#11 Library Thing

Wow! This one I could play with all day!
I joined up and was delighted that each book I entered was quickly 'found' and had been entered by other members. This led me to see what they liked reading and also to some interesting discussion groups (that I stayed out of...enough time on the computer without that!)
As we have an automated catalogue at school (even though it is over 20years old) I see no use for this there, however I have been wanting to start a library at church and this just might be the tool to get me organised. Mind you the pastor doesn't know about this yet...just ideas brewing in this old head of mine.
Oh so much to be discovered! Joy Oh joy.

# 10 Online Graphic Generators

I think this is alot of fun and very time consuming but I'm not sure what use many of these tools have in the primary classroom setting.
I enjoyed playing with 'says it.com' and made some fun signs for my private viewing only. I didn't try to save them at all.
I did however save my avatar...but I'm not sure where it is saved to. Pity because I was going to paste it on this post.
Now I've had a play with adding captions to photos. The process was very slow. It maybe the computer I'm using at the moment. (mine is away being fixed so I'm using a loan computer). The activity itself could be used by students before adding their photo to a presentation be that photopeach or powerpoint or other. The difficulty would be time. Computers are always in such high demand at school waiting for things to happen is not good use of computer or time. Anyway here is my use of BigHugsLabs

#8 igoogle

Igoogle is fun.
 This is a tool I had not used before but being a very visual person I really enjoyed putting my homepage together. I have little turtles to feed each day and I can now check the daily weather and radar all in the same place. It is great to have my RSS feeds and gmail there as well but my favourite gadget is the to-do-list. My facebook account is with yahoo mail so it doesn't load. Nor is there a way to add my yahoo mail...but I can cope with this.
Working at Google....mmm. My son shared a house with a chap who worked at Google. His discription of working conditions was just as on the video. They lived very close to the 'office' so the chap seemed to be going to work at all hours, even Sunday over a long weekend. The food and company always seemed a good draw card.

#7 Google Books

Well here was something I had not come across before. I'm not sure if as a teacher librarian in a primary school I have need for this resource but it is certainly interesting and worth a look. I will be interested to see how others in my situation find use for it.
I tried entering the titles of a few fiction books that are in my school library with no success. Perhaps they are too modern.I then entered Pride and Prejudice as a search topic and had a wonderful time browsing and reading reviews. This is as tool I think I will use in my retirement as Iam seeking the books to read that I have no time to read now.
I found it interesting to read mwallin's comments on how Google Books is used in the academic setting.

Task 5 Google Docs

I have used Google Docs before. My son who lives 6 hours drive away has on several occassions asked me to share a document with him. It has been a fasinating experience especially when we are both working on the document at the same time. We have highlighted our individual changes by changing font or colour so the other person could check over the changes before final publishing.
At the moment I am accessing a Google Docs as part of a Postcard Project. In this project classes around the world are sending and receiving postcards to each other. We are able to keep track of what is happening by signing into the Google Doc.
This process has always fasinated me and I thought the person creating the document was so so clever. Now I've had a play and discovered the process is much easier that I thougfht it would be.

Task 4. Web 2.0

I think the authors of the document Library and information Service 2.0 summarised Web 2.0 well when they suggested that Web 2.0 is not about technology. Rather it is about what technology is allowing us to do.

Web 2.0 is about users creating the learning environment. Unlike the traditional methods of learning where learners were passive intakers (is there such a word?)  Web 2.0 is about an active exchange of ideas.

With Web 2.0,  learners take control of what they want to discover. They are the users and the contributors. They are not limited by restraints such as time or location.

Tools to help them in this process include flickr, del.ici.ous, blogs, wiki’s, Wikipedia, twitter and facebook.

A New Journey of Discovery.

Hi. I am a teacher librarian in a Primary school with around 300 students. I enjoy my profession and see it as a privilege to guide students in their learning. I also see it as my responsibility to engage students in a meaningful way and to expose them to some of the tools they may need to be life long learners.
I have a wonderful supportive husband and  three grown up children. Our children left home some years ago to pursue their studies and careers in the city but they continue to provide me with the inspiration to be involved in continuing my own learning.
I am looking forward to this Web 2.0 course although I am a little concerned about my ability to find time to complete all tasks. However my mum, now 90years old, always says we don't find time to do the things we really want to do...we make the time. So here goes. A new journey of discovery.