Bone 11: IM on AIM

Instant Messaging, or IM, has been a Web 2.0 thing I have participated in for many years. In fact, my students used it over a decade ago for homework help when I was online. It cracked me up when the little box would appear asking to accept their question, which I always did. Boy, did it spread like wildfire when students found out I would IM--then I started getting IMs from students that were not even in my class, but needed help with assignments. Then came IMs from parents checking up on their student's progress. So, I have always found IM to be fun, especially when students would used their texting abbreviations and I would spend hours trying to figure them out. I can remember the first time a student used LOL--after many hours trying to decipher LOL, I had to ask the student in a later conversation for the meaning--he still laughs about it today. Teachers, couselors, Librarians, and other staff could be IM live accessible at certain times and messages could always be left for them. This could be a cool school idea.
I use AOL's AIM and can be reached at LOKOESL.
GG AFK LKO

Bone Ten: Ning

I find Ning very repetitive--it's like Facebook all over again--maybe with more bells and whistles. Ning offers people a forum to express themselves and I was able to find a lot of blogs, pictures, links, and videos to support this expression. Again, the content ranges from very construstive projects, such as the Kahani Movement, to people with way too much time on their hands, or the one group that said to join or they would break your knees. Although I do not agree with censorship, some of the content I have seen may make me change my mind. Also, the need to borrow so much, example Youtube videos, instead of original work, information, discussion, etc. I begin to question why there is this need to express so much, and I am grateful that if was not assigned to make an account in Ning.
LKO

Bone Nine: Facebook 2

Well, shopping around for Facebook friends and groups is very hard for the private people. I finally decided to join the following groups: ALA, TLA, and German Shepherds. The sites were interesting, easy to read, but I think I could have gotten just as much usable information from their websites. From the German Shepherd site, a popular blog topic was best type of dog food. Dog Food. I guess asking dog park friends, their vet, dog walker, K-9 trainer, or Humane Society never occured to these owners. I am still waiting to see if someone from these groups contacts me, or to see if I can free up more time to read their blogs. I have received messages on my Facebook from people I went to high school with, which is cracking me up as my dog's name is on the account--gee, I wonder if these people remember the bari sax player? It certainly wasn't my dog Denver. It's probably just me, but I just don't see the excitement to all this.
LKO

Bone Eight: Facebook 1

"Blog your thoughts and observations regarding setting up your Facebook account, and ways you think you might use the service in the future. Also, please feel free to blog any feelings regarding the balance of privacy and transparency, the marketing potential of social connections, conspiracy theories about all the personal information Facebook collects, or anything else that may have popped into your head throughout this experience."

So much to talk about for this bone, and what a bone to pick. I agree with Veronica; I am a private person who knows how to email, so why do I want Facebook which invades my privacy (my opinion). Well, I want Facebook so I can learn something new and pass this program, but let's talk about how much information I plan to put out there: not much. In fact, my Facebook is completely made up with my dog's statics (birthday, interests, etc.), which takes care of that transparency issue and raises the issue of how Facebook accounts can cloak all kinds of things-good and bad. Funny that I called (using old technology called a phone) my friends who have Facebook accounts (and rarely use them) to let them know Denver Dog is asking to be their friend and to accept. They all think it's a great joke.

As far as social connections are concerned, it's like the article mentioned: MySpace is the territory of tweens and highschoolers, Facebook belongs to Twenty-somethings, and the rest of us remember what a phone, IM, and email is all about and use it. Personally, I understand that this is a social forum for people younger than me, but just wait until they have a mortgage, car payments, the joys of homeownership, pets, PTA, etc.--all those things that equal a life, not just finding yourself. Does Facebook have a place to keep you connected to family, friends, collegues--sure, but be sure you have a life beyond the computer.

I am sure that Facebook does collect personal data because when I first applied for the Facebook account, I supplied scant information and yet it found my yoga guru as a possible friend. How could it possibly identify her as I said nothing about yoga as an interest? When I added more stats, Facebook connected my dog to possible friends from highschool, TWU, and my guru's friends. That's just too weird and scary. Granted a person can reject your request to be a friend, but the idea that your name and info are just being passed around nilly-willy is not happiness to me.

