INF 506 RSS Feeds

I started subscribing to RSS feeds a few years ago when I got my ipod nano.  I would download episodes of Doctor Karl to listen to, or religious debates, or radio programs and listen to them while I went running.  It was a change from listening to music.

Now, I have google reader set up on my laptop, and the blogs I follow are delivered there.  It might take me a while to catch up with everything I'm interested in, but I like to have it all in one place.

Looking through the abc link, I noticed that one of the RSS feeds is for a reading of a book.  A book!  Chapter by chapter, a whole book.  Now, this excites me.  I love to read aloud, and I love to listen to audio books, when my hands are busy doing something, and I need my eyes to concentrate, but still want my mind entertained.  And I have been the voice for chapters in a published audio book (a one off, funny little episode in my life that I really enjoyed).  I wonder how plausible it is to have a feed that publishes a chapter a week of a book.  A whole book.  Would people listen and be interested I wonder?

In the library situation, and bear in mind, I don't have a library situation as such yet, but in a library situation, I think it could kick off for book week perhaps.  And perhaps in the lead up, students could vote for which book from a list they would like to turn into an audio book.  The winner unveiled at the Book Week parade.  And then, to make it more interesting, students could audition to be readers!  How does copyright work in this situation?  And the audio book, voiced by their peers, is the hook, to get them involved in my library website, because once they are there, hopefully they will look around and find even more interesting treasures, treasures that draw them in, that give them tools, and empower them.

Now this isn't completely answering questions about meeting users information needs, it's a bit of a tangent, but it's also an idea I don't want to lose because I forget that I've had it.

INF 506 - module 2

After a frustrating day of computer issues, which had I thought about it properly, I could have resolved hours earlier than I did, I am in the midst of the module 2 readings, which are vast.  I am drowning in information.

I confess, I am flicking between my dictionary widget, and the readings with great regularity.  It isn't enough to have heard a word, I need to be sure of its meaning, so I'm not confused.

So metadata, is data about data.

Folksonomies - a user-generated system of classifying and organizing online content into different categories by the use of metadata such as electronic tags.  Thank you dictionary.





I find tagging quite hard, and have a fairly low opinion of my ability to do it well.  I think this course is going to be enormously helpful, not just in my work life, but also in life outside work, allowing me to keep up with and participate knowledgeably.  At the moment, I tend to blunder around, like there isn't enough light in the room, and I know that I could be better.

I need to go and do the drop box tutorial.  I will come back with more thoughts, once I've thought them.

INF 506 - First assignment, thoughts on Social Media

Assignment One INF506 

What is social networking?

Social networking is all about participation.  The internet has changed to become a place where everyone can share ideas, news, photographs and creative interests.  Networks are not limited to your geographical location, and you don’t even have to have met in person.  Sharing similar interests is enough to connect people no matter where in the world they live (as long as they have a computer).


My current social networking sites:

Currently I have a Facebook account, which I use to keep in touch with family and friends, and now for uni.  Some of my friends are people I’ve met online on other sites, some of these I have met, but some not.
I have a twitter account, which until this course I have used sporadically, ineffectively, and resentfully, because I feel out of my depth.  I’m not sure what I should tweet, and how it is different to my status update on Facebook.
I am a member of a parenting forum (Essential Baby), and contribute to discussion on a semi regular basis.
I have contributed to youtube, and use it a lot for teaching, as well as entertainment and information
I subscribe to a number of blogs:
- Jamie the Very Worst Missionary
- Head versus Desk
- Making it Funky
- Down to earth
I now have a Flickr account, but have previously had a photobucket account which I primarily used to make memes.
I write a blog of my own about things I’ve read that interest me.
I am a member of Goodreads, Pinterest and Instagram.
I play online games (Words with Friends, Scramble with Friends, Gems, Bejewelled Blitz, Matching with Friends).


With all these computer activities, I’m starting to realise why I feel time poor.

What do I expect to learn from INF506?

