Cranky Apple Geek

Ok, so I listen to a podcast called Cranky Geeks. Something that came up this week… now that Safari is available for Windows is the future all Apple? I would like to think so because I love the Mac platform. I am writing this on a PowerBook G4… I know it is time to upgrade but there is no 12-inch Mac Book or PowerBook right now. But I digress. I have to say the future of Apple seems bright to me. Perhaps the move to Intel was a stroke of genus for Apple. In my opinion, all computers should be Macs and in this new world where Macs can run both platforms, why are PCs even necessary? Do it all on a Mac and find it all @your library!

Tutorials For Free? Check out Teacher Tube!

There are a lot of free sites and free tutorials online that will help you learn technology. My idea is that if you give teachers the sites, they will take the time to learn the technology as long as someone is giving them some kind of credit for it. You know how us teachers are, we need to get credit for things we do on our own time. Most teachers would jump at the chance to learn technology if it was easy and they didn’t have to go anywhere or stay after school and they got professional development hours for it.

Maybe this is not the best example of a PowerPoint tutorial because there is no sound but it is free and posted online. If you are illiterate you could watch this video and get the general idea of how to play with the technology. Just click the link: http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=8a1b48987a18d831f633.

I also wanted to add this video by having you go to the site to introduce a fairly new tool for teachers. It is called Teacher Tube. I have been a stalker at this site since there were only 2 videos posted to it. It is a great place to look for teaching videos. I love the math raps. It would also be a great place to post videos that you use in your teaching. The best part is that at my school Teacher Tube is not blocked but You Tube is blocked. Check it out and see if this is true for your school.

Lets get out there and promote these free online tutorials to our teacher staffs. Librarians get techie and start posting some tutorials for your teachers to use and learn from. Want teachers to use the technology in your building? How about videotaping your students using the technology? Or have your students make “how to” videos for teachers to view at their leisure, and give teachers professional development hours for viewing them. What about the students? Give them extra credit, community service hours, or make it a graduation project. Remember in the world of technology, our students are the natives and we are the immigrants! Our students have a lot to teach us and as we are teaching them to be lifelong learners, we can set a good example and learn from them!

Conger on You Tube

So, now that Will Richardson has me totally hooked on You Tube... I am finding all kinds of things.  Check out this Conger Eel.  I was pretty amazed at the good lighting and quality of the video under the sea.  Oh, and our theme for next school year is Sea how we learn... so I am going to open my library lessons with this video.  Enjoy!

Which Wiki is Right for Me?

Shonda Brisco is one of the most techie librarians I know. Well, I don't personally know her since she is in Texas and I am in Pennsylvania, I virtually know her from my great library list-serve LM_Net. She wrote a wonderful article for School Library Journal about choosing the right Wiki. Since I am interested in starting a Wiki, I loved it. If you are just starting out with Wikis, maybe you would like it too. I think my favorite Wiki for elementary students is pbWiki and I want to introduce it to my students next year. So, I will be playing with it quite a bit this summer. What is your favorite Wiki?

What is Beauty?

I am forever grateful to Will Richardson... he is a wealth of information today. He is even concerned with the image our girls have of themselves... he introduced this video to us today... take a look. It shows us that beauty isn't skin deep... it's a complete fabrication!



I think everyone could look like a movie star with this technique!
:-)

Conger Picture

Bet you thought you would find a picture of me... but no, I had to introduce you to the real Conger. This picture of the Conger Eel comes to via Flikr thanks to mkrzysztofowicz. I never intended to post a picture of a Conger Eel on my blog but thanks to Will Richarson... I now know how! :-)

Will Richardson visits the IU! IU 23 that is...

So, how great is it that the author of my text book for next semester is doing a workshop at my Intermediate Unit and I got to be here thanks to a wonderful principal?

Will Richardson the author of "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" is here in Montgomery County today and all is well!!

How will I explain to my principal what I learned today? Simple, I will send him the link to my blog!!!

RSS

Wow! Who knew RSS could be explained in English?
Check this out...

Click To Play

There are two types of Internet users, those that use RSS and those that don't. This video is for the people who could save time using RSS, but don't know where to start.

Are You Teaching With Technology?

I love teaching with technology. I look for interesting ways to bring technology into my library. But, I must admit I have not used all of the technologies talked about in this video... let alone taught with them. Watch and think how you will introduce a new technology into your classroom before June... the year is almost over don't wait! Scared? Don't know how to use the technology your school district provides? Maybe one of your students is already using this technology and can help!
:-)

Fear Technology Not...

I am a big technology fan. Some think I should be shaking in my boots behind the stacks in my library because libraries are dead. I don't believe that. Libraries may not look the same in the future but if there is one thing I know about librarians, it is they know that shift happens. Librarians will be ready when the shift comes, will you? I found this great piece on Teacher Tube. Enjoy!

