Finale The Reflection.......................................

This is the end of this journey. It was everthing Myra promised and more. A rare class that because of the comfort level we had with the instructor, and the camaraderie we had with each other it made a safe, failproof environment for learning. Myra promised us this at the beginning. I knew I would learn new tech things, I had no idea I would go this far. It so exceeded any of my expectations. The material was well presented, the layout so easy to follow. By making a blog then learning all the 2.0 that could be added to it as we went was brillant! The blog is like the class in a nutshell, but we know the hours of complaining, crying, frustrating, and finally success in the applications we went through to get there.

My favoite discoveries: I have several, I love igoogle to open in the morning first thing to see my calendar, weather, beautiful art, notebook, world and U.S. news. I find it all inclusive for getting the day going. I love all the picture and image things I learned. From Flickr to posting with html's I have such a good grasp on them, and I love using them for anything! I love widgets, and their multi uses, they are just like the frosting on the cake. Library thing is now something we will have to always have in our IMC. I would say fifty percent of the lessons we learned would end up as my favorite thing.

The instructor, the content, the credit.... Myra excelled so that could not have gotten better, the content was more than we need, or wanted. This is why the class excelled. It taught us what we did not know was out there, and how to get it going in our libraries. I have no suggestions because I think it was top notch and ready for the masses as it is.

How am i using it in my job.... much has already been integrated. The task will be to keep up with it. I open to igoogle first thing, I read our days activities on web based calendar, I make the daily signs using pictures and graphics, I have a library thing on our library website, we also have a twitter spot where I twit on the magazines, I have a flickr account where I keep all the school photo's , I can and will continue to make slide shows of our library for our IMC. I have already shown several teachers different posts and blogs that will be used in the classroom/labs. I can work with thumbdrives, we just ordered a flipcamera for the library.

How do I feel about blogging?..comfortable. Never thought I would say that. I like it for what I use it for. I can see it in a class, and for employees all working together on a project. I won't be using it just to bop around and see what's happening. They can still be a giant time waster.

The most importaint thing I learned.... is I can do it. With the right teacher in the right environment it can happen. I know now I need to continue this path. Not for my district, our skills are not recognized there. But for my teachers and my students. It is clear throuth this class, if we are really serious about student achievement then the kids need this information and they need it now. They will not be able to compete outside of our schools without it. Colleges are far more advanced in the tech world and they are going to have high expectations for incoming students.
What's next? More of this. This was a taste, I am not proficient. I would take more classes in any of the 2.0 applications we learned about here. Except technoradi. I would like them to concentrate on an application or two for several classes. Then move on to another. I would love to still use a blog to work through. It just seems a natural.
Thank you ,thank you... to Myra for being the best, and all my clerk classmates who made this such a wonderful, and successful experience. I hope to see you all in our next 2.0 class. May we all go forth and concquer with confidence.

Thing # 23 Expand Your Mind

It's almost sad that this is the last entry. It has a fitting title, Expand Your Mind. This we all did. It has been a fun, frustrating and a very rewarding journey. The idea that this was just a taste, a beginning, is still daunting. I have learned so much, forgotten too much and still excited to learn more. I am much faster working now in some of our lessons, and my mind still spins with all that's in it. I think it will take a long time to slowly digest all this. I am already using a great deal of what we learned here in our library. While I use many of the applications as a tool for me, the next phase will be moving it to the students. This can be done, it's just about timing. I am delighted to be in a library that is very technology progressive. I think as long as our specialist and I are able to work our hours and stay in the library our student's will continue to get the best we can give them. Kudos to our principal. Where am I going next with web 2.0? I feel I am on the train now, and I don't intend to get off. While it seems like just when you understand a new "thing" another comes to take it's place. I am finally understanding this is ok, it will always be like this with technology. It' just a journey.

