Social Media

I had a twitter and facebook account before this assignment. I was using twitter for professional development and facebook for personal. It was nice to be exposed to a variety of ways to use both of these. I was following media specialists and other librarians and getting some great ideas on twitter. I could see using twitter to announce new books and upcoming events in the library but both social media sites are currently blocked at out school. I can see though that I might get sucked into a lot of time consuming things and then have little time for some of the other aspects of my job. I also use pinterest to get ideas for library themes. I think I might use Goodreads this year for my high school book club.

Online bookmarking

I see the advantage of online bookmarking is that I can see my bookmarks anywhere on any computer. I was using Delicious but I am finding Diigo a little more useful with the chrome app. I like the fact that when I am teaching it does not matter what computer lab I am in because I will still be able to pull up my bookmarks. I also like the bookmarking feature. If we were going over a topic together in class I could have the important facts highlighted ahead of time. I will no longer have to quick check to see if the information is still on the website with the screenshot feature. I am still trying to figure out how to capture the whole web page and not just the viewable screen part. I think that sharing the bookmarks could be very useful in many ways. I could see a group of teachers getting together a unit and adding bookmarks to share with each other. Hmmm... so much to learn and so little time. Sometimes I wonder how to keep up with everything. This might help.

Browser Chrome vs. Firefox

I have to say that I was very much in love with firefox during the school year because of its fast and easy to navigate design. I had however not tried google chrome until this summer. I have to say that I think I will be using google chrome for most things because of already having many of the google products. It makes working with various items seamless. I had not explored many of the add on apps but I love how fast and easy it is on google chrome. I tried several add-ons and I am going to love having a QR code add on right at my fingertips instead of always running to create a QR code on a website that generates them. I think the students would really benefit from using the easy bib add-on. Last year we just made it a button on their ipads but this way they could sign in and always have what they are working on with in easy reach for creating a bibliography. I will play more with pocket but I think this add-on might also be useful for storing information on a research project a student might be working on. I am not sure yet about google chrome at school on the lab computers. I will need to see how easy is is to sign in and out and what is stored on the hard drive.

Copyright Reflection

I have been looking at copyright regulations for my school and trying to keep up with all the regulations so that I can answer questions. I did not realize how easy it was to put a creative commons license on digital content. I still have items to learn but it was nice to see that I am coming to understand the copyright rules. I still struggle with partial use of copyrighted material and how much is ok to use. I had not realized how much audio creative commons resources were out there. This will be a great new resource to explore.

Blogging Reflections

I am always searching for new ways to learn and try and keep up with technology. I took the MN 23 things on a stick a couple of years ago and learned so much. I am hoping for learn even more in this online course about other tech tools like creating tutorials for students. I am hoping to add some more new tools to my list. I find that am really have to stay organized and focused with an online course. I miss the interaction in person with others. I also tend to put things off because it is so easy to get to it later. I have started a couple of blogs but I find that I have a difficult time keeping one going.