It's so easy being green!

Green it is!

I received the green and love it! Thanks to Mesquite ISD Library Services for helping us become better librarians and then rewarding us for it! Thank you!

23 Things Epiblogue

I can't believe I'm finished! After I ignored my blog basically the month of December, it was so difficult to start again after Christmas break. I started by working on Thing 9 which seemed to take forever. I was discouraged. The end looked very distant. I am so happy I've both seen the light at the end of the tunnel and passed through it! My technology skills have never been superior but I definitely feel more confident after the 23 Things. I know the inquiry method of learning is essential because you really do learn by doing. If I were sitting in a class looking at an outline of the 23 Things via powerpoint, I really wouldn't be learning much at all. I recall "fondly" the hours on the computer at home trying to post or embed! Now that it's over! But is it? I don't think so.

I know this is only the beginning and if our library is going to be modern and vital and attract students, we are going to have to start using this new (to me) technology. In looking back over the 23 Things, there were quite a few I think I will continue to use because of its usefulness in the library or because it's just plain fun. Edublogs, flickr, Google Reader, Image Chef, Custom Sign Generator, Comic Strip Generator, LibraryThing, Facebook, Del.icio.us, wikis, Zoho, youtube, podcasting, and Animoto were my favorites!

I really want to continue using these applications because I know from experience if I don't continue using what I've learned in a workshop or course all that knowledge will atrophy over time. The I-pod Nano (red, please) has been a great incentive and I appreciate all the effort and time it takes to coordinate and maintain an online course like this. I really hope I do not waste your and my effort. I really do want to begin using these new technologies and that is my intent. What is the old saying? "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." It may be baby steps but I'm pretty pleased with my progress.

Thing 23

Copyright. It's simple to find copyright for books. Not so simple for online information, images, music. My goodness...I read a little bit of that copyright comic book and it opened up many ideas I had not considered. It's very frustrating how copyright laws are interpreted. I know copyright ensures that the copyright holder earns money so that he/she can continue to produce works we want to read, see, or hear. But it seems the copyright laws from the 1980s have made copyright much more convoluted and confusing. The poor documentary makers who have to pore over every millimeter of film to see if they've captured a copyrighted image is an example of this confusion. If an image of a Coca Cola sign ends up in the film, does the director have to contact Coca Cola for a release? If a man is singing "I Did It My Way" in the film, does the director have to contact Frank Sinatra's estate? What a headache! Thank goodness it's not my job to decide the answers to these questions! But because intermediaries (read: lawyers) get involved to make these kind of decisions, money is always involved.
What a relief that there are some people out there who recognize that many artists, writers, musicians, scientists, and even politicians might desire to share their work with others without the involvement of intermediaries and big bucks. I had never heard of Creative Commons before. The Creative Commons license allows the copyright holder to keep his copyright while inviting certain uses of his work. It's a link between full copyright which is all rights reserved and public domain which is no rights reserved. Creative Commons is some rights reserved. It would allow works to be used without costing a lot of money.
As I was looking for an example that shows a work modified from the original, the most obvious is our Learning 2.0 Through Play. Look at the bottom of the page of each Thing and you'll see the credits citing the use of Creative Commons. Some other great examples can be found in the article about Creative Commons in Wikipedia. I was intrigued with The Public Library of Science which is an open access forum for scientists to read, download, copy and use any way they wish. There are core principles to follow in doing this and cost may be involved. It is not necessarily free. I recall when I was trying to help a student find some online research information for a Science Fair project and was stopped by not being a paid subscriber to a science journal. The Public Library of Science is just one way the internet has become more communal and collaborative and generous, I suppose you'd say.
I look forward to continue to finding websites with shared audio and video and other images with Creative Commons licenses. Some rights reserved seems pretty fair use to me!

Animoto Video: Horn Faculty Reaching for Success

Thing 22

Animoto! What fun! This was so easy even I could do it! As well as a child of 10! I'm kind of pumped about it and I'm thinking about other short videos I can make! I also noticed on my original video that a head was cut off and I need to go back and restore it if possible. It was a very easy process and didn't take long to do. What usually gives me problems is figuring how to get it back to my blog but, again, Animoto walks you through the steps and makes it very easy to post your video.
I am curious of the cost to make a longer video and might be interested in that later. Right now, it will be fun to create mini-vids for free! It is exciting to be successful in something I would never have done on my own. Animoto makes it easy to be successful.

