Method 12

My favorite discoveries in this Web 2.0 journey have been working with Flicker and Delicious.  Having  already been using several of the other organizational applications,  I feel that these two tools of organizing both digital photos and websites will be a great way to help continue to organize both my professional and personal  life.  I'm also very excited to learn how easy it is to set up and use  a blog.  Blogging seemed at one time overwhelming to me, and now it seems like a new and practical way to update families about our library services.

As the world of libraries continues to move in the direction of technology and social media, I am glad to have experience and understanding of some of the applications my patrons will be talking about and to be able to share this information with my patrons.  I believe that learning about these tools will help me shape future goals for my library, the children and teachers that I serve.

As a newbie to Web 2.0 tools, I was surprised at how many I was already using and familiar with such as google applications, searching for you tube videos appropriate for lessons, and wikis.  I was also surprised at how relatively easy most of these tools are to use and share and how many different ways I felt I could share and use the knowledge I gained with others.  I developed a greater sense of self-confidence in myself as a user of technology.

I thought the program  was laid out well and offered great opportunites for learning.  I was able to complete the program during the summer with a colleague in weekly sessions, so it was not too time consuming or
overwhelming.  The discussions I had with my colleague furthered my learning and heightened our understanding of different topics.

If offered, I would be very interested in furthering my learning next summer with the next session, Beyond Two-Stepping.  I believe that it would help me throughout the year knowing that I could take my learning to another level and be somewhat accountable to challenge myself throughout the year to use what I learned in this session.

Method #11

 Just searching for podcasts of interest was a cumbersome task, many didn't download, and many were filled with commercials or lots of chitchat before the actual discussion started, so I think that following others suggestions would be a more time effective was to explore podcasts.

 I did discover an interesting podcast,  childrensbookradio.com  while searching for children's book podcasts.   I enjoyed listening to the author interviews and book reviews and I can imagine using these as resources for lessons in the library and to share them with teachers for classroom use. I love the idea of having student created book review podcasts, or having students create a podcast as a culminatining activity to a unit of study or research.

Method #10

As a librarian within AISD, I have been participating in the wiki page that has been set up for us to share information with each other.  This wiki page stores information that AISD librarians can go to to quickly and  in one place about our district's library policies, calendars, handbooks, and links to valuable webpages.  It is also a place to share ideas, programs, booklists, and so much more.  Librarians can add easily add lesson plans with examples to share with other librarians.  This has been a great way to share and colloborate with my colleagues.  I have used our library wiki, but I had not posted to it, so it was helpful to do so to the Texas State Library 12 Ways to Two-step wiki page.

Method 9

I have watched people using IM and  online chatting, but had never personally used it as a method of communication.  The chat experience was very easy, yet personally I see myself using IM for personal chats, not in the library setting.  The structure of my library day would not be conducive to this form of communication, since I am rarely at my desk/computer.  I can see that in an academic/public library this would be a valuable resource, especially for reference questions.

Method 8

Ugh...Even after looking at the videos and articles, I continue to dislike the whole social networking idea, more specifically...Facebook, MySpace.   I can see some benefits (i.e. keeping parents up to date of library programs, and resources provided by the library) of these types of accounts, but the time and privacy concerns, totally outweigh any benefits for me, especially in the elementary school library.  However, Twitter seems to be a quicker and safer method for getting information to parents quickly and easily, while maintaining privacy. I can see opening a twitter account in the near future for my library to keep parents involved in the library program...library updates, how to login to databases, new books, movies related to books, etc.  I think this would be much less time-consuming and I can control more of the privacy issues that concern me.

Method 7

So far, this has been my favorite Web 2.0 application.  I enjoyed the ease of setting the bookmarks in delicious, and think this will be a super way for me to keep up with all my favorite sites, especially since I use so many different computers at work and home.  I will really enjoy being able to have an easy way to access them all those sites, especially with the ability to create my own tags!  I can also see the Delicious site as a great way to colloborate with my teachers.  I love that I’ll be able to share/post sites that will help teachers with their instruction in the classroom and enhance the role of the library.  I am interested in exploring the social aspect of the delicious tags that other have used to further my searches.  

I also explored LibraryThing and think this will be a great way to create a book community with my students.  I can see posting new books added to the library...with the cover image...always a draw for me.  I would also love to use the talk/groups feature of librarything to create a book share program with the 5th grade students, where they get to suggest titles to their friends, while working on the writing skills.  

Method 6

I have always enjoyed the You Tube site and videos.  I have used some of the videos as extensions to lessons in the library and have sent links to teachers to use in their classroom.  However, I  find the searching on YouTube to be very time consuming. The huge amount of videos posted (a lot not worthy of looking at) that have to be weeded through after typing in a search topic creates frustration for me.     I also find the searches to be difficult because they often bring up unrelated items, or miss videos that I think they should have been included in the search.  For example, when searching for children’s book trailers, there are a lot that are posted on YouTube that I could only find when typing in the title of the book.  They were not found just by searching children’s book trailers.  I would love to include videos in my blog as a way of adding interest  and information to the library program.  

