Learning in the Library

Another excellent Edublogs.org blog

My Final Project (which isn’t final)

WHAT?  My final project is this blog, Learning in the Library,  and its “baby” blog, Maine Student Book Award Nominees: 2007-2008

WHY?  I need a new webpage for my library.  I created this blog to replace my current onewhich is very static and unexciting.  I want to have a site that can/will change often and easily.  My current webpage does not allow interaction.  It is strictly Web 1.0, author to audience.  

WHAT AM I GOING TO CHANGE?  I am going to use a blog instead of a webpage to communicate what is happening in the library.  I chose a blog format because (1) it is easy for me to update and (2) readers can (and will–I hope) give me feedback or ask questions through comments.  As it stands, I don’t know who my audience is (if anyone).  I don’t think kids are using it at all, but I would like them to.  I don’t know if the information I have up suits anyone’s needs.   

Features I plan to include in my blog:

  • Instead of writing a monthly newsletter and making it available on my webpage as a pdf, I plan to post news whenever there is something noteworthy to tell.  (This will be a change in frequency.)
  • I plan to increase the number of links to good resources.  I think a set of links for students and another set for teachers might work nicely.  Using a blog will allow me to organize the links into categories such as “Research” and “Math.” (This will be a change–a definite improvement.)
  • One category that isn’t showing yet in “Contests.”  Each week I sponsor a contest in the library.  I plan to post the results under that category weekly.  Perhaps I can even “advertise” the current contest at the beginning of the week.  (Although I “publish” the contest results via an announcement, a sign in the library, and in my monthly newsletter, I will be able to publish the results each week instead of once a month.)
  • Another goal is to create online contests that would act as online scavenger hunts.  A post can pose the question and students can put their answers in a post.  Thanks to the moderation tool, I could wait to post the comments until the contest is over.  (This long-time goal will be a change.)
  • I started a “baby blog” (linked to this one) specifically to increase interest in the Maine Student Book Award (MSBA) project at my school.  I have set up my MSBA blog with a post about each book nominated for the award this year.  The posts will feature brief booktalks and some statistics (genre, number of pages, and Lexile).  The statistics serve as categories for browsing.  Instead of having student fill in a sticker which is added to a folder about a MSBA nominee, I will encourage them to comment on blog.  Perhaps people from other school will comment as well.  If this works, maybe the MSBA project could use a state-wide blog to encourage students (and adults) to talk to one another about great books.  (I currently only have a link to the MSBA website.)
  • Since my school serves children in grades K-5 and the MSBA project is for fourth to eighth graders, I hope to create yet another baby blog for the Chickadee Award: The Maine Children’s Choice Picture Book Project for students in kindergarten through fourth grade.  (I currently only have a link to the Chickadee list.)
  • Someday I hope to create a wiki where students can booktalk books that they are reading (non-award books) and comment on each other’s reading.  I would link the wiki to this blog.
  • A “new book” or “book of the week” post would be another worthy addition.  I will make them available under another category.  (Another change)
  • I plan to change the current “Class Work” and “Project” categories for EPC 500 to “Summer 2007 Professional Development” and save my work.  I thought about deleting my posts, but Alice suggested that I keep a record of my learning for students (and others) to see.  It will become part of the archives, a sort of history of this site!

HOW IS THIS PROJECT COLLABORATIVE?  So far, colleagues and I have collaborated orally on the construction of this site.  I only have two posts so far, but I hope to get feedback (comments and questions) from students, parents, and anyone else who reads this blog.  Perhaps readers will help develop new categories that interest them or suggest new links to be included in my list. 

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Reflections on EPC 500

I can hardly believe there is only one day left in our five-day course “The Read/Write Web in the Classroom!” We have been so busy learning about and experimenting with Web 2.0 tools that the week has flown by.  In some ways, however, I feel like I am now living in this new world for a long time and there’s no going back to life BW2 (before Web 2.0). 

