Reflection on 629Final Project

Our final project for LIS629 was a collaborative effort to build an online educational site (ours was a wiki designed for students in grades 3-5 on myths and fables. We included the following elements in our project: digital story telling (using the online programs, Photo Story & Xtranormal); links to other sites about fables & myths, as well as links to individual stories to read, watch & listen to; a Voicethread (for comments); a Community Walk, to illustrate the country of origin of many myths & fables; a talking flower to welcome visitors into the wiki; and a catalog that included a list of myths & fable titles suggested for students in our audience & created from our combined lists in our LibraryThing accounts. Our goal was to offer an interactive, educational site for kids to learn about the basic elements of myths and fables, find out more about them in a combination of links to online stories to read, as well as video animations to watch and enjoy; and finally, to demonstrate how students can create their own original myth or fable as a digital story, using 21st century literacy learning skills.

After our initial meeting in class to create our project proposal, our main collaborative communications were by email and chat. This was sometimes hard for me to get used to but it worked out fine in the end. After the initial set-up of the wiki, a basic home page structure, and an about us section, we each worked on our own pages & posted them as they were ready. Of course, we also did many edits on lots of details up until the final day of submission. I found that my years of experience working with kids & my writing skills were put to good use but on the other hand, I had to read & re-read the help portion of a number of online programs until I could use them properly. The project was a collaborative effort where both team members contributed to the final, finished product which I think turned out to be such a worthwhile endeavor. I think both of us learned so much & together we created an authentic learning experience for students to enjoy and hopefully inspire them to create their own stories, using the examples we presented as a springboard for their own creative ideas in their own web 2.0 smack down! I have always enjoyed presenting concepts to students & then standing back to watch them "mix things up" in a creative way.

I look forward to following all of your blogs & hope to hear from some of you as well. Here is a link to our wiki on MythsandFables.

Sample survey made in Google Docs

Using google docs in the library media center

Having just "scratched the surface" of the useful potential of google docs in the library media center, I can see a number of possibilities for the librarian to use for library business, as well as sharing with students. A document can be posted to a blog (say a language arts assignment on Hamlet), students can use the library computers, databases, e-books, etc. to research their responses, and then post on the class blog, as a collaborative work within the class. This is also a great way to compose an assignment without having to save on a flash drive (many students forget them, loose them or just don't have them). If students are working on a task that involves statistics or tables, the ability for several students to work on the same document from different locations is a huge time saver, not to mention exciting for the learning experience of those involved. Surveys and quizzes can be placed on google docs and filled-out online. My project partner and I will include a similar tool as part of our final project conclusion. I plan to use google docs, as well as spread the news on applications for google docs to students in the school library media center, as well as to my faculty colleagues.

Usefulness of nings

I think nings are a useful type of social network because they zero in on specific areas: when you check into your ning (or nings), you are tapping into all sorts of news and information in that area. TeacherLibrarian is going to be an extremely useful link for me as a library science grad student and school librarian but I might want to join a ning about horseback riding, too and perhaps a home gardening ning, as well, because they are also of great interest to me. Here is an online source for finding information on new trends, general news in the field, comments from similarly-interested people, and a forum for sharing one's own ideas on the subject. A ning is a good thing ("Martha" would probably agree).

Photostory/CW Post, Take 2

Photostory/CW Post

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfmXKVvNG8o

Digital Photo Story on YouTube

Hello all--
I'm a grad student at the Palmer School of Library Information Science
I'm currently in a web 2.0 course, LIS629
I just completed a 5-minute digital photo story & posted it to YouTube.
Copy & paste this address to view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfmXKVvNG8o
I put the slide show together on IPhoto & then put it on IMovie to add the narration

Regards,
Aunt La-La :)

PS--If you try to view it in the next hour or so, it may not be up yet but will be soon.

Wordle on Fiction Books

title="Wordle: Fiction books"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/990446/Fiction_books"
alt="Wordle: Fiction books"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">

Reflections on social networking to enhance learning

Even though I've just scratched the surface of social networking tools (like Twitter, RSS, Nings, Delicious, and LibraryThing by joining them & briefly learning about them in "short-hand", I know they all have potencial for me to enhance my professioal effectiveness and efficientcy. Using tools like I can network with other librarians, sugggest applications for teachers to integrate into their assignments ( & share tagged sites), and guide students in the use of of these tools for online collaborations for assignments--not just chatting.

Reflections on web 2.0 in the school library

The interactive aspect of web 2.0 has so many implications for the school library and the classroom. Students can share their thoughts on books they're reading, collaborate on assignments in small group projects, learn about students in distant locations (far beyond the pen-pals of yore),
share and comment on video projects, the list goes on and on.
I am so excited and at the same time kind of scared to jump into this world but ready or not, I'm going to jump in!