Collaboration!

(photo by wonderferret on Flickr - cc license)

Collaboration. That's kind of the goal right? We want to collaborate with teachers on great projects on any number of subjects. We want to collaborate with our students as they create interesting work products. We want to collaborate with each other on what technologies are working, what isn't and how we can best help our students and teachers get the most out of the library. That's something we've been told from day one. Which is pretty awesome. We are (hopefully) going to walk out the door ready to be collaboration experts, armed with an arsenal of cool, innovative and exciting technologies that can get it all done. Yes, it is definitely awesome. You know what else it is? Overwhelming. Not even looking at the personal side of it (i.e. how do we get them to want to work with us?) it's easy to go a little cross-eyed at the sheer number of resources there are out there for collaboration. 

Many schools have blackboard, which has collaboration functions that can be used by classes. For one fieldwork project I did I used blackboard to set up a library book club, we had discussions, could watch book trailers and even created a group document of questions to ask the authors (including one we ended up skyping with). All the new technology is awesome, but sometimes it's good to start with the familiar and then begin introducing new programs and technologies as teachers and students become more comfortable. 

Other technologies are also making their way into the school. Wikis, Blogs, LiveBinder, GoogleDocs, Edmodo, Cover it Live and Google+ can all be used effectively as collaboration tools. Even social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter can be implemented in different ways depending on the project. For me, I like the idea of a blog (no one should really be surprised at that answer) because from the blog you can build on so many different things. 

For example here are some ideas of ways to collaborate:

• Create a student submission page that would highlight students works including art, writing and even tutorials and videos that the students make. 
• Have a place for students and teachers to share book recommendations and reviews.
• Create a discussion/forums page where discussions can take place about projects and assignments. You can make these require a log in (so you can only view your class) or keep them open for discussions on things like a book club or upcoming events.
• Embed Twitter and Facebook feeds so that you can see a running discussion about not only things that are new to the library, but also about programs and other school events and news. 
• Have a live calendar for teachers to use to not only see the libraries upcoming schedule, but to also sign up for library time for their class. 
• Using Cover-it-Live (a site I love and use all the time) you can embed live chats. These can be used for classroom chats about projects, chats with teachers about upcoming projects or events and even to chat with authors as part of a library event or book club. 

Moving away from the blog- using tools like Twitter, Facebook and Google+ to collaborate is also a great way to connect with different groups or people, from students to teachers to parents. 

So with all these great ways to collaborate, where is the downside? In my opinion the fact that there are so many ways is the downside. As I noted, it can be overwhelming, and in our rush to try out what it new and cool, we need to be careful we don't overwhelm our teachers or students. For instance, in this class I've looked at what seems like a huge number of technologies and resources. I'm signing up for accounts left and right and trying to keep track of what seems like it will be most useful in the future. Which is all okay, because pretty soon it's going to be my job to know all these technologies and pass that knowledge on. (Want a little taste of what's out there? Check out this list from Cool Tools for School) As a librarian I think part of our job will be to look at what the teacher is hoping to accomplish, what level the students are at in terms of technology, and then look into our bag  of tricks and make a suggestion of what we think will work best for each circumstance. What we don't want to do is say "Oh, we could use google docs or maybe google+  would be better, or instead we could try to just use blackboard. Oh and have your tried doing a wiki? Maybe that would be best..." and so on. We want to help, not overwhelm. 

So, in short, collaboration is great. The number of choices we have out there to aid us in these collaborative projects is great. We need to give everything a test run, see what we like, see what will work best for our school, our teachers and our students and get to work creating great, innovating and effective projects!

Things I did at Fieldwork- aka Glogster and I are friends again.

I'm sure we all remember a week or so ago when I declared that Glogster ruined my life. That may have been a bit of an exaggeration. More correctly it ruined my day, but the fabulous Jennifer from Glogster sent me some great tips on how I could still make it all work. So next week we will officially start building glogs. I can't wait to see how the students make out!

For my part I did an example glog to show the students. They are working on Wetlands, so I did mine on the desert. That way they can see all the components that will go into it, but I wouldn't be giving them all the answers.

Here is my glog . Fact: I was going to embed, but could not for the life of me size it right. Also, there is audio that start automatically, so turn those speakers down if you need to!

UPDATE: Glogster Project Speedbump

So- this is pretty much unprecedented- 2 blog posts in one week. Usually I wouldn't be so on top of it, but today something happened that simply had to be blogged about. Glogster screwed up my life. Really.

