The end is the beginning

Thank you one and all for your sharing, ideas, honesty, humour and experimentation. I have enjoyed reading the blogs as much as playing with  the Web 2.0 tools themselves. Thank you Dione for your encouragement and positive feedback. It has certainly been fun.
One thing was brought home to me quite strongly as I  explored and wandered through the many options out their in cyberspace ... change is rapid and as quickly as we learn one aspect of online technology, another pops up to outdo or replace it. But it's really  OK. Young people know no other way. It always has been like this for them and always will be. Gee ...email is slow technology for them these days!
As educators we need to have an opportunity like this course to  become more familiar with these technologies so that we have some understanding of the world in which our students engage and communicate  so comfortably.  And the bonus is that we in turn have discovered some gems that we are excited about utilising and integrating into our own stories.  Google Reader, The Library Thing and Delicious are just three that come to mind, that were new to me but I now use every day.
I will continue to explore many of the new tools and investigate  ways of introducing some of them into the classroom. I am going to start with the teachers at my school, sharing some of my learning but also listening to their take on it all as well. I will certainly be encouraging them to sign up for the July course!
Today we had a full day's inservice on cyber safety which provided plenty of food for thought, especially for me as I consider how and what to present to students in the way of web 2.0 tools.
So this is the beginning of new challenges and further explorations. Bring it on!!

#22 Audiobooks ....ebooks

While a longtime user of audiobooks, especially when I was a travelling t/l and lived out west, my first ebook experience occurred while overseas at Christmas.  Three of us were driving through southern Italy, and for me  the actual driving in Italy experience was very scary, even though I was only a passenger! I dealt with the really crazy bits  by burying my nose in my ipad and revisiting the familiar, comforting world of "Anne of Green Gables."  Sad but true.
In about a week's time our regional cluster of teacher-librarians and library officers is having a full day's inservice on ebooks and I am looking forward to the input which will hopefully inform future directions for our school regarding ebooks.
Currently we are trialling ipads in the early years classrooms and they may also become an ebook platform for us
We have recently subscribed to World Book Online, and part of that package includes over 5000 ebooks (if you purchase the "Advanced" component which is directed to upper primary and secondary users).

#Youtube and TeacherTube

I can spend ages just meandering through Youtube treasures, beginning with one intention and then seeing where it leads. It can be a relaxing, informative, inspiring, funny, reflective, thought provoking experience and I appreciate the plethora of creativity and passion that compels so many people to design and share. Of course it's not all good but selective use of keywords and browsing skills usually gives a good result. As with so many of the Web 2.0 tools we have been exploring, YouTube brings home the importance of   information literacy skills being taught from the Early Years onwards. Those skills of locating and selecting particularly come into their own.

 I used the following clip with Year 7 students when looking at Primary sources of Information.  The clip and the ensuing discussion provided a very memorable learning experience for us all, and left none of them with any doubts regarding the difference between primary and secondary information sources.




TeacherTube is also an excellent source of learning resources and information. We use TeacherTube quite a bit in our staff and curriculum meetings.

#19 Podcasts

Yes I love podcasts. When I travel long distances I load up the ipod and I am a happy camper! My favourites are the Radio National  programs particularly Late Night Live and Life Matters. However, I have used this activity as an opportunity to widen my horizons and now have on Google Reader a whole pile of podcasts on medieval times.
 I can see that podcasts would be quite beneficial in the classroom, and I intend to explore the possibilities and the resources available.

#18 Rollyo

I had a bit of fun creating a searchroll. I just put together a list of book selling sites as a practice and it was easy. Searching other rolls is a bit clunky at present as I had to type in the title of the searchroll into the search bar. Maybe it was just a glitch for me.
Searching rolls made by others can still be hit and miss as you are being directed to sites that they deem to be appropriate  relevant, accurate and authentic when in fact that may not be the case for your particular purposes.
I probably wouldn't use Rollyo on a regular basis or in the classroom in its present form.
Our library software has the capacity to catalogue websites and I would prefer that students use the web based catalogue search as a method for locating and selecting sites based on targeted subject areas and within the environment of both web based, audio-visual and text based sources of information.

#18 Wiki

What I love about wikis is that they can be as simple or as extravagant as you like depending on the task. Our school uses the online learning platform cLc and within that safe environment they are learning and practising a number of Web 2.0 tools including Wikis.
 I have not set up a wiki myself but have participated in a few and have experienced the benefits of being able to collaborate, edit. problem solve and share  in real time, in one space.
So the next step for me is to set one up and coax, encourage, (I have my methods) a few colleagues to join in the fun.

