Thing #11.5 - Evaluation (11.5 More Things)

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? I liked the image generators (especially Wordle), learning how to post to You Tube, learning about other video resources, iTouch apps (I needed to learn this), Screencasting (Jing), Second Life (although I had no desire to do it at first, and claimed I wouldn't be doing it in my free time), and I think learning about Digital Citizenship is important.

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? These are just new things to have in my repertoire of experiences that I will be able to incorporate into my personal and professional life. And I think it's important as an information specialist to have a basic knowledge and understanding of what's available out there technologically (Skype, etc.), even if I don't utilize them all myself.

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? I had a negative attitude about Second Life and didn't feel like doing it at all. I claimed I would not be caught doing it in my free time, but I find myself talking about it to people, and I logged in the other day to see if I could find a Starbucks. It's just kind of cool. I think some people really must live vicariously through these virtual worlds, and I'm not into that (nor do I have the time), but it is pretty interesting and I want to interact with more people on there. It would be fun to get a group of friends together for a vacay somewhere. Also, I did research and really struggled between the Blackberry and iPhone for a long time before I made a purchase. I ended up going with (and loving) my Blackberry (claiming I wasn't a "gadgety" person and didn't need all those i-things). But I am so glad I got to play with my friend's iPhone and iTouch. I don't think I'm going to do away with my Blackberry, but I am now looking forward to my husband getting an iPhone and playing with his. It's the best of both worlds!

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? I enjoyed this one so much more than the 23 Things because it was shorter and I was more interested in the "things." However, I have some experiences under my belt that I did not have before doing 23 Things and that probably has something to do with it. I can't really think of a way to improve it.

Thing #11 - Digital Citizenship (11.5 More Things)

I don't know how much I would touch on digital citizenship during a library orientation other than mentioning it, but I think a whole lesson dedicated to this topic is imperative. And who better to impart this information to our students than an information specialist? I don't think I would talk about all nine elements of digital citizenship in my lesson, but would focus on Etiquette, Literacy, Law, Health & Wellness, and Security. I am not sure if I would try to squeeze them all into one lesson, or make each one it's own. I remember the instructional technology person at my last school giving a really great presentation on Internet safety, and the kids were all ears. I would want to incorporate in my lesson some of the videos, lesson plan ideas, interactive resources (such as ID the creep or Get Your Web License), and other resources provided to us in this "thing" because kids respond well to short videos and computer generated things. It's funny that "Access" is one of the elements of digital citizenship, yet we as educators have limited access to certain technologies in our district with which to teach digital citizenship (You Tube, etc.). Not only is digital citizenship important to teach our students, but this is a topic our fellow educators should be aware of as well (this is a good topic for a training or inservice). In fact, just yesterday I was talking to one of the teachers at my school who is very into technology and doing Web 2.0 projects with her students, and she was saying she would like to have all the legalities regarding what can and can't be done with technology (copyright, etc.) spelled out to her on paper. I myself don't even know all the answers and think this would be a great topic to discuss at one of our future library meetings.

Thing #10 - Virtual Worlds (11.5 More Things)

Hello. My name is Bree Collazo... Wow, this was certainly interesting, but it's definitely not going to be something you'll catch me doing in my free time. I played with it for a while and learned a lot, but I could REALLY benefit from someone showing me the basics and guiding me around, as opposed to trying to figure it out by myself. I watched a little video on how to change my avatar, and I also learned how to change it's clothes, but it was not as user friendly as one might hope. I never did figure out the hair. I went to Galveston, New York City, a flight museum, a school, and a store. One of the things that stood out to me was how lonely I was, although I did see an occasional person here and there. I wonder if there are places where a lot of people hang around? Apparently you can go shopping and get some new clothes for free, but I couldn't figure it out. I saw a man in a store and asked him to help me (chatted with him), and he actually led me to the women's department, but then I got stuck. My daughter saw me doing it and wanted in on the fun, so we messed around with it together (she helped me with the colors of my clothes, and we played around with the various gestures you can make your avatar say and do). She loved "wash" and just kept giggling about it. She was more into this than me, I might add, and it kind of helped me because I was at a bit of at a loss and she lead the way. As far as education goes I it looks like the sky is the limit. You can build and create things, buy things, go visit places, even attend seminars, etc., etc. The guy I chatted with owned that store, so I guess he built it himself -- which is beyond my imagination. And I read about the guy creating the Frank Lloyd Wright museum. I tried to go to a school to see what I could learn and I didn't figure it out. Neat stuff, but not my cup of tea. However, just like my daughter, I think some of the students would take this and run with it. I did notice some inappropriate things and clothing, so I hope the teen version is cleaner.