I'm in the midst of doing my fieldwork at an elementary school. I've been at it for 3 weeks now, but this week was my first week with kids. the first 2 weeks were spent designing and setting up some really awesome projects with the librarian. One project will see the students researching and then creating a glog about life in the swamp. Accounts were set up- I was stoked to find out that we (the librarian and I) could each set up a free account and add enough students to get the project going for this semester. I created a demo glog and was pretty excited about it. This week we introduced the project to the students who were really, really excited!

Then, today, disaster struck. I logged in to change the passwords for the students and couldn't get to my student list. Why? Well, because as of today Glogster Basic no longer exists.

Yup, in order to continue this project I would have to upgrade to Teacher Light ($29.95/year and we would need 2 accounts) or Teacher Premium ($99/year). Even doing the month free upgrade won't work because this project spans 6 weeks... maybe I can squish it into 4, but that will put a lot of pressure on the kids to learn how to create a glog and actually do it in a short amount of time (roughly 3-4 classes what with Thanksgiving getting in the way and all).

Oh and for all my IST611 buddies- that project Erin and I turned in just last week? Yeah, it's kind of inaccurate now. The tutorial holds up, but some of the other information, especially in regards to the different account levels no longer applies. The strengths and weaknesses of Glogster would change too, since one big bonus was the ability to have free access for the most basic application. You couldn't do much with Teacher Basic, but it was enough to give students a little taste of what could possibly be done. Thank goodness Task One had us looking at alternatives- I may need to tap into those now!

So now what? Well, to start I have to get a hold of my librarian who is out of town for a few days and then try to figure out if there is a way to salvage this project or if we need to come up with soemthing totally different despite having already started the project with several classes. Needless to say I'm not overly thrilled with Glogster. They gave 5 days notice, which, because I only teach 2 days a week fell during the time I was not at school and therefore not working on Glogster. So for me, I got zero days notice. Not even an email to my actual email address (which I provided on account set up). 

I guess the moral of the story here is that you never know when a speedbump is going to be laid out in front of you. This is probably what life in the library is like all the time, so it's good to get used to it as quickly as possible. Also, have a back up plan. I better go get working on Plan B now.

UPDATE: So, despite Glogster messing my Wednesday up, I have to say I'm really impressed with the way it's gone from there. You'll note below in my comments that Glogster responded to this here post. Well, technically Jennifer from Glogster responded. Turns out that while I can't do it exactly the way I want to there are ways I can still get this project rolling and allow the kids to create some awesome glogs. It may take me a few more steps, and a little more time, but the fact that someone took the time to make some suggestions (and answer more questions via email) speaks volumes for the company. I get that they can't continue to provide everything for free (although, lets face it, that would be awesome) and that was never my issue. In fact, when I'm in a position to do so, I will probably pay for an account. It just doesn't make sense at this time, for this project. Now, thanks to Jennifer and her chance encounter with my blog, I've got a handful of things to take to my librarian and some feasible ways to keep this project going. So, in short, kudo's to Glogster. It's great to hear from companies, especially when you are frustrated! 

Bookshare.org

This week I'm looking at a site called Bookshare. One thing I've discovered while at school at SU is that there is so much out there that I have never heard of, let alone tried using. Bookshare falls into that category. So, what is Bookshare? Simply put "Bookshare’s® goal is to make the world of print accessible to people with disabilities. With a dynamic leadership team, dedicated Members and capable partners, Bookshare is making this goal a reality."

I will admit that when I first visited Bookshare.org I was overwhelmed at the sheer volume of information on their page, but after a little digging I was able to get at the heart of what Bookshare is and how it works. 

I'd say the best part to start is on the About Us Overview page- from here you can see the mission which is "Ensuring that all individuals with print disabilities have equal and timely access to print materials" For me this was such an aha moment. I mean, obviously this is how it should be, but the reality of the situation is that it's just not how it is. I immediately thought back to when I was a Special Ed aide about 6 years ago and worked with one student who had a print disability- what were his options? Well, I read aloud to him a lot. Not because he couldn't read, but because he couldn't read the small print in the books. Additionally, because my reading aloud to him might cause a disruption to the other students reading silently around him in class on certain days, this meant we had to leave the classroom and go to the resource room and essentially conduct the assignment there, just the two of us. So not only did his visual disability keep him from reading some of the assigned text, it kept him from participating in the classroom. So, as I explored Bookshare I found myself thinking about how his school experience, his learning experience, could have been more effective with a program like this.  The easy answer was that it would have been such a help for him. Any time we can get more resources in the hands of students, disability or no disability, it's a good thing. 

