Exercise #23 :-) :-)

I can hardly believe this learning journey has come to an end.

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I loved learning how to set up a blog and using this tool. And as a school librarian the exercise on social bookmarking was wonderful. I will put Del.icio.us to use as soon as school starts. Gathering web sites now and getting a start on the school year is one of my summer goals.
Bloglines was a great discovery…..keeping up on all the things that interest in this new way will be lots of fun.

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
Navigating New Technologies has shown me how much is out there for me to learn. Just when you think you are on top of the game something new comes along. I am encouraged that I was able to complete all of the exercises and learn lots for each one. I must remember to revisit all the exercises so I can remember all my passwords and how to do each new technology. If you don't use some of these technologies regularly you will need to relearn them. So much to learn in so little time.

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
The unexpected outcome from this program is how many of the new technologies I want to use in the new school year. I just thought they would be fun to know about but using them will be very exciting.
Also, it was interesting how many passwords one would need in the course of 23 exercises.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
Feedback during the course, at times I wanted to know if I was on the right track.
And last but not least……where can I sign up for the next course. This was a wonderful learning experience and I know there is so much more out there to learn.

Thanks for opportunity!!!!!!

Excerise #22 eBook and eAudiobook

I love audiobooks but for sure the need to be the human-read not computer-generated. We are getting read to go on a road trip and the first thing we must do is pick out our audiobook or audiobooks. They are also good for those forced walks we all should be taking for our health.

Ebooks for pleasure reading would not be my first choice but for research the are great. Just the facts and a few pages are manageable but any more than that give me the hard copy.

The Project Gutenberg is wonderful I could spend days exploring and still feel there is more to discover.

Exercise #21 Podcast

I found lots of interesting "podcasts" that I will be able to use with the selections of books for my library. There were book talks on about everything one might be interested. I really enjoyed the SeriesInfoblog on the fuss over "The Higher Power of Lucky”. If you haven't read this book its a must! In my spare time I love to quilt so the blogs about quilting were very interesting. The RSS feed I added to my Bloglines account was for the NPR: Book Tour. When I am in the car I really enjoy listening to the latest book news from NPR. My Bloglines account will keep me up to date on all the latest from NPR: Book Tour through their podcast.

Thanks for making us go back to accounts we have already created. This is a great learning tool.

At a later date I do want to learn how to be a podcaster....has something to do with that lifelong learning!

Exercise #20 YouTube

I just love this video because it reminds me of my Jack Russell - Isabelle.
She doesn't surf yet but she loves the water.
I could spend hours and hours on this site but then I wouldn't get the rest of my exercises done.
This year my video production class will be creating something for YouTube. It will be as good if not better than what is on the sites I checked out.

The quality of the video needs to improve on most of the videos before some views will take a liking to YouTube.

Exercise #19 Web 2.0 awards winners

You were right in saying there was a lot to explore in this lesson. You could spend lots and lots of time on each site. Using the chart feature putting the winners in categories on http://www.seomoz.org made looking around much easier then the other options on the page. I was happy to see some of the ones we have used already show up as winners. The following two winners in the category for books had some great features http://www.lulu.com/ and http://www.biblio.com/ but for my library Librarything had more application they will be a help in my job.

Exercise #18 ZoHo

What fun! I can think of a 1000 ways to use this tool.
And it is so so very easy!

Great production tools to use for so many things.

Books and Bagels Summer Edition

Thursday June 14

9:00 am @ Destin Middle School

Exercise #17 Sandbox

I loved playing around in the Sandbox lesson.

The discovery resources in this lesson are wonderful. I see all our lessons building in each other what a treat! The Wiki with the To Do List was wonderful. I can almost say school this year can almost not start soon enough and use the free version of PBWiki. This will be a good starting place for me and the students.

Exercise #16 Wiki Wiki

I have been thinking about starting a wiki for our Books and Bagels group. The students would enjoy this new way to community with each other after the books have been passed out and they start reading. This way they won’t need to want for two weeks to add information about there book for others to read. They are always so excited about the new book and want to share what they have read with each other and the teachers that attend. The library is a great place to have a wiki set up for the students, parents and teachers to exchange all types of "book" info.