Thing #9 - Slideshare (11.5 More Things)

I think Slideshare is a great Web 2.0 tool. I remember wanting to post a slide show to my blog someone sent to me via email of various places around Houston after Hurricane Ike. I couldn't figure out how to do it so, naturally, I emailed Vaughn. She pointed me to Slideshare and it worked like a charm. I think like all the other things we've been learning about, students can really benefit from using Slideshare. To me, it seems like the same idea as You Tube or Teacher Tube, just in slide form. It's a great way to search for information on a topic, and it would be a great way to put student projects on a blog, etc. for all to see, or for students to share their projects with the world. It would also make grading presentations nice for a teacher as they would all be in one spot. As I mentioned before, I've used Slideshare to post a slide show to my blog, but I didn't understand it well and didn't realize you could use it to search out other people's presentations. I found a book talk presentation on Slideshare that gave me an idea for my own book talk slides. I also remember Teri Lesesne's TLA presentations being on Slideshare this past year -- such an easy way to get access to her lists without killing all the trees. It's funny to think that it wasn't but a few years back that she was still using an overhead projector and rapidly tossing her transparencies to the floor as she spoke (or perhaps I just have a warped sense of how quickly time flies)...

Thing #8 - Screencast (11.5 More Things)

Well, it was real, it was fun, and it was real fun... but it wasn't REALLY, REALLY fun. I enjoyed learning how to do screencasts, but this "thing" probably took me the longest of all because of all the trouble shooting I had to work through. I first downloaded GoView because it seemed so quick, easy, and visually pleasing to the eye. But then I was stuck. I had previously read in Vaughn's post that Jing was the only one that seemed to work for her (of the ones she tried), so I tried that next. It was really easy to use, but I couldn't get the sound to work so it took a while for me to figure out that my internal microphone wasn't turned on. (If you have this problem go to My Computer, Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices, click the Audio tab, click the Volume button under Sound Recording, then select Internal Microphone). Sigh. And for some weird reason I had to keep going back to turn on the internal mic over and over again (the setting would default back or something with logging in and out). After that I got excited and decided that I was going to do a screencast of a "Technology Tip of the Week" I previously sent out to my teachers (how to turn off the default setting so email notifications do not pop-up on your computer screen when giving presentations). This required me to switch back and forth from two different screens to do it, and after I recorded it, it would only show a tiny rectangle of the screen when played. I FINALLY figured out that one of the screens had to be minimized on top of the other one (if that makes any sense), and then it finally worked. Then because I am such a perfectionist, I had to re-shoot my screencast like 10 times. Well, I thought the hard part was over until I tried to post it to my blog (or share it). I changed the share settings to allow it go provide an embed code, but every time I would record and try to get the code, it would give me an error message. Grrrrrrr! I kept trying to shoot other things to see if I could get a code, and occasionally something would work. I finally just walked away from this over night and tried messing with it again today. In frustration I tried ScreenCastle but again I got stuck, and I didn't feel like learning a new program since I had already messed with Jing for so long. SO, I uninstalled Jing and tried to reinstall it to see if that worked. When I tried to reinstall it, I kept receiving an error message from SBISD!!! WHY, WHY WHY??? I didn't have this issue the first time! Then I figured it all out. I was logged into the district when I tried to install Jing the second time. After I logged out of SBISD it installed fine. Then I figured out that the reason it wouldn't give me an embed code is because I was trying to record a screencast from Outlook, which required me to be logged into the district. I finally just decided to try a screencast using Meriwether (logged out of SBISD) and it worked! It worked! It worked! I thought to myself that I am not going to be a perfectionist anymore, I'm done! ...until I replayed my screencast from my blog and it had no sound. Yes, I had to go back AGAIN and select the internal mic! I think I deserve 4 more credit hours for this one!!! :-) I wonder if anyone else has had this issue using Jing on their district laptop? I think this is a great tool for people to use to demonstrate things on Teacher Tube, etc., and students would have a ball using this for presentations! I think I could use it for the future Technology Tips I send out to my teachers, but an email just might prove to be less time consuming for me. I may have leave this job to the Atomic Learning folks. For what it's worth, see below... Okay, I just watched my screencast after posting, and it only shows half the screen. I think I am just going to move on now.