Thing 21

I watched the Podgrunt video and I appreciated the simple explanation of what a podcast is: an audio- or videofile delivered to your computer. You need a podcatcher which can be the I-tunes program on your computer. Easy peasy! You don't absolutely need an I-pod but I'm happy to say I am convinced one is in my near future!
I tried to access all the podcast directories listed but could not get into Podcast.net or Podcastalley.com. I do plan to go back and access these sites when I am not blocked. I looked at Educational Podcast Directory and at first wasn't sure what would work with libraries. I found that Information Skills or English Language Arts had some possibilities. In looking at the English-related podcasts, I added YA! Cast to my Google Reader. It's a series of book talks for Young Adult literature and it looks like something I can really use. One of my main goals is to learn more and more about YA literature and I hope I can find other podcasts on this subject.
I looked at Yahoo podcasts but I wasn't very impressed. At least, I didn't find videos I think I could use as a librarian. When I searched for "library" videos, I got some results I was afraid to open! There are some weird people out there!

Biological Magnification Video

Thing 20

I just lost my original post! I tried embedding a video at the beginning of the post and I guess that didn't work! I tried to copy the text of my original post but I could never do it! Waa haa!
Well....let me start again! I've used youtube.com for quite a while. I'm ashamed to say that I think my first foray into youtube involved my looking for the music video of the first Ghostbusters movie. (please do not judge me but I just think "Who you gonna call?" is a very catchy phrase!) By the time the Diet Coke and Mentos videos were posted, you couldn't keep me away. Also, my niece Kaitlin is on two different videos although you can only see the back or side of her as she directs her Alpha Kai Omega club at Sing Song 2007. I've watched those a time or two.
I think youtube is a lot of fun but if you're lucky, you'll find some videos that are appropriate to use in education. I shared a hilarious student-produced video about Lab Safety with our science department. Some liked it and some just probably thought I was weird but it was a great video. This summer as I worked at MHS, I talked to the Biology curriculum writing team and they asked me about the copyright issues with youtube. In talking to mmw, I decided to email the producer of the video and he gladly gave Mesquite ISD permission to use it. It's titled Biological Magnification and I'm hoping to eventually embed it on my blog. It's very well produced and explains biomagnification better than I ever could! I think students will relate to a video and the video is more interesting that I am.
That brings me to think it would be fun to embed videos on our website. They could be related to the library, literature, or just plain fun. There's sure to be a lot on youtube we can use but maybe one day we can produce our own.

Thing 19

I often used what I called "flow charts" to present notes to both my Biology and Anatomy & Physiology students. I like graphic organizers even if the ones I produced were pretty crude versions of a flow chart using Microsoft Word. I have had experience with Inspiration. However, as a biology teacher, my notes were always so extensive (especially in Anatomy) that I never could figure out how to use Inspiration to organize them. I've enjoyed looking at these programs although I've given up on getting a return email to verify my existence with both bubbl.us and and Flowchart.com. I tinkered with both Mindmeister and Gliffy. When I used Inspiration in the past, I liked that is a very easy program to learn to use. But with these web versions, I like that I can share and collaborate online. I liked that you could do various tasks with Gliffy and started to play around with a floor plan. However, I could never get the door to rotate properly and did give up. I played around with a flowchart but didn't get very far with it. I may have given up too soon but I went on to check out Mindmeister. I actually found that version of a mind map easy to use. It wasn't perfect because I had an idea "line" separate into 2 lines and was unable to correct it! However, I titled my mind map "Things to Do on Spring Break in 2008" and had 3 main ideas: London, Paris, and Amsterdam. I then added 3 or 4 ideas of things to do in each city. So that was fun. And while I'm sitting here at my computer on a dreary day it's uplifting to think about the fun I'm going to have on Spring Break!
As a librarian, I'm not sure I would use either of these programs. But I can see how we could use a flow chart to map out the duties of the Student Librarian Assistants. We could also use flow charts to outline library procedures. When I receive the emails from flowchart.com and bubbl.us, I'll go back and take a look at those.

