with my studentst when time permits - isn't that one of the most common problems in education today - too much to teach and not enough time to do it. It certainly applies to library instruction and collaboration as well as the regular classroom. I have some teachers that I know will love this for their students and we will incorporate it into our teaching. Many others will not be interested YET. Soon, maybe. I think students will like it, because of that social aspect - sharing with friends. That's the trend right now, and we might as well take advantage of that eagerness and use it as a valid tool for organization and research.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Week#5 Thing#12
I learned about Rollyo today, and I'm not sure how much I liked it. I do think the idea of customizing searches to specific sites is awesome. I'm promoting the Step Up to the Plate ALA summer reading program at my school and I loved the idea of directing students to specific websites for the answers to the trivia questions. However, once the Rollyo was actually made and I viewed it, I found sites had been added with advertising and selling - aimed specifically at the topic - in this case baseball. Some of the sites were actually blocked from my school, which doesn't seem good to me. Why would the library put sites on their page that the district doesn't approve of for students. Why do I need to promote the sales of these web sites. I will investigate further, but I didn't see any option in the edit mode to remove those sites,and when I looked at other examples, those same types of sites were included as well. So - in short - I don't think I will be linking this tool to my website any time soon.
Week#5 Thing#11
Web 2.0 Awards - Library Thing
I loved this site for personal use. Isn't it just the thing for librarian's to catalog their own home libraries? Cataloging is a breeze, and there are so many options to personalize the use of the site. I'm always lending books to people, then forgetting who I gave them to and trying to track them down, so this solves that problem quite easily.
As for work uses - looking for the cataloging of those hard to locate items is so much easier to do from here, than creating original cataloging from scratch. I just did a couple of preliminary searches, but they were both successful.
So, to sum it up, Library Thing is useful to librarians at home and at work, free and easy to use. I don't think it would be of much appeal to teenagers, but adults will love it!
I loved this site for personal use. Isn't it just the thing for librarian's to catalog their own home libraries? Cataloging is a breeze, and there are so many options to personalize the use of the site. I'm always lending books to people, then forgetting who I gave them to and trying to track them down, so this solves that problem quite easily.
As for work uses - looking for the cataloging of those hard to locate items is so much easier to do from here, than creating original cataloging from scratch. I just did a couple of preliminary searches, but they were both successful.
So, to sum it up, Library Thing is useful to librarians at home and at work, free and easy to use. I don't think it would be of much appeal to teenagers, but adults will love it!
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