Week 14 Reflection

I am really intrigued by the Sabre Tooth Curriculum article. It really motivated me to think about what I want to teach in my library, and if I can even really know EXACTLY what I want to teach because I haven't arrived there yet. Whose to say that in a year or two there won't be some new technology that is all the rage and every student needs to be able to use it. At that point I might decided thatr wiki's are obsolete and not even mention them, although right now they seem like something I will teach extensively.

I feel that this really reinforces my conclusion that the most important lesson that I am taking away from this class is adapability. While for whatever reason I may never get the chance to use the actual resources we have learned about all semester, I know that I will be able to use the skills I have acquired in learning about new technologies and finding ways that they can be put to use. Additionally, these articles remind me that it is important for me to constantly be evaluating how educational trends affect the library. Thinking about how "digital natives" will view the library allows me to consider if my resources are relevant and if they are something students will want to use.

Week 13 Reflection

I found all of the little articles and websites that we looked at this week to be interesting. I was especially interested in the product from Intel that will read written text aloud. After working on my newsletter earlier in the semester, I have become really interested in assistive devices and I really hope to be able to provide for them in my library. This seems like a great product that would really help students with reading disabilites and I'm excited to see it marketed.

I was also interested in Zetero. Personally, I don't really like to research and becuase I want to be a librarian, I kind of feel like it's my dirty little secret. But, resources like this that help people to research and to help write bibliographies are something that I am always on the lookout for. I feel that there will probably be plenty of students in my school who also don't really enjoy research and if I can help them by directing them to a website like Zetero that will assist them in the process, maybe they will be able to get through it a little bit easier.

Week 12 Reflection

Back to scary copyright law this week. I think that in all of my coursework, copyright is the one thing that makes me dread being the librarian. The law is just so convoluted and when I read the section in the Simpson book about the "shrinkwrap license" I felt pretty discouraged. How does one really prevent falling victim to something like that? Further I would feel more comfortable with making sure that I myself was following the law, it's monitoring the building that makes me uncomfortable. I did like the examples of letters that were given and they definitely make requesting permission seem more possible.

I was happy to read more about podcasting. This is what I am most looking forward to in my own school library. I think that podcasts are something that students would really get excited about, especially if they can hear themselves speak through a podcast. While parent permission would be necessary to create a podcast of the children and may be a pain to obtain, I think it would be worth it and would make for a great learning experience.

Week 11 Reflection

I find e-books to be a really interesting technology. And, I think when we talk about non-fiction and reference e-books we are approaching them from a totally different angle than is typically discussed in popular culture. People argue often about whether or not e-books will replace traditional books, and I don't know that anyone really has the right answer or could know what will happen, but I think that these arguments usually surround fiction books. Many people are afraid that they will lose the comfort of curling up with a book to the e-readers. But I doubt that many people will mourn the loss of a dictionary to an electronic dictionary.

I think that non-fiction e-books could be a great addition to a school library, especially if as one article claimed, e-readers really don't become the end all be all of e-books. Readers are probably too expensive for most school libraries to purchase and aren't really practical to maintain and lend, but an e-books could be a great way to access information. I would like to be able to have e-books available on the computers in my LMC .

Week 10 Reflection

Thinking about my "toolbelt" this week has been an interesting experience. After I made my posts to the Wiki I continued to think about all of the different types of technologies that I've learned about this semester and some of the most interesting, that I didn't think of when I posted my entry, are assistive devices. I really had to idea how much technology has been developed to aid children who have diabilities. I think that it's great that there are so many ways that we can assist them in the library and I hope to be able to provide many of these devices in my own library, should they be required.

I also spent some time working on my Staff Development Workshop this week and relistened to the podcast. It's amazing how much powerpoint can do for you and how under utilized so many of it's features are. I feel like the presentation that Dan gave might, in reality, make for the most useful workshop for teachers. I think that many would be interested in learning all that Powerpoint is capable of doing and utilizing it in their classrooms. I hope to do a real workhop on this topic someday.

Week 9 Reflection

I thought that the virtual conference was an interesting experience. I particularly liked the one about "Buddy Blogging" where children commented on how much they enjoyed this experience. I think that knowing that students really like a program should be a huge incentive to keep going with it and to set up similar programs at other schools. I keep thinking of ways that older students could assist younget students other than writing and how even a librarian could assist students.

This also made me want to attend a real conference. Up to this point I've been mildly interested, but never really had an impetus to actually look into arranging to go to one. After seeing these and getting an idea for the type of information that can be available I would really like to try to make it to a conference this year.

Week 8 Reflection

Halfway through the semester! Although I'm glad to be almost done, I'm a little bit worried about by Staff Development presentation. Even though it's not due for a few weeks, it's snuck up on me and it's a HUGE project. I wish I had started it yesterday.

