Thing # 16

Playing in the Sandbox was fun. I haven't yet figured out to manage the size of my image inserts. I plan to keep on playing here for awhile. I might use a wiki for the Mockingbird books. to get feedback from the teachers.If you look in the sandbox you can see where I started a page. A Mockingbird wiki might be interesting to do with teachers this year. This could be expanded to Bluebonnets next year and have teachers and students respond if students could access it.

Thing # 15

I personally do not think Wikis are something I would be interested in using. Wikis are not authoratative as people who contribute to them do not always have the correct facts or their entries are subjective. Wikis might be a starting place for research but certainly not the only place to gain information. A wiki might be used for a class project or some other collaborative project. I did like the idea of requiring an email to accompany all entries to a wiki so that the person could be contacted about the information submitted. I personally don't want people changing something that I have written. As libraries continue to move deeper into technology, wikis are inevitable in the library world, but I still think they should be taken for what they are; individuals putting in their 2 cents worth.

Well I put my wiki out on the web for teachers today. Will see if anyone responds!

Thing # 14

Library 2.0 to me means moving full force into the 21st century. Times have changed and so have libraries. If libraries do not continue to change with society and all of the technological advances, they will become obsolete. Libraries are no longer warehouses of books; they are places to discover new ideas and to help create more networking of these ideas. Librarians must include patrons' ideas and needs as libraries collaborate with the people who use their resources.
Allowing a venue for patrons to review and tag all resources available is just one option for libraries to engage in.

School libraries must change with the times and the changing curriculums. School librarians must truly collaborate with teachers and students to meet these changing needs. School librarans must also be the leaders for teachers in the new technologies available to enhance student learning to an optimum. As teachers become more bogged down with paperwork, it is the responsibility of librarians to keep teachers informed of the latest educational opportunities available in both print and non-print mediums.

Thing # 13

I enjoyed creating a Ma.nolia account and listing my favorite bookmarks.There have been times at school or other places that I wished I could access my bookmarks from home. Now I can! It was interesting to see other people who also had bookmarked sites that I had. I can see setting up bookmarks for school research on a special account. This way students and teachers could access the bookmarks in the library, computer lab, and classrooms not to mention at their own homes.Kind of like a Hotlist. I also liked FURL. This could be very helpful in keeping up with an article found that needs to be referred back to. This can be done easily by installing Furl on the toolbar. Could be very beneficial in research. I also like the highlighting capabilities and the option of emailing parts of an article to someone else.

Thing # 12

I was already well aware of MySpace and Facebook and how they work as I have children who use them all the time.I think it is very important for educators and parents to be aware of the social networking sites as most young people today have accounts with them. It is important not only to be aware of these sites' existence but also how they are used. I enjoyed looking around at the Ning sites and I think this networking tool can be very imformative for educators in keeping up with the latest trends and what other teachers and librarians are doing in their schools and libraries.We are truly a global society and online networking is just a part of the world now. I do believe that MySpace and Facebook should be left for personal time. Ning sites are job related so I think it is perfectly acceptable to be browsing there. Although I know that MySpace and Facebook can have very legitimate blogs and messages they are definitely more social and can be abused by students and teachers alike while at school.

Thing # 11

Library Thing is a cool device for keeping up with one's own personal library. It certainly is easy to catalog! Cataloging in library school should have been this easy. The message boards are fun and intersting to read. It is intersting to see who is reading what I am.

Thing # 10

This is the most fun I have had in this 23 process. I absolutely love these image generators. Most of the time I had to save the images to my hard drive and then add the images as a page element. The smiley face image was a little tricky at first to save because I had to activate the smiley face program on my computer. One picture I wanted to use from my hard drive would never cooperate with me. I tried numerous times but never got it to go. I finally decided the size of the picture must have been the problem. I finally decided on another picture that worked just fine. Yes, I could have worked on cropping it, but cropping would have taken away from the picture. I needed the the entire shot.The license plate image was the easiest because the Image Chef generator has a button to select to send the image directly to your blog.

I can see using these generators to make personalized signs, book marks, and buttons for our libraries. I think I will try some of these images on my library site and the school site which I also maintain. The problem I see is tearing myself away from playing with the generators and getting back to work! I stayed up until almost 2 am playing last night!