The Thrill of Victory

Nike!

26.2 miles is a pretty random distance for a marathon. On the Plains of Abraham in 190 BC, well before instant messaging was invented, news of the Athenian victory over the attacking Persians had to be relayed to Athens. The messenger Pheidippides was dispatched to run the entire distance of 24 miles in his leather sandals - ouch! On arrival in Athens, he gasped out “Nike!” (seriously, he actually did because it’s the Greek word for victory) before he collapsed from exhaustion and died. This feat was immortalized in the running of the marathon. In the 1912 Olympics some brilliant race director decided to extend the distance to 26.2 miles so that the marathon would conveniently end in front of the Swedish royal box. As any marathoner will tell you, it’s this last extra bit that finishes you off.


As I write this post I’m experiencing the exhaustion of traveling a long journey and now struggling to finish off the last extra bit of this coursework. I’ve sat here at the computer for quite some time, languishing in a bit of a befuddled daze, wondering what profound things I should say. I’ve decided I’m giving up on profound and am just going to write.

And the Gold Medal goes to…

The achievement I am most proud of from this course is the quantum leap I have taken in my facility with technology. From a hesitant, nervous, reticent dabbler I have grown in my confidence, knowledge and abilities in using Web 2.0 applications. I am now able to hold my own in discussions about the merits of wikis, can explain the reasons that educators should blog, can easily send a VoiceThread, and can deal with RSS feeds in my sleep. (Actually I once did this during a particularly distressing nightmare during the course!)

As a side benefit I am now comfortable using my new Apple laptop and my basic computer skills knowledge has gone through the roof. I can move files around, save and insert images, locate needed online information, insert links into word processing documents and feel more at ease reading, learning and working in a more or less paperless environment. I was able to take multi-tasking to new heights by having my computer read course articles aloud to me while I painted window and door trim during our renovations.

And the Silver Medal goes to…

Another big shift for me was learning a whole new way of approaching web technology. If there is something I can’t do or don’t understand, I have the tools to go about finding the answers. I am no longer totally dependent upon my children, colleagues or district workshops for technology instruction. I am in charge of my own professional development. I know how to find the answers in virtual libraries, data bases or through online searching. Needed information is delivered to me through GooglerReader at RSS feeds, or I can tap into the 2.0 community to ask questions or engage in discussions. I can shift from one application to another, follow links, play music, converse on a ning, watch something on YouTube whilst writing a blog post. My computer habits have changed to the point that my college-aged daughter brags to her friends that, “My mom can do things on the computer that I bet your mom can’t!”

And the Bronze Medal goes to…

Gaining a better understanding how Web 2.0 tools can support education was another high point in my learning this course. I really enjoyed using Will Richardson’s Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other powerful Web Tools for Classrooms as the course textbook. It is probably one of the most practical, useful and cheapest textbooks I’ve every used! Using Richardson’s comments as a starting point on which to hang our learning was a great decision by our instructor. He guided us step-by-step through the practical aspects of learning to use each tool. With the big picture in mind I was equipped to do my own research investigations, make connections and develop insights.

I have also learned that “playing with mastering Web 2.0 tools” is job one for any teacher seriously interested in introducing the Read/Write web into educational practice. I appreciated the “luxury” having time to discover the features of an application.

The Agony of Defeat – For Awhile Anyway

Rather like Pheidippides, the podcast unit was almost the death of me! If I gasped anything before rolling over and collapsing it was, “Thank goodness, it’s over!” The problem was that there was just too much to do – reading Richardson, following trailfires, doing our own research, organizing a script, then figuring out how to make the podcast, using Garage Band, trying Audacity and the Podcast booklet instructions, adding music from iTunes, then conversions wouldn’t work and then finally figuring out how to use Archive.org to post it. I was so worked up over this process, I even had a good cry one evening! When it was done I was amazed that I’d finished the podcast, but at what cost? There has to be a simpler way to create a podcast, perhaps using one comprehensive application. I couldn’t possibly imagine teaching this process to students or staff members. If anyone can recommend an easier route through the podcast process please cough up the answer. This is one Web 2.0 application I really need to master...I suppose. Note the sense of excitement?

Setting up my blog was also extremely challenging, but once I stopped procrastinating and got down to it, the whole process became easier. I appreciated our instructor Joanne encouraging me through this first big leap of faith. Blogging each week and revisiting this tool went a long way toward reinforcing my knowledge of the application software’s capabilities.

Key Things I’ve Learned from Others in the Class

After entering individual URLs all semester, I finally added my classmates to my RSS feed and Bloglines this week (about time, I know!). Today I visited everyone’s site, read the blog messages and truly realized what a wonderful resources these people have been to me during the course. I thank them so much for being partners in shaping my learning and development during this class. That old adage about many hands making light work is true. These super sleuths found amazing resources that I never came across in my own searching. Some comments:

Selena-

Has always been so encouraging, and made one of the first entries on my blog for which she has earned my undying gratitude! Loved the quote in her last blog post… In the words of the mathematician and philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead, “Ideas won't keep; something must be done about them”. This has to get up on my library’s walls – somewhere! Her post on Wikis
from November 30 is one I need to revisit when I need answers.

Jill –

Her suggestions for sustaining change are worth rereading when I’m back to work in September and creating my information literacy action plan. Key quote: “it is important to be reflective when introducing new technologies, rather than simply using every technology we hear about.” How true!

Rhonda -

Connected me to Anne Davis, Karl Fisch and Wesley Fryer through her blog posts – three Edublog gurus I’d never heard of which made for very interesting reading and new insights.
Very impressed by her creation of another podcast and hope to contact her as a resource in future. Speed dial?

Christine -

Enjoyed her input in discussions and her crazy, entertaining posts which are always fun to read. Has collected a huge selection of wiki information - videos, practical pages great for beginners, examples, etc. which I can investigate and also share with my staff.

Cynthia -

Always comes up with very practical suggestions that speak to my nature – such as Steve Dembo’s Teacher42 ideas of writing blog thank you notes and using a mission statement. This last post Moving Web 2.0 Towards School 2.0 contained a list of very practical ideas which built upon suggestions of Michael Fullan (who I am familiar with from my curriculum coursework on change agents).

Heather -
Also ecommended Anne Davis site, which really was helpful with my last post. Blogs are also her tool of choice and she recommended 50 Useful Blogging Tools for Teachers by Alisa Miller – absolutely WONDERFUL site! I can't wait to snoop through this during the holidays, Heather. Thanks so much for connecting me to this.

April -

Another blogger convert with a list of good classroomblog sites to visit. I appreciated that April posts often take a different perspective and help me to consider new aspects of a tool. I also learned all about Meez from April.

Darryl -

His Videothread blog inspired me to try one! Offers “lunch & learn” technology sessions – something I’d like to try. He’s had success working with teachers on websites. I appreciated reading Darryl's concerns about the use of Facebook by educators and that nings and other tools might be better options. I had similar thoughts and so it was nice to find support in another class member.

Jessica -

Has created a wonderful First Nations Voicethread Project which I am eager to learn more about. She's bravely taken the plunge and is out there "Livin' the Dream". Can't wait to hear how things went as I want to share these projects with my Socials Department Head and try them together with his class. Appreciated Jess' regular comments on my blog posts.

Joanne -

Thanks to my "guide on the side" who encouraged me throughout the course, listening to me during my meltdown phone call, answering my questions, providing feedback and supporting me through tough times. The great news is I don't have to say goodbye because I'm taking another course with Joanne next semester.

Where do I go in terms of learning about technologies?

Here are a few of the things on my “Honey Do” list in no particular order. Some I’ll tackle during the Christmas break and some will be an ongoing focus. Learning has to become a daily habit. As Stephen Downes says, “This is a necessity. Make it a priority.” You wanted intimidation factor?

Learn to use the Webcam feature of my computer.
Identify a good website software for setting up a school library website.
Plan and begin development of own library website.
Set up RSS feeds for favourite bloggers.
Become aware of virtual libraries.
Work on gathering information for a technology information/literacy plan for the school.
Visit The Clever Sheep http://thecleversheep.blogspot.com/2008/11/12-tools-to-teach-about-creative.html Rodd Lucier to learn all about creative commons – what it is etc.
Train myself to check Google reader daily
Learn how to subscribe to podcasts and put them onto my iPod touch to listen to when I fly, drive, drive…
Learn how to do a power point style presentation with sound.
Get into a habit of checking my Google Reader daily.
Keep emails down to less than 10 items.
Learn how to download books from the local library’s collection to iPod.
Finish going through my iPod Touch features guide.
Keep blogging.
Read more blogs, especially those written by Edubloggers.
Master the art of creating podcasts.
Set up a wiki for our District’s Langley Book of the Year program.
Review all the information from our course.
Set up a program to ensure that my own Web 2.0 learning continues.
Keep working on VoiceThreads.

