Library Media Specialist Padawan

I’m getting ready to present with a friend (or rather, she’s presenting and I’m lucky to be added to the session!) at MACUL, or the Michigan Association for Computer Use in Learning.  MACUL’s annual conference is March 10-12 in Grand Rapids, MI, and it’s a great opportunity to learn about the latest and greatest in technology for educators and students. We’re showing screencasting, and how we use it in education.

Her focus will be on how screencasting can be used by students to show their learning or thought process on a computer application.  So, when a student says “I can’t figure out how to do this” or “I can’t find this”, they can use screencasting to show the steps they’ve taken so she can help them, and perhaps modify her instruction for future users to clarify a confusing point.

My focus will be on using screencasting to help teachers.  So far, I’ve created screencasts showing staff how students can log into Accelerated Reader to take a reading test, and to make modifications in their students’ accounts on Study Island, our test prep program.  As previous posts indicate, I have been using screenr.com to create these screencasts.  But, for the presentation, I decided to try other online tools, like Screenjelly and Screentoaster.

Back to the title of this post, was I surprised yesterday when I discovered that I could incorporate my webcam into my screencast using Screentoaster.  Here’s the sample I created (and, you’ll note, I put on real clothes and brushed my hair for the occasion!).

Well, I spent most of the time job searching and volunteering at the Baldwin Center in Pontiac, helping to establish a library and support their summer enrichment program.  Here’s the article, which made the Birmingham Eccentric:

http://www.hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=NEWS02

And here’s the picture of me!

One of many Google tools is Picasa, which allows users to load pictures, edit them and create photo albums and slideshows.  I’ve been working this summer at a summer enrichment program in an urban/challenged environment, and created my own video using Picasa to create the slideshow and Soundsnap for music.  You can view the video using this link:

Baldwin Summer Library Program

One minor complaint — I tried to add it to my own webpage, which I created using Google sites, but had no luck.  Did a little research on the web and discovered that I had to upload it to Youtube and then use that video feed for my website.

I have been a big fan of Muppets, Sesame Street versions included (although I think they are monsters, not to be confused with the real Muppets who had a prime time series and their own film careers).  So I often go to YouTube to find footage, of Kermit doing fairy tales, or the time the cast sang “Oklahoma”, or to see Grover and Kermit discuss oral hygiene.

Now Sesame Street has their own video archive, and the quality is much better than what I can find on YouTube.  Check out these:

Rapunzel

Grover & Kermit – healthy teeth

Okay, those are my favorites — you can pick your own.

And yes, this isn’t too Web 2.0, and not very educational, but fun!

Started a Google Maps mashup today, adding locations for my upcoming ALA convention in Chicago.  So far, have posted my hotel, interesting restaurants, the convention hall, and where I’m going to see the Harry Potter exhibit (Museum of Science and Industry!)

It’s called                               ALA Chicago – UofM Collaborators

U of M for University of Michigan, figuring that others would be creating ALA Chicago maps.  Just starting to learn how to use this function (Google maps) but have seen a number of people speak about it at conferences.  I also was able to add the public transportation system, at least when I view it myself, which will be beneficial if/when I venture beyond the ALA bus route.

Can’t wait to see you all there!

LibraryThing has gone through a number of upgrades/changes in recent months that are worthy of note, for librarians, teachers and other enthusiastic users.

The other day I wanted to keep track of books I planned to read for the summer, but keep them separate from my list of books that I have already read.  Well, LibraryThing allows you to distinguish between collections.  The standard ones they offer include:

• Your Library
• Wishlist
• Currently Reading
• To Read
• Read but Unowned
• Favorites

You can also create your own lists — I added “Elementary School“, “Middle School” and “Young Adult“, so I could readily identify books that fit those categories, then added it to my portfolio so prospective employers could see what I’ve read.  This will also help me in my future as a media specialist advise other students on things to read, and to develop the school’s collection.

Another exciting LibraryThing function is the fact that one can now add tags to a book from a book’s main page while viewing other user tags at the same time.  While sometimes I like to be original and creative, I find I’ve established many distinct tags (with only one book that matches) and might benefit from following other user ideas.

