Library Learning 2.0 for Media Clerks

Tribute to Library Learning 2.0 Media Clerks

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:23:00 +0000

You Did It! Congratulations!

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 03:30:00 +0000

We made it! We have explored, created, and learned about ways to use new technologies to learn, teach, research, communicate, entertain, and socialize. We have come full circle to our original goals for organizing the PST. Our original definition of Web 2.0, the Read/Write web, was:

Creativity – using free tools of the Internet to design and create Web content.
Connected – constantly connected to your PLN, your family, your friends, your employer, your future employer, your students, your peers, professionals in your field, and the world.
Collaboration – Social networking and Web 2.0 are all about strengthening relationships; working in designing, creating, and sharing the learnings from conversations and learning projects.
Conversations – about anything that interests you…from crafts, to education, to libraries, to the most current scientific research available. Conversations with your PLN – as small or as large as you want to make it.
Content -- user-generated content. We all have the ability to join the conversation and add to the content of the web, instead of just consume data. We have the ability to add, mash up, share, and use the collective intelligence of the Internet -- and the World. That's exciting!

We have only scratched the surface of the tools, conversations, and creativity that is now possible -- not only for our own productivity and learning, but what we can share with others. Your permanent assignment is to share what you have learned -- with a student, a teacher, your administration, your children, your friends.

Discovery Exercises:

Review the "Things" you have learned and note what you have accomplished in this class.
Read your own blog and see how far you have come!
Your final assignment is to write your reflection on this class as your final blog post (use your new tools!). Please be thorough, contemplative, and honest -- this will serve as your course reflection to receive credit. Make it as long as you need to fully reflect your experience and learning.
Keep commenting on the blogs of your classmates and continue to add to our Media Clerks Wiki. This document will continue to serve us as a great reference tool.

To help get ideas flowing for your final blog post, here's some things to think about:

Did the class meet your expectations?
What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
Were there any unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
What could be done differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
Did the instructor cover the content adequately?
Would you do it again? ...or, better yet, would you do this class without the credit?
What suggestions do you have to improve on the content/delivery of the materials?
How will you apply what you learned? ...personally? ...in the library? ...with students?
How has this new information added to your job skills, and capabilities, as a media clerk?
How do you feel about blogging? ...will you continue to blog after this class is finished?
What is the most important thing you learned about yourself, technology, or working with your Personal Learning Network?
What would you suggest for another topic or area of study for our next Professional Study Team project?
What ideas do you have to add/develop programs to enhance our professional development experience and opportunities?

Thanks to all of you for your humor, patience, diligence, determination, creativity, contributions, and for being such great inspiration. This learning experience was so rich...because of all of you. I look forward to our next learning journey together.

Thing #23 -- Expand Your Mind

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 03:29:00 +0000

Where will your learning journey take you now? We have learned so much, yet there is so much "out there" for us to explore and add to our expanding repertoire of Read/Write web tools. Here's some great places to continue your learning in our own back yard! The professional development opportunities to learn about the Read/Write Web and Online Learning Tools continue to grow in our district -- try out a few!

Discovery Resources:

Atomic Learning -- Learn more about:

St. Vrain Virtual Campus

Office of Professional Development

Discovery Exercise:

Blog (your Thing #23 post) about some of the things you discovered in this exercise. What did you find that will be useful in your learning journey?
Where will you go from here?

If you want more:

Continue your journey! Here's some great places to explore more available for you to learn, create, share, and use. Happy learning!

Second Life -- try your hand in an alternate universe. Explore the learning opportunities, or just see what it is all about... to learn more about why Second Life's 12 million real life users are involved in this virtual life, check out this article: Second Life Sends Users on Virtual Vacations. What about Second Life in Education? Visit InfoIsland -- a virtual library from the Alliance Library System. Visit Cybrary -- a space for participating libraries from around the world to showcase their local resources. Skydive, visit a museum, an art gallery, listen to an author speak, take a class, attend a conference, or even visit an ancient culture. There are no limits in the Second Life! Sound interesting? ...read Getting Started with Second Life. What about for students? Try Teen Second Life.
Go2Web2.0 -- the Complete Web 2.0 Directory. Here's enough tools to keep you busy for a long time!
K12 Online Conference 2007 -- participate in conferences -- anytime.
AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner

Thing #22 -- Your Cellphone as a Tool

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 23:00:00 +0000

No longer is your cell phone just a device for making a phone call. The capabilities and features of new cell phones now rival your home computer offering texting, photos, videos, blogging, social-networking, personal productivity, mobile office, online connectivity, ...the uses are endless. Our students are tapping into the communication, texting, and and social networking features; but, what about educational applications? Explore some of these sites offering ideas, applications, and ways of integrating this "life" technology into the classroom:

Discovery Exercises:

Explore some of the cellphone tools sites and educational technology sites. Do you think that cellphone technology can be used in the classroom?

What are some problems and issues you foresee in using cellphones in the classroom? (kids access -- cost, have vs have-nots, methods for including kids w/o phones or services).

What is one way you could use your cellphone as a tool for your own personal productivity?
How could they be used in the library? ...in the classroom?
Write about your thoughts, on your blog, on using cell phones in the classroom and for your own personal productivity.

If you want more:

The power of the web is coming to your cell phone. Learn more about how to take advantage with these tools:

Mobile Web - Directory & Search Sites
DialDirections - free directions to an address, business, or event, sent as a text message directly to your cell phone.
Fring - free calls over your cell phone (requires download, and either 3G or WiFi connection for phone).
JahJah - free local VoIP calls, long distance at local rates.
Jott - your voice translated into email and text messages.
Phonevite - voice messages sent automatically to multiple numbers.
TalkShoe - record phone or VoIP calls, publish as podcasts.
Talkster - free, ad-supported long distance calling.
ToneMine - mix and download free ringtones.

Thing #21 Copyright and Freedom of Information

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:55:00 +0000

Social networks allow us to create and freely exchange information. But with the free exchange of information comes the responsibility of how we use and share it, and how we give credit to the author of that information. Check out this video, “A Fair(y) Use Tale” and learn some history of copyright.

