Reflections on my blogging experience

I have been pondering the possibilities for having my students post book reviews in an electronic format and had considered using a blog in order to do this. With all the things I have to learn, however, I had just not gotten around to figuring out how to blog. I was grateful for this experience because it forced me to do what I had wanted to do for over a year now. This assignment did not allow for all the excuses that had manifested itself as procrastination.

I have never written a journal and I therefore I don’t think that I would maintain a blog for personal purposes. I can see myself using this tool to share professional purposes. I think it might continue to periodically post information about information technologies, interesting things I learn at workshops and tricks of the trade. It was nice to have a voice and be able to share new information with colleagues. It was also really helpful to learn about all of these new information technologies, web sites and learning tools that I had never heard of before. My very qualified classmates also did the work of choosing quality web sites and resources that I probably would not have had the time and initiative to find on my own.

Despite the benefits and potential for information sharing, keeping this online journal or discussion going, however, was very time intensive. In addition, a blog is only seen as valuable resource if it regularly kept up. Though it is normally written and monitored by one person, I think that having multiple authors post on and monitor the blog, might lessen the work load and consistency demands for each author. I wonder, however, if a blog would be the best electronic arena for my students to post book reviews. I am not aware of the searching capabilities inherent in the blogging software, but I would like patrons to have the ability to search for specific book reviews. If a blog does not afford this searching capability, I may have to explore other options.

Pros and Cons of YouTube use in an educational setting and the alternatives

Hey everyone,

Here are a two sites that discuss the the use of uTube from which you can garner some of the pros or cons of using uTube technology.

http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/columnists/dyck/dyck016.shtml

http://medinger.wordpress.com/tag/web-20/

What do you think the pros and cons are?



Here are some alternatives to uTube that are in a similar vain:

http://eduscapes.com/sessions/bestofweb2/index.htm

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/raskin/1918

www.Zamzar.com

http://www.teachertube.com/


How do you feel these sites compare with uTube?
This site allows you to convert Utube movie for use in school when it is usually blocked.

Cyber Security Industry Alliance

Hi everyone,

I found this document very interesting to read. First of all, if framed cyber awareness in a new light for me in the way that it separated cyber issues into separate categories and assigned vocabulary to each area: cyber security, cyber safety, and cyber ethics. I had not previously thought of these issues as being distinct, but I now see that they are and that there are different methodologies for educating patrons about each. What I also found intriguing was that the paper brought to light the fact that many people make assumptions about who is teaching children about these issues. Parents may often assume that children are being taught about these topics in school, but that may in fact not be. I don't think the teachers in my school are teaching kids about these realities and I advise children on an individual basis, but have not formally provided instruction on these topics. I really loved that this document provided many web sites that provide lesson plans, curriculum and interactive learning tools, such as games, that teachers, parents and students can use to educate themselves on these topics. I bookmarked them all in my del.icio.us account and definitely plan to use them to try and educate my patrons on these very important topics. The Cyber Security Industry Alliance stresses the importance of creating a national awareness program. I agree that this would be a great way to get the word out and to cultivate a more aware population concerning safe Internet practices. What do you think of this idea and in general about what the alliance had to say?

Examples of uTube use in libraries & classrooms

Hey everyone,

I tried a different search engine today and low and behold I was able to find great resources that I couldn't find before. It just goes to show you that the various search engines do have different resources to offer. It ain't all about Google!

Anyway, I thought you might be interested in seeing how libraries are really using this technology.

Here is a high school which created uTube videos to show their students how to use its resources. Check the videos out on their website:

http://www.parkrosehighschool.com/Academics/Library%20page/page.html

Here's another created by a librarian at Georgia Tech:

http://youtube.com/profile?user=GTMechEngVids

Here's his blog on using uTube which is also interesting:

http://theubiquitouslibrarian.typepad.com/the_ubiquitous_librarian/2006/07/do_you_youtube_.html

Here's a blog about students in Australia learning through uTube in the classroom:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/youtube-course-is-a-class-act/2006/11/06/1162661610036.html

Enjoy and please let me know what you think.

Online Resources for Educators

Hi Everyone,

Looking over the myriad of resources posted in this week's learning module. I must admit that I was utterly and totally overwhelmed. There were just so many. So this really got me thinking about how people in general are handling the flux of digital resources available on the Internet these days. I, personally, as an adult and an information specialist feel that there are so many possiblities. It so hard to tell what is the best, the most informative, the most appropriate for my purpose. I think it's so great that there is so much information at our finger tips, but at some point...does the abundance become crippling? I'm one of those people who wants to try everything and experience everything. If I go to a really good restaurant and there are many amazing things on the menu to choose from I become paralyzed. I don't want to miss out. My strategy at that point becomes trying to negotiate with the other people at the table to get them to order something I'm not so that I can taste every delicious dish. Do you have any suggestions as to how to handle and really make efficient, effective and productive use of all the available resources for educators?

