WPSLA-Final Survey

Power Up Your Personal Learning Network

The DEN Virtual Conference (where I am participating in-person) continues with Jen Dorman's session on learning networks. Of course, the Discovery Educator Network leads the pack, but she also made us aware of a network created by PBS and Google. Twitter and Plurk still prove to be the best, but Twiffid filters only web addresses that are posted on Twitter. You can also follow plodt on Twitter and it graphs Twitter posts to give you an idea of the conversations happening so you can join. Phweet turns Twitter into an instant message chat. This might work if Twitter is blocked in you district.

Diigo and Delicious are similar, but Diigo allows you to create groups and share annotations/bookmarks with others. Diigo will also automatically post to blogs.

I had to tune out because there are dozens and dozens of other resources Jen is sharing, so I am going to focus on posting to Diigo and Delicious, signing my students up for accounts in Wikispaces for collaborative purposes and beginning my blog on the DEN web site...and cross-posting here and on blog.mtlsd.org/cybrary.

Oh, Drop.io looks pretty cool too. I'll check that out also. Jen rocks!

Igniting Student Creativity Though Digital Storytelling

At Sci Tech High in Harrisburg, Jen Dorman's Digital Storytelling sesion focused on new formats for students to use to use multimedia to create a story. I'm ready to have students create movie trailers as soon as I get back to school now! :)
Here is the link to all of Jen's resources: http://jdorman.wikispaces.com/digitalstorytelling

Ideas:
Public Service Announcement
Breaking News or Olds Broadcast
Movie Trailer
Reenactment
Oral History
Documentary
Virtual Tour
Story told from the perspective of an object

Scaffolding ideas:
-Stories from one image--have students make up a story based on one image or a series of images in a sequence
-Stories from a muted video clip
-Stories with student-found images and set narrative

The Process
Write, Develop script, storyboard, locate resources, create, share

DEN Virtual Conference-Dembo Keynote

What do the classrooms of the future look like?

Innovators in the field of education...according to Steve.
Darren Kuropatwa (Created class Scribe Hall of Fame), D'arcy Norman (first educator to begin podcasting), Jerome Burg (created Google Lit Trips).

Camstudio, Prettymay, Odeo, Aireset--Horizons Project with Vikki Davis...Those are the sites I didn't know

Eric Langhorst
Guerilla Season

YackPack--acts like a walki talki on a web page
The KinderKids page--Kindergarten blog--Uploads pictures to BubbleShare for parents to see what happened during the day
Jenuine Teach--Creative projects for the PreK-6 Elementary Class
*Good ideas for kindergarteners and younger students

Riptide Furse's podcast safe music/audio

Andy Carvin--created his own version of dialtest using twitter and plodt

First Day of School

Summer Spectacular

My friends and family are quick to laugh when I say I work during the summer. "How can you work when you have the summer OFF?!" they ask. Well, this summer was spent working...although not necessarily in the traditional "work" sense.

The first weekend after school let out, I headed to Denver, CO where my mom had two large events happening (she is an event planner) and so when she asked if I would be willing to help, I said, "Yes!" We stayed in downtown Denver and were even able to go to a Rockies game. I was in awe by the Rocky mountains & being one mile above sea level.

The following two weeks were spent teaching at the Young Writers Institute where I was again inspired by the talented young authors in my class. Those Foster students made me proud!!

I then headed to Silver Spring, MD to join 49 other teachers (by invitation only) at Discovery Channel Headquarters for an intense week-long technology conference. I have SO much to share this year! I was even asked to come back for the second week as a staff member to teach sessions on geocaching (thanks to our MLFE grant). We were able to do some actual caching around Maryland and even found the original Silver Spring! It was exciting to work with such dynamic educators.

After a brief weekend visiting friends in NC, and catching up on tutoring, I spent the last week in Boston where I learned more about American history than in any course I've taken. The Freedom Trail was inspiring and would make the perfect field trip! ;-) My brother's wedding in Cape Cod followed and even though I was 25 hours late (thanks, USAirways), I am now back and ready for the school year to begin!

