DONE!!!!

Whew! I let this go for too long! The learning 2.0 experience has been very frustrating, confusing, and yet rewarding for me. I've never been technologically savvy at all. This assignment has forced me out of my comfort zone with mixed results. There are some skills (such as skype, blogline, and parts of social bookmarking) that I will most likely not use again. However, I will use my new found twitter, Library Thing, wordle, and blogging skills in many areas of my life. This program was useful on the whole. I feel empowered, and less intimidated by technology.

Podcast

The podcast thing was really hard for me. I couldn't find what I wanted, and when I finally did, it didn't work. Ugh. I ended up going to iTunes to find a podcast. I have been a subscriber to This American Life, RadioLab, and The Moth for years. I am most definitely a podcast fan! I found a podcast called CLIP: Critical Literacy in Practice which I thought was very applicable to School Library Media. This podcast can be found by going to the iTunes store and typing in "multi-media text set". It is the first result. The podcast is about fostering multi-media literacy in children by helping them to make text to text connections. It focused on using books, primary sources, videos, and websites together as tools to have informed and informative conversations. I will use the ideas from this podcast whether I end up as a Teacher Librarian or as an English teacher.

Wordle

Wordle is fun!!!

Youtube

This video has some very pertinent quotes about school library media specialists' need to keep up with technological trends. I think all SLM specialists need to take this information to heart.

Twitter

Why did no one tell me that twitter was so much fun?!? I am following all of my favorite authors that are on twitter and have found out so much more about them and love them all the more for it. Especially John Green. He is so COOL!!!! But I digress. I'm am most definitely going to become a twitterer.... is that a word? Anyway, I think using twitter as a way to get students to connect with the school library is a good idea to a point. If/when I'm a school librarian and twitter is still widely used, I very well might use it. However, I think that a library twitter account could be misused by both students and librarians. Students could use it to retweet spam and other such things. Librarian could use the account gratuitously and annoy/drive away students. I think that as long as it is closely monitored, twitter is a good resource for promoting school libraries.

Bloglines and blogs

I don't like bloglines. I'm not sure if it's me or my computer, but it is a pain in the bum to navigate, and it just wouldn't behave. That being said, I did like looking for blogs to follow. I searched for blogs having to do with books for the most part. My favorite blog that I found is Becky's Book Reviews (http://blbooks.blogspot.com). Becky has reviewed hundreds of books, and the reviews are very helpful. The other blog I subscribed to is http://www.ecogeek.org/. It is a blog about environmentally friendly technologies. I think this is important because the environmental crisis is real, and I think something should be done about it. The creators of ecogeek are committed to finding, reviewing, and implementing environmentally friendly technology.

Library 2.0

School libraries are under threat in this age of increasing technology. Library 2.0 is the name for taking school libraries into the future with the rest of the world. It is important for school libraries to remain relevant, not only so they can continue to get funding, but also to make sure students get the best educations possible. I've always thought of libraries as a place to get books and that's about it. This thinking needs to change in order for school libraries to remain relevant. Christopher Harris suggests that school libraries need to make their presence felt, like the Intel Inside sticker. (I have one on my computer right now!) Harris also gave quite a few suggestions on how to increase the reach of the library's influence. One of his ideas was to have a book talk blog. I think this is a great idea. It seems like a great way to get students to participate in library programs.