Thing #20 You too can YouTube

I had only been on the YouTube site once before when Mary suggested a while back to go there and type in library to see what came up. I am always getting e-mails forwarded to me by friends and family members with funny YouTube videos, but I had never searched it myself to any extent. When I started playing with it, I got so engrossed with it that I let time get away from me and I realized that I had been exploring for over two hours and had only scratched the surface of what I wanted to look at. It's another one of the Web 2.0 tools that I can see myself getting addicted to.

It was very simple to register, in case I decide to create a video and upload it. There's nothing so far that I can see about YouTube that I disliked. After signing up, I realized that I can rate videos and make comments about them. It was interesting to read some of the comments posted by others. Imbedding the HTML code on my blog was as easy as 1, 2, 3. Another thing that I discovered is that I can create playlists of favorite videos that I come across so that I get to them quickly without searching through page after page of posts. Another thing that I learned is that I can join video groups to connect with others who have the same interests as I do. One thing that I tried that I don't understand is when I clicke the browse link, I got a message that said that Outlook Web Access had disabled the link for my security. I'm not sure why this happened. Maybe someone reading this post can fill me in.

As far as features or components of the site that would be interesting applied to my library website, I really don't have any examples or ideas. I plan on going back and exploring YouTube some more after I have finised all 23 "Things". I would think that it wouldn't work in conjunction with my library website as far as the student's use at school, since YouTube is blocked by the district's filter. However, it could be a way to encourage them to use your library website at home, by sharing on the morning announcemnts that a new YouTube video link has been posted on the library website for them to look at that evening when they get home. While they're there, they might take time to explore some of our databases and become more familiar with them.

There are also some informational videos that you might share with your staff and students. In fact I came across one that explains how to hook up your I-Pod to your computer and download songs from ITunes. There was also one that I looked at that demonstrated how to search for pictures and songs on your Nano. Now I have a leg up for when I get my new Nano! Yea1

I chose the Library 2.0 Manifesto video to imbed on this post. After reading it, it pretty much summed up how I feel about Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 after doing the 23 "Things". (Actually, 20 so far, but I'm on the home stretch now and can see the finish line! Yea!)

Thing #19 Go with the Flow

I looked at the flowchart Gliffy and the mind map Bubbl.us. Gliffy makes it easy to create, share and collaborate with diagrams. I thought the layouts you can create are very professional looking. There seem to be many ways to use this in a school setting. One of the examples I saw involved inserting a map of a country and over-laying a flow-chart with facts about the country. You can also insert pictures in the information boxes as well as text. This would be a great way to synthesize after finishing research. I've used Kidspiration and Inspiration with my students, but as I said the look of Gliffy is not so juvenile looking as these two pieces of software. According to the information on the website you can use it to collaborate, share and edit diagrams with others. I created a simple seating chart and used the share button. I e-mailed it to myself to see if I could edit it, but was not successful. I plan on going back to it later and play with it to see if it is editable after sharing with others. I probably need to go into the settings tools to change my settings. I tried everything I could think of, but grew tired of trying several times and not being successful.

I wasn't able to spend as much time with Bubbl.us as I would have liked. I think I'm on overload trying to finish all 23 "things" by the 1st of Feburary. It was supposed to have a lot of the same features as Gliffy. I seemed to have more trouble with Bubbl.us. I didn't find any tool bars, just a square in the middle of the page to begin with. I knew enough about Kidspiration and Inspiration to be able to create several boxes linked to each other with information inside each box. After reading some of the posts on other librarian's blogs, most of whom thought Bubbl.us was easier than Gliffy, I think I may have missed something. I do plan to go back later to explore Bubbl.us more extensively. It is advertised as being able to create mind maps, share and work with friends, embed maps in blogs or websites and e-mail mind maps to others.

More Discoveries

I created my wiki a day or so ago. Then I was going back in and editing it and adding to it. I came across a PowerPoint presentation that I can show to my faculty and students that explains what a wiki is and how it can be used. I plan on sharing this PowerPoint at a faculty meeting soon.

I also discovered that you can insert such things as a calendar, video and slide show into your wiki. I spent about 1 minute taking pictures of my 5th grade classes using the laptops for their research on the Birth of American Democracy. I then uploaded the pictures to Slide.com and created a slide show and inserted it into my wiki in less than 5 minutes. This is the most exciting "Thing" I have done so far! I love it! I can see myself becoming addicted. I know how I will spend a good part of my summer now.

