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Take Technology out of Education? I think not!

2009-11-02T06:42:00.004-06:00

This CBC "article" frustrated me a lot. I think the author needs to take EDES 501 and open his eyes to what technology has to offer AND the responsibility of educators!

Tough Decisions

2009-08-29T21:33:00.004-05:00

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can... but not right now.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I finished my last assignment for EDES 501 and an even bigger one when I received my final grade for the course, but I still had a shadow over me -- the next course. I just couldn't seem to muster the proper enthusiasm for diving in again.

I am lucky to have been blessed with two beautiful children, but when my infant daughter still wakes me up every 2-3 hours (sometimes every hour) and my toddler pops out of bed at 7 every morning and I watch his nap slowly disappearing from his routine, I realize just how tired I am.

I had applied to take the TL-DL diploma before finding out I was pregnant with my daughter and feel like I have been on a roller coaster ever since. I need to get off the roller coaster for a while.

It was not an easy decision, but I have decided not to take TL-DL courses during the 2009-10 school year. I have made a promise to myself that I will continue my own professional development and I will even demonstrate it in a tangible manner, like my blog. I have been exposed to many great voices on the web that I am excited to learn from. I also want to revisit many of the Web 2.0 tools I learned of through EDES 501 and give them a deeper look.

Once my decision was made, I felt better. This is right for me and my family, for right now.

So, I am going to wade deeper, but alone. I can do it!
Thank you for your support.

This can't be it!

2009-08-15T15:40:00.071-05:00

When I set up my blog a mere five weeks ago, I had no idea how much learning would be packed into one small space! What an adventure it has been! A steep learning curve coupled with tight deadlines kept things very exciting!

I admit, I had a rough start in this course. I seriously considered dropping the course after the first full week. I can remember one beautiful sunny afternoon at the beginning of July sitting outside on our deck trying to read and write on the laptop while my three year old son played in the backyard with my husband and our (not even five month old) baby swung in her swing. I was so frustrated. I felt like giving up -- what was the point of missing the summer with my family if I was just going to struggle and do poorly?

So, what did I do? This is the part of the story you are expecting to hear that I had some kind of epiphany or became determined, but no, sorry, that is not my style! I looked up how much money I would lose by dropping the course at that point, plus the money I had invested into our mobile modem and data plan and, honestly, I am just too cheap! That was way too much money to just walk away from. So half-heartedly, I decided to stick it out! Wow, not exactly what dreams are made of!

However, if I could have seen/heard/read myself now I would never have made that decision with such a heavy heart! I know that I still have so much to learn and the journey really has just begun, but I am amazed by what I have (we all have) accomplished in this short time in EDES 501.

I started to discuss some of our learnings with my friends and family and realized how knowledgeable and passionate I'd become in these past six weeks. I am excited to share my new interests and information -- It seems I'll share it whether people want to listen or not!

Without a doubt, Animoto was my favourite find from our course. I had a lot of fun creating my short videos and look forward to creating more, especially with an educators account that provides access to longer videos and more features. (I will wait to apply for one, until I am closer to returning to work.)

My least favourite was Twitter. (Sorry Joanne!) I do feel that my thoughts are in line with Doug Johnson's. (As he recently explained why he "killed" his Twitter account.) I will, however, revisit it before giving up! There are many people who find it is worth while, so I must be overlooking something!

Wow! What's Next?

In my blog posts I had included a "what's next" because I felt like I was only scratching the surface of the intricacies and potential within our Web 2.0 tools, not to mention others that weren't covered!

When I look back over the things that I want to explore further or "re-explore" it is a little overwhelming! So, here is my "to do" list...

Photo sharing - I would like to explore more photosharing sites. While I really enjoyed Smilebox as a fun, easy to use vehicle to share my photos, it is missing a lot of what makes photo sharing a popular web 2.0 tool, like tagging and on-line storage. There is likely a tool or an application that would allow me to create a "scrapbook", but also utilize the functions of a web 2.0.

Video sharing - I would like to experiment with creating a video aimed at covering content, such as the slowmation videos for science concepts. Before I could expect my students to create a video, I would need to be more knowledgeable!

Social bookmarking - When I explored social bookmarking I had said that I would like to explore "Webnotes", but I have to say that I love Delicious! I had never even heard of social bookmarking, but it has become one of my "can't live withouts". I know I should continue to explore new tools, but maybe for now I will just focus on reading everything I have marked "TOREAD" in Delicious!

Podcasting - Well, I have a lot to do here! My podcasting experiment did not go very well and I need to explore how that process could have been smoother for me! What I will likely do is revisit my wonderful classmates' podcast blogs for ideas or starting places since I had read about many tools and sites that sounded much better than my fumble in podcasting! I also would like to push myself to become more accustomed to listening to podcasts. There are so many great podcasts that caught my eye (or ear?), but I haven't made them a part of my routine.

Virtual Library - Waaaaayyyyyy down the road, I would like to develop a virtual library for our school. I feel like I still have a lot to learn about technology and the library, and, well, land a TL job before I tackle that one!

Wikis- I will develop my PMS wiki in much greater depth and I look forward to utilizing it with my friends. (Since my Wiki blog post my friends have joined and have started to contribute! I am excited.) I also look forward to creating a "Book Buddy Review" wiki with our reading buddies similar to one I found created by Grade Four and One students. This is an exciting project!

Multimedia Sites- Well, we all know I love Animoto! I'll continue to play with this tool and, hopefully, I'll have found a photo sharing site that I like that is compatible with Animoto. I also know that I have to learn so much more about VoiceThreads. The potential for this Web 2.0 tool is amazing!

Social Networking - I will continue to use Facebook for my own entertainment and social connections, but am excited by the Nings I have joined for professional development. I am impressed by what I have found on the Classroom 2.0 Ning, but I know I have only scratched the surface and it requires more attention.

Twitter - Joanne has persuaded me that I should continue to give Twitter a try despite my misgivings. So, I need to "recommit" to Twitter and become a more active follower and utilize Twitter for my own professional development... well, I'll try!

Blogs & RSS - While I have considered using igoogle for management, I really just need to continue to make utilizing the RSS feed (currently using Google Reader) part of my daily routine and continue to add fabulous sites (and fun, frivolous ones too) to my subscriptions. The professional development opportunities are endless!

Class discussions & blogs - I would like to reread many of our posts (WebCT and blogs) and make sure I have added our great finds to Delicious and recorded the significant points made by my esteemed classmates.

Buy an iTouch. I HAVE to have an iTouch to continue my own Web 2.0 growth and professional development. An iTouch would play an integral role... Kidding! Sorry, that point was a bit of a wish list included just for my husband! :)

I have developed some great personal learning networks that I hope to maintain. I will continue to follow my classamtes' blogs for further developments and hope to continue the supportive relationships that have developed over the past six weeks. I would have no hesitation bouncing an idea off them in the future as we all continue to push ourselves. I am also starting to develop new relationships through the nings that are an exciting addition to my professional learning community.

I am excited to read Curtis Bonk's book "The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education". I have flipped through it and read bits and pieces, but am excited to truly dive into this great resource! There are also other books that have been recommended through this course and I hope to peruse them as well.

Thank you!

I would like to extend a big thank you to all of my EDES 501 classmates and to Joanne for sharing this fantastic learning adventure with me! I almost feel that we've all been through a war together! We've shared our highs (wedding and lacrosse tournaments), our lows (computer glitches and late nights) and everything in between with each other.

I am honoured to have worked with all of you and to have gotten to know you over this course and I would be thrilled to work with you all again. I hope our journeys continue to overlap and never end!

My first blog post was titled "Here I am!", but I really feel like I am here NOW! Thank you for following me on (the beginning of) my journey!

Psst! I have something to tell you!

2009-08-11T15:20:00.083-05:00

Hi staff! Welcome back! I hope you all had a fabulous summer. I did -- I spent a HUGE chunk of my summer exploring the wonderful world of Web 2.0. What's Web 2.0? Oh, I am so happy you asked. I'd love to explain everything I learned, but that would take too long. How about I share two of my new favourite tools with you?
...It is going to be an exciting year!

Niki's New Number One Tool - Blogs

As Will Richardson defines in his great resource book "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms", a weB LOG (blog) is "an easily created, easily updateable Website that allows an author (or authors) to publish instantly to the Internet from any Internet connection... They are comprised of reflections and conversations... Blogs engage readers with ideas and questions and links. They ask readers to think and respond. They demand interaction" (p. 17-18).

I am very excited to be creating my own classroom blog this year. I plan to use the blog to:

Share important dates/calendar
Share school and classroom procedures
Share student work
Share student pictures
Share reading samples (in audio recordings)
Provide a venue for communication with students, parents, administration, other classrooms, the community (neighbours, extended family, school division, etc.) The communication is initiated by either the teacher or the students and is meant to be responded to by our "audience".

Two good (free) blog hosts are Blogger and WordPress. However, there are many more. You can explore a list like 40+ Free Blog Hosts from Mashable to find one that will best suit your needs. I have used Blogger and would love to support you with this tool, or I'd be happy to discover a new one and learn alongside you.

Blogger has many "how to" videos that can help you along the way as well.

But the beauty of creating a blog is that it can be whatever you want. There can be as much, or as little student content as you want. You can decide if you want a specific theme or focus to the blog. You can decide how often you will post to the blog. You are in charge!

If I haven't sold you on the idea of blogging yet, consider these benefits explained by Richardson. According to research that Richardson studied, blogs can: (p. 20)

promote critical and analytical thinking
be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking to promote analogical thinking
be a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information
combine the best of solitary reflection and social interaction

Another Awesome Tool - Animoto

I thought I'd share this great, little gem with you as well because it is a fun, easy-to-use tool that produces fantastic, professional-looking videos utilizing music and your photographs. These videos can easily be integrated into your classroom blogs for a very polished finished product!

To add to the simplicity of this tool , if you utilize an on-line photo sharing site like Flickr, Animoto can retrieve the files from there. (I'd be happy to discuss photo sharing with you another day! hint, hint, nudge, nudge!)

Here is a sample video that I created of my son in under five minutes!

But why use Web 2.0 tools?

Manitoba Education and Training has developed a "Literacy with ICT" (Information and Communication Technology) document that states "Although students in the past have focused on developing literacy skills such as reading, writing, and numeracy, 21 st-century students must develop multiple literacies that will allow them to respond to changing ideas, attitudes and technologies as their communities and their world evolve."

Our students are growing up in a digital era. It is important that at a minimum, we keep up, but optimally, that we light the way for their journeys.

Ready to get started?

...And now, back to reality!

Do I think it will go so smoothly and everyone will be as keen as me? Definitely not! I have sat through many professional development sessions where the presenter is passionate, but I did not catch the excitement. I have tuned out even the most dynamic presenter when I had to sit still too long. I have dismissed someone else's passion when I had my own exciting vision to follow.

However, I can't be too pessimistic. Even if I inspire just one colleague, then I have inspired one colleague and that is worth celebrating! Yah!

I need to be transparent to my colleagues. I need to be actively, visibly using the tools I have promoted and be willing to assist others on their journeys, as well. This could be achieved by creating a monthly focus group. I will encourage my colleagues to participate through experimentation, but I recognize that some may feel more comfortable learning through observation. I will recommend the school purchase multiple copies of Will Richardson's "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" for this focus group. I found it to be an excellent resource -- easy to read, informative, and inspiring.

I will continue to promote and showcase my technology adventures through an informal sharing at our monthly staff meetings. Hopefully over time, shifting to having my colleagues (focus group) sharing their adventures. It would be important to keep the sharing somewhat brief to maintain interest and I would continue to extend the invitation to other staff to join the focus group. I hope this would also evolve into the inclusion of many more wonderful technologies. This feels like it is only the tip of the iceburg!

I am also making an assumption that I will even be able to access these tools at school. There are a number of sites that are blocked in our school division and I have not tried to access these yet. However, if they are blocked, I may simply be making my "pitch" to the school division to try to convince them to remove the filter from those sites. I would still try to bolster enthusiasm for the tools with my colleagues because there is power in numbers. The more educators who are keen to utilize a tool, the stronger the argument becomes.