Now, I’m still hoping that LibraryThing will add a search feature on the main page that searches the whole of the LibraryThing database and not just the items in my collection.  I think this would benefit librarians who need other user information to find the popularity of an item, other readers’ thoughts, age level, etc.

Okay, back to my reading!

Okay, have to admit it, I’m not on the YouTube bandwagon.  I admitted in my Gliffy post that I wasn’t a visual learner, so I have to step out of how I learn best to see the utility of videos in the classroom. Most of my current professional experience with videos comes from school staff meetings, where they show the video of how much is changing in the world.  And I’ll also admit that I’m a bit older — old enough to remember the era of filmstrips, with the teacher droning on like Ben Stein did in “The Wonder Years” about lava and hot ash coming out of volcanos.  I’m also a school media specialist, and can envision using this medium more in a regular classroom (to show a new math skill, give a book review, teach a science lesson, etc.) than in a media center.  Although, perhaps, I could use it as a media specialist to do booktalking, maybe even over the school announcements.  

One other concern — lots of advertising on the page which was somewhat distracting, including the Google ads which appeared on top of the video.  They do have large screen and classroom large screen modes (the latter of which requires one to sign up for an account), which might be a way to minimize the ad distraction.

This would have to take more thought, and I’d love to see another professional and how they use it.  Good to know it is there as a resource.

I did think this one called America Idle was fun — it’s an American Idol takeoff on how to evaluate various information resources.

This is a fun tool, although I admit I much more of a “words” than a “picture” person, so I have to think outside of what is normal and comfortable to me to see applications. I had some problems with Gliffy — I tried to left justify some text in a box and made my whole diagram disappear, I couldn’t figure out how to do arrows in a flow chart, and I could not figure out if it was possible to edit text once it was created within a cell. Would kids have similar problems? I think this is more of an adult tool, for people that do flow charts and diagrams and are comfortable with manipulating them. I would love to see some examples of how kids have used it in the past to know what can be done with it.

Here is my chart on how to check a book out of a school media center — I’m posting it as a link rather than embedding it as an image because it keeps writing over my whole blog no matter how I edit the image parameters, grrrrr….

Wikis are a great tool with lots of possibilities for application. In this exploration, I looked at some of the ignite! program wikis in Birmingham schools, along with the Battle of the Books wiki. No need to explore Wikipedia — I have to admit, even as a school librarian, it is one of my favorite sites for gathering information initially on a topic, particularly those pop culture questions (how old is Boy George? and what exactly happened on that episode of “Lost” that I just watched?) I particularly think wikis are well suited for elementary school — what a great way for kids to publish their work, for others to see what they’ve done, for teachers to provide information to students and families, and for families to know what’s going on in the classroom. It reminds me of those wall displays of art work — as much as I always liked looking at my child’s version of the assignment when it came home, somehow the whole wall display told a more complete and different story about what was going on in the classroom.

That being said, I have some reservations. I worked with a high school teacher during my student teaching assignment who wanted some way for students to use the web to express their opinions on government and the election process. We explored wikis as a possibility, but settled on a blog. My main concern about the wiki at the high school level was sabotage — would other students be tempted to change or manipulate another student’s work? Certainly, Stephen Colbert encourages viewers of “The Colbert Report” to do just this. In the end, we settled on using blogs as the best tool.

I played around with this tool briefly to get a handle on how to use it.  I think it would be very helpful in a school setting, particularly with younger students, if you want them to do web search but want to limit the search universe.  It’s also a great way to add Google search features to a website.

My daughter has been buying and selling used college textbooks, so my Google custom search just looks at the major vendors, like Alibris, half.com, Amazon,etc.  I discovered you can search on ISBN as long as you omit the dashes.  Mine is called Selling/Buying Used Books

I’m going to add this to the blog here.

One last comment I’ll add — I’ve seen Google custom search used on websites, like the University of Michigan’s website for example.  People are used to how Google seems to take them where they want to go, but this is based to the complilation of multiple searches and the selected results.  Google’s search formula doesn’t work as well until it has this history to back it up, so people may be dissatisfied with the results from a custom search feature, particularly if it is only on one website.