(This is the first post cross posted on my school blog, http://blog.mtlsd.org/cybrary/ )

Steve Dembo-Part II--Learning to Speak Native

There are two types of digital users: the natives and the immigrants. Natives are multi-taskers, choose graphics BEFORE text, non-linear and prefer games to "serious" work. They grew up with instant access and expect that. Marc Prensky said that for educators it means, "If digital immigrants educators REALLY want to reach digital natives, they will have to change." I think this is so important for teachers to consider, especially as our students are changing so rapidly. How can we "tune in" to the needs of our students and adapt to meet those needs? How do we keep up with these changing attitudes not to mention the hardware?

The good news is that with tools like Twitter, Ning, and Plurk, it's easy (and free) to connect to educators all over the world to share ideas and informal professional development so we can keep up. It's up to the teachers to take it upon themselves to do so, and embody life long learning.

Steve's speeches are always so dynamic and inspiring. Thanks, Steve, for reminding all of us that we are our best resource.

To try: Google Lit trips that are mapped out on Google Earth for a visual representation of the content with embedded images, videos, etc.

A Recap on the DEN LC Institute

After several days of processing all of the information I learned at the Discovery Institute, I'm finally able to put some of it in words. Several family members and colleagues asked me why I was willing to forfeit an entire week of summer vacation (when I practically work full time anyway...), to sit inside a building in front of a computer. No brainer. The network. The learning. The time to share and "play." The social events at night. These are MY people. It's better than vacation.

Steve Dembo and Hall Davidson were stellar keynote speakers. Stellar. They live on the bleeding edge of educational technology and are quick to share it with the rest of us. Now, I want to write a grant for a class set of cell phones. Who knew?
(Ok, this is why blog posts don't get published on time...I'm going into the other room now...brb)

Steve Dembo DEN Keynote

Down the Rabbit Hole
I Ustreamed this session, so these are the MOST important sites...I'll embed the video from UStream as soon as I find it...

seesmic--for video comments on the blogs
NECClive.com
mogulus.com
veodia
can embed any flash object into ppt--google maps, etc


Stream-A-Thon--September 23
Virtual Conferences--October 18 and April 25
DE Streaming Boot Camp--September 30, October 7, 14, 21

Learning Networks

Jen Dorman's wiki from the session:
http://jdorman.wikispaces.com/ppln

Makin' Movies with Jennifer Gingrich

4 Corners Intro...Dirt Road, Paved Road, Super Highway, Yellow Brick Road as an ice breaker. Have "dirt roaders" choose the next topic and move to the appropriate corner of experience.

Have students begin with a 30 second video. First round, students' poems included personification. One day, photos. One day, titles. One day, sound. Export.

Digital riddle: choose an "idea" and include text slides and ONE image...just use parts of the image to reveal portions of the image.

Digital documentary: Transforming Oregon Trail journal into video...Apply sepia effects but concentrate on text and voice. Combine journal entries to create a documentary.

Digital report: Student write the report and voice over with Discovery Streaming clips.

Fast Fiction: Choose 5 images and write sentences that incorporate those images and create a story. Put images in a Picasa photo album for student access

Comic Life: Now available for PCs-Add photo effects and narration

Tips for success:
1. Start with a digital kit (have materials ready...just begin with images)
2. Stay together--(at least the first time through)
3. Pre-Production--planning is everything
4. One skill per session
5. Scaffold projects

Key Learning vs. Muddiest Point for an evaluation tool--collect on the way out

Discovery Streaming and Google Earth

Mike Bryant's Power Point on the way...
When adding placemarks, the latitude and longitute coordinates are listed there.
Pull images from Discovery Ed Streaming, get the url, and insert the address into properties. Add code to embed the image.
Embed video clips by copy/pasting address in DE Streaming with the Mac...Not yet with PC...
-Record audio in Audacity and Google Reader and embed in GE as a tutorial...Embed code in Power Point.