Thanks staff! Let me leave you with this last video to ponder!

RSS - Read Some Stuff!

2009-08-09T08:34:00.040-05:00

Stephen Abrams manages (sometimes reading, sometimes not) over 500 blogs daily! And it doesn't take him all day? How is that possible? Is he super human? Does he not do anything else all day? NO! This is the beauty of RSS!

What is RSS? What is an aggregator?

Although I think my explanation for the acronym RSS, Read Some Stuff, is very appropriate, it isn't very technical! RSS has been explained as "Rich Site Summary" or even "RDF Site Summary", but most commonly as "Really Simple Syndication".

For once the Wikipedia definition of RRS didn't help me very much. A lot of it was quite over my head, discussing technical details, but, as always, the Creative Commons RSS in Plain English video was helpful. I also found the definition at WinDevelopment.com quite helpful.

RSS is an XML-based vocabulary for distributing Web content in opt-in feeds. Feeds allow the user to have new content delivered to a computer or mobile device as soon as it is published. An RSS aggregator or RSS reader allows the user to see summaries of all their feeds in one place. Instead of visiting multiple Web pages to check for new content, the user can look at the summaries and choose which sites to visit for the full versions.

I think that it is also important to discuss social news sites as well. Social news sites, like Reddit and Digg, are defined by Maki of DoshDot in her comprehensive Beginner's Guide to Social News Sites as "communities which allow its users to submit news stories, articles and media (video/pictures) and share them with other users or the general public. Some of these articles will be given more visibility, depending on various factors, such as the number of user votes for each of them". DoshDot also has an annotated list of over 50 social news sites (and a link to a page with over 300!).

My Exploration

I chose Google Reader for my aggregator as I seem to be drawn to "all things Google"... gmail, documents, scholar... and now reader. This made it more manageable for me because I didn't have to open yet another account.

I found Google Reader relatively easy to use. I effortlessly added all of my EDES 501 classmates blogs and, in some cases, changed the name of their blog in my list to contain their first names to help me keep track of everyone. I also added a few other blogs that had been recommended through our class discussions and readings. Over the past few weeks I have added a number more, as well. I also added a few that were for non-library things (i.e. Runner's World). I created folders to manage all of my blogs with ease as well.

An aspect that I really enjoy about aggregators is that I can skim the titles and decide if I am interested in reading the blog. (Not you, EDES 501s, I always read yours!)

A downside is that if I just read the text on Google Reader and not link to the blog itself, I can miss certain graphics, videos, and overall formatting (i.e. sidebars) of the blogs. I also cannot publish comments when I view the sites through my reader.

However, the management appeal and the time saved by using an aggregator is definitely worth it!

What's Next?

I am guilty of writing this in a prior blog and still not doing it, but I think I'd like to explore igoogle. My understanding is that my feed reader would be a part of my homepage and I think this may be another crutch that I need for data management. Or, at minimum, I need to change my settings so that Google Reader opens automatically when I open my browser. It has not become a habit to check with Reader daily, so sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed when I do check. (I suppose a third option would be to kick myself in the butt and make it a habit!)

Additionally, I would like to explore social news sites in greater detail and would be interested in learning if there were an educational news feed that I could also make a part of my daily on-line routine.

...off to read the latest headlines and maybe dive into a blog or two...

Bloggin' the Day Away!

2009-08-08T14:43:00.041-05:00

To Blog, or not to Blog? -- That is today's question!

A weB LOG (blog) is simply a website that is readily accessible for the author to add content. They usually contain reflections, comments, and, often, hyperlinks. The entries are typically arranged in reverse chronological order and are searchable. Readers have the ability to publish comments to the page, as well. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, it is, and it isn't!

I will admit, I don't think I had ever read a blog before the start of this course. I look back now and wonder what kind of a bubble I lived in and I am in awe of all the things I was missing! There is such a vast amount (and quality) of information available, if only you go looking. Well, and jumping ahead to a later post, you don't even have to go looking! If you set things up correctly, your computer will do that work for you!

I struggled a bit with blogging initially. I was intimidated by the publicness of my thoughts and my fear of "being wrong" was very inhibiting. I found my groove, at least somewhat, I think. (However, writing a statement like that makes some of my prior inhibitions resurface. What if people reading this disagree? What if they think I am too cocky? What if...)

Be bold, Niki, be bold! I have come to enjoy blogging. I actually do have something to contribute and a blog is a great venue for sharing. It has a "take it or leave it" feel to it and, let's face it, most people are too polite to be blatantly rude to you in a comment on your blog!

I look forward to the days that our blog posts are due for two reasons. I feel a great sense of accomplishment when I have completed my blog and I also look forward to reading my classmates' blogs. (A big shout out to them -- What a great job you are all doing! Find the links to their pages on my sidebar.)

Through class discussion we delved into the idea of finding our voice in the "edublogosphere" and I felt that while I didn't have too much of a voice at this time, I wanted to be conscious of etiquette and decisions that would help me start off on the right foot. I also realized the importance of role models and the impact the "right" people can have on our own voice.

Robin Good's "Master New Media" site offers ten tips for creating a successful blog:

Stay on topic - All contents should relate to a general theme
Be informative - Provide accurate information and be sure to clarify what is editorial
Old news is not news - Information presented should be current
Adhere to a schedule - Keep your audience with regular communication
Clarity and simplicity - Keep entries clear and easy to understand
Keyword-rich - Include relater key-words in title of blog
Quantity matters - Develop content and substance
Frequency - Update frequently to increase search engine spidering
Spell checking and proofreading - Think carefully about what you post
RSS - Increase readership and distribution

Five blogs that I have found to be good role models and I have learned to value their musings are: (I am very well aware there are MANY more, but as a newbie, I had to start small and manageable!)

Lee Kolbert's "A GeekyMomma's Blog"
Vicki Davis' "Cool Cat Teacher Blog"
Doug Johnson's "Blue Skunk Blog"
Michael Stephens' "Tame The Web"
Curtis Bonk's "TravelinEdMan"

When I am ready to sift through more voices, I plan to examine some of the blogs that are linked on the blogs that I follow. Sort of a FOAF idea! (Friend of a friend!) It can also be helpful to search out new (to you) blogs through something like the Edublog Award nominees lists.

Blogging for Professional Development

As mentioned, I believe in the power of role models. Exposure to "the greats", whomever you may think they are, will help guide you. Read their blogs, listen to their podcasts, enjoy their images, follow their links... There is a lot to be exposed to! When you are ready to soak up even more information, find more voices to follow!

Reading relevant blogs can build your own knowledge, find new and current information, and expand your horizons. However, authoring a blog can also be integral to your professional development. It provides an opportunity to be reflective and bring your own learning to a more conscious level. It also allows you the opportunity to benefit from other people's perspective and advice shared through your blog.

Use of Blogs In Schools

Will Richardson, in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, details some key uses for blogs in schools. (p. 20-26)

Class portal - Communicate information about the class and archive materials.
Online filing cabinet - Students post work for peer or teacher review.
E-Portfolio - A natural progression once students' work is online. Include a reflection and continue over time.
Collaborative space - Students can work together to create a product, like a book study.
Knowledge management and articulation - Internal school communication.
School website - Communicate information with students, parents and the community. Easy to update.

What's Next?

Can I do it? Can I push myself to continue to learn new technologies and post on the Card Comment? Time will tell, I guess!

I am very keen to establish a classroom blog once I return to work. I would like to include important classroom information, curriculum links, pictures (either "as is" or in an Animoto video), classroom/school calendar, and student created content. I was very impressed by Rob McDonald's classroom blog, "The Dog Pound" (referenced in my blog on Animoto), and would like to model mine after his. Through the Classroom 2.0 Ning I have been in contact with Rob and he has very kindly offered to support me in my endeavour! Exciting! (Isn't it amazing how small the world can become with technology!)

Chirp? No, Twitter!

2009-08-05T23:00:00.014-05:00

Twitter? Ohhh, do I HAVE to? Oops! Did I say that out loud?

What is wrong with me? I am an admitted Facebook junkie. I prowl around on Facebook multiple times a day, every day. (I might save money and time by not having t.v., but I seem to fill the vacancy quite well!) But I just can’t seem to “get” Twitter! Why not?

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a communication tool based on the idea of micro-blogging. Users create short messages, called tweets, in 140 characters or less to share current news, links, or information. The tweets are displayed on the user's profile page and are shared with his/her followers (subscribers). It was established in 2006. According to Compete, by June 2009, Twitter had 23 million unique visitors.

Butterscotch.com has created a 10-part Twitter How To video series (or watch them combined all into one) that is helpful to get users set up and comfortable with Twitter. Mashable: The Social Media Guide has also created a Twitter Guide Book with a significant amount of relevant, useful information.

My Exploration

Prior to this course, I was not on Twitter. I barely knew what Twitter was and I was not interested in knowing any more than that. Until now…

Because I knew that it was expected and I had to learn about it in order to write about it, I joined. OK, done. Check that off my “to do” list.

Oh, wait! I was actually expected to USE it and DO something with it… OK. Tweet a couple times, find my classmates and a couple other people or groups that were usually linked through Joanne’s Trailfire (i.e. Lee LeFever and JustOneMoreBook). Ok, done, again.

I am missing something, right? Well, as this blog post came closer and I started to do more research on Twitter, I realized I was missing A LOT!

I did not realize that major news services, companies, and celebrities (Hollywood types, yes, but I mean more local celebrities) would maintain active Twitter accounts. I did not realize the potential for sharing links and the exposure one would have to the vast array of knowledge and personal interest.

Along the way I have found it strange that seemingly random people would want to follow me on Twitter. I have also found it hard to "stalk" celebrities since I can't seem to determine which accounts are legitimate! However, I have been thrilled that I can chose to follow someone, even if I don't really know them, like Joyce Valenza. She didn't have to actively accept a request from me. (Although I am aware she could choose to block me.)

Conventions and Language

I am still getting a feel for the lay of the Twitter-land. I felt lost at first and figuring out a couple of the conventions and terms helped me. (However, I must admit, I still feel like I am on the outside of the in-crowd!)

@UserName - That is how you send a (public) message to another Tweeter. (If you are responding to a tweet they have made, when you place your mouse cursor over their tweet, there is a return arrow you can select and it will start the message with the proper formatting for you.)

RT @UserName - This is a return tweet or re-tweet. If you read a tweet that you want to tweet yourself, you give credit by starting your tweet in this manner.

NUDGE @UserName - This is an accepted convention to nudge someone to tweet if they haven't updated in the last 24 hours. ...no pressure there!

OH preceding your tweet means that it was something you overheard.

#Subject - Called a hashtag. If you are commenting on a popular subject this helps categorize them. (I am still wrapping my head around this one!)

#FollowFriday @UserName - Every Friday users suggest other users that they think are interesting and other users might want to follow.

The number of (predominately slang) words that originated from "twitter" is astounding and rather overwhelming! I had to check in with the the Urban Dictionary more than once while reading about Twitter... twoosh, tweet tooth, tweet-a-holic, and tweetaphobic (I think that was me!)

The Spin-Offs!

My head is spinning with the spin-offs, or other tools that utilize Twitter in some fashion!

Here are just a few…

Tweetpic – This tool allows you to add pictures to your tweets. (You automatically have an account at Tweetpic if you have a Twitter account.)

Twhirl , Twitterrific, Google Gadgets (Twitter), Twitter Opera Widget, or TweetDeck – These are (just some of the) desktop clients that allow you to manage your Twitter account .

Tweet-U-Later – Send Tweets at a scheduled time. (From the home page… “Hey, got a terminal illness? Schedule messages for years in advance so you can tweet the living from your grave.” Ugh!)

Twubble, or TwitDir - Two examples of search tools to help you find people on Twitter.

Twitterment, Twitt(url)y, - Twitter search engines. (Again, these are just two of many!)

And so on, and so on, and so on... for extensive lists of Twitter applications check out Squidoo or the Twitter Fan Wiki.

There are also tools like TinyUrl and Bit.ly that are useful in the creation of tweets because they shorten the URLs on links in your precious 140 characters.