In the library and classroom, we are often faced with copyright challenges of when it is acceptable to copy something and how much of an item (Fair Use) we can copy. Our students, as part of the always plugged-in culture, "cut and paste" information for posters, projects, presentations, as well as research projects. How do we teach them the ethical use of information. How do we define the ethical use of information in this easily accessible and constantly changing information-rich landscape?

In the networked world of file sharing, downloading, and RSS, we must acknowledge and teach the ethics of information gathering and sharing. Creative Commons is a copyright license that allows us to choose to share our intellectual property. This course is designed under a Creative Commons license and is an example of how one can take a piece of information or a product and re-work it to make it fit your needs. By acknowledging the original authors, they have given permission for us to share.

We covered Open Source software and the implications of availability and free use. But there is more to consider in the realm of software authorship, ownership, and use. We are addressing the free exchange of information, software source code, and collaboration in software development.

Discovery Resources:

There are several discovery resources addressing copyright issues, the freedom of information, and freedom to create, use, mash up, and build upon the work of others. This is rather a broad category, but one of high significance as we look at the Read/Write web, creating and collaboration of content, and the use of freely available softwar applications. You may want to expand your reading on these areas of information creation and use by starting with some of these resources.

Fair Use of Copyrighted Materials
Fair Use for Teachers
Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law
Free software and open source: The freedom debate and its consequences
Copyright for Teachers and School Librarians
Copyright Law of the United States
Online copyright comic book developed by students at Duke University Law School
Creative Commons website
“Wanna Work Together?” YouTube video about Creative Commons

Discover Exercise:

Write your blog reflection on copyright issues and how we can teach this foundation of Information Literacy.
What are ways we can teach the ethical use of information to our students?

Thing #20 Social Networking

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:50:00 +0000

Any article or conversation about Web 2.0, the Read/Write web, will focus on the 'experience' of the Web for the user. The platform that moves the user from passive information (as in what might be called Web 1.0) to one of rich, dynamic content and broad, interactive participation is social networking.

Web 2.0 has extended this concept to include user-generated content -- users create their own social networks, sharing experiences and events, communication, news, photographs, music, video, and other content with not only their real-world family and friends but also the virtual world of ‘friends’ on-line with whom they share interests.

As with a lot of 2.0 tools, pinning down a definition of a “social network” is difficult. Here are a few characteristics of social networks: profile pages: when you sign up for an account on a social networking site, your “profile page” becomes your home base. Most social networks allow you to add as much or as little information about yourself as you’d like. Common fields include your name, contact information, interests, and a photograph of yourself. Some social networks allow you to customize your profile page by changing the design, color, or look of the page.

MySpace and Facebook, for example, are two of the most popular social networks. "Friending" is probably the most important characteristic of a social network because finding friends (existing or new) on a social networking site is pretty much the point of being there in the first place! So, most social networks allow you to add another person/profile as a “friend” or a “contact” and your collection of friends becomes your own personal social network (not dissimilar to the way social networks form offline).

The “friending” aspect of an online social network often accounts for why some social networking sites are popular with specific groups. For example, Facebook began as a social network for college and university students; it has since opened up to allow anyone to join the network, but it still remains most popular with students. Why? Because people go where their friends are and where people share common interests.

With real life social networks, groups tend to form around common interests, therefore most online social networks allow users to start a group or join a group based on their interests or common goals. Depending on the social networking site, you will probably find a group that represents your interests, regardless of what that interest might be! While many 2.0 tools use some of these elements (e.g. “contacts” on Flickr, “friends” on Digg, profile pages on YouTube), most sites that are considered to be online “social networks” have all these elements in common.

Another way of looking at it then is that “social networks” exist primarily to help people keep in touch personally or professionally. These sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, and Ning, provide users the freedom to add pictures, slideshows, audio and video excerpts, and even custom designs. The other sites concentrate on users’ specific common interests such as video (YouTube), photography (Flickr), music (last.fm), or books (Library Thing).

Because Myspace is popular among teenagers and young adults, some libraries have used Myspace to connect with their younger patrons. Read through the Discovery Resources links below to get an idea of what different libraries are doing in Myspace and what librarians are saying about it.

Unlike the other major social networking services, Ning distinguishes itself by focusing on the creation of groups and offering the user a fully customizable space to ‘create your own social network for anything.’ Using tags to describe these networks, users find groups with which they have common interests, with less emphasis than the other sites on finding individual friends.

A number of libraries, public and school, have started to explore the potential of online social networks to reach their users. Here are a few examples:

Brooklyn College Library (Myspace)
Denver Public Library (Myspace)
List of libraries using MySpace with teens
Library Youth and Teen Services 2.0 (Ning)
Library 2.0 (Ning)
American Library Association (Ning)
Gaming Learning and Libraries (Ning)
Librarian Bloggers (Ning)
Social Networking in Plain English:

Explore a couple of Ning groups, such as:

Discovery Resources

Explore Facebook, MySpace, Ning, and other social-networking sites (Orkut, Hi5, Friendster, Gather)
Wikipedia list of social network sites
WebJunction article: Building a Social Networking Environment at the Library
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7017.pdf

Discovery Exercises:

After reading through some of the resources above, what do you think about libraries using social networking sites?
Are you a member of any social-networking sites?
Post, on your blog, your reflection on social-networking sites and add any other thoughts you might have about social networking in general.

Thing #19 -- Microblogging with Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:45:00 +0000

Acording to Wikipedia, "Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (e.g. on a cell phone), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook". Twitter can serve as a learning network, a collaboration tool, a social network, a news source, a marketing tool, or a way to network with others on specific topics. You can set up a powerful personal learning network -- sharing website links, blog posts announcements, and notices of events and conferences. If you'd like to find out more about Twitter, try these discovery resources:

Explore Twitter
Explore the Twitter Fan Wiki to learn to do many things with Twitter.
Try Terraminds to search users and tweets for the past 3 months.
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/03/twitter-geo-mas.html
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-07/st_thompson
http://www.disruptiveconversations.com/2007/12/the-10-ways-i-l.html

Discovery Activities:

Reflection blog post -- write about your thoughts on Twitter.
What is one way this could be used in the library? (or new ways, if your library is already using Twitter).How could this type of service be of value to you? How could this type of service be used in your own professional learning?