Thing # 22 Cell Phones

Geeze who would think there is really some good things about these things. Until this class I saw them differently. I saw a wonderful video I think it was in cc, that was done the same way as the Who would think, but all about technology. They talked about the cell phone and gave amazing uses for student's! I was even in awe. This is just not what we clerks were raised with. To the student's this is all they have known. There is a huge gab, but this is why it is so easy for the kids to make the jump from fun, to using it as a tool. I read the "How to use your cell phone in learning". I played with Jott.com and made an account. I don't think I will use it, but one article was talking about the unorganized student using it as a tool. Uses in the library, I just am not ready for it, but I would listen.

Thing #21 Copyright and Freedom of Information

I like Creative Common. I have had a little experience with it, but spending more time with it, the more I like it. I especially like the website where I can go to find music, pictures, yahoo and google all filter through it. I now use it with teachers. Often when we are talking about where to get something for a class, I mention Creative Commons.

It takes the liability off ourshoulders.

http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/presskit/icons/cc.png

We have covered huge amounts of web 2.0, but as far as usability in the IMC

I think this site, and collective sharing is about the best thing I learned in this class.

Thing #19 Microblogging

Twitter, I made myself an account. I twitted to it several times. I went and looked at FanWiki and saw a whole lot of toys for twitter. But when I read so many of the posts it is just too much immaterial stuff I don't want or have time to read about." Quick-ping media can be a massive time-suck," a direct quote of Clive Thompson from Wired, but he thinks it has its purpose.


I use a twitter account here at work for a specific purpose. I like it because it's a fast way to add a update to a page. I really don't think I want to use it any other way.

Thing #20 Social Networking

Social Networking is what I have spent a great deal of my time trying to get the students off of. To use it as a instructional tool is a whole new twist. I have not been able to open any of the public libraries myspace's to see what they are doing. I have however opened my own Orkut account and may try using it. I would feel more comfortable if I made it a fictional account, perhaps of a dead author. Now that would be fun with a class, other dead authors and poets writing in. https://img1.orkut.com/img/doodle/orkut_logo.gif

Thing # 18 The Homework

Jott

http://jott.com/myjotts.aspx

This is sure 2.0. Multi media. It takes your cell phone, or land line, and allows you to transcribe a message into your email. I am working with it to see if I can get it into my blog or igoogle.

Two Big Two

I went seeking and I found
Mr. Lawrence Lessig. He is

pretty darn impressive.

Thing #18 Youtube, Teachertube, and User Generated Video

Streaming video is something I don't see much of. Having it blocked by the district and being in a Citrix environment it is few and far between video clips. I have been able to get into teachertube a bit. I like how it has a browse so I can snoop around. I have not seen a lot that I can use, or think of using with students. I just hate how you would get it all set up, than it does not work properly. That is why right now I would not even be game to play with it and kids.

Thing # 17 Explore Web 2.0 Award Winning Apps

http://www.seomoz.org/ I think this site is awesome. There are so many thing to explore. I was delighted to see many that I had used, or our library has used. It is looking a little familiar here and there. This one site I liked was onesentince.org. I already had a English teacher sit and look at it with me today. I think it is great for story jumpers, and so did she. I hope to explore this site a great deal more.

Thing #16 Learning a Language

This was something I had not thought of before. The one site I was looking at had it broken down into levels. And it claimed to be free. Somehow the idea of retirement seems more interesting when I think I may have time to finally take advantage of all this free stuff to learn and take advantage of. For here at school I have no idea if the style of learning the sites use would work for our classroooms, but for personal interest what have you got to loose. Especially the open blog ones. That would be cool to be chatting away with someone on a beach somewhere far away in a different language.

Thing #15 Audiobooks and ebooks

Audiobooks and ebooks are gaining a lot popularity in recent years. Our library has not spent any of our budget on them yet. The one we have, a playalong, sits on the shelf. I was amazed at how many free downloads there are. I can see myself getting into these. Oops, do you need a ipod? I was lucky enough to sit next to Kim on that day and she really knew a lot more about them than I. I think I see the wave of the future coming. I

Thing #14 Podcasting

Podcasting is like a little perk for the techie type. Once you understand the basic principals it doesn't seem like a hard thing to do. Again it is manipulating the data from here to there, but it is quite impressive when done. The only one I have done from start to finish is my voki on my blog. I have listened to many on technology in education, and like the ones where I see the little picture of the person talking on the side of the blog. It's great, the sharing aspect is relevent to what we are doing with technology. At our school we let the kids do voicethreads, then we post them to our library web site. Although we don't have more than a dozen doing them, the kids love it.

