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.