 I want to learn how to harness social media in a meaningful way for teaching/library.  Although I don’t have a permanent position as yet, I want to be ready, and as current in my knowledge as possible. 
I have reservations about using Facebook as a platform for keeping parents informed about school excursions/activities, and want to explore other options that may be safer.

Wiki vs Weebly

Valenza states that she prefers wikis for their collaborative nature.  And while I love her work, and think she’s a library goddess and all, I’m just not convinced with the whole wiki thing.  I like the look of a website over a wiki.  I can’t even say why, it’s probably nothing more than a personal preference.  Wiki’s just seem  messy looking.  And a weebly can be collaborative, and it looks pretty.

 

Web 2.0

So after a long break and think about career changes and other life stuff, and frankly getting scared by a subject called Resourcing the Curriculum, which sounded as dry as old chips, and hard to boot, I am back to my Masters course, and excited about the journey afresh.

This semester I am studying The Information Environment, which is enormously interesting so far.  And practical.  I want so much to either have a library of my own, or a class of my own to try out some of this cool stuff.  And also so I can justify buying myself an iPad.  At the moment, my laptop does everything I need it to, so really, an iPad is a luxury that I simply don't need, apart from wanting one because it's so cool.

Today I have been looking at Topic 5, which is all about Web 2.0.  Exciting stuff.  My own children's teachers aren't harnessing all the new tools and exciting options, they don't even have electronic whiteboards in their classrooms.  Which is a shame, and a bit of a personal grumble from me.

Students are already using web 2.0.  They already share ideas/photos/links and so on with social media.  If we don't use this in the classroom, we will be left behind, and to use them makes so much practical sense.  Research has already confirmed that learning is more meaningful when you are actively engaged in the discovery process rather than being spoon fed every bit of information.  And Web 2.0 means that you aren't limited to the exchange of ideas within a class or school group, classrooms of students worldwide can connect and share.  Exciting stuff.

I read Mrs Cassidy's Classroom Blog, a year one blog from a class in Georgia.  These children had connected with other classes around the world and made an ebook about how they celebrated occasions like birthdays in their country.  This was available from Here, a site I have used already to download books for my Kindle.  So, parents in Georgia can look at the book, but so can the parents of the Chinese students.  Amazing.

The opportunities this gives us as Teacher Librarians are exciting.  Not only can we run library wikis and blogs for our own lessons and classes, for school book reviews and reports, for newsletters, we can help the other staff set up meaningful learning spaces for their classes too.  My own response to something I don't know but want to, is to find the answer on the internet.  This can take time, and specific answers aren't always there, like "what is year 5's homework this week?" A wiki or blog could be a place to store all those kinds of answers.

ETL 501 - Search Engines

I started this course last year, but got overwhelmed by the workload and dropped back to one subject a semester, so I read all this information before I dropped the course.  Before that it was all fairly new to me though.  I do try to use Google Advanced when I’m searching, and I have used google books and google scholar when I’ve been researching essays.  I’ve never used Google news before though.

Having had a break from study, I know I slipped back into my slovenly research habits, relying on google to give me the answers to everything.  Occasionally I would use the advanced function.  I’ve now got all my bookmarks organized properly, and I’ve bookmarked a lot of things from this particular topic so I can find them again.  I have good intentions to be a more effective information searcher.

This week we had to try out different search engines, and see if it made a difference to our search results.  Sometimes looking for things online is like blundering around in the dark, you feel like the answers you want are there, but they are somehow out of reach, maybe because you aren't asking the question in the right way. 

This was an interesting activity, mostly because I helped one of my teenagers research volcanoes a few months ago, and we had trouble finding relevant material that wasn’t horribly technical.  I had much more success with the first search engine I used.  Yahoo kids on the other hand was a disaster, 5 of the first ten links were broken, three others were far too basic for grade seven (though one would have been great for younger students), and the first two were to the same site, which had lovely photos but not much information.