-WiFi and Geotagger in the card (eye fi card) from a digital camera and photos automatically upload through Flickr. Works with the "Wayport" connection at airports and McDonalds or your own personal WiFi.

Save everything in the folder so that all is together under the kmz file...

Cell Phones in Education--Hall Davidson

Keynote for Tuesday: The one, the only Mr. Hall Davidson

When a teacher begins a class with, "Take your cell phones out and make sure they're on,'" the students are automatically engaged. Why do we usually ignore this powerful device in education? We must teach kids how to use it appropriately.

Some stats from the New York Times: 300 billion text messages in 2007. SMS are typically read within an average of 15 minutes and responded in 60 minutes. 16% of homes do not have land lines. Twices as many users of text messages as users of email. 3.3 billion cellphones but 850 million personal computers.

Use qik to send/record video from your Nokia cell phone. When can we do it with the iPhone??? Can send lesson plans to subs. Mobile Profile in You Tube enables a direct upload to YouTube. http://schoolmessenger.com Verizon is rolling out video voicemail. Nice! jott.com will transfer voice to text for emails, blogs, twitter, etc. Phones also have translators for voice (works only with Japanese right now)...

www.gcast.com --give your cell number to the gcast...can post your voice right to the web--Great for primary source interviews.

polleverywhere.com Text survey opinions and then pull to powerpoint. Can watch the survey results change right on the screen. This would be great to use with parents/at presentations with adults.

Text 34381 to get nutritional info for food

*Look for mobile for Discovery...Discovery sites

*Assignment Builder on DE Streaming can be sent via text.

Hall is always a pleasure to see and listen to. His dynamic speeches and knowledge make my head spin in the best of ways!!

Boom-Dee-Ah-Dah! Day One

Day one of the Discovery Leadership Council Institute started with a "Boom" followed shortly by a "de ah dah." As 50 of my favorite colleagues and I gathered at Discovery Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD, our first assignment was to work in groups to recreate Discovery's "Boom De Ah Dah" commercial into one about the Discovery Educator Network. Here is the original. As we toured the Discovery building, here is our take on the project:


I've only been in Silver Spring 10 hours but I've learned enough to fill about 10 days already. I can't wait to see what the rest of the week will bring! : )

Reflections on a Very Good Year (Or 6)

It was a bittersweet day. My very first class "graduated" from elementary school and are headed for middle school. I looped with this class for kindergarten, first and second grades because there were 3 sections of kids and I was the new hire that didn't have a "permanent" spot, so I've known these kids since they were 5. Naturally, they are very special to me. Just as those students have been an integral part of the beginning of my professional life, I can only hope I was just as important to the beginning of their school life.

As I watched teary eyed at the awards ceremony this morning, one of the kids (who I had in my class in kindergarten and second grade and then 4th & 5th for library) walked to the podium and thanked me for teaching the way he learns best. Wow...Did I really do that? How did he even know? Another student called the library a "magical place where Miss Belardi makes things come alive." Really? Did I do that too? Was a highlight of their six years at Foster really when I helped a student get a poem published in first grade and when I "let" them use the handhelds? Will they really remember the time we raised butterflies? Presented Power Points at the local mall? Had Readers Theater with the disco ball? I doubt it, but I find comfort in knowing that I will have those memories and watching these 50 kids learn and grow has been (selfishly speaking) the most rewarding and happy experience. Even if it is time to let them go.

This is a crazy and completely stressful time of year. Purchase orders, inventory, and IEP evaluations demand my time and it's the time I miss being a classroom teacher the most. However, listening to the words of my now former students, I am thankful to them for being the best teachers I've ever had. I already miss them, but today, as I saw Blake's pre-school sister look at her mom with the same attitude Blake looked at me when I asked her to re-write her "f"s in Kindergarten, I look forward to beginning the cycle all over again.