Thing #13 I Google

I love I Google.Right now it still is very hazy, mainly due to the fact it is so loaded with goodies. But this is also what makes it so attractive. I would like to get to the point where I open to my computer every day to my I Google page. On this page I would have quick facts and links to what I want to view daily. I will give this some free time just to play with it. I can see using this with the more techie kids. If they gave themselves a page and used it for school, with links to school page, databases, their teachers links oh what a timesaver it would be. I would love to get to the point to be a pro on this application and give the kids mini classes in the IMC.

Thing #12 Open Source Applications

I have been using an open source applications for over a year and never really understood what I was using. We have our IMC schedule for both lab and library sign up on Google calendar and Google Doc's has our AV sign up. It has been working great. We have a teacher here who seems like a guru on anything open source. So now many of these pieces are fitting together. I love the idea that open source is being used for such things as government documents in other countries. The idea of a document always opening up no matter how it was formatted is just a dream come true.

A View from our Library

Thing # 11 Wiki's

Wiki's have a great purpose. I admit I have had negative feeling about Wikiopedia from the beginning. The idea of anyone editing it has alway had me frozen in fear. I am much more confortable with it now. I understood the concept of the Wiki before we started on our Clerk Wiki, but by doing the assignment I see how wonderful the collaboration piece is. We are going to have such a great document to show when we finish it. I would love to see a class use this and be able to watch it develope. I love how it is free, such a bonus!

Thing #10 Working With Photo's

This is a picture of our

Library at Silver Creek.

I found Picnick pretty

easy to use, basic but

fit my needs at this time.

Thing 9 Technology

Library Thing tops my list of all we have explored! We have come a long way in a short time. I know all our brains feel like we are draging them they feel so full of new stuff. It already seems like I have forgotten some things, mainly the ones that were harder to manipulate. The catchy fun stuff is what is keeping me running along. I love all the pictures and slide shows we are doing. I know Myra and those watching us hope we actually walk away from this class with skills we will use in out jobs. I think we really will. I can already see it getting easier and faster to do a twit in less than 2 minutes, close it, and not think about it again. I think many of these Things 1-10 will be like that. It alway boils down to time, and can I really use it. Congratulations Myra, we can!

Thing 8 - Library Thing

I love Library Thing. At last something that I can really use and get excited about. I found it simple to use. In a very short time I was able to load 30 of my new fiction. I found the widget real easy to use. I had 12 titles on my blog that changes every time you open it. I love that. I was able to get the widget transfered to our schools library's web page. I think it is eye catching. I plan on updating it monthly. It can be new books or themed for the season. Library thing also has a great cataloging feature. At last I can keep track of books I want to read, plus books I have read plus a short discription. This would be a good thing to share with some of our more prolific readers.

Thing 7 Tagging & Social Bookmarking

Del.icio.us or http://del.icio.us is a easy to use bookmarking tool for our library. It can be used the same way we used to use IKEEPBOOKMARKS.com. By pre-scanning the websites for our students we are able to tag or bookmark them for faster use. Not only does this save time, we are able to eliminate the surfing done in google. I like the fact that they are saved safely outside the desktop computer. Way too many times I have lost websites due to computer crashes.Also I was limited to bookmarks being only on my computer and not being able to share.Or worse I would be working at one computer and have the bookmarks on another. Arrrrgggggggggg. At our school we share our site between staff. Our teacher librarian can tag sites for our students but I also have that ablilty. As I get more confident with it I plan on adding more. The fact that it is shared among web users does give us access to sites we would never have seen. Again this is time comsuming to open and scan the sites, but I am impressed with what I see other people are doing. It is exciting to see others far away are using technology in such creative ways. I think del.icio.us has proved itself worthy of sticking around.

Thing 6 Image Generator II

Get a Voki now!

