Thing 20: Facebook and MySpace

You can now find me on either Facebook or MySpace! I created a MySpace page awhile ago, but I don't think I remember the password. I just set up a Facebook page today so I could be another friend for my sister in law, Carolynn Kimmes, who set up a page to advertise her business selling her mother's amazing caramels (shameless plug for Edna's Caramels!! They are truly the best!) I found a friend request waiting for me from someone I actually knew! And I found a couple other friends. Who knew 30/40-somethings were interested in Facebook!

It is really easy to use and I think it's a nice twist that you can only see the profiles of your friends. That would make it "safer" for student use. My days-away-from-12-years-old daughter is disappointed that she has to wait one more whole year (and two days). She even said out loud to her librarian mother "Or I could lie about my age." Seems this is a prevalent practice among pre-teens.

Thing 9: Online Collaboration Tools

Random thoughts:

• Using Zoho/Google Docs will help save our server space.
• Teachers can easily comment on students' work in progress.
• Zoho notebook could be a great way to gather information for a large research project such as history day and keep all your web sources in one place for easy access.
• ALL STUDENTS NEED TO HAVE A COMPUTER 24/7!!
• How does this change how teachers teach? ARE TEACHERS READY FOR THIS CHANGE???
• Great tools for a writing team!!
• Could this mean the end to the 5-minute staff meeting? Please, no more meetings for things that could be handled more efficiently by other means. (Oh, wait...staff don't even read their email, how will they be persuaded to check their Zoho account?) Again...did I say that out loud?
• Have I mentioned that I LOVE these new tools? Have I mentioned that I am FRUSTRATED by how reluctant people are to embrace them?

I love the idea of not having to email documents back and forth to myself. I am a little leary about formatting and what the document will look like if I print it out in a different location from where I created it. I would like to try creating and presenting a slideshow completely off one of these two sites. That will be my challenge to myself next time I need to do a presentation. (Maybe about the excellent Literacy Leadership in the 21st Century workshop I just attended!)

Kitty Clock

I found this on Jim's blog (one of the finishers). My parents had this clock when I was little. I loved it. I wonder if it still works and if it's still around. My parents never throw anything away.

Thing 8: Share

I tried uploading a video on Creative Commons (which just fascinates me!) from SlideShare and it said it had posted successfully...but no video on my page. Curious. I thought it was lost in cyberspace. But I actually have three blogs on my Blogger account, and this morning I found it posted to the first blog in my list. I believe it was in Flickr that you were able to choose which blog to post to, so I'd like to see that in SlideShare.

You can click on the link above to view the video I was hoping to post here.

I just added my Dino World library event pictures in a Flick cube on the sidebar. I was hoping to simply be able to upload it to blogger through the Picture Trail site, which at first it didn't look like you could. I had to click on get code, then it showed the multitude of options for auto-posting. Thankfully, this one magically appeared on the correct blog, since it did not ask which one to post to. I think I had this blog open, which may have had something to do with it, but then I wasn't logged in like I thought I was, so I'm not really sure. I'm sticking with my "magic" theory - it works with elementary students...and staff (for now...). I loved that there was an option to post it to the sidebar. That was helpful and a nice choice to offer.

I do wonder about using photos in the public school setting. A teacher was using another Web 2.0 site, Animoto, and my district tech person pointed out that even though the pictures were not made public, she was concerned about them even living out on someone else's server over which we have no control. Good point. How careful do we need to be in protecting our children? Through how many layers do we need to peel to protect them and ourselves? Curious.

Thing 7: Web 2.0 Communication Tools

Email: I'm drowning in electrons! But,I am getting better at "use then lose" with my email. I am trying to go through the current day's inbox and sent items to delete all unnecessary items. I also have a "sent items to keep" folder (which I just accessed yesterday and last week) for stuff I'm not ready to throw away. I really think this information management is an important thing we need to teach staff to do/share tips and tricks (not that they have any time to read them).

IM: I have done this mainly with family members through Gmail's chat feature. In my job as an LMS, I am moving around so much, that IM isn't really any faster than my email, which I always check whenever I have a spare few minutes at my desk. I have tried the IM/chat type reference with the Hennepin County Library as part of one of my MLIS classes, and I did really like how well that worked. That would be a fun way to do the reference desk for me, since it is almost real-time, but I would have a minute to collect my thoughts or do a "street shout-out" (supposing I would have a co-worker nearby).

SMS: I have trouble envisioning the use of text messaging in a school library, especially elementary, setting. High school...yeah, maybe, colleges - for sure! Our district currently bans cell phones in class. Also, it would seem to "require" someone to sit at a computer, or have a phone attached to them at all times. Since school librarians are also teachers, it would be hard to be teaching and have text messages coming in the whole time. I don't think I'll be texting other teachers any time soon...mostly I don't want them to know my cell phone number! :)

Web Conferencing: I really like webinars! I like being able to sit at my desk with my (Caribou)coffee, run out to help a student if needed, then come back and continue with the lesson. I am definitely a life-long learner! I have learned about CultureGrams and I first heard of PBWiki over a webinar. Very fun! I also like that they are usually free of charge! And no rush hour traffic!

Thing 6: Trading Card

Dino World Trading Card, originally uploaded by sallychka.

Oh, this was fun! I can see so many fun ways to use this in the classroom! Getting to know people, creating your own game...across all subject areas! I can't wait to share this with my staff (sometime after this week when report cards are due!)

See my name in letters: Sally.

Thing 5: Still More Flickr Fun

Thing 5: Even More Flickr Fun

John & Dariya Warhol, originally uploaded by sallychka.

This would be fun to use with student photos to create report covers or classroom newsletters or yearbooks. Library promo pieces would also be a good use for this.

Thing 5: More Flickr Fun

My creation, originally uploaded by sallychka.

Dariya and I attended the Harry Potter midnight release party for book 7. She was Luna Lovegood and I'm Mrs. Weasley.

Making a photo into a jigsaw puzzle was SUPER EASY! I have used puzzles with Kindergarten to teach mouse skills - now I will try making my own puzzles (not of students) and putting them on our school website to avoid all the ads that I have found on the puzzle sites. Except that I just noticed that I can't actually move the pieces around. Anyone know how to make the pieces move or a different program to make moveable pieces?

Flickr photo

Isla Mujeres April 2007 054, originally uploaded by sallychka.

Here we are/were!

Interesting that the photo did not load from the web address on the Flickr page when I tried to upload the photo while in Blogger. I did really like the Blog This feature in Flickr. It was very easy to set up and use.

Thing 4: Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24257630@N05/2302545693/

Several co-workers (OK, two) are heading to Cancun for Spring Break in a few weeks, so I am reliving our time there last year.

Flickr was VERY easy to use to upload pictures and tag/describe them. I have never used a photo hosting service other than the Kodak gallery at target.com to upload photos for printing. As for the public aspect of this, I was a little concerned about putting pictures of my daughter on the web and I did choose not to add a photo of me with a certain type of Mexican beverage because of all the publicity of teachers and their photos affecting their jobs.

I loved how the St. Ben/John's library's used Flickr with their bookshelf. That would be fun to do!