Thing #19

I enjoyed exploring this thing and yes there were so many things to play with I did not know what ones to start with. After playing around on myspace and facebook, old familiars and easy for me to use, I decided on http://www.zoho.com/ to play with as it was listed under the organization group and I figured I would need this as a librarian. This site was a great site as it had spreadsheets, invoice sheet, online meeting calendars, and presentation tools that I know I will need with staff developments. It has other items that will be useful as a librarian. The site was free for personal use and gave a discount for non-profit use as well. The indiviual items used on the site charges a fee for each one of the items and the pricing per item varied. It could get very expensive, but may be well worth it for non-profit or an individual. The features it offers thought are pretty nice.

Thing 18

lI attempted to research both sites listed, but for some reason open office was not working right for me, so I used Google Doc's. I found some really neat budget sheets that were useful for my own personal use. I thought it was pretty easy to use and I enjoyed this site. I think because it is really easy for me to use and I understood a little more about this technology tool. I thought that I would try the other site later. However, I will say I think the advantage of using the free tool is that not all children have computers let alone can afford the software and applications required to support the software. These free sites would not cost anything for the students. Along with it being free, the updates that most computers need may be kept up as the companies will maintain the computer site better. The disadvantage can be that sometimes not enough traffic will keep the site up and many times sites become obsolete quickly. I think as an educator it would be to my advantage to use something that is available to all my students. It would also be something my children could access else where if the computers they were on did not have the other applications such as windows 2003, etc. down loaded.

Thing #17

I went into the rollyo site and created a link next to my posting of my rollyo. It was Marines as I have been folloowing them due to my personal interest. I can see how this to would be a great resource for doing research papers. I could have many sites for the children to access and use as the create a research paper. I would have preselected sites for them to use and they could even access the sites from home. Some of these things are really fun to explore.

Thing #16

I enjoyed watching the common craft video on this thing as well as the ones in the past. Wiki's seem very eary to create. I can see where this would be a great place for teachers or librarians to post daily happenings. https://wiki.lib.umn.edu/ was a website wiki that was from the University of Minnesota Library staff website that posted the daily happenings of the library. It is easy for people to track what will be happening and the list can be added to if needed. I can see how this would be great to use for a librarian as it would give people direct information as to the happenings of the library. It is a good way to keep people informed. I will try to incorporate something like this when I have my own library to run.

Thing #15

I read two different thoughts on Library 2.0. I have to agree with Michael Stephens in the fact that what a library looks like today will be so different in 5 to 10 years. Library technology is just getting smarter and smarter and in order to stay up with the forever changing time, Librarians are going to have to stay on top of the new faces of technology. I think librarians making the library a place to learn about the new technology will keep students ahead of the technology game. Currently our school library does not seem to do enough for teachers and students in this regard. If we want to keep up with the trend, schools and school districts are going to have to keep the technology updated to meet with the requirements that the 2.0 world is trying to introduce to all. As a school librarian I will have to do a lot of continous updating in what is the latest trends in technology and will have to try and stay ahead of the trends so I can promote to the students what others are learning. I will have to try to fight to keep the library updated which might be a problem as I will have a limited budget in order to keep up. Librarians will have to make the best with what budget they are given, but if the school administrators are on board this might not be as bad a problem as in other schools. I can see where I myself will need to continue my education.

Thing #14

On this thing, I played around awhile with the site. I can see where this will be helpful as a librarian. The site technorati was fun to play with and I found that the widgets site was down as they were updating this. As a librarian I could post reviews on books and videos that would help teachers when making selections for class. I also could see where Icould post blogs for students to follow when wanting them to create things using technology as a tool. I think tagging items will also help the students in research and searching for things that are already approved. St. will be able to have things prepared for them and then they can access the sites pretagged. I did claim my blog so I will see how that goes as they stated it takes a little while to verify the blog. Can not wait to see if it will work in attracting others to the site.

Thing #13

Social tagging sites are interesting for teachers and librarians to use as they let you share great ideas with each other. We have had diigo introduced to us at school and many of the teachers have used this site. They tag favorite sites that can be used to help develop some great lessons for all to use. Librarians could use this site to post about books that would fit curriculum. They could also use these tag sites to set up technology lessons and research material for students. This would be beneficial for the teacher as presearched sites could be used and it makes it easier on the teacher. This would fall in line with the collaboration item that we are all needing to make schools a success for all. The tag sites would also be great in keeping the different topiced items in categories which would make for easy look up of needed materials and also easier to share specific items with specific groups. I did find that Ma.gnolia was relaunched and that is was sort of like facebook in which you have to be invited to join. I prefered diigo, I guess as I have seen this before.