Thing #5: Microblogging

I. Love. Facebook.

I. Love. Twitter.

These 2 sites have taken up the better part of my free time for the past year or so. I am on facebook at home for several hours each night. I love to read about what my friends, family, and co-workers are doing. When I joined FB last July, I discovered many long-lost childhood, school, and college friends. Some of them are people I used to talk to nearly every day, and just lost touch with them over time. It's been an ABSOLUTE JOY to return to a little piece of their lives, even if it's on the computer and rarely face-to-face.

I have carefully guarded my facebook from parents of students at my school and from former students, as well. In most cases, I do not choose to accept friend requests from former students, nor do I accept requests from their parents. If I feel I have an actual friendship with parents, or if the students have graduated from high school and I still know them well, I may accept a request. However, I never initiate them, nor do I seek out opportunities to "friend" them. I think Facebook is best reserved, for me, as a personal social site. In fact, I have about 50 "friends" that I wish I didn't have. Some are work colleagues, some are people I hardly spoke to in high school and frankly don't care about... but I have trouble "de-friending" them b/c I think it's rude. In addition, relating to the work situation, I may offend those people if they notice they've been de-friended... it's kind of an awkward situation, and I'm torn about what to do about it.

As I work in an elementary library, my students should NOT be on Facebook (minimum age is 13), but I know some of them are. My goal is to help them be educated about it, and SAFE with whom they friend and communicate, but other than that, I don't involve my students in Facebook conversations very frequently.

Twitter has come to me later than Facebook. I began "Tweeting" about 4 months ago, and currently follow some work friends, family members, and authors (Oh, and Britney Spears, too, LOL). I like it... but I frequently forget to check it. One thing I don't like is that some people Tweet INCESSANTLY and it fills up my iPhone application and I don't see or notice other tweets. There is definitely some Tweeting etiquette that people don't subscribe to.

Both of these sites are great to use with appropriate-aged kids, b/c it's right where they are. Students old enough for these accounts could create accounts about book characters, historical figures, etc., and get closer to understanding of these characters as actual people, which always cements the learning better.

Backchanneling I have less experience with... I tried it at a meeting and we got WAY off-topic. However, it's a great way, if one is able to multi-task, to keep the right side and left side of the brain occupied so that learning can take place. I'd like to use backchanneling with a small group of students before introducing it to an entire class. I'm not sure they'd listen to me if they were all backchanneling at the same time!

Thing #4: Video Hosting

I have done quite a bit with YouTube and TeacherTube. My personal preference is YouTube, but it's blocked in our district. Hopefully that'll change soon, although I do understand how difficult it will be to keep certain students away from videos that are not school and age-appropriate. I know we can do it, though, with diligence and good digital citizenship teaching. :)

2 years ago, I went to Atlanta to see Stephenie Meyer when she still toured at your neighborhood book stores. My friends and I had a blast, and I used a Flip video camera to record the Q&A, came home, and transferred the video onto YouTube. It's been viewed several hundred times, and every now and then, I still get a comment or 2 on how cool the interview was, etc. I wasn't able to upload the whole thing at once, so it's up there in 4 different parts, but it works! 1 part of my upload is below. I did 5 total. I'm still pretty proud of them. Hee Hee. :)

I am not a fan of TeacherTube. It takes WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too long to upload stuff to that site. I have tried no less than 10 times, and still have not been able to upload my products. However, it is not blocked in the district, and obviously lots of people get their videos up, so it's a productive place to search, for sure!

There are many advantages to having these learning opportunities available to students. Quite frequently, students need to *see* things to understand and cement their learning of concepts and ideas. Videos from sites like YouTube are perfect for this. They're usually short, direct, and obvious, and kids absolutely eat them up. Teaching with video is the "way of the future", and we need to get on the boat or we're going to be left at the dock!

Thing #3: Skype and other things...

I have to say that I'm not a huge fan of skype and video-conferencing camera-type stuff, as a general rule. I don't like the way I look when I catch myself in a computer-camera image... and it distracts me from the task at hand when I am able to see myself talking and communicating with others. Maybe this makes me shallow, but I can't ever stop looking at my wrinkles and my stupid facial expressions, etc. I am definitely not one for movies or TV exposure, for sure!

However, kids LOVE skype and all types of camera-based learning and enjoyment opportunities.

Thoughts on using skype and cameras in the Library/school environment:

* virtual visiting author
* online storytime (could even be done in the summer! so fun!)
* communicate between classrooms for teacher lessons and student presentations
* virtual book clubs - students in classrooms (or at lunch or something), Librarian at her desk or in the Library doing a book club from halfway across the campus
* teacher/librarian training from campus to campus

The possibilities are endless! I look forward to having cameras and other visual products in the Library, hopefully SOOOOOOOOON! :)

11.5 Things: Thing #2

I am familiar with some of these word manipulation sites already... I have used Wordle quite a bit and I love it. However, some of these are new to me, so I'll highlight those and give examples related to those "new" learning opportunities.

* Wordsift is similar to wordle, but with less options, in my opinion. I see its value, but I'll choose Wordle over it any day. Students could take a paper, poem, or anything they just wrote and enter it to see where the cloud "settles"... something I know they'd enjoy!
* Glogster... I have heard of this and played with it very little. Making a poster online is simply spectacular. It's kind of like a graffiti wall on crack. I definitely love it! I think it's a much more valuable assignment than cutting and pasting to a piece of cardboard to turn in to a teacher. It requires a great deal of tech-savvy-ness (is that a word?) to get everything set and ready for display. I spent a long time selecting a background and uploading pictures, etc., and then my computer froze and I had to restart, therefore losing my project. :( No fun.
* Voice Thread was fun, but I liked the other things better. Students would enjoy it and it's a good thing to offer teachers as an option.
* Animoto and I are friends, but not as good as I want us to be. I frequently forget that I've subscribed and can make whatever videos I want! The thing that bugs me most is the music... it never comes out the way I want it to and I don't enjoy it as much as if I could put my OWN music on, but that would be a copyright problem, of course. But I do love it.
* My Voki is over on the left. Can you hear the audio? I can't. And it's cut off on the right. Hmmmm.... but it's cute, right?! :)
* Bookr - LOVE it, but I see how students could get caught in here and never return! Sometimes having lots of options for young children (unlimited photo access) is difficult! However, I love it, and it would be a great way to teach students about how to find copyright-ok photos!

11.5 Things: Thing #1

I loved this video. It was exactly and completely what the Library 2.0 Librarian should be doing for students. In addition, she should be providing the teacher with the tools to positively affect students in the way depicted in the video.

If only schools were able to have this type of "utopian" learning environment in every class...

Loved this video! I want to show it to my teachers at the start of the year!