The Finish Line? No Way! This Marathon has No End...

This is my last formal course blog post. I probably won’t be writing such lengthy entries anymore (I heard that applause) because I’ll be writing just for my own purposes instead of course criteria. I now find myself in the central position of the Web 2.0 network. A realm of possible paths beckon and I know that I have the skills in place to be in charge of my own path of discovery. I shall be embarking on my own personal inquiry project as I continue the marathon I've begun this course. I hope to see you along the way.

“The difference between a jogger and a runner is an entry blank.” Dr. George Sheehan

2.0 does 26.2


In seven days I will be running the California International Marathon. For every serious long distance runner, the dream of achieving a fast enough marathon time to qualify ( I need 4:05) and be able to participate in the prestigious Boston Marathon, is everything. Boston is on my life list and it seriously needs a nice big check mark. Anyone else have a similar goal?

I’m not genetically blessed with athletic genes. My father is the most incredible bowler who leaves his name and high scores immortalized on plaques in every bowling alley where he’s ever played. My sister won the 100-yard dash on Sports Day wearing an arm cast. Me? Well I have hips, heavy bones, no natural talent, absolutely no fast-twitch muscle fibres, and I’m also getting older at an alarming pace. But I like running. It clears my brain, helps me think creatively and gives me plenty of time for contemplation. And I love the challenge of running 26.2 miles.

The running gods are not kind. I’ve endured a 50 mph headwind/sandstorm at the Las Vegas Marathon, a hailstorm in Vancouver, an autumn gale in Victoria, broke one foot falling off a sidewalk and the other when I was bowled over in an exercise class. (I know, pretty stupid!) I’ve still run 15 marathons – all of them too slow for Boston. Darn!

But this year feels different. I’m not hoping. I’m not wishing. I’m putting in a determined effort by training hard, eating properly, stretching, doing my track workouts and tempo runs, getting up early to weight train, asking experts for advice and doing lots of reading on the subject. My times keep improving and I’m daring to dream that Sacramento will be my day.

What it All Means?

When I’m running, I find my mind clears. I do my best thinking and come up with neat ideas, a result my husband hates because neat ideas usually involve more work on his part. Lucky for him, this week I had just read “What it All Means” from Richardson’s Blogs, Wikis and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms before I hit the nearby trails for a 13-miler. So with Richardson’s “What all this means?” swirling in my head instead of potential renovation plans, I ran through the autumn leaves, and did some reflecting about why I decided to learn more about Web 2.0 in the first place. My reasons: A – As a secondary Teacher Librarian it was my role to get my staff and students using Web 2.0. B – I wanted to improve my own facility with technology and stop being scared by it, and C – I was tired of not knowing what the heck was going on with technology. I'm sure others in this Web 2.0 course had similar goals.

I remember in the interview for my education leave from the District, I was asked how I would use technology in the library setting. I explained that I really did not know which uses were applicable but was determined to find out through my university coursework. From Teacher Librarian magazine I knew that other teacher librarians were doing amazing things integrating technology – using Web 2.0 tools I couldn't pronounce (what's a why-kee?) much less understand. Acquiring greater fluency with information knowledge and technology tools was the first goal I set for myself. Then I would cast a wider net to include my school. In any case, I had established a personal vision and “began this journey with the end in mind", as motivational speaker Steven Covey recommends.

In the concluding chapter of his book, Richardson offers a quote by Thomas Friedman, which encapsulates current trends in technology and offers a mission statement for my vision:

“We are now in the process of connecting all the knowledge pools of the world together.”

Teaching as a connecting and collaborative process is a concept that speaks directly to my role as a teacher librarian. The time is perfect for me to work as an agent for change with students and staff. To convey the literacy skills necessary for success in this new technology-based learning environment is “a huge shift” in my own interpretation of teacher librarianship and frankly, a very daunting prospect. But then so is 26.2 miles and I can do this. It all starts with an action plan broken into manageable, achievable chunks. Investigating Web 2.0 applications is the first step I’ve taken towards gathering the skills I need to teach the new literacies.

The Starting Line - Blogging

So here I am again. How I will I begin to use technology, specifically Web 2.0, in the library setting? To extend my running metaphor, I am going back to the starting line and look at my first entry into the Web 2.0 world – blogs. Future education trends demand that teachers adjust the way we teach students, and blogs can help us with these changes. Richardson lists blogs first in his 2.0 arsenal with good reason. Extremely versatile, they may be used for instruction across the curriculum, professional development, portfolio building, repositories of information, collaboration, and promoting information literacy. I guess you could call blogs a one-stop shopping mall of possibilities. In his video “Perspectives on Classroom Blogging", Wesley Fryer calls blogging the “cornerstone piece of literacy learning in our classrooms.”

Richardson outlines ten “big shifts” or attitude changes necessary to support the new literacies on pages 131 – 136 of his book. As I read through these “big shifts” concepts I thought that blogs would be a great starting point because they could be used to promote each one of these ideas.

• Share open content.
• Offer full intellectual access, 24/7 learning with access to many teachers.
• Facilitate the social and collaborative connection.
• Allow for conversations.
• Help students to find information.
• Encourage critical reading.
• Provide a vehicle for managing information.
• Write critically.
• Create shared resources.
• Add student knowledge to the wider learning community.

I'd be interested in knowing if you agree with my choice of blogs as a starting point.

The Race Strategy

So if my plan is to use blogs as the tools to create a change in my secondary school, I will need to start with baby steps. Introducing a new idea to one or two teachers, “converting” them, and then building upon this success, is an approach that has always worked well for me. Teachers are responsible for so many daily tasks and encouraging them to find the time to explore a new approach requires encouragement, genuine offers of help and a certain amount of subterfuge. If you can illustrate ways in which a change can ease teacher work – such as saving time, helping to achieve objectives or motivating students - then teachers will usually “buy in”. And once you’ve got teachers comfortable integrating technology into their lessons, they will begin to promote it in lesson and assignment design and in informal chats with colleagues.

In the video (thanks, April!) “Web 2.0 and Your Own Learning and Development” Stephen Downes talks about the push/pull effect of interaction when learning. He encourages new learners to retrieve ( pull) information themselves as opposed to having someone overwhelm by force-feeding information (push). It is important to keep this good advice in mind. I must be cautious about overwhelming the students or the staff with new information. I have to motivate them to want to learn more through sharing examples, offering collaborative assistance, encouragement and praise for their success. I also have to keep in mind that I can tap into the support of the wider teaching community. I can connect interested staff to other teachers, such as Jill Robbins “Blogging a Portal to the Future” which provides a great collection of information and resources about blogging, perfect for new bloggers to explore. WebTools4U2Use was a particularly valuable resource for me to use as I was learning about Web 2.0. I need to revisit my own learning journey and select a few quality resources to share and, at the same time, move beyond blogging to sneakily introduce wikis, video resources, virtual learning sites, podcasts and other tools.

As teacher librarian there are many other ways to encourage change at a practical level. When teachers book their classes into the library I can offer to set up a blogs for the unit topics that lists links to online research resources. As interest grows I could build on this success by introducing class wikis as a more collaborative venture. I could develop a Library wiki or website to house unit lists for different subject and grade areas. Additional resources such as bibliography help, note taking forms, essay guidelines, Delicious tags and such could also be archived on this for easy online access. Establishing a virtual library presence is an important part of this journey toward new literacies. Did anyone follow a similar path and can offer sage advice?

Fill out the Entry Blank and Enter the Race

As I write this, I realize that the time has come for me to stop jogging along. I need to fill in the entry blank to the race, to make the serious commitment to get the job done, like I’ve done with my marathon training to prepare for this upcoming Sacramento race. It’s time to figure out a clear step-by-step action plan, beginning with integrating blogging into the library research model and moving towards a vibrant library community with staff and students incorporating Web 2.0 tools seamlessly into their learning styles.

I won’t be able to achieve my vision alone. The support of other stakeholders such as the librarian technician, administration, technology teachers, teachers, support staff and students is a necessary element for lasting change. A great beginning point would be to present my vision to the entire staff by focusing on the “why” reasons for change. Showing a motivational video such as "A Vision of K-12 Students Today" would be a perfect way to initiation discussion.

I also need to make students aware that I am available as a practical resource. I’ve discovered that helping individual students is a sure-fire method of getting any message out into the mainstream. Above all, I have to model the approach to learning which I want my students and staff to adopt. I have taken this coursework and learned so much about Web 2.0 but my journey has only just begun. I need to be self-directive and, as Stephen Downes describes it, make myself the centre of an incredible network environment. Through repeated exposure and constant daily contact with the stream of information, I will be able to continue my own learning and remain a valuable guide and mentor to others.