Thing 18

I looked at Craigslist because I've been interested in it before but once I saw a registration fee was involved, I backed off. I appreciated being able to finally see Craigslist. It ws fun looking at all the goods and services offered. I'm looking for a French Country dining set and enjoyed looking for possibilities but found nothing I liked. I looked at the listings for home repair because I always need things fixed around my house. The only problem with a Dallas-Ft. Worth "edition" of anything is that it's a mighty large area to cover. I did appreciate when people narrowed their location so I'd know if someone was closer to the Garland-Mesquite area. I'm still a little wary of choosing a repair person off the internet. Although, for many years I guess the Yellow Pages was the definitive source for repairmen and Craigslist is just another type of Yellow Pages. I looked at books for sale but didn't find anything I had to had. I looked at the Forums and just had to investigate the Haiku forum. I read some really wretched haiku but it did follow the 5-7-5 syllable format!
The useful features is that it is packed with information. You can buy all kinds of goods and there are many jobs and services advertised. There's all kinds of forums and personal opportunities to meet others. Unlike ebay where you might end up paying more than you wanted if you get caught up in the bidding war, the costs in Craigslist are listed.
What I didn't like about Craigslist was its archaic look. It looked like something programmed by an Atari! I thought it would look more streamlined and modern. But I guess it does get lots of information loaded onto the home page, though.
Craigslist is a personal and business retail and services program. I can see absolutely no application to the library. Not for library use, anyway. In a public library, it would be helpful for patrons to be able to access it if they are willing to pay a fee.

Thing 17

I like Zoho Writer. I created a word processing document about Gold Hill in Shaftsbury, England and easily published it to my blog. (See the posting below this) When I use Microsoft Word, I know just enough to accomplish what I need to do. I don't consider myself an expert in Word at all. (I confess I miss the old Clarisworks program from my former Mac days when I could pretend I was smarter than my word processing program! Microsoft Word thinks it's much smarter than me and I hate that!) But I was able to use those less-than-stellar skills to create a document with Zoho Writer. It seems to have all the characteristics of the Word program, too. So I have to say that Zoho Writer is very user-friendly and easy to use! When I was working on my school library certification, this application would have been very useful to use on collaboration projects. I like that you could work on projects without using any hardware and you can access it from any computer, any location. For fun, families could use this to create "round robin" documents about family news. I looked at the spreadsheet program and it looked pretty easy. The presentation program could be useful to students who start a powerpoint presentation on a school computer but don't finish it. If they used Zoho Show, they could finish it at home. I definitely want to continue looking at Zoho and finding ways to use it.

Gold Hill in Shaftsbury, England

Gold Hill in Shaftsbury, England

Above is Gold Hill, said to be one of the most photographed streets in England. It is in the town of Shaftsbury located in Dorset in the southwest part of the country known as Hardy Country. Thomas Hardy based his novels in this part of England he called Wessex. I have this particular photograph on my wall at home. I've taken this exact photo except the lighting was different. I remember the early morning sun was very bright.

Imagine my surprise when I picked up the book In a Dry Season by one of my favorite British mystery authors Peter Robinson. Note its cover:

The angle's a bit different but this picture is definitely Gold Hill. Ironically these pictures refer to a village that was flooded and was permanently covered by water. Gold Hill is, as you would imagine, on a high point in Shaftsbury and unlikely to be flooded any time soon.

This post was created using the word processing application from Zoho Writer.

Thing 16

My posting in the wiki area of the sandbox was Idea #12. I think it would be a lot of fun to create a wiki for collection development. I really think students would enjoy the format. I'd like for teachers to contribute, too. They are always so busy day to day, it would be better for them to contribute when they actually have some time to sit and think. Phyllis and I have talked about developing a TAKS review pathfinder but with our new-found knowledge, we think it will morph into a TAKS review wiki. That's one of our goals, anyway. You can use a wiki for book club, a wiki for the library to update information and talk to students about policy and procedures, a TAYSHAS wiki, pathfinder wikis for research assignments...and etc. I think even a Twilight wiki would generate some interest. I think the wiki is limited only by one's imagination in creating a use for it. Personally, I'd like to develop a Family Wiki which I think could be more flexible to use than email. There's an MISD group that travels to Europe during spring break and I think a wiki designed for that group would be helpful. I'm sure there's a wiki in my future. I'm still considering the possibilities.