#17 Delicious

A couple of teachers at school use Delicious and sing its praises but this is the first time I have had a look at it myself and I am quite excited by it too.  Delicious, like a lot of the Web 2.0 resources, becomes more useful the more it is used so I am going to get into it, invite others to do the same and see what we can end up with. I love the idea of sharing the information and uncovered gems around favourite topics,, allowing us to "work smarter not harder". The social aspects of so many of these Web 2.0 tools is remarkable and provide food for thought for those who decry the Internet as a threat to  social structures.
As a teacher-librarian who appreciates the importance of appropriate and thorough cataloguing processes, the tagging component is a most important and effective way of location and selection.
I think it would be very appropriate to  introduce  upper primary students to the process of building and sharing  their website catalogue in Delicious. The very process encompasses so many information literacy elements and skills and would give them a  method of organising, sharing  discerning the best of  their online explorations

#16 Subscribing

Well I have had a lovely time subscribing to a variety of feeds including Darcy Moore's blog (highly recommended for educators if you are not already following it), Web 2.0 Teaching Tools, Edna news and resources.  Although  the method of subscribing may vary slightly depending on the site, it is easy to do and is very satisfying to see a plethora of resources on topics that I am specifically interested in, becoming a mere mouse click away!
I am a P-12 teacher-librarian and would be interested in following this tool up for senior secondary students, with  their subject teachers. It would take them beyond the links they add to their internal network homepages to    immediate access to latest news and information.

#15 RSS Feeds

It took me a while to get my head around RSS feeds and their usefulness for me. I already get email updates for some sites that I like to keep up to  date on, and  news updates are set up on my browser so  wasn't sure that I needed another page established for this purpose. However, I set up the Google Reader page and have really enjoyed subscribing various sites to it. For example I added some favourite  program podcast feeds from Radio National. It's really handy to be able to view what is on offer, rather than going into the ABC site and navigating to the appropriate place. I also added Teacher Tube and a couple of other favourite newsy sites that are regularly updated.
I also appreciate the fact that you can subscribe to blogs and access the updates all in one spot.
I can see how a regular up to date news and info gatherer would use this application a lot, and I may become a member of that category as I continue to explore its possibilities.

#14 Facebook

I have been a Facebook user for over a year and find it a great way to keep in touch with family and friends. (I also love playing Farmville but don't tell anybody). I do not post photos there and am very cautious regarding personal details and access to my page.
However I do appreciate the pics posted especially by family. They too restrict the viewing audience. It is so good to be able to see that latest baby pics and download them.
 I also appreciate the many comments and observations posted by friends and family that give me a real sense of how they are travelling at any given time.
As an educator I think that it is important for me to experience environments such as these in order to be able to understand the implications of the negative aspects .... cyberbullying and disclosure of private information ... for students.

#13 My Space

I set up a My Space account and had a look around but I don't think I will use it. It certainly has the "flavour" of a younger user environment although I see that one can edit/remove as required.
Nobody I know uses My Space, but I can appreciate its appeal for musicians and young people.

Egypt Holiday 2010

Egypt Holiday 2010, a set on Flickr.

#12 Flickr

I have set up an account, added pics and invited friends to join in the fun. I think this is a great way to share photos and it was a fairly simple and user friendly process.  I would like to explore some of the other features such as adding photos to the map, when I have more time.  I hope the link works. Please let me know if it doesn't and I will hopefully sort out the correct way!

http://flickr.com/gp/lesleygrant/8hHZwf/

#11 The Library Thing

I am so glad that through this course I have discovered "The Library Thing" and looking forward to the many possibilities it opens for engaging with other users and their love of books.
For the moment I am using it to collate  and review books I am reading from the late primary and secondary section of our school library. As you can imagine this section spans a wide range of reading and maturation levels and subject matter, so it is important for me to read and get information on as much of the collection as I can. "The Library Thing" will enable me to not only post my own reviews but to also access those of others and engage in some good discussion, obtain new purchasing suggestions, etc. It helps me to fell more comfortable about the daunting task of reading across our large collection. Yesterday I posted my first review on a title that is very new on the market, The Emerald Atlas" by John Stephens. To my delight I discovered over  100 postings and 11 other reviews! Not bad for a new title and teenage fiction I thought! So thank you for including "The Library Thing" in our studies.

