Reflection Island

1. What were your favorite discoveries or excursions on this learning journey?
Skype Island was my favorite excursion. I have wanted to to try it out the possibilities of Skype in the library, and with my niece's transfer to Germany and this course coinciding with the announcement of her Skype account, I was given the opportunity to learn more about the tools so that our students can continue to meet and have discussions with authors and illustrators.


2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
With the ever changing technology and plethora of sources out there, you have provided us with a format that gets us out amongst the tools to test drive them and determine their usefulness, how they work and if it will work for our students and/or us.


3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I feel prepared to start the year with a realistic plan and goal of implementing the use of a blog to communicate with parents and students and utilizing Skype for author and illustrator visits.
4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
I don't have any suggestions for changes. The course is very organized, user friendly and I much prefer this hands on format to classroom sessions. Thank you!

Excursion Island

I believe we are on the thresh hold of ebooks becoming mainstream in public education, which also tows behind it mobile devices. I feel the two commingle in the best use of both. The financial situation our education system finds itself in will cause a dilemma in providing these tools for all students. It will take civic minded companies to step up to the plate with continued and additional grants, especially  those that realize the lack of tech exposure for less fortunate student, may also cause them to lose their most productive future employee.


I found Cool Tools for Schools easy to navigate and the number of useful tools was phenomenal, but also liked Top 20 Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers with a multitude of slideshow presentations available to download or post on your website or blog.


12 Essential Techy Tools

Search Island

I lost myself on this island when perusing the Library and Information Technology Association's website. I like the ability to search for specific formats and was pleased to discover blinkx, I have difficulty finding relevant videos/clips in YouTube, so was glad to find another source.

I think it will be even more important this year to keep my blog, communication. I am such a visual person and rediscovering Technorati will be helpful when I need to see other blogs for ideas, examples and when looking for lesson resources.

I think tagging these resources and sharing them with our faculty will be useful and you never know when you might need to pull a rabbit out of your hat.

Skype Island

I set up a Skype account to visit with my niece who is moving to Germany, but i must admit that in the back of my mind I am a step closer to trying it as a tool in the library.  The one thing that spoke to me as I was reading the articles was the simplicity of the visits and the ability to provide a variety of authors, illustrators or other literary professionals. Due to a limited budget, even more so now, trying to find a one size fits all author doesn't have to be part of the equation any longer, visits can be tailored to fit the interests and needs of each group.

I may need to purchase a webcam, if the laptop webcam is not sufficient and check with the technology department as to when the best time of day to set sail. If I am fortunate enough to have a successful maiden voyage to Skype Island, I can truly see having a different Skype Visit for each grade level.

The less known authors offer free 20 minute Skype sessions and in searching the suggested lists I found a non-fiction author, Melissa Stewart, that I think would be a great for a maiden voyage. I believe that after our first Skype visit I hope that our teachers will see the opportunities that Skype can offer thier students.

Libro Island

I use several of these sites on a regular basis during the year while creating orders and reading lists, but in giving each site a closer look I realized I had developed tunnel vision. My usual visits are to the American Library Association and Association for Library Services to Children for the award lists (I had forgotten about recommendations for videos and recordings and made the new discovery of the children’s software lists), the Texas Library Association for the Texas Bluebonnet and Texas 2x2 program information, bibliographies and activities, School Library Journal Although I use SLJ regularly for book reviews, in my perusing I found the article “Web Design Matters: Ten essentials for any library site” and with the district moving to a hosted website with a new format this link caught my attention.  After reading the article and viewing some of the example websites, I hope that SchoolWorld has some form of analytics available for us to see which parts of our websites are being utilized and where users may be having difficulty and am looking forward to having the ability tweak the library web page myself.
However, my favorite new souvenir from Libro Island would have to be American Association of School Librarians' Best Websites for Teaching and Learning. My two finds include links to some 2.0 tools, but that they are not the direct focus, I will share them with my faculty as additional resources and an opportunity for to improve communication.

Blogger's Island

I do agree with the video. We have to connect and utilize the digital world in our teaching. Our job is to create life long learners and I believe students will use these skills in some form for the rest of their lives and if we want to “connect” with our students and parents we must “connect” with them where they are…in the digital world.

Participate and Advocate:
You have to find new ways to participate or you will find yourself just skating by, mediocrity. When we’re skaters we miss so many opportunities to connect and communicate. We must continue to find new ways to grab the attention of students and parents. So many more educators have heard of the 2.0 tools now and by us participating and advocating we are connecting with “our customers” and showing them “Hey, if I can do this, so can you.”

The video above is intended for educators of older students, but it makes the point that these students crave instruction that is familiar to them, they are "techies" and want instruction that includes technology. Students need to apply and utilize what they learn and in a way that is meaningful to them.

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