When we start our school year I will have a wiki all set up and we will go over the etiquette. I have spent lots of hours tell these same students that the info on Wikipedia is some times faulty and the need to look else where so their reaction will be most interesting.

Exercise #15 Library 2.0

Today I have read all of the Five Perspectives in the Discovery Resources section of Exercise #15 and at this time my thinking is we are a long way from make Library 2.0 a reality in the library world. There are lots of cool features of L2.0 but as Roy Tennant stated, in 5 -15-07 Library Journal artical Of Real and Digital Libraries...

"People who believe a random pile of digital bits is a sufficiently robust library heave never been served by a librarian- either physically or virtually. Individuals who believe you can inspire a child to read by showing him or her web site have not seen a child first make acquaintance with a book by teething on it. Nor have they sat with a young child on their lap and read, furnishing a high squeaky voice or a low gruff one as the story demands. Neither have they watched a room full of children sit enthralled by a gifted story teller librarian who brings the story alive and draws them into magic that will light up their lives until their last day. Digital libraries require real ones in a way that real libraries will never need digital."

Now, I off to read the latest (that was brought to me by snail mail) Knowledge Quest journal that is full of articles on L 2.0 use in public schools. My mind is not made up yet.

Discoveries with Technorati Lesson #14 continued

Wow now that I have claimed my blog things are happening. Every place I have used "Books and Bagels" in a blog they are showing up when I do a search on the Technorati page. Very interesting. The more I know the more I don't know anything. I sure there are more then 23 things blogs need to have to make them great. I just hope I can retain some of this info so I can make a really great Blog. Lots and lots to learn!

Exercise #14 Technorati

After some exploring I have discovered people have LOTS of time on their hands. I am not sure I will use this with my Middle School students because of all the things that they will find when exploring.
Having claimed my blog I am not sure Technorati services to increase my blog's visibility is really what is needed at this time. Must wait and see what happens before making any changes.
Technorati Profile

Exercise #13 Del.icio.us

Once I got the hang of this site I enjoyed finding reading sites to add to my tag for our Books and Bagels group. I created an account and used the tag BooksandBagels. Of course I first used Books and Bagels and figured out then I had three tags. So, under settings I learned all about renaming,deleting, and bundling tags.

Exercise #12 Rollyo

This is a great tool to use on my Books and Bagels blog. Students can use the search roll to look for the next book they might want to read for the next Books and Bagels. http://rollyo.com/hulldd/books_and_bagels/
My Searchbox is another tool the students may use in searching for a book

Days Off

LibraryThing Exercise 11

My summer project will now be using Library Thing for my reading list. Books read and books to read. It is great. Look at the list we have for our Books and Bagels events.

B&B ROCK

Generators Exercise 10

We are having lots of fun this summer reading the Sunshine State Young Readers Award Books.

Using the image chef to make a poster of your favorite book. I have had creating this image for you.

Newsfeeds Exercise 9

I went to Lis Zen and search for middle school lit. I could refine my search to the type of library I wanted to work with special, school etc.
The amount of information was over unreal. I could find book list, awards, programs and on and on. I hope to go back to this Lis Zen and explore for hours.

Blog (RSS) Exercise 8

With RSS I will be able to keep up with the latest.
In my library I can have a few RSS's on my homepage that has book reviews. and things that interest Middle Schoolers. I can also survey the students on what RSS they would like to have on the homepage. They would take more ownership of the web page.

Technology Exercise 7

WOW there is so much to learn. This should make 2007/2008 school year more exciting. The students will love all the new technology I have learned. They will be surprised.

Flickr Mashup

There were so many to explore. I think I will use the calendar maker for Christmas presents next year. That is once I have it all figured out.

What are the books on your nightstand?

On the nightstand
Originally uploaded by shawnconna

What do you want to read next?

Bagels

homemade bagels
Originally uploaded by kidmissile

Just think you can have one of these yummy bagels while we talk about our book this week.

7 1/2 Habits

The hardest habit for me is to have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner.
The easiest might be accept responsibility for your own learning. But then again I think play is not all bad.

Books and Bagels

Summer Edition has started.