Social bookmarking is a great tool and both Furl and Ma.gnolia look like excellent sites. The tutorial for Furl is so easy to follow. Some interesting things mentioned is the ability to highlight text, and it will appear in the "clippings" section. You can mark your sites private if you desire. You can also access all your bookmarks from any PC because they are saved online, not on YOUR computer. "Hot topics" marked by several people appear in color. You can also add comments about the web sites.
Ma.gnolia might be a good social bookmarking site, but the tutorial is not as good as Furl or del.icio.us. I do like the starred bookmark rating feature. You can also access Ma.gnolia using your Facebook sign in.
The del.icio.us podcast tutorial is so well done; one can't help but like it best. All the bookmarking sites have tagging abilities which make it such a good tool. I can see MISD librarians using del.icio.us to share sites not only on library information, but also quilting, recipes, and shopping. What a great tool! I look forward to using del.icio.us and sharing with others.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Thing # 12 Social Networking Sites
I explored My Space, Facebook, and Ning. I set up an account with MySpace and created a profile. I also signed up for Mesquite Librarians and Friends in Ning Network. This took much more time than I thought because there was so much to look at, navigate around, and learn about each social network.
I believe it's important for librarians to know about social networking online because it's another way to understand how students get information. If we want to know how our students learn, this is one avenue to investigate, and we need to understand how it works. I think there are possibilities for students to form study groups, book clubs, and other educational interest groups within these social networks. It was fun joining the Mesquite Librarians and Friends Ning network because I recognized friends' pictures and felt a sudden comfort I had not felt while surfing the other social sites. I'm sure that's one of the reasons social networks are so popular with kids: the recognition of friends and a need to belong.
I dislike MySpace because so many people make their private lives so public there. The same thing applies to Facebook. I liked Ning because you can set up your own network based on your interests.
I believe it's important for librarians to know about social networking online because it's another way to understand how students get information. If we want to know how our students learn, this is one avenue to investigate, and we need to understand how it works. I think there are possibilities for students to form study groups, book clubs, and other educational interest groups within these social networks. It was fun joining the Mesquite Librarians and Friends Ning network because I recognized friends' pictures and felt a sudden comfort I had not felt while surfing the other social sites. I'm sure that's one of the reasons social networks are so popular with kids: the recognition of friends and a need to belong.
I dislike MySpace because so many people make their private lives so public there. The same thing applies to Facebook. I liked Ning because you can set up your own network based on your interests.
Thing #11 Check Out Library Thing!
You can see my Library Things books that I added to "my library". The Library Thing was a great site for:
- putting your favorite books on your blog
- making a suggested list of books on a certain topic on your blog
- cataloging your personal collection of books
- finding people with similar tastes in books
- giving you tags to organize your books
Thing # 10 Online Image Generators
I used Image Chef for this sign. It was fun to see all the images you can customize. I found other great images too, but they either cost money or they were not appropriate for this posting. I can use these images on library webpages, class projects, handouts for teachers, or various signs displayed in our library.
Thing # 9 Useful Library Related Blogs/News Feeds
There is an amazing amount of information on blogs that I didn't know existed. It's a little overwhelming to realize how much is available. Thank goodness you gave us a great many search tools to look at. I found teacher and librarian blogs like The Cool Cat Teacher blog very helpful. The Edublog Award winners made me realize these bloggers are just like you and me - just regular teachers and librarians. Vickie Davis's suggestion to "create your circle of wise" made the most sense: read lots of blogs and "find people who inspire you." There are too many blogs and news feeds to keep up with so you must learn how to be selective.
What tools did I find useful? Blogline's Search Tool was one of the easiest. I just searched using the keyword, librarian, and found interesting library issues all over the world. Library Matters blog from an Australian librarian was especially interesting. Syndic8.com had a huge amount of feeds on every conceivable topic; some were very random. I looked at the "most popular feeds" like Slashdot and Boing Boing and realized there are lots of nerds out there in cyberspace! I also learned a little about Fwickis (how to make your own news feeds) from Syndic8.com. I thought I could use Suprglu for school and will explore it further. Topix was my absolute favorite for news because the format was easy to follow, and I could search for any news topic quickly. Feedster was closed for the holidays. I guess they are redoing it for the New Year.
One of the best all-around librarian blogs was A Library By Any Other Name. The blog was nicely arranged and had interesting topics. I loved The Cool Cat Teacher blog because of the great information that made me THINK. However, it was very "busy" looking, and I was, at times, overwhelmed with all the information and links on Vickie Davis's blog. I did subscribe to her feed and look forward to keeping up with The Cool Cat Teacher.
What tools did I find useful? Blogline's Search Tool was one of the easiest. I just searched using the keyword, librarian, and found interesting library issues all over the world. Library Matters blog from an Australian librarian was especially interesting. Syndic8.com had a huge amount of feeds on every conceivable topic; some were very random. I looked at the "most popular feeds" like Slashdot and Boing Boing and realized there are lots of nerds out there in cyberspace! I also learned a little about Fwickis (how to make your own news feeds) from Syndic8.com. I thought I could use Suprglu for school and will explore it further. Topix was my absolute favorite for news because the format was easy to follow, and I could search for any news topic quickly. Feedster was closed for the holidays. I guess they are redoing it for the New Year.
One of the best all-around librarian blogs was A Library By Any Other Name. The blog was nicely arranged and had interesting topics. I loved The Cool Cat Teacher blog because of the great information that made me THINK. However, it was very "busy" looking, and I was, at times, overwhelmed with all the information and links on Vickie Davis's blog. I did subscribe to her feed and look forward to keeping up with The Cool Cat Teacher.
Thing #8 RSS
I like the simplicity of RSS. I certainly see how the need for RSS Readers evolved because there are too many things to look at online using just bookmarks or subscriptions. One quote I liked from our readings was, "RSS is like TIVO on your computer."
In my personal life I can see how I would use an RSS Feeder, especially to read my favorite news articles on topics I'm interested in. I don't have time to read the daily newspaper from cover to cover or the newsletters I subscribe to online. It's the same for school; if I can read RSS readers on new books (reviews) rather than going through all the publications of SLJ or Booklist, it would save so much time. I created my Google Reader and have put my shared list on this blog.
Some of our fellow librarians commented they couldn't find RSS feeds for some topics. I couldn't either until I did a Google search for RSS feeds and lots of them came up. However, most of the RSS feeds from the Google search were not interesting to me. I hope to find better ones as I work through Thing # 9.
In my personal life I can see how I would use an RSS Feeder, especially to read my favorite news articles on topics I'm interested in. I don't have time to read the daily newspaper from cover to cover or the newsletters I subscribe to online. It's the same for school; if I can read RSS readers on new books (reviews) rather than going through all the publications of SLJ or Booklist, it would save so much time. I created my Google Reader and have put my shared list on this blog.
Some of our fellow librarians commented they couldn't find RSS feeds for some topics. I couldn't either until I did a Google search for RSS feeds and lots of them came up. However, most of the RSS feeds from the Google search were not interesting to me. I hope to find better ones as I work through Thing # 9.
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