Geotech Librarian

They made my day!

2014-04-25T07:58:00.001-08:00

Twice yesterday, students came into my office to formally thank me for the help I gave them during 1:1 research appointments. Topics they were searching for, "traumatic brain injury" AND football; sociological impact of cross-cultural marriage; required locating resources they could understand, access and investigate thoroughly in order to write a 5-10 page research paper. Few of the students at Reedley College make appointments ahead of time, they come in usually when they are in a panic. This was the case with these two students; and because I had not prepared for them ahead of time, I continued to search long after they were gone off to class. Subsequently, I emailed them later with the results of my searches, providing keywords to search, and locating materials avaialbe on our shelves. I want the students to know that their work is meaningful to me and their taking the time to ask for help will garner them more help.

It really made my day for them to make the effort to stop in and offer their thanks and express how our sessions made a difference in their work. Both received high scores and felt that they were going to finish the courses with excellent grades. This is music to a teacher's ear; to know that the time spent helped a student to learn research techniques, ask thought-provoking questions, and enjoy the process of discovery.

Research, critical thinking, and Instruction

2014-04-22T08:05:00.001-08:00

Students learning to research are often faced with with the dilemma of how to think critically about their basic query, what do they want to know and how to they search for the answers. First and foremost their search behavior determines the results they find. If students don't care about the topic, or find no relevancy or immediacy, why do it? So what?
I appreciate that professors often will allow students to research topics of their own choosing, however unimportant it may seem to the professor; giving students the chance to stake a claim, find relevancy in their search, and search a variety of sources is good practice. Important to that search is conversation and dialogue about it for the student to clarify and express their interest and reasoning for the research in the first place. Upon having these conversations with students, I have found an underlying desire to solve a problem they have experienced or stand up for an issue they believe in. Gone are the days of the pro/con debate over abortion, marijuana legalization, or the benefits of same-sex marriage, not only because professors have adamantly refused to read any more such papers, but also because professors have required students to do a bit of thinking, and perhaps should require more of that.
Is critical thinking lost on the digital native? Is the ability to post anything anyone wants online, and retrieve anything anyone wants causing a "so what?" attitude in research? Even about topics they care about? Many of today's college students are unconcerned about issues not of their choosing or not "liked" by them. They seem more intent on just finishing, doing good enough work, to be through, and to move on...to what or where is yet to be determined.

Collaborative digital tools workshop

2013-10-16T15:33:00.001-08:00

Next week I will be a part of a orientation to share digital tools that work well with research collaboration. It has been an enriching experience and I'm learning about some great (free) online tools. They include :

Asana: tasks can be organized & assigned

Remember the Milk

Dropbox

$$$

Evernote which I use extensively but costs to allow collaboration beyond sharing

BaseCamp

Finished MOOC

2013-09-19T14:51:00.001-08:00

This experience was a great way to gain knowledge about topics I'm passionate about (libraries and learning) fr a leader in the field who dates to dream about what libraries COULD be. The best part was sharing a vision for change. UC Merced library embraces many of the changes that David Lankes believes are instrumental for change: library as place is still important; librarian as guide and creator of content for students, the importance of teaching roles we take. More soon

Learning continues

2013-09-16T18:55:00.001-08:00

It's fall semester & it is like Kodiak high school amplified 100% intent students busy professors who already seem to be behind. On the positive side there's no standardized test being a gatekeeper.

