I'm Hooked, Let's Go!

The possibilities of usage are like a waterfall, continuously flowing. Delicious sounds so easy to apply with the folksonomy of tags. Teachers can collaborate with others to develop sites related to their field. Students can track their work for research purposes. I can add the tags to the library blog for curricular development. One example I can see is when teachers approach me to say 'do you have any good websites on poetry', I can direct them to the delicious tag that has been accumulated on my blog (under construction) and suggest they access it add to it as well. We can then share this with the other teachers and have a whole community of input. How exciting is that! These are but a few of the immediate usages I can foresee in action. On the flip side, what if they don't buy in.

Here's a questions for you. If it's usable, practical and it makes sense, how do we sell this concept to our colleagues who are still in the web 1.0 world? The notion of having students not only gather information from the Web but also put information out into cyberspace may raise some red flags for them. In Go With the Flow: Selling Social Networking, Boule suggests to establish a student policy that "details a specific process for disciplining rule breakers, [with] follow through". This way staff and students are on the same page as to what the expectations are. Boule also suggests the practicality of using delicious where if there were only one account, you wouldn't know who the (potential) offender to inappropriate material might be. Therefore, students should have their own accounts "(making sure that it in no way relates to their actual name)". By sharing solutions, I hope to alleviate the fear of the unknown in this new domain. Let's get on the same page as our students and open up into a whole new world - literally.

Source

Boule, Michelle. (2008, Jan). Go With the Flow: Selling Social Networking. School Library Journal. New York. Blog 11/1/2008. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6610498.html.

Have you ever gone on a holiday and there was a whole string of problems? Come share my frustrations and discover how they were resolved.

Setting up a delicious account was not as easy as I was lead to believe. I had to choose a password a number of times before it would accept one - even though all the parameters were covered. (I know it's just a machine, therefore it must be user error.) When I did get in, I was booted out of my Internet - my hubby's not going to like this:( [We share the computer.] Why can't it run two programs at the same time? I couldn't minimize one window to retrieve the URL's to paste them into another? Have I missed something there?

Now I can't get into the university site - I am being kicked out each time I try to log in. It said something about the pop-up blockers which I have allowed. Now what do I do? Think back - what did I do - not being a computer programmer - think - retrace my steps (after the panic sets in of course-you don't think as clearly). My last action was to install the delicious add-ons as was suggested - bad idea as now I can't do my school work. How have you guys made it work? Now the question I have is, if I am blocked at home with few filters on my computer, how will these sites be accepted at the school level? I'll have to wait for school to re-open to check it out before I do tons of planning around this. Do you have any suggestions on this issue?

With my frustration, I thought I'd look for another provider. I decided to dig deeper to research some other social bookmarking options. Some of the ones that came up were diigo, (too much uneducational social interaction), furl (too primary), stumbleupon (was more like a guessing game). Most information pointed me back to delicious. I'll try again. I uninstalled the add-ons so I could use my university site again. OK, I'm in - whew!

Next, add some sites to delicious and figure out how it works. That's neat; I can add URL's, websites, journals, article titles, videos, etc. Now that I chosen a number of options and tagged each one, how do I manage this information? I can sort it by tags, alphabetically or by most recent. It is much easier to manipulate these than the 'favourites' of the previous system. The use of the tags really does narrow down the choice of where to refer - a pleasure to utilize. I like how I have the flexibility to search my own bookmarks or everyone else's for more options. I'm not so sure I like the popularity factor of 'mine is better because I got more hits' scenario. I'm sure there's another twist to this one - I'm still thinking on it.

My next plan of action will be to incorporate the links I have accumulated through other databases and search for them in delicious so they can be more accessible both for my use and to share with others. I love the idea that I can access articles from ProQuest for example and not have to log-in. Bonus:)

Many Choices, Where to Begin?

Social Bookmarking - what does it really mean? Social = interacting with others and bookmarking = organizing resources. With multiple options, I needed to consider the best choice for my situation. According to Gooding, Web 2.0: A Vehicle for Transforming Education, there are four benefits to using social bookmarks: "finding and creating new learning communities of users based around a certain topic, sharing access to categorized resources in an efficient way, developing new insights about a topic by discovering the views and perspectives of others, and creating a range of contextual taxonomies that carry a specific meaning for a learning community". How could you not incorprate this tool into your learning environment: making connections, offering organizational skills, critically consider others' thoughts, and learning from sharing. These are all attributes that can and should be developed.

It's time to make a choice as to which direction to follow to collate and share this information. In deciding on the provider to use at my school, I considered Webnotes What's Next for Social Bookmarking? but I think it is too limiting as it is designed primarily for library use and I'd like my staff to also be able to utilize social bookmarking with their disciplines as well. I need something that is more general.

One social bookmarking program kept resurfacing - delicious. In Tags Help Make Libraries Delicious, it was succinctly stated, "social bookmarking and tagging tools help librarians bridge the gap between the library's need to offer authoritative, well-organized information and their patrons' web experience". What a great way to bring these two components together for easier referencial use. The days are gone where information only came from books. We must now turn to cyberspace for proactive assistance. Rethlefsen goes on to say that using tags " lets libraries label books in ways that make more sense to patrons than traditional subject headings." If it makes it easier by using more common terminology and it can be traced more easily - that's the answer for me.

