Conclusion and feedback

I've have loved being introduced to Web 2.0 and feel so much more confident now. What I've learned is that it is not hard, it's doable, though sometimes very time consuming. I will definately set up a blog page for our school library and I'm really excited about it. Hopefully, we will soon have our own website and I'm looking forward to working on its layout.

Thanks for everything.

#13 and #14 MySpace and Facebook

Had a look at MySpace and thought in terms of communicating with an audience, MySpace was well suited to the job. Really liked the Yarra Plenty Page. Facebook was fun. I set up my own page and have now linked up with a few people, including my son who's away at university. I've enjoyed following him, he's very witty and it's another method of communicating with him. Have had lots of fun bickering with my daughter via Facebook too. I'm not the kind of person that want's to communicate with masses of people - I do that in my job, but I have appreciated being able to communicate with family and close friends - Facebook is complimentary to other methods of communication, it's a bonus. Had a look at Twitter too and I'm glad I did, but it's just to short and fast for me.

# 22 and 23

Personally, I prefer to use my eyes rather than my ears to read and so, alas, audio books are not for me. Even so, other people enjoy listening, especially while travelling. Then of course, there are those with reading difficulties or poor eyesight for whom audio books are wonderful.

E-books are a different story and there is a real market out there for those who prefer reading from an iPad or similar, and there are libraries that are catering for them. There was a good story on this issue on The 7.30 Report some weeks ago when the iPad was launched.

We all have to move with the times. On Librivox I found some audio poems which will be useful for an upcoming task our Year 8 students will be working on.

# 21 Online videos

Hope you enjoy this one

# 20 Podcasts

Some great podcasts out there. I'm interested in learning how to create them so thanks for the starting point. Would love to add podcasts on books and authors to our library website (when we get one up and running. So, I've added Radio National's Book Show to my blog page.

# 18 Wikis

Some great wikis to look at to give you ideas. Really liked some of those class room wikis on wetpaint and some of the others on your suggestion list. I see wikis a being useful tools in the sharing of information when working on tasks, as a research tools, and for lovers of reading. Have added many of your sites to our CURLS social bookmarking site.

Had a look at Rollyo and created my own searchscroll, but I don't seem to have fully succeeded.

Select...Henry's Hot SpotHenry's hot spotSearch The Web

# 17 Delicious

I actually have an account with Delicious, not that I have used it since I set it up. The NSW Department of Education and Training have recently set up their own bookmarking site for NSW public schools, CURLS. I have set up an account there for our library. I had a look at the Yarra Plenty Library bookmarks - got some wonderful sites from there. Thanks! In terms of a school library, social bookmarking sites are a great way to give students access to useful sites for their research, recreational and other needs.

# 16 RSS Feeds

Once I got my head around the mechanics of this, I loved it. I've gone to google reader and added feeds to some blogs I'm interested in and I'm looking for more - in relation to reading and school libraries.

# 15 RSS

Great way to keep up to date with the latest information on topics of personal interest as well as information relating to topics being taught in the classroom.

Activity # 12 Flickr

Originally uploaded by kicuio

Found this photo on Flickr and have sent it to my blog.


Loved Flikr. Downloaded some of my own photos as well. I can see myself using this often with my school library blog.

Activity # 11 The library thing

I can see it's usefulness for small libraries that are in need of a free and easy cataloguing system, and it's usefulness in being able to share information about books with people.

For me personally though, if I've got the time (and I rarely do), then I want to spend it actually reading a book, not reading about a book online. I'll stick to the weekend newspaper book review sections to read about books, it only takes a milisecond to open the paper to the right page.

#10 Generators

Image by Cool Text: Logo and Button Generator - Create Your Own

Had a play with all the generator sites listed. Loved doing the Flikr Toys and Image Generator in particular.

# 9 Second Life

Who'd have known there were so many other worlds to choose from? (Although my children always loved the Sims). My initial thought after reading the Wikepedia entry was that "this is not for me". However, after further reading I can see that there are many positive things about virtual worlds -in relation to possibilties for education, learning, design, commerce, research and development, and so much more. I particularly appreciated the You Tube presentation from Karen at the Murdoch University Library. She pointed out second life's ability to offer people with disablities access, as well as the valid point that we, as library staff and/or educators, need to understand the literacy of the second life environment. I'd love to do one of their introductory workshops, but the links to them seem to have been dropped, leading me to suspect that they are no longer offered.

On another topic - doing the iGoogle activity gave me a much better understanding of gadgets, so I've gone back to my blog and added a few.

# 7 iGoogle

Took me a little while to get it, but once I did, I loved setting up my iGoogle page - great to have those links all on the one page. Added Facebook, Wordweb Online, Word of the Day (today's is jaunt), You Tube, My Google Booksearch library, ABC News, Google Docs, and the To Do gadget. I've made up my To Do list (number 1: Write this blog!), checked my documents and much more. I'd like to make this my homepage.

Have also been reading up on other people's blogs to see how they are going with the course. Came across a great You Tube clip on Rhozlibraryblog - digital natives - really worth watching - especially for educators.

I'm enjoying this course, I'm learning so much.

I'd love to work for Google, though I'm not sure what I have to offer them. I'll certainly be getting my 16 year old to check it out though, I can certainly see her lounging around on one of their hammock, working out a design issue!

Activities # 5 6 7

Just had a play with google docs - how liberating. I need to spend a lot more time on it though to become more familiar. Created a new document, sent it to my colleague Jill for editing, and she's now in the process of sending it back to me. Also had a go at uploading. Success! Jill's just sent me a couple of items she has uploaded. It's very exciting.

Google maps is easy to use and very handy. Just checked out a B&B in a central west town where my daughter will be staying and its proximity to the TAFE where she's doing a course.

Google Books is huge, and I need much more time to get my head around it. I want to read what other course participants have to say about it, but at the moment, the Participants Blog List is a blocked site with NSW DET. I've logged a call to the ICT helpdesk so that should be sorted out by Monday. In terms of education - there are a number of applications, but at it's most basic, and also so important, the ability to alert and to share in the joy of books and reading.

Activity # 4

Library 2.0 huh? I don't think I'd heard of the term before. Certainly, libraries have been moving in this direction prior to the term's coining. But it's good to have what it means clearly spelled out, which is what Wikipedia does. In relation to our school library, it's a slow process, and it's hard, because we're a one woman show here. It can be daunting planning a library for the future.

Activities 1 2 & 3 Blogs

Well, got a basic blog up easily enough. Tried to add a picture to the heading but couldn't get it to shrink to fit, so removed it. I guess I'm slow because I can't make head or tail of the other aspects of layout - i.e., gadgets. I had a look at some of the other blogs and plan to look at a few more tomorrow. I wonder if I should have a go a posting to someone else's blog? Is there an etiquette to blogging? For example, should I sign off with my name? Very basic question, I know. I also know that at this stage, I'm not actually conversing with anyone, so the questions are rhetorical. I'll figure it out.

Marg.

Hello and welcome!

First up, I'll introduce myself; my name is Margaret Lynch and I'm the Teacher-Librarian at The Henry Lawson High School, Grenfell, New South Wales. This is my first blog and I'm considering the possiblity of using it as an official blog for our school library.

Ours is a small rural school of about 220 students from Years 7 - 12. It's a lovely school, with a great staff, wonderful students and a supportive community. I have worked here for a number of years and just love it. My colleague in the library is Jill Hamiltion.

That's all for now.