#10 Image Generators

Lots of fun to be had with these tools. I found that Spyware Doctor blocked some of the sites I was heading for. I also found that instructions were of varying degrees of clarity and some intuitive thinking was involved at times. Exciting concepts though and ones that I would like to apply to school situations. For example, collages of action shots on sports day would look great on the school website or presented on the library screens.

This shape collage offers a number of options for size, layout and background and was fairly simple to construct.

By combining options from www.fototrix.com and www.sillyscenes.com (links are on the imagegenerator site). I inserted my Wordle into this cool frame. I tried to upload a family photograph but the image was too large.

Even though it took me a couple of hours of fiddling to get this much achieved (and that was partly due to my cantankerous laptop), as with everything, the more you explore the easier it becomes, and it's a pretty fun and satisfying way to while away a quiet afternoon!

#9 Virtual Worlds

Well the time has come to confess... I am a Happy Second Life resident and have been for over 2 years, although I don't go inworld so much these days. I usually jump in two or three times a week for short periods. However I have made some wonderful friends and learned so much from my adventures in Second Life. 
For some, the social aspects of SL are paramount. For me, at first  it was exploring the many worlds and environments ---- all constructed by ordinary sl players. Then I discovered the fun and challenge of building and creating inworld and that absorbed me for ages.  I learned to use Photoshop and Gimp, I attended inworld tutorials and created my own buildings, plants, waterfalls, gardens, textures, even had a go at clothing.
The reason I gave SL a go in the first place was probably  the same reason that most of us are doing this course ... to learn about what young people are doing online. To my surprise I discovered that most Second Life players I encounter are in in the 30+ age group. (perhaps it has something to do with the choices I make with my time while there!)
The potential for using virtual world educationally is certainly there and is being utilised to some extent.  The pics in the link below  show scenes from the Cybercity sim which hosts many library facilities from all over the world. Quite a number of reputable universities have a Second Life presence. Chat can be voice or text based.
I kind of like the idea of boardroom meetings being held across the globe while the participants hang around the Eiffel Tower, or do a little Tai Chi in Space or dance in one of the beautiful ballrooms!

http://www.vuvox.com/collage/detail/03dc94fe6c


By the way, Vuvox is a great site for arranging  and presenting a series of photos for websites and blogs. You can embed the collage intoyour blog etc rather than use a link but I haven't worked out how to do it yet.

#8 iGoogle

I have used iGoogle as my home page for over a year now. not counting a recent brief trial of Google Chrome which has a useful feature of displaying frequently visited sites as icon links. It is also faster. However I have returned to iGoogle because I prefer its general layout and the customising options.  I have tried and tested many add ons over time but end up reverting to just the ABC News headlines and local weather. However, I can appreciate the appeal that iGoogle would have for those who enjoy a busy and entertaining home page that can include your email, facebook page and chat if you want. 
 Home. Favourites and History buttons on the top right are very handy. You also have easy access to Google Maps, Books, etc at the top left.
I enjoyed the Google video very much. What a great work place, which seems set up to encourage creative and out of the box thinking. If only we would incorporate some of these strategies further afield. Imagine being able to come to work at 11am if that's all you need to get your work done. I like it!

#7 Google Books

I love Google Books which provides so much accessible  information and is a treasure trove for teacher-librarians.  Just for fun I searched using Jackie French and came up with "Let's Read History with Jackie French."
 I was able to browse through some of the pages to check the content and it looks to be a great teaching resource.

#6 Google Maps

I have used Google Maps with upper primary students and they love it! I particularly appreciate the links that provide further detail and information. I had a lovely time revisiting Google Maps. Firstly I checked out the place where I am staying in Fiji in June ...aaah. Then I took a nostalgic walk from my old primary school to home. Boy has that route changed! The street view is so clear. It is almost like being there.

#5 Google docs

I have previously put a tentative toe into the Google docs waters but got more into it this time and was toattally immersed for a couple of hours. The time just flew! I played with the calendar, photos and reader and want to further explore the sharing and accessibility side of things. I still feel "funny" about putting family photos out there and hope that privacy and security is well established.

Getting started

Here I go on another learning adventure. They seem to be coming along thicker and faster these days. Not that I am complaining.

Hello to all. I am a teacher-librarian in a Catholic school in the granite belt of Queensland. Being just north of the NSW border and fairly high up our claim to fame around here is being the only area of Queensland that actually experiences seasons! We abound in wine, fruit and a friendly, laid back lifestyle. Not hard to take at all.

I am looking forward to meeting you all through your blogs.