Thing 6 Image Generators

I had some trouble posting this. I copied the url but it connected it to myspace somehow and it would not post. I found a back door, but I lost it a few times. This is fun but very labor intensive right now.

Thing 5 Flickr

Italian Gardens

Italian Gardens
Originally uploaded by CurlyToes

Now we are cooking. Flickr search is getting hits the first time. This I could learn to love. I figured out how to post this from Flickr itself. Then I kept opening buttons until I found a edit one for the picture. I appreciate not having a class this week. It gives me real time to get comfortable with all we learned so far. Now to figure out how to arrange the page so it is more attractive.

Japan

Japan
Originally uploaded by lhogan16

This is picture post from my documents. Ok, now that's pretty neat. I stayed right here by the rice paddy a few summers ago.

Thing 4 Technorati

The one great thing about all this new tech stuff is it gives you a chance to question where they got all these weird names for things. I never got into Star Trek but I have this suspicion it originated there. Look at Technorati.......I got the tech part. Where in the world does norati come from. I admit I took a class in college that we studied root words. Greek, good stuff. Years later I still look at a word and try to figure out where it root lies, so I can gather the meaning. This is all lost on tech talk for as much as I can see.Perhaps that is why I still feel like a foreigner in this land. It reminds me of a language where anyone can call anything they want. Whoooooooooeee.Let the first grade teachers take that one on.
For Myra's sake, and my credit hours I did explore Technorati more on my own. I agree with several of my fellow bloggers it was more difficult then we thought it would be. I imagined myself typing in my favorite past times and reaping scads of blogs fine tuned to my desires. Nope. How about two million hits in gardening to look through, and guess what… Those nasty sex links we see all over our email are there. I have no idea what kind of garden they are growing! I failed miserable and my blogline is pretty much empty right now. I did see some angry moms with teenagers have blogs and I might join them for fun. I need to write something about how I will use this with students or in my job. In a few more weeks I hope to discover that.

Thing 3 RSS

Really Simple Syndication is the term for this. Kind of a difficult concept for a newbee. The idea is getting clearer as I play with it. Somehow still feels like that video clip everyone has seen where the astroid is coming at you at lightning speed. So I envision all these blogs doing the same thing and trying to dodge them. Actually the whole RSS is just the answer for that. It allows in what you invite in, and you can pretty much ignore all those other blazing blogs traveling by. The next big problem is managing them. Being the order freak I am, I see this mass of blogs scooting all over each other in totally random order. Now I personally can't be in the same room as that. Miracle Myra has already come to our aide and showed us a tool to whip them into order. Now this becomes a managable task for me. I can hide them in folders, marked by me about their contents. Now I can open my room, check the floor to see it clean, and open those drawers when I want. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.... I guess I am just one conceptual blogger.

Yahoo look what I did!!!!!! fine tune it later!

Thing #2
I have figured out a way into all but one blog. I have lost more screens, passwords, and time than I ever thought of. I do not feel comfortable to write to the world much either. Glad this is a closed site! I have visited many a blog out there on the web now. My curiosity is tweeked just a little on connecting with others on a different subject matter that tech stuff! 2.0 is going to rock the world I am sure, I just think of all the unseen stuff floating in outspace and think what a mess. Sorry Myra.

Thing # 1
This is surely where it is happening, but it just seems so difficult. Sometimes I dream of the books and a nice old lady handing them out. Computers would be down the hall. The kids are sure ready for all this so it is time to jump on board at least to some degree.

Ok ....question to Myra. If I have clerk blog up and mine also I am loosing the other one when I have both windows open. What gives?????????????????

first assignment, read about blogs. ok....Sounds like glorified email. But wait, you can design the page? Choose a font and color? Maybe a picture? Only reasons so far to continue.

ok, going well. Opened and closed it. Amazing. Must email Myra with my limited success. Perhaps I will try an assignment.

Oh my gosh, 10 ladies left with headaches from the first class. Once we made, forgot, and remade our passwords we were finally in our blogs. I wonder who drank more wine last night, the clerks or Myra. But our spirits are up and we will carry on.

Howdy folks, first day and what a treat. Lots of roadblocks but we have at least arrived at the airport.