Thing # 7 - Video Resources (11.5 More Things)

Wow! So many resources for finding videos! Most people know about You Tube and Teacher Tube, etc., and Hulu is being advertised on TV, but it's good to know about the others.

I embedded a video from hulu, which is just a funny Sesame Street skit of Grover in the library. Believe it or not, middle school kids are nostalgic about their favorite elementary books and TV shows, so I thought this would be a good video to show during orientation to remind them about the library. While I am not a stereotypical "shushing" librarian, I could use it to talk about what is and isn't appropriate in the library. See below.



Our 8th graders study the Holocaust every spring and our school holds a special assembly with guess speaker Walter Kase, one of the few remaining Holocaust survivors. It is a really moving time for our students, and I often see students in the library afterwards looking up things online about Walter Kase. Some teachers also bring their classes to the library for Holocaust/World War II research, so I thought a video of another Holocaust survivor (like the following I got from blinkx) would be good to show. I did not see a way to embed this video, so I created a link below.

Holocaust Survivor

Finally, the Twilight saga is still all the rave, so I used Google Video Search to find an interview with Stephenie Meyer. Even if you can't physically bring an author into your school for a visit, you can always show a video of author interviews.



Now I am curios to see if I can embed videos into flip charts, which I plan to make for library orientation this year...

Thing # 6 - iTouch Apps (11.5 More Things)

This "thing" really set me back because I do not have an iTouch or an iPhone (although all my students do -- and one of them has been trying to talk me into getting one for a year). A friend of mine recently got an iPhone so I went to her house and she showed me how to download apps. It was all done from her iPhone (not the iTunes store online) so she lent me the iTouch that came with her Mac and I took it home to learn how to download apps on that, although I was required to pay a $10.00 fee to update my iTunes software. It is amazing how fast and easy it is to do! However, had I not already had experience with my iPod Nano, it would have been a much longer learning process. I downloaded Wikipanion, which is essentially Wikipedia for the iTouch, Facebook, Did You Know,? which provides random facts for the day, and Spanish Tudor. There are SOOOOOO many educational apps that can be used in the library or classroom. I have to admit, I wasn't sold on iTouches being useful in the library until using one. Students can use iTouches to do research on anything (just like a computer). They can download apps like Wikipanion, or go to the SBISD online databases (I just searched for a book in my library...). As far as using the iTouches by multiple students, they can view videos on things like Teacher Tube (or download an app like Poptig to view educaitonal videos), create a photostory, use Facebook for a project (as mentioned in one of my earlier blogs), type assignments, take notes, listen to audio books (by downloading apps such as Bookshelf, or Classics, etc.). The sky is the limit. If they had the latest iPhone they could even take videos and pictures for their projects. It's going to be a while before I return my friend's iTouch because I have more exploring to do. And if you've read my latest Facebook status, you will see that this has now convinced me to get an iPhone. I love my Blackberry, but I am behind the curve and seem to be missing out!