Implications for Teaching and the Library

Announcements – It is a quick, up-to-the minute medium for communicating with your audience, whether you are trying to give some quick information to parents or library patrons. (However, this does require your audience to actually be “listening”.) It can also be used to share breaking information from a conference or meeting.

Two-way Communication - Twitter is a useful tool for quick responds to patron queries.

Professional Development - Twitter makes it easy to share ideas, links, and challenges with global or local colleagues. You can be exposed to a vast array of information that you may not have been otherwise.

Current Information - In more than one major event around the world (i.e. China's earthquake in May, or Michael Jackson's death in June) tweets kept others informed of the breaking news, often well before leading news suppliers.

Lee Kolbert, in A Geeky Momma's Blog, has done extensive research on using Twitter in schools. She has complied a list of different school divisions that have established a Twitter account as well as a list of specific teachers utilizing Twitter for communication. (Fascinating tidbit: Her lists are published by Google Docs and they automatically update every five minutes even though her original blog post is static. Amazing!) She has also created a wiki dedicated to Twitter use in schools. She is a wealth of information!

Some ideas included in her wiki are:

*Announcement board (School events, homework)

*Subject summaries (develop summarizational skills and help review)

*Students write tweets from a character or historical person's perspective

*Use as an "exit slip" to demonstrate understanding

*Submit answers to an on-line or oral quiz

I also found a Twitter4Teachers wiki with wikipages for different subjects/specialists, including librarians. The wikipage is an extensive list of librarians on twitter, blogs, and contacts. (I added at least half a dozen people to follow through this page!)

In her blog, Carol Cooper-Taylor also suggests ways educators can use Twitter. One piece of advice that resonated with me was "Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?” This sets the stage for sharing and collaboration. She also suggests that you "Share the human side of your institution. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things".

The New York Times ran an interesting article, Putting Twitter's World to Use, containing information on creative ways other professionals and businesses have started to use Twitter from medical staff during an operation, to Dell computer using tweets to solve design flaws, to an on-line travel company providing advise. Twitter is effective due to its public nature.

But, why am I not a believer?

Maybe I will come around, but I am not a believer. I have not been convinced that Twitter is a necessary Web 2.0 tool. I have not been convinced that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

I find tweets (can be) very similar to Facebook status lines. I prefer Facebook, but don't necessarily know why. It may simply be because I am more familiar with it after using it for a number of years. I know that I prefer to follow people's conversations on Facebook (it is laid out in a more linear fashion) than the back and forth of Twitter. Also, as much as I like that I can follow people that I am in awe of (i.e. Lee Lefever), I don't actually feel the need to know what his brother's dog is doing at the cottage that weekend and see the corresponding picture from Tweetpics, like I did a few weeks ago! This is definitely adding to my information overload.

I recently asked my husband, who is a total "techie" but not a Web 2.0er, why he was adamant he won't join ANY social networking site. His response was why would he want to connect with people that he couldn't even be bothered to phone. Still trying to enlighten him, I suggested that he could utilize it for information instead of interaction. To which he replied that was what he used newsfeeds like Reddit and Slashdot for and joins discussion forums on websites he frequents. Honestly, as a newbie, I had no more argument. What, if any, is the advantage? I don't actually know -- yet!

What’s Next?

I am having a difficult time jumping on the bandwagon with this one. Sorry! I can reiterate the buzz I have heard and the few reasons for incorporating Twitter into education that I can believe in, but I have yet to believe whole-heartily that it is worth the tweeting time! So, I feel that this is somewhat obvious. I feel that I have yet to truly give Twitter a chance. I need to make a commitment to trying it out more extensively, find more people to follow and “live a little”, or, would that be “tweet a little”?

I would also be interested in exploring other micro-blogging tools like Shoutem or Edmodo.

In 140 characters or less...

I just woke up and am drinking the largest cup of coffee. It is necessary. (74)

Check out http://tiny.cc/YOczR for an entertaining Twitter song! (64)

I ordered Bonk's book from Chapters and added a couple books for my kids so I didn't pay S & H. The kids' books arrived today, but not mine! (140)

Would you like to follow me on my path to Twitter enlightenment, interrupted by the odd musing and trivial information? Follow me @NikiCard. (140)

Ahhh... can't get better than those two twooshes! (perfect 140 character posts)

Ning, Ning... Hello? It's for you!

2009-08-02T21:47:00.003-05:00

Ahhhh… finally. When I first started exploring the Web 2.0 tools and the requirements for EDES 501, I saw that social networking sites were one of our last explorations and I was disappointed. I was familiar with social networking. For once, I wouldn’t be a complete novice and might actually know something about our topic! Well, it is maybe a good thing that social networking wasn’t sooner in the course because I was exposed to “new” ideas and, if it is possible, I am getting comfortable with going beyond my comfort zone!

What is Social Networking?

Social networks are a component of the read/write web that link people to each other through relationships based on common friends, family, interests, education, and/or employment. Most social networking sites have the ability to share photos and videos, post messages (both in a public and private manner), instant message contacts, and join groups.

Wikipedia lists over 100 social networking sites and their approximate number of registered users. Compete.com lists Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter as the most popular sites (by number of monthly visits). Many of the media sharing sites have an interconnectedness that defines them as social network sites as well, including Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr.

Social networking is growing in popularity and is big business. Jack Loechner of the Centre for Media Research stated, “According to Nielsen, total minutes spent on social networking sites in the U.S has increased 83% year-over-year. In fact, total minutes spent on Facebook increased nearly 700% year-over-year, growing from 1.7 billion minutes in April 2008 to 13.9 billion in April 2009, making it the No. 1 social networking site for the month... and worth $10 billion last week according to analysts.”

My Exploration of Facebook, Webkinz, and a couple Nings!

Facebook

Ahhh…my comfort zone! I joined Facebook in the spring of 2007. I was home on maternity leave with our first child. I remember the day I joined! I spent my son’s entire afternoon nap poking around, finding people, uploading pictures, checking out other people’s information and pictures and trying to amass as many “friends” as I could! I couldn’t believe how much time I had spent on Facebook when my son woke up! When my husband came home from work that day, I was almost embarrassed to tell him how I’d spent my day!

Facebook was initially created just for college students, but has expanded to currently be the largest Internet social network. It is free and anyone can join. You affiliate yourself with a variety of networks and groups and link together with “friends” upon mutual consent. There are a wide variety of applications that can be added to your profile page and you can read about your friends current events in your news feed. A standard Facebook account (without extra applications) has photo sharing, video sharing, instant messaging, and public and private message systems.

I, personally, do not have any additional applications on my profile. I have never found an application that I was interested in adding. I prefer to check people’s “status lines”, look at pictures, and quickly communicate with my “friends”. I admit I am a bit of a Facebook junkie though. I quickly check in with Facebook numerous times throughout the day! At home on a maternity leave, it is often my social contact outside my home!

As I was already familiar with Facebook and still wasn’t interested in exploring various add-ons, I knew that I had to venture past this social network!

Ning Networks

The first time I heard of “a ning”, I felt absolutely clueless. I had NO idea what that was and was sure I had never even heard that as a word beyond something I would read in a Dr. Seuss book! (Sounds Dr. Suess-like, doesn’t it?)

It was worth my time! There is something for everyone at Ning. According to the Ning website itself, “Ning lets you create and join new social interests and passions.” Wikipedia explains that “The unique feature of Ning is that anyone can create their own social network for a particular topic or need, catering to specific membership bases.”

Since I was trying to learn about Web 2.0 tools, I searched for a related Ning network and was drawn to “Classroom 2.0”. I submitted a brief bio and waited for membership approval. Phew… accepted. Wow! I could spend hours reading fascinating discussion threads, following links, and establishing relationships with fellow Classroom 2.0ers.

A few days later, I was wondering if Ning was all academic and decided to search for scrapbooking, an interest of mine. I was largely interested in sharing ideas, layouts, and techniques so I was drawn to “Paper Craft Planet” because of the membership numbers. (There are over 14 000 members.) Again, I submitted a request to join and was accepted within a few hours.

Just for fun, I tried a few obscure searches to see if I could find a topic without a Ning related to it! I couldn’t! I tried things like candle and basket, but, surprisingly, there were lots! I even tried again with “aardvark” and found four Nings! (I don’t think they had anything to do with the actual animal, but hardly my point!)

I feel that the possibilities are endless within the Ning network and, if by chance, you find an area of interest lacking, you simply create one! Very powerful!

Webkinz

As a primary teacher, I have been hearing about Webkinz for a few years and had a limited understanding of them. However, I understood they had a social networking component to them so I thought I’d expand my horizons and check it out!

Essentially, Webkinz are real stuffed animals that are purchased and contain a secret code that allows players to access the virtual Webkinz World for one year. Players must keep their virtual animals (a representation of the “real” one) happy, entertained, and fed. To achieve this, they need to earn virtual money by completing jobs, taking quizzes, and/or playing games to be able to make the necessary virtual purchases. You can also create a friend network that enables you to invite your friend over for a virtual visit and have on-line chats. (Chats are limited to selecting from a list of prewritten statements.) Players can also create stories, add widgets (more like decorations), and personalize their home pages.

My daughter received a Webkinz as a gift and being that she was only a few months old, I didn’t think she’d mind if I used the special code provided with the stuffed animal and played around!

Oh boy! I think I should have had an eight-year old give me a tutorial! I think I am lacking a child’s intuition that would make this easier! There is a lot loaded into this… game? (I am not too sure what to call it, other than good marketing!) I stumbled around and tried to establish my character, named “Frogie” by my three year-old son, and keep him happy and fed. I thought that being an adult I’d be able to quickly whip through the quizzes to earn KinzCash (the virtual money system), but I found that you can only speed things up a little by quickly knowing the right answers!

The social networking component of Webkinz does not appear to be as elaborate as other popular networking sites (for older people) like MySpace, Facebook, or Friendster. I was able to search for players by their interests or favorites, but did not see a way to search for a specific person. You can also select “Meet Someone New” and be shown a (seemingly) random player. I was able to request a friendship that I assume sent the player some kind of message when they are on-line. (I have yet to receive such a request.) It seems that Webkinz changes user names into a three letter abbreviation, because that is all I could see when visiting their pages, but I couldn’t determine what mine was! Would a child need to send out a lot of requests with the hope that someone accepts before they had a network of (random) friends? Or, am I missing something?

I was beginning to feel like I was investing too much time in Webkinz, but soldiered on regardless! I did a Google search to try to find answers. Sure enough, a Webkinz wiki! Of course! Still on the quest for friends, I was able to determine I could visit the “Clubhouse” and request friends from people in the rooms. Forgetting I am really looking for children, I selected the Reading Rooms, but couldn’t find anyone. I needed to rethink this… the Party Rooms, of course! Paydirt! I found a room with nine other Webkinz and made friends with the only two that were accepting friend invites. Ahhh… now I had friends. I spent a surprising amount of time playing around “chatting” with the various Webkinz in “Party Room 3”, saying things like “Hello”, “Follow me”, and “I like your outfit”. However, this was all wearing thin with me and I left to feed my pet!

I had managed to begin to set up Frogie’s room, feed him, and play with him. I had taken a few quizzes to earn money to buy these items. I had created a story with the writing tool that is similar to the “MadLibs” stories of my generation! I had also randomly selected three people to send a friend request to. (I’ve yet to hear back from any of them!) However, I did make two friends in the Party Room. … As the minutes turned into hours, I decided to get out of Webkinz World!

Webkinz World is rather elaborate and I wonder if the children who play here really know all of the “ins and outs” of the World, and, if they do, how much time have they spent on the site? I am left thinking that Webkinz is a clever marketing scheme and a child’s introduction to social networking, but I think I’ll leave the World alone for a while!

Implications of Social Networking for Teaching & Library Use

I must admit that it is a bit of a struggle for me to wrap my head around being “in favour” of most social networking sites in schools. I don’t know if this is a result of being “behind the times”, or because of the purely social, largely frivolous manner in which I use Facebook, or if I have been too indoctrinated by “bad publicity”, but I remain slightly unconvinced. My venture into Webkinz didn’t help make me feel that social networking sites are academic either, but I did see more potential in (some of) the Ning networks.