ETL 501Topic 2 - Wikipedia, Atlases, Dictionaries

Should the term reference material be abandoned or kept for non borrowable print resources?

I had a look at the university of Santo Tomas library (that came up in my google search, and a university library seemed a good place to start).  Their definition stated that reference materials were sources of information used for answering enquiries in a library, not normally lent, but consulted on the premises.  The list of resources was extensive and included the usual dictionaries, encylcopaedias and atlases, but also almanacs, guide books, year books,  handbooks, manuals, pamphlets, journals, phone directories (and directories of all kinds), biographies, genealogies, pathography (which I’d never encountered before) and world globes.  So much that I hadn’t considered, but on reflection did belong in the reference category.  (http://library.ust.edu.ph/pages/reference.html).

So this library has stayed with a definition that describes hard copy.  Nonprint/online/digital resources have a separate section, which looks equally comprehensive.

I quite liked that idea.  Especially now I have a greater understanding of how huge the reference material part of a library could potentially be.  To me it seems that it deserves a category of its own.  Or perhaps digital resources, accessible from multiple locations could be a sub category of some kind.

Everytime I think I have this sorted out in my head, I have a new thought which makes me uncomfortable again.  There are some resources which have both hard copy versions and digital.  Are they both reference material?  Is it ok to call them Reference materials and Online/Digital Reference materials?  I hope so, that’s what I want to do.

WIKIPEDIA

I actually really like Wikipedia, and I think it’s important to have discussions about it in the classroom, if only so students know it is not “the last word on a subject”, so that they understand that it is a community endeavour, with many contributors, who may or may not be either authoritative, or accurate. 

I’ve often used it to start a search of my own on something (something non academic, that I wasn’t submitting for a university assignment), and I have a voice in the back of my head warning me against believing everything I read there.

I have edited a page or two of my own on Wikipedia, for my own amusement, and my contribution was edited out again within 12 hours.  I have other friends who have made contributions of a more serious nature, which were also edited out, despite their veracity.  So although it is a community project, it is not a free for all. 

DICTIONARIES

My main reason for wanting print versions of dictionaries, is so students can maintain the skill of searching for something alphabetically.  I was assisting an ESL student last week, and showed her that the words at the top of the pages of the dictionary were significant (being the first and last words on the particular page).  Some of her peers overheard this, and were amazed by it, they hadn’t been told or made that connection before, and it made a difference to the efficiency of their searches.

As far as specialized dictionaries go, I was interested to discover that there are dictionaries that can be used by those whose first language isn’t English – dictionaries of phrasal verbs (Oxford), and Macmillans Collocation Disctionary.  I imagine that they would be very useful for some students.  English can be a strange, twisty, turny kind of language, with many inexplicable things in it, not covered by a regular dictionary.

A thesaurus is a specialized dictionary of synonyms, and I love my thesaurus, very useful in the classroom.

Additionally for the classroom:

-       dictionary of maths terms, there are print versions of this, but I found this online one which also looked helpful http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/RR/glossary/middle/glossaryab.html

-       I would like a dictionary of grammar terms, and I found this which I think would be useful - http://www.usingenglish.com/glossary.html

-       Science dictionary - http://www.science-dictionary.com/

ATLASES

Australian Online Atlas

Owl and Mouse is a nice looking site, and it is great for American resources, with printable maps, and puzzles.  Sadly, Australia and New Zealand are largely ignored, with the Australian map not even marking the states on the large map.

http://www.yourchildlearns.com/online-atlas-oceania.htm

I started looking at atlapedia, but it crashed.  There was a lot of clicking involved in finding what you wanted, which was frustrating, and although I think the maps might have been better than Owl and Mouse, and there was a lot of additional information (general) about each country, it was clunky to use.  And it crashed and wouldn’t load, so I moved on to something else.

http://www.atlapedia.com/

World Atlas looks great, but it isn’t free, the fee is not prohibitive though.

http://www.worldatlas.com/

The Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century is fascinating reading.

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/20centry.htm