This week I read Karl Fisch’s “Is It Okay to be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?” winner of Edublog’s Most Influential Post of 2007. Fisch’s post is well worth visiting and reading in its entirety but this portion spoke to me as it summarized the path I’m following.

“In order to teach it, we have to do it. How can we teach this to kids, how can we model it, if we aren’t literate ourselves? You need to experience this, you need to explore right along with your students. You need to experience the tools they’ll be using in the 21st century, developing your own networks in parallel with your students. You need to demonstrate continual learning, lifelong learning – for your students, or you will continue to teach your students how to be successful in an age that no longer exists.”

My exact plan for transforming the way our school perceives education is still a work in progress but I now have the beginnings of a rough plan in place. The task ahead seems less overwhelming and I’m not alone as I can tap into the expertise of others in the learning community, ask for help (any suggestions?), do further research and refine my plans. By the time I return from my leave in September, I will be ready to step up to the starting line and begin this different kind of marathon. Wish me luck!

"You have to think that you can't quit." -Abe Wintraub, 90, marathoner

Blogging

This has been one of the most difficult posts to write because I’m sitting here, one confused and muddled mess. Last week’s ELearning discussion about blogging voice, Richardson’s Chapter 9 words on what everything means, our new ELearning assessment of our blogging journey and my own research into the topic of blogging have all morphed into one big morass of information, reflections and contemplation. When I reread my almost finished blog post I realized that the trends of technology and how blogging fits into this grand scheme seemed a topic which demanded more introspection and was therefore better suited the next blog entry of “What’s Next” . So I’ve abandoned all my work (don’t panic it will be recycled somehow) and am starting once again.

Somewhere in my research about blogging, I came across the comment that one should just write quickly and let your true voice speak. Here goes…

When I began blogging I was totally baffled by this process. Why our instructor would want us to post our personal reflections on the internet for everyone to read was a terrifying thought to me. It ranked right up there with nude sunbathing. Sorry for that image, but I really did a lot of hyperventilating over putting my first words out there for others to read. First only my instructor answered and then others responded and validated my words. Then I found myself using my blog as a repository of important links and a record of my learning to revisit. As the weeks have gone by and my comfort level with blogging has developed, I’ve now gotten to the point where I’m thinking that my URL of “Internetangst” no longer describes my feelings towards this Web 2.0 tool. I imagine that others reading my words may have had similar experiences when first introduced to blogging. Am I right?

Why blog?

Time to revisit Chapter 2 of Richardson’s Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, the impetus for this whole adventure. It’s interesting that Richardson listed blogs as the first of his powerful web tools. It certainly is one of the easiest tools to use and when I look back from today’s vantage point, setting it up was really not difficult at all, it was more the anxiety of breaking down my own deeply-seated fear of technology. Blogs can be a repository of information, a journal record of reflection or instruction or a way of showcasing knowledge for others to easily access. Richardson calls them websites and considers them very much a “collaborative space”. In my other courses, colleagues have effectively used blogs as a way to share visual seminars with others. I also find myself considering them another source of information and insight when I research. However, I find blogs to be more of a personally directed medium, rather than a wiki that can be developed into a more collaboratively constructed site(see below for more on blogs vs. wikis). I realize that the invitation to dialogue with others is very much a part of why blogging is gaining popularity. The social aspect of sharing with others and collaborating ideas is a big draw. However, a blog post can also be a personal reflection and therefore its writer exercises a certain amount of creative control. In any case, blogs are an effective Web 2.0 tool, which truly speak to the Read/Write nature of 2.0, can be used by anyone, for any topic. Because of their versatility, I agree with Richardson's decision that they deserve first place recognition. Is there a tool which offers as many possibilities?

Blog Potentials

Richardson also describes the potential of weblogs in schools and this is something that I have certainly thought a lot about but haven’t really seriously explored in the practical sense. I would very much like to use a blog as a teaching tool but know that I need to look at even more examples, start small with one class and gain further confidence in this area before going full tilt on introducing this tool to my staff. One idea I have going through my mind is a project on Revolutions one of our high school teachers does. Right now we are providing photocopies of the information on various countries and the history of change and revolutions that have occurred. This translates into a lot of reading and processing for students to do in our library research blocks and they usually end up photocopying it and taking papers home. I’m considering changing this project’s design to create a portal to archive this information and make it more readily available from school or home computers. The teacher and I (and potentially students) could then post new information we discover on the topic of revolutions. Ideally we could transform this assignment into a paperless one and introduce students to another use for blogs. On the other hand, my photocopier is a great source of library funding...

This brings me to another consideration, the use of tags and a search bar. This is on my list of “things to explore and do when I have a spare moment". I know there must be a way to build a search tool into a blog so that previous posts can be retrieved using folksonomies (gotta love that word) as I see some blog sites using a search bar feature. If a blog is going to be considered a filing cabinet of sorts then it must have a way to easily retrieve the information without scrolling through a backlog of posts. I have recently been reading many top-notch graphic novels reviews from comic enthusiasts trying to gather information to support purchasing a collection of titles. Through Google I was able to locate these informative blogs but I was frustrated that once I found a well-written, respected reviewer and discovered that I couldn’t navigate through the blog easily to locate additional reviews I was looking for without retreating to Google and repeating the process.

I once dismissed blogs as invalid search result responses during web searching. Now I have come to realize that blogs are useful sources of information and have an advantage in that they go beyond the facts and offer interpretations, opinions and sometimes opposing viewpoints. However, I am particular about the weblog sites I consider reading. A quick scan for the style and quality of writing, helps me to determine if this is a source that I would consider reading more in-depth. I have begun to bookmark some of my favourite sites for future reference and even added one to my RSS feed. Using these blogs demonstrates the power of the social nature of the blog. I can benefit from the opinions of others and appreciate their thoughts through leaving a response on their blogsite. I must admit that leaving comments is something I haven't always been doing. I am trying to behave more responsibly and become a better contributor to this whole blogging community by taking a few minutes to respond in turn. It's certainly very validating for me when I receive a response. (Translation: Why not write me a little something if you are reading this?)

My Blogging Type

Just for fun I visited Typeanalyzer and had my blog posts analyzed according to the Myers Brigg inventory. According to the results I am an ISTP - The Mechanic whose attributes are as follows:

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been accessed on my perceptions and decision making according to the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (a little Wikipedia explanation if you don't know what this is) but I dove into an old curriculum course and dusted off my results from over 25 years ago and apparently I was Extraversion, Sensing, Feeling and Perceiving so the blog results are about a 50% match. Of course, I could have changed but I have no intentions of driving a race car in the near future and my husband will attest to the fact that I’m the most unmechanical person around. He should know as he’s an Automotive shop teacher.

Last Thoughts

When I compared my blogging growth to the indicators Richardson has listed on page 31 I realized that I have made considerable growth in my blogging abilities. According to the criteria I have moved from simple blogging to real blogging. However, I have a way to go before I will be adept enough to consider myself a complex blogger. I shall, however, continue to blog beyond this course because I recognize the potential for this Web 2.0 tool. I need to become more skilled and thoroughly explore blogging by reading and responding and writing and reflecting and learning and this can only happen through much practice and increased fluency with the medium. If anyone reading this post has specific advice they wish to offer me to help guide this process, I welcome your suggestions or comments.

Blogs vs Wikis

Just for fun I came across a neat video (thanks, Lesley) about the differences between blogs and wikis using the classic JFK vs. Nixon presidential debate as a forum for comparison. I’ve inserted it here because I found it entertaining, a good example of what one can do with technology and also because I’m so excited that I actually can do amazing things like inserting video, images, podcasts, various applications and add-ons into my blogs with a certain level of ease. Yup, it's been a long slow process but my blogging skills are steadily improving.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsFU3sAlPx4

I don't go looking for hill, but when I come to one, I run it. - Jack Mahurin

This week’s focus of RSS Feeds and blog aggregators was definitely a tough uphill learning experience which required slow step-by-step direction. I relied heavily upon Will Richardson’s Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, stopping to practise each step on my computer through Google Reader, and then recording my learning for this blog before moving to the next section of the book and repeating the entire process. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before but I REALLY like Blogs, Wikis, etc. It’s written at just my level and breaks down the Web 2.0 applications into simple steps so I understand what I’m doing and am usually quite successful by following the instructions.

I now know that RSS means Real Simple Syndication. Richardson certainly feels strongly about the importance of RSS Feeds calling it “The Killer App for Educators” and commenting, “I think it’s the one technology that you should start using today, right, now this minute. And tomorrow, you should teach your students to use it.” (p.71) I’m sold, Will, this is just what I want to learn – technology that will make a difference for the students in my high school.