If you want more:

Set up your Twitter account
Find others with your interests
Twitter for a week
Write a second reflection on your use of Twitter.

Thing #18 -- YouTube, TeacherTube, and User-Generated Video

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:38:00 +0000

Within the past few years, online video hosting sites have exploded allowing users to easily upload and share videos on the web. Among all the web 2.0 players in this area, YouTube is currently top dog serving up over 1 million video views a day and allowing users not only to upload their own video content easily, but also embed clips into their own sites easily. Do some searching around YouTube yourself and see what the site has to offer. You'll find everything from 1970s TV commercials and 60s and 70s music videos (hey...here's the REAL music) to library dominoes and a video made by library school students for National Library Week. There's also the cult classic Conan the Librarian. See also:

Of course, like any free site you’ll also find a lot stuff not worth watching, too. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore and see for yourself what the site has to offer.

Discovery Resources:

Others - top video site list

Web Video Cheatsheet

Discovery Exercise:

Explore YouTube or TeacherTube and find a video worth adding as an entry in your blog.

Create a blog post about your experience. What did you like or dislike about the site and why did you choose the video that you did? Can you see any features or components of the site that might be interesting if they were applied to library websites?

If you want more (optional):

Try placing the video inside your blog using the copy and paste code for the for "Embeddable Player.” Note: you'll need to use Blogger's Edit HTML tab when pasting this code.

NOTE: Videos, like music downloads, are bandwidth hogs. It is recommended that you complete this exercise during light Internet usage times. Also, don't forget that YouTube videos are blocked -- you may want to concentrate your video exploration to TeacherTube.

Thing #17 Explore Web 2.0 Award-Winning Apps

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:46:00 +0000

Throughout the course of this Learning 2.0 program we’ve explored just a small sampling of these new Internet technologies and websites that are empowering users with the ability to create and share content. But, given time, there are so many more we could explore. There are hundreds of web 2.0 tools with only a handfuls emerging as dominators in the market. And although time will only tell which of these new collaborative, social networking and information tools will remain on top, one thing is for sure, they're not going to go away (at least anytime soon).

For this discovery exercise, participants are asked to select any site from this list of Web 2.0 Awards nominees and explore it. With so many to choose from, it might be handy to first select a category that interests you (like Books or Personal Organization) and then simply select a tool/site to explore. Be careful to select a tool that is Free and that doesn't require a plug-in or download. The majority of these are free, so this shouldn't be a problem.

Discovery Exercise:

Select any site/tool from the list of Web 2.0 Awards nominees. (If you prefer to select from just the winners, here’s a link to the short list.)
Explore the site you selected.
Create a post about your discovery. Be sure to include the link so all in the class can explore your choice. Do you have a project that you created with the tool?
What did you like or dislike about the tool? What were the site’s useful features? Could you see any applications for its use in a library setting?
Be prepared to share your find, in a 5 minute presentation, with the class next week.

Thing # 16 Learning a Language

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:00:00 +0000

As an adult learner, learning a new language has been a challenge: money and time for classes, software, books, and instructors. Although there are several online tutorials and practice sites, the element that has been missing is the social networking aspect. To learn a language, you need to not only learn about it, but hear it, read it, speak it, and practice. Short of a trip abroad for total immersion, LiveMocha offers a 21st Century learning approach to learning a new language -- a "web-based language learning solution integrating online instructional content with a global community of language learners". All you need is an Internet connection. According to the LiveMocha site:

"Lesson plans include over 160 hours of beginner and intermediate level content teaching everyday conversational language along with a full range of practical reading, listening, writing and speaking exercises. LiveMocha also leverages the native language expertise of its members by allowing them to enhance the content with grammar tips, alternative phrases and colloquialisms".

In true social networking format (leveraging the collective information and intelligence on the Internet), you can learn, listen, communicate, and interact with other learners, native speakers, and tutors from around the world. Chat with others, integrating writing, listening, and speaking skills and tap the expertise of native speakers. LiveMocha brings several skill levels together as you learn at your own pace, whenever you wish, for as long as you wish.

Currently, on the LEARN section of the site, you can enroll in one of four levels of online instruction offered in the world's six most popular languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Hindi, and Mandarin Chinese. Instruction in other languages will be added in the future, but with the PRACTICE and SHARE sections of LiveMocha, you can communicate in any language with anyone in the world!

Discovery Resources:

Read this New York Times article Learning From a Native Speaker, Without Leaving Home
Explore LiveMocha

Discovery Exercises:

Log on to LiveMocha and click Get Started or Register to set up your account. You will need to activate your account through your email address.
Blog about your thoughts on this type of e-learning experience and what you learned in exploring this site.
What other language learning sites have you found?

Thing #15 -- Audiobooks and eBooks

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:59:00 +0000

The availability of audiobooks and ebooks, free and fee, online has exploded in the past few years. With the Google project to digitize entire libraries, Project Gutenberg, and others bringing public domain books to the web, we have the availability of thousands of books online. Additionally, with the movement to open source and sharing, many more books are appearing online, much to readers' delight.

Although most authors' work is protected under copyright law, many current authors and copyright holders are investigating open access options of the Internet. Neil Gaiman, for example, posted on his blog that he wanted to make one of his books available online... Free. He polled his readers and the overwhelming choice was American Gods. This book is now available, online, for one month for anyone wanting to read his book.

The publishing company Tor, long known for science fiction and fantasy books, now offers a free download of a new Science Fiction title every week -- simply for the asking. Other types of services are also appearing such as email books -- DailyLit sends books in installments via e-mail or RSS feed, free or pay-as-you-read.

Discovery Exercise:

Explore some of the audiobook and ebook download sites:

http://librivox.org/
Open Culture
Quarter Share from Podiobooks
http://www.freeclassicaudiobooks.com/
http://www.audible.com/
http://www.learnoutloud.com/
The Internet Archive -- over 220,000 online books
ManyBooks - Free eBooks for your PDA, iPod, or eBook reader
LibraryElf - The perfect companion to a public library system
Public Library - 400,000 PDF ebooks for download
WellToldTales - Free short story podcasts
Wowio - Public domain, free legitimate copyrighted materials & one of the only with a selection of Comic Books
Online Books Page - access to books that are freely readable over the Internet
Gutenberg Project Top 100 - Popular books from the oldest producer of free ebooks on the Internet
http://www.worldebookfair.com/

Discovery Exercise:

Write a blog posts about two of your favorite audiobook or ebook finds and provide links.
How are these types of sites valuable to you? ...to your library?
How will the availability of books online affect libraries of the future? How can libraries compete with this type of availability?