I chose “Thank You Note” because of my own fond memories of reading Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s book in my local library.  Her books were always (and still are) favorites of mine.  
I loved the originality of the paperdoll wandering through the library stacks and this video makes me want to create some beautiful videos of my own.

Method 5

My husband and I use Picasa to store all our family photos and we send links to family and friends to view albums as we create them.  It was a great way to share photos of our trip to California (Disneyland), school musical and joys of having new kitten with friends and family. We always look forward to their comments as well and its a wonderful tool for keeping in touch. We do not share with the on-line community, since virtually all our photos are off our daughter and her experiences.   At one time, we did have our photos shared on Picasa, until we followed one commentor, whose comments on other people’s photos were disturbing.  We have asked friends and family to create Google accounts, so they can view our photos and feel safe.  

On a professional level, I take many pictures of the library, library activities and events, but they just sit on the camera.  I can see that by downloading these to Flickr, I could easily use them in a library blog/website for the library and keep the school community current in library happenings.
I have used Flickr as a browsing tool, for ideas for library signage and library displays.  I will try to add my own tags to photos of the library and share with other libraries.

Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden

Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden, a photo by Krista76 on Flickr.

I would love to escape the Texas heat and  visit my friend Heather in Portland and take our daughters to see Beverly Cleary's sculpture garden.

Method 4--RSS feeds

Here are some feeds that I have been following:

http://readingyear.blogspot.com/2011/06/this-child-every-child-book-about.html

http://literatelives.blogspot.com

https://www.google.com/reader/view/?tab=my#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Ffeeds2.feedburner.com%2FSLJAFuse8Production

I have been using Google Reader and find it a very easy way to keep up with the many different blogs I enjoy reading.  I have not explored the recommended feeds, or the search capability, and
will look forward to exploring that feature more.

Method # 3--Cloud Computing

I’ve been using Gmail, Google Docs and a Google calendar for personal use, and I enjoy the convenience of being able to access these tools at both home and work.  Google docs has been helpful for me when switching from Mac/PC formats at home and work.  Google calendar has been a great organizer for our family calendar.  I love the ability to combine the calendars of my husband, daughter, myself and school.  Having all our dates on one calendar makes life so much easier for all of us.   I do, however, worry about privacy issues.  This is one of the main reasons I have avoided Facebook/My Space programs.  I want my personal life to be personal. I don’t really want myself that exposed to the world.   I appreciated Jenny Levine’s reminder that Google is a business and should we trust that what they are doing with the information they are gathering is always going to be in our best interest?  I think this is going to be one of the areas where libraries are really going to need to be educating our patrons (especially our younger patrons) on the pros/cons of cloud computing, as well as other 2.0 tools.

For my school library, I can envision many cloud computing benefits when  working with colleagues, students, and parents.  It will open up the library walls and allow more access to
library programs.  I think that this will be an amazing tool to keep connected
with colleagues on scheduling lessons in the library as well as planning lessons.  It is becoming harder and harder to find time to meet, but with Google Docs, we could be working together even if we’re not in the same space.   For students, I envision them colloborating on research projects together, but at their individual homes...sharing research, ideas and the actual project.   I can also see students in the library using google docs to create lists of what to read next type pages with peers adding on their favorites, as well as creating list of teacher favorites for students peruse.  I would love to have parents be able to add the library event dates from the library google calendar to their personal calendars, so they can see all that is going on in the library over the year, month, and week and can plan with those dates in mind.  This will also give them a clearer vision of our library program and it’s importance and impact on the school.

I think I am more cautious about cloud computing for myself.  While I am excited about  the many benefits to cloud computing such as taking time and place out of the equation,  I also see the problematic issues that surround relying on one place to store all our information and the security woes of giving businesses access to all our thoughts, interests, and data.  I look forward to learning more to help me balance the good and bad of the cloud, so I can make educated decisions for myself, my library and my patrons.

Methods 1 & 2

From the videos and articles presented in the first module of A Dozen Ways to Two Step, my understanding is that Web 2.0 is a perfect way to add ownership to the immeasurable amount of ever changing  information on the web and within a community.  It allows for contributions from the users to create a more powerful way to gain knowledge, learn, share and formulate ideas.

Schools using Web 2.0 tools can enrich the learning of their students as they learn how to use information in the many different tools as well as learn that each Web 2.0 tool has multiple uses.  As our users become more proficient and comfortable with different online formats, teachers and librarians will have to assist students in not only learning how to use these tools, but also learning how to navigate conduct and safety issues when working with different formats.

In our current economic times, with school libraries on the chopping block, Web 2.0 tools can be a way to enlighten our patrons, both parents, teachers and students, to the many different facets of the library.   Library PR has been an area that I have not focused on, but I hope that I can use some of the different tools presented to showcase the library program.  Creating a  that moves outside the library walls, to classrooms and homes.   A way where  library activities can be read, viewed, and discussed, and where reading can become a collective entity with students, teachers, and parents sharing titles and suggestions creating a collaboration within the school community.

Whether introducing, or furthering the understanding different Web 2.0 applications of each tool, I’m looking forward to collaborating on different projects that will facilitate the learning of students, teachers, and parents in my school.