I'm working on a session for faculty about using digital tools. Those I really like : Evernote, Drop Box, & remember the milk. Evernote earns

My vote for the best in productivity due to its ability to quickly sync all

Pets. And tHen They all appear on

My google home page

MOOC new librarianship

2013-07-12T08:16:00.001-08:00

My first MOOC! the Master Librarianship course from SUNY; and so far, it's great. The content is thoughtful and requires some reflective discourse, hard part is that with over 300 participants, digesting the posts on the discussion board is tough. Glad to have the chance to try it out, as i'm very interested in creating online learning spaces and opportunity. This MASSIVE is amazing...more soon. Today's thought @jillalynch 1h

Great quote from Norman Cousins in Atlas of New Librarianship “A library…should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas.” #newlib

Uc Merced

2013-03-21T07:04:00.000-08:00

The academic library world is a different place from school librarianship, where I was a cataloger, purchaser, and teacher. At the university, I find that to properly prepare for library instruction I'm spending 20-30 hours of office time researching their topics' information and preparing presentation materials. The topics are much more in-depth than the high school history or English teachers' were, and often, I do research to understand the important related concepts.


view of campus from Lake Yosemite Park

Of course, the university student has different needs from the high school student, or do they? I ponder this as I've been working with underclassmen, who like their younger counterparts, continue to procrastinate by putting off large research assignments until it's almost too late, yet find plenty of time for social media and conversation. The conversations and coffee gatherings are intent on unlocking the key to understandings, and I often wish i could join in to learn more. The UC Merced's beautiful library setting is conducive to collaboration and connections for students, as it is to its staff. Learning something new every day is exciting yet exhausting! I look forward to spring break, as students are as well, er, some students, because those who haven't begun to formulate their research proposals have some work ahead of them. Some will go home and enjoy respite, pampering and rest, like in high school, but many will not rest well. There's not much snow, so the downhill rush will have to be on dry land, perhaps in the library! Enjoy!

University Librarian, who me?

2013-01-29T10:46:00.000-09:00

I am very excited to be working in the newest University of California Campus at Merced in its Kolligian Library. It is a state of the art facility, with 90% of its holdings online. The students aren't virtual however, and many of them hang out in the library! It gives me a sense of 21st century learning and libraries, still need to have a place...the library as a "place" has not disappeared and become virtual, they are very real!

Teaching

2012-09-19T12:11:00.000-08:00

The thought of retirement must have frightened me, not being useful, spending my days at the sewing machine or computer, gaining weight! So I offered to help out rural schools, and now I'm in Karluk, at the southwest end of Kodiak Island this week, subbing for the elementary aide. It is fun to work with students in reading, science, Alaska History and math, especially when their needs are diverse and their skills varied. How to make learning fun as well and meaningful and useful is the quandary I always mull over, and ask myself, am I making a difference?
The students are respectful, joyous and a pleasure to work with, as are their teachers, Russ & Claudia Scotter. I'm learning something new every day myself. Do I want to return to elementary teaching? IT's exhausting and often stressful, but I find I want to stick around and see how they progress! More soon!

American Library Association Conference

2012-06-28T08:26:00.002-08:00

Attending the annual ALA conference in Anaheim was exhilarating, meaningful, and very enriching. To be surrounded by 20,000 library people, authors, and vendors was confirmation that the world of information and resources is alive and well, and my profession continues to flourish despite what the budget-cutters may believe.
Sessions were available for school, academic, museum and other special interest librarians, often held at the same time to make us choose which excellent session to attend. The publishing vendors gave away thousands of books, perhaps galley proofs, but still giving us an opportunity to read something new by a favorite author before it hits the shelves.
The musical performances were outstanding, I really enjoyed the Rock Bottom remainders with Steven King, Amy Tan, Mitch Ablom, Dave Barry, Max Groening, Roger McGwin and many others who continued to play long past closing time. Betty LaVette, the closing performer was moving and has a great voice. Yes we all know Motown, but she was Motown before it became popular. I thought it interesting that she saw the British Invasion of the 60s to be a competitive threat to her career, as they took so much attention away from the R&B singers.
Well organized, excellent services and many opportunities for collegial sharing, I am thrilled to have a chance to attend, and I thank AkASL for the financial help as well as ALA for the experience. I am going next year, if I am able, Chicago is a favorite of mine!