My biases aside, I can explain some of the buzz around social networking and tell you what many educators (or people who comment on education) are saying about their role in education.

Current Popularity – Talk the talk, walk the walk! If you want people to use the library, you need to provide them with access to what THEY are interested in.

Teach skills – As Stephen Abram explains, “Those schools that block social sites rather than taking advantage of a teachable moment are missing something. The kids aren’t, they’ll just take it underground. I have seen too many schools using over the top scare tactics such as bringing in police speakers telling horror stories. Smart schools will offer more balanced viewpoints and information. Our society expects it.” Students need guidance and knowledge about on-line etiquette, how to be Internet-wise (like street-wise), as well as, basic, general technology skills like typing and mouse-use.

However, there are two ways to consider the role of social networking in education. One being permitting students (and teachers) to utilize their own social networking accounts in an educational setting, but another is to create and maintain an account for the institution. A different spin entirely…

Some of the benefits of having the school or library maintain an account within popular social networking sites are:

Keeping up with the times – Future/young generations have different expectations of education and libraries. They have come to expect a level of availability and accessibility that can be achieved through participation in social networking sites.

Visibility and Promotion – Another medium for showing what the institution has to offer. If patrons are looking on social networking sites, then be on those social networking sites! An institution could include a virtual tour (video), pictures of special displays or new books, and information of upcoming events.

Feedback – Social networking profiles provide patrons (either loyal or would-be) with an additional venue to provide feedback to the institution.

Examples… do they exist?

I searched Facebook for “library” and received many results, but I quickly found that most of them had their privacy settings so that I couldn’t view the whole account unless I became their “friend”. I had tried approximately twenty when I finally found one with the account publically viewable. The Morton College-Library in Illinois has some information on its profile page, but, in my opinion, it could be more extensive. However, kudos to them for making it available for Facebook users to see! Morton gave me hope there were more… click, click, click, denied, denied, denied… oh, the Waterville Public Library is viewable and quite extensive (could use more pictures though.) hummmm… Maybe library use of Facebook isn’t very “mainstream”…yet?

The Downside

I feel that I’d be remiss if I didn’t discuss the dark side of social networking as well.

Privacy Issues – Facebook, in particular, has been in the headlines lately for not meeting Canada’s privacy laws. Canada’s federal privacy commissioner has stated that Facebook’s policy of keeping user information indefinitely breaches our privacy law and mid-July 2009, Facebook was given one month to alter its policies. (LuAnn LaSalle, Winnipeg Free Press, July 18, 2009 p. B6)

Social networking sites have privacy settings that users should also be mindful of and make sure they are set to the user’s level of comfort. It is also important to periodically check these settings, for new options can be “quietly” added.

Time! – In my opinion, having clear personal guidelines with regard to social networking is a must! Because of the elaborate nature of the popular social networking sites, significant time can be spent in them. Whether it is creating your avatar for Second Life, answering quizzes on Facebook or buying virtual clothing for your Webkinz, you need to ask yourself if this is how you want to be spending your time, or is something else suffering because of this on-line time.

Blocked Sites – In many schools, social networking sites are blocked making the debate somewhat moot. Until the “powers that be” change their minds, social networking sites will remain unavailable in these settings. I work in a school division with a very conservative mindset and I do not see the School Board opening access to many social media sites in the near future. It would require a shift in thinking by the general public first.

What’s Next?

I was recently reading June’s edition of Runner’s World (I’m a little behind in reading for pleasure!) and I found a brief reference to Strands, a social networking site geared toward athletes! Ohhhh, fun! I have only just checked out their homepage, but am intrigued and would like to explore more. Of course, this is purely for my own personal interest, but relevant none-the-less. I watched their short introduction video and noticed their blatant incorporation of popular media!

I have no doubt that I will continue with Facebook for my own personal use for the foreseeable future. I really do enjoy it. While not academic, it is my mini-escape and a chance to be slightly voyeuristic!

Sorry, but I think I’ll be staying away from Webkinz. Honestly, I hope to avoid this all together, but may reconsider if one of my darling children asks me with longing one day!

Ning, ning, I’ll get it – I see the most potential within the Ning network. I like the idea of setting up a private Ning network for your class/classes. I think this would be more applicable for older students, but something I can keep in mind should I become the teacher librarian at a Middle or High School. However, I would also be keen on joining or starting a Ning for connecting with fellow teachers. I was slightly disappointed by the lack of anything (significant) local for educators on the Ning network. I am assuming that creating a Ning is as easy as promised, but that will have to wait until another day!

I’ve got to go now… Time to go check out my friends’ status lines on Facebook!...

Help! I’ve been bitten by the Animoto bug!

2009-07-29T22:32:00.010-05:00

Wow! A lot of the tools we have learned about in EDES 501 have been relatively new to me. Prior to the course, I may have heard of them, maybe even dabbled in them, but I was basically a novice with all of them. But now, Animoto? What is that?

CrunchBase details that “Animoto is a web application that, with the click of a button, produces videos using images and music that a user selects. Using their patent-pending Artificial Intelligence developed to think like an actual editor & director, the resulting video has the emotional impact of a movie trailer and the visual energy of a music video.”

Doesn’t it sound great?

My Exploration

As I often do while at my computer, I quickly “checked in” with Facebook one day and I noticed that a fellow classmate, Kelly, had uploaded an Animoto video onto her page. It was fabulous! That was all I needed to help me select which multimedia sharing tool I would explore this week! -- I decided to venture to Animoto. With ease, I signed up and watched a 60 second “how to” video – would it be as easy as promised?

I chose 19 pictures to upload. (It turns out that was too many for a short video, but they did warn me!) After deleting some pictures, I went ahead and perused the music selections. I spent a lot of time listening to the various choices, but eventually found one. After filling in some information for the video, one more mouse click and I was done. I just needed to wait.

Before I knew it, I had the video e-mailed to me and another copy in my Animoto account. I had created an adorable 30-second video of my three-year old son playing with a large stick he had found on a family picnic earlier this month.

Wow! It really was so simple! I got carried away and made another – wouldn’t want to leave a child out! I made one of my five-month old daughter trying food (I use that term loosely) for the first time. For some reason, my second video took a long time to be created. My first video was created by Animoto in just minutes, but as I watched minutes turning into hours, I started exploring. My video was listed in my account, but said it was “queued”. I poked around in the FAQs and found that, just like my first video, they should only take three minutes to be created. I sent off an e-mail and moved on to other things… should I admit that I made a third one? And, yes, it was also of my children!

Well, I am not sure if my request showed up at Animoto at a busy time, or exactly what happened, but my video was sent to me a couple hours later. I also received a reply to my e-mail asking a few questions and saying they’d look into it for me – wow, service!

As I am sure you can ascertain, I was hooked! I e-mailed my adorable videos to my family and I (very easily) added them to my Facebook profile. I even went so far as to call my girlfriend (fellow educator) in Alberta and DEMAND she check out Animoto. Within hours, she’d sent me her video and I noticed that another friend on Facebook had created one of her son too! Soooooo contagious!

Have you been bitten yet?

I felt so proud of MY accomplishments for the afternoon, but then I started to wonder about the actual accomplishment. What had I done? (Emphasis on “I”) I only picked out a handful of pictures and a song (from a provided sampling) and clicked my mouse! I tossed any misgivings aside when I read Joyce Valenza’s article in the School Library Journal. “Some … argue that Animoto doesn’t inspire a lot of creativity or higher order thinking, partly because the program does so much of the creative work, the animation choices, the transitions. I argue, we have other tools for deeper thought and sophisticated movie making”. Harrison Hoffman of CNET News wrote in his Web Services Report blog, “Can Animoto make you the next Spielberg? Well, probably not, but Animoto is definitely a slick, fun, easy way to compile your photos into energetic videos”. Exactly! While I may not have labored over the creative details of my finished product – I had played a role in the creation of the videos and I felt good about that!

So, why stop at three Animoto videos? Keep going… (Are you sensing my level of excitement here!) I felt that Animoto would be a fabulous tool for promoting an idea, event, place, etc. I decided to make a promotional-style video for reading. I used a Creative Commons (Attribution License) search in Flickr to find a variety of pictures of people reading. I saved them to my favorites and had hoped that I would be able to request them through Animoto, but only my photostream was available. My workaround to this was to save the images to my desktop and then upload them into Animoto. I felt comfortable enough by this time to try a few of the techniques on this video. I added text and utilized the “spotlight” feature to emphasize three pictures I particularly liked. As with the others, I used music available on Animoto. My video was created quickly and I was very pleased with the results.

(As an aside, I am concerned that I still have not followed the Creative Commons Attribution License because I have not credited each picture’s photographer somehow. Anyone out there know -- Have I broken this license? And if so, any recommendations for rectifying this error?)

Implications for Teaching & Library

Promotion - The 30 second, quick styling of the videos work perfectly for promotion! In a few minutes I was able to create a short, fun video to promote reading. (I also made one to promote Winnipeg on Norene’s wiki!) This promotion style video could be created for anything… specific schools, events, new books, new library programs, etc. The videos could be shared on a school website, wiki, or whatever other webspaces are maintained by the school/library/educator.

Ease of Use – This tool is so incredibly painless to use that even young children would be able to utilize this tool with ease! A lot of teaching time would not need to be spent on the tool itself.

Sense of Accomplishment – I was so excited by my videos – imagine how a child would feel! The sense of accomplishment one feels is linked directly with how easy the tool is to use.

Generate Excitement! – I can’t think of a better way to grab students’ attention, than with a “music video”. Even the dullest of subjects might become interesting! Definitely appealing to your audience!

The Animoto for Education website has a “case studies” section that allows you to view a variety of videos made for education, including a video against bullying made by a fourth grader, a video created by a science teacher that explains the students’ science video assignment, an explanation of a concept like the creation of the periodic table, and a video with the letters of the alphabet. Something for everyone!

I recently joined the Ning “Classroom 2.0” (foreshadowing to next blog post!) and searched for Animoto in the forums. There is quite the buzz over this great tool! One post in particular, by Andrew Marcinek, caught my eye. He lists a number of creative uses of Animoto for educators, including making a novel “movie trailer”. What a fabulous use of the tool in the library!

What’s Next?

I have been bitten so badly that I am considering purchasing an “All-Access Pass” ($30US) to enable me to create an unlimited number of longer videos (up to 10 minutes). They are downloadable. At minimum, I’d like to pay ($3US) and try my hand at creating a longer video. Would it be just as simple?

I read in a Classroom 2.0 (Ning) forum, that teachers can apply to receive a free “classroom code” that will provide each student with an All-Access pass and the students’ Animoto videos can also be downloaded. This is definitely worth exploring further!

I would also like to continue to play with Animoto and the tools. I might experiment with the edit feature, adding music from my own collection, or simply doing a “remix” to see the different results!

I can’t wait to share this tool with my school – colleagues, administration, and students!

Like a kid in a candy shop, I also want to check out other exciting multimedia tools too. For example, I took a peek at VoiceThreads and I am very intrigued. It looks like such a fabulous tool with virtually limitless possibilities for education! …will I be bitten by another bug?

For some fabulous inspiration, check out Mr. McDonald’s classroom blog. It is a fabulous example of using web 2.0 tool, including Animoto and VoiceThreads!

Got to go make more videos now! …Got Animoto?

My Animoto Videos!

2009-07-29T22:24:00.014-05:00

Just READ!

Who needs toys?

Yummy in my tummy!

Love in Bloom

My PMS Wiki!

2009-07-26T21:38:00.003-05:00

I hope I have your attention now!

A number of years ago, I made some fabulous friends at the school where I worked. We started out simply as colleagues, but over the years of sharing the highs and lows of our professional lives, we developed a strong friendship. There are five of us in the initial core group. Others have come and gone, but the five of us still hold onto this bond. (By the way, the school’s initials are PMS, so we are “the PMS girls”!)

