More Reflections....

One of the best parts was getting to know my colleagues better by reading their blogs, discovering common interests in cooking, art, and traveling, etc. I was struck by the creativity and professionalism I saw on some of the blogs posted by HEB librarians; I was also humbled by it. I discovered that you can learn a great deal from reading blogs. You Tube was another great surprise--I knew very, very little about it and had only seen a few of its films/photos. It is quite a mixed bag of modern culture.

If I were to offer a suggestion for improvement, I would allow a bit more time for participants to complete the program. It was tough to get everything finished by the due date, since some lessons were multi-faceted and took additional time. Also, perhaps a follow up class could be designed which would build on the 23 Things, but give us additional practice and make every assignment library-related.

Yes, I would definitely choose to participate again. I got a great deal out of the experience.

Reflections on HEB23

First of all, my favorite discovery was that completing the program was not all that hard once I got started. At first I tried to make it more difficult than it truly was.

My second favorite discovery was podcasting and how very basic it is. It seemed very mysterious to me before, but now that I have a little bit better handle on it I would like to use it next year with sixth graders. There is a very computer savvy teacher here who works with sixth graders and I want to try getting the students to produce book reviews and podcast them.

I also enjoyed the image generators, especially bighugelabs.com/magazine. It was fun to "doctor" up digital photos.

The program has affected by lifelong learning by reinforcing how quickly technology leaves us all behind unless we actively chase after it! But, by running after it and jumping on the bus (so to speak) we will tend to stay abreast of our patrons. Libraries must do this to stay dynamic and viable.

NetLibrary & downloadable books

Wow! I set up my account and was instantly able to download a book! Read it online with ease. I have long been skeptical of ebooks and other printed materials viewed on a computer screen, but the ebook I read tonight on the stages of development that all teachers go through as they become "highly qualified" was great reading and I didn't have to leave my chair. I can see HEB using this for staff development.

World's Smallest Horse

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/podcasts/ac360/site/2010/04/24/cooper.podcast.friday.cnn.html

I like the diversity of choices available from You Tube. I found a plethora of ecclectic film clips. However, I didn't see much organization or order to the site. I think this video of the tiny horse could be used to introduce a book about horses, such as Gabriel's Horse. In addition to students seeing the podcast in the library, by putting it on a library webpage a student could share the film footage with his/her family.

Awards List

Okay, I selected Mashable--the Social Media Guide--as the site of my exploration. I learned that European travelers stranded during the recent volcanic eruptions used Twitter and Twitter keywords to funnel information to one another. Apparently, since travelers were getting little--if any information from the European airlines, they took matters into their own hands. Using their Twitter accounts and the keyword "#ashcloud," they used sources outside the airlines to find out about the volcano's behavior, cancelled flights, available hotels, and rescheduled flights. It caught on to the point that the European air carriers eventually started using Twitter to get info to their clients.

Technology's children are really remaking the rules today!

ZOHO Writer

Although it appears that this entity was created with businesses in mind, I found it very easy to set up an account, make new folders, create documents that can easily be revised, and just generally start using Zoho. Being able to share documents online and collaborate in real time could be useful when getting input from teachers about what books to order. Every teacher on a particular grade level could send in additional titles or remove titles. The list could then be shared with administrators. The other advantage of Zoho is not having to buy or download additional programs since it is web-based.

Cult of digital narcissism?? amateurism and WIKI's

I like the way Web 2.0 can be used to encourage patron feedback and participation. Here I would love to set a WIKI, where students could post their reviews of books, or have discussions about books. Likewise, they could suggest new books to purchase for the library.

In the future, I can see myself planning lessons with teachers via a WIKI page.

Libraries as "convocations of people"

The Web 2.0 movement seems chiefly to be about meshing the services we offer with the daily patterns of our users. One writer issued a call for libraries to become increasingly "user-centric." I like that term; I think that it is far easier to sit and blog about how things ought to be than to actually change one's way of doing things, to figure how to implement new practices without creating chaos and with minimal stress to the patron. Michael Stephens made a good point about librarians needing to be trendspotters, who search out new information and new technologies and anticipate how these will impact users. It is implied that trendspotting librarians would go one step further and generate plans for dealing with changes long before they actually arrive.