Thing #14 Podcasting

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:57:00 +0000

The word podcast is used to refer to a non-musical audio or video broadcast that is distributed over the Internet. What differentiates a podcast from regular streaming audio or video is that the delivery method for podcasts is often done automatically through RSS. In 2005, "podcast" was named the "word of the year" by New Oxford American Dictionary and with the growth of podcasting over the few years, it’s easy to see why.

Podcasts take many forms, from short 1-10 minutes commentaries to much longer in-person interviews or panel/group discussions. There’s a podcast out there for just about every interest area and the best part about this technology is that you don’t have to have an iPod or a MP3 player to access them. Since podcasts use the MP3 file format, a popular compressed format for audio files, you really just need a PC (or portal device) with headphones or a speaker. iTunes, the free downloadable application created by Apple is a directory finding service most associated with podcasts, but if you don’t have iTunes installed there are still plenty of options. Another option is the Zune Marketplace site (a Microsoft service). Again, you don't need to own a Zune player to listen to the podcasts. There are several podcasts on dozens of topics and interests. You can subscribe to these services for regular downloads of your favorite podcasts.

Discovery Resources:

For this discovery exercise participants are asked to take a look at some popular podcast directory tools. Do some exploring on your own and locate a podcast that is of interest to you. Once found, you can easily pull the RSS feed into your blog reader (i.e., Bloglines or Google Reader) account as well, so that when new casts become available you’ll be automatically notified of their existence.

Review the Wikipedia article on podcasts.
Review the SirsiDynix articles on podcasting: Part 1 and Part 2
Poducate Me

There are many, many podcast directories and search tools out there. Here are some popular ones that don’t, like iTunes or Zune, require a software download:

Discovery Exercises:

Take a look at some of the podcast directories listed and see if you can find a podcast that interests you. See if you can find some interesting library related podcasts, book review podcasts, or library news. Add the RSS feed for a podcast to your blog reader account.
Create a blog post about your discovery process. How can podcasts be used in the library?
Share the link to a podcast you have discovered on your blog so all the class participants can listen to your podcast.

If you want more:

Add some kind of audio component to your blog -- Try Voki and record your own voice (many of you have already added a Voki to your blog).

Do you want to learn how to podcast? Explore some of these podcasting applications -- add a short podcast to your blog.

Yahoo: Publish a podcast
Odeo’s Studio – online recording studio.
Beginners guide to Podcasts & Creating Podcasts
How to podcast tutorial
Gabcast -- a podcasting and audioblogging platform; use your phone to record your podcast.

Thing #13 Experiment with Google Apps

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:52:00 +0000

You are familiar with Web and Image search capabilities of Google; we discussed GoogleDocs in Thing #12 and learned about this handy set of documents for online productivity, collaboration, and portability. These are just the tip of the Google iceberg in providing online resources and tools for the Read/Write web and personal/collaborative productivity. In this exercise, we will explore some of the innovative web-based tools Google is releasing. The program and your own data is stored online, allowing colleagues to access the same documents, collaboratively build resources, and have access to the data 24/7. We'll look at the benefits, and limitations, of using Google Apps.

Discovery Exercises:

Explore all the different Google Applications
Read about what's on the horizon for Google Apps

Homework Activity:

Choose one of the Google Apps that we haven't covered or used in a past "Thing". Explore the features and benefits of the tool you chose and write a blog post about your discoveries. Include a link to your favorite tool, add an image, and add examples of how you can use this new tool. Describe how this tool can be used in the library and in your own personal productivity.

Optional Exercise:

Set up an iGoogle page (a customizable home page) and use this tool for managing your newsfeeds, blogs, favorite websites, and favorite gadgets (weather, maps, calculator, and assorted tools, etc.). Write about this productivity and information management tool in your blog.

Thing #12 Open Source Applications

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:45:00 +0000

The availability and use of free, online Open Source software and web-based applications (think word processing, presentations, and spreadsheets) has exploded over the past two years and for good reason! Powerful web-based applications provide users the ability to create and share documents over the Internet without the need of installed desktop applications. Some experts speculate that this emerging trend may mean the death to Microsoft Office and other software-based productivity tools, while others think web-based applications have their place, but not in the office. But no matter which side of the office suite platform you side with, on this both sides seem to agree; web-based apps have their place and Open Source software is here to stay.

One large benefit of web-based applications is that they eliminate the need to worry about different software versions or file types as you email documents or move from PC to Mac to Linux operating systems. Another bonus is that they easily accommodate collaboration by allowing multiple users to edit the same file (with versions) and provide users the ability to easily save and convert documents as multiple file types (including HTML and .pdf).

And, you can even use many of these tools, such as Zoho Writer and Google Docs, to author and publish posts to your blog. It’s this type of integration with other Web 2.0 tools that make web-based apps so appealing.

Discovery Exercise:

Take the Google Docs tour.
Watch the video Google Docs in Plain English from Common Craft:

Create a free account with ZOHO or Google Docs (you already have a Google account for your blog). Create a simple document, try out various fonts and colors, spell check it, and then document your discoveries in your blog. If you are up to the challenge, you might even export your document as a .pdf or web file. You can even publish it directly to your blog.
Explore OpenOffice.org (from Sun Microsystems). Although this is an application you download to your computer (thus giving you offline capabilities), it is a free, open source alternative to Microsoft Office Suite. Files can be saved in a format that can be opened by MS Office, giving the user an option for creating documents at home on personal computers, but having the portability benefit of opening the documents at school or the office. How could this product be of value to students?
Write a blog post about your discoveries. Discuss some of the features of open source software and web-based applications. Are there things you like better than in Microsoft applications? What things are still lacking in these types of programs? Do you see a use for them in the library? Do you think our staff and students could use these tools? Could this replace users needing to bring disks or USB drives? Are these type of applications something you will use for your own personal productivity?

