Thing # 11.5

Yeah-made it in the nick of time (barely)

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
Two that stand out are hulu and skype. I know that hulu is not going to be available in the district this year, however I am ready to try skype. I also liked the screencast.

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
I am always looking for new tools and with technology I will never know them all. I think that is why this kind of learning is so fun.

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
None-you picked excellent ones again.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
I would like to have some sort of idea sharing of how you are using each tool. Maybe a wiki of ideas or suggestions on how you use bookr(example) in the library. Otherwise, great job again and thanks for all your hard work.

Thing # 11

The internet is a powerful teaching tool when used correctly. As educators, we want our students to be prepared for the future. We provide students access to the web, but we must also provide them with the tools to use it responsibility. Digital Citizenship is a huge responsibility to teach. However, I believe as the librarian, I have the opportunity to model and discuss the appropriate behaviors in regard to technology.
The articles were helful in reminding me to make a mental note of things to touch on this year.
There are a couple of things I will focus on when teaching Digital Citizenship. One of those is digital etiquette. Our job is to teach students and teachers to become responsible citizens when accessing the web. I want to discuss both appropriate and inappropriate behaviors when using the computers. We as educators need to set a good example of this. Another subject that middle school students encounter is cyberbullying. Addressing how students feel and staying safe is the key. I think we do a good job of talking to students in the early years about strangers and staying safe, but now we have to discuss self protection on the web. It is sad but true.

Thing # 10

Second Life is a 3D virtual world where users can interact with one another and explore places all over the world. I have an account and have tried to explore this technology, but I'm not interested. I don't want "virtual friends". I see many educational opportunities, however, with the age restriction being 18, I feel that it is just a teacher doing all the work and the students would only have the chance to watch. Maybe an introduction down in middle school and then the students would be able to use the TeenSecondLife in high school. I don't know.

Thing # 9

What a great place to see presentations. Slideshare and Slideboom were new to me. I found numerous educational projects already made and easily available to use. I spent my time searching topics that our teachers taught last year. Many of the powerpoints were very impressive. I liked that you could see how many people have viewed the presentation and their comments. The tags made it easier to navigate and find the topics I was looking for. I will share this one with the teachers as another resource to use. I also think that students could have a safe place to store their presentations. I love that it's free.

Thing #8

Screencasts are really fun to do. I have done these in the past during my library science classes. For some reason I can't get mine to work today. I used GOView.com. I like how simplistic it was for me to navigate. I didn't practice and when I get it loaded, you will see just that. However, I plan to use it this year in the library for teaching students how to navigate around our blog or delicious account. My screencast was done one the school delicious page so that teachers and students could remember what to do next. Hope to get this one posted soon. It's crunch time and I have to move on to the next thing now.