11.5 Thing # 11

Digital citizenship is a great topic and one I am glad is a part of 11.5 things. A few years ago at TLA I attended a session given by Alan November. He discussed how many websites are deceiving. He showed the audience a Martin Luther King web site which was really set up by the KKK and was propaganda. Site evaluation is one of our students' least favorite things to do and one that few teachers enforce. Every year during Freshmen orientation I mention the MLK website in an attempt to teach the students not to take everything on the web at its face value. Stephen Downes on Cool Cat teacher says that a person who reads a website and believes it to be true no matter what is illiterate. How true is that? Etti quite is another important lesson which I stress during orientation. This is extremely important to me. I tell my students that cyber bullying is wrong, if you won't say something directly to someone why is it okay to post it on the Internet? In this technology driven world we live in we need to learn to be good "citizens".

11.5 Thing # 10

This was way outside of my comfort zone. Unfortunately, or fortunately for me, the software crashed on my computer. I got an error message, seems my older laptop cannot handle the program. My new laptop will not be ready until late August. I did read all of the blogs and posts and was very impressed with the middle schoolers who are using second life. I can see how this would appeal to our techno savvy kids who have grown up with computers and gaming. Adding the education element would be as natural to our students as breathing. I, on the other hand, could learn how to do this if I attended a session and was walked through this. Maybe I will contact Mrs. Ovalle at Region One and ask her to offer second life as a possible topic for inservice.

11.5 Thing #9

I had come across slideshare previously. Often when I attend a conference it is easier to just watch and listen to presentations than try to take notes. Presenters are great about posting their PowerPoint on slideshare and I can then view at my leisure or download for further study.
What great tools for teachers. Many teachers use PowerPoint to teach their lessons, posting on slideshare or another of the hosting sites allow students access to lectures they might have missed due to an absence. Our students often have home computers but do not always have access to Microsoft Office which means no PowerPoint. 280 slides is FREE and a great tool for the students.

Five Social Software Sites that libraries shouldn't ignore

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11.5 Thing # 8

As I was reading the assignment I was brainstorming as to all of the different ways that I could use this tool. Freshmen orientation, teaching everyone how to use the DKC databases, faculty in services, etc. Then I attempted to use ScreenCastle, various attempts by the way. Not sure what I was doing wrong but my buttons would disappear and I couldn't figure out how to get them back. Tried Jing next, Sun what Sun, it never appeared on my desktop. At this point I started feeling really insignificant and went to bed. Woke up the next morning and tried GoView. What a relief, made a quick video and was able to embed. Will next try to record myself doing a quick overview of the databases and posting on my blog or wiki and let the teachers know it is there to use from their classroom before they visit the library. Great reinforcement.

11.5 Thing # 7

Video is such a huge part of our everyday experience and can be used so effectively in the classroom. Hulu, which I had visited many times before, is a great site. I must admit that I tended to go to Hulu when I needed to catch up on a missed episode of House or one of my other favorite shows. Can't wait to tell the teachers about all of the other videos located in this great site. Found videos of President Obama's weekly address, how great is that? Government teachers would love to have that for their students. Joyce Valenza as always has a great list of video resources, they are now tagged in my del.icio.us account. Had never heard of Blinkx, found a site just for teens with gossip video clips and other videos of interest to teens.
Our teachers will love the PBS site as well as some of the National Geographic videos. Often our school budget does not allow us to spend as much as we would like on videos, this is a great way for our teachers to use current videos or clips from news and documentaries that cover material being discussed in class. Great way to keep the students attention.

The first video I chose is a movie trailer for a movie that I am anxiously awaiting. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak was a favorite of my daughters, my husband and I would read it over and over to them. A few years ago my husband surprised me with a set of all of the characters from the book. I want to display the figures in the library before the movie is released. The second video is from Google Video and is on Hurricane Katrina . Our social studies teachers are always looking for short clips to share with their students while lecturing as a way to make history more real to the students. Considering we live on the coast, this video is extremely relevant.

11.5 Thing # 6

I was really looking forward to this assignment because my goal is to purchase an IPhone very soon, thought I would be able to practice on my daughter's ITouch. Wrong, daughter was not keen on me messing with her new device. The nerve! I did, however, enjoy looking through all of the blog postings on all of the apps that are free or available for purchase. Our school recently purchased 60 IPods which we had to process. My fellow librarian and I were wondering what the teachers would use them for and we were both concerned about security. One of the blogs led me to 100 Ways to Use your Ipod to learn and study better. What a great site. Love the apps for ESL Podcast, great for our newcomers. Spark notes has a great SAT Vocabulary builder which would be great for our Juniors and Seniors preparing for the test.
So many apps to choose from, I am really looking forward to getting my new phone soon and am now feeling a little better about our school Ipods.

11.5 Thing # 5

There are so many applications for Twitter as far as classroom use goes. Just recently I was speaking to our English Chair and suggested that her AP students could set up accounts and she could have them Tweet their responses to certain questions, essays, literary analysis etc. How precise do you have to be with the amount of characters provided? Talk about checking for understanding. This is just one way that I have been thinking of presenting Twitter to our faculty. I have been considering forming a Twitter account for our school library. I can tweet about library happenings, new book arrivals and other library news. Am thinking of calling our Twitter account PorterReaders.
I formed my own facebook page about a month ago. It did take me a while to take the plunge but I'm finally in. Will be honest and say that it doesn't really rock my boat. Am I too old? I do keep up with friends, but sometimes I still think we put so much of ourselves out there for other people to see/know. Have been considering setting up a facebook account for my library but facebook is blocked from school so I am still at the consideration stage.
About 15 years ago I set up a Biology class with our old satellite dish to watch a live program , the students had the chance to call in (yes with an actual land line phone) and ask questions. Back-channeling is the Web 2.0 version of this. Participants have a chance to tweet questions or comments to the presenter or to other participants thus giving the presenter a chance to keep his/her lecture or presentation relevant to the audience. This is perfect for some of our Dual-enrollment students who listen to the professor lecture through the web and can now have a way to really feel like they are part of the class.

11.5 Thing # 4

I really don't know what it is about posting on YouTube that makes me so nervous. I Twitter, I Blog and have a Wiki. Maybe it is really putting myself out there, not just my thoughts and ideas, but an actual product created by me and graded by everyone. Insecure? You bet! Students, however, have no qualms about posting videos and pretty much everything else on the web.
Some of our English teachers that I have introduced Animoto to have had students create videos and then post them on their own Wikis that I have helped them set up. Students love seeing their finished products on the web. This has had the advantage of showing other students that if Mrs. Cavazos's class can do it, so can they.
Teachers can access some of the videos on either TeacherTube or YouTube to help them present a lesson in a different format or introduce a new concept. I have used some of the videos produced by Common Craft to introduce Wikis and Blogs to our staff. Great teaching tool.
I am really not sure I will leave my videos on YouTube for long, too amateurish.