Thing 15

When? September 2005. Where? Library Expo. Who? Walter Betts. His presentation on wikis and RSS feeds was my initial introduction to the changing world of Library 2.0. Wikis sounded pretty questionable to me. I don't know many teachers who aren't mild to serious control freaks when it comes to their facts ( course content). How could it possibly work to have those facts out there for all to see and to change at will? Civilization as we know it is over!!! That might have been my first impression but as I've learned about wikis, I see their value and potential. And once I read that a scientific study had compared the number of factual errors in Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia and found minimal difference, I began to think differently about wikis. I have found my inner-wiki and I embrace it. In reading about wikis, one thing that really hit home is that the creation of the web no longer belongs to only the techno-savvy but to all the people...people without html skills. The uses of a wiki seem endless. It can be used in a city for people to recommend goods and services; librarians can use them to recommend books; teachers can use them to post course content with greater student involvement. Wikis allow immediate response and interaction. I know the potential for evil is great but if wikis require identification of genuine e-mail addresses, I hope the potential is lessened. As I looked at the various wikis, I can see where families who are separated by lack of time or distance could keep in touch with a wiki. Librarians can use wikis for their book clubs. As I've mentioned previously, the pathfinders that once thrilled me....now, not so much. I agree with Joyce Valenza in her 10 Reasons Why Your Next Pathfinder Should Be a Wiki. That interests me a great deal. It is something I would like to attempt. Instead of using a static web page to disburse information, libraries can use a dynamic wiki which invites the participation of their public. It would be genuine collaboration if teachers could use their expertise and great knowledge of their subject to polish and improve a "pathfinder-wiki." How nice if students could add their own suggestions to online book recommendations. I think it would be fun for students to review books informally through the wiki format. This spring, we're using a wiki for a book study that's been organized by one of our English teachers. It should be fun. But I'll let you know how it goes.

Thing 14

What does Library 2.0 mean to me? The main thing is that I don't think we're in Kansas anymore! As I started my School Library Certification (I highly recommend the University of North Texas program) in January 2000, I had no idea I was stepping not only into a new millenium but into a new reality! I thought it was going to be all about the books and assisting students to find and use those books. But today's library is both an exciting and scary place to be. Scary when you think what 2.0 really means: a shared network that encourages interaction and shared information. The library will no longer be just a physical space in the school. It will be a virtual location where our students will be able to share their knowledge. That is a scary thought! How will all that social networking work in a school environment? To be truly Library 2.0, won't students have to be able to contribute to the librarians' online creations? Will students be given the power and, most importantly, the access to be able to do that? Will the format be blogs, wikis, social bookmarking? Probably all of those things and more and it's exciting to speculate how Library 2.0 will evolve over time. The last article referred to Library 3.0 which might include the collecting of librarians instead of books. I assume that means instead of bookmarking websites we'll be bookmarking our favorite librarians' blogs. But just as it was difficult for me to realize back in January 2000 what my job as librarian would become, it is difficult for me to realize in January 2008 the infinite possibilities of what Library 2.0 can become. Not only are we not in Kansas, I don't think we're ever going back home!

Thing 13

As usual, my head is reeling after being introduced to lots of new ideas. I am experiencing a paradigm shift, as they say! One of the quotes that really struck me about social bookmarking is "Find the Best of Web through People, not Machines!" That hit home because even Google in its bid for world domination sometimes misses the mark when it comes to searching. After viewing the Del.icio.us tutorial, I was convinced this is the way to go. But I think Furl and Ma.gnolia each have their good points. Furl evidently is better for serious research and Ma.gnolia has a clean web design and is user-friendly. However, all of these sites appear to be user-friendly. Their main purpose is to change Chaos into Order. I relate to that because my favorites list is a mile long! It will be nice to finally put my favorites into order and be able to view them from any computer. I know there are favorites websites options now but the advantage any social bookmarking site is folksonomy. I love that term because taxonomy is the hook on which all biology hangs. Folksonomy is a peer-driven taxonomy. That speaks to the biology teacher I was in my former life. Folksonomy, blogs, and wikis may be the hooks on which education will hang in the future! I think this could certainly be used in the library. It seems our pathfinders that were once so awesome seem kind of dated now. It would be neat to create a reading list or website list of resources for particular research using a social bookmarking site. I don't know that even our students know much about this. It would be wonderful for librarians to be a step ahead of our students for once! (and I may be kidding myself about that!)