Sources

Harris, Christopher. (2009, Feb). What's Next for Social Bookmarking? School Library Journal. New York: Feb 2009. Vol. 55, Iss. 2; pg. 14, 1 pgs. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6632979.html

Gooding, J.. (2008). Web 2.0: A Vehicle for Transforming Education. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education, 4(2), 44-53. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1407624951). http://login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/pqdweb?did=1407624951&Fmt=3&clientId=12301&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Rethlefsen, Melissa L.. (2007, September). Tags Help Make Libraries Del.icio.us. Library Journal, 132(15), 26. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1335174171). http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6476403.html

How Deep is the Ocean?

How Deep is the Ocean?

As one travels around the word to try new cultures, customs and experiences, I am opening my awareness to the World Wide Web and the vast possibilities that abound. The difference with web 2.0 is that we give something back. It's like going to a remote island near the equator and taking Canadian pins to share with the school children there. I've begun this journey feeling like I'm on that remote, isolated island in the middle of the ocean. There certainly is a lot to explore around me. With these new connections I'm making, the ocean doesn't seem so deep. Please join me on my journey.

Source

Edmondson, R. (2007, Jan 12). How Deep is the Ocean? Tellmewhyfacts.com. Retrieved from http://www.tellmewhyfacts.com/2007/01/how-deep-is-ocean.html

And Now for a Little Comic Relief

There is simply way too much out there to discover, so instead of facing overload, I turn to humour. Web and L.I. Brary offers a fun skit for library use versus using the Internet. This is a take-off on a popular ad series, is a library infomercial, and was originally created for a community college library. Enjoy:)

The Journey of Movement is a Continuous Act

To do research on who and where to start with in this provocative presentation world of learning by interacting with videos is in itself overwhelming. It certainly is the next step in the right direction to the boring old teaching lessons of the past. Let's look at some of the steps involved in adding a video clip to a blog.

The addition of videos onto a blog should be an easy undertaking according to the initial hits you get when searching for the how-to's. My journey has not been as successful as this would suggest. One suggestion to use YouTube clips is to download the program RealPlayerCafe.com but as you try to do this, there is an error message saying it cannot be completed. Try again - it could be a glitch in the system - no luck.

Move onto Plan B. What do other servers suggest? As I try TeacherTube, I get their selection of videos, not even the choice I was requesting - even after creating an account. I really wanted to include the clips themselves and not just URL links. If I am unsuccessful in simply downloading a video clip - I hate to think what's involved in creating my own and uploading it -how & to where? Some sites require you to change the file type to an mp4 version. I have never even downloaded music onto an mp3 player and now I'm to tackle mp4? OK here goes. I bring up the KeepVid webpage to download a clip - just copy and paste the URL of the chosen video and it will automatically convert it for you - so they say. The URL is selected and I choose download and make some choices about how and where to save. Now let's see if it works. Ok, I've tried it an of course there is an error uploading the video clips - so I will have to revert and try an alternate route. Sorry this isn't turning out the way I wanted; it's just part of this huge learning curve.

Of course there'll be other problems too - it figures. I can't hyperlink my articles either so now I have to learn HTML and write some programming so I can add active links. Sorry about the video clips being imbedded into the text - that's just the way the cookie crumbles. Travel, books, food - what's next, humour?

The Best Way to Travel is In Your Own Home

How can I go places I'd love to go to and still be comfortable? I've got it - I can travel to places through books, I can experience what it is like in other countries through books, I can choose where to go beforehand through books. I can't possibly read that many books, so I went to YouTube for some inspiration about viewing books. An awesome idea is to videoshare book talks. RMS Library Media Centre has a great collection to share. Here are a few examples. Another example to obtain more of a technological connection is the Skeleton Creek book trailer. This one has a great connection with books and technology. This video introduces us to the book component to read as well as an online version to follow. What will they think of next? Other inspirational ideas can be found in Video Tools & Sharing, some of the ways in which I will be able to incorporate video clips in my environment are through: share student work (with permission of course and only using first names or pseudonyms), use video clips in presentations, teach creative commons licensing, staff pro-d on applications, teach research skills, share this technology, create and share library orientation videos, create and provide tutorials and share videos about how to do research. I'm sure more applications will arise with aggregate use.

If a Picture can say a Thousand Words, How Does a Video Clip Compare?

Pictures get you thinking without words. Videos are auditory words but still can get you thinking. The images can conjure up any number of thoughts and are very powerful. These powerful learning tools/videos can be found on many servers including: YouTube, TeacherTube, SchoolTube, and SlideShare (sort of) just to name a few. Videos have so much more impact on the learning environment than any one teacher can provide - so why not use them? Dr. Joyce Valenza will even be incorporating them onto her wiki Video Pathfinder. She also makes suggestions as to how to access YouTube at school where it is blocked in many schools including mine. In the article When YouTube is Blocked, it offers solutions for access at school. Option 4 seems to work well; in the URL, you add the word kick between the www. and youtube.com. and voila, the same page comes up. I'll be using this trick at school and sharing it with my colleagues. Some questions to grapple with: Should I share the unblocking with students? What are the pros and cons if I do this? There is a reason YouTube has been blocked at the school level. Am I willing to be challenged on allowing access should problems arise? Am I enforcing a filter on intellectual freedom for the students if I don't? As I researched the accessibility such sites, I found an article Everybody Else Is Doing It! by Mary Ann Bell where she states "so many people...are up against considerable odds in their efforts to access Web 2.0 sites, I think it is an understatement to say that many educators have a lot of convincing to do" to allow for interaction on Web 2.0. We need to take a stand and band together to create change. Is this some indication that education is slow to change?