Richardson suggested setting up a feed aggregator through Google Reader. Fortunately I’d already set up my Google Reader account when we established our blogs in September and so I already was receiving the RSS feeds for a number of subscriptions. Richardson suggests no more than 10 feeds and to get into the habit of checking daily. Oops! I have less than 10 but I haven’t been able to read them regularly. This information overload stuff reminds me of the 200+ emails I was dealing with not long ago. But I managed to clean the emails up so here goes…

I read some of the RSS feeds I’d been neglecting - I had 81 to read! Some examples of incoming goodies:

• From the CommonCraft feed I watched Google Reader in Plain English which was just perfect as I’d forgotten how to subscribe and so it was a timely little review.
• Caught up with several blogs I’ve been following and posted comments to the authors.
• Read the latest on Graphic Novel reviews from School Library Journal.
• Listened. to part of a podcast of The Loop from Nike site interview with elite runner Alan Webb. Neat that podcasts can be directed also through feeds.
• Read a Joyce Valenza article about the Wikipedia Encyclopedia for use in schools and forwarded it to my teacher librarian colleagues in an email.

At this point I have a lot of questions. As I skim through the feeds that have come in some have potential, some aren’t interesting and some I’d like to read more carefully later. Also once you’ve skimmed through the list (love the way the counter dropped down from 81 as I scrolled through) then can you ever retrieve these articles again? How do I organize these sites and articles? How do I keep them for later retrieval? How do I add more feeds and get rid of the boring ones?

On page 75, sure enough, Richardson explains how to remove and add subscriptions so I tested this on 24 hours in Pictures which was on my list. Although each day brought great photos, I have no time to look at them so I practised by removing this subscription using the feed settings feature.

Next, I tried the add subscription button to look for information about Watchmen, which was the topic of my comic-to-film wiki project for my Graphics Novel course. I am keen to keep up with what is happening with the movie and the upcoming court case regarding its release so I added it to my list. A whole list of possible feeds came up and so I followed Richardson’s advice to check them out first before subscribing. I skimmed the URLs and opened several sites until I came up with the best one for my purposes – the official Warner Brothers Watchmen site. This site releases a monthly video journal about the movie so now these will come in automatically without me having to remember and then search for them. I love the idea that using Google Gears will allow me to save feeds with their complete articles, read them on my laptop at the cabin (no electricity) and then Gears will “synch up all of [my] actions” when I revisit my feeds.
Back to Richardson’s textbook, he goes on to describe what to do to organize the RSS feeds.
I went through some of the items in Richardson’s Weblogg-ed blog, which is in my subscription feeds, skimmed several articles and tagged them. They surfaced below my subscription list and were immediately retrieved when I clicked on them. When I edited the tags to consolidate items into one folder, the original titles wouldn’t disappear so I have to figure this out. I did star several feed articles to mark them as ones to read later on. This is like marking email as unread to gain your attention.

Back to the book, Richardson began to explore ways that teachers can use and promote RSS feeds with students. As a teacher librarian, I can see that I have my work cut out for me trying to pass this knowledge onto the students – in fact it seems almost overwhelming at this point. How do I start? With play and practice, of course, but then what? I take heart from reading a blog entry by the Webfooted Booklady whose entire blog seems to be a testimony to exploring one application after another. Her entry for November 14 tells about trying iMovie with a class even though she wasn’t that familiar with the program and learning together with the students. I have to let go of this assumption that one needs to be a total expert in order to share technology with others and to not worry about doing things perfectly.

Back to Google Readers, I tried the RSS Feeds for News Searches and after trying several topics and getting no results, I tried Vimy Ridge and received 213 hits for the dates I’d set. I recall trying to help students search for research information on homelessness in the Vancouver area and being frustrated with the lack of useful results from online searching and databases. This RSS feed is quite the thing! I could easily have found information for student’s queries using this method. Of course, the question of authority comes up because not all of these Vimy articles might be the best reference sources to use. Blogs can offer the benefit of different viewpoints but may voice more opinions than facts so students may need direction in this regard. Most of the feeds I received from my Vimy search were from Canadian newspapers and magazines. I did find several broadcasts such as one from CTV that could be played as a video. What a great option for students with learning difficulties. Also if the computer has a read-aloud feature then they could hear the highlighted text they have located through feeds, or rather, which the feeds have located for them.

I am amazed that the RSS feed will even search through Google websites with Googlealerts.com. I also had heard nothing about vanity feeds before and how you can figure out who is blogging about you. I wonder if this is how Will Richardson discovered several other course members and then made a response on their blog. Gee, I could be next!

Onto page 82…almost done…With all the amazing information coming in through a RSS aggregate it is important to have a way of bringing it altogether and sharing it with students and teachers. I really like the idea of collecting web information all in one place as a constantly updating source of information for students to use and also being able to do it outside one’s own personal reader, as Richardson suggests. However, I didn’t understand what Pageflakes was so I visited their home page and Wikipedia to discover that Pageflakes is a start page which can be organized into tabs to display different types of information. Looking at Richardson’s sample Pageflakes also helped and it would appear that Pageflakes is similiar to what I used to call a jump page created with lists of links. I’m quite excited about exploring Pageflakes and practicing setting up some samples for topics often covered in library research. I like the idea that the students can also contribute to the development of Pageflakes. I’m curious as to whether one sets up a Pageflake site for each subject or if they can all be organized in one place.

So, it looks like Richardson is correct that RSS feeds are a real “killer app” with a ton of application to educators. Not only can they help teachers become more organized and informed but also they have terrific potential for revolutionizing the way students research with feeds that deliver information directly to the researcher. Now I have some Pageflakes exploration homework to do and I also have to make it a habit to check my Google Reader on a daily basis. I think I’ll stick a post-it note on my computer.

Sport, like all life, is about taking risk.” - Sir Roger Bannister

Social Networking. I must say that I have been dreading this topic. I’m certainly an extrovert and love to meet people but doing so online through the medium of Facebook or MySpace is just too overwhelming and beyond my zone of comfort. I am so relieved that my Web 2.0 course instructor offered the adverse types like me an option so that we can experience social networking in “our own little space”. Dipping our toes into the water, and taking that risk.

Concerns and Advice. Perhaps my aversion comes from the fact that I’ve read a few negative articles in newspapers and magazines about the dangers of social networking. Several young teachers in a nearby district had their personal sites accessed and shared with students – an event which landed them in major hot water. Our District, after several events of cyberbullying, has chosen to block Facebook. In a way, this was a relief to me as students in the library for study blocks would often not study at all but spend the majority of their time accessing and developing their sites or sharing things with fellow students, until the noise level became disruptive. Teacher librarians hate to play the heavies and go around saying “No Facebook” and enforcing the administration’s policies regarding computer use so this took the onus off me and put it on the shoulders of the District. Of course after this summer’s Intellectual Freedom course, I was torn because I understood from my coursework that limiting access was really not the solution. Instead, teacher librarians should be helping students to become more aware of ways to use social networking sites responsibly and safely.

Doug Johnson, in his Blue Skunk blog talks about Social networking and needing to give a talk to administrators about social networking. Good for these principals for being open-minded enough to seek counsel from someone with Doug’s knowledge before making a knee-jerk decision. Doug mentions that students spend a lot of time with technology that they don’t really understand. “They use Facebook because it’s the thing to do, just like they used MySpace because it used to be the thing to do. Do we really need to teach them the correct or useful way to use social networking sites, or do we give them a better understanding of the positives and negatives of this type of service?” I would answer that we should openly 'address the elephant in the room' and talk about the social networking sites when opportunities arise as these are an important part of our students’ identities and they need to understand how to make wise decisions in their use.

Doug Johnson also wrote an article for Education World called Seven Things All Adults Should Know About MySpace. New thoughts I took away from this article:

1. Social networking is enormously popular with young adults. Over 60% of students are social content users – that’s huge – it’s obviously an important part of their lives.

2. Friends are probably just that. That teens seldom turn down friend requests in the interest of inclusiveness, thus the large # of friendships.

3. Blocking sites at school won't keep kids away from MySpace. When students are forced to work around proxy servers, etc. they come to regard school as irrelevant to their lives.

4. Some degree of danger does exist for MySpace users. Need for caution about personal information as predators do use these sites.

5. Young people need to understand that material posted on the Internet is public and might have unintended implications. I loved the comment on a poster from this site: A poster (Good Signs) produced by Minnesota State University, Mankato, asks students "Who might see your online profile?" and goes on to list: Your friends, Random students, Professors, Employers, Your coach, Campus Security, Law enforcement, Sex offenders, Residential Life Staff, University Judicial Board, Parents, and Grandma.

