Week Four, Assignment #8

#8. RSS & Newsreaders. Learn about RSS feeds and set up my own Bloglines newsreader account.

I use iGoogle as my homepage, and Google Reader is readily available there with a click on a drop-down arrow. While subscribing to at least 5 newsfeeds, I discovered I could pick up RSS feeds of a "news flash" feature on my school district's Web site. I like have school news come to me that easily.

Our library supervisor took the time to have all the librarians in my district learn about Google Reader and subscribe to RSS feeds a couple years ago. She did it in preparation for our district starting to use School Center to make classroom or library Web pages, because we'd have the ability to set us an RSS feed from our own sites and she wanted us to know what they are. At that time, I found it a nuisance to sign into Google Reader, and I found there was too much worthless information coming to me through the RSS feeds, so I canceled the subscriptions.

When I started to use iGoogle about a year ago, I set up newsfeeds from major newspapers. I occasionally click on an interesting headline that I wouldn't otherwise have seen.

I've subscribed to the Unshelved library cartoon feed. There are some good cartoons about librarians using social networking groups to reach teens, and about appealing to teens in Library 2.0.

I set up an account in Bloglines.

Week Three, Assignment #7

#7. Create a blog post about anything technology-related that interests me this week.

I'm finding that this Blogger site interests me this week. I tried to use it a long time ago and was utterly frustrated with it. Then I used it again last year and had better luck with it, but I didn't feel I had enough to say to justify having a blog. This time around, I'm actually enjoying this project. I'm amazed that I can post a blog to Blogger from another site such as Flickr and have it show up here. Or maybe I posted it through e-mail. I've done so much with this blog today that I'm not even remembering everything I tried. It was a day that my school connection with the Internet went offline every few minutes and none of the photos I uploaded showed at all while I was at school, but I came home and found the pictures all looked fine.

Week Three, Assignment #6

#6. In Flickr, explore mashups and other fun things. Use mappr, Flickr Color Pickr, & Montager.

I've figured out how to add my images to mappr. You can see my photo of our school mascot, the CAMS Cougar, sitting in my school library at http://www.flickr.com/photos/31815648@N03/2978641009/map/.

I used Flickr Color Pickr at http://krazydad.com/colrpickr/, and thought it was interesting. I tagged my photos with colors and "color pickr" to see what would happen. I can search my photos in Flickr by color now. You can see one of my blue photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/31815648@N03/2978714565/.

I tried montager, but I haven't found a way to get my own images uploaded to it or to select what picture is going to be used as a template. I haven't located an ID tag in my own photos. I tried using the number 404 that was on my photo, but it apparently wasn't the ID tag to use. The montager site that lets you search by tag is interesting: http://www.deviousgelatin.com/montager/image.php.

I explored a third party site called Trading Card Maker that let me turn one of my photos into a trading card. It was fun, but not something I have any need for. I tried it with a friend's picture, but I didn't want to post it online so I made another Trading Card with a picture of the Eiffel Tower.

Week Three, Assignment #5

Kindle, originally uploaded by JoanneLMT2.

This is a blog posting I'm making through Flickr with my photo of the Kindle(TM).

After I added it to Flickr, I clicked "Blog about this" and used the Flickr site to post to this site. I didn't know how it would turn out. The photo came through much larger than I expected it would, but I think it's eyecatching so I'm not going to change it.

The Kindle arrived in my middle school library two weeks ago. I was able to get a “Technology Integration Challenge” grant through our Chamber of Commerce for a Kindle, along with a budget to support downloads for the professional staff at my school through the end of this calendar year. If you don’t know about the Kindle, visit http://www.amazon.com/, which is the sole proprietor of it.

I’d written the grant with the request to have the download budget cover two years so we’d have access to bestsellers for that length of time, but the Chamber Foundation preferred to give me the same amount of money with the stipulation that I use it by December 31. Never one to turn down grant money, I agreed to their terms and set about polling the teachers at my school as to what books they wanted to read on the Kindle.

It was a challenge to work out how we could use the Kindle in a school setting, in a library that is required to make all purchases through requisitions and purchase orders, because the Amazon Kindle account has to be connected with a credit card. My supervisor worked diligently to get special permission for me to use the business office’s credit card for the periodic times I make downloads. I then delete the credit card from the account immediately following the downloading so that the next person to borrow the Kindle from the library doesn’t have one-click access to buy any number of books that person desires.

The nicest part of having the Kindle in a school library is that sample downloads of the first part of a Kindle book are free. It means that if I’m considering buying a book, I can download a sample and decide whether I like the writing style enough to make a purchase of the full book. Most bestsellers cost $9.99 to download, but prices vary and are often less for books that are no longer bestsellers. One of the professional reference books I downloaded cost $24, but that is still a lot less than the hardback version would cost.

Having professional reference books on the Kindle makes the material more appealing to teachers. I’ve bought many a professional reference book that no one has ever checked out, no matter how much I rhapsodize over the glories of it. Within the suggestions teachers have given me this week for Kindle downloads, there have been three professional development books as well as books on autism, politics, and financial planning. The Kindle obviously is the factor that makes these books appealing to my peers.

The Kindle screen is user-friendly in terms of readability. When my eyes are tired, I increase the font size. Font size cannot be changed in the “Kindle Store” section, where you choose the books you’re interested in, but it can be changed when you view the downloaded material. I read two books on the Kindle this past weekend and loved the experience!

Week Two, Assignment #4

#4. I've e-mailed the PA Web 2.0 Team and registered my blog.

I did this so that other librarians taking this Library 2.0 tutorial can find my blog and see what I'm doing.

Week Two, Assignment #3

#3. Create a blog, post something, add an avatar.

Blogger is not nearly as user-friendly as the blogging software our school district uses. It took me an inordinate amount of time to get this far, and to get my avatar in the position I wanted it. Nevertheless, I'm here and on-board.

Week One, Assignment #2

I read about the "7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners" in the online tutorial. I feel I already have most of those habits ingrained in my life, but I don't do the formal writing of goals (the learning contract) except when I'm required to do so. That kind of goal writing is a part of my job requirement, so I'm certainly familiar with it. I don't care to do it on a casual basis.

I had a favorite teacher in high school who taught me the importance of lifelong learning, and I took her words to heart and made lifelong learning a goal of mine.

Week One, Assignment #1

#1. This is the first of "23 Things" I will be doing on this blog.

I read the information about this program that PSLA had adopted, that was originally set up by the California School Library Association. The PA Web 2.0 Team has set up their assignments as part of this blog: http://paweb20.blogspot.com/