If you want more:

Read about the Open Source Initiative. Blog about your thoughts on this movement.
Create a document and invite several collaborators to work on the document with you. Create a Presentation (online version of PowerPoint) slide show in Google Docs or ZOHO.

Thing #11 Wikis

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 13:53:00 +0000

So, what's a wiki?

A wiki is a collaborative website and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content. Wikipedia, the online open-community encyclopedia, is the largest and perhaps the most well known of these knowledge sharing tools. With the benefits that wikis provide, the use and popularity of these tools is exploding.

Anyone (registered or unregistered, if unrestricted) can add, edit or delete content. Tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what has been changed and by whom. Earlier versions of a page can be viewed and reinstated when needed. Users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content. In most cases, simple syntax structure is used.

As the use of wikis has grown over the last few years, libraries all over the country have begun to use them to collaborate and share knowledge. Among their applications are subject guide wikis, book review wikis, ALA conference wikis, and even library best practices wikis.

Discovery Resources:

Use these resources to learn more about wikis:

Watch the TeacherTube video from Common Craft:

What is a Wiki? – Library Success wiki presentation
Using Wikis to Create Online Communities – a good overview of what a wiki is and how it can be used in libraries.

Discovery Exercise:

So what is in a wiki? For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at some wikis and blog about your findings. Here are a few library-related examples to investigate, but feel free to search for others that interest you as well:

SJCPL Subject Guides – a pathfinder wiki developed by the St. Joseph County Public Library system
The Albany County Public Library Staff wiki – an example of a wiki created for library staff to document procedures
Book Lovers Wiki - developed by the Princeton Public Library
Library Bloggers Wiki
Library Success: A best practices wiki
Colorado Learning 2.0 – an example of a wiki created to support a specific event
Explore the Wikipedia article: Wikipedia. Examine the history, reliability, the sections, and structure of the Wikipedia articles. Blog about your view of Wikipedia.

Homework Activity:

Practice in the Sandbox section of the Media Clerks Manual Wiki. You can try your hand at adding different kinds of content. Don't worry, we can remove anything -- just practice and, as the name implies, play in the sandbox!
Add to your assigned section of the Media Clerks Manual Wiki. This wiki will be used to develop a job manual of best practices for Media Clerks of the SVVSD. (This collaborative wiki will be presented as our final project for our PST credit). You will receive your invitation by email before class and we will draw for sections in class.
Add to, or edit one of the other sections of the wiki.
Remember, you can add links and support documents. Remember to cite your sources if you use outside information.
Reflect about your findings about wikis in your blog. What did you find interesting about them? What applications within libraries might work well with a wiki? Is this something you may use personally?

Optional Exercise:

Now that you know what they are, create your own wiki, on any topic, using one of the following tools: (link your wiki to your blog)

Photo Attribution: http://flickr.com/photos/jaaronfarr/1056922912/

Thing # 10 -- Working with Photos

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:30:00 +0000

This week, we will learn to edit our photos to get them to a size, format, shape, or transition whereby it can be used for blogging, image generating, photosharing, or other online use. You may want or need to resize photos for use in brochures, documents, presentations, and other offline projects. These tools are perfect for editing your photos for every need. The tools we will explore are all online and either have a free version or have no limitations for use.

We have explored Flickr and have found that we can store, edit, catagorize, tag, search, and use photos from many different users. You can apply safety features or search for copyright-friendly images with a Creative Commons license. Read on to find out about more resources for editing your photos online.

Discovery Resources:

Stock.xchng and morgueFile are two sites where you can find a wide variety of stock photos where consent for public use has already been granted.

Here are some more photosharing sites if you want to keep exploring. These are broadly similar to Flickr, but each has its own individual twist and may better meet your needs:

Discovery Activities:

For this hands-on activity, you will need to bring these items to class:

your digital camera -- be sure to bring the appropriate USB cords, card readers, or other items needed to upload your photos (make sure they work on the Citrix environment) (or)
a CD with your saved photos (or)
a flashdrive with your saved photos (or)
have your photos pre-loaded onto your Flickr account

Explore these online photo editing sites:

Many of these sites give you the capability to morph, stretch, colorize, add text balloons, and create works of art with your photos.

Work with some of your photos and use one or two in your blog. You can save the edited image on your flashdrive, or upload it to your Flickr account -- then you can use it anytime, from any computer, and use it directly in your blog. Write a blog post for Thing #10 with your thoughts on the availability of online photo editors and how you might be able to use them in the library.

If you want more:

If you want more capabilities, try some of the open-source photo editing software now available. Full-capability photo editing software has been expensive to purchase; open-source choices now bring these capabilites to you at little or no cost -- yet give you full, robust editing capabilities once only found in retail programs. You may need to download software for these applications, but they may be a great option for your use at home. Explore some of the options:

Thing #9 Technology

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Create a blog post about anything technology related. Yes, it can be anything that relates to technology! You just need to share a few thoughts, share some links, and post a photo for us to learn more about your topic. Talk about anything you think is relevant to this class or about using technology in the library. Here's your chance to really participate in the class and share with your colleagues.

Be sure to keep commenting on everyone's blogs. That's what online communities are all about - connecting and communication. CHEER and otherwise encourage your Library Learning 2.0 colleagues!

Remember to post your reflections on each new Thing each week so your classmates can comment, share, and learn.

Thing 8 -- Library Thing

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:37:00 +0000

Okay, librarians and book lovers, here's your new favorite tool! Do you like cataloging, organizing, exploring, and discussing books? Or do you enjoy finding lost and forgotten gems on the shelf to read? Then LibraryThing may be just the tool for you.

Developed for booklovers, this online tool not only allows you to easily create an online catalog of your own books, but it also connects you to other people who have similar libraries and reading tastes. Add a book to your catalog by just entering the title (or use the ISBN, LLC, or Author).

There are lots of ways to use LibraryThing. You can view your books on a virtual shelf, add a widget (see sidebar for sample) to display titles that are in your catalog, or install a LT Search box on your blog. So why not join the ranks and create your own library online. With over 353,743* registered members (BTW: LibraryThing also has group forum for librarians), over 23,548,895 cataloged books*, over 30,548,961 tags*, and 3,612,180 ratings*, you're bound to discover something new. A bibliophile's dream!
* As of the date of this post.