Thing 12

I joined myspace and facebook months ago because I wanted to see what my youngest niece and nephew were getting up to online. They're such great kids they let me be a friend. Once I saw that what they were getting up to seemed innocent and fun I backed off. I've been reacquainting myself with both these sites. Educators need to know how students are communicating. Surely in the future, teachers and librarians will make use of this type of communication. However, our kids at school are blocked but there are a lot of good ways to use these sites. I know some colleges are communicating with students through facebook. You can link to my facebook page. As librarians, we can set up our book club on myspace. Here's my myspace page. It seems high school students use myspace and college kids use facebook. What I dislike about both these sites is that it's not always easy to locate a person. I searched both sites for my favorite mystery authors and came up empty. I also don't care to trawl through 400+ individuals named Elizabeth George to see if I can find the one who's a mystery writer. And I know site content is not always wholesome. The type of site I've never heard of before is the one I really liked: Ning. Doing these assignments makes me feel like I did when I was taking library certification courses from UNT. I always felt I was learning about stuff on the "cutting edge." Last Wednesday during staff development, I asked Sandy to repeat the word Ning because I wasn't sure what I was hearing. Now I'm loving the Ning! I especially like the Teacher-Librarian . There's a group called YA Lit in the Library that looked very interesting. There was a post about using Twitter to communicate about books and there's something else I need to investigate. The other two I like are Texas School Librarians and Mesquite Librarians & Friends. These sites are ones that I would most like to use. They are of specific interest without a lot of the silliness you see on myspace or facebook.

Thing 11

LibraryThing looks like a lot of fun! It will be an excellent resource for discovering new books and it would be an excellent resource for book clubs. I think my monthly Monday Night Book Club could use this. I can see it would be fun to create a widget for our own library webpage to advertise our new books. I've already added LibraryThing to my RSS feed and look forward to learning all the ways it can be used. My own personal collection will be posted here. I've tried to put the widget on my blog and so far have been unsuccessful. I plan to continue to try that.
I have placed the widget on my blog but I don't care for its look and its location. I may need some help with that! I think some other blogs look really good and I'm not quite as happy with the appearance of my own. With the completion of 23 Things, I hope to spend some time tweaking it.

Thing 10

This was a lot of fun! I used Comic Strip Generator to make the wicked witch and I used Image Chef to make the Read animation. These sites were my favorites. I liked Custom Sign Generator as well but decided a couple of images was enough. With Custom Sign Generator, I played around with post-it notes which was fun. I must confess I was having issues posting images to my blog and had to ask for help on what to do. Again, if you are not a computer expert and if you have long gaps of time between postings, it's easy to forget how to do things!

Read!

Imagechef is a keeper!
I think I now know how
to dress up my facebook
and myspace pages!

This was fun. My only problem is that I tweaked
the text and only the original comic will post!

Thing 9

I am seriously considering converting to Amish! Or, I'll be looking for the next meeting of the local Luddites! I won't say this again but this challenging journey of personal growth is giving me a headache! This assignment has been particularly difficult because I deserted the 23 Things for about a month. Big mistake. I should have stayed on track. I resolve to be more consistent from here on.
The easiest way to find feeds was through the edublog award winners. I signed up for Librarians Matter and A Library by Any Other Name. Both had very useful information. I thought topix.net was also useful and I'm still a little amazed that Mesquite information was on the page when I opened it. The easiest search tools were blogline and google blog search. I searched for happylibrarian on blogline and there I was! I was confused by syndic8.com and School Library blogs-suprglu. They just looked confusing to me and given more time maybe I can figure them out. Initially I thought Technorati was confusing but I did like the "tags from what's rising" section. It seems timely when you consider that internet chatter of the bloggers predicted the New Hampshire primary results better than the television analysts! When I have more time I want to visit more blogs and "poach" their links to other great blogs. I am completely overwhelmed by the amount of blogging out there. Makes me want to get my crayons and Big Chief tablet and write my mommy a letter!