Over time things have changed for us and one-by-one we started to leave the school we taught at together. One left to live and teach in the country with her new husband; one was transferred to fill a need at another school; and next, it was my turn to leave on a maternity leave for a year and was relocated upon my return. In an interesting turn of events, this September, none of our original group will be at the original school, since another friend is now on a maternity leave and the “last” one is off on an amazing adventure to teach at an international school in Singapore for two years.

I have worked collaboratively with colleagues and friends before and since, but this group is my fall-back support group. They are the ones that I can turn to for a fantastic new idea, a new angle on an old idea, or, let’s be honest, for some useful “filler” activities for those times you simply don’t know what you will do with that room full of children waiting for you! We are now so spread out. How can we share our ideas – both the “oldie, but goodies” and the new, innovative ones? You must be able to see where I am going with this! Yes, a wiki!

Start with the basics - What is a Wiki?

A wiki is a collaborative website. Authoring rights can be given to individuals to edit and create data within the wiki.

Duffy and Bruns identify eight typical characteristics of wikis:

* A wiki is a website that allows a user to add content, but also allows that content to be edited by another user.
* Wikis can be personal, but are usually open to collaboration.
* They involve the creation of documents without detailed technical knowledge of HTML being required by the user.
* They tend toward expressing ideas as relationships between pages, thus creating a network of interrelated topics that is based on a ‘topical’ approach.
* Wikis are a-temporal; that is, the nodes (or interlinking textual references) change not according to time, but by way of development of evolving and edited text.
* They track the changes to individual pages over time and allow users to browse the development history of a page.
* They encourage cross-linking and are dominantly spatial in structure.
* Wikis provide a space where knowledge becomes networked (situated, contextualized) but remains ephemeral; it changes, and can be changed and mediated by the community.

I was interested to read on Wikipedia (a wiki, by the way) that the word wiki is Hawaiian for “fast” and a backronym (acronym created after-the-fact) for wiki is “what I know is”. What a perfect name for the tool!

My Exploration

I had a very basic understanding of wikis prior to this exploration, but I had used them. Like millions of other people, I’ve used Wikipedia to find information on various subjects, but I have never edited pages. For the past few years, my school division has been building a wiki of lesson plans and information to support major changes to the Manitoba Math Curriculum. I have viewed it, and as part of professional development, submitted lesson plans to be added. (Teachers lacked the ability to edit pages.) (I have not provided a link for this wiki because it requires a password to view.)

For my own wiki, I chose to use Wikispaces simply because earlier in EDES 501 when I was conducting a search for something else, I found a link to what I thought was a limited number of Wikispaces that were being provided to educators. Not wanting to miss this opportunity, I quickly signed up! I have since realized that it was not a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but decided to carry on with Wikispaces anyway! Not knowing what my wiki would be used for when I signed up, I simply used my blog title, Card Comments. My “error” in doing it this way quickly became apparent, once I started my wiki for my PMS friends. I easily found how to change the domain name in the “Manage Wiki” section and changed it to a more relevant title.

I watched the short “how to” videos in the Wikispaces’ help section and felt ready to dive in!

I chose a basic template and created my own, small logo (using directions for creating an image for my podcast third-party hosting site). I began to add data and quickly realized a different way to format the pages (not by person, but by subject) would make information more retrievable. I easily modified the page layout. I spent the next couple of hours weeding through files and bookmarks (thank you Delicious, for making that easier!) looking for a sampling of files and links to add. I had thought just to get going I’d add a variety.

To make sure I knew how to add pages to my wiki, I created two additional pages. I will continue to add data and I am hoping that my friends will add their own links and files to help develop a more extensive repertoire of resources.

I also created a simple profile page and will encourage my fellow PMS friends to do the same.

I learned the value of adding the optional information in the “Optional: a note about this edit for the page history log” box when editing! I was experimenting with various formats and often wanted to find previously saved pages. Sometimes had to load a few before I found the one I was looking for until I started adding a short memo about what I had edited during that session.

I surprised myself and really enjoyed playing with the wiki! In the interest of time, I had to stop myself from uploading more files, adding more links, and adding much more content to the wiki right then.

Although I enjoyed myself, I did have some difficulties. I am not sure if these difficulties were solely because of my inexperience or because of Wikispaces limitations.

One frustration I had was not being able to change the name of a page once it was saved. For example, the “English Language Arts” title was too long for one line, so I wanted to shorten it to ELA, but I couldn’t find a way to accomplish this.

I did manage to add files and links, but I was initially unhappy with the look of the formatting of the files on my wikipage. I managed to play with it and make it somewhat more appealing to me.

I also had some difficulties adding the link to files at times. Sometimes I was unsuccessful highlighting the text to add a link. I am not sure why this was happening, but I would eventually manage to add the link either by re-typing the text or starting the edit over. I reviewed the help video on adding files to see if I was doing something incorrectly, but did not appear to be. So, I muddled on!

All in all, I found the “wiki experience” a fun one! Check out my PMS Girls’ Wiki!

Implications for Teaching & Library

Collaboration - As obvious with the example I have created, collaboration with other colleagues is a tremendous benefit of this tool. Teachers/Librarians could collaborate with other teachers/librarians in their schools, divisions/districts, city, or, as I hope to, across the world! Students using wiki technology will also work collaboratively and because of how edits are recorded, it is easy to see who made what contributions to the compilation.

Accessibility – We have recognized that one of the benefits of social bookmarking sites is that it is accessible regardless of location, via the Internet. A wiki has the same accessibility. Even if my friends do not utilize this tool, I can still take advantage of it. I often do more extensive planning at home and then e-mail myself the files, so they are available on-line for me to use in my classroom, school computer lab, etc. However, that can make e-mail management a bit cumbersome and I can run into space limitations. If my files were housed in the wiki, they will be readily accessible to me (and my PMS friends).

Motivation to learn – “Everyone who contributes to the wiki has ownership and, as a result, is more invested in a project” (Schweder & Wissick, 2009, p. 57). As Will Richardson also notes, “implementations of wikis in educational settings have shown that the more autonomy teachers give to students in terms of negotiating the scope and quality of the content they are creating, the better” (p. 61).

Professional Development – Wikis can be used to share information and resources with peers. This may be done through conference presentations, personal websites, personal templates, or personal files. Users can benefit from another’s skill and knowledge for their own professional development.

Ease of Use – Because users do not have to have HTML knowledge or expertise to create a wiki, they are simple and easy to use. A basic wiki can be established without an abundance of time being spent learning the Web 2.0 tool, but an emphasis can be placed more on the content. A wiki website can be maintained locally, as opposed to more traditional websites that are often updated and maintained by a specific webmaster with specific programming knowledge.

Management – A library (or another work space) could develop and maintain a wiki to house information on various procedures, expectations, resources, etc that are important within that library. The ease and speed at which new information can be added (or edited) makes this a very applicable tool.

Great Examples:
In an article for the “Journal of Special Education Technology”, Wendy Schweder and Cheryl Wissick detail many different benefits to using wikis in educational settings.
For many of the benefits detailed in their article, they highlight a specific wiki (that can be publicly viewed) that utilizes wiki technology in that manner.

Curriculum planning – Lake and Peninsula School District Wiki
Encyclopedia for specific subjects – Planet Math
Conference presentations – Free Webtools
Sharing resources – The South Carolina Collaborative Assistive Technology Network
An educator’s personal website (wiki) - Joshua Zola’s Wikispace (school psychologist)
Sharing of created resources (i.e. spreadsheet templates) – Special Education Zone
Sharing thematic units – Section 40
Organization – Free Technology Toolkit (This one is worth checking out, even just for the formatting and great visual appeal!)
Classroom wikis – Mr. Cappello’s (Fabulous site for interacting with his students!)
Subject wikis – Book buddy reviews (I love this example because it involves young children!)

What’s Next?

* I will encourage my PMS friends to add to “our” wiki! I’ve already sent them an invite, but they may need a bit of a prod! At the time of writing this, the Singapore-bound PMS girl had signed on as a member. I hope this is just the beginning!

* I’d like to add more information (files, links, etc.) and more pages. I only added some items to confirm I had a basic understanding of how to develop the wiki, but to properly utilize this tool, it will need to be developed more extensively. I am rather excited to continue to build this site.

* As a future project for school, I’d like to try to create something like the Book Buddy Reviews. I was very excited to look at this wiki and see the application for young children! The relationships that developed between the Grade Four students and the Grade One students while working on this project would likely have been fabulous! As a Grade One classroom teacher, I have always partnered with an older grade for “Buddy Reading”, but this type of project would give much more substance to the time spent together and be a terrific opportunity for both grades to create an amazing end product. I am very excited by this possibility!

~ This is “Wiki-Niki”, signing off! ~

Additional Resources (not course required or hyperlinked):

Duffy, P & Bruns, A. (2006). The Use of Blogs, Wikis and RSS in Education: A Conversation of Possibilities. Proceedings Online Learning and Teaching Conference 2006, Brisbane, 31-38. Accessed from http://eprints.qut.edu.au

Schweder, W., & Wissick, C.. (2009). The Power of Wikis. Journal of Special Education Technology, 24(1), 57-60. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1797302621).

Virtually Perfect!

2009-07-23T00:40:00.002-05:00

"Libraries are not made; they grow."

--Augustine Birrell

This was a quote on one of the virtual library pages that I examined. It spoke to me. Libraries cannot be a static place (physically or virtually). They must grow, change and evolve, just as society does (and, therefore, the library patrons). In this interactive, digital era, libraries need to be interactive and digital too. Collaboration is vital and accessibility is integral. Welcome to the world of VIRTUAL LIBRARIES.

What are Virtual Libraries?

A virtual library is an "organized collection of digital information" as stated by Holy Gunn. This information can be information resources (i.e. indexes, journals, and reference materials) or information services (i.e networking and data management). Virtual libraries can contain many of the resources and tools that a physical library does. The Online Dictionary for Library and Information Sciences (ODLIS) defines virtual library as “a ‘library without walls’ in which the collections do not exist on paper, microform, or other tangible form at a physical location but are electronically accessible in digital format via computer networks”.

Other terms of a similar nature are “digital libraries” and “e-libraries”. However, according to Wikipedia (which does not house a “virtual libraries” definition… anyone ready to tackle that?) “The term virtual library was initially used interchangeably with digital library, but is now primarily used for libraries that are virtual in other senses (such as libraries which aggregate distributed content)”. The ODLIS also differentiated the terms by stating “the term digital library is more appropriate because virtual (borrowed from "virtual reality") suggests that the experience of using such a library is not the same as the ‘real’ thing when in fact the experience of reading or viewing a document on a computer screen may be qualitatively different from reading the same publication in print, but the information content is the same regardless of format.” While this is an interesting interpretation, I found that in many texts the terms were still being used interchangeably.

Benefits of a Virtual Library

There are a number of benefits to a virtual library, including accessibility and appeal to target audiences.

In my opinion, the primary benefit is accessibility. The information and resources are available immediately via the Internet. This allows for complete flexibility in location and time. Some sites are staffed (in some form) 24 hours per day as well. The location of the user becomes irrelevant… a shut-in in metro-Toronto, a business woman in London, a child homeschooled on a farm in the country, a university student relaxing at the cottage (hint, hint)… whomever, wherever, whenever. The location of the sister (physical) library, if applicable, also becomes irrelevant – world wide access!

People with disabilities can utilize virtual libraries in a meaningful way as well. They can utilize tools (“assistive technology”) that will enable them to access information, such as screen readers, speech recognition software, and modified keyboards.

Another outstanding benefit to virtual libraries is their appeal to a wide audience. In EDES 501 course discussions, we’ve discussed the rise of Internet usage and the impact of the future “digital native” generations. Digital natives will expect digital venues available to them and virtual libraries can fulfill this expectation.

Limitations of a Virtual Library

However, like anything, virtual libraries also have limitations including underdeveloped sites, user and librarian skills, and limits to accessibility.

To be utilized to their full potential, librarians/media specialists cannot be limited to the same mindset as at a physical library. They need to be open to the possibilities! The virtual library should not simply be an on-line representation of the resources available in the physical library. Additional resources should be available, spaces for collaboration, and links to external databases all go toward enhancing a virtual library.

