Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Thing 3 RSS Feeds

I felt so clueless when hearing Ruth speak about RSS feeds, I finally get it. As I was reading all the info my mind kept racing to ways I could use this in the library here at school. The article by Will Richardson "RSS: A Quickstart for Educators" was the most helpful. I will try setting up the justinpfister news search for a class coming for research next week.

These 23 things can take a lot of time, but it is well worth it.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Thing 2 Library 2.0

Being out of the library for 3 weeks doing testing was a good way to step back and think about our library and what it has to offer students. It was interesting watching students this week that came in to do research - even though I had several new books pulled on the topics, they went straight to the computers to Google what they wanted. I began wondering how I could get them to appreciate all that our library has to offer. This was a good place to be in for listening and reading the information in Thing 2. Some of the statements that excited me were:
+"The culture of the library".. should be... a "community of learners" in an "exciting, dynamic, change-oriented, successful, and positive learning environment." Maybe this kind of environment would help to stimulate some of the students to go beyond just getting a project or report done and to actually enjoy the process of learning.
+"Library 2.0 is making the library relevant to what they want and need." This is exactly what I was looking to do as I watched the students this week. I am excited at the tools I will learn and hope to implement them in a way the students want and need.
+"Key principle: Continue to examine and improve services and be willing to replace them at any time with newer and better services." Many of the things I read today started me thinking about the way things are done in our library. Hopefully it will be a better place for the students to get information and learn by the time I am done with the 23 Things.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Thing 1 Setting up my Blog

I am glad I have the opportunity to learn how to do this. It has been frustrating with all the filters, which have still prevented me from adding an avatar. I look forward to tweaking my page with some of the options in the future. I can see how this can be a great communication and learning tool.