Newest Projects

We have a new person in the gifted position who had been in the science classroom for about ten years. Her background is in science and math; literature has not been her thing. Gifted education requires and demands literature exploration, as well as the sciences and mathematics, which brings me into the picture. YEAH! Having the opportunity to work with her is great; having the opportunity to work with these students is even better.

Through some research and investigation we collaborated to offer these students a variety of challenging, thought provoking books for a Book Group. After reading the book their assignment was to review or create a promotion for the book. Here is the first one completed (amazingly) in about fifteen minutes by an eighth grade student. Stay tuned for more!

Just Playing

Don't have much to write - just playing around with Flickr letters which are great fun. Need to start focusing on all that I want to learn with integration, UbD, etc. and stop procrastinating and playing games. Here is what I came up with for my name...

Applying these Skills

For the past two weeks I have been helping the one computer teacher with a class she is taking at on Web 2.0 applications. Other than having deadlines, killer projects - you know the usual grad workload - this online class we have worked on, for no grad credits BTW, I would say we have learned the same things. Sure, some of the applications in their class were a bit newer, but by next month they will also be old news. The bottom line is the application of these Web 2.o tools for student learning.

Her final project was two fold - one a wiki and a class project utilizing some application. It seemed there were major roadblocks with every project she thought of, so she asked me for assistance. We decided to do a VoiceThread and allow the class to select the topic, find an image, write twenty seconds of text to explain their picture, complete with a bibliography. At first the kids were struggling, but after some guidance and exploration they really embraced the assignment.

It really showed the students a few things: collaboration between teachers, a group project with individual input, teachers learning with the students, trial and error, and collaboration outside of the school. The collaboration outside the school occurred with a picture on Flickr that was copyrighted, but encouraged contact with the photographer. I sent the photographer an email asking for permission and within hours received a lovely reply granting permission with even more information and his thoughts about the topic. What was really exciting and really outside the classroom in Hershey was he was in India! Talk about a global learning community!

So, check out the VoiceThread on the page. Leave a comment for the kids.

Going Green

Week 9 - Thing #23 Questions

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
   My favorite discoveries were all of the widgets and artsy tools because I really like when things look good. It is a sickness. But, the really practical side of me liked discovering tools that will be useful for students like Rollyo, wikis, ebooks, and online tools like zoho and google docs.
   
2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? Needing to stay current is part of being a librarian because we need to be on the cutting edge of information and using these technologies is 21st Century Learning. Keep current or retire.
   
3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? A personal unexpected outcome was finding out how easily I can get drawn into designing a learning site, and then almost being obsessed with making sure it is perfect. But the take-a-away is the Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto of "not having to have something perfect" before release or using with students.
   
4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?Make sure the links work or are current. The concept is great, as is the format. It is easy to use and follow. The only thing that kept happening to me, and it could just be me, was I lost the main page when I clicked on the links for the tasks for each thing.
   
5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? Yes.
   
6. How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote CSLA learning activities? Stimulating.

I tried to complete the survey but received the message from Blogger : Blog no found. I'll keep trying to post.

The sites for copyright are very useful and I will share at school. Creative Commons is good, but I need to keep studying it and when and if I should post it on my wiki, and the Fair(y) Use video is wonderful!! How creative. The PSLA Web 2.0 23 Things has modified the California 23 things for our benefit in Pennsylvania.

This has been a great experience and I will continue on my journey as I Consider all things Web 2.0

Week #9 - Thing 22

At first I thought "Who exactly would want to read a book on a computer screen? Or the new Kindle from Amazon? Or on your iphone? That is just weird." OK. I am the mom of two of those weirdos. My son, who in high school threw The Diary of Anne Frank on the floor and said, and I am quoting "I am NOT reading that. It is a chick book." is now reading Immanuel Kant on his Kindle. My youngest daughter downloads to her iphone indie books from around the world showcasing new art styles as well as fashion shows, etc. on that tiny little gadget that fits in a sock.

OK. I must be the weirdo. I like paper and the feel of turning pages. I can't pay attention to stories on the Playaways I have for the kids in school. I miss whole chapters because my mind wanders. I am a digital immigrant. Is there a Digital Immigrant Anonymous?

Well, back to the task at hand or thing, shall I say. I searched the Internet Archive and found the Masque of the Red Death (feeling a bit Halloween-y) The book popped up and I could use the arrows to page through the book on the monitor. Not bad. Not the same, but not bad. Checked out more composers than I ever heard of on IMSLP and found something from Bach. Useful perhaps for music teachers and a link to share. Was not entralled with Project Gutenburg nor the British site. Moved onto ManyBooks.net - liked the way this one was arranged. You could select genres, so I looked at Banned Books - interesting, and Fiction - found Anne Of Green Gables in audio with a variety of choices to download to including the Kindle and the iphone, as well as another favorite Wuthering Heights. Cool. This is nice, very nice. And LibriVox is free. Even better.

I will need to add these to the wiki pages.

Week 9 - Thing 21

Heading into the final things for this journey by exploring podcasts. Some of the links I couldn't access, were no longer working, and Yahoo discontinued their podcast services last October, so I set off on my own. I found a very good website "Podcasting 101 for Librarians" that had some interesting podcasts for sign up - Podcast Pickle, for one. Topics about any and everything you can think of to listen to when and where ever you are. Very cool. But...

Honestly, I ponder the limits of exactly how much and how many and how often any of these things are really useful/necessary/valid/or just plain fun. Many of the pages I visited with podcasts had a message like "I hope to keep this updated" with an update of 2006. Enthusiastic when started; interest wanes after a bit. Real life gets in the way.

The podcast I linked to was Nancy Keane's book talks, a whole page of book talks for kids, great stuff from a pro at it. I don't want podcasts sent to me; I don't want them piling up reminding me there is that much more to do. Sometimes, I just like to do things the old fashioned way. If I want it, I'll look for it when I need it. I guess it is rather a bit like downsizing all of your possessions when you get older.

However, uses for school are numerous for both students and teachers - orientation, book talks, tutorials, oral histories, gallery walks, to name a few applications. We have Audacity on our laptops; I've only played with it, but I can see this being a very useful tool in many, many ways.