Conclusion

What a wonderful learning experience. I knew that these things existed, but didn't really know how to use them or why I would need to - now I have a whole new perspective. I love my iGoogle page and have actually had to deactivate my facebook page because I found I was spending WAY too much time on it and not enough time on the rest of my life!!!

This is a great way to pace a course - I've put in some big blocks of time when I've had it and been able to put it all aside when my work/family commitments needed to take precedence. I've also found myself playing around with the various tools frequently in between blogging about them...

# 22 & # 23 - Ebooks & Audiobooks

We have been discussing the use of ebooks within our teacher librarian network recently. Great way to improve access to popular texts for students and staff - however the logistics of copyright and access are still causing complications. How do we share them? Can we arrange site licences? And how can we get everyone access - do we need class sets of ebooks readers, or do students borrow them from the library?

It is something we are looking into - but is not yet practical in classroom application for us.

Audiobooks are great! My family have used them for years. A lovely alternative to reading aloud to students or to allow students of low reading ability access to higher level literature...

# 21 - Online Video

Have placed a cute little video for small people introducing the dewey decimal system at the bottom of the page...

I have been using online videos in class for some time, I also include lots of them in the resource links I provide to staff for their units. They are a fantastic way to bring the world into the classroom! One particular standout was for a teacher studying mealworms with her year 5 class. We found an amazing clip showing the hatching of the pupa and another of the emergence from the cocoon, both in fast-forward and magnified for the kids to see via the classroom data projector. How much better than a series of pictures in a text book?

# 20 - Podcasts

So much to look at... we have been investigating the best way to use podcasts at school through our website (security always being an issue!). Can't wait to give it a go next year.

I have looked at a lot but have never really considered making my own... yet! Would love to use a podcast to 'record' live events at school for parents who couldn't make it in to events.

# 19 - Rollyo

Have made a search roll for library book suppliers that I regularly use... is to the left of page.

At first I thought I wouldn't personally use this a lot as I kind of like starting with a more open search as I often find my way to things I hadn't expected but are really useful. However, as a school resource this could be great - you could set it up with appropriate websites for classes to search for research, assignments, homework etc. knowing that all the sites are suitable for them to access.

I now have to admit that it makes searching for books to purchase a whole lot easier! I can enter the title and come up with a result for each supplier immediately, without having to open each site and search them separately... I really like this!!!!!!!!!!!

# 18 - Wikis

This is one I've been wanting to try for a while! I have a colleague who will be working with me in 2010 to set it up for his year 7 class literature groups.

I love the concept - but I'm not sure how it will go with primary level students. How do we manage their editing? We are looking at setting up a blog first...

I still have reservations about how it would work with young children, but I would love to use a wiki for the library!

Would be a wonderful tool to use with staff for curriculum/unit development.

# 17 - Organise yourself with Delicious

Easy to use again... I like the idea of being able to access bookmarks from any computer - I often have to use different computers at work and at home and have usually had to email links to my other email accounts to access them. This makes it a lot easier!

The only real problem I found was that wading through comments could take a long time...

# 16 - Stay informed!

That was easy! Have subscribed to some blogs. Will have to give it a little time to see if it is really worthwhile...

# 15 - RSS feeds

Brilliant idea! What a fantastic way to keep up-to-date. Great way for me to help staff source current info on topics they are doing in class. And great for me too! Love accessing new book reviews as they appear, rather than when I finally get time to hunt all over for them. Easy to update and manage too.

# 14 - Facebook

Done.

I now have a Facebook account and apparently a couple of friends. As always, no good in my teaching situation - but great for gossiping with staff away from the open ears of students!

Not personally my thing - maybe I'm more anti-social than I thought... but I can see how it has a lot of use for other people. (maybe if I go back to studying next year it might make a difference, if my kids were older) I liked the Facebook interface much more than MySpace. If I WAS going to get into this I would definitely go for Facebook.

# 13 - MySpace

Again, I can see that in a public access situation, like a public library, MySpace could be a great way to encourage interaction between staff and patrons. However, yet again, as a primary school TL the security rules this out as a tool for use in school. Was fun to look around and play though!

my boy...

my boy...,
originally uploaded by cenni3.

the view from behind

# 12 - Flickr

Have linked my account to my blog. Thank you for the clear instructions - although Flickr is pretty clear too! Easy to use.