The virtual library is only as useful as the user is skilled. The user needs to have the skills and knowledge to use it effectively. Users also need to know how to manage the information. (As class discussions have detailed, information management is a very important aspect of learning.) However, if care is taken to educate patrons on how to use such resources, this barrier can be overcome. As detailed in an article from the Connecticut Education Association Advisor, a number of local teachers are utilizing the Connecticut public library online system for class research. The results were two-fold. Students learned that such resources existed and how to use them, and they completed their class projects/learning. (Note: this article is a bit past dated from 2002. Hopefully this learning and utilization of resources has only continued to grow, but it demonstrates the potential for overcoming this barrier.)

As well as the users, librarians need to have the right knowledge and expertise to effectively maintain the site and/or those maintaining the resources. This would also speak to the issue of cataloguing the materials. Metadata creation is also a limit of a virtual library. Wikipedia states “the ability to find works of interest in large libraries is directly related to how well they are catalogued”.

Those developing virtual libraries also need to be aware of the “digital divide”. Without access to the Internet, the virtual library is useless. This leaves it inaccessible to many.

Virtual libraries are less appealing to kinesthetic learners… no physical, tangible book, and no pages to turn. It also limits those who like to read information in settings other than at their computers. (For example, I have found myself printing out pages, upon pages of information because it is not feasible for me to spend significant portions of my day at the computer. I need more flexibility.)

My Focus

As my “dream job” would be a teacher librarian in an elementary school, I was particularly interested in virtual libraries that catered to elementary school age children.

I had hoped to find an example of a “local” virtual library, but sadly could not. (Future project?)

Criteria -- What makes a good virtual library?

Virgil Blake, in his chapter in The Virtual School Library, identifies seven key points to a virtual library:

* A local collection of materials that meet the information needs of the library's primary clientele
* An Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) which identifies the holdings in the collection
* The means to access abstracting and indexing services in machine readable form
* Access to other databases to which the library subscribes
* Telecommunication links to other libraries' OPACs and related information resources
* Telecommunications links to other information agencies and their resources and services
* The ability to send and receive information and data electronically

I also would suggest that a good virtual library is not just an on-line list/database of resources, but needs a location or venue for interaction. This may be discussion places, workspaces, etc.

I also feel strongly that the site should be visually appealing.

Examples

I know that the Springfield Township High School library site was provided to us and therefore doesn’t count as a contribution, but I feel the need to highlight why I like it (and why so many couldn’t compare!). It is very visually appealing (to me and I assume to the high school students using it). It was laid out in a non-cluttered, organized, but fun, way. Perhaps most importantly, it contained a lot of very pertinent data (resources, links, information, etc.)

Many school websites contain basic school library info (how many books patrons can check out, library hours, etc.), but no virtual library. I found this disappointing.

When so many great virtual libraries were linked or referenced through our readings, it was a challenge to find other, unique ones!

Annotated Examples – The good, the bad, the ugly & WHY!

Greenwich Public Schools Virtual Library (Connecticut) http://www.greenwichschools.org/page.cfm?p=891
This is a very visually pleasing, useful site. It contains useful links to websites that support learning as well as on-line tools such as dictionaries, kid-friendly search engines, and encyclopedias.

North Elementary School Virtual Library Media Centre (Indiana) http://www.nobl.k12.in.us/media/NorthMedia/index.htm
A well-laid out site. All of the information was easily located and the site contained relevant information (links, tools, tips) for children (at school and at home), parents, and educators. The school subscribes to a number of databases such as World Book. I liked the inclusion of Grade Level resources (in a wiki), but found it a bit light on content and I hope it is still in its infancy with educators working toward adding more.

Birch Lane School Library (California) http://birchlane.davis.ca.us/library/Default.htm
This site contains a very simply designed home page. It provides access to a number of preselected websites. However it was very disappointing that some links didn’t work. What has gone wrong? Is nobody maintaining the site?

Penn Wood Elementary School Virtual Library (Pennsylvania) http://schools.wcasd.net/PennWood/Staff/library/index.html
School library site from an elementary school in Pennsylvania. Home page not as visually appealing as some, but does contain many links. I thought the inclusion of a 24/7 question/answer help desk with a “real librarian” was valuable. This seems to be a Pennsylvanian service that they subscribe to. (This is an effective collaborative solution to understaffed virtual libraries.) The site contains information for children, parents, and staff.

KY Virtual Library (Kentucky)
http://www.kyvl.org/
While this site isn’t as detailed as some, it does link users to a “digital library” with various collections (books, maps, journals, etc) and has a very user-friendly, kid-friendly research guide for children. (The Middle School and High School sections required a long in to view.)

Closer to home…
My local school division’s library website http://library.retsd.mb.ca/ This is simply an on-line representation of the physical libraries. While our school does subscribe to various on-line references and databases an effective vehicle for sharing that with our community has not been achieved. More work here is needed!

What’s Next?

The hunt continues! I’d still like to find a hidden gem – a virtual library that I haven’t discovered through my exploration. I’d like to continue to do search and, collaboration is key, I’ll check out my classmates’ finds!

As I noted, our school (and whole division, if I do say so myself) has not yet risen to this use of technology. I see the need to develop a site. This project would be rather far in the future though I would venture to guess!

Fumbling Around in the Dark!

2009-07-19T22:55:00.002-05:00

One Newbie’s Podcasting Journey!

Just like my foray into social bookmarking, I was in completely new territory with our podcasting exploration. I had never listened to a podcast before and I definitely had not created one. I hit so many roadblocks, or at least speed bumps along this journey!

During my research and reading on podcasting I did get very excited over the uses in education (detailed later), but the software, creation, posting, etc was very labour-intensive for me. I am left with more questions than I started with and I feel very “un-tech-savvy” today.

Start with the basics - What is Podcasting?

A very basic, stripped-down explanation is that podcasting is an audio file that is shared with an audience through syndication. The term podcasting is an amalgamation of the terms “iPod” and “broadcasting”. Which, of course, is a misnomer because you do not specifically need an iPod for podcasting, but simply some kind of MP3 player for listening to podcasts. According to Wikipedia’s definition of podcast, “as more mobile devices other than iPods became able to synchronize with podcast feeds, a backronym [acronym developed “after the fact”] developed where podcast stood for "Personal On Demand broadCAST." (As seen in the Common Craft video on podcasting.)

A media aggregator program or “podcatcher” (like iTunes, Juice, or Zune) will use the RSS (Real Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) feed to download the MP3 files to the MP3 player, whether that is a PC or handheld device.

Brittain et al (2006), as cited in Robinson and Ritzko, “contend that the difference between podcasts and other audio and video files accessed via the Internet is that podcasts are created on a regular basis and then distributed automatically through a subscription”, but Robinson and Ritzko feel that “not all podcasts follow this organized system” (2009). They, like others, suggest that audio files that are created on a one time basis are still considered podcasts.

Some definitions also include images and video. An “enhanced podcast” includes electronic slide shows, chapter markers and other data and a “vodcasts” or “vidcast” includes video footage. (However, most information that I found spoke only to audio content.)

My Exploration… my tedious and long exploration...
(Read with a large cup of coffee and/or a stiff drink…)

I began by downloading Audacity (recommended by Richardson) onto my PC and then belatedly thought to ask my husband, Loren, (the real computer tech in our house) if we even had a microphone! He dug one out, but sadly it was broken. (This delighted our three-year old who discovered a “new toy”!) After experimenting with headphones as a microphone (something he has done before, but not with my cheapies!), Loren gave up and we made alternate plans. We installed Audacity on our Apple laptop and used the built in microphone.

The first night we had a lot of fun playing with Audacity and our end product was a three-part cannon of the two of us singing “Row, row, row, your boat”! The next day we experimented again and tried to make a somewhat more polished piece to include in my blog. I thought it would be cute to include my three-year old son. (Note to self: when on a deadline, don’t rely on a toddler’s cooperation!) After numerous false starts we made a cute recording of Loren and Nolan reading a poem (The Dinosaur Dinner by Dennis Lee) together. However, my son was being rather shy for the microphone (trust me, performance shyness is RARE with him!) and his part was too quiet. I then had to experiment with some of the editing features on Audacity. I managed to make a copy of the quiet part and raise the volume on it and set both tracks to play at the same time. The end result was “good enough” for my purposes, but could still use some tweaking!

I quickly realized that now I had an Audacity file, but couldn’t do anything but play it in Audacity on that specific computer. This began another headache. When I tried to install the recommended software, Lame, unbeknownst to me, it was in the wrong file format and I needed Loren’s help again. He solved this latest hiccup and we were then able to export the file and create an MP3 file.

But, alas, this wasn’t the final step either! I now had an MP3 file saved on my laptop, but it was still not accessible to anyone else. A search of the help information on Blogger turned up a step-by-step guide for including this file on your blog. I still had to have my MP3 file hosted by a third-party site. I chose BoxNet (simply because it was the first one on their list of suggestions – can you tell I was getting frustrated?) and opened a “lite” (free) account. I did successfully manage to upload my file to BoxNet, but got stuck again trying to add it to my blog. The help guide had told me to add it through the HTML widget, but I had a URL and not HTML text from BoxNet… Ahhh. Time for ME to get that large cup of coffee and/or stiff drink! I was completely frustrated by this point.

At this point I have to admit that my techie husband wrote a simple HTML code to include a link to my recording at BoxNet as a widget. (Now that I see how his code was formatted, I could use it to recreate it for other links in the future, but this was hardly intuitive for me.) The end result was a link to BoxNet on the side of my blog page. I don’t think the addition of widgets will show up in an RSS feed, so I do not think this is the appropriate way to add audio content in the form of a “podcast” to your blog. (BTW, Is reading this exploration as painful as doing it?)

BACK UP, NIKI! I had found a step-by-step guide for students and teachers and I needed to follow it! I backed up and found directions that I simply started to follow explicitly! This worked a bit better for me.

Condensed Version: I used Picnik to create a square image to be used for the title of my podcast on a third-party hosting site. I set up an account at SolidCasts (picked because it was free with no ads) and uploaded my photo and my audio recording. Then I simply created a new post to my blog with my SolidCasts page hyperlinked.

While I feel this brought me closer to what it was I wanted to do because new podcasts will show up if someone subscribes to my (whole) blog, but not quite it because not every update will be a podcast.

This definitely requires further exploration! However, the end result is that my first podcast attempt can currently be found in two places on my blog. (As a post from July 19, 2009 and on the right-hand side of my page as a widget.) Both “work”, but differently and neither are quite what I had hoped for!

Implications for Teaching & Library

It is a little bit tough trying to regain some of my initial enthusiasm for podcasts after my brutal trial and error exploration, but I can still see the merit in them, especially if you have moved past being such a neophyte!

When I listed to a few of the monologues on the “educating alice” blog (3rd trailfire site), I was immediately struck by a similar fabulous use for podcasts. As a Grade One teacher, reading instruction, reading experiences, and reading assessment are very important. A colleague of mine routinely records her students reading a book (that is used for assessment purposes). Each student has a cassette that holds his/her recordings through the year. This cassette can be played for parents at conferences and/or used to demonstrate the student’s reading strengths and/or weaknesses. But let’s bring this idea up to date -- Podcasting! Record the readings, but turn them into podcasts. You may then add them to a classroom blog or website for parents to access.

As a reading teacher those implications jump out at me fast and furious, but the podcasts in general would be an excellent way to demonstrate knowledge. The students could create a science explanation, a readers’ theatre, explain the rules to a sport or game, and so on. An assessment or culminating activity could literally be thought of for any subject at any grade – what a versatile tool! The possibilities seem endless!

The guide “Podcasting for Teachers and Students” gave numerous suggestions for podcast use, including teachers creating podcasts to share information, but author Tony Vincent also detailed how students creating their own podcasts would have tremendous educational benefits. In particular I appreciated his suggestion that “knowing that there is a real-world audience gives students purpose and motivation to create a spectacular product” (p. 3).

I had noted with the use of video, such as YouTube, in education that a specific learning style can be targeted. Podcasts would work toward differentiated instruction as well by serving the segment of the population that are audio learners.

