#23 Reflection

#1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
Right now my favorite discovery was Delicious. I have found both personal and professional uses for it. Personally, I found it a great way to help my oldest daughter, a high school senior, prepare for applying to college. I was able to make links to the various schools and group them accordingly.
Professionally, I used Delicious to set up websites for students in my library to use when researching. My favorite was a list of websites for fourth graders to use when researching the different regions in California. They could view the sites just by their region or by topic. It was really helpful. Here's the link if you'd like to see it:
Region Links
I also really enjoyed Rollyo although I haven't used it in my work yet.

#2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
This program was a great example of an opportunity to continue being a lifelong learner. It was easy to use and I appreciated the ability to do it at my own pace. Juggling work and three kids makes it tricky to keep on top of new developments, but this allowed me to learn about the 2.0 tools that were available for me to use. I now feel empowered to begin sharing them with my colleagues. And..I even know what 2.o means now!! :)

#3 Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
There were many take-a-ways. I still need to sit down with my colleagues and decide which other pieces I would like to continue to explore. The biggest surprise for me was the vast number of tools that are available at our fingertips online. It never ceases to amaze me! It makes my job so much fun!

#4 What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
I would encourage you to allow users to keep going at their own pace as you have. Sometimes deadlines are good motivators, but I might have given up if I'd had to meet a deadline. Also, continue with the feedback. It was nice to have 'cheerleaders' to keep me going! Thank you.

#5 If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
Definitely! I really enjoyed this opportunity. It was great because I was able to use it as a tool for my professional development plan.

#6How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote CSLA learning activities?

Library 2.0 was accessible, inspiring, and fun!

#22 ( Week9) E-books and Audiobooks

I really enjoyed the Project Gutenberg site. I explored the e-books. At first I wasn't sure where to begin so I looked at the "Top 100" section. You can view the top 100 downloaded books or most popular authors on the site for the past day or past seven days. I was amazed by the huge variety. Everything from 'Pride and Predjudice" to the 'Outline of Science'.
I did some deeper diggers and discovered the 'Bookshelf' section of the site where books are categorized in a variety of ways. I was pleased to discover the Children's Bookshelves and did some browsing there. I also found a collection of children's periodicals. There were copies of children's magazines from the 1870's such as St. Nicholas magazine and The Nursery. It was interesting to see how children's literature has changed over the years! This would be a good resource when teaching history to kids. They could look at examples of literature aimed at kids during a given time period.
I feel like I probably only scratched the surface, but I was able to download books easily! I'm sure I'll visit again soon to do some more exploring!

#21 (Week 9) Podcasts

I felt a bit overwhelmed trying to wade through the podcast directories, but I did find two podcasts that looked interesting. I subscribed to one, SmartBoard Lessons, through iTunes and another, Just One More Book!, through Google Reader. I especially like the idea of listening to book reviews! I will try listening to some episodes and see if I find that these are valuable resource. I do like the idea of being able to take the podcasts with me wherever I go. This portability makes them very useful.
At this point, I think I am more interested in creating podcasts than listening to them. I have a project I've been doing with first graders the past few years. Up until now I've been recording their retelling of wordless books using Garage Band and burning the recordings onto cds. I would like to explore VoiceThreads and some other sites to see about creating recordings. I think it would be fun to publish them online so that parents and other kids could listen to them.
I have also spoken with our Naturalist about the possibility of having the kids create podcast tours of the wetlands next to our school.This is an area I would like to explore some more!

#20 (Week 9) YouTube

#20 (week 9) YouTube
I am familiar with YouTube because my teenagers often use it. I know that we have had issues with teachers wanting to access videos but are unable to because it is blocked. I recently learned about TeacherTube and StudentTube. These might be sites that are safer to use. I also want to explore Calaxy which is an educator portal for WEB 2.o tools. I would love to have kids create book reviews using our Flip Video cameras and then post them to a safe site.
I did find a video for the life cycle of a ladybug. I am going to try to embed it in this blog post.
Did it. This tutorial was very helpful!

#19 (Week 8) Library Thing

I found Library Thing this summer after reading Manifesto for 21st Century School Librarians By Joyce Kasman Valenza. I thought it looked interesting but didn't really start playing with it until I got to this lesson. I created an account and added some books. I was able to make new collections so that I could add books in categories by grade level. I already use a card system to write down titles and comments about new books that come into the library, so I was thinking I could use the same system. I'm actually thinking now that I can use the tags to sort instead. I love tags now. I've become hooked on Delicious for bookmarking. It seems that I could use Library Thing in the same way. This would also eliminate the trouble I had with making sure I was adding books to the correct collection. Hmm....I'll have to explore this tool some more. Here's a link to my Library Thing so far. It's a combination of personal and school books. I would definitely like to add a link to the library website for a Library Thing. I love the way you can easily pull up the books and the covers. Very user-friendly.

Blog Entry - 2.0

#18 (Week 8) Zoho Writer
I am familiar with Google docs which, I believe, is very similar to Zoho writer. I think this has many possiblities for creating and saving documents online. I have found that Google docs sometimes has some quirky issues so it's nice to know of other options that are available. I was amazed at all of the different options in Zoho Writer: email, wikis, calendar, documents, tasks, etc. I've been using tasks with Entourage a lot more this year. I suppose Zoho writer is nice because then you can access the account from any computer. I am feeling like I can begin using these tools more now. I was very proud of myself because I used Google docs at the end of the school year to create and distribute my year-end survey for classroom teachers. Always fun to try new things!
Wow! I even posted this directly to my blog from Zoho Writer. It's amazing how everything is connected!

#17 (Week 7) Add an Entry to Sandbox Wiki

I was excited by the resources in the Curriculum Wiki. This will be a great tool to get me motivated to begin using 2.0 tools with my students. This demonstrates the power of wikis and collaborative sites. I would like to explore the potential of using a wiki to share teaching practices within our school site. We usually choose an area of focus so this would be a great way for teachers to quickly share ideas and a rich resource for other teachers to access.
I added an entry under podcasts and video ideas. I struggled at first to figure out the password but had success!