"You can always go back and edit your profile information later." I doubt I will edit when this program is completed. I will probably delete---but then where does that information go?
LKO

Bone Seven: RSS

I am learning so many new things, and it is great that some of these tools can just be used, not researched to use. It is a good thing that I don't have to know how it works, just that I can have success using it. To me, RSS is just a piece of Google Reader which I will use to keep myself current without having to work too hard. I guess that's a really lazy way of looking at RSS (I know there's more to it) but when school starts I won't have time to go looking for information for Library development. If it's not in front of me, I won't see it. If it's in one place--the reader--there is a chance I will get to update myself in the real world. I have noticed that blogs and sites have icons to appeared to be links, but to what I never bothered to find out. Now, I realize that these icons were to be used for this purpose, linking the site to a reader. I also have noticed more icons for twitter, ning, etc. Oh, so much to learn! In addition, I appreciate all these new websites recommendations. Excellent information!
LKO

Bone Six: Google Reader

Wow! I really like this Web 2.0 tool--anything to keep current and organized is great. For starters, it is really user friendly--even when just searching for a subject (like yoga) for subscription. Teachers who are really computer literate need to be using this tool, as there are so many ed sites to visit. Teachers who are computer shy, would find this less threatening than searching individual websites and creating seperate desktop icons. Anything to cut the number of icons sitting on my desktop is good. I really liked the Youtube instructions clip and plan to pass it on to my campuses so everyone can do use this tool.

I started thinking about lessons and Google reader would be great for current events. Students could create an account, share with a class group/teacher, and follow issues for class presentations and projects. For history classes, this has awesome potential (I think) to excite students and get them involved with materials/research.

Google reader is a tool I plan to keep exploring for more uses--excellent tool!
LKO

Bone Five: Image Generator

I had a lot a problems uploading this image (it's an animation that doesn't want to play), which makes me think this may not be such a great website for a lesson. This website may lend itself well for students who are online journaling for an English class or journalism or an art class; however, I am not seeing great potential for this tool. It's cute, but productive--I am not sure I could build much of a lesson around it--maybe propaganda. Also, this type of website will probably violate the AUP (appropriate usage policy) of the school district. The comicstrip website might offer more opportunities and I was amazed to see Disney, Underdog, and other "older" comic characters available. I did begin to question copyright, especially using Disney characters since Disney has such a lengthy history of suing people, schools, and districts over copyright. These websites are interesting and fun, but would like to see lessons where they are used successfully.
LKO

Extra Treat: Not wanting to be undone by an image that will not post correctly, I have done a poster of my awesome dog. Here's to you, Denver!

Bone Four: Mashup Bone

This was fun and creative! I can see students mashing up photos and having a blast. With these tools, students can create art projects, writing projects, journaling, etc. What a way to get their (and your own) juices following. Will pass on this knowledge to staff and students.

LKO

Flickr Bone

Flickr is cool and very user friendly. It will help organize my photos (if I ever find my camera) and a very fun way to share photos. I will pass on this website to staff at both of my campuses; however, this is not a site I would teach students to access because of some of the content. Try a search for Librarian--can you find the Librarian in the crowd? Can you read the political sign? Do I need my job?

However, if I could control a student's search, would looking up animals (like GSD's) be really cool and give them ideas for presentations, etc. And just because I own a GSD--I had to look to see who else shared my interest. Check out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockandracehorses/142474829/

And then for fun:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/librariansafterdark/1142664396/

I will keep playing with this website and sharing it. Excellent fun!
LKO

Second Bone

Well, back from vacation and still knocking sand out of my shoes. But getting serious, Web 2.0 "The Machine" I had enjoyed at an earlier tech conference and still enjoy reflecting over it. At the point where the clip highlights "teaching the machine", I keep thinking of all the teachers that struggle to cover the material and would think they would have to teach one more thing; not realizing "the machine" is the form their students should be using for their text/thoughts.

Then I thought of a point that was raised in the blog about Web 2.0 was for rich libraries. As an inner city public school librarian, I know very well that my library will be the last to receive the current technology. However, I still owe it to my campus to put new ideas forward to them and advance opportunities to students. Web 2.0 is exciting, fun, and motativating--and the gap between the have's and have not's needs to be kept small and easily bridged.

Which brings up the 2007 interview with Stephen Abram. and he talks about making the choice to empower yourself. Who cannot find 15 minutes a day to learn something new about Web 2.0? This would be a great selling point to teachers who think their day is already too filled to add on more thing. Or to teach recluctant teachers a new Web tool that they can use with their students. Therefore, I must commit myself to finding my time of empowerment.

LKO