Tutorial creation for Heritage Quest Online

2012-05-27T17:02:00.000-08:00

My tutorial sessions took awhile: I began creating a podcast-tutorial to use Heritage Quest Online, first by capturing a live search on Jing, reminding myself why a storyboard script and rehearsal are so important, after 6 hours, gave up on that working well. Then I captured the part of every screen shot (shift-cmd-4) I wanted)= of every step in using a complete search, saved in iPhoto, created a Garage Band enhanced podcast, imported and placed the pictures. but the small size of the graphics was maddening.
So I surfed around to the other participants in the Digital class, and thought, "I might as well give Clarify-It a try" and while it took two hours, it was a wonderful way to create a tutorial, something I've been doing often this year as an ed-tech who often trains teachers to use new technology. This software would be useful for this purpose.
The promise of being able to save it to Drop Box was the only thing I was unable to accomplish, perhaps that is in the paid version. I saved it as a pdf and created a Clarify-It account for them to host my tutorial. What is really nice is that when I wanted to edit the tutorial, it allowed me to do so, and provided the same link as the first upload, just changed one sentence.
The link is; http://geotechlibrarian.clarify-it.com/d/m2x9t4

7a. Auto Repair Reference Center

2012-05-21T17:25:00.002-08:00

I researched a 1963 Volkswagen Transporter, which was a crew-cab model of a bus; and I used to own one. The results included information on fixing various parts of the body, brakes, chassis electrical, drive train, driveability and troubleshooting, fuel systems, engine overhaul, performance and tune-up, plus suspension and steering.
I think it’s a great resource for fixing an old car like this. It even included schematics like this;

I searched for my current car, a 99 VW Passat, and found there had been several recalls throughout the years, but was unable to to view it because of: Adobe Acrobat NPAPI Plug-in has been blocked for your protection. The Adobe Acrobat plugin doesn't work on Mac OS X in default (64-bit) mode, showing a blank page when users click on links to PDF files in Firefox. It also causes a significant number of crashes in 32-bit mode.
So, I went to the Maintenance Intervals section, and looked at the upcoming work that will be needed in 2,000 miles when this fine car reaches 100,000 miles. It included lube, filter, oil change, among other things required of this old car.
This resource is invaluable for the person who knows how to work on cars, as well as for general information about a car, such as its service needs and so forth. I would think it might be invaluable if one was searching for a good used car to locate possible service needs or problems that result in recalls.

6. Mango Languages

2012-05-21T16:38:00.002-08:00

This certainly is a rich resource for learning and practicing a language. I went through the first four lessons, and was able to brush up!
I learned a new phrase:

Hablo un poco de espanol (I speak a little Spanish)

I used to say, Hablo espanol, pero muy poquito, y muy malo tambien...es verdad!

5. Oxford Reference Tools

2012-05-19T11:54:00.002-08:00

Oxford Reference

Dictionaries & Thesaurus

1. Six dictionaries from all over the English speaking world. have entries for habeas corpus.

2. Purpose for “browse by links” for this subject is to have the source available to choose from rather than results of searching for the topic. It was an interesting list of sponsored links from various news sources; then specific dictionaries and reference sources on the left column. I found this neaar the bottom that would be useful for my teachers:

Students' guide to writing dissertations & proposals

Guide to presenting and writing dissertations, essays, & proposals.

STUFUN.com

An educational site for young children, providing interactive exercises to help kids learn how to use English grammar.

Thinks.com

A fun brain-teaser site with great word games and crosswords.

The song by, Oscar Hammerstein "My Favorite Things"
from The Sound of Music illustrates nouns in context.

3. 14 examples of Boats and ships are found in the Visual Dictionary.

4. I looked up helado in the Concise Oxford Spanish Dictionary (Spanish-English) and the he options available to process the information on the results screen included printing or emailing the results, widen the search, as well as search tips were offered.

5. 18 titles are available to choose from in English Language Reference

6. The quote from John Locke is: The end of law is, not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. (From Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations in Quotations) When the search by subject is used, it puts the quotation with “abolish” in context such as “abolish serfdom” or “abolish the death penalty” and the source of the quotations. This would be useful to find various quotes easily.

