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.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, October 16, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
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.
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.
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