More telling then the about us or how it works pages were the testimonial videos. Here is one that I thought really captured what Bookshare can do for students- not only in providing access to the books, but in increasing comprehension and making reading less stressful and more enjoyable for the students. 

At this point I've never used Bookshare, so I can't really speak to ease of use or even the collection of books available, but I can say that this will be a resource that I will keep in my back pocket for when the need arises. 

What do you guys think about Bookshare? Have any of you used it with a student? 

Blogging about Blogging

So it's been awhile. A long while. Despite my assertion that I would try to post a few times a semester It's been almost a year. But I'm here now, and that's what matters, right? So why am I back almost a year after my last post? Well, mostly because homework made me (It's always homework's fault), but it's a good thing. this poor blog has been neglected and it needs some love. So my blog thanks you, IST611, for forcing me to post here! So onto the assignment...

For class this week we were tasked with using a blog to discuss a few topics regarding blogging. So yes, as the title of this post says, I'm blogging about blogging. So lets get to it. 

The short answer is that I love blogging (even if it isn't evident by this particular blog). I either run or work on 8 blogs. 2 book blogs, 2 writing blogs, a photo blog, online portfolio and 2 blogs which are event specific (and also related to books). Just today I set up a blog for one of the elementary classes I'm working with the semester. So in other words, I'm of the mind set that a blog is ALWAYS a good thing. There are so many different sites that you can use to get the job done. I use Blogger for this blog and some others, Wordpress for one book blog and my online portfolio, Kidblog.org for my classroom/student blog, Weebly for my writing blog and have used Edublogs in the past for other projects. Sometimes it takes a little legwork to find which one will work for you, but it's worth it. It can create such a dynamic space online that can only reach more people. 

Part of our  discussion this week is supposed to revolve around how you can use blogging to address the AASL Standards. In my opinion you can do this is so many different ways. By having links to the different Web2.0 technologies you have access too and some ideas for how they can be used in support of the curriculum and AASL Standards you are giving your patrons, both teachers and students, instant access to what is there. By embedding vlogs you can make announcement on what is new or upcoming without having to call or email everyone. You can create a separate page on your blog that houses links to journal articles regarding why using technology in the classroom is a good thing. In other words, use your blog to share what you know. Don't wait for people to come to you and ask "What can you do for me?", instead make the blog a place where people can go and find out all the new and exciting things you have available and how they can support the projects in the classroom. Make it a place where you can share your ideas as well as the end results of the collaborative projects. 

Now the other half of this weeks discussion revolved around RSS feeds. I love blogs, I hate RSS feeds. I've tried using them, but for me it just creates one more spot I have to check, and I already have enough places to look. Most sites I follow either have a follow function or have a twitter or facebook page. New posts almost always are linked to one of these sites. Essentially making twitter or facebook my feed. On facebook these blog updates show right up with all my friends wall posts so it becomes a one stop shop for me. Why would I want to go somewhere else? Now I know many others love their RSS feeds, my husband being one of them, so I don't think they are dead on vine, but they aren't the thing for me. 

So what say all you? Am I too much in love with blogging? Am I being unfair with my hate-fest of RSS feeds? Sound off in the comments. 

Happy Blogging!

~Kate 

In case anyone is interested... here are links to my three main blogs (of the remaining 4, some are more dormant then this one has been (we'll ignore those), and others are part of my fieldwork and private to the classes that are using them)

A Reader's Ramblings (book blog)
Eve's Fan Garden (book blog)
The House that Books Built (writers blog)

NYLA Conference

Check me out posting again so soon. I had I feeling I wouldn't #blogfail you again so soon. (I'm sure all my followers are relieved...)

So this post is not about class or homework, but instead about some of the other stuff we get to do, specifically conferences! One of the great perks of being a library student is student rates on conferences. For all of you LIS student's reading (*chirp*chirp* <- those are the crickets...) take advantage of this like crazy. I still can not quite afford any of the big conferences, though I would love to hit up the ALA conference, the student pricing really makes the local conferences really affordable. I did NYLA today, I'm going to NCTE (my big expenditure of the year) in Orlando in a few weeks and then hopefully the YSS and SLMS (both NYLA divisions) in the spring. Another student perk is the chance to go for a scholorship as well, which makes is really afforadable!

