Twitter - Social Media's 10 Minute Oil Change!

Ten minute oil changes - don't you love them? I have one I go to all the time. I like it because the young guys that work there are friendly, efficient, and informative, and, let's face it, an oil change extends the life of your car too.

So what does an oil change have to do with Twitter? Surprisingly, they have a lot of similarities!

Reflection on Twitter
Of all the assignments in our course this year, this was the one I was looking forward to the least. My primary purpose in using any of the Web 2.0 tools has always been to find those that would enhance student engagement and improve student learning. I could not see how Twitter could offer anything to those ends. All I had ever heard about Twitter was during the morning gossip update on my local radio station. So what good for education could come from Twitter?

For this course, we were asked to remain open-minded about each of the various tools we would be trying. And I have been for every one, but I was more closed-minded approaching this week's research then in any other, and honestly, I approached it grudgingly. In fact, I really procrastinated even beginning my research because I had already decided Twitter couldn't offer me much!

I signed up for Twitter a couple of months ago. Twitter is also called microblogging because essentially you have 140 characters to make your point. If you've been off the planet for awhile and have no clue about Twitter, I found a couple of fun songs that might make you want to learn more.



Unfortunately, I was not as enthusiastic as the kids above when I started learning about Twitter. In fact, I made a couple of initial tweets, signed up to follow a few others and promptly forgot about it. In fact, even now, I only have tweeted a dozen times! I knew a lot of people received tweets on their phones, but I did not want to do this for two reasons. One, I don't use my cell phone regularly. If I forget to charge it, it might sit in the bottom of my purse for a week before I remember again. Two, if I did have it on, I didn't want to be receiving tweets all the time as I would find that distracting. However, I did not realize there were services like twitterlicious and tweetdeck that would notify me about incoming tweets on my computer.

Eventually there was no choice but to get reading or I knew I was never going to be able to make this post. I signed up first for twitterlicious. It was easy to load up to my computer and it put a little notification box in the corner where the latest tweets would show up. However, after a short time, I was informed that the program had quit running on my computer and I would be notified if there was a fix for the problem. Since I had been having trouble getting to the links posted on the tweets, I decided this was a sign to try something else. By this time, a number of people I had been reading had mentioned how much they really enjoyed tweetdeck, so I thought I would try it.

As it turns out, tweetdeck is really an awesome service. First, my tweetdeck page can also incorporate my facebook and myspace updates. So that makes things more efficient. Second, when I am working on my computer, I get an actual little tweet and a notice in the corner with someone's update or tweet. The sound is super cute. I found tweetdeck much easier to use because when people tweet a link, it shows up like a link and I could quickly click on it and take a look. On twitterlicious, I could never click it as a link and had to retype it.

If you are thinking of using Twitter, sign up for a service like tweetdeck! It makes all the difference in the world. I just didn't have time to check all my accounts, so I didn't. This is why I was not getting anything at all out of Twitter at first. It's a lot like having an RSS feed. Let the information come to you. Don't spend your time looking for it!

Since I have signed up for tweetdeck, I'm much more up-to-date on my friends as well as on professional information because I see status updates while I'm working too, and I don't have to log in to Facebook to do that (yes, I know status updates can go to phones, see above).

There are some things one needs to know in order for Twitter to make sense. D: is a direct tweet. RT is a retweet. Use an @ before a username if you are retweeting or tweeting about someonel. There is such a thing as "tweetiquette," and users must become familiar with it. John D. Valaro who writes The Human Strategist had some straight forward tips for tweeting in his article Tweetiquette for Beginners. He gives some very straightforward tips for using Twitter and what the various symbols mean.

Twitter and my Personal Learning

I have to be honest here. I haven't really used Twitter for any real learning outside of education and libraries. I have used it for some entertainment. I signed up to follow Ellen DeGeneres because I really like her. I also signed up to follow Perez Hilton, who, by the way, tweets a lot! It's kind of cool on nights like tonight when I'm watching the American Music Awards and he is there. I see him on the television and then get one of his tweets.

However, Twitter has Apps (that's applications). I found out from a very cool article entitled 5 Ways Twitter Can Make Your Life Better, that I can subscribe to Remember the Milk which allows you to create a "to do" list. This would be a great one to have sent to your cell phone (providing you kept it charged). Ever gone to a conference, couldn't find parking in the nearby lots and had to park at the meters? Ever forget to plug those meters? Yeah, me too! Well a subscription to Timer can remind you to plug your meter in 45 minutes! No more tickets!