DEN at Fallingwater

The DEN spring training continued yesterday in PA at Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house. Almost 40 educators gathered to learn and network in a really cool venue! The morning began with Discovery updates from Lance (click here to read his take of the day on the national DEN blog) and sessions on Animoto, SketchUp and Geocaching. Despite a little poison ivy, everyone found at least one cache and learned about the joys of SketchUp! The best parts of the day were the student presentations. Three students helped out in the sessions to share their work and teach the teachers the power of these tools. David, Morgan and Jeff did a great job! The day commenced with tours of the Fallingwater house and we even dodged the rain by about 30 minutes. It was the perfect end to a fantastic day.

A huge thank you goes to Jim Hopton, Peggy Barger and Lance Rouguex for all of their help and for making the day so memorable! We already started to plan the next event in the fall! Click here to see more pictures from the day.



(Some of the backgrounds didn't transfer, but you get the idea!) : )

| View | Upload your own

| View | Upload your own

Pittsburgh DEN Event

It’s time for a spring training Day of Discovery hosted by members of the PA Leadership Council! Join us at the Frank Lloyd Wright house at Fallingwater (http://www.paconserve.org/index-fw1.asp) for a few hours on Saturday, May 17th. It promises to be a day full of learning, networking and fun!Here are the details:

Who: You and any other person(s) you choose to bring with you (They do not have to be STAR Discovery Educators…just have an interest in educational technology!)

Where: Fallingwater-Free tours available after the training

When: 9-1 on Saturday, May 17th

What: Sessions will include Geocaching (we will use real GPS units), Google Sketch-Up, Animoto and The Best 2.0 Websites/Tools (Twitter, VoiceThread, Google Maps, etc.) plus a tour of the Kaufman house at Fallingwater.

Lunch will be provided.

Why: Because “good” technology training is hard to find!

**Reservations close May 12th!!**

To reserve a spot or if you have any questions, contact Bridget Belardi at bridgetbelardi@gmail.com. Hope to see you there!

WorldWIde Telescope

I had some friends stop over a few weeks ago and one was quick to make fun of the Wired magazines stacking up in my powder room. I guess they expected Martha Stewart or something, but yes, Wired is one of my favorite magazines. Admittedly, I don't understand SOME of the articles (I haven't fully developed the very technical and gadget aspect of my geekiness) but every now and then I find some very useful information.

My favorite section is "Expired, Tired and Wired." Today, I noticed Google Earth in the "Expired" category, and I did a double take. In it's "wired" place was the WorldWide telescope from Microsoft. I'm a big Google Earth/Google Map fan, so I had to check out what trumps them! I'm about two months behind the big announcement, but I think it's definitely worth pointing out to prepare for the big release.

Basically, it's a virtual telescope that allows exploration of the universe. Take a look at this video that shows the footage from the telescope. Students will be able to explore the constellations, just as though they were driving a space satellite. When clicking on the image, data is displayed for further investigation. Wow! It's due out (free for educators) this spring. It's a good thing I subscribe to Wired (and don't tolerate abuse for it)!!! : )

Week 9 Thing 23

Don't be sad, but this will be my final School Library Web 2.0 post. My 23 "things" are finally complete. I think that this "mini-course" was a good opportunity to reflect on many of the 2.0 tools that are available for teachers and librarians. I especially enjoyed reading others' blogs to see their thoughts about the tools. For me, it was a good mix of tools that I'm already using (blogs and podcasts), new tools I decided to try out with the students (the online image generators) and tools that I don't really like or are awkward for me to use (tagging in Technorati).

I would recommend this course to all of my librarian colleagues and hope that there will be a 2.0.2 "advanced" class, because there is still so much to learn! Thanks to Marg Foster, my 2.0 "advisor," Joyce Valenza for her help and advice at PETE&C and the rest of the 2.0 team.