7. Searching Syria in the “maps & illustrations category” yielded 3 results, two are flags, and a map of Syria from World Maps showing its relative location in Asia.

8. Searching for Syria in the Oxford’s Countries of the World compared to a search on their World Encyclopedia, I note the former has up-to-date information that would be very helpful with current events and cause-and-effect-relationship analysis. Links to websites are also included.The latter, is more like a general encyclopedia, with the flags, map, statistics, and detailed history going back to the Hitites.

9. Searching the Quick Search Box for the term "recycling”, 25 entries are in the results screen. This type of refinement be useful to help narrow a search. Besides numerous definitions in various fields, illustrations and maps are available.

#4a Homework Helper

2012-05-07T17:39:00.002-08:00

Using Student Center, get real time help from a tutor with one question from one of these articles:

"Can You Pass This Final 8th-Grade Exam from 1895?"
I chose this to attempt because I was wondering what an 8^th grade education might entail. I knew very few of the answers! It really changed my mind about what an 8^th grade education meant over 100 years ago. I contacted the tutor, and he or she helped me through the question, “Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic”. I told the tutor I knew very little about math, and made a guess of addition, subtraction, division and multiplication as four of the rules… The tutor suggested that I try to think of the answer, he didn’t simply give it to me, he asked questions such as: can you think of what that might be? Or you are very close, it does involve numbers. The tutor guided me gently, telling me there were 5 fundamentals, asking such questions, as what do you think Arithmetic means, and gave me some hints to come up with the fifth rule about numbers. This was eye-opening, and very helpful.

2. I am searching for a new job, so I made use of Job Center to upload a recent cover letter for review and feedback. I created what I thought was a decent letter, and although it took over 45 minutes, I appreciate the help the tutor gave me, he thoroughly went through the letter, highlighting what to delete, gave suggestions for what to add, and asked me questions throughout the process to make my letter more descriptive of my skills. This is a fantastic resource, that too few people know about! I hope to spread the word about this.

#3 Novel list and Readers' Advisory

2012-05-07T11:54:00.003-08:00

I searched the Novel-List K-8 database, and at first, this was difficult because the terms “Read-Alike” wasn’t readily visible, until I searched for a favorite author, then on that results page, the block appeared with 3 suggested authors, when I searched for Katherine Paterson, then Mary Downing Hahn, Richard Peck and Maurice Gee were suggested (three authors of different genres I thought). In addition, the “Search for More” block offers subject headings or tags that would narrow down a search, for example under Hahn, ghost stories, historical fiction, and suspense stories are among the genres that appear, while under Richard Peck, historical fiction, humorous stories and occult fiction are offered. I think the suggestions are fairly accurate, in a generalized way. The Series recommendation appears only when an author has written novels that are a part of a series. I also appreciate when I look up a specific author, results can be limited to forthcoming titles, award winners, and reviews available.

These suggestions are fairly general, but because other headings like storyline, pace, tone, etc. are offered, one could really narrow down a search for another title.

The Series recommendation appears only when an author has written novels that are a part of a series. I searched for Mary Pope Osborne, because I thought she had a large number of series, but only 3 were returned: Magic Schoolhouse, Tales from the Odyssey, and Civil War Diary.

I think the part of NovelList that will be most useful to my patrons are the extensive help and tutorials. Because I didn’t understand how to find the read alikes, I used the support center, where Power Point slide shows were available as well as links to answers to 19 other questions relating to book suggestions.

Article Reflections. I cruised the page, 7 Book Recommendation Websites < http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/blogs/thenextgreatgeneration/2012/02/7_book_recommendation_websites.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed2_HP> The Next Great Generation and found many of the resources to be interesting, but those that required me to sign up before I could use them kept me from investigating further. I feel I have my email and username out there too often, so don’t like to sign up for more resources than I can use. Among those listed that are new to me, I liked Whichbook http://www. http://whichbook.net/ best because it didn’t have so many ads as the other sites, I also liked the ability to choose gradient scale slider for traits of books that I like to read about. I was able to locate several titles that sounded interesting and a good follow up to thrillers I’ve read this year. This Boston Globe blog was interesting, as it’s full of ideas from 20-somethings who read! I would definitely use many of these sites in readers’ advisory.