One other use for Twitter is to follow breaking news. New agencies all have Twitter feeds. I can subscribe to CBC, CNN or my favourite local radio station C95.

One other task I might use Twitter for help with a particular question. For example, I wish I had been on Twitter when I purchased the laptop I use in my role as SSLA secretary. I have had some trouble with it in the short time I have owned it. Maybe, I could have asked for some advice about which laptop would have been the best.

How many applications are there for Twitter? Probably more than we can count! For at least a partial list, try the Twitter Application Database. There are currently 39 pages of them! I'm sure you'll find something you like!

Twitter and Teaching and Learning

I began my research, as always, with a visit to YouTube for a quick introductory video. Of course the guys at Common Craft have a great introductory video, Twitter in Plain English, but I also found this little gem. These guys are not going to win any Oscars for their acting talent, but I liked this particular video because it speaks specifically to Twitter in Education.

Twitter isn't new to educators. In fact, many educators have been using Twitter to advantage for some time. Don't believe me? There was actually a conference called The #140 Conference! I've embedded the video for two interviews from this conference. The first is an interview with Steve Anderson. Steve is an educator and currently an Instructional Technologist for Stokes County in the United States. In this brief interview he explains his how he uses Twitter and how you can get started with it. I started following him on Twitter because I was already following his blog, and he seems to have lots of good ideas and passion.

The next is an interview with high school adminstrator Eric Sheninger. He discusses how his use of Twitter has evolved. He also notes that more administrators need to be on Twitter.

There are probably as many ways to use Twitter as there are educators, but I guess for me, I really like the professional development aspect of it more than actually using it with students at least at this particular point and time. Jason Renshaw who maintains a weblog called English Raven had a post called Twitter for teachers: why you should start tweeting. He gives some very good reasons for educators to be on Twitter. Some of his reasons are the same that I find the most exciting. You can stay up-to-date on new ideas. You can find out about conferences, resources, and links. You can participate in discussions about topics important to you. There is a very

In his article Twitter finally gains academic approval, Davey Winder notes that some universities in the UK and Australia have recognized the value of Twitter not only in their journalism courses but also as a personal learning network tool for students. This makes perfect sense to me as that is how I am now seeing my use of Twitter.

I don't know Phil Bradley, but one of his posts, Use Twitter in Libraries, was on our trailfire. He has this great post where he talks about all the different uses for Twitter in a library. Some of them are the usual like posting hours, new staff, upcoming events, and things of that nature. But among what he notes are the more interesting uses are keeping up on trending information, finding answers to questions, and getting/staying in touch with experts in one's field. These are all legitimate reasons to use Twitter.

In her article in Library Journal 20 Ways for Librarians to use Twitter, Sonja Cole includes such suggestions as: recommending a book, blog, video or website; give a daily tip; start a Twitter book club (tweet reactions to a book); connect with other librarians, participate in #FollowFriday by recommending others; and ask others for favourite posts.

Two ways that I can see myself using Twitter with students at this time is having them follow the tweets of an author for a semester. Another is an idea I got from an article Twittering Dante by Lauren Barack which was published in the School Library Journal. She suggests having students Twitter as if they were Dante writing to his Beatrice in each of the levels of hell. Personally, I think to write as a character and to have to be succinct enough to express a character's thoughts in 140 characters requires a high level of thinking. I also think we need to move beyond the typical models of writing and include models that are appropriate for the 21st century.

There is a wealth of information about Twitter and Education online. One article I read had a link to twitter4teachers which can help connect you with people in your field that you might want to follow. They are broken down into EVERY possible subject area. As well, you can sign up for a Twitter Mentor if you would like someone to help you set up your own personal learning network.

On Cybrary Man's Educational Websites, he has a great list of links to every possible site with helpl for using Twitter, Twitter for educators, Twitter tips for teachers, mashups with Twitter, tutorials and more. I am this close to saying that if it isn't on this site, you don't need it!

I see Twitter as a hard sell to staff though. I know that I didn't crack easily. I think I really have to use it for awhile longer too in order to be able to speak with more conviction . It can be an efficient complement to my repetoire of supports. At this time, I'm still a "peeping Tracy" and not really an active contributor, but as I become more knowledgeable, I will have more to share than simply updates on my life.