6. Teachers might want to check to see if they have had a MySpace account created for them. Good tip – I did. Fortunately, I don’t have a site. Do you?

7. MySpace and social networking have value. Discusses making and trying on an identity. “They are about all the same things that have existed for hundreds of years, hidden in notebooks and scribbled on bathroom walls and whispered over telephones. The content of MySpace.com bears discussion, not obstruction.”

Facebook. However, I did “check out” Facebook so I had a better understanding of what it looked like and how it operated. My daughter Andrea gave me an hour-long tour through her well-developed site and I can now appreciate why she spends so much time on Facebook and has embraced it as an important component of her social life. She has posted photos in folders from various trips to share, has established a profile which is interesting but doesn’t provide personal information, and she has quite a list of friends who have varying degrees of access on both a wide or individual scale, and, as she says, “Facebook is a way of keeping in touch with people that I might not otherwise have kept in touch with”. Recently my daughter received a position at Whistler and has been hunting for a place to stay. She tried every avenue available: property managers, newspaper and online classified ads, Chamber of Commerce, calling friends, etc. When she changed her Facebook message to a plea for help finding accommodations in Whistler, the responses immediately started rolling in with her Facebook friends rallying around to offer leads and suggestions. Another useful feature of Facebook.

Library Social Networks. Now for my first personal venture into Social Networking, I signed up for Library 20 Ning. I filled out my profile, pasted in a photo and became Member 3508 of Library 2.0. I gave the Ning a good going over:

Checked out my Page. Wow! Looks good. Nice glasses.

Snooped through the site.

Told to post an introduction so I did. Here’s mine...

“Hello, Everyone, My name is Joanie Proske and I am the Teacher Librarian at a ridiculously large Gr. 8 to 12 High School in Langley, B.C. Well, actually, I am on education leave from my position to work on my Masters in Teacher Librarianship through the University of Alberta. I'm doing my coursework by Distance Education, which has really tested my computer skills, but it's all good! One of my courses is about Web 2.0 Technology and I am stunned by how much I have learned in the last two months and humbled by how much more I need to learn. I'm looking forward to joining this social network and continuing to learn about Web 2.0 from a community of like-minded individuals.”

I checked through the profiles to see who were members. I found a Professor Emeritus from U of New York, a MLS who works independently as a consultant to Health care industry as a researcher, student librarians, and a librarian of a small rural library. I typed in every librarian “whose who” name I knew but no one seemed to be a member. Hmmmm. Wonder why?

Where did the listed members come from? I was astounded to see the locations that really reflected the reach of this social community: South Africa, Belgium, US, India, United Kingdom, Canada, Nigeria, Australia, Slovakia, Portugal, Palestine, Costa Rica, New Zealand…

I moved on to check out the blogs by reading the first paragraph and then continuing on if interested…

Checked out groups and found 4 pages of forums and groups such as European librarians, business librarians, Medical and Health Science libraries, Distance/Off-Campus Library Services, New Librarians, Elementary Librarians, Public Librarians, Dewey VS LC, Teen Services, Archivists, School Libraries (looked at this one). There were some crazy ones too: Silly Librarians against Dull Dewey LADD, Creative Librarians, Librarian by Day Bad Karaoke by Night, Vegan Vegetarian Librarians.

I looked at a sample question asked about school library websites. The responses were indeed a treasure trove of ideas on good sites, recommended website providers, things to include, the need to add a visitor counter to the website, etc.

Read a question about noise level and posted a comment back– my first foray into being a contributing member!

Used the search bar to check for different topics no luck – tried Webcomics – VoiceThreads – Wikis – Wikipedia and then began to wonder if this was the best forum. After a week as a member I haven’t seen any real action on this site – no friend invites – no responses to questions – I decided to see if something better existed. If you’re going to be a member of a social network then there has to be some communication back and forth to create the “social” component!

TeacherLibrarianNing. In frustration, I emailed my IT guru Lesley Edwards in North Vancouver asking for her advice on a better social networking site and then waited for her response. Lesley suggested joining the TeacherLibrarianNing set up by Joyce Valenza at which I did and I am now member #2198 (see image above).

It was ridiculously easy to join this social forum, and a lot of fun. I spent a entire morning going through the site reading the different forum comments and even answering a couple: one from a new employee who needed ideas to decorate a book display, another from a teacher librarian wondering how to sort through donated books. I read through other questions that led me to new practical ideas, such as this one about collection development: “Put out a survey to your teachers and ask about how they have used the collection in the past and having them suggest which areas they would like to see more materials. Zoomerang.com has free surveys that you can create. Then email the link to your staff.”

And then there was the response to the question of what would you tell a new teacher librarian about collection development in one sentence. My favourite response was, "It's not YOUR collection; it's your STUDENT'S collection." This site was certainly much more lively than the other ning.

I bravely posted a forum question “Which is your favourite Web 2.0 Add-on which you would recommend Teacher Librarians add to their computer?” to see what responses I might get before our next discussion. A neat feature is that you can set up the site for responses to be emailed to you and then close them down when you no longer wish to follow the thread.

Looked through the 2 pages of groups for TeacherLibrarianNing and decided to join the High School TeacherLibrarian group with 232 members. Posted my intro and read about Twilight fan parties, public/school partnerships and wiki subject headings. I started to get lots of invites and little welcomes and comments and friend invites. Wow! Things are happening! I like the way that invites come to my email so you don’t have to check constantly yourself. I already had five friends by the end of day one! That’s it – I’m giving up on the other social networking site.

As for my question about favourite add-ons I’ve already got seven responses:

“On my Mac I have buttons for adding an RSS feed, and bookmarking using delicious and/or diigo, and Awesome Highlighter. Love Firefox!”

“I love Freescreencast.com (http://www.freescreencast.com) and Glogster (http://www.glogster.com). I'm also using Smilebox (http://www.smilebox.com) quite a bit. I'm in love with so many Web 2.0 applications! You might want to take a look at my new wiki http://www.ladigitalimmigrants.wikispaces.com.” can't live without my del.icio.us and Google Reader RSS feeds.

“ I can't live without my del.icio.us and Google Reader RSS feeds.”

Nings. In the TeacherLibrarianNing site, I noticed that Joyce Valenza suggests that others start their own ning. I hadn’t heard of the term nings until I looked into these two library social networking sites so I checked out Wikipedia which defines a ning as “an online platform for users to create their own social websites and social networks.” In our course Trailfire the NCTE Inbox blog entry “Social networking: the Ning’s the Thing article” asks us to examine our own social networks and to recognize that nings are the online equivalent to these. (Other than my teaching connections, my running group would be my biggest social network or my face-to-face ning.)

Educational Uses. How can a teacher use a Ning social network? The NCTE article listed some great ideas which I think would be great ways to incorporate Nings into the school environment:

* Set up discussion forums based on literature circles, peer writing groups, different class periods, and so forth.
* Create groups based on student interests—book clubs, favorite genres, other content areas.
* Upload alternative book reports created as podcasts, videos, or photos.
* Ask students to write their reading logs or journals online, using their own personal blogs.
* Post information for students and their families in a shared space.

The advantages I can see of using a Ning over something like Facebook or MySpace is that as administrator you have control of removing any inappropriate or off-topic discussions but yet the group can establish their own forums and discussions and exercise creative scope. In one blog entry I read about about nings are being blocked in various school districts and a reader responded by suggesting using a Moodle which gives the teacher full control “over content, posts, and membership.” It is interesting that whatever new form of Web 2.0 technology is introduced in schools, examples of inappropriate usage seem to govern its removal from the toolkit of applications available for students to use. More reason for teachers to become more knowledgeable about Web 2.0 so they can introduce the correct ways to use technology and demonstrate ways it can be used to enhance and enrich the curriculum.

Final Thoughts. As for me, well I'm hooked on TeacherLibrarianNing and am checking it daily to learn more about my profession and to scaffold on the shared knowledge of my peers. I've taken the plunge into Social Networking...well I'm at least in the water up to my knees!

The Proskes

A marathon is like life with its ups and downs, but once you've done it you feel that you can do anything.

Voicethreads. Okay, here we go…I can do this…another amazing app brought to you by Joanne and her weekly Web 2.0 blog topic…first stop Commoncraft! Yikes, this time there’s no Commoncraft video – no Lee to explain things to me In Plain English.

Oh well, no worries, Joanne said just to explore VoiceThreads. Since I have absolutely no idea what Voicethreads is let’s start with the Wikipedia definition and see if we can learn more beyond the fact that it’s a multimedia sharing site. OMG, there’s no entry for VoiceThreads in Wikipedia. Well, that will probably soon be remedied by some enterprising soul, but not me…

Don’t panic. Richardson will probably explain what it is. What! No VoiceThreads in the index. This Web 2.0 tool must be something very new and exciting.

