Thing 4:Photo Sharing, Editing, and Fun

Here is the picture I took from Flickr by doing the Advanced search for Creative commons images. I wish it would look like this in a few weeks! I read the materials for this module and looked at the video Photosharing: The Basics, and the Your tube Flickr tutorial. Both were clear and concise. I am choosing not sign up for a photo sharing account at this time, but I will use Flickr in the future and these videos will walk me through it. I loved the Book Spine Poetry and had a great idea for our 12th grade poetry class. I read through Take Pictures, Tell Stories Part 4: Fun with Photos at Library Events. I was impressed by theREAD posters event at Harper College Library, and I absolutely loved the League of Librarian Trading Cards. The Art show at the Unquiet Library gave me ideas of how to display pictures of our own Art show being held in my library in May 2013. Thank you for the Fair Use Guidelines for Multimedia Presentations (http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr280d.shtml).I am always concerned about where students are getting their photos for their presentations due to the copyright issues. Teachers and students seem to be have the misconception that as ling as they cite where they get their photos from, they can legally use the photo in their presentation. They don't understand that if they are publishing the presentation to the web, it opens up a whole other can of worms. I have been showing classes how to search for copyright free images on the Creative Commons site, as well as how to search Google Images for them as well. Most of the Photo sharing sites mentioned is module are blocked at my high school. Picasa seems to be the only one available to our students, probably because all of students have Google accounts withing our own Google domain.

Thing 3: RSS feeds, Home Page, Readers

I signed up for Google Reader then went crazy adding Feeds. I really like the idea the Denver Public Library uses for RSS for Book Reviews. I subscribed to Diigo---CoolToolsforSchools, Diigo In Education, Adventures of Library Girl, Edutopia, OLAS jobs, Reading Rockets, Free Technology for Teachers, and my local newspaper. I probably will not be able to keep up with reading all of the information I get from all of them, but I know how to unsubscribe now. I plan on using the RSS feeds personally and professionally, and even set up two folders for my feeds to be organized into. I came across Adventures of Library Girl through the link for the Salem Press Blog Awards. I plan on looking through her presentations at some point. Free Technology for Teachers may give me some new ideas to share with the teachers at my school. I like that Googlereader is accessed right from my Google home page where I get my email and docs. I also like that it has a button for "new items" to grab my attention. I also like that there is a link to recommended items related to the feeds I already have. I plan to use the Rss feeds to stay abreast of new technology, updates on the Common Core State standards, and book reviews. I am going to look into using a RSS feed in my library to link to book reviews the students write. I logged into Gale and EBSCO, but did not see the RSS button to add those databases to my feeds. I even searched a topic thinking I needed to be in an actual article to share it, but the RSS symbol is not one of the "share" options.

Thing 2: Online Communities and PLN's

I have read through the course information and some of the links including Classroom 2.0 and MightyBell, and joined the SLS School Tools FB Group. I find it interesting that schools are using Teacher/Librarian Facebook accounts to communicate with students. Our school District has opted to use Edmodo, which is like Facebook for schools. Until now, I really did not care to have any part of Twitter.I have joined other Social networking groups such as Pininterest, LinkedIn and Facebook, but the only one I keep current with is FB. I looked through 35 ways to build my personal learning network, and I did join Classroom 2.0 after reading the BYOT discussion thread. Our school is running a Pilot BYOD program after the first of the year, so I am always interested to see how other schools are doing this. I also joined MightyBell because I am hoping to start a library book club next year. Even after reading "For Newbies: Just Heart the #" I still feel Twitter is not for me. I choose to not have a data plan for my cell phone, and I sit at a computer for way more that I want to at work,so I am happy to not be on it in my free time. I do understand the benefits of staying connected with others who share the same interests, but I still feel I can meet these needs in other ways. I am going to watch the #TLchat and if I feel the need to post a comment, I will join Twitter. I would like to participate in the #TLchat live chat on tweetchat.com on the second Monday of each month, so I may have to join anyway.

Thing 1: Blogging

I have been a School Library Media Specialist for 4 years. My first year was in a K-5 school, but since then I have been working at Washingtonville High School. I am taking this course because I want to stay on top of the technology my students are using. Many times the teachers are assigning projects using blogs, videos, podcasts, etc...and the students come to the library for help.
In this first module I have learned how easy it it to make a Blog. I understand there are many ways a blog could be used in the classroom, as well as in the library for book reviews or to promote reflective writing.This would also be a great tool for sharing what is happening in the library with staff and students. I have made note of two Blogs in particular that I plan to follow: Free Technology for Teachers and Library door.