So why, when we are busier than ever, do I want to add on yet another technology? Well (drum roll, please), the people on Twitter are friendly. They want to help you out. Twitter is efficient (everything you need to know in 140 characters). It is informative - experts from around the world share their knowledge and answer questions. And let's face it, anything that makes the job of being a teacher and/or teacher-librarian easier, is going to extend your life in the field and make you run a whole lot smoother!

Just like an oil change for your vehicle, Twitter can increase your productivity, knowledge, and life expectency, and it takes less than 10 minutes to sign up! What are you waiting for?

Join the Party!

Who doesn't love a good party? Social networking allows us to party all night and every day! (And if you can name the song those lyrics came from, you're old!)

As I delved into this week's topic of social networking, one of the questions that occurred to me is why have people responded so enthusiastically to online social networking? It's like a drug. People, young and old, have overwhelmingly flocked to social networking sites of all types, for personal and professional purposes. The answer? People love to party!

Not a lie, and with no explanation for why, I was reminded of my university psychology classes and Maslow's Hierarchy. I must admit, it was a vague recollection, and I had to refresh my memory. According to Wikipedia, "Humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, whether it comes from a large social group, such as clubs, office culture, religious groups, professional organizations, sports teams, gangs, or small social connections...." If we think of the popularity of social networking in light of the need to belong, it all makes sense. We can belong to so much more and on a much greater scale by using the social networking tools available to us online.

Reflection on Social Networking

Two sites are often noted as being the most popular, Facebook and MySpace. Personally, I don't know anyone who has a MySpace account, but almost everyone I know has a Facebook page. Facebook is party central in this neck of the woods!

The primary purpose for me to sign up was to connect with people I hadn't seen or heard from in ages. And that's pretty much why I stay on. I keep in touch with former students, old friends, people I don't talk to that often. In this way, I guess I'm the wallflower! I don't go out of my way to meet new people, find people, or start a conversation.

My daughter, my students, and many of my friends are the life of the Facebook party. They update their status regularly (and have it linked to their cell phones as well), they play games, do quizzes, post on each other's walls (carrying on conversations), load favourite videos, keep photo albums, add various applications and much more. Accessing Facebook is something they do multiple times in a day and sometimes use it for a considerable length of time during the day. I access Facebook one or twice a month! They aren't using it to talk to people they have lost touch with. They're using it to talk to people they want to keep in touch with. People they see and hang out with in their daily lives. This is a way for them to keep hanging out even when they can't physically be in the same place.

Signing up for Facebook is easy. You start with a profile. You answer all those important questions like whether you are male or female, what your relationship status is, your religious and policitcal views, you know the stuff. You may or may not post a picture. Personally, I went without one for so long, my daughter finally got fed up and put a picture on for me! And then you start adding friends and answering friend requests. You can spend hours on the program. At first I did. I posted status updates, I did quizzes, but mostly I became a "Peeping Tracy!" It was a little voyeuristic. I would go onto people's pages and look at their pictures, see what was on their walls, look at their status, look at videos they had posted. I was basically snooping! Facebook is a good place to satisfy those Alice Kravitz cravings! (Can you name that 70s t.v. show reference?)

But I have to be honest, I just didn't keep up to it. With the exception of a response to a rare message, I really stopped using it. Yup, I was a big time party pooper! Well, with this class it was time to rejoin the party! I decided I had better go on and clean up my Facebook account. I got rid of a bunch of old notices. I changed some of my privacy settings and the information I had on my profile. I did find that whenever I went on, I became addicted and ended up losing a whole bunch of time. I did a lot of quizzes. I really like the movie quizzes, and I like challenging my friends.

During the course of my course, I decided to expand my Facebook involvement. I did not sign up for Farmville though. I know so many people who are farming, but I am just not responsible enough for that! Plus, I don't get the draw! I looked around for some groups though. I did this because I am the co-chair for my daughter's after-grad committee, and in our discussion about how we are going to involve the grads and keep people informed, we decided to develop a Facebook page. We have about half the grads registered so far, and we anticipate more after our next big meeting. At any rate, I decided that maybe I should look for some groups that had a purpose and that I could use and enjoy. No Farmville though! I did end up joining two different library groups on Facebook. One of the groups is made up primarily of library media specialists from the United States and Canada and the other is smaller but has members from around the world including India and Australia.

