Thing 11.5 evaluation

1. I really most enjoyed the lessons and feedback on digital citizenship- I found them helpful to prepare for the upcoming year.

2.The things have assisted in meeting my goals by increasing my personal and professional knowledge! Yea!

3. I was not surprised at the great knowledge takeaways- I expected them from last time! But I was gratified to have the opportunity.

4. I like that we are pushed to try new things- but it's a bit of a downer when so many of them are blocked by our districts (like second life).

Thing 11

"The ability to form one's opinion and validate sources is the key. Digital citizenship is more than literacy, it is living safely, civilly, and effectively in our increasingly digital world." -cool cat teacher blog

This is the basis of a lesson I would create for middle school students learning about digital citizenship and ethical use of resources. Because there is more information available than ever before, it is even more important for them to carefully evaluate materials and their own opnions about works by the millions of internet authors. Lessons on ethcially using materials and copyright stem from an understanding of digital citizenship.

Stephen Downes says, "Indeed, a person who reads a website and concludes that it's true, no matter what it says, is dangerously illiterate."

Thing 10

Virtual worlds- I must admit, I have enough to do in the real world, I've always questioned why I'd want to spend time in these virtual ones. So this was an eye opening experience. This article helped me see that role playing can be quite educational, if we use virtual worlds not blocked by my district of course.
From an elementary perspective, some of these virtual worlds are a nice introduction, and this middle school library blog about using second life for class projects is very inspiring. Verdict- I need more experience with this using worlds set up for kids- not really for adults since I can't actually use them through work.

Thing 9

Slideshare is the bomb- it's the ultimate collaboration tool across distances, from two librarians in the same district to a group of kids in different states. It's also helpful that you can upload documents other than ppt (if a student at home does not have access to ppt, but does want to work on a project using this great site).

Great thing!

thing 8

Screencasts are so informative and helpful, especially for technophobes. I have tried to use Jing in my district- not allowed to download it.

So I tried a free online version of screenomatic without a mic, unfortunately. Very cool! I love that you don't have to install anything, just go!~

I would love to do one about posting to blogs or wikis. For practice I did a very short intro to etsy, didn't quite finish it, but got the hang of the tool.

Thing 7

Wow! I didn't realize that Hulu would have this fascinating study of sharks, and I found a good video on the National Archives Video collections (that's actually posted on youtube....so it would be blocked at school unless I download and convert from home).

These are engaging and address learning styles that need visual and audio cues for new concepts- without buying an entire video!

Thing 6

I have a Blackberry, so I had to phone a friend for this one. Using the iphone we crusied available downloads. Obviously twitter is a feature that can be used, but wow, Google Earth and math games? Very cool.

For more student use in the library I would be excited about Google Earth and Dexy, a neat way for kids to organize notes as they research. With all of this information available I can see writing a grant to get our foot in the technology door for these!

My district has also been blocked from editing wikipedia in the past. It's a shame because it is a great learning experience, all the better for us to create our own wikis with more security and accountability.