Discovery Excercise #2 Heritage Quest

2012-05-01T20:03:00.002-08:00

Discovery Exercises #2: Heritage Quest online:

I searched for my grandfather, who was born in Scotland, and lived in San Francisco in the 1920s. I found his name in the Census search. I learned that he was a dry goods salesman at that time, which was very surprising as I thought he was an accountant, as he had been in Scotland. This was also surprising because my father (his son) became a salesman in his later years. In addition, neither my grandma, father nor uncle were listed under my grandfather’s name.

I then found my maternal grandfather who lived in Toledo, Ohio in 1920, and noticed some differences in the data. Charles Yates was born in Wyoming and his wife, Naomi and daughter Betty Jean (my mom) were listed under his name. In addition, I note that most of those Ohioans were born in the U.S., unlike in San Francisco, where there a great number of foreign-born residents. While very difficult to read the descriptions in the columns, I believe I read the date of my paternal grandfather’s becoming a U.S. Citizen as 1916, two years after my dad was born. Both doucmnets were written in very scrolly handwriting, and may not be readable here:

I browsed the 1890 census but there was a fire at the Commerce Department that destroyed over 99% of the data. In Kodiak I am unaware of any efforts to overly-safeguard records. In our public library, there is a marvelous Alaskana collection, but the HVAC considerations have not been addressed. In the Russian Orthodox Church’s collection, there is a lack of suitable storage and protection for their archives. It is important.

The first year Alaska was included in a U.S. Census was 1900. This census is very interesting because only 3 areas are included, Aleutians, with nice handwriting for Attu; and Southern & Northern. In addition, the race is listed in Attu as Aleut for every villager. I looked at the Census of Karluk, where I work sometimes, and it is very hard to read. This village has been around for 6,000 years. When I used the search tool for a common name there, Reft, yielded no results. I also searched for my husband’s family, the Madsens, who were in Alaska since the late 1800s, but found no results, and when I looked up Metrokin, a native relative, I found out that a great aunt was listed as a servant at 8 years old working for another family. The race for this village was listed as mixed race, which makes sense also as the Russians were the first mixture of white to mix with Natives. However, in Attu, could that be purely Aleut? Probably not since 1760 or so. When I searched the 1920 Census, I was able to find my husband’s grandfather, and other Karluk relatives.

Use of screen shots may be a viable alternative to printing. In addition because of the illegibility of the older census data, screen shots would be better and clearer. I tried printing from the website, and was able to get a better copy than a pdf. I just had to print it in stages. Use of the notebook feature is good to keep track of one’s searches, but when I used the email function, this is what I received in an email: Image: ALASKA (1920 U.S. Census)

Series: T625 Roll: 2031 Page: 177

So that’s a good reminder of what I found and where it’s located, but I was hoping for a document!

Using this tool was very interesting and yielded some interesting results.

2012-05-01T09:10:00.000-08:00

Beginning another journey through online digital resources class. The first activity, researching the business resources, has been tough just getting started...but with may 1st here, I got going. From Karluk, Alaska where the internet works well, I completed Assignment #1:

Discovery Exercises

Bolded material is my feedback.
1) Go to the Business Search Interface. Click on Company Profiles. Find the Microsoft Corporation company report. Open the Datamonitor Report. Who is the Chief Financial Officer? What did he do before coming to Microsoft?