Nings were new to me. Ning isn't everyday vocabulary yet, like Facebook, but interestingly enough, a Ning is a lot like Facebook. A Ning is a place for individuals to go and create a social network. According to the article 7 Things You Should Know About Ning, a Ning can be easily created, it does not require technological know-how, it can be public or private and it can be personalized to look and act as its creator thinks it should. It functions very much like Facebook or MySpace. Nings can be "used for activities ranging from news, current events, and professional development to entertainment, dating, and support groups." Nings can be local, regional, national or international. Nings can be formal or informal. Nings can be "anyNing" you want them to be!

I initially joined three of them. (I know, I am the original party animal!) One is the K-12 Online Conference Ning , one is the Teacher-Librarian Ning and the other is the Canadian 21st Century Teacher-Librarians Ning. It is easy to join them, but as is the case with many social networks, membership needs to be confirmed. These Nings are gathering places for sharing and discussion, although they are formed around a topic - either the conference or teacher-librarianship, rather than just general membership. Members can upload videos, share photos, discuss ideas, share information, keep track of events, respond to questions, post blogs and more.

To be honest, I like the Nings better than Facebook. I guess because I do not socialize the way my daughter does and stay connected all the time with my friends. I'm quite happy to chat on the phone (which my daughter never does) or see my friends at our dinner club, girls' lunch or splurge. My online use is primarily academic or professional. I felt the Nings I joined had more to offer (although I was mostly a "peeping Tracy" again and spent most of my time reading conversations as opposed to participating in them). Maybe it's just that the lines between my personal and professional life are a little blurry. I really enjoy hanging out and talking shop, so I guess social networking about work is really relaxing and enjoyable for me.

Social Networking and Personal Learning

Well, because I was really such a inactive Facebook member, I did learn a number of things about Facebook! First, Facebook has a chat feature. I was on my page cleaning some things up and one of my former students messaged me. We had a nice little chat. Since he contacted me, two more people started a chat with me while I was on. That was pretty amazing. I didn't start a chat with anyone though. Another thing I did, which I guess it was kind of foolish of me not to have done sooner, but I went through my profile and took off a lot of information. I realized after some of the earlier discussions in this class that a person could maybe do some damage with the information I did have or use what I had on there to get what they needed and maybe steal my identity. I took off my employment information, my year of birth and some other things I thought should go. I also learned you could control who could see what. I did not actually change that as I don't think there's anything on my account that I care whether someone sees or doesn't see. Perhaps that would be different if I used it more, but I did find out how I could change things if I wanted to. Pretty easy as you just click on the drop down menu on the line you are working on.

One very important thing I did learn about Facebook is that it has a Scrabble application. And you can play Scrabble on Facebook. I joined two Facebook Scrabble groups. I love playing Scrabble. I'm a fanatic as you may remember if you've read any of my previous posts!

As I noted earlier, there is a blurry line between my professional and private life. I guess I should expand my interests and take up exercise, get fit, maybe join some healthy lifestyle groups. Join a dance club or a scrapbooking group. I really am interested in those things. But unfortunately, my butt is firmly planted on my sofa with my laptop in front of me. In the dictionary, under sedentary, it shows a picture of me on my couch with my laptop in front of me, my phone, my remote and a diet coke! Anyway, my point is that if I sit here on my computer, as I do every evening, I may do work, course work, play Scrabble, read blogs, check out the Nings, but it is all quite enjoyable and entertaining to me. So learning about Nings is as much a personal thing as it is a professional thing.

I did actually create a Ning, just for fun. I wanted to see how difficult it would be to do it. Turns out, like so much on the web, it's really easy. I named my Ning Breathing Books. There's not actually anything on it right now, but I actually do plan to develop this Ning after this class is over. I love books, and I love to talk about books.

Social Networking and Teaching and Learning

Want to get kids interested in learning? Want to engage them? Throw a party! What kid doesn't love a good party? Social Networking provides an opportunity for students to connect, cooperate and collaborate. According to the 7 Things You Should Know About Ning, "By creating social networks around academic topics, or even about specific projects for a course, an instructor can facilitate a strong sense of community among the students, encouraging personal interactions that can lead to the creation of new knowledge and collective intelligence." As well, creating a Ning is easy, and the article goes on to point out that students can "create their own social networks and learn how to cultivate and sustain a community of users that might resemble professional contacts and relationships."

