Reflection on the Experience of Blogging

While blogging over the past few months, I have become more comfortable with this method of communication. Although there were some nights of panic in which I couldn’t seem to find any more to say about my two assigned topics, there were also many times in which I encountered new sites or ideas that I was very eager to share with my blog's readers.

The most positive part of this experience was definitely being part of a resource-sharing community. By learning about new websites and technologies from my classmates, I became excited to explore more of the web and to share my discoveries.

Each member of my blogging group made a lasting impact on my education. From the Confused Student in Information Technologies blog, I learned about the social tagging and recommendation site StumbleUpon, from which I was then able to find new websites to share in my own entries. I also enjoyed learning about Second Life from this blog and now see that it is a wonderful way for people who have trouble communicating in person to share their thoughts, ideas, and resources with one another. It’s also a helpful site from which people around the world can learn from one another for free.

Due to Ace’s Blog, I understand the usefulness of RSS feeds and can definitely see myself using them to keep informed about library-related news and ideas while working as a library media specialist. Geocaching also sounds like a great way to combine technology and the outdoors and may be an activity to begin with students or my family members in the future.

Thanks to Juddthelibrarian’s Weblog, I learned to give Wikipedia a chance, especially because it has a lot to offer in terms of pop culture and can be a great starting point from which students can gain background information on their topics and find more stringently-reviewed resources to support their claims. I also have begun searching both YouTube and TeacherTube for useful video clips on a variety of topics.

Finally, the research for my own blog entries has been very informative. While I doubt that I would purchase either DyKnow Vision or DyKnow Monitor for my upcoming elementary library position, I see their value as highly-interactive teaching tools for upper grades. Learning objects are even more directly applicable to my future, and I was thrilled to find and share learning object sites and repositories for future use.

Despite the “What could I possibly write about?” moments, I do view blogging as a useful information-sharing tool. Being able to link directly to discussed sites is very beneficial to a blog’s readers, and a blog is much more interactive than newsletters or other one-way communication forms. I do plan to create a school website blog for my upcoming library media specialist position and hope that students, teachers, and parents will share their favorite books, sites, and ideas with me as I share all of mine with them each week. I will include pictures, audio files, videos, and tutorials on my new blog to make it more interesting and useful than this current one. I also plan to involve students in blogging about books and research findings, as blogging is familiar to some students already and will provide them with the exciting opportunity to share their thoughts with the world!

Learning Objects Galore!

As our course winds down, I want to point out one more site I have added to my StumbleUpon account. This one contains links to fantastic interactive sites in various subject areas, and each of the linked sites contains learning objects that you may want to pass along to educators in your school. I could spend hours looking through all of the possibilities on this site and am excited to use it in conjunction with a SMARTBoard.

The site is called Interactive Websites for Grades Pre-K-12. If you haven't already seen it, check it out here: http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/interactive.htm

Happy browsing!

Sites With Learning Objects, Courtesy of PBS

PBS Teachers offers free subject-area guides with relevant site suggestions and descriptions. The recommended sites within the .pdf guides offer some great learning objects in the form of games and activities. I'm adding the PBS Teachers site to my collection and just wanted to pass it along in case you don't already have it. :)

Learning Objects, Inc.

As I continue to search for interesting articles and sites with descriptions/examples of learning objects, I keep coming across a company called Learning Objects, Inc.

Based on Learning Objects, Inc.'s page describing the company's K-12 products, it looks like they sell blogging, podcasting, etc. platforms to schools. I do wonder, though, how they will manage to continue to sell the products when schools can access sites (like Blogger.com) that offer such products for free. Since we are discussing filters this week in class, I have begun to wonder whether the issue is that schools can't access sites like Blogger due to filter issues. Any thoughts?

A High School Library with Posted Learning Objects

Joyce Valenza at the Springfield Township High School Library has also created a page in which various learning objects that she and her students created are posted. Some of them (especially the student-produced ones) are specific to her school and its mascots but could be used in different Springfield Township High School classes at various grade levels. Others are more universally applicable.

Using the School Library Website to Post Learning Objects

After completing my practicum in a Syracuse City School District library this spring, I've realized just how much professional collaboration can do in terms of disseminating both ideas and learning objects. Syracuse City is a VERY large district, which means that there are many talented librarians sharing their knowledge, experiences, and resources. These librarians meet for professional development for a full day each month, at which point various librarians and the library media director share best practices and their experiences with new books, clubs, and technologies. The library media director also maintains pages of the district website and uses these pages to make library resources, including some learning objects created by district librarians, available to everyone in the district.

A few learning objects in the form of PowerPoints have been shared on the "LMS Tools" page under the category of "SCSD Power Point Presentations" (some presentations directed towards library media specialists instead of students are also linked within this category). I hope that the number of learning objects posted to this site continues to increase, as there are so many talented librarians who have created learning objects that will benefit everyone.

Have you visited any school library media center websites with posted learning objects? If so, please share! :)

Addicted to StumbleUpon!

Ever since "Confused Student" suggested StumbleUpon to me, it has become harder and harder to stay away from my computer! Here are a few reasons why my addiction to StumbleUpon has grown over the past couple of weeks:

1) Through the StumbleUpon toolbar, I am led to so many new and interesting sites based on my categories of interest and my opinions of previous sites-- That's great in and of itself!

2) I can tag (or, in many cases, edit existing tags for) all of the sites I like. This feature has enabled me to create a sortable list of favorites that I can access from any computer.

3)If I go into my StumbleUpon account and click on other people's reviews of the websites I have saved as favorites, I am led to their accounts and can see what other sites they have liked in various categories.

4)No matter what work I am doing online, the StumbleUpon toolbar seems to be calling out, "Click me," "Click me," and who could resist? The best site ever might be the one that comes up next!!!

If there is a StumbleUpon addicts group, I may need to join. When used sparingly, though (and not to the exclusion of exercise and other responsibilities), it's quite the resource! :) Thanks for sending it my way, "Confused Student"!

Cyber Safety Learning Objects and Lesson Plans

Thanks to this week's class reading assignment, I read about many sites containing cyber safety learning objects. Here are two of the best sources of cyber safety learning objects that I came across:

• Cyber Tree House: Games, music videos, and other digital activities that can be incorporated into elementary school cyber safety lessons
• NetSmartz Kids and Teens Pages: More digital activities, games, and videos that can be incorporated into various lessons and discussions

From this week's discussion leader, I then acquired the link to a wonderful learning object on phishing:

• Anti-Phishing Phil: Informative, fun game teaching students how to recognize phishing schemes; I learned a lot from this game too! :)

For cyber safety lesson plans, I found these two sites to be most helpful:

• CyberSmart! Lesson Plans and Activity Pages: Contains plans for a variety of K-8 Internet safety/use lessons
• Purdue's CERIAS Lessons: More elementary school and middle school lesson plans, ideas, and materials on Internet safety/use; many of these are quite creative and would really appeal to students (Even though the lessons on this site are written in Indiana and include Indiana subject-area standards, they could be used to meet most states' standards.)

Do you have any cyber safety favorites that you have used or encountered along the way?