THING 19 - MUSINGS ON LEARNING 2.0

The time has come to celebrate! I'm done. I've completed Learning 2.0. And believe me, I'm going to party hearty! Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to live it up, go shopping, to the pub, or whatever some may do to congratulate themselves after a big accomplishment. That's not my style. By celebrate, I mean I'm going to do more exploring on the web without the nagging (in the back of my mind) that I've got to "get it right," without thinking man, I feel so dumb, or wishing the web had never been invented. No, all those negative feelings just kind of flew off my shoulders when I pushed the "submit post" button for Thing 18. What a liberating feeling! That, to me, is worth celebrating.

As I have reviewed my blog, I realize it could be a little more polished in it's looks and layout, but hey, I comleted it, I worked through everything (sometimes for hours on end,) and I'm not changing anything at this point. The work's done, I feel great, now I want to move on to using what I've learned to actually bless my library life. My blog for INST 5030 is staying the way it is for two reasons: It's going to be my reference to fall back on when I want to refresh my mind on what I did where, but more important, it will be there to reinvigorate me when I feel less than capable, or feel like, oops, the web and Shelly were never ment to meet.

I still feel like I'm more technology illiterate than literate, but gosh, when I look where I came from, it's like comparing myself to a baby, just learning to walk. She first stands, very warily and wobbly, maybe even a little frightened, but she's determined to take those first steps. Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, everyone is there to encourage her and be there when the first bump comes. Before you knowit, the baby is a toddler, running here, there and everywhere. She still isn't able to run a marathon, but, at this point in time, that thought is absurd. She just needs to continue to practice, grow, and try. The marathon will come, if that's what she wants. The important thing is at this stage is to realize that the growth has been phenominal. I now know if I can surprise myself to the extent I have doing Learning 2.0, I can continue to surprise myself and do even more and more. I don't plan on tackling a "technology marathon." However, at least I know, if I want to, if I'm willing to do the work and believe in myself, you bet I can do it.

Thanks, Anne. Thanks for believing in me and being there to pick me up when the first, second and all the numerous "bumps" came. You're terrific!

YouTube and the Library, Thing 16

This has been a frustrating "Thing," (referring to Thing 16.) I found a great video clip on You Tube about teacher/librarian collaboration. I clicked the "embed" underneath the video which revealed a code, but my path ran cold. I couldn't figure out what to do after that.

But here's the bummer, I left to have dinner and when I came back, when I opened up YouTube I could not find that video clip to save my life. It didn't matter what query I typed in, it was no longer there (we'r talking about an hour or less of time going by.)

I've found some others which are fine and which I will use for this assignment, but I really want to view that first one again. It's just really driving me nuts. But, guess I'll survive!

TWITTERPATED

I can't say I'm truly "Twtterpated," but I'm getting better at tweeting. At least I've been able to tweet twice and I have a follower (yeah.) My first tweet was actually done last semester when we were working on our research assignment. My second tweet is about keeping elementary librarians off the chopping block. I hope this tweet might pick up more interest and I get more followers.

Twitter may be a possible thing to implement into a school library. Perhaps 5th grade could do a group twitter about the books they are reading, each class taking a turn to tweet. It would be fun to see if the students actually could get a following. Hey, anything's possible. I learned a long time ago, never say never!

My Twitter name is librarianfish. I know, I know, it's kind of a goofy name, but all the ones I tried were already taken. I guess it's a good lesson in getting on board first!

Thing 14 FEEDS AND BLOGS

Thing 14 (finding library blogs and news feeds)
Wow, I have to admit, this really took me some time, much sweat, and frustration to complete. With all this web suff we're researching, I can tell my brain is on overload, so some of these assignments are taking longer to process. But, it's all good, I'm getting it done.

Every time I have to query I enter "elementary school libraries." What I found in this experience was it didn't filter for just elementary school libraries. I got all kinds of school library stuff, including academic libraries and such. But at least I got stuff. I found one blog from a new librarian who blogs about keeping orderly and sane in a new world(http://librarygrits.blogspot.com/.) I'm in the same boat. I really will follow this one for sure. The other blog is about keeping patrons "in line" and approachable (http://libetiquette.blogspot.com/.) Always good to know techniques for working with a myriad of patrons.

All in all, this exercise was like a ride on the Collosus at Lagoon. The first time, you have no idea what to expect, when the big loops were coming, or how you'll fare. But when it's over, and you keep going back many more times, you know what to expect, but it's still just a little exciting and you realize you really like it.

Web 2.0 POSSIBILITIES

Web 2.0
What an exciting activity I just read about. Even though I am an elementary librarian and the article referenced a high school, it was easy to get my mind already conjuring up posibilties for trying something similar. I believe 5th graders could handle blogging long distance via Web 2.0 about a favorite book, a current hot topic, etc. Not only would it be a benefiial educational experience or them, think of the social impact it could have. The more exposure students have with peers or others from other cultures, areas, communities, etc., the more their "global awareness" grows. This article truly was exciting to read.

Technorati

What I noticed right off was how entertainment outdid all the other categories. Of course, business, sports and politics being the next three contenders didn't surprise me. But I was extremely disappointed to see there was no category for education by itself. However, this experience wasn't a total waste as you will now see in the next paragraph. When I checked out the "Living" category, it had several thousand hits, but would you believe, of the 9 sub-categories, "family" received the 2nd fewest hits - only 459. What a shame!

It was quite interesting typing in the term "education" for both blogs and blog postings and seeing what came up. I got 50 items for each entry, but what I got was very different. I much prefered the information I got on the blog postings. This took me to some very intersting, specific items. Then I tried using the word school libraries. I found a wonderful post to an interactive jam session where people were posting back and forth comments about the Google Map site where it shows where school libraries have been cut. Most interesting to read comments from people, especially those who don't know what they are talking about. I finally had to leave the site because it was making me a little upset. Here's the link if you are intersted:

http://www.metafilter.com/90778/Teach-the-children-save-the-nation

Delicious

I've spent quite a bit of time on Delicious. I was able to create a list of links on education. They are some great links, too. Right now I'm attempting to add an RSS feed. It will be intersting to see if I managed to do it right. I'm not counting on it the first go around!

http://feeds.delicious.com/v2/rss/shellyotte123/for%3Ashelly?private=_qu_BfUy6msZT3DSv5jNu2e6lvE-&count=15

Well, it's not an RSS feed, but it is a link. I'll definitely want to use this feed for my library wiki.