Thing #23 Summarize Your Thoughts about This Program

This is so NOT the end!



What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

Social networking in a variety of forms has been a real eye-opener for me! I especially am grateful for del.icio.us and the many fun tools on Big Huge Labs.


How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
I am more confident. I feel I can find the help I need out there for almost anything I need and I can also have a voice. I fully intend to continue my learning--after all web 3.0 is on the horizon!

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
The ways I can use this with my hobbies and family were an added bonus. Also I have begun developing "relationships" with folks all over the country! This I had not even considered before starting!


What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

With so many participating, perhaps form smaller groupings that could support each other through this. I saw many by visiting their blogs who left the experience early on. Could this perhaps have been due to the lack of contact with others who could empathize with the experience? I know I was often frustrated by the lack of comments on my blog entries. Also once I hit the brick wall with the podcast issue, I was totally flumuxed when I could get no live help. A little more involvement from the "leaders" of this course would be most helpful!


If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?

Yes. I understand there is more to learn! And having the learning mapped out and incremented for me is very helpful!


How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities?
This has been an eye and mind-opening experience!


Other Players' blogs?

Can't wait to see what others say!

Thing #15: Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the Future of Libraries

The quote from Marshall MacLuhan at the start of the video struck a chord in me. When I taught Mass Communication at the outset of my career in education, we read MacLuhan's book The Medium is the Message. My high school students and I explored this idea and worked at becoming more literate where the seduction, especially of advertising, was concerned. However dire MacLuhan's predictions were, they have come to pass and I remain hopeful that this Web 2.0 journey in which we are all engaged (even my 82-year-old mother who refuses to use the Internet, but is slowly embracing her cell phone!)will produce positive results. I have been excited to discover like-minded folks out there whose stories are compelling and uplifting. Through the tools, I have found ways to connect with family and friends in exciting ways that allow us to share images as well as text and do it quickly and efficiently. (As I prepare this post, my great-nephew and I are having a text-messaging conversation!)
As to the implications for my profession and more to the point for the students at my school, Although web 2.0 has been around for over 3 years, I feel that the library discussion has only just begun. We are so behind and we have to get up to speed and FAST! My library partner and I have a lot of work to do and only one year in which to prove ourselves! I am loving the "user-driven" aspects of Library 2.0. However, I found little, so far, saying how this is to be accomplished in elementary school libraries. Ours is indeed an "inner city" school whose students have limited access to the hardware and infrastructure we are using except through our school. Our state technology standards do not adequately address this--we as librarians need to take the lead and do it and show others how. That is at any rate our plan.
I have always believed that libraries need to be available at "point of need" and to this end, I have been available to my patrons through my lunch and planning times and both before and after school. But for us to accomplish integration of the Library 2.0 tools into our curriculum and practice, we will need to articulate, recruit collaborators (teachers, staff, students and parents), discuss, plan and adapt. Our elementary school library must become both the training and proving ground for our students and the larger community, providing the connections, the forums and the means!
MacLuhan was warning us with the following quote.
"...might not our current translation of our entire lives into the spiritual form of information seem to make of the entire globe, and of the human family, a single consciousness?"
I find it not a dire prediction, but a statement of hope that through world-wide connections, we can become a world community that values all life on the planet.
Now, I must attend to a smaller life on the planet, our cat "Chien" is begging for attention and a treat. I think I'll go reconnect with the furry reality!

Thing #14: Technorati and How Tags Work

I get tags and I think they are terrific! As a die-hard librarian, I have suffered with kids trying to get them to "think" intellectually about the things for which they are searching--to think how it should be listed in a catalog. Tags are more user-driven and will be MUCH easier for students (especially elementary) to use!
I regiestered my blog with technorati and also installed two of the widgets. One so that people can add my blog to their technorati favorites and the other to create a tag cloud.
I am getting more comments posted and am loving that! It is amazing to see who comments and what they have to say! I have a fellow scrapbooker from PA commenting on my web 2.0 blog! This is too much fun!