Week 9 Thing 22

Even though I choose to do most things online (my banking, research, get directions, etc.) reading books is not something I choose to do on the computer. I don't feel like I'm actually "reading," I do more skimming of the text, so looking at ebooks and even listening to them were a challenge. However, I was able to find some shorter pieces, like Aesop's Fables and poetry that I could definitely use with my students. I would like to take some time to continue to explore the options with ebooks and audio books and see the contents these sites have to offer.

Week 9 Thing 21

Podcasting
I find podcasting and easy way for students to express themselves and "show what they know."

We implemented a podcasting program in our district elementary libraries last year. Starting with 4th and 5th grade, students wrote and recorded book reviews using Audacity. These reviews are stored in a common server for all students to access. I noticed that the books with reviews were checked out more frequently than the ones without. You can listen to the district podcasts (my school is Foster) here: http://multimedia.mtlsd.org/podcasts/library/ Some fourth grade students created their own podcast show and write the script to record news, updates, etc. Audacity is easy for them to navigate and save on their own.

These book reviews are now being written by all grade levels and some are transferred to VoiceThread. Here are reviews written by the first graders:
My goals are to help the classroom teachers to implement podcasts for students who are absent, readers theater, etc.

Week 9 Thing 20

You Tube
I uploaded the video the second graders and I created last year to Bill Harley's tune, "@ Your Library." We discussed digital storytelling, storyboarding, and using video editing tools.

Week 8-Thing 19

Library Thing (see the bottom of the sidebar)

While testing LibraryThing, I couldn't help but to see several similarities with GoodReads. I like GoodReads because of the recommendation option and the RSS feed (I receive updates when one of my contacts reviews a book). However, LibraryThink makes it easy to view tags and organize books. I also like seeing the "popularity" of the books.

I hope to use LibraryThing on my school web site to "publicize" new books so students can "see" the covers and even click on them to read a summary. It's proven that seeing the cover image prompts students to check that book out more often. I might try and set that up now...I'll post a link if I get it done.

The image to the right is a screen shot of some of the books I entered that are found on my book shelf at home that I'm looking at right now! :)

Week 8 "Thing" 18

Even though wikis are easy to use, Google Docs are just as easy, but I only use them on a minimal basis. With the students, I think Wikispaces is the best because they do not need an email account to log in. However, I have used Google Docs within my professional organizations. With many of us scattered around the country, collaborating is easy! I can't help but wish this was around when I was in college...it definitely would make group projects much easier to get done!

Week 7 Things 16-17

Wiki Wiki! It's not surprising that wikis are named after the Hawaiian word for "quick." Wikis are perfect for fast, collaborative documents and they are spreading like wildfire through our school district. Although I've only used wikispaces, I took the time to browse through pbwiki. However, no matter what wiki platform you choose to use, privacy settings are important. When teaching the students about wikis, an important next step is Internet safety.

Here are some ways I used wikis with my students:

1. Third grade students are part of a folksonomy project where they are coming up with their own tags for books. Often, students search the OPAC for "funny books" and hardly any results are displayed. Students brainstormed tags and use a wiki to add titles as they see necessary. Here it is: http://fosterbooklists.wikispaces.com/

2. Fifth grade students found their favorite author and illustrator web sites and added them to this page: http://fosterlibrary.wikispaces.com/

3. Teachers request books and AV equipment on a wiki too: http://fosterav.wikispaces.com/

(I made all three wikis public for the time being, but will reset the privacy options in a week or so).

P.S. I also posted the tagging project on the PA Curriculum wiki.