When you sign up for the free account, you can catalog up to 200 of your books, find other people who share your bookshelf, get suggested reads based on your bookshelf, and even go to the Unsuggester. This will give you books that you probably won't like based on your bookshelf.

Discovery Resources:

About LibraryThing

Library Thing tour

LibraryThing blog (updates & news)

Discovery Activities:

Explore LibraryThing and create a personal account.

Add several of your books to your library.

Blog about your findings; how can you use Library thing personally? ...in the library?

Be sure to to link to your LibraryThing catalog!

If you are up for the challenge, add a Library Thing chiclet (see the icon at the beginning of this post) or add the widget to your sidebar.

If you want more (very cool book-related tools):

Shelfari - Shelfari is a social networking site for book lovers. Using Shelfari, you can create a personal shelf of your books, see what your friends are reading, get and give recommendations for what to read next, create book lists, and even share your opinion on a book with friends or the Shelfari community.

Anobii - is a social networking site targeted to worldwide booklovers. The idea behind aNobii is simple: create an online platform for avid-readers to share reviews, recommendations, and most important of all, find other similar-taste booklovers.

Gurulib - GuruLib is a free web service to organize your home library. Catalog your books, DVDs, music CDs, games and software online using a book shelf metaphor.

Bookswellread - is designed for all readers in mind -- readers of all types of books, of all ages, interests and backgrounds. It's a place for you to keep an online book journal, learn about books and connect with a community of readers.

If you explored any of these social-networking book sites, tell us about it in your blog.

Thing 7 -- Tagging & Social Bookmarking

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:34:00 +0000

Tagging is an open and informal method of categorizing that allows users to associate keywords with online content (webpages, pictures & posts). Unlike library subject cataloging, which follows a strict set of guidelines (i.e.Library of Congress subject headings), tagging is completely unstructured and freeform, allowing users to create connections between data anyway they want.

In the past few weeks, we’ve already explored a few sites – Flicker and Technorati to name two --that allow users to take advantage of tagging. This week, as we explore tagging, we will also take a look at a popular social bookmarking site called Del.icio.us (typed in as http://del.icio.us/).

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking manager which allows you to bookmark a web page and add tags to categorize your bookmarks. Many users find that the real power of Del.icio.us is in the social networking aspect, which allows you to see how other users have tagged similar links and also discover other websites that may be of interest to you. You can think of it as sharing another users filing cabinet, but with this powerful bookmarking tool each user's filing cabinet helps to build an expansive knowledge network. For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at Del.icio.us and learn about this popular bookmarking tool.

Discovery Resources:

Watch this video Information R/evolution from Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the Kansas State University and the students participating in his Digital Ethnography group. "This video explores the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information. This video was created as a conversation starter, and works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively."

Watch the Common Craft Video Social Bookmarking in Plain English:

Take a look around Del.icio.us using the MediaClerks account that was created for the Media Clerks Forum and this class.

Note: In this account you will find lots of resources that have been highlighted or used throughout the course of the Learning 2.0 program.

Explore the site options and try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users. Can you see the comments they added about this bookmark or the tags that they used to categorize this reference?

Discovery Activities:

Create a Del.icio.us account for yourself and discover how this useful bookmarking tool can replace your traditional browser bookmark list. Add some booksmarks and try tagging them for easy indexing -- add an explanation to your entry so you will know what the site is about. Explore some of the tools available for Del.icio.us -- try adding a network badge to your blog.

Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool. What kind of potential do you think this tool has? How could you use this in your own personal productivity? Could this be used in the library?

Remember to keep commenting on your classmates blogs, pick up ideas, and share ideas.

If you want more:

Check out thise other social bookmarking sites:

StumbleUpon.com - Lets you “channel surf” the Internet and review sites; it learns what you like and recommends more of the same.
Ma.gnolia.com - Discuss all the saved bookmarks in groups, see what the Featured Linker is all about, join discussions in the Hot Group.
Furl.net - Not only can you do the standard bookmarking and sharing, you can save archived versions of a webpage and even export all your saved pages to a ZIP file.
Digg.com - Synonymous with social bookmarking: you Digg a story, others Digg it, the more popular it gets the better chance it has of hitting the first page.

Thing 6 -- Image Generators

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:06:00 +0000

Image generators allow you to easily manipulate images and graphics to create fun images like the ones you see on this post.

For this discovery exercise, we will just have fun. Find a few fun image or text generators to play around with and write a post in your blog about some of your favorites and display the results. Often adding the image you mocked up to your blog is as simple as copying and pasting code that the page provides. If not, you may just need to right click on the image and then save it to your hard drive before using Blogger’s image button (see Thing 5 for directions) to add it to your post. If you’re having difficulty getting your image added to a post in your blog, ask a classmate for help.

Discovery Resources:

Homework Exercise:

Play around with some image generators and find a few that you like.
Post the results of your discovery process in your blog. Let's see your images!
Note: Be sure to include a link to the image generator itself, so other participants can discover it too.
So take some time and have fun with this exercise.

Hint for adding (embedding) "code" to your blog post:

Here's some instructions for SignGenerator.org. This will work for most image generator sites.

Generate your image and the scroll down to the "Get HTML" link.
When the page displays, find the embed code and put your cursor on it.
Use (CTRL) A to select all the code
Use (CTRL) C to copy the code (or however you usually do it)
Go to your blog and create a new post.
On the "Edit Html" tab, paste in the code.

[Note: Please remember to include Web tool and THING# in your heading posts.]

Thing 5 -- Discover Flickr

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:37:00 +0000

Explore Flickr and learn about this popular image hosting site. Photo sharing websites have been around since the 90s, but it took a small startup site called Flickr (and now owned by Yahoo) to catapult the idea of “sharing” into a full blown online community. Flickr uses "tags" or what we would call keywords to help identify and search for photos.

For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a good look at Flickr and discover what this site has to offer. Find out how tags work, what groups are, and all the neat things that people and other libraries are doing with Flickr.