CISSL and Guided Inquiry

This web site provides a lot of information on guided inquiry and is very thorough. I like that it focuses on a constructivist learning approach which ties in with what we learned in Ruth Small's class and also with Barbara Stripling's research model. On the page that describes the foundation of guided inquiry, a visual model/diagram is provided that shows how the librarian and library program fits into the educational setting and the guided inquiry process. I found this diagram useful in terms of breaking down the main points. The most helpful and informative page on the site for me were the descriptions provided of the 6 characteristics of guided inquiry. These really justify why we should teach using this method and arms me with fodder for convincing my principal of its merits. Additionally, the site provides a case study. I would like to see more of these since theory is fine, but it is really informative to see these theories in practice. It would have been nice if a case study on the elementary level and middle school level were also provided in addition to the one involving the 9th grade. I found the site to be a little too text heavy for me. Bigger, more spaced out font and maybe some video clips would have helped my digest all the information. Its always nice to see or hear testimonials from students, teachers and librarians about their inquiry experiences. These really help one reflect, evaluate and revise the process and strategies used.

What did you all think of this site? Any thoughts or opinions?

What can uTube do for libraries?

This article talks about the popularity of uTube, how easy it is to sign up and post descriptive content and actual video format and some of of its other advantages and disadvantages. It also describes some of the ways in which this technology might be used by libraries. For example, it explains how libraries might provide tutorials on how to use the library and its resources as well as where to find the information.

How do you think using uTube in these ways will change patrons' attitudes about and experiences with the library?

What are some other ways you think libraries could creatively use this innovative technology?

*Please check your WebCT/blackboard e-mail for a copy of this article. Due to copyright, I could not post this article on the blog since it was obtained from a Syracuse database.

Do YouTube in school?

Hi everyone,

This great little article, called YouTube Comes to the Classroom by Anna Adam and Helen Mowers, describes some of the pros and cons of uTube and its potential uses in the classroom. It mentions a few examples of historical and scientific videos that might be viewed as part of a lesson. For example, one is a video clip of a WW2 vertan telling his account of the war.

Due to copyright restrictions I cannot provide a link to this article on this blog. Check your e-mail as I will be e-mailing it to you (this is the only way I could find around it). This is legal since you all are SYR students and therefore would normally have access to this article.

Would you as a teacher/librarian consider using uTube in the classroom? Why or why not?

This year I was doing a research project with the Pre-K on bread. The teacher wanted me to find a video of bread being made. I looked on both media databases I had access to: EdVideo online and United Streaming and could find nothing. So, I decided to look on Google video and I actually found some really great clips. I found a wonderful one that featured a small boy and his dad making bread together. I thought this would be so motivating and empowering for the kids to see. Unfortunately, they never got to see it, because I found out that the link was blocked when I went to test it out at school. I thought this was really unfortunate.

We recently discussed the new laws that are being put in place to block social networking sites from our schools. I believe uTube is currently blocked by the Internet filters in our schools. Are we loosing out on educational materials and experiences we could be sharing with our schools? Does their "safety" outweigh the benefits of some of the Web 2.0 tools?

EDUCAUSE article on Accessible Technology

This article on making technology accessible and universally compatible really got me thinking about factors that need to be taken into consideration when attempting to ensure that technology is availalble and used by all members of a school community. This issue is of particular importance to me because I work in a special education school. Not only do we have many students with learning disabilities as all schools do, but we are "barrier free" which means that the physical building is accessible to students and parents with physical disabilities. The article recounts several universities' accomplishments in making technology accessible to their student body. I believe that my school has many of the requirements listed as necessary for the success of this integration such as collaborative committees and polices and plans for implementation. We do not however, have a person in charge of technology. So even though, we may be meeting students' needs in other ways, technologically speaking we are lagging. I made attempts at helping out in this area, by using grant money 2 years ago to purchase some assistive technology such as track balls, special screens, adaptive keyboard, and one-click mouse ( I forget the official name for this), but I don't think anyone knows they exist. In addition, I also purchased software such as Boardmaker (picture symbols). In an attempt to share this information with people, I invited the physical therapists and occupational therapists to meet with me to show them what I had and discuss with them how we might use the technology, whether it meets their needs and what other equipment or software they may need to meet other needs. This was definitely a step in the right direction, but was alone, however, without the help or support of a committee. In addition, I am not the technology person, I have a full-time job and find it very difficult to meet all the needs I am trying to tackle. I am curious as to what suggestions you might all have with regards to this situation? I would also like to know if any of you have dealt with or encountered a similar situation in your schools and how you are dealing with it? Thanks in advance!! :)

Bookshare.org

It is so nice to see that there are good people like this in the world that genuinely want to help people and not just make a buck. Really, truly, refreshing!