Peter Klein is the CFO; prior to coming to Microsoft, “Mr. Klein spent 13 years in corporate finance in the Seattle area, primarily in the communications and technology sectors. This included senior roles at McCaw Cellular Communications; Orca Bay Capital, a private equity firm; and several startups, including Homegrocer.com, where as the Vice President and Treasurer.” (Microsoft Corporation, Key Employee Biographies, from the Datamonitor, Business Search EBSCO Host)

2) Visit the Small Business Reference Center. Do a search for handicrafts or crafts. Where could a person sell their work online? In person? Are there any books or book chapters on starting a crafts business? Search using words from a small business owner you've worked with recently. Anything of value in the results?
Most of the articles were from the journal, American Craft, and looking up selling handicrafts, I found an article about Etsy, bringing handmade goods to the internet. Also, in a general search for Handicrafts, in Dec. 2011/Jan 2012 isue of American Craft, a listing of shows to see by state, was included. That article, “Shows to See” included this link to a local show:

“AK/Anchorage Anchorage Museum Earth, Fire and Fibre XXVIII to Jan. 8 anchoragemuseum.org
One of Alaska's longest-running juried exhibitions, adjudged this year by ReadyMade former editor-in-chief Andrew Wagner. The biennial showcases Alaska artists working in conventional mediums, and in skin, bone, and stone, too.”

I found no books listed, but did find information on the 2011 Export Market, and other markets about selling specific crafts.

I searched for Lazy M Leather a small Alaskan business and returned no results

3) Staying with the Small Business Reference Center, find at least one item using the browse by category. What did you find? Use the browse by popular resource to look at one or two books. What did you find and did they look helpful to you and your patrons?

I browsed Green Businesses and found over 1100 articles, books and reports, when I narrowed the search to only books, 3 results were returned, and each one was referring to a specific chapter from books about starting or maintaining businesses. I thought one, “Chapter 20: Going Green.Full Text Available By: Cohen, Sharon L.. 199 Internet-Based Businesses You Can Start with Less Than One Thousand Dollars: Secrets, Techniques & Strategies Ordinary People Use Every Day to Make Millions, 2009, p246-249, 4p, 1 Black and White Photograph” would be useful to patrons looking to start up a new, green business.

4) Visit the Alaska Department of Law Consumer Protection Unit. What are TWO responsibilities that a landlord has toward a tenant? What are two examples of frauds and scams? Where can you file a consumer report?
Two responsibilities a landlord has toward a tenant are (from Article 03 Sec. 34.03.070 of Landlord Obligationism –“A landlord may not demand or receive prepaid rent or a security deposit, however denominated, in an amount or value in excess of two months' periodic rent” and “All money paid to the landlord by the tenant as prepaid rent or as a security deposit in a lease or rental agreement shall be promptly deposited by the landlord, wherever practicable, in a trust account in a bank, savings and loan association, or licensed escrow agent”
Two examples of frauds & scams are fake check scams or pyramid schemes.
A consumer report can be filed with the State’s Attorney General’s office

5) Visit Alaska Regional Information. Pick your community from the places menu. How many female workers are there in your community? Who is your top employer?

In the Kodiak Borough there are 2884 female workers. The top employer is in the Fisheries/Canneries, called “Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers” (Trident Seafoods) which makes sense as the top four employers are canneries. The data needs to be “mined” to find more extensive information. For example, I wanted to know the number of female workers in the educational field, on the first chart, Occupations, teachers or librarians aren’t listed, but teacher’s assistants are, I looked further and realized I had to look in the Borough, not the city of Kodiak, as that's the school district's govt. agency. I found there were 130 females working as Elementary teachers and “Teachers and Instructors, All Other”, no librarians were listed (of the 3 that we have).

6) Visit the Alaska Small Business Development Center. What are the stages of the small business cycle? Where can you find a checklist for starting a small business?

Stages of a small business lifestyle are: Think, Launch, Grow, Reinvent, Exit.

I searched checklist in their search field, and it returned the checklist for starting a business, the link tells me it’s in a folder called tools (a drop down menu from the heading). I like this website because of its clean lines and ease in locating information. My husband just started a new business and he & I will be using this site as we are in the Launch stage!