NYLA was alot of fun. It was a multiday conference, but I was only able to go for one day, so I tried to cram it all in today. It made for a rediculously long day what with driving to and from the 'cuse to Saratoga Springs, but worth it. I was working the iSchool booth during the middle of the day, so in the a.m. I walked the exhibit hall and in the afternoon I went to a seminar.

The Expo Hall had some great booths, and I really enjoyed talking to some great representatives. Some of the things I was really excited to here about was using RFID tags to help librarians streamline and save time and money. Using the tags patrons can self check-out, the library can use the tags to make sure no books leave the library without being check-out and my personal favorite, you can take inventory by simply walking the stacks with a readers instead of touching every single book. I also really enjoyed talking to the Barnes & Noble's reps about using the Nook in school libraries. There was many more great reps and booths (including the stellar iSchool one), but those two stood out.

In the afternoon I went to a seminar on Storytelling and teaching kids to tell stories. It was a blast. I took storytelling in my undergrad minor program, and loved it, so this was a great reminder of the fun that I had back then. The presenters were wonderful storytellers and also gave us some tips on how to help childrens learn to tell stories, which will help them buld confidence and creativity (it's a win-win!).

I especially liked working the booth. As someone who used to hate being social, I've suddenly really started to enjoy getting out there more. The booth wasn't horribly busy, but I talked to a few people about the iSchool and had fun telling then about the different programs. I even got to explain the cost of SU, which far exceeded what the guy had hoped the cost would be! I'm really hoping I get the chance to work the booth at some future conferences/events.

I didn't get to do a whole lot at this conference, but I was able to do a little bit of everything. Mostly it has made me want to go to more conferences.

Blog Fail & Semester Updates

So in my overly ambitous last post I stated that I would be updating this blog once a week. That was almost 2 months ago. Clearly I was overestimating the amount of time I would have to blog. That's okay though- I like knowing that this blog is here if I need it. It waiting, ready and willing to assist me should I needs it's pages to use for an assignment (one of which I'm working on now- Hello IST614!).

This semester has been tough, but fun. For IST605 (reference class) I've been looking at alot of reference books and other sources. Who would have thought? it's been illuminating and slightly overwhelming. I spent 3.5 hours at the public library this past weekend looking at Encyclopedias and Almanacs and other reference sources. I looked at 20, and very quickly was reminded exactly how much I don't know. I emerged less confident and more confident all at the same time. Less confident in the sense that there is no way I can ever know all the resources that are out there, and therefore might miss the opportunity to steer someone towards the perfect resource. On the flip side, I'm more confident because I have a better sense of what is out there, and I'm now convinced that there is a place to find whatever information a patron might want, I just might have to dig a little to find it.

605 also led me to start volunteering at the High School Library. First it was for an assignment, I had to observe a reference librarian, but I pretty much just kept coming back, and now they are stuck with me. I've gotten a chance to see some cataloging and reference in action, I'm going to be helping with the weeding process, and most exciting for me, have gotten to participate in their book club. For those who don't know, I'm a book club addict. I'm in a few, and was super excited to get to see how it works at a high school level, especially when teens and their rediculously busy schedule are involved. Being at the High School also prompted me to officially go School Media, so I'm stoked about that as well.

As for my other class (IST614- Management) I will admit to being slightly overwhelmed by the subject at hand. Having never taken a management class before it's all new to me, and sometimes I feel like I'm trying to learn a foriegn language. Luckily I have a great teacher (Gandel), who doesn't seem to mind all of the questions we keep throwing his way. I find myself learning a huge amount of information in this class, even if I don't have a handle on how to apply it all yet. Currently I'm working on two seperate projects for this class. One is a communication problem wherein I have to essentially role play (via memo) as a new Dean of Libraries at a University. This is a great assignment because I get to think about what my vision would be- especially nice when the possibilities are endless! The second project in dlightly more daunting- a case study of two Fortune 500 companies. not only have I never had a management class, but I've also never taken anything that remotely resembles a business course, so this project is like learning two new languages, simultaneously. I'm hoping that I can get a good handle on it all, and really finish up with a great analysis.

So that's about it. 2 months in one rather longish blog post. Chances are it will be another month or so before I get in gear and post again. Think of this post as my Mid-semester report. When the semester is done, I can do a nice wrap up. Although, with 2 conferences looming on the horizon (NYLA and NCTE) I may feel compelled to post earlier. No promises though, I'd hate to get your hopes up, only to BlogFail you again.

Until next time....