Facebook , and Myspace, and Twitter, oh my! - Method 8

SO the question that is posed is, "how do I feel about social networking sites in general?" My answer is, "if it weren't for Myspace and Facebook I would have completely lost touch with my high school and college friends. Thanks to these two sites I have been able to reconnect with many of my friends from past and know what is going on in their lives - husbands, wives, kids, etc. I love it!"
I do not worry about privacy, because you only post what you want public. If you don't want people to know it, don't write. If you don't want strangers to know anything, keep your profile private - then only people you approve can see your profile and information. If someone you don't know requests to follow or friend you, JUST SAY NO! I do worry a little about the personal life vs. professional life. I have solved this by keeping my Facebook page as personal site, and though I accept friend requests from some people in my working life, they understand that the Facebook is separate from work. I have solved the need for social networking in my professional life with my Twitter account, though I have to admit I am not very good with tweeting - but I will work on that.

Method 7 is Delicious

Ah! Delicious. This is another tool I have been using, but not to it's fullest. I love that I can "take my bookmarks with me." But, I'm afraid I do not use delicious to it's fullest extent, nor do I promote it to it's fullest extent.

I can see, with proper publicity, the use of delicious between librarians in my district as a quick share of resources. We all look for the same types of resources and web pages around certain times of year - Columbus day, Veterans day, Halloween, Thanksgiving - basically any holiday, and we are out there searching for good informational websites. Whether it is for classes, lesson planning, or display ideas. How nice would it be to create a network of already found and usable websites?

Shenanigans' Debut - Method 6

I enjoy Teachertube. I'm very glad that it is available to our schools and libraries, since Youtube is blocked. I like Youtube for home use, but I do believe there is way to much "other stuff" to wade through in order to find what you want or need. Teachertube is the perfect alternative for school use. They have channels related to content area, they having tagging, and you can search.

In this age of technology I'm glad there are places for students who are interested in film making and technology to post their products to. Also, there are many Media Contests out there (TLA has one, HISD Library Services's Name That Book Media Contest, etc). Having Teachertube available for the students who enter these contests to post to and browse for ideas is wonderful. Now that I have a Flip video at my ready access, I plan to try to do more videoing and video editting. Wish me luck!

"Click!" - Method 5

One of my favorite movie quotes is, "I don't play well with others" from Hackers. This line somewhat applies to me and online photo sharing, simply because I'm horrible about taking pictures of anything. I have friends who use many different photo sites, just not Flickr.
My experience with Flickr has been to use it for Creative Commons works to use in Moviemaker or fliers.
On a professional level, I could see the libraries in my district creating a group and sharing. But, as always, there could be issues with pictures of students on websites and privacy, etc. . .


Varkala Beach- Sunset at Papanasam Beach
Originally uploaded by dotcompals

Extra Credit:
Ironically, just before I began this photo sharing exploration my father sent me an email with a lot of pictures and the bottom of the email said the pictures came from Picasa. I asked my Dad to share the album with me, and was able to see the picture much quicker than opening one after anther in e-mail.
Both are very similar with options of who can see, and who can't see the pictures. THere is some difference int he invite to see process that I haven't explored (because I just don't have pictures to invite people to view). I like the look of Picasa as a storage and possible sharing location better than Flickr, but that could be because I am familiar with how the Google suite works.

Method 4 -RSS! RSS! Blog all about it!

RSS feeds and Google reader are not new to me. I have been using Google reader for over a year now, and have followed RSS feeds for the past several years.

The feeds that I have posted on this blog is from Michael Stephens, Ruth Cox Clark, and Terri Lesesne. Stephens was the keynote speaker at the Houston ISD Librarian's inservice that I planned for this past August. Stephens is a motivational speaker who really promotes the use of technology and tech trends in libraries of all kinds. I like to read his blog to find out about new and emeriging technologies and see how they may be used in school libraries. Ruth Cox Clark was my professor at UHCL for several classes, but namely Young Adult Literature. She is the reason I discovered my love of YA literature, and so I follow her blog to learn about new titles coming out and what adventure she is currently on. Terri Lesesne is another guru of YA lit, but her blog also includes reviews of children's lit. I use her site to help me choose books for the NTB K-2 contest.

Since I was already using Google reader the question about will I use it to keep up with blogs seems like a silly one to answer. But the truth is, this project has reminded me about google reader - as I let it fall to the wayside. So, now I will attempt to be more on top of my RSS feeds on Google Reader.

Method 3 - I'm living in the clouds

I started using Google Docs about 4 years ago. Our district has "preview books" for the librarians to review and then add to their collections if appropriate. Our reviews are online in a Google Docs spreadsheet. I thought this was an ingenious way to share all the reviews my colleagues were writing about new titles.
Since then I have expanded my use of Google Docs into an even more collaborative use. I share documents back and forth with the other supervisors. We create documents that we add to and edit on a regular basis, and it is a general storage place for me so that I can access important documents and data when I'm out at schools and not at my office computer (this has come in handy many, many times). I look forward to experimenting with the "form" on Google Docs and getting data easily gathered that way.
I see many great benefits from these tools everyday as a supervisor. Now, what about in my school libraries? Well, could librarians and teachers write lesson plans in the clouds and develop collaborative lessons that way? could students submit papers to be graded even if they are out sick, or don't have access to a printer? The uses are out there - they just have to be found. I kind of think of it like seeing pictures in the real clouds. Everyone sees something different, no one is wrong, because the clouds are moving and changing constantly.

BUT . . . Jenny Levine does point out some interesting questions. Is the data safe? I don't really know! Is google becoming like Microsoft - only interested in the bottom line? do I care if they are so long as it's still free for me? Would we all feel more comfortable if we did have to pay to have our data in the Clouds? These are all things to consider - but I think I'm going to stick with it.
I like living in the clouds. Won't you join me?

Methods 1 and 2

Web 2.0 and library 2.0 are almost interchangeable in my mind. I'd love to see every library using all of the tools that are available. Being able to utilize these 2.0 tools allows libraries and librarians to connect to their students, users, and patrons in ways that are more comfortable for the library user.
How many high school or middle school students would ask more questions of a librarian if they could do it on chat, facebook, twitter, etc?
How many connections can librarians make with others like them from around the world using twitter, facebook, skype, or secondlife?
The possiblities are endless, and I can't wait to see what ideas libraries come up with.