Thing 16

Wikis are an interesting concept to me. I can see using them professionally with committee meetings, book studies, or when doing collaborative work with other teachers or librarians. I am not sure how I would use wikis with my elementary students basically because it goes back to having only 2 student computers in each classroom and only 13 student computers in the library. I very much like Meredith Farkas' article Using Wikis to Create Online Communities. She mirrored my thoughts with the following: "It can be difficult for people to get used to the idea of a website that anyone is allowed to add to or edit. The notion of private property is so deeply embedded in our society that it’s difficult to imagine going onto someone else’s website and changing things, even when they want us to. We’re accustomed to websites where someone is the final arbiter on what can or cannot go into it. With a wiki, everyone is the final arbiter. If I don’t like what someone put into the wiki, I can change it. And if someone don’t like what I wrote, they can make their own changes." I do realize that you can make the wiki not open for all to edit, but I feel that defeats the purpose of the wiki. At home I plan to look at the Library Success Wiki because that site is blocked here at school.

Thing 15`

Lots to digest today! I am in total agreement that the web has changed dramatically from several years ago and has gone from a closed system to an open, shared network space that encourages user participation and collective thoughts. My favorite perspective about Web 2.0 came from Rick Anderson's Away from the "icebergs" http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/2.htm because I could more easily see my elementary school library through his thoughts rather than the others. The biggest obstacles now seem to be the reality of the school system with lack of student computers, lack of personnel, etc. etc. As much as I dislike having to agree with his thoughts on the "just in case" collection, I do see his perspective. The reasons I dislike this goes back to student computer availability and checking the authenticity of the sites the students use. I also liked David Warlick's 2 cents worth http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?s=Library+2.0 enough to tag it on my del.icio.us site.

Thing 14

I did not watch either video because it took waaaay too long for them to download. So, instead I read the FAQ page, which was very informative. I felt that Technorati could be useful for those that are a bit more tech savvy than me. My initial reaction is that it offers way too much information and I found it very time consuming to find anything relevant. I did several key word searches and the information that came back was a bit disappointing. However, it could be I did not input the information correctly in the search box. For the author I was searching I put quotation marks around her first and last name. In the first 5 results that popped up, only 2 were about the author. So, maybe quotation marks shouldn't be used here! For those that have the time, this site would be very useful since it indexes live web and blogs as well as sends pings if you add that feature. I chose not to claim a blog at this moment. I do not feel at this time that this site would be useful to me. However, I will save the address and in the future this may be one of those sites I can't live without!

Thing 13

I like using del.icio.us for my professional and personal use. It is very straightforward and easy to use. I like the list of tags and have decided that the fewer, more precise tags I put for each site, the better. I think I may have to add the buttons again on my home and my school computers since the computer I am working on now is not one that I usually use. I do like that once those buttons are added, I can get to my bookmarks from other computers which will allow me to work from home if necessary. I also really like being able to see my friend's bookmarks. However, I am not sure yet how to have the students use del.icio.us for their research. Again, as with other tools, I can see it being used with high school students more than with my elementary students. But, I may be underestimating my students' searching abilities.

Thing 12--part 3

The first blog I found on Google blog search was about the Grand Canyon and Sedona, which I will be visiting soon. It was neat seeing the beautiful pictures they took and posted.
http://ferventnomad.blogspot.com/2008/06/voyage-home-grand-canyon-part-5.html

The second blog I commented on, also found on Google blog search, was about the Cedar Rapids, Iowa flood. I have a very good friend who lives in Cedar Rapids and fortunately neither her family nor her extended family were negatively affected by the flood. However, like everyone else in town, they know several people who have lost everything. The blog I responded to was about a business that was lost and the secretary of that business that lost her home and everything in it. http://thetroupetheatre.blogspot.com/2008/06/prayer-request-update-on-heuer.html

Thing 12--part 2

I have now commented to 5 summer players' blogs. I skipped over several blogs because their blogs are too short to comment about or I couldn't reply with anything meaningful. The most difficult thing about commenting was find a blog that I could actually make meaningful comments about! The easiest part was making a comment once I found a blog I could relate to. Now I need to find blogs outside of the library2 site to post comments on.

Thing 12-part 1

After reading most of the comments about commenting--some were blocked on my current computer here at school--I feel the two most important to keep in mind were making the comments relevant and teaching students how to comment. I realized that phrases such as "I agree", or "great job" were not comments that were appreciated by most so I need to comment with more depth. I also really agreed with teaching students how to comment before allowing them to blog and reminding them that words can hurt and that they must be careful when posting comments. This is most recently evident by the Eagles' Read blog that is now down due to hurtful student comments.