Curses! Joanne, you have me trained to rely on these sources and none of them helped me at all. Never mind, I’ll simply type in VoiceThreads under Google and voila – 16,000 entries later…just kidding…

Actually I used my newfound Reading on the internet” skills (good old Discussion topic #4 came in handy) to skim through some of the URL descriptions searching for key phrases to narrow down my search. As I synthesized my findings it began to become clear that VoiceThreads is a Web 2.0 multimedia application with definite uses in the classroom. Asking myself questions (like any good internet reader should) I wondered how this application could be useful to teachers. I just had to stop and quickly check out a few sites (to check for understanding) and ended up at Colette Cassinelli’s Voicethread 4 Education an amazingly useful wiki at http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com/ (Gotta love those wikis!)

Colette defined VoiceThreads in just the simple terms I needed as my first frame of reference:
In case you are unfamiliar with what we are talking about - a VoiceThread is an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. A VoiceThread allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world.

Probably going on and exploring her wiki in depth wasn’t the most logical move but I figured until I have an inkling on how I’m possibly going to use this application why bother fully learning how to use it. I remember reading somewhere that teachers shouldn’t get too excited and caught up in the thrill of designing projects to fit the technology, that we should always remain cognizant of how we can make the new technology work meet our instructional needs…that’s my reasoning, in any case.

Colette’s wonderful site is an example of using a wiki to catalogue and collect information which I bookmarked for future reference. It features a collection of practical examples and ideas for educators. Some possible uses for VoiceThreads included: use for debates, creative or digital storytelling with the tag team wrestling approach with students listening to the story and then adding on their bit and then passing on the story to others in the class, collaborating with others on projects, language labs with students repeating and responding to voice examples, field trip scrapbooks, art gallery sessions, use as a class prewriting strategy (like a web), making and sharing prereading predictions about a novel, writing and sharing poetry, recording oral histories, sharing ways to solve math problems, creating tours of the school, recording interviews on a cell phone and then downloading.

A couple of ideas which did not personally appeal to me was using VoiceThreads as an assessment tool with the teacher’s comments on little Johnny’s project recorded to be shared with parents (no way, Jose, that’s a setup for a nasty phone call) or using it as a way for others to critique classmate’s artwork. I think that it takes a lot of maturity and guidance for students to critique – period – never mind having their comments available to be played over and over and dissected. Go ahead and quote “use in assessment” if you were trying to get funding for VoiceThreads but I would be cautious in its use for this purpose. I also noticed that other suggestions for using VoiceThread’s uses were connected to other Web 2.0 applications such as embedding into Google Earth (lost me on this one!) and Gabcast (something I have never heard of before but could possibly have saved me hours of time producing a podcast I now discover from checking out its website).

With an idea about its uses in mind I headed to the official VoiceThreads site (hit #1) to check out what it offered.

Much, much later…

Wow! I’ve spent some serious time exploring this website and checking the tutorials, reading the FAQs, listening to sample VoiceThreads the help area (always useful to anticipate problems before they occur. Some interesting thoughts that occurred to me during this whole process:

1. I have all the tools I need, ready to go in my MacBook Pro laptop and I could do this today.
2. What an amazing tool to use in the library (or a classroom) and it would appear I can connect it to my Library website – ahhh the possibilities for book reviews, library tours, FAQ sessions, instructional how-to’s…
3. I can use VoiceThreads with my new school laptop to demo information technology I want to teach or replay VoiceThreads I have made or collected from other sources, I can circle URLs and walk students through an internet lesson so easily, once I’ve got the hang of this application.
4. This could be even more fun than a wiki!
5. The information students put on the VoiceThread account is safely stored and can be retrieved from an archive.
6. The moderation feature lets you share student work in a new forum.
7. Man, this is a neat application. There are so many subject areas where it can be used – ESL, Language Arts, French, Math, Socials, Science…
8. Voicethreads can be used for collaborative purposes and even allow connections to classrooms in another area of the world.
9. No more messy collecting of email accounts to get students involved.
10. Wait! Does it cost money to join? It says $1 a student a year, then $10 a month. What is it free? I’m confused.

Okay, I’ve spent all this time exploring the ins and outs of something, which I thought involved an expensive sign-up fee and now it would appear it is free to educators and I could have been taking a more practical approach and learning how to use it. Stupid…stupid…stupid…I've emailed my request to join VoiceThreads but no answer is returned so it must be caught in my school email SPAM filter. I’ve fired off an email to retrieve it on Monday and then will continue to explore VoiceThreads.

On a more personal note, learning VoiceThreads would be a wonderful incentive for me to explore the Webcam on my new laptop. Yesterday we organized getting a laptop with a Webcam feature for my father to from his hospital room. I am very motivated to figure out this new application so that I can communicate with him on a daily basis. I shall post my Voicethread effort once I can get myself officially registered as a user. Stay tuned…

My Watchmen wiki is all done! This time I learned how to establish links between pages, manipulate the placement of images and now feel very comfortable with this Web 2.0 app. It's at www.Watchmen.wikispaces.com

"I always loved running...it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power.

... You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs." - Jesse Owens


Wikis! "At last we visit a 2.0 tool that I know about," said she so innocently. However, as you read on, you will see that this week I have gained even further insights into wikis and the ways they may be used in education or for social purposes. Wikis have many possiblities - you can go in any direction with them - and as fast or as slow as you want! There is always some new sight to discover.

Several weeks back I decided to create a wiki about Maus as a visual presentation for my graphic novel course. Since we hadn’t explored wikis yet, I readthe chapter on wikis in Richardson’s Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms and decided upon his recommendation of Wikispaces for educators. After watching The Commoncraft Show’s Wikis in Plain English, exploring examples of wikis, completing the Wikispaces tutorials and doing a little planning on paper, I was ready to build my wiki.

Although I was very nervous to start, I found the wiki surprisingly easy to create and I was soon able to use a logo, embed videos, add clipart, establish links, change fonts, and play with background colours. I soon felt quite comfortable with Wikispaces and its features and loved the freedom to have some artistic input into its design. This is not to say that I didn’t run into snags along the way. One problem that took me hours to try and fix was the correct order of the pages on my menu bar. Although I couldn’t find any assistance from the help section or accompanying help questions, I’ve since learned that one can rename page titles using A, B, C or 1, 2, 3 as a preface to achieve the desired order. I was very pleased with the end results and decided that a wiki is great way to share information with other group members, especially when video, audio or images are part of the format.

I hope you will find time to visit Maus for a quick snoop at my efforts. You may notice that the comments pages on my Maus wiki weren’t accessed as my classmates had to respond on the Web CT site instead, so this wiki didn’t develop into a true Read/Write experience with everyone collaborating. I am presently creating a second wiki using PBWiki with two classmates as a presentation for our curriculum class on the Teacher as a Change Agent will use a more collaborative approach both in its design and function. One gal set up the wiki, and after some initial hassle getting started (my account password kept going to my School Board’s spam folder), we were up and running. The three of us have been able to add content, edit and create our presentation long distance, an interesting alternative to emailing or calling back and forth. Each edit is saved and reported in an email to group members (a strikeout format is used) so other members can easily see what has been changed, a feature I love! I have found that PBWiki is also very user-friendly and our only concern is that we are having some glitches with spacing between notes being saved properly. When the presentation is complete, we will give full access to the wiki so that comments may be collected and the collaborative dimension of wikis may be utilized. I am also creating another wiki for my graphics novels course on Watchmen, partly so I can revisit wiki creation and strengthen my skills.

Just to further expound on the Read/Write potential of wikis, it is interesting that Richardson encourages teachers to teach Wikipedia to students and quotes Steve Jobs (Apple CEO) as calling “Wikipedia one of the world’s most accurate encyclopedias”. This is certainly the opposite of what I had been taught in Internet workshops. Last year I also remember reading a newspaper article where the founder of Wikipedia, Ward Cunningham, questioned authority as he mentioned that he found errors in his own Wikipedia biography. I have always cautioned my high school students against relying solely on Wikipedia and encouraged them to verify its comments with additional sources. Since Richardson raves about this online encyclopedia, I have felt more confident using it for research answers. I am finding it to be a quick useful reference and consults with other sources have proven its information accurate (so far). I have definitely changed my “snobbish” attitude towards Wikipedia, and am now using it on a daily basis.

In this week’s Trailfire I explored every listing, wanting to learn as much as I could about the potentials of wikis. I love the useful bank of Web 2.0 tools which Tracy Poelzer has created at Wonderful Web 2.0. I decided to explore one of her links to WetPaint, a wiki program which looks quite easy to use. I liked the little tutorial created my Lee Lefever ( I recognize his voice now) which illustrates how a wiki can also be used as a social application to bring together people with similar interests as a “a potluck dinner on the web”. Wikis are great ways to create albums, plan events, and celebrate key family moments with relatives near and far.