Maybe I'm a little over-protective, but even with all the security in place, I still don't feel comfortable about uploading photos of my family, especially my kids as they are too young to give consent! So hopefully you are enjoying the wonderful view of the back of my boy's head...

# 11: Library Thing

What a wonderful way to spend an hour (or 3!)...

I could spend many hours adding in all of my own books, and if I even began to include books I've read in the past...

This would be fantastic to use at school to showcase new books for students and to help both students and staff to find titles in their areas of interest. I really like the recommendations, reviews and statistics areas - I hadn't realised that I was such a fan of female science/fiction authors! Would also be great way to communicate about resources with our local TL network.

I have also learned through this how to insert a widget into my blog - another new skill for me and one that will be very useful!

# 10: Online image generators

Could play with these for hours... (and already have!)

Examples are on this page. There are just so many available - I've been playing around with them and sending links through to colleagues to some of them for about 3 weeks now - seems somewhat addictive...

#9: Explore virtual worlds

So much to do... As someone who plays games like Oblivion and The Sims - on my own consoles without internet connectivity - these really feel like an extension of them... however I still prefer playing in my own worlds where I have complete control!

While I can see that many people find joining in online games fun and use it as a way to create dialogues with people from all over the world (I have colleagues who play WoW, I'm not so sure that there are a lot of valuable educational applications, particualrly within my scope as a primary school teacher-librarian. The security risks are just too high.

I guess there are some uses in a tertiary education environment - but is it really necessary when there are so many other information delivery/collaborative formats readily available? Surely the temptation to explore other areas within a virtual world reduces its effectiveness as an educational tool...

I would be very concerned about

# 8: iGoogle

Ok, I really like this too, but I have a lot of difficulty accessing many of the gadgets as the EQ filtering service has most of them blocked... will have to wait until I can get onto my home internet service - at least I CAN move between computers and still access the same materials thanks to Google!

This does however make using this within a school context difficult...

Google looks like a fun place to work... not sure how much actual work I'd get done with all the fun stuff around though!

# 7: Google Books

WOW! I love it! Is it sad to realise that I've actually found myself here before when searching for books for staff at school and just didn't actually know it?

I love that you can search for a title and a whole range of other information relating to it becomes instantly available... other titles by the same author, reviews, texts and websites that refer to the title, other books on the same themes, as well as purchasing and borrowing options - what a wonderful way to source books for a school library! This just made a big part of my job a lot easier...

# 6: Google Maps

Have used this a bit before - including locating the Townsville airport and sending my husband directions via SMS to the beach when he was up there for the airshow last week!

I've also used it to view accomodation locations in unfamiliar cities - Sydney, Adelaide, and some places in New Zealand. As we quite often use public transport in major cities and travel with 2 small children, we always look for accomodation that is easy to access with a pram (helps to see where stairs or really big hills are!) and close to rail/bus routes - google maps has been wonderful to use for this.

I love that you can see map, satellite and terrain formats in one place (how much better than a street directory!) and that you can zoom in & out to see the surrounding area (no flipping between six different UBD pages). I also really like the 'get directions' feature - have used this many times too.

Haven't seen whereis.com.au before though - very similar and easy to use.

# 5: Google Docs

Can't access this through EQ computers... is blocked by the department filter. Will get back to it after the kids are in bed and I can use the home computer...

# 4: Web 2.0

It's been a while since I got around to working on this - school holidays are great! But now that the beginning of a new term is looming... I need to get something done here before I get snowed under again!

So basically it seems that web 2.0 is a term that represents the evolution of the internet from a static information source to a more interactive information sharing community, rather than simply reading/observing data put up by one person, others are now able to contribute their own thoughts, opinions, understasndings in response to that data.

Is it just me, or does this mirror the movement in education from a direct teaching (chalk & talk) method to a constructivist approach?

Intro

Hi, I'm Claire.

I am the TL in a primary school. Have a lot to learn...