Discovery Resources:

Watch the CommonCraft video, Online Photo Sharing in Plain English

Homework Activities:

Take a good look around Flickr and discover an interesting image that you want to blog about. Be sure to include either a link to the image or if you create a Flickr account, you can use Flickr's blogging tool to add the image in your post. Another option you have for including images in your post is to use Blogger's photo upload tool. (see the extra activity below)
Create a free account in Flickr (you can use your Yahoo mail ID that you set up to make your avatar!) and use your digital camera to capture a few pictures of something in your library or other things you like to do. Upload these to your Flickr account and tag at least one of the images MediaClerks23Things and mark it public. Then create a post in your blog about your photo and experience. Be sure to include the image in your post.

Learn to add photos to your blog:

GET AN IMAGE - Use your own digital camera or check one out from your library. Take some library photos or any other photos that would work on your blog. Upload the images to your flashdrive or a CD (be sure they are in *.jpg format). If you don’t know how to do that, bring your camera (with the photos you have taken) to class.
POST THE IMAGE TO YOUR BLOG - Go to your blog and start a new post.

Find the "Add Image" icon and click on it.
Select BROWSE and browse to the directory with your image. Change the size and position if you like.
Select UPLOAD.
When the image is uploaded, it will appear at the top of your post. Drag and drop it wherever you want it.
When you are ready to publish, select "Publish Post".
Or...explore the very cool feature in Flickr to post to your blog directly from a photo in Flickr. Here's instructions for Flickr's blogging features.

More Flickr Fun:

Like many web 2.0 sites, Flickr has encouraged other people to build their own online applications using images found on the site. Through the use of APIs (application programming interfaces), many people have created third party tools and mashups* that use Flickr images. Here is just a sampling of a few …

Mappr - allows you to take Flickr images and paste them on a map
Flickr Color Pickr - lets you find public photos in Flickr that match a specific color.
Montagr – create a photo mosaic from photos found on Flickr.
Discover more mashups, web apps, and Flickr tools.

Discovery Exercise 5 1/2:

Explore some of the fun Flickr mashups* and 3rd party tools that are out there. Create a mashup* in BigHugeLabs, insert it in your blog, and post about one that intrigues you.

* Mashup Note: Wikipedia offers some great articles that explain mashups. Basically they are hybrid web applications that take features from one application (like Flickr) and mash it up with another (like a map). In this example, you get Mappr (http://mappr.com/).

**: A quick word about photo posting etiquette and responsibility - When posting identifiable photos of other people (especially minors) is it advisable to get the person's permission before posting their photo in a publicly accessible place like Flickr. It is a good idea to just use initials or a nickname -- don't use any other identifiers such as school name. We'll talk about Internet safety in a future session. Never upload pictures that weren't taken by you (unless you have the photographer's consent) and always give credit when you include photos taken by someone else in your blog.

If you want to upload an image from Flickr posted by someone else, check for it's copyright status - it shouldn't be used if it says anything like 'all rights reserved' or 'copyright J.Doe'. Look instead for an image with a Creative Commons license.

Image Citation:Sparrow, Tom. “Flying Sunset.” Tomsparrow’s Photostream. 11 Sep 2007. 21 Jan 2008 http://flickr.com/photos/spidge/1360010165/.

Go to Flickr and use the option in the Advanced Search to specify that you want an image released under Creative Commons. Embed that image in your blog, remembering to include the link to the image name and the person who uploaded it. If you use the "Blog This" feature in Flickr, an attribution will be included under the image in your blog.

For Flickr's CC licence definitions, searches, etc, click here: http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/.

Here's some great free photo editing tools to edit, adjust, and resize your photos. Remember that you can edit your photos from inside Flickr, too.

Pixer
Phixr
PXN8
Snipshot

Thing 4 -- Technorati

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:33:00 +0000

So now that you’ve been blogging for awhile, you might be wondering just how big is the blogosphere? Well according to San Francisco based Technorati, the leading search tool and authority for blogs, there are “over 175,000 new blogs (that’s just blogs) every day. Bloggers update their blogs regularly to the tune of over 1.6 million posts per day, or over 18 updates a second.” Technorati currently tracks 112 million blogs. Yes, these numbers are astounding, but as you’ve already seen for yourselves, blogging is so easy that these publishing tools are being taken advantage of by almost every industry, including libraries. There are a lot of features in Technorati including the capability to search for keywords in blog posts, search for entire blog posts that have been tagged with a certain keyword, limit a search by language, or search for blogs that have been registered and tagged as whole blogs about a certain subject (like photography or libraries).

Homework Activities:

Take a look at Technorati Search and try doing a keyword search for library related topics in Blog posts, in tags and in the Blog Directory. Search for libraries, school libraries, library 2.0, and other search terms. Are the results different?
Explore popular blogs, searches and tags. Is anything interesting or surprising in your results?
Explore the sections such as Politics, Front Page, and Technology. How could you use this in your personal searches? ...searches for library related content?
Find some interesting blogs on this site (i.e. library sites, technology sites, etc.). Favorite a few. Add some of them to your Bloglines account if they are something you'd like to read on a regular basis.
Create a blog post, on your blog, about your discoveries on this site. "Thing #4 -- Technorati".

If you want more (optional, advanced):

You may be interested in blogging after we are done with our class; perhaps on something you like such as gardening, quilting, etc. So how do you get your blog listed as part of the blogosphere and how can you tag your posts with keywords to make them more findable through a Technorati search? The answer to the first question is that your blog is probably already being captured by Technorati due to the fact that you’re already using Blogger, the most popular blogging tool. But if you want to join the party and have your blog officially listed on Technorati and also take advantage of the watchlist and other features, you’ll need to claim your blog yourself.

As for tagging posts with Technorati tags? This is easy too. All you need to do is add a little bit of HTML code to the bottom of your post (see example below) and Technorati will pick up these tags when it spiders (or web crawls) your site.

If you're up for a challenge, learn how to tag your posts with Technorati tags so they can become part of Technorati tag searches. Create a post about something. It can be anything you want and add the HTML code to the bottom to tag it as “LibraryLearning2.0.” You may also want to consider claiming your blog and creating a watchlist. NOTE: When adding HTML code, you'll want to make sure you're in Blogger's Edit HTML window. There's a lot to explore.

Thing #3 -- RSS

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:32:00 +0000

You’ve heard of RSS? You’ve seen those small funny tags on websites? You’ve heard co-workers and acquaintances swear by it, but still have no idea what RSS is?