Click on the pbwiki icon in my sidebar on the right to get to my wiki and check it out. I have also added my 5th grade Birth of American Democracy unit with links to webpages and handouts. I am in the process of working on the 1st Grade Our Heroes and Legends research unit.

Discovering New Things

Today when I was on Zoho Writer, looking at the Planning Meeting document that I created and created a link to on my blog, I noticed something on the sidebar that I missed earlier when I was editing my document. If you add people to the Collaborator section, their name shows up in a box that looks like IM. You can see if the people you have added as collaborators are on-line or not. If they are on-line, you can type in a chat message and talk back and forth instantaneously about a project that you are working on together and edit the document together on the spot. It was so cool!

Thing #18 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

I tried to look at some of the tools on Web 2.0 Awards that were in categories that I hadn't explored earlier in the other 17 "Things".

One of the tools I looked into was WUFOO where you can create forms for surveys. They seemed really easy to create and simple to use. I may try to use this for communicating with my faculty to evaluate the library program in general and specifically to evaluate research units we have completed.

Judy's Book was another tool I checked out. I created an account and entered my zip code to see a list of sales, coupons and deals in the area where I live. I can save anything I want to to my favorites according to categories of shopping or specific stores.

I also looked at PANDORA. You can have your own DJ that will help discover new music according to what genre of music you like. It will continue to keep letting you know about tunes that you might enjoy.

The tool that I spent the most time with was Craig'list. I heard heard about it through my niece and daughter who are in their early 20's. My daughter had told me about finding a used sofa that was a really good deal. She is unhappy with the part-time job that she is in right now and I decided to look to see what other jobs were available. She is applying for a nursing school next fall and she would like to find a part-time job in the medical field. I had looked in the classified section of the Dallas Morning News, but all the medical jobs were for professionals. Craig'slist had a half dozen or so that are within reasonable driving distance for her. I was able to e-mail her each of the posts that I thought she might be interested in. (There's nothing like having your own personal research librarian when you're in college, is there? Ha!)

As far as ones that could be used in a library setting, WUFOO seems the most practical. I plan on looking at some of the rest of the tools on the Web 2.0 Awards site later to see other things that I might be able to use at school.

Thing #17 Web-based applications: not just for desktops anymore

I really liked Zoho writer because you can set up collaborations with whom you can share documents with, allowing them to edit and discuss documents that you have created. I shared a document I created with Mary and Debbie, allowing them to edit the document. I also published the page as a public page to be viewed by whoever is interested in looking at it. I also liked Zoho Writer because I can save documents online and access them them anywhere and I don't have to carry my USB drive around with me. A couple of other good things about Zoho Writer are that you can export files as a Word document or text file to use inside Word and can even export files as .pdf documents or HTML.

I used several of the templates on Zoho Writer and edited them. I then saved them under my templates to be used in the future. Two of the ones that I created were a Membership Certificate to recognize my library helpers at the shelves where they work and another template for a Student ID Badge for my library helpers so they can leave the cafeteria after eating, to come to the library to work.

Another one that I created was a Student Project Assessment document so that students can share in what ways they contributed to their group's research project and what they would do differently next time working in a research group.

The other document that I created was a Team Meeting document for planning with grade levels. They can go in and add information to the document themselves as well. Here is a link to this document:

Thing #16 Add an entry to the sandbox wiki

I thought the wiki was one of the easiest to learn and use of all the "things" we have done so far. I also, think it will be one of the most useful tools as far as educational use at school, whether for student communication and input or among teachers. I liked the fact that other's can add to the wiki, sharing information and ideas for other librarians or teachers to use. This is very easy way to collaborate without having to get together for a meeting when people are so busy.

A research unit could be developed between a librarian and a team of teachers without having to meet together. A Bluebonnet Book link in your wiki could be set up for discussion among students who had read books and wanted to recommend books or even steer peers away from certain books that they weren't impressed with. Students involved in writing assignments could do it on a wiki and other students could take part in peer editing to help improve writing skills. My favorite idea is to post a research project with resources, links to webpages, questions to answer and discussion questions. Click on the link on my sidebar to see the research wiki I made.