7) Visit the Institute of Social and Economic Research. What are two publications done about broadband in Alaska in 2011? Has Small Scale Modular Nuclear Power been considered as an option for Alaska? Do any of the Institute's research areas seem relevant to you?

In 2011, two publications about broadband were two by Heather E. Hudson: ID: 1447 Rural Broadband: Opportunities for Alaska by November 2011 and ID: 1310 Defining Universal Service Funds: Are they accelerators or anachronisms?

Small-scale modular nuclear power has been considered in a report from ISER, presented at a “Brown Bag” (in Anchorage I assume). It looks as though it might be cost-effective in Fairbanks and Anchorage in the long-term, if electricity costs soar.

The institute’s research areas are of interest to me. Their mission, “ISER enhances the well-being of Alaskans and others, through non-partisan research that helps people understand social and economic systems and supports informed public and private decision-making” is general enough that there are many areas I could use. For example, a digital edition of the Alaska Native Language map is now available for download, their work is connected to the Alaskool site, which I used extensively while teaching Alaska History. Trends in salmon industry, social science issues and more are found here. Good resource for current data and research trends.

8) Do you see a need for business information in your community? If so, what kinds? Do you think the resources here can make some or all of your community’s business information needs?

I see many business resources here that are of value to the businesses, educators, and students in Kodiak. Useful sites include the Alaska Small Business Development Center and the Small Business Reference Center would be useful to someone researching starting a business; UAA’s Institute of Social and Economic Research and Alaska Local & Regional information from the State are valuable for researching trends and learning more about one’s community. While it may not meet all of Kodiak’s business information needs, it surely fills a niche, and could be basis for in-depth research.

Moodling Around

2012-02-09T15:54:00.001-09:00

Using Moodle as a course delivery system is quite interesting, while not replacing real-time, face-to-face contact, it is a wonderful way to give and get documents, share resources, administer quizzes, upload content, and many other things. So much easier (& cheaper than Blackboard), using it in teaching Alaska History for Educators has helped me learn more about Moodle, and value its strengths. Tomorrow I am to to train teachers how to use it, so it will become even more important to learn how to use it. Some teachers do not want to learn another system, interface or web-based teaching tool. I can't say I blame them, with all of the user-unfriendly programs that ae a part of their day, this is one more burden. We will try to make it fun, bring candy...games...puppies...

Technology Training

2011-11-16T11:01:00.002-09:00

The Ed Tech team has been immersed in training for the past two weeks. From Digital Storyboarding, podcasting, and using the math tools on the Mac. Learning quite a lot every day!

Join Me on a New Journey!

2011-10-07T06:48:00.005-08:00

I return to this blog to post observations and reflections about teaching and learning in a new environment. In addition to working as an educational technologist for Kodiak Schools, I am starting a new journey as a teacher: teaching adults! Spring Semester, I will be teaching Multicultural Studies course and in the Fall, 2012, Alaska Studies. Both of these courses are for new teachers needing to meet the State of Alaska's requirements for a teaching credential.
I also have a new job as an ed tech, and get to travel to rural sites again. This week Akhiok, where we hiked up a hill to gain this gorgeous view!
The students were wonderful geographers naming sites, and helping us tell the poisonous berries from the edible ones.

Thing #10-Week 5 - Image Generator

2009-07-28T01:49:00.002-08:00

willie with impression
Originally uploaded by geotech2009

Thing 10 - playing online with photos and image generators was the most frazzled activity yet for me. Due to variable speed of the internet and constant drops in bandwidth, working with photos is intensive. I was only able to save the photo of our dog, Willie. I tried several tools, again the Big Huge Labs, home of Flickr toys was the easiest, and smoothest. I tried the Cartoon Creator at the Image Chef, after two days, I got this message from them: "We're sorry - this feature is not compatible with Macs." NO WONDER...just wish that was noted on their home page. So, no ah has, and I wonder just how much I would use these generators in "serious" work for school or professional development, due to the time-intensive tasks. Fun, yet not something I feel is worth the time involved. Part of my learning style, sequential linear thinking, time = money; money = work; I like to work, but not this hard for the time required for the results. Cute dog however...