Joyce Valenza’sTeacherlibrarian wiki is wikis within wikis and a very comprehensive resource. I followed the links to the Teach Library which was an example of how a wiki may be used as a way of collecting and storing resources (such as lesson plans) which could be added to by others. This illustrated how a well-constructed wiki can make a teacher librarian’s life so much easier by use a completed lesson or adapting it to fit needs. It occurred to me that I could even post my Maus wiki here. After I make a few changes, I think I'll do this.

Web Tools4U2Use (which I visited last week during an exploration of virtual schools) also posted an impressive list of wiki sites to explore. As we explore each Web 2.0 tool, I find their corresponding lists of uses especially useful. Reading through the wiki uses, I found a few ideas which I could easily see myself using such as creating a library media website, publishing slideshows, organizing subject-based resources, providing a forum for book reviews, promoting new books, creating pathfinders, creating temporary class collaborative projects or using a wiki as a launch for library slideshows, presentations and links used with information literacy instruction.

In A Wiki Gives a Worthy Book New Life Amy Bowllan wonders why people don’t use wikis to share lessons online. Although I agree with her concept of using a wiki to collect lesson plans, I was not impressed by her example. The wiki she had created to accompany a novel study came across like a worksheet, just in a different format with pictures and some vocabulary links. When I explored the site I couldn’t see any collaboration by students, a big component that helps a wiki achieve its fullest potential.

It’s hard to remember what was on the Trailfire and what wasn’t because I happily meandered off the path a number of times. One little serendipitous jewel I found was
Spice it up a notch with Nutmeg! a book award program from Connecticut. Our District Teacher librarian is trying to talk me into setting up a site like this for our Langley Book of the Year elementary school book promotion program (LBOY). We’ve been considering using a blog format but I rather prefer the idea where students may be added to the wiki (through email confirmation) and can work on the LBOY wiki site as a collaborative project adding opinions, ideas, pictures - anything related to the books. If I created it as a blog, the project would be more teacher-centered and getting the students involved in a wiki would give them greater ownership in the project as well as help them to develop their facility with Web 2.0 tools and learn wiki etiquette. I forwarded our District Teacher librarian a copy of the wiki and we may work to create one together - with me teaching her how!

The Cool Cat Teacher Blog (Flat classroom project) is a very impressive site. Vicki Davis’ good organizational suggestion of putting assignments in same place every time on an organizational wiki – like parking the car in a garage - make sense. In her article How I Use Wikis, Vicki says she places all her classroom work into wikis. I especially liked how she has the students create collaborative notes and I can see that this would be especially useful for students who needed extra support or have forgotten work at school and can access this schoolwork from home. Although I feel fairly confident about creating wikis and now have ideas on their uses, the logistics of getting teachers and students involved was a concern to me. Tom Harrison (Part 1) asked this very question and Vicki nicely answered him. Her practical advice is to start small and simple with one class and then to use your ID to set up for students en masse (visiting Wikispaces tells you how to do this). In Part 2 of this conversation Vicki talks about setting up a wiki with students and letting the students have “wiki wars” with straight text no pictures where they learn to remove and insert for practice. I could just see this happening! Vicki really knows all about her subject because this would allow the students to explore random deleting firsthand and clearly illustrate the need for wiki etiquette where you don’t remove things deliberately.

In Part 3 Tom talks to Vicki about how he feels so far behind the curve and overwhelmed by the technology and pace of change. This is very much the way I have been feeling throughout the course, for even when I master one new Web 2.0 skill, there are so many different aspects to its applications or different versions to explore which offer additional features. Vicki, a true technology mentor, reassures him (and me) that “the teachers who are stretching and evolving, changing and improving are the WINNERS!” “We're blazing the trails that other teachers will follow later on.” I can certainly see myself blazing trails in the library with wikis!

To truly enjoy running, you must test yourself. If you win, fine. If you lose, this gives you the incentive to keep trying.

...you have to train a bit harder, and you have to come back again and again. That is the joy. - Ron Clarke

I recently entered a half marathon race (that's 13.1 miles or 21 km) and had the amazing satisfaction of setting a personal best of 1:54 and coming second in my age category (don't ask which one).

I thought this would be a great opportunity to practice adding a photo to my Blog because it's been a while since I've tried this. I'm finding with technology that the more times I revisit something, the easier and easier it becomes to complete the task. It also frees you up to explore the other options and features of the 2.0 tool you are trying to master.

The difference between a jogger and a runner is an entry blank." - Dr. George Sheehan

Frankly, when I embarked on this inquiry project, I wasn’t really sure what the difference was between a virtual school library and a database collection. Wikipedia's entry didn't offer much enlightenment only defining virtual schools as “an institution that teaches courses entirely or primarily through online methods”. Wikipedia did, however, provide a link to a list of virtual schools. Canada has five; with four in Ontario and the Abbotsford Virtual School in nearby Abbotsford, BC. I visited the school's website to learn more about the organization of a virtual school and try to find out what their library was like without success, so I emailed some questions to their vice-principal, Mary Strobe. She reported that they have no centralized virtual school library but do have plans to set one up in the future. Meanwhile coursework and necessary online resources are made available on a course-by-course basis. Strobe writes that they have “just signed a district-wide licensing agreement with EBSCO Host and access to that service will be our first step in providing school-wide access to library and research resources.” So now I know that you can have a virtual school without a virtual school library.

Still searching for virtual school libraries, I came across a research proposal by Jane Scharankov which explained that the webpage presence of school libraries may be defined as virtual school libraries. This brief proposal included a list of evaluation criteria to use in examining school library websites - a beginning reference point for my investigations. In my search for other criterion sheets I found What Should Be on a School Library Web Page By Donna Baumbach, Sally Brewer, and Matt Renfroe. This article was manna from heaven! It included an introduction, an explanation on what essential elements are needed in an effective school library web page such as:

• Online catalogs for not only your school library but also other libraries your students might use
• Reference resources and assistance
• Curriculum connections
• Literacy connections
• General information about your library

This article included a checklist page for general information, links, announcements and miscellaneous items plus references and a list of useful web sites for planning and maintaining School Library web pages. Practical planning tools, design tips, use of blogs, and a link to Kathy Schrock’s useful guide Separating the Wheat from the Chaff: How to Tell the Good Web Sites from the Bad were all included.

Armed with this new knowledge and criterion about virtual school libraries it was time to explore and evaluate a number of BC secondary school libraries. Sadly most fell short of the mark. In Surrey, I discovered that large Queen Elizabeth Secondary’s library web page could only be accessed from inside the school and that Earl Marriott Secondary shows only the library staff's names with databases available only from inside the school. Vancouver’s large John Oliver Secondary sports a long list of resources under sorted under headings like: Biography, Community Resources, Atlases and Maps, News Index, Encyclopedias. Unfortunately none of these are hyper-linked so it isn’t clear how a student is supposed to connect to them. Burnaby’s Alpha Secondary has an extensive list of subject links on its webpage and has catalogue access. It does not offer much in the way of support to students. Several of the topic bars are not constructed and the parent page about literacy contains a spelling error. Oops! I would say that the best (no pun intended) BC school library website I examined was at Dr. Charles Best Secondary. Teacher librarian Judith Comfort has done an amazing job (does she sleep?) of gathering resources to help students such as her Authority tool guide, Citation Machine link and links to teacher assignments (no more “I left it in my locker!”).

Next I found an amazing link to a webquest/slideshow created by Joyce Valenza called Open the Door, Let ‘Em In: Virtual School Libraries. For years I have been thinking about creating a library web presence and once I moved to a secondary school library I realized an even greater need for such an online presence. I have been collecting ideas, website links and firing them into a file waiting for the day when I would be technologically adept enough to created and maintain a website. It has been on my major “to do list” for some time now. I went through Valenza’s slideshow (220 frames long) which deals with all the various elements which could be featured in a virtual school library. I began to see that it was just as well that I hadn’t started on my project because Valenza brought a whole different flavour to the approach of creating a school virtual library site. She emphasized the involvement of the students and encouraged tapping into the 2.0 tools of the Read/Write web. Two of her comments which extended my critical thinking about this issue of virtual library development were:

“Students who collaborate and participate in building spaces, both physical and virtual, are likely to be more comfortable living in them” (Slide 13)
“How do libraries and librarians remain relevant to learners who work independently?" (Slide 23)

I know that this week's task was to explore virtual school libraries to see the potential of using Web 2.0 tools, and I can now really appreciate the relevancy of this after viewing Valenza’s slideshow. I am now quite excited about the prospect of creating a webpage presence for my own secondary school library. I am hoping that in our next course in January there may be an opportunity to design something practical like this to incorporate all our learning and exploring. I can see the importance of involving students in a “if they help you build it, they will come” approach in order to maximize its effectiveness. The library, with its virtual presence, provides many extended opportunities to enhance and promote student learning.
Valenza’s slideshow was am amazing collection of examples – a best of the best – taken from virtual school libraries across Canada and the US (and Charles Best is included several times). Teacher librarians had included an impressive array of tools in a one-stop-shopping style, readily available on their web pages for student use. It was clear to see that the library web page may be used to support curriculum, subject research, recreational reading and staff needs and may also be developed into a teaching tool with the addition of video tutorials and links to manuals and guides. Long after the lights have been turned off and the teacher librarian has left for the day, the students are able to continue using the library resources, through data base access, connections to the OPAC and a myriad of helpful tools available to help them complete their assignments.