Sports Illustrated Halts Swimsuit Issue in Libraries

I am a librarian. I select books and magazines to put into a school library. Selection is a lot different than censorship. Selection denotes knowledge of one’s audience, what they like, what they want to read. Selection is not censorship. I am against censorship. In fact, it is the librarian’s code of ethics to hate censorship of any kind. Is it any wonder that librarians are upset with the publishers of Sports Illustrated? What made The Time Inc. Magazine Company think librarians would not be upset when they took the liberty to censor what librarians put on the shelf? Sports Illustrated magazine’s swimsuit issue was not sent to any library in the country: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6422838.html. I have to admit that my K-5 library no longer subscribes to Sports Illustrated and it has nothing to do with the swimsuit issue. It has to do with the 5 to 10 year old audience the library serves. We now subscribe to Sports Illustrated for Kids, which caters to this age group. Censorship is wrong, in a school library it is all about audience appropriate selection.

The Internet in 1993... we've come a long way.

Do you remember what the Internet was like in 1993? Were you on line in 1993? Check out this Canadian news broadcast... I don't think they mention Al Gore...

Web2.0 Defined

I love this.

If you are confused about Web2.0 take a look at this from YouTube.





As a teacher/librarian I do not encourage my young students to use Wikipedia simply because there are better sources for their research projects and with their luck they will hit Wikipedia on a day when someone is tampering with information. However, being a grad student sometimes it is necessary to use Wikipedia and sometimes you can find wonderful stuff. I never knew what a mind or concept map was until my last grad class when I had to produce one. The reason I am going on and on about concept maps is that I found a wonderful one describing Web2.0 in Wikipedia.
Check it out at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.

Internet Tags

As a librarian I tend to question a lot of things that most people take for granted. For example, Internet Tags. The Internet is a big place, a big un-cataloged place. The kinds of cataloging and classification I am talking about deals with finding information. In the library we use the Dewey Decimal System. Have been using it for over a century now. Before the Dewey Decimal System came into being books were located behind the librarian’s desk in closed stacks and if you wanted a book you had to ask. The Internet is kind of like that right now. It is a big closed stack of information. Oh, once in a while you can ask Google for a site to help you locate the information you need, but then you have to take the sites they give you, just like you had to take the books that librarian gave you years ago. You have to accept what Google decides is a good source ranked by their standards, very similar to using those old closed stacks. Mostly you get the most popular sites, not the sights with the most accurate information and it is very difficult for students in elementary and middle school to judge what sites are accurate, that is up to us school librarians to teach them, but I digress.

By and large the Internet does not have a system that helps users find relevant information in a quick systematic way. Now enter Tags, the kinds of tags that are used on Web 2.0 websites such as Del.icio.us and FURL, Flickr and Wink. There are other places out there on the web with Tags to help find things from photographs to blogs. But the tags themselves are just words made up by people like you and me, they are not specialists in the field of finding information, let alone finding it quickly. There is no librarian out there cataloging the Internet. And this is not coming from me, according to Wikipedia:

“A tag is a (relevant) keyword or term associated with or assigned to a piece of information
(like picture, article, or video clip), thus describing the item and enabling keyword-based
classification of information it is applied to.
Tags are usually chosen informally and personally by the author/creator of the item —
i.e. not usually as part of some formally defined classification scheme.”

And there is where my problem with tags lies. How the heck do I know what the author/creator used as a keyword for his or her picture, article, video clip, or blog? Keywords are great but what if the author chose automobile and not car as the keyword for his picture of his Chevy Nova that I want to buy? If I search car, I will never get to that Nova of my dreams. Should there be a standardization of tags? I think so. I am not only in favor of a classification system of keyword tags; I think they should be linked to the Library of Congress Subject Authorities and to the Dewey Classification System. The Internet is here to stay, isn’t it about time we make it a little easier to navigate?

I actually was just introduced to a new article on Tagging on LM_Net, however I have not had a chance to read it yet and will blog again once I do.

Skype-o-phobe

As a “power librarian” I never considered myself afraid of technology until today. We have a 2-hour delay and my in-laws are here. They came down to breakfast this morning and found me listening to a podcast. That prompted an explanation of podcasting. Since the podcast (guess I should really be using the term netcast) I was listening to was of a live netcast that used Skype to call into the program, I had to explain Skype which is where my techno-fear comes in… I am Skype-o-phobic. I have a copy downloaded on my desktop but I have never used it. Why haven’t I? It’s because I am afraid. I don’t know exactly how to use it so it is easier not to use it. Now I know how other teachers in my building feel about the SMART Board. I am lucky, the SMART Board is in my library and I can play around on it to find out how it works. But what about Skype? I think that is a different story. I can play around on the SMART Board when no one is looking or listening. Skype is out there for all to use and call… who do I Skype with that will be understanding of a newbie? Hopefully, I can get someone to show me how to use Skype to allay my fears and I will show teachers in my building how to use the SMART Board to allay their fears. That is the way it has to be with technology… we have to help each other so that we can become technology and information literate. Technology is not something I should be afraid of… it is a tool… I shouldn’t be afraid of tools! The students in my building are not afraid of technology and I should not be either. Skype away!... who knows where it will lead… maybe my own netcast! Consider the technological possibilities.