The portability and flexibility of podcasts are appealing. Class lectures, activities, or discussions could be recorded to be utilized by students who were absent or by others wishing to review the information.

What’s Next?

Ugh. Was this process so “ugly” because of my inexperience? Is there a better way to do this, or do I simply need more practice? Either way, I need to play around with this process (at every stage) to improve upon my comfort level, skill, and hopefully, develop some expertise that will make this process easier to include in my own teaching and/or enable me to teach this process to students in a more efficient, effective manner.

I read that another free software program called “Levelator” could have helped me solve the issue of Nolan speaking so quietly. I’d like to experiment with this software to enhance the overall quality of how my recordings sound.

I also read about using Feedburner (another Google tool, it seems) to redirect and reformat Blogger’s RRS feed to make it compatible with iTunes. Would this work towards including my podcast “properly”? It too requires some exploration.

I recognize that I am going to have to get past my initial difficulties. I see podcasts becoming more prevalent in the general public and, specifically, in education. “Given the increase in the number of MP3 players being integrated into cell phones, it is likely that podcasting will also grow as the world becomes increasingly digital and mobile” (Robinson & Ritzko, p. 42).

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…

References

Robinson, S., & Ritzko, J.. (2009). PODCASTS IN EDUCATION: WHAT, WHY AND HOW? Allied Academies International Conference. Academy of Educational Leadership. Proceedings, 14(1), 38-43. Retrieved from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1769776311).

Vincent, T. (2009). Podcasting for Teachers and Students. Retrieved from Learning In Hand (www.learninginhand.com). http://learninginhand.com/podcasting/Podcasting_Booklet.pdf

Podcast Assignment

2009-07-19T17:28:00.002-05:00

My First Podcast (utilizing Audacity, Lame, Picnik, and SolidCasts)

Newly Converted!

2009-07-15T21:05:00.003-05:00

~ A Delicious Exploration ~

Wow! I have to admit that I have really begun to love social bookmarking! When I first read the chapter on it in Richardson’s text, I couldn’t really understand it nor how it was going to be useful to me at all. I asked around to friends and family to see what they knew about “social bookmarking” and all I received were blank stares – even from people whom I considered much more tech savvy than myself. I was very skeptical of this Web 2.0 tool and its value.

Being that I needed to understand it for the purposes of EDES 501, I simply dove in and got going. I picked Delicious simply because it was mentioned in many of the books and articles that I had read and it seemed to be popular. I signed up for an account, but stumbled a bit getting my account going. Did I really want the tool bar buttons, etc? I decided that to give it a fair shot, I really had to add them, so I got everything set up as recommended. Then it was time to import my bookmarks… wow, slow! It took a long time to import them and then it took me a very long time to go back and add appropriate tags for all of them. (The good news is this initial set up is only done once!) I also had to go back through my tags and fix my spelling mistakes! (Watch out for mistakes setting up your tags because nothing will correct them for you.)

So, now what? Humm… back to other things and other assignments, I guess. Well, before I knew it, I was using my delicious account! I kept diving back in to add a bookmark or edit existing ones because another great idea for tagging something would occur to me. I even set up a tag “TOREAD” for those great websites, blogs, articles, etc. that are being suggested through our discussions to help me know what great ideas I can come back to explore, but don’t want to get myself sidetracked right then. (Information management at work!)

I was all excited and babbling about this to my mother, so she signed up and checked things out. She came back to me with, “Well, I can see how your dad would use this [I’ll explain more later], but not me. I am a retired person and don’t have much to share with other people. If I came across something I thought you or another friend might like, I’d just e-mail you a link.” At the time, I didn’t have much of a counter-argument, but it has been rattling around in my head. She is looking at this from the wrong side! She has hobbies (i.e. running, sewing, scrapbooking, etc.). She needs to use Delicious to find other people’s great sites! I searched Delicious for the tag “running” (a passion we both share) and the top site had over 5000 people with it tagged and it was a site that I had never visited myself. So, I suspect that at least at the beginning, my mom may “take” more than “give”, but that may change over time too.

I like Delicious for many functions that do not have to do with social interaction as well. I use a number of different computers on a regular basis (personal computer in my basement, our laptop that is usually in our kitchen, my parents’ laptop at the lake with a mobile modem, and my classroom computer). While there is some overlap, I seem to have many different websites in my bookmark/favorites on the different computers (and none on my parents because it isn’t mine!) Since beginning this course, I think my bookmarks have doubled in quantity too! Web-based bookmarking sites, such as Delicious, work at solving the issue of multi-computer usage, as well as making “millions” of sites more manageable for the user.

But what is Social Bookmarking?

I should back up. What is social bookmarking? What about terms like “metadata” and “folksonomy” that get used in connection with social bookmarking?

Social bookmarking websites are Internet sites that provide the user with the ability to save and categorize a personal collection of bookmarks (or “favorites”) and to be able to share them with others (or keep them private, depending on your settings).

The term metadata simply refers to data about data. This term would be used to discuss tags and descriptions of your websites in social bookmarking sites. Folksonomy is a collaborative classification system utilizing metadata. Social bookmarking sites are an example of a folksonomy.

When I began my exploration I had no idea, but there are a lot of different social bookmarking sites to choose from! In an on-line article in the Search Engine Journal, the author lists more than 125 different social bookmarking sites! Some even create more elaborate fields (i.e. author, publication date, etc.) that enable easy referencing.

Implications for Teaching & Library

I am already finding Delicious useful for my own information management and am excited by the possibilities!

In a school setting I can envision utilizing social bookmarking. Within my Delicious account, I could create a tag such as “GradeOne09-10” and tag all relevant sites to my classroom with this tag. Once parents were informed of its existence, they could readily access the sites deemed important to the Grade One class for 2009-2010. This might include curriculum links, class blogs, my own personal blog, photo sharing sites that housed class pictures, and other websites to support class learning. This is more useful than a list of websites that are included in something like a printed newsletter because the list does not have to remain static. The ease of adding or removing websites to the relevant lists is impressive.

As aforementioned, my dad would have many uses for a social bookmarking account. He is very active with Manitoba Public Insurance and the National Automotive Association of Car Clubs (NAACC) and he monitors legislation all over North America. His bookmarks are extensive. When he is on vacation, he does not have access to this information unless he updates his list on his laptop (and definitely not available if he is using a PC in a library, book store, etc.). With social bookmarking he would have full access to these sites. The ability for my dad to readily share these sites with the other executive members of NAACC would be invaluable. While this may not be a teaching implication, it demonstrates how members of various groups can utilize sites like Delicious to share and manage information.

At this point I feel the need to share a complaint however! In many of the articles that I read the authors simply state that tools like Delicious are wonderful for reference librarians, but no specific examples were provided. I do not currently work as a librarian, but as a classroom teacher. This leaves me to extrapolate what I think the uses are. My approximation includes collaborating with other librarians/libraries, facilitating searches for colleagues and patrons, and personal data management. However, I wish I had found a more explicit “Librarians’ use of Social Bookmarking for Dummies” version! (If you know of one, please share!)

What’s Next?

In the article “Add Delicious Data to Your Library Website” by A. Darby and R. Gilmour, more sophisticated uses of social bookmarking are explained. “For more control over how Delicious data appears on a website, the user must interact with Delicious through RSS, JSON or XML”. (Darby & Gilmour, p. 101) These interactions involve some computer programming that I may not quite be ready for, but I am aware that there is another level of use that I can aspire to!

C. Harris, in his article “What’s Next for Social Bookmarking”, speaks of “a new breed of tools emerging that can provide a better end-user experience [than current popular social bookmarking sites]” (p. 14) He describes an upcoming, new tool called Webnotes. According to Harris, “this tool feels like it was custom designed for use by librarians… Webnotes is designed for research, and, as such focuses on organizing text from sites” (p. 14) Webnotes is something to look for and explore in the future.

I need to give my dad a Delicious tutorial! I can see the value in it for him and, likely, I would also fine-tune my own ability to use Delicious if I were to teach someone else how to use it! I will also talk up Delicious to my other family members, friends and colleagues to begin to build a network. (It is currently a lonely little network connecting me with just my mother who didn’t even tag her bookmarks!)

Finally, I need to avoid re-inventing the wheel! The next time I want to find a website on a topic, I’ll need to include a Delicious search in my quest for information. While it may not replace a more conventional search, such as using Google, it could supplement it.

I am excited over this Web 2.0 tool and look forward to utilizing it more thoroughly!

References:

Baker, L. (December 6, 2007). 125 Social Bookmarking Sites: Importance of User Generated Tags, Votes, and Links. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved from http://www.searchenginejournal.com/125-social-bookmarking-sites-importance-of-user-generated-tags-votes-and-links/6066/

Darby, A., & Gilmour, R.. (2009). Adding Delicious Data to Your Library Website. Information Technology and Libraries, 28(2), 100-103. Retrieved from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1724219691).

Harris, C. (2009, February). What's Next for Social Bookmarking? School Library Journal, 55(2), 14. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1639656531).

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom. USA: Corwin Press.

Visual Learner's Delight

2009-07-12T23:16:00.001-05:00

Diving into Video Sharing

I hazard to guess that we’ve all been sent an e-mail (from that contact that forwards everything) containing a YouTube video. Whether it is the video of a baby hysterically laughing, Susan Boyle’s performance, or the “Chocolate Rain” video, we’ve ended up on www.YouTube.com. You, me, and millions of other people!

Unlike many of the tools we are exploring in EDES 501, I am at least a little familiar with video sharing, primarily through YouTube. Until now I had only viewed videos (usually sent to me by someone), but had never posted one.

I easily joined YouTube and set up an account. (“TheLilNorman” if you are looking!) I selected a video that I had taken last year of my son singing and began to upload it. I am not sure if it was due to my file or YouTube’s encoding, but it took approximately an hour and a half to load it, but eventually “Learning Letters” made it. (I did have a hard time deciding what “category” it should belong to… entertainment, comedy, etc.)

YouTube was relatively easy to navigate. I enjoyed the ability of the site to suggest other videos and, in the interest of time, had to resist the urge to become very sidetracked exploring entertaining videos.

But what is video sharing/video sharing social networks?

Lamb & Johnson explain that “some sites simply provide a place to upload and download video clips, whereas others are entire social networks incorporating options for user profiles, video ratings, a list of favorites, tagging, and comments”. (p. 55) YouTube, TeacherTube, and SchoolTube are examples of video sharing social networks.

Implications for Teaching & Library

A couple of months ago my potty-training toddler was rewarded for a momentous achievement in this department with the purchase of a play bowling set. He had been asking for this set for weeks and we’d been dangling it over his head, but now it was his! We’d wondered how our little boy knew about bowling, but since he somehow knew about other sports too, despite his very unathletic parents, we figured he really knew what he wanted. (He has demonstrated exceptional skill in many sports for his age. In particular, he has a keen interest and ability in baseball.) As soon as his new bowling set was out of the packaging I tried to set up the pins for him, but my son was becoming increasingly frustrated with me. He cried that it was not right and finally I let him show me. Without delay he picked up a pin and swung it hard at the ball! Adorable, but not bowling! I struggled to explain to him what bowling really was and how it was played. Then it hit me – YouTube! We quickly went to the computer where we watched a few different bowling videos and my son figured things out. (Although I still catch him whacking the ball with the pins from time to time!)

My example is the “implications for teaching” in a nut shell – YouTube is an incredibly useful tool for taking a concept that is abstract to someone and making it much more concrete. This would also be useful teaching English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners and learners with disabilities. It would also appeal to learners with a visual learning style.

Another way to use a popular video sharing site is to add a more personal “face” to research. For example, last year I participated in a pilot project for The Ladybug Foundation. They were developing learning tools for the Manitoba Social Studies curriculum and had several classrooms around Winnipeg pilot the program before full implementation. My Grade One students were fascinated by Hannah Taylor (founder) who was the same age as them when she first started to become passionate about the homeless. I wish I had thought to utilize YouTube for videos about Hannah and her work. We also could have used it to search for other related videos on homelessness and other groups working on this social issue in other cities. I think it would have added more depth to their learning. An excellent culminating activity for our learning would have been to create a video that documented our learning and the social action project they undertook to support The Ladybug Foundation. This video could have been shared through YouTube and the students could (potentially) have received feedback from around the world.