More positively, I was reallt interested in Richarson's chapter on RSS feeds. I'm interested in them and can see good applications for classroom teachers, but I've had a hard time seeig what exactly they could be used for in the library. Richardson's explanation of the ability to subscribe to updates everytime a keyword has been published is just the application I've been looking for. This is great for research and I think students will love it because it's easy. It's also a great opportunity to teach evaluation of sources, because obviously many of the blogs that mention a keyword won't be appropriate sources to use for information.

Week 7 Reflection

I thought that the PowerPoint on how to give a good PowerPoint presentation was very helpful. I've made many presentations over the years, but it's been a long time(maybe since I was in middle school!) since anyone has really laid out elements of a good PowerPoint for me.

I'm afraid that I may have developed some bad habits over the years that I need to break. For example, because I find animations distracting I almost never use them, but I can see how they would be useful to other people. I hope to use at least some of these in my presentation, maybe to show the steps in a process.

Week 6

Copyright in schools is proving to be very frustrating for me. I have a really hard time accepting that it's not okay to copy materials when it's in the students best interest to copy the materials. I guess I've just approached education for a student centered view for so long that it's difficult for me to break away form that view and recognize that sometimes we just can't give students what they need if there isn't the money for it.

Another thing that bothers my about it is that I REALLY don't want to be the copyright police in my school. I feel like in most of the schools I have been in, there's already an attitude that the librarian isn't really one of the teachers. I can't imagine that teachers who have been copying workbooks for years would take kindly to the librarian who is telling them that it's illegal and that they should stop. I guess I'll do it if I have to, but I'm going to hang my hopes for now on the possibility that the principal will handle these matters.

Finally, I started using GoogleDocs this week and I really like it. I think that I might start typing all my papers there instead of in Word because they are accesible from any computer. I'm interested to see how it works when someone else edits the document.

Week 5 Reflection

I think the Google Game is a really cool idea. I admit that I didn't know the trick of using :edu etc. to narrow your sources down to a specific kind of website. How valuable! I think that making developing better internet search strategies into a game is a fantastic idea, and I think that students will genuinely enjoy participating and will use the skills they learn when doing "real life" internet searches.

I loved Google already but it's really neat to see all of the different programs that have been developed for it. I have heard of GoogleDocs before but I didn't realize that it has a feature that allows people to collaborate on a presentation and not just a document. I also had never heard of google notebook, which sounds like it could be a great tool for me to use in my coursework. Unfotunately the Google Lit finder page seemed to make my computer crash so I couldn't look around there too much, but it also seems like a really great way to combine google earth with literature, which I never would have thought to do on my own.

Week 4 Reflection

I've found copyright law to be so frustrating! I can understand why the laws exist and how they are important but it seems silly for teachers to have to worry about such complicated law when really they need to spend their time teaching. I think that fair use should be expanded in schools so that students are given the best education possible.

I really liked webquests though. I can definitely see myself using a webquest in the future. I think that students would find them so much fun and they are really informative. I was glad that we were able to see more examples of what they could be like, in the Jurassic Park and Atlantis webquests.

Week 3 Reflection

Talking about assistive devices so much this week got me thinking about what we can do in libraries to help students who are disabled that isn't related to technology. I'm not sure how many children who are blind, for example, attend public school but I wonder how many libraries have books in braille that these students would be able to use.
Even the layout of the library needs to be taken into account. Is it easily navigable by someone who is blind or a child in a wheelchair? Are there computers that are on desks that a wheelchair can fit under? Are shelves at an appropriate height to accommodate these children? There are so many factors that need to be considered in making the library usable for all children, but I really believe that it is important to take the time to examine your library, both physically and in terms of content to be sure that it is the best that it can be.

Week 2 Reflection

I really enjoyed the 2008 state of the library report. I was glad that they discussed school libraries in particular, I feel like a lot of the time when I look up information on libraries, library media centers aren't discussed. That being said, I also enjoyed the discussion of gaming in the library, I think that it's really great that public libraries are appealing to young adults in this way.

I spent some time poking around the NOVEL database and can't believe that we have access to all of those databases for free as New Yorkers. I recognize the names of many of those databases from schools that I have visited, and it made me wonder if those schools were taking advantage of the free subscription.

The discussion on copyright has me a little scared, especially when they mentioned such high fines that can be associated with the cases. I can't imagine costing a school district $5 million, the way that an LA district was forced to pay!

Week 1 Reflection

Here it is Wednesday night and that means I'm done with my first week of attending/viewing my classes. So far everything seems geed. All the classes definitely seem interesting and I'm looking forward to all that I will learn this semester, that being said I'm feeling my typical beginning of the semester apprehension that this will be the semester that I just can't do it all and fail all of my classes. This has never come to pass but at the beginning of each semester I feel it will with such certainty.
This is not the first online class that I've taken, but my previous experience with one in grad school was less than stellar. I find it to be challenging to keep up with all of the requirements because I'm not attending a regular class where they are discussed. I'm looking forward to learning more about computers in the school library though, and I think this will be not only an interesting class but one that will prove to be very useful to me in my future as a SLMS.