Some inspiring ideas taken from Valenza’s collection of school library websites: Our Library’s Del.icio.us, pie graphs of circulation stats, policies on plagiarism, notetaking forms, guides for report and essay writing, Pathfinders for library research assignments, schedules, calendars, Pageflakes or iGoogle mainframes, database links, eBooks, audiobooks, online encyclopedias, reference, video tutorials, music, free open source and web-based apps, citation tools with examples, orientation videos, online research help guides and various ways of “using technology to promote books – not replace them”. Valenza’s site also showcases opportunities for additional student collaboration such as reading blogs, placing holds for resources, polls, suggestions for purchase/wish lists, student book reviews either in written, video or podcast form, celebrating student work (pottery was showcased with photos), displaying Lounge Lizard of the Week (students who frequent the library), showcasing student activities, research projects, clubs, social responsibility and other related library activities. I have bookmarked Valenza’s slideshow and will definitely be revisiting it as well as the Baumbach article when I am ready to begin seriously designing my own website. I hope to one day live up to Valenza’s closing remarks about the service teacher librarians should provide: “Be accused of aggressive helpfulness.”

I decided to return to the Dr. Charles Best School Library website to check it for examples of student input or collaboration. In the section called “Read”, I couldn’t find any student-generated input into this library webpage. There is an invitation to write reviews but no student examples were posted. The blog listings are also simply connections to author maintained blogs and the “Send us a note” link did not work. Exploring ways to make this virtual library site more student-centered would be a suggestion for future development.

In No Librarians Left Behind: Preparing for Next-Generation Libraries Stephen Abram writes of the many virtual opportunities for libraries of the future. Collaborative Digital Reference Services such as live-chat homework help, web-based Q & As, virtual reference desk and book-related tools such as eBook management systems which can be integrated with OPACs or Cliff’s Notes which may be purchased by schools and delivered by email. Steve believes that “the gauntlet has been thrown down for librarianship.” He encourages us to "use the technology, use our professional skills, learn from others, and we will be so stupendously successful that the world will beat a path to our (virtual) door!”

P.S. I'd like to mention that this week I challenged myself to create my blog by taking notes directly on the computer and forgoing paper and pen. The entire process felt a bit strange but but soon I was feeling more comfortable with the process. I have also checked all links to ensure they work - something I assumed would happen in past entries but was not always so. There's my oops!

"Good things come slowly - especially in distance running." -Bill Dellinger, Oregon Track Coach

What a week it has been! If I thought creating a blog was scary, the podcast adventure was doubly so! This has been a very slow process, with much time spent exploring and experimenting before I finally felt confident enough to begin. Just ask my family about the time I've invested - they've been independently grazing from the fridge because Mom sure hasn't had time to cook dinner. Thank goodness my girlfriend took pity on me and invited us over for turkey dinner. But it feels like I've turned a real corner and am becoming more comfortable (and fearless) about interacting with and moving between a variety of applications.


I've managed to use Garage Band to create my podcast, and even imported a track from my iTunes and a photo from my iPhoto album. I played about with moving the tracks about and learned all about ducking and using a mixer. I am truly amazed that I did all this by myself following instructions from our Richardson text and online resources. My son had used Garage Band a bit but was absolutely no help at all when I had questions so I am feeling pretty smug that I can now create things he can't using this very intuitive program. Although I downloaded Audacity, I discovered it had overwhelmingly more features than I needed and Garage Band worked just fine for my first simple effort at podcast production.

Richardson's textbook, the course Trailfire, and "Podcasting: In Plain English" again set the stage for defining podcasts and explaining the basics. Richardson's explained what technology was needed and fortunately my MacBook Pro had the necessary features. The Podcasting For Teachers and Students handout by Tony Vincent which one of our group recommended was also a fabulous resource which nicely explained podcasting using Audacity. This week I also focussed on searching for additional practical "how to podcast" support sites and was amazed by the wealth of resources available to assist the real beginner.

I found a great website called Video Jug where questions are answered by experts and watched four videos by Danny Kelly, a professional podcaster for the London Times. He pointed out many of the advantages of podcasting such as listening whenever you want, being able to subscribe to podcasts in any genre you like and being able to retrieve and listen to programs you have missed. He listed tips on creating podcasts, although he didn't explore the "how to" aspect. In response to a question about the future of podcasts, Kelly feels that podcasts are one of the most important new facets of 2.0 and feels that they are "leading a revolution in entertainment" because of the flexibility of the medium. He also mentioned that while the vast majority of podcasts are free, some professional podcasts are available for a nominal fee. I discovered from the iTunes podcast site that the podcasts they list are also available for free - something I plan to take advantage of. I had mistakenly assumed one paid for podcast access so this was surprising to learn. From this site I linked to Stewart Headlam's How to Make a Podcast - Part 1 and 2 which proved the most useful nugget of "how to actually create a podcast" on the web. Headlam walks his audience through the steps of producing the podcast using screencasting to illustrate using either a PC and Mac with Garage Band. I highly recommend this resource but my only wish is for another installment to deal with the post-production and publishing stages. This last part of the process gave me the most difficulty and it took me hours of experimenting and referring to help sites to finally get the podcast saved. After unsuccessfully using OurMedia.org recommended by Richardson, I turned back to Tony Vincent's booklet for help. I finally was able to use Archive.org to upload my MP3 version of the podcast but somehow, in the process I lost my photo and the first few seconds of my podcast. At this point, I was so exhausted, that I could do no more. However, I think that I'd like to try this process once more to really see if I could streamline it and feel more comfortable with the steps. Each time I do a blog post it becomes easier and so it should be with podcasts too. It is important that I master this technology with greater fluency if I am to help students and colleagues learn how to use it.

The other extremely useful site I discovered was Web Tools 4U2 Use which contained an impressive one-stop shopping list of links related to podcasting with particular application to school libraries. This linked me to a great iTunes tutorial where I learned about features of iTunes which will enable me to subscribe to podcasts and load them onto my iPod touch - something I've been wanting to explore for some time. I was amazed that this application will even stop the subscription if you haven't listened to it for while and allow you to easily restart it when you wish - so no monstrous lists of podcasts queued up to add to your stress. Another great link I found was Podcast Alley which was a fine example of a listing of podcasts with a search capability for looking by genre and topic. This week I've been so busy with this podcast that I haven't been able to subscribe or download podcasts for my listening pleasure but I will report in a future blog how this goes.

Web Tools 4U2 Use also featured an impressive list of podcast applications for school library use. I can certainly see using podcasts as a feature on my school library website to promote new resources, explain directions or to use as links to explain new resources to students - much like Headlam's video assisted me. For students with written output difficulties or reading difficulties podcasts offer great instructional alternatives. I also agree with Kelly's comments about the future potential of podcasts. The freedom to watch or listen to radio or TV programs when convenient holds appeal in our busy lives but it also has direct educational application. For example, History classes can watch PBS specials on WWII, literature classes can listen to author interviews and teachers can use commuting time to catch up on the latest professional development online journals. Richardson also mentions recording recitals, dissections, creating travel journals and creating pod-tours, all ideas I can easily connect to the medium of podcasts. In the classroom either a computer or one connected with an in-focus camera plus a good set of speakers, would enable all students to watch or listen to podcasts. No more booking video players and ordering AV tapes. Students could easily download podcasts to their cellphones or MP3 players to listen to or review at home. The best part is that podcasts are another medium for communicating with students on their level, using technology with which they are comfortable. And if students can connect with podcasts then the next step is to ensure that they have opportunities to create their own podcasts.

In the Webtools4u2Use site there was a great quote about podcasts which sums up this week's blog quite nicely: "We can learn from listening to podcasts, but many times we can learn more by creating them."