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.