ELM...New Tools for You! (Thing 17)

ELM (Electronic Library for Minnesota) breaks down barriers to information thanks to funding from our Minnesota legislators.

Balancing the wide-open free web with the invisibility of databases is the challenge with students. And, I imagine it is a challenge with high school students and even college students as much as it is a challenge with their introduction to them in junior high - perhaps in different ways.

Meshing together what is great in Web 2.0 with the productivity of database research, makes them more relevant to research in this era. And while I don't see a significant change to working with my beginning researchers, I can see myself taking advantage of these resources and helping teachers utilize them.



RSS Heaven
in just about all these databases...
Keeping up with current issues is a constant challenge, and RSS tools are up to this challenge. The RSS feeds and readers are one of my favorite Web 2.0 tools and search results feeding into my RSS reader are capeable of keeping me on the information edge with what is relevant with carefully crafted searches. More than tracking my personal interests, I can track the interests of colleagues to provide them with up to date inforamtion that they may not find the time to locate themselves.

One of the best things is the ability to gather results from multiple databases into one location through an RSS reader. I find this to be much more useful than creating the personal research homepages within individual databases.

Personal Research Homepages
While I didn't find the personal research homepages to be anything special at this point, I am intrigued by some of the advanced search features that are available with this individualized login. I used the "Visual Search" in Ebsco. It took some getting used to, but I think that I like the idea of seeing the results built within subject-heading strands.

While these ELM productivity tools, may not appeal to my personal work style, they may be appealing to many staff in my building. I can see a need to check back on these tools as they evolve with Web 2.0.

Tag... Not always it... (Thing 11)

Tagging seems to be somewhere between subject headings and keywords....Overall I find that they might have some favorites or personal organizational value, but as a tool for searching, I find them to be pretty fickle.

I find the tagging (label) feature of blogger to be pretty simple to use, but in a blog that is focused and under development, I didn't find adding labels to provide much of an enhancement to my blog.

On the other hand, I would like the mobility provided by Del.icio.us. Bookmarks or favorites that are available to me wherever I am accessing the Internet makes it a productivity tool that I can see myself using frequently.

Ultimately, in getting started with Shelfari this week, I found the ability to create my own organization with"tagging" to be very helpful. Shelfari allows me to create a personal bookshelf of books that I am reading, want to read, have read, etc. These books are all very personal to me, for whatever purpose I might be reading them (book club, personal enjoyment, new and popular young adult reading, etc.). As I see my bookshelf growing, categorizing these books into meaningful groups is very satisfying and I have high hopes to find it very useful too.

Not only is tagging a personal choice...but it also seems to be quite personal in all that it defines.

Here is a taste of Shelfari - with titles from my monthly book club.

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

Coming Soon...A Website Tour (Thing 8)

Coming soon to my Media Center website...a slideshow tour. I love all the possibilities I am discovering to use digital images on the web to help define and illustrate the activities and learning spaces of our schools.

As I explored Picture Trail, I was impressed with all the different Flicks and slide show options. They capture the attention in an attractive attention-grabbing display. I want to use this tool to create a Media Center slideshow and tour for students, parents, and the community.

I then began exploring "Blabberize" and thought this might be a fun tool to use in a web tour.

Blabberize was just lots of fun...And I can see this adding a bit of humor into classroom presentations! Here is a quick "Blabber" that I created under Blabberize's "guest" login:

http://www.blabberize.com/share/Blabber/12799

Since it was created under a "Guest" login, it is subject to disappearing or changing at the whim of other guest users - so let me know if it disappears or becomes questionable (Please!).

I had problems embedding it into blogger. I guess it is more than a simple cut and paste? If you know the trick to this, let me know.

Flash Card 2.0? (Thing 6)

I used a picture that I took during a trip to the Missouri Botanical Garden for my "trading" card. I really like the idea of having students create their own trading cards with this tool online, whether with facts on an author, animal, chemical element, etc.

I could easily see it being a fun resource on a teacher webpage or maybe a new sort of "flash" card for studying.



What didn't work?
Without the ability to crop or adjust the image within the trading card, some images might not work well in this digital framework.

The Fabulous Mashup (Thing 5)

After learning about what a "Mashup" was, I had a fabulous idea of how I could use Flickr and with my school website. Like so many other Web 2.o features that can be imbedded into a blog or other web presence, I can see the Flickr/Mashup combination adding to the "living" web presence. A website that doesn't change or invite interaction runs the risk of becoming stagnant.

So my idea - What about advertising reading and book titles with a Mashup? I found a small collection of READ posters from the American Library Association Staff's Flickr site to illustrate what I might do with my own Read posters or book advertisements.



This slideshow was created with the Flickr Slideshow Generator.

A "Flickr" of Knowledge (Thing 4, part 2)

Photosharing and Tagging in the Classroom

Where to begin? That is the big question. Sometimes there is a lightning strike of clarity that seems to come with new technology and where and how it can fit into the classroom, but it didn't hit me immediately with Flickr and photosharing. It seemed like the sort of tool with classroom application, but I the vision was blurry. This is when the networking capabilities of Web 2.0 spark into existence.

What I found? Exciting ideas!


Writing Prompts

"Flicktion" (term to describe writing stories about photos)

Geo-tagging

Discussion of Intellectual Property Rights

Virtual Field Trips

Slideshows

Photo Mapping (Using "Notes" to label parts of a photograph)

Documenting School Events

Caution? Is it any safer than going to Google images? As I explore and share possible uses of Flickr, like anything else on the Internet, there are questions the notes of caution. Protecting students and creating a safe online environment is a top priority and from this there are problems with posting any images that identify or name students, monitoring for appropriate comments, and controlling privacy settings. The social and interactive aspects of Web 2.0 make the Flickr more responsive to keeping current, but it also makes it unpredictable.

Here are some of articles I am coming back to for more "Flickr" ing ...

http://www.jakesonline.org/Flickr_handout_ILTCE.pdf
http://www.edutopia.org/my-friend-flickr
http://k12online.wm.edu/usingflickr/usingflickr.html
http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=172302903