Thing #18 YouTube

I chose the Funny Commercial about a blond in the library to post to my blog. I thought it was funny but also liked the verses about wisdom that followed it. I'm going to try embedding the link to the video in this post. Hopefully it works!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APWVP459BK0

I may have to try this again. I couldn't find the "code" that the instructions were talking about, just the link to the video.

Thing #17 ELM Productivity Tools

I was surprised by the things you can do with these databases. The search alert feature can save time and keep a person up to date on certain topics. I think I could benefit from emails of articles related to school libraries. People could use this as a time efficient way to develop professionally. The Page Composer in Ebsco makes creating a web page really easy. This could be used for class projects or introducing students or teachers to making a web page. The buttons on the left side of the screen are clear enough for even the less tech savvy people. Netlibrary's feature of taking notes in an e-book is useful, if you prefer to do things electronically. I think it's a good idea, but if people don't make a habit of using Netlibrary, it would be easy to forget about the notes you took. Proquest's My Research tab is great for collaborating and sharing articles with fellow teachers. Of all the tools I learned about with this activity, I liked the search alert the best because it can save me time and keep me informed.

#16 Student 2.0 Tools

I love it when I find a resource that I can use right away! The Research Project Calculator has great tips and handouts for guiding students through the research process. I am helping a teacher with a research unit that starts next week and we are going to use the Big6 skills to guide the research process. But the basic steps and resources are similar so I may use some of these handouts. It helps to have instructional tips as well. As far as teacher resources, I think the RPC has a lot to offer. For students, this tool helps to give structure to their project. The links under each step are quick ways for students to get answers to questions they may have. It can give students more independence.

#15 Online Games and Libraries

I took a look at Second Life. Although my computer was slow with navigating the site, I got a good idea of what it's like in that world. It reminds me a little of a SIMS City game. It's neat that it parallels real life in many ways with real estate, the economy and entertainment. For students who haven't been able to experience many of these things yet, I can see how this would be very appealing. Second Life could also be used by Social Studies classes to teach economy concepts. The only thing I can think of for a library connection in my school would be an after school club for students to hang out and discuss/go on Second Life.

#14 Library Thing

My link to Library Thing is http://www.librarything.com/home/lcoddingtonnjh
I had a great time exploring this site. It's a little cumbersome at first learning how it works. But it's very easy to search for and add books. I love it that there are free book covers available too! After creating a small library I looked at how many other people selected those books. I was surprised by the range. The Angel Experiment had 1264 other members and Silverfin only had 11. It's fun to read other member's reviews, look at similar books to my selections and see the tags associated with those books. This site has great potential for use in my library with my students. I could create a library just for my school and have students view it for recommended reads.

Thing # 13: Online Productivity Tools

I chose to set up a start page with iGoogle. It was really easy to select the things I wanted. There are tons of choices! Who knew I could even have Cooking Light recipes posted for me daily? I like iGoogle because it's easy and because I already have a few other Google accounts so it'e easier to streamline things. I haven't decided yet if I will make it my homepage. This could be something that teachers would enjoy trying. I could show them how this works. I like the online calendar although I still would rely on my written planner (old fashioned but reliable!). It's hard to always have access to a computer when I need to get to a calendar. The To Do list sites are similar to the calendar. For me, I may not want to tie myself to a computer.

I think there are definite uses for students. They could use help with organizing and the Calendar and To Do lists would be good for them. But at the same time, many students at my school don't have computers at home so this may not be great for them.

Overall, these tools are great, but take time to set up and have to become part of your daily routine to make them worth it.

Thing #12 Do you Digg?

I think these news article sharing sites could be used in my school through social studies classes. Quite often they use current event articles in class and maybe they could create an assignment that involves one of these sharing sites. For the junior high student I don't think Digg and Mixx and the other sites are really going to be used a lot. I think they'd find it interesting, but reading news articles just isn't really a common hobby for that age group! Also, it's very easy to get side-tracked by articles that don't really have importance to what you were looking for. This could be a drawback for use in the classroom. Personally, I found the concept interesting and I can see why it's popular. But it kind of reminds me of Google Reader where I can get the latest posts from blogs in one place.