Week 7 "Thing" 15

Even though this is only my second year as a school librarian (and makes me a relative "newbie" to the profession), I have been around libraries my whole life. However, libraries are definitely NOT what they used to be! In Michael Stephens' article, he points out six important traits of 2.0 librarians. 2.0 Librarians must: plan for users, embrace 2.0 tools, control "technolust," make good/fast decisions, be a trendspotter, and get content. To me, these are obvious traits, but I don't think many people outside of the profession understand. In these days, school library positions are being cut and librarians are being forced to share buildings. This is the case in my district where we have a librarian who is moving and the position is in jeopardy of not being filled. Each school needs a dedicated librarian who is proficient in these six traits. Embracing technology by being a trendspotter will ultimately help students and teachers have access to the necessary content.

Week 6 "Thing" 14

Technorati is a fun tool to explore (although not to be used with kids...I came across some some inappropriate language!), but it's an easy way to sort through others' posts. I used the OpenID Claim to claim my blog and after doing so, it gave me a rank (like 2,900,000 or something like that!) and an "authority" number. I'm not sure how Technorati decides these numbers, but I guess it'll do (for now!).

To me, tagging has one major flaw: not using a common language--much like subject headings with books. The students in my school always ask for "funny books," but barely any books use "funny"--it's "humorous." I have yet to find an elementary school student to search for "humorous" on their own in the OPAC! As a mini-solution, I had students create their own tags for books at our library: http://fosterbooklists.wikispaces.com/ (This link will probably resurface on the "wiki post.") I transferred these tags into our OPAC, so now first graders can search for "funny" "funne" or "funy" books (the most common misspellings). Tags are opened with a common language.

Of course, I had to search for my name on Technorati and was surprised that only a few of the results were from my own blog!

The challenge was to tag a post in html in Technorati...I'm always up for a challenge, and slowly learning html....Although I do have to wonder why there isn't an easier way to do this...
Technorati Tag: SJLibrary2.0 Did that work? I'll have to double check!

Week 6 "Thing" 13

Del.icio.us really is delicious. Even though my "Bookmarks" bar is still pretty full, I use del.icio.us to create a quick go-to bookmark for sites I come across accidentally or need to come back to later. When someone puts a link out on Twitter or when I see a site worth checking out in a professional resource, I try and add it to my set of bookmarks. I don't have too many saved (because I learned that I don't go back to them if there are too many and if too much time passes....) but the ones I have saved will be worthwhile for me to reference again...ok, maybe not the Jimmy Dean "Sun" commercials...but they are pretty funny, right? :)

I added the del.icio.us badge to my blog, but if you would like to see some of my bookmarks, here ya go: http://del.icio.us/missbelardi

Week 5 "Thing" 12

Ack! I've gotten so behind on my posts! "Analog" life seems to have gotten in the way of my "digital" life! : )

Of course, as an elementary school librarian, Internet safety is an extremely important issue...Once a student forgot to bring in a picture for art class about a jungle animal, so he typed in "jungle animals" on the classroom computer for an image search, and one scantily-clad Amazon-George-of-the-Jungle-looking woman appeared on the first page of photos.

Anyway, Rollyo is an interesting application that could dodge this sort of issue and I'm surprised that this was the first time I've even heard of it. It allows you to designate up to 25 web sites for students to search. I found 12(ish) sites that I would want students to use instead of a generic Google search for basic research.

The next steps would be to create elementary vs. intermediate grade searches (for readability). My only question to sort through is how this tool might be better than NetTrekker...Would it be a supplement in case NetTrekker does not display needed information?

Here's my trial Foster Reference version:

Select Search Engine...Foster ReferenceSearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

Week 5 Thing 11

I love this list of Web 2.0 winners--for professional use as well as personal use! I already know and use sites like PeerTrainer, Pandora (cusomizable radio), Facebook and and Twitter. However, I had a great time exploring Picnik, Care2, and Cover Pop. I think I liked Cover Pop the best--the image was captivating on it's own, but when you mouse over a book, a full picture comes up along with the info for the book (according to Amazon), such as "Heat" in the attached image. I wish I could create one of these so that upon mouse over, the call number of the book would come up with the cover so students would be able to find it in our library. I might work on that...