In the information world, RSS is not only changing the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web.

Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit every day. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for just the text you want to read, doesn't it? Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually. Would that be valuable to you? Well, it’s available now through a newsreader and RSS.

This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Bloglines account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together.

Discovery Resources:

Watch the CommonCraft video, RSS in Plain English:

CNET Video: RSS – Feel the Need for Feeds (3:32) – a good over view of what RSS is and the benefits to users.

What is RSS? A good text review of Really Simple Syndication.

Using Bloglines Tutorial (how to keep up with dozens of blogs everyday) – This online tutorial walks you through how to setup a Bloglines account and add newsfeeds. Follow Steps 1 to 3 to set up your Bloglines account. Steps 4 – 9 are optional and cover how to subscribe to different types of feeds (podcasts, Flickr albums, etc).

Homework Activity:

Follow the discovery resources above to learn more about RSS and newsreaders.

Create a free online Bloglines account for yourself and subscribe to at least ten (10) newsfeeds and blogs to your reader. See Using Bloglines Tutorial steps 1-3 for instructions.

Subscribe to several of your class participants' feeds. This is as easy as typing the blog URL into the subscribe field in Bloglines. Try it, it's easy!

Create a post in your blog about this exercise. Optional: If you're up to the challenge, you can provide the URL address to your public bloglines account.

Don’t know what to blog about? Think about these questions:

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work or personal life?
How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this technology?

If you want more:

Set up an account in Google Reader. If you like it better than Blogline, write a post on the differences.
Try Pageflakes, Netvibes, or iGoogle. All allow you to set up a homepage whereby you can subscribe to newsfeeds, blogfeeds, and add useful tools to your homepage. This is great way to increase your personal productivity, efficiency, and have all your favorite tools all on one page. You can pull up this web-based homepage from any computer.
Everything you every wanted to know about RSS resources: The Ultimate RSS Toolbox - 120+ RSS Resources.
Seven Tools for creating a RSS Feed from any Website -- a bit more advanced, but has useful links.

Thing #2 -- Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:52:00 +0000

Now that you’ve done some exploring and understand how this program will work, it’s time to setup your own personal blog. Why blog? To reflect on what you are learning and take part in conversations online.

Your blog is where you will record your thoughts, discoveries, and applications in the Library Learning 2.0 for Media Clerks. We are using Blogger, which is owned by Google. Blogger is a popular free online blog hosting service that is extremely easy to use.

Creating a blog using Blogger takes just three steps:
1. Create an account (view screenshot)
2. Name your blog (view screenshot)
3. Select your template. (view screenshot)

Discovery Exercises:

Watch the Common Craft video on blogging.

Read the Blogger’s Quick Tutorial.

Find some interesting blogs at Google Blogs. Read a few blogs to get a feel for the structure, how they work, and what kinds of topics people blog about.

Homework Activity:

Set up your own blog. There are many different blogging service providers such as Blogger, Wordpress, Edublogs, Live Journal, and TypePad. For this class we will use Blogger for a few reasons: it is easy to learn and use, you probably already have a Google account you set up to access the Media Clerk's Forum blog, and we will all be on the same provider.
Write your first two posts. One for your refection on Thing #1 -- Learning and Web 2.0, and then your reflection on Thing #2 -- Blogging. Each new entry should include the "Thing" number about which you are writing. Include your thoughts on how blogging could be useful for you personally. Would it be valuable in the library? How?
Register your blog with me by sending the URL of your new blog (your Internet address) to me by clicking here.
Read all your classmate's blogs. As they are registered, the links will appear on the sidebar under Participant Blogroll. Make some comments on their posts.
Feeling adventurous? Add your avatar to your blog. Use a photo of yourself. You can resize it here. Be sure to use a closeup of your face as the avatar icons are very small. Make an avatar at the Yahoo Avatar site. You can set up a free account and use the avatar maker. There are lots of other avatar sites out there -- explore!

Some Blogging Suggestions:

Name each of your post with the “Thing” number about which you are discussing. For instance: Your first Post might be: Thing #1 – My Thoughts on Web 2.0.
Comments are the “life blood” of bloggers. Take some time to read other blogs and always try to leave a meaningful comment. “I agree” or “Right on!” are generally not meaningful comments.
Your blog posts should be at least 100-150 words each week - we'd like to have a conversation and the more you post, the better the conversation will be.
Always “tag” your posts. We will talk more about this in a couple of weeks. Tagging is a label you add to organize and index your posts – readers can find all your posts dealing with any topic. It is also a great tool for you to easily track your post topics. Hey! We're librarians -- we love to catalog everything!
We will learn to add all kinds of items to your blog: photos, videos, widgets, feeds, and all sorts of useful tools for your readers. Stay tuned…
Don’t be afraid to explore, experiment, and be creative. Have fun!

If you want MORE:

Read some of the popular library blogs:

What are students doing in the blogosphere? Check out these student blogs:

Create a blog post with your thoughts about these blogs.

Thing #1 -- Learning About Web 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (MyraG) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:30:00 +0000

The goal of this class is to encourage library staff to learn more about emerging technologies on the web that are changing the way people, society and libraries access information and communicate with each other. The Web has evolved from simply being sites and search engines to a shared network space that drives work, research, education, entertainment and social activities. Web 2.0 could be described as:

Creativity – using free tools of the Internet to design and create Web content.
Connected – constantly connected to your PLN, your family, your friends, your employer, your future employer, your students, your peers, professionals in your field, and the world.
Collaboration – Social networking and Web 2.0 are all about strengthening relationships; designing, creating, and sharing the learnings from conversations
Conversations – about anything that interests you…from crafts, to education, to libraries, to the most current scientific research available. Conversations with your PLN – as small or as large as you want to make it.
Content -- user-generated content. We all have the ability to join the conversation and add to the content of the web, instead of just consume data.

Homework Activity:

Read some of the following articles and post your thoughts on Web 2.o. What does it mean to you, our students, and the library?

We will explore many tools of Web 2.o in our PST, but we will only be scratching the surface. New content, tools, and conversations are being created daily.

If you want MORE:

Read some of the educational technology and teaching blogs. Post your thoughts.