11.5 Thing 11.5 Evaluation

My favorite discovery was screencasts. I enjoyed making one, and this is something I’ll definitely do again, and teach my students to do as well.

This program has affected my lifelong learning goals because it is helping me become a better teacher/librarian for my students. I feel like I am keeping up with technology, even though I realize that so much more is out there. I really like it when I have answers for other people on my campus when it comes to technology.

The only unexpected outcome for me was Second Life. It was so easy, I don’t know what I was scared of! That in itself sort of makes me worry – I really don’t have excess time to spend in SL!

I cannot think of anything to improve this program. Of course, we all need more time to work with these new things. But we can’t really expect you to be able to conjure up more time, unless it’s in SL . . . .

11.5 Thing 11 Digital Citizenship

Digital Citizenship involves many things. To help my students be good digital citizens, I will include in my lessons on the subject these topics: internet safety, netiquette, cyber-bullying, copyright, and website evaluation. These are not topics that you can mention once. You must reinforce them again and again (and hopefully the classroom teachers will help with this). In our district, we are using the Isafe lessons, and I find them pretty good combined with the brainpop videos.

11.5 Thing 10 Virtual Worlds

After reading so much about Second Life, I was eager to give it a try. Easy to do. I really enjoyed creating my avatar -- I can see how you could lose hours of your life in this! I have a hard enough time keeping my farm up in Farmville (Facebook) -- I don't think I can handle SL too much. But I loved flying! I'm sure I'll spend more time in SL.

However, I can see how teens would be very attracted to SL. It is very much like the RPG games many of them love to play. It would certainly keep student interest if you were showing them how to find information in SL! Although, since you must be at least 13 to create a SL account, I do not see my students in an elementary school using this. Perhaps in the future there will be something similar for elementary.

11.5 Thing 9 Slideshare

At first I thought, "What's the big deal? We can already use Google Docs for this. But then I realized that Slideshare has an archive of presentations on a variety of subjects that you can search. This is a definite bonus.

Slideshare, and the various alternatives out there, would be useful for students. I really like Authorstream -- especially the ability to format presentations for use on ipods. Too bad that this costs $2 a pop (at least, that's my understanding of it). My library budget is slim to say the least, and I must use only those free options!

I definitely see students using slideshare to create their own research presentations, as well as to find information.

11.5 Thing 8 -- Screencasts

After exploring screencasts, I created one that I can send to my teachers to help them find books using our new online catalog. It took me three tries to make it because I was working at home and interruptions, such as the clock striking 10 o'clock, kept happening! But it was very easy to create with Screencast-O-Matic. I hope the video plays okay in this post. I could not get it to play from the preview screen of this post -- but hopefully it will play once it is posted.



I can see students using this to explain how to use some of our new technology. I'm sure they'll really like creating screencasts.

11.5 Thing 7 Video Resources

This was an opportune time to be working on this "thing." I was looking for something very basic for my 2 preschool classes about plants growing from seeds. I looked at totlol, but they wanted you to pay a fee to join. Then, I looked at Blinkx, but the video I found wasn't loading within the district. Then I noticed that next to the video was a blurb about going to Sesame Street's website for videos, so I went there and found the same video, and it will load in the district. Here's the short video I found and plan to use next week with my preschool classes:
http://www.sesamestreet.org/video_player/-/pgpv/videoplayer/0/33412479-f663-4937-9457-014f1c95de0d/mrs_obama_plants_a_garden

I found the second video I'll mention here at neok12.com. This is a well organized video website, in my opinion. I have used it successfully before. This video, covering the phases of the moon, is for my 5th graders:
http://www.neok12.com/php/watch.php?v=zX6b5c7f0456765261795b6b&t=Moon

11.5 Thing 6 -- iTouch Apps

Having received 12 iPod Touches in my library, I have downloaded several educational apps -- a variety including those to reinforce math facts, states & capitals games, fairy tales, connect 4 type, and others. Easy to do, and easy to sync all the iPods with the cart.

Maybe I'm being simplistic, but I see the iPod Touches as another way to access information in the library. Students can use it to find websites, and thus information, to practice skills, to view videos, etc. I could see teachers having wikis with assignments and even instructional videos, all accessible through the iPod Touches. I'm eager to have the "new" wear off so the kids can get down to work with them!

11.5 Thing 5 - Microblogging

I have a Facebook account, but really don't do much with it except play Farmville! I have made contact with a few friends that I lost touch with for many years -- one I haven't spoken with since 1980! I like the idea of groups specific to your interests and have joined a couple of those, such as ALA. With a child about to finish junior college and head off to a 4 year university, those apps about planning for college seem like something worth looking into. As far as classroom/library use goes, I like the idea of bookclubs on Facebook. Also, students could post a project on Facebook (such as a photostory) and could post comments on other students' projects.

I do not Twitter. I have an account, have done a bit, but that's it. After reading some of the blogs and articles on using twitter in the classroom, I am inpired to try more with it. I like how Cool Cat Teacher explained how to set up your twitter account so you can get messages on your cell phone. That would make it easier to use, for me.

I am drawn to backchanneling while I am repulsed by it at the same time. Well, maybe "repulsed" is too strong of a word. I have one of those attention spans that must focus on the presenter. I cannot stand table-talk at a meeting. If I am focussing on typing my question or my response, I will miss what the presenter says. I know that about myself. But the idea of having my questions about the presenter's information answered in such a timely way -- that's great! I think this may be good for secondary school, but I'm not too sure about elementary.

11.5 Thing 4 - Video Hosting

I created a new photostory to upload to teacher tube, which I already have an account with. It is very easy to upload videos. If they okay my new video, I'll post it to my blog, but it's been 22 minutes and they still haven't, so . . . . of course, it is Sunday.

Having teaching/learning videos available online at sites such as Teacher Tube or You Tube is great. I have used videos from these sites in my lessons in the past (this year, as part of my internet safety classes) by embedding them in flipcharts. Students show more interest and thus are more actively involved in lessons when they see it's a video from one of these sites -- I think they realize it's not going to be something old and boring. And yes, I've had to do the Zamzar thing in the past, so I can access the video at school.

I think one of the biggest advantages to uploading student work would be the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that students feel at having their work online for others to see. Publishing is great for self-esteem. Also, students would be able to view classmates' work and comment on it.