I think it is so important that all information consumers feel empowered and experience independence in their personal information inquires despite their limitations. This organization has taken huge steps towards making this goal a reality for a large segment of the population.

Several questions came to my mind after perusing the website and watching the interview with the founder.

How do the blind view/experience content on the Internet normally? I think they have special software that reads the information on a website to them, but would this be very time consuming? Do you know of any other ways?

How do they know when a certain bit of text is a link so that they can click on it to access that particular web site?

I am still unsure of how the digital Braille (BRF) works? I checked out the FAQ's and the demo page and several others pages on the web site, but could not find a detailed explanation or example? Can anyone explain further how exactly this works?

Looking forward to your thoughts and insights.

Podcasting

Hi again,

2nd post for last week...

I did a workshop on podcasting so this was actually my 2nd experience going through the process, but virtually this time.

The workshop was fun and I enjoyed myself and got to leave with a finished product.

I definitely see uses for this technology in the classroom and I think students would be really excited to engage themselves in this process of creation.

What I really want to know, is if it is possible to create videos and then post them online for download as you would a podcast. Does that exist? A videocast? Are these then available to put onto your own iPod? Anyone know?

YouTube

Hey everyone,

This post is a little late, but better late than never, so here's it is...

My new information technology is utube. This is a site where the average person can upload a video that they've created. These videos are available to anyone with an Internet connection. Instant distribution! In the film industry this is much more difficult to accomplish. These videos, however, are often made by amateurs and therefore the quality is not of the same caliber. Coroporations, businesses and individuals alike are using this technology to their advantages. The phenomenon of these social web sites have created a new way to share information that circumvents traditional means.

Wikipedia's definition, examples and is very thorough and will give you a good background on utube:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

I found these two webpages on the utube site helpful. They provide information on how to post your videos and also give the person with a non-film background tips on creating videos:

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/?hl=en_US

http://www.youtube.com/t/video_toolbox

Enjoy and let me know what you think?

Deleting Online Predators Act-DOPA

I think I agree with the article "The Moral Panic Over Social Networking sites" makes some excellent points. I really feel that this legislation is too harsh. In addition, what if adults want to access these sites from a public library, they should have the right to do so. Should that right only be reserved for those who can afford to do so? Are these filters automatic or controlled by the librarians? There are many benefits to these social networking sites: they allow access to art, culture, thought and the power of the collective that previously was not accessible. I have recently really enjoyed watching videos on utube and learning about new bands/music on myspace. I have definitely learned some new things.

I think some middle ground needs to be reached. I agree with some of the people who commented below the article that this law is a band aid. I feel this is the way we approach and deal with many problems in this society. For example, modern medicine says "let's treat the symptoms" instead of asking "what is really causing this problem and how can it be prevented or solved?".

I think videos should be created for children and parents that educate them about what the purpose is of these sites, both the pros and cons should be given in addition to strategies for how to avoid dangers that may present themselves.

I also think kids should be allowed to sign up if they have their parents permission. The technology has to catch up though. There needs to be a better way to authenticate whether or not children really have their parents permission. Maybe parents could have the power to screen and approve their children's online friends before they are allowed to add them". To me, the people who support this act sound like lazy parents. What they may not realize is that they may be cutting off their children from life experiences. We cannot shelter children from everything. We have a resonsibility as a society to teach them to think critically.

Social Networking

I have been trying to set my myspace account all day, but have been experiencing technical difficulty. When I have finished it, I will share the URL. I have been resisting creating one because I feel like I feel like I just don't have the time with everything else going on in my life to keep up with that too. I have cracked though and I'm going to make one. I am a singer/musician and every time I go out and network in person with people. I tell them that I am a singer, give them my card and explain that I would be happy to e-mail them some mp3's. They always ask for my myspace address, though. I created an account a couple of months ago, but haven't had time to do anything to it. I added a few friends, but realized that what I really wanted to do was create an artist page. I am finding out that every one I know has a myspace page...friends, family members, even my two nephews! So, I'm going to get with it and make one...I'm actually a little excited about it. I do have a Bebo page and have had one for quite some time. It is private, because I didn't want to be bothered/harrassed by people I didn't know. I have to admit, however, that I never go on and post anything. There's just no time. I prefer to connect with people in person. Any of you ladies belong to a social networking site that you'd like to share?

It is so easy to get sucked in. I've spent the past couple of days since we've finished work on myspace and utube. There are some great independent musicians on there. Check out Akil Dasan...he's amazing!

http://www.myspace.com/akildasan1

Vlogging in Elementary Schools

Can vlogging be done in our NYC elementary schools?

You tell me...

Check out these links and let me know what you think:

http://community.vlogmap.org/node/1195

http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2006/11/podcasting_as_childs_play.html

http://syndicateblog.petersons.com/wordpress/index.php/vloggercon-visited/

Vlogging in Education

This site supplies links to website that show how vlogging is being used in education.

Check in out and let me know what you think!

http://wearethemedia.com/2005/10/25/videoblogging-in-education/

The following links/blogs also discuss the use of vlooging for educational purposes:

http://mobileedu.blogspot.com/

http://clausvistesen.squarespace.com/alphasources-blog/2006/2/28/blogging-the-cbs-case-competition-well-worth-a-look.html

http://elemenous.typepad.com/weblog/2006/03/friday_5_vlogs.html

Wanna Vlog?

Here is a web site that gives a good description of what a vlog is and explains how to go about creating one.

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci1163516,00.html

Tagging 101

I thought the video on tagging did a nice job of breaking down the topic and making it really palatable for someone who has no background on the topic. I am thinking that I might want to use it with teachers and students to give them an introduction to Web 2.0 tools since this feature is included in so many of them.

Flickr and Del.icio.us

After having my paper for my last class on folksonomies, I now feel like the social bookmarking expert. In reality I am far from it. My only true experience has been with Del.icio.us. I decided to start using it after having worked on this paper and must say that I am very happy with it so far. I am one of those users that experiences the same problems with regards to bookmarking as those mentioned in the learning module. I use mutliple computers at work and home and in addition multiple browsers on each. I was about to create a portaportal page around the time I found out about Del.icio.us. Needless to say I abandoned the Portaportal project and opted for Del.icio.us. I have a wonderul article that outlines and compares many of the social bookmarking web sites in chart form. I am hoping that over the summer I will have some time to check out some of these sites. I would love to post this article for you all, but I'm not sure if I can find the URL for the article online. I do have it in PDF though, is there any way to do this?

One of the paras in the building came into the library today looking for a picture of a clown for some festival that's coming up. I was busy doing something else, so my para was helping her look for images on Google. They weren't able to find anything, so I suggested Flickr, which worked! This is the first time I've recommended this site. I personally have only attempted to us it once, when I was looking for images for my builder. Unfortunately, I didn't find what I was looking for, for that specific assignment, but I would like to practice using it more, however, because it seems like it would really come in handy. Does anyone know if these images are considered public domain? How would one cite them?

A little more on vlogging

Hey there,

Here are a few more links for you to check out on vlogging:

Couldn't resist the Wikipedia definition:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlog

http://www.webreference.com/new/030306.html

http://www.vidblogs.com/

You can use this to make your own vlog. Sign up for a free membership!

Intro to vlogging

Hi Everyone,

So, my understanding is that we're going to be using this blog to post links to electronic resources and a brief summary of our 2 assigned information technologies for the semester. Mine are vlogging and utube. In addition, we can post our thoughts and commentary on the readings, assignments and activities from class and/or other content we find relevant to the course and its learning objectives. I love technology and all the wonderful opportunities it affords. I am so excited about the content of this class and so looking forward to learning about all of these new information technologies!

The first information technology I've been assigned to this semester is vlogging or vodcasting. I am really glad that I've been assigned this particular information technology because I am already familiar with it. A good friend of mine vlogs and was actually interviewed about this very topic. We met at an internship we both did at the Cannes Film Festival. She was doing this years ago before I'm sure it was even really that popular. She lives in D.C. and she came to New York for a vlogging conference being held at someone's house. I went with her and had such a great time and met great people. They had live streaming and videoconferencing going on at this party, it was really cool. To my knowledge, vlogging is like blogging in that it is a record of daily occurences or life but in video format. It is actually much like making documentaries only your video clips don't have to all be on a certain theme or topic. You can record whatever you like. Anyway, enough of me talking about it...check out her site:

http://www.phatalspin.com/wordpress/index.php?cat=9

She also has her own business designing web sites, here's that info:
http://www.reflectiondigital.com/

Here's the direct link to the interview she did:
http://www.phatalspin.com/wordpress/?p=69


Here's the site for the conference:
http://vloggercon.blogspot.com/

Leslye rocks! Awesome friend!