In his blog post "The Added Value of Networking," Will Richardson talks about the fact that kids are already heavily invested in social networking and they are already using it to learn, but nobody is teaching them how to do it well. He references an article from the Harvard Graduate School of Education magazine Ed entitled "Thanks for the Add, Now Help Me with my Homework" and the fact that with respect to social networking, kids are "forming networks with people they meet every day as well as people they have barely met. If we can't understand what kids are doing and integrate these tools into a classroom, what kind of message are we sending them? I think we'll see an even bigger disconnect than already exists." Richardson goes on to say that "The world is changing because of social web technologies. Our kids are using them. No one is teaching them how to use them to their full learning potential, and ultimately, as teachers and learners, that's our responsibility."

And, who is going to throw this social networking party? Who is going to get the teachers out from behind their desks and onto the dance floor? Who is going to show the kids that you spell "cool" L-I-B-R-A-R-I-A-N? That's right, me (and my colleagues, of course)! According to a recent article "School Librarians Lead the Social Networking Pack Among Educators" we are the most positive and most daring when it comes to using social networking in schools. And by the very nature of the teacher-librarian's job, I think it's critical we take this leadership role and help our teachers and our administrators understand how and why social networking needs to be integrated into our classrooms. As the article notes, "Educators...feel overwhelmed by technology...[they] understand the need to address and incorporate it into teaching and learrning." And I feel this is the leadership role I can play in my school. I can help teachers to understand the technology and its importance, and I can help them to integrate it.

In an article by Fran Smith entitled "How to Use Social Networking Technology for Learning," she interviews Chris Lehmann, principal of Philadelphia's Science Leadership Academy, who suggests that we need to change the term "social networking" to "academic networking" and start showing kids how they can use these tools to be" effective collaborators in the world, how to interact with people around them, how to be engaged, informed twenty-first-century citizens. We need to teach kids the powerful ways netowrking can change the way they look at education, not just their social lives."

I've quoted just a smattering of what's out there for information about the value of social networking sites in education, and they all say the same thing, we need to be a part of this! So I started to think about how I could use these types of sites in my classroom or how I could help other teachers to integrate them into their classrooms.

One of the sites that Chris Lehmann recommends starting with is a social bookmarking site. In the above-noted article he quotes de-lici-ous, but it could be any other, and for me would probably be Diigo. This is a tool I will start to use with the senior students in History and Science. It's not enough to just show the site and explain how it works. In my class this week, my group was discussing learning and understanding. To show them the site and go over how it works, the students might "learn" about it, but to help them really understand, we need to use it together. Practice using it, discuss tagging, show students how to search other people's tags, and all the aspects of using the tool that make it valuable.

One of my newest "go to gals" is Danah Boyd who, in her address entitled "Living and Larning with Social Media" at the Symposium for Teaching and Learning, stated "Educators have a critical role when it comes to helping youth navigate social media. You can help them understand how to make sense of what they're seeing. We call this "media literacy" or "digital literacy" or simply learning to live in a modern society. Youth need to know more than just how to use the tools - they need to understand the structures around them." (As an aside, check out her whole speech; it's great!) So, I am not going to jump into this for the sake of using a tool. I need to learn more. I need to look at it against curriculum (as with anything) and determine how it fits best and actually enhances learning.

The Young Adult Library Services Association has created a document called "Teens and Social Networking in School and Public Libraries: A Toolkit for Librarians and Library Workers." This toolkit has some excellent ideas about how educators can use social media in the classroom. For example, creating a Facebook page as a particular historical character, and gradually filling in the profile based on what is learned, blogging on the site as the character and as others offer sources and further information, continually upgrading their profile. It would require very critical and creative thinking to become an historical character and maintain that persona.

No matter what the actual activity, it will be critical, as Danah Boyd says, to teach students the structures of the tools they're using and how these tools can be used for educational benefit.

I think if I've had an "aha" moment in this whole topic, it's this - we need to be active in the same reality our students live in and that includes social networking. If we do not integrate tools like this into our classrooms, we cannot hope to possibly engage our students. And there are so many people already doing this. We do not have to reinvent the wheel. