Friday, May 20, 2016

Final Reflection

I am a tech weenie and I decided to try Cool Tools to get over some of my tech fear.  I started at the beginning (Track 1) with the thought of doing all 10, but time was not on my side and I struggled to get through the first 5 options.  I researched"  Curation, Digital Storytelling, Social Media, Photo Fun and starting a blog.  I enjoyed all of my topics and learned something from each of them.  Curation was interesting and I never even thought about all the different careers people can have in this field.  I think this is definitely something to look into once I finish my career as a school librarian.  Digital Storytelling was familiar to me and it is something I would love to explore more with my students in the future.  Time is a factor here in the library and I usually only have 30 minutes to get 25 or more students through the library.  One can only hope that schedules will continue to evolve and there will be more time for actual education in the library in the future.  I'm still not a great fan of Social Media, however, I am beginning to use "wechat" at home because it is one of the few ways that I can keep in touch with my son in China.  I loved exploring around the different sites of Photo Fun.  This is a great way to store photos.  The sites make it so easy to categorize and organize your photos.  Blogging was ok.  I have done blogs before, but never really kept up with them.  Again, time can be an issue.  One of my biggest challenges was not having my own computer at home.  I have my work computer and a work issued laptop for home, but so many of the sites I wanted to explore were blocked.  This tells me that I really need to update my technology for home use.

I would love to continue to learn with Cool Tools.  A quick look around this site tells me I have sooooo much more to learn.  I would like to do more with Digital Storytelling with my students, and again, if I have the time, work on lesson plans that revolve around storytelling.  I really don't think I'm in the position to share what I have learned with others (except my husband or kids who kind of laugh and say they learned these skills in the 90s) but that's ok.  As long as I learned something, I feel great.

I loved the way Cool Tools was set up.  It allowed me to do the lessons when I had the time.  I was slightly intimidated at first, but I worked through that.  For me, a woman in her late 50's, this was a great learning experience and I would definitely look for this workshop in the future.

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Thing 5: Curation

I just finished an interesting article about Curation by Joyce Valenza.  I learned what digital curation was and the role that school librarians are playing in this field.  The article is spot-on.  Librarians often have their fingers on current information for just about any topic.  However, I don't want the public to feel that all librarians have the time to gather information, pour through articles to determine what is relevant, and sufficiently categorize it all into proper fields.  On most days, I teach 7 classes which means no breaks and just a 10 minute lunch (if I'm lucky).  I envy the librarians who monitor the library and actually have time to help patrons when needed.  But I definitely see the need for this skill and I often am at a loss when looking up a certain topic and then have to weed through too many articles to find accurate information.  I also like the information near the end of the article to visit the LibGuide site to access the portal to thousands of curated guides.  That's where I'm off to next.

Friday, February 12, 2016

THING 4: Digital Storytelling

So I'm reading about Digital Storytelling and I'm wondering if this wouldn't be a great way to showcase what I'm doing with my 4th/5th/6th graders on their yearlong peace project.  I did a presentation at a local college about this project, and one of the participants asked me if I was documenting what I was doing.  Of course, I'm not, but what a great idea.  When I was looking over the information on Digital Storytelling, I looked into "Exposure" and thought that might be a great site to showcase what I'm doing here at school.  I will look into this more during our Winter Break.
Thing 3:  Social Media

Just realized that the "bird symbol" means Twitter.  Who knew?
THING 3:  Social Media

Just watched video, "Why are you Still Not on Twitter" and I seriously think I'm not on Twitter because I don't have one of those fancy phones that can do that.  My phone is not attached to the internet, so I don't think I can tweet.  I really just have my phone for making calls (and texting - I do do that).  Anyway, watched this video and I have no idea what they are talking about.  I mean, what does "drag message" even mean?  However, I do understand how cool tweeting can be and how it really does connect you with everyone.  My dinosaur phone really does need to be replaced.  I'll have to work on that.

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Thing 3:

Looking into Social Media (which is not my thing) but am finding cool reading sites.  Some of these I already know about, and some are new.  I was just on YA Book Club and have been having fun reading what young kids are recommending.  This is great because I'm always putting in book orders for my school, and sometimes I struggle with the YA books.  I know the popular ones, but knowing what kids have read and recommend is great.  The site gives you a good overview of the book and how many kids have recommended it.  This is a great site to find and use.

Monday, January 4, 2016

Thing 2 : Photo Fun



Above is a photo of my crazy family (just the kids) that I took over Christmas.  I am failing miserably at this assignment because my work computer won't let me access Pixabay.  Many sites are blocked here at school.  Unfortunately, I don't currently have a working computer at home.  I did spend a good deal of time exploring Flickr, Snapfish, Shutterfly and Piinterest.  While I can save a picture to my computer and open it to look, I couldn't drag it to this blog site.  I really don't wish to sign up for an account on any of these sites.  So instead, I downloaded a picture I recently took and dragged it over (see above).  However, I did love looking at the images (especially on Flickr) and was very inspired.  I'm working on a paper crane project here at school and I found many wonderful ideas of ways I can incorporate the cranes into pieces of art.  And, of course, Pinterest (which I used to love looking at before I had to have an account) is a wonderful source of creativity.