Thing 8: Collaborating, Connecting, Sharing

Wow!  So many things to pick from!

The first thing I noticed was Google Drive, which I am a HUGE fan of.  I have dropbox also, but I just seem to use google drive more.  It is a Godsend for a traveling teacher.  I love being able to access my stuff in any building, device, home, etc.  However, I had never tried working with the forms, so that was what I wanted to explore next.  How did I not know about this????  Super easy!  I wasn't sure about sending it to students, so I explored the help until I found how to embed the code of a form on my webpage.  So, I added a survey for students on their webpage for when we start our Inquiry unit.  ( http://www.catomeridian.org/webpages/scutri/index.cfm?subpage=32997 )  Love it!  Google will tally the responses instead of me typing it all out. I'm looking forward to using this more.

Next I played around with TodaysMeet...and then I found a science teacher who I knew would love it.  She did...and her first question was (of course) "Is it blocked?" because so many sites are blocked by the filter.  She had previously tried to use twitter for a online, real-time class discussion but it just didn't work quite right...we'll be trying this out on that class, and I think it will be a real improvement, and keep up with the class discussion! 

Finally, I decided to look at google calendar.  I know many libraries put their library and computer lab calendars online using google calendar, and I wanted to see how easy it would be for me to incorporate.  Believe it or not, I found a slideshare presentation on just that topic!  I love slideshare!
http://www.slideshare.net/msiefert/google-calendar-for-online-library-scheduling-12623190
I definitely think this will be something I work on over the summer and start next year.  I am in charge of scheduling the library, 2 computer labs, IPAD cart, and laptop cart, so I could really use a streamlined way of doing all that!  I only wish it was easier to change the times on it to class periods a little easier.  We'll have to see what the time commitment is to keeping this up to date. (ha ha, date....)

Thing 7: Screencasting and Podcasting

This turned out to be a challenge for me as I tried to find a good program to use.  Many of the screencasting options to use required the use of JAVA, which I found out was a huge problem in my district.  None of those programs would work for me.  I searched madly through the other links to find something that I could play with, and in the process, I learned a lot about screencasting!  I just wasn't able to create one of my own.

Finally I decided that maybe I would just focus on podcasting for this lesson.  I think both podcasting and screencasting are great for education for a lot of reasons, but especially the motivation factor. I put a voki on my 5th grade webpage, and they just love clicking it and getting information that way!

I wanted to use my IPAD for this, so I downloaded the AubioBoo app and started recording.  It was really easy, and I could definitely see using this with students for a book review page.  I have a "wall of reviews" in my library, but I'm thinking it might be time to put it online!  I think podcasting has a lot of uses for a librarian, not only for reading promotion, but research tips also, which would be really handy for me, a traveling librarian.

I put a book review Audioboo on my main webpage ( www.catomeridian.org/webpages/scutri ).