Libraries can also utilize video sharing sites for library promotion. Libraries need to strive to include technology or possibly stand to lose future generations.

The assigned article from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), YouTube and Libraries: It could be a beautiful relationship, includes many excellent ideas for library usage of YouTube, including using it as a storehouse for video collections, using it as a vehicle for introducing new resources, and for patrons to access tutorials.

In my video sharing learning exploration I came across a study conducted in Australia that was very interesting to me. Hoban, McDonald, and Ferry studied the effects of preservice teachers creating a “slowmation” (slow motion animation) to demonstrate a Science concept. It was felt that Science was being undertaught in the schools due to teachers’ low comfort level with the topics. As part of a university Science instruction course, the students created a slowmation to demonstrate a concept. The slowmations were posted on TeacherTube to receive feedback from their peers, primarily to clarify any misconceptions. Hoban et al documented the improvement of the preservice teachers’ knowledge and found that 66% experienced a major increase in Science knowledge and an additional 31% experienced a minor increase in Science knowledge. Hoban et al felt that TeacherTube “provides a vehicle for preservice teachers all over the world to share the content of their assignments” (p. 7).

Because I was curious about the slowmations, I joined TeacherTube. A search of TeacherTube turned up 27 slowmations videos on varying Science topics. These videos looked “doable”.

It is felt that students will achieve a greater level of learning from viewing animations if they have been created and designed by the learner (Chan &Black, 2005 as cited in Hoban et al). If students create a video to demonstrate their learning, a greater depth of understanding can be achieved. However, the learning doesn’t have to stop there. If that video is then shared with a larger audience, for example through TeacherTube, an even greater depth can be achieved through feedback and a form of peer consultation.

Other Information

I have determined that there are a lot of video sharing sites. Other than the aforementioned YouTube, some other video sharing sites include Yahoo Video, Liveleak, Metacafe, SchoolTube, and relative newcomer Snotr. Many of the sites that I had associated with photo sharing also host and share videos, such as Flickr and Photobucket and sites I had associated more explicitly with social networking, such as Facebook and MySpace also host and share videos.

As an aside, it seems that YouTube is definitely not a money-making venture for parent company, Google. Consultants have estimated current operating losses between 174 million and 470 million (Liedtke, M., 2009). Google can currently support the money losing YouTube, but it does make you wonder how secure the future of YouTube is and what, if anything, will be capable of replacing it with the same magnitude should it no longer exist?

What’s Next?

Baby Steps! First, I would like to experiment with my own creation of an actual video that linked directly with my curriculums. Just as detailed in the study, I would like to experiment with a slowmation video to assist instruction of Science concepts. I would also like to experiment with creating virtual fieldtrips for my students, likely as a link to community outcomes in Social Studies. I would post these videos on TeacherTube and/or YouTube in hopes of receiving constructive feedback and also to share the resources.

Next, I’d move to student-created video to demonstrate their learning that would also be posted on a sharing site to receive feedback and to make connections (hopefully) around the world.

I have only just begun…

References

Hoban, McDonald, Ferry. Improving Preservice Teachers’ Science Knowledge by Creating, Reviewing and Publishing Slowmations to TeacherTube. (University of Wollongong, Australia)

Lamb, A., & Johnson, L.. (2007). video and the Web, part 2: sharing and social networking. Teacher Librarian, 35(2), 55-58,69.

Liedtke, M (June 17, 2009) Guessing game: How much money is YouTube losing? Yahoo! Tech News. http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090617/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_youtube_losses

Webb, P (2007) YouTube and Libraries: It could be a beautiful relationship. C&RL New, 68(6). Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/crlnews/2007/jun/youtube.cfm

The Search for the Ultimate Photo Sharing Tool

2009-07-08T22:45:00.004-05:00

Having basically no experience with photo sharing, I wasn't certain which photo sharing tool I wanted to use, so I decided to experiment with a few. As a Google user, I was intrigued by “Picasa”, but noticed that it didn’t seem to have the same buzz as others like Flickr, Webshots, or Photobucket. My parents used the Picasa software to organize their photos and do some picture editing, but hadn’t used it for sharing. I thought I’d give Picasa a try.

I promptly became somewhat frustrated with Picasa. I had been on a bit of a techie high after creating my first blog with relative ease, but came down with a bit of a crash after trying Picasa. I didn’t realize I’d have to download software on to my computer and wondered if you needed to with others. Still, I bit the bullet and downloaded the software and uploaded some pictures. (I was disappointed that I couldn’t “drag and drop” though.) I didn’t find Picasa as user friendly as some other software, like the Blog tool I had just used for example.

Since we had just celebrated my son’s third birthday on the weekend, I created my Picasa album of this celebration. This made me nervous about making the album public (see more on this debate below). I created the album as “sign-in” and invited my immediate family to view it. My husband and mother who have gmail accounts were able to view it, but my father, who doesn’t, was asked to join before he could view – what a pain. (This album remains as “sign-in”, but if you’d like an invite to view it, please send me an e-mail.) The other choices for security are “public” and “unlisted”. I hope to experiment with these options too and find the balance between my comfort level and ease of sharing.

For a comparison, I decided to give Flickr a try. I didn’t want to spend a lot of time creating an album if I didn’t like the tool and I didn’t want to create something else that I wouldn’t publicly share. Upon searching my photos (stored on my computer), I found a couple of photos I took after a rather humourous attempt to make French Bread that looked more like naan! (These are available at www.flickr.com/photos/cardcomments/) I was pleased that I didn’t need to download software and I did find it easy to use, but I wasn’t completely enamored by the results. (Searching the hundreds of photos stored on my computer for various random shots taken on an unknown date made me really see the value in tagging!)

I have used various sites (usually the “photolab” Superstore site) to upload and then order printed pictures. Like many others, this site stores your photos and you have an option to share (via e-mail). It lacks the ability to tag, map, or even describe in a meaningful way, but the site has served my personal needs fine.

For a hobby, I enjoy scrapbooking and I suspect I am looking for a way to create albums that are more in line with scrapbooks. I am looking for a more creative way to display and share my personal photos with my friends and family. Because I assumed that this exists, I “googled” “digital scrapbooking” and found a number of sites. The name “Smilebox” seemed familiar to me (I think a friend had once shared photos of his daughter with me this way), so I decided to try Smilebox.

Again, I had to download software (why does this bother me so much?), but I found Smilebox relatively easy to use and definitely enjoyed the finished product more than Picasa and Flickr. (See album posted to my Blog earlier today.) It was closer to the scrapbooks that I create, but, I will admit, much less time consuming! When I was finished creating my Smilebox scrapbook, I could e-mail it and/or post it (Facebook, Blogger, etc.), but I felt that the photos were less accessible than they are on a site like Picasa or Flickr. As a means to store photos, it came up a bit short. I also recognized (due to my previously mentioned picture hunt) that a tag feature was missing.

I still feel that with more time to explore the plethora of photo sharing sites that I could find one that found a balance between ease of photo sharing, interesting finished product, and useful photo storage. I even wonder if it exists within Picasa and/or Flickr but, again, I need more time (and expertise) to determine this. This will be an ongoing goal for me.

Public Vs. Private – What a debate!

As aforementioned, public sharing makes me nervous. There are many who support the idea of “public” sharing, including Will Richardson and Lee Lefever of Common Craft. However, it is my feeling that there is also a widespread belief that being public is too dangerous. I am somewhere in the middle. I have no issues with publicly sharing images of accessible places, especially common ones like the Eiffel Tower, but I feel inclined to be much more protective of images of my children and other people’s children.

That said, I do post pictures of my children on Facebook (fb), supposedly to be shared only with my fb “friends”. Is this putting faith in something well beyond my control? How do I know this is being honoured?

Photo Sharing Implications for Classroom & Library

I love the idea of sharing pictures taken in the classroom or at different school events. As a classroom teacher I have often taken many pictures throughout the year and I have some of them printed to be included with the student’s portfolios. (Maybe one day I’ll be tech-savvy enough to move to digital portfolios too!) If I utilized a photo sharing tool, the students and parents would have access to the pictures and see more of the great learning and activities occurring. This would be a wonderful way to share special moments with families. This sharing could begin as something that I develop and could easily, even at the young grades that I teach, be turned over to the students.

Photo sharing could also easily be a tool that the students could use to share parts of their lives that are outside of school with their classmates. When parents take their children on trips (as they inevitably do in the middle-to-upper class neighbourhood where I teach) they often want to know what work they should complete and I do not usually have anything that meaningful to suggest, but I see great potential for a photo essay slide show that could be shared with the class. As a Grade One teacher, I also see a very direct link with the Manitoba (MB) Social Studies curriculum. There is a cluster that deals with the different groups, clubs, and heritages of the students. This is usually completed with heavy parental participation/information sharing. Creating their individual photo streams would be an excellent way to demonstrate this information to the class. Learning about community (their local community and comparing to others) is also an important topic in primary grades according to the MB Social Studies curriculum. Photo streams could be used to take students on a virtual tour of various places in their own community and communities.

I am confident that there are many other direct links at other grades that would be interesting to teach, explore, and/or assess through photo streams. I also can see the implications for differentiated instruction. Many children struggle with demonstrating their understanding of various concepts through traditional pencil and paper tasks, but shine when given a chance to demonstrate their knowledge through a different media.

However, as I get excited over the possibilities, the devil’s advocate in me starts to wonder about the public vs private debate again. I am not comfortable enough to suggest that everything should be public like some advocates. I think I am much more comfortable suggesting that for each individual assignment/task the level of security needed would have to be considered. (I feel that this is a bit of a “cop out”, but as a newbie, it is all I can muster right now!)

Security features like Picasa’s “unlisted” security setting may be a solution. The website associated with the photos is designed to be unique enough that it won’t be guessed, but it does exist as a website on the web for people (hopefully only those given the address) could view.

One thing that continued to surface while I was reading about photo sharing and utilizing photos in the classroom was the idea of “creative commons” (cc). I found a simple video that explained the basics of this concept. Essentially, if you are going to use a photo that you found, for example a photo of a mountain range for a geography lesson, be sure that it has been granted “cc”. Under some of the cc licenses you can even manipulate the content and still respect the owner’s rights. Flickr allow the photos to be searched by license type (an option in “Advance Search”).

What’s next?

The questions rolling around in my head seem to be drowning out the new information at times. “How do you stay on topic” could be the most pressing one! I start reading about one thing, but see an interesting link and end up on various tangents! (At one point I was having a problem loading a page and my husband suggested I close my browser and start over. I balked at his suggestion and pointed out how many tabs I currently had open!) For example, I think it all started with the Trailblazer page for blogging, which led me to an interesting blogger (A GeekyMomma’s Blog) and there I saw “shelfari” and proceeded to create an account and play around there… completely off task and “wasting” my baby’s nap!

As previously stated, I’d like to continue to explore the various photo sharing tools to see if I can create something with a scrapbook feel to it, but that still had many of the noteworthy, beneficial functions of mainstream photo sharing sites. This would be a better match between where technology is leading us and where my interests are.

2009-07-08T15:54:00.000-05:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Here I Am!

2009-07-06T12:16:00.000-05:00

Well, I've arrived.

Will Richardson's Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms laid out the steps for creating a blog in a very easy to follow manner. I chose to create my blog utilizing Google's Blogger because I regularly use gmail and often use many of Google's other applications (search, maps, documents, etc.). I find Google easy to use and assumed I would find Blogger likewise. (So far I am not disappointed. The hardest part was finding a creative, unique name!)

I am looking forward to sharing my learning adventure with my fellow classmates, as well as my family and friends who are curious about these various webtools. (My mother has explicitly requested that I teach them to her and I think I definitely owe her something for the babysitting she is doing for me!)

So, stay with me through the next few weeks as I experiment beyond my current comfort zone and delve into the interesting (and a little scary) world of Web 2.0!