Thing 17 - ELM Productivity Tools

Our library makes extensive use of the ELM databases. Other than our electronic encyclopedia, they are our main source of electronic information. However, I went ahead and did all of the exercises anyway. There is always something new to be learned; sometimes just a change in interface causes glitches in my brain.

I went to the Star Tribune and did a search for pets and foreclosures and then established a search alert for those keywords. The process was simple and one that would be good for students to do, especially when they research current issues.

I also did a search for Second Life and libraries in Academic Search Premier and created an RSS search alert for that as well.

I created a test Web page using Page Composer and found it very easy to do although I don't know that I'll ever use it. I added a background, some text, a web link, and a horizontal rule, and moved some things around. I also added a link to an article on using digital video in the classroom from my results folder. 

I couldn't manage to save the Web page. It may have been because I was working in Safari. If I have time, I'll move to another computer and try it on Explorer.

I went to ProQuest Newsstand Complete and completed that research exercise, includin e-mailing the results to myself as a Web page. I also completed the NetLibrary exercise, although the book that I was searching disappeared when I logged in to my Pioneerland account so I had to choose a different book.

I am pleased to say that the English department and I have shown our junior and senior English students all of these tools with the exception of Page Composer, especially those that are taking college bound courses. Sometimes they even use them! I have also used them in my own research, especially when I was taking the coursework for the media program, but also since then. 

Thing 16 - Student 2.0 Tools

I have a link to the Research Project Calculator on the my media center's Web page and have bragged it up to several teachers. I don't know whether they use it, but they should! Especially good are the teacher support materials for projects that utilize presentation slides and/or video. It gives excellent advice on coaching students to put together a project that communicates a clear message, rather than getting caught up in the fun aspects of the medium. I hadn't thought of running them off and putting them in the library, but I might do that. Sometimes it's easier to flash something on paper than it is to lead a teacher to a computer. And, of course, sending out an e-mail with a link doesn't guarantee they'll go there. 

I also took a quick peek at the U of M's assignment calculator and that looked like a good resource for teachers of AP or college classes. 

At any rate, if anyone reads this, it's a great resource.

Thing 15 - Online Games and Libraries

For this thing, I watched the video tour of Second Life, read the article "Eight Myths about Video Games Debunked," read the FAQ on the Charlotte and Mecklenburg County Public Library's Teen Second Life presence, and listened to YALSA's podcast interview. I also went to Info Island Blog and skimmed that. 

While I would like to try Second Life (the book discussions and the masked ball sounded really fun), I decided I just don't have the time right now. Perhaps next summer. I don't even know that I want to spend that much time in a virtual world. I like seeing and talking to people face-to-face.

I spend a lot of time talking to my young adult sons and nephews about what's out there on the Internet and have become convinced that it's like anything else: some good sense and self-control go a long way toward making it a safe place to be. In defense of MMOPRGS, one son has had a subscription to an MMOPRB called EVE for about 4 years now. I have come to believe that it has broadened, rather than narrowed, his horizons. He talks to and interacts with people from all over the world and I would guess has a better handle on how other people see Americans than many of us do. They also have some pretty good discussions on all kinds of mundane things like child rearing and using credit cards!

I think that there is a role for libraries in many places on the Net. It's probably not part of the mission for my little k-12 library, but I'd like to think that it's out there for those of my students who spend a lot of time on the Internet outside of school hours.

Thing 14 - LibraryThing

I made an account on LibraryThing, added 7 books, and linked it to my blog on the right hand side. Some of my books were quite popular, others not so much. Actually, I can see using it just to keep track of the books I have read from the school library. I can think of a few students who might access it to see what is available. I thought that Brook Berg's librarything was a good example of some of the things that might be done.

I also read some of the group talk from Librarians Who LibraryThing. They had a very interesting discussion going about whether or not loving to read is a good reason for becoming a librarian. Evidently love of reading is not the reason many have become librarians. There were also threads on computer rage, odd things found in libraries, strange bookmarks, and many other more mundane library topics. My library is pretty boring compared to some others!

Thing 13 - Online Productivity Tools

I've had a Yahoo account for years, and I do keep a calendar on that. In fact, I just sat down a few days ago and entered all of the pertinent dates for the new school year. (It's not that I am so organized; I was putting off another, more important task!) 

Because I am on Thing 13, I also spent some time on my Yahoo home page, which I had never done before--deleted a bunch of modules, but kept the weather, scoreboard, top stories from the AP, and the movie show times. 

Added Note to Self and To Do List, which seemed to me to be a better choice than yet another Web site like Ta da list or Remember the Milk. One of the things that I like is that you can minimize all of the modules, which gives my page a much cleaner look, while still allowing me almost instant access to information. I also added a Yahoo! bookmarks module along with a Bookmark it! marklet to my browser. I will probably use this rather than del.icio.us because it keeps everything in one place even though it doesn't allow me to share the way that del.icio.us does. Also, I quite often have my Yahoo calendar up throughout the day if I'm spending a lot of time on the computer.

When I get back to school, I might also talk to the tech people about an online calendar for scheduling the computer labs--it's something that we have discussed on a number of occasions, but have never found an online calendar that we really like. 

I bookmarked Zamzar immediately. I have a lot of students who come in wanting me to open documents that they have created at home and then can't open at school. Even the tech people send them (the students, not the documents) to me! Most of the documents that they bring in can be converted for free. I think that this will be very useful.

The PDF converters might also be useful. I have Acrobat Professional on my computer, but most of the staff do not. Either one of these sites could rate a quick demonstration on a staff inservice day.

I liked the intuitiveness of Stikkit and created an account, but when push comes to shove, I will probably use the extra features that I added to my Yahoo account. I'm all in favor of simplicity when possible.

Thing 12 - Social Media

Ok, I have "reddit", but I don't know that I can "digg" it because it don't have enough time in my day to "mixx" "newsvine" with my subscription to the Star Tribune. Seriously, I went to all four sites and poked around, read some articles, and watched some videos. It was interesting to see the ways that a Website can massage the distribution of articles (most recent, most popular, etc.), but I don't know that it would drive my reading selections, although it might influence them on occasion. I was amused and sometimes confounded by what people found worthy of posting to the Internet, especially in terms of video. 

I did post two Washington Post stories that I read, one to del.icio.us and one to Digg. 

Of the four sites, I liked newsvine best, probably because after a casual browsing, it seemed to have the most articles, etc. that I actually felt like reading. I also like its layout and its code of honor.

To sum it up, I see these sites more as productivity detractors than enhancers. I prefer to make my own reading decisions and I don't feel the need to vote on anything. I did put newsvine on my del.icio.us account and am moving on to Thing 13.

Thing 11 - Tagging and del.icio.us

What can I say? Tagging and del.icio.us didn't do so much for me, although I will readily admit that it can be very useful to have a bookmark source on the Web rather than on an individual computer. So, I did create an account and did some exploring of other people's bookmarks. I found a couple of nice websites on photography and design through that exploration and discovered that there is at least one other person from my school on del.icio.us (she had also bookmarked our school website)

The one library account that I like was the one that was organized by Dewey. 

All of the teachers in our school are required to have Web pages and most of them post links to those.