I feel I have met the objectives for this course as listed on the EPC 500 class syllabus.  I will use the National Educational Technology Standards for Students as a tool for reflecting on my learning.  

  • Standard 1:  Creativity and InnovationMeeting the Standard    I have applied existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, and processes (1a).  I created two original blogs (this one and the MSBA blog linked from it), a practice wiki, a Blogline account to read RSS feed, and del.icio.us tags to help me keep my new world organized (1b and 1c).  I also explored Flickr and tried Picnik.  The photo in my post “Guess Who!” is the result of my Picnik adventure.
  • Standard 2:  Communication and Collaboration:  Partially Meeting the Stardard (so far)   I am using digital media and environments to communicate with my classmates and to work collaboratively with them.  I feel I have contributed to the learning of others.   My colleagues have certainly contributed to mine!  Besides reading my classmates’ blogs and commenting on their posts, I learned to share tags and edit a wiki to make a contribution to the class.  I have yet to engage with learners of other cultures.
  • Standard 3:  Research and Information Fluency:  Meeting the standard  Throughout the week, I have applied digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.  I read many people’s ideas, tagged the ideas and tools that I determined to  be useful to me in my role as an elementary school library teacher, and used my new knowledge to create, among other things, this blog.
  • Standard 4:  Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving & Decision Making: Partially Meeting the Standard   I have been planning how to use what I have learned in my library environment and there are many problems yet to solve.  Limited resources (personnel and equipment) making implementation of many Web 2.0 tools challenging.  In an effort to overcome some of the hurdles in our path, my colleague Paula and I have already requested a meeting with our district’s Technology Coordinator to discuss our ideas for implementation.  There is much more problem-solving and decision-making ahead.
  • Standard 5:  Digital Citizenship:  Meeting the Standard  I feel I have demonstrated personal responsibility for lifelong learning (5c) by taking this course.  I pracitce safe, legal, and responsible use of technology (5a) and have a positive attitude toward using technology for collaborative, educational, and productive purposes (5b).
  • Standard 6:  Technology Operations and Concepts:  Beginning to Meet the Standard   I am just beginning to have an understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations.  I am using more applications effectively (6b) and am doing better at toubleshooting applications (6c).  The experiences I have had in this class have helped me make connections so I can begin to transfer current knowledge to learning new technologies (6d).

In closing, I wish to thank everyone who participated in the class for making it such a wonderful, exciting, educational experience…the way life should be.

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Guess who!

  I took the Photo Booth picture of myself into Picnik to create this image.  It was easy–a real picnic–and lots of fun, too!  I selected the “Create” tab, uploaded the photo from My Pictures, and selected “Doodle” from the menu on the left-hand side of the screen.   Voila!

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Reflections on “A Day in the Life of Web 2.0”

Wow!  I just read David Warlick’s post “A Day in the Life of Web 2.0”  at TechLearning.com. What an incredible world that will be!  I’m not there yet, but it is fascinating to envision such a educational environment.  I am struck by the myriad of ways Web 2.0 tools are being used and the amount of collaboration taking place.  The shared spreadsheet is a collaborative librarian’s dream!  In library school, we were taught to collect instructional information from teachers (what unit they were working on in each subject) and to put it into a spreadsheet.  I tried doing that, but it meant yet another task for busy classroom teachers so I did not get many responses.  If it were a given that each educator contributed to the shared spreadsheet on a regular basis, it would help everyone to collaborate.  My school is not the one described in the post, but, to borrow Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words, “I have a dream…”

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Project idea

I am leaning  towards creating a blog as a webpage for my school library.  It isn’t one of my original ideas (the ones I had  coming into the class), but I think it is the best one.  I have been creating this one with my library in mind…the presentation, the pages, and some of the widgets and categories.

I sponsor a weekly contest in the library.  Some are estimation contests with the contents of the jar as the prize.  Others involve analogies, geography, or reference materials. I am interested in investigating ways to have scavenger hunt-type online activities for students to complete.  I hope someone in the class can help me in this endeavor.

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