Thing #9 - Week 4 - Finding Feeds

2009-07-25T11:53:00.004-08:00

I found feeds in a variety of places, including those that are familiar, such as ALA or by searching terms such as educational technology or school librarians. The links from Edublogger Awards to other sites, provided on the RavenAboutLibraries (RAL), were very extensive. I found those easiest to subscribe provided the orange logo for RSS, or those that asked me to subscribe via Google, with the icon in an easily discernable location--usually at the top or bottom. Those sites with extensive advertisements were very distracting, and I tended to navigate away from them. While I respect Joyce Valenza and her ideas, the blinking ads and opportunities kept me from subscribing. While i know RSS feeds may leave the ads off, i disliked the clutter of some commercially supported sites that some educators use.

From the awards list, I found 2 that were suberb: Edublogger with several extensive sites, linked together, and her observations about US culture were humorous--Sue Waters has her own personal blog linked to it where she comments on everything from high fructose corn syrup in Coke to improving the looks of your blog. I subscribed to her RSS feed as her tips are timely and useful. Recently she has an excellent piece on "The 4-Cs of Social Networking". In addition this site hosts blogs for students, teachers, and librarians.
Another useful site I found was a Brit named Jane Hart who publishes "Social Media In Learning", "a FREE resource aimed at all learning professionals who want a quick, easy-to-use, structured introduction to social media for formal and informal learning as well as a practical guide to using social media tools." The links from this site, never end!

Viewing various blogs is beneficial, to compare and contrast layout, ease of use, friendliness, etc. and help me to try to emulate these professionals as I develop my Librarian blog. I appreciate having a choice of spots to recieve the feeds, and I chose the Education page of my iGoogle site, so that, like the Anchorage Daily News, or New York Times, I have the latest news from Edublogger at my fingertips! Very cool.

Thing 8 Week 4 - RSS Feeds

2009-07-25T09:48:00.002-08:00

Using Google Reader and igoogle as my home page has allowed me to subscribe to various RSS feeds, and have them available through those two sites, rather than clogging my email. I went to various news sites, adding some to the igoogle news page, and others as Google Reader, both of which eventually end up on the igoogle site--as I linked the Google Reader to the igoogle news page. I love the fact that I’m given the choice of where it’s delivered. I now understand how it's all tied together, and the simplicity of it is overwhelming!
I appreciated the tutorial provided in this lesson, and learned a lot about ways to increase use of RSS. Because I'm working on a blog for the local quilter's guild, many of whom have no idea what a blog is, let alone an RSS feed, I appreciated the help found on Problogger - How to make your RSS feeds pop!, specifically, "If your blog is on a non techie topic with a readership who doesn’t have much awareness of RSS write a post that explains what RSS is and how it can help them follow your site. Then add a link to that post under your RSS button to help educate them." This is great.
Providing simple ways for the library aides in our district to follow a library blog is important, and I found several useful hints on this site, and others linked from this lesson. I can forsee providing inservice instruction on how to use and get involved with such a blog.

Thing #7 Week 3 Technology Tools

2009-07-24T00:34:00.003-08:00

The wealth of tools available to create and communicate is marvelous, and at the same time overwhelming to try and learn quickly. I believe the tools that enhance creating, sharing and social networking, specifically in a visual format (i.e. Flickr, Skype, YouTube, and Blogger) are very powerful media. Easy to use, streamlined and quick; these tools offer eduators a means to communicate with students, parents and peers that can build rapport and diffuse barriers. I like that all the things I've tried thus far are fairly simple (esp. if directions are followed!), and offer so much. With time, I believe I will use these visual technology tools in a variety of ways. What I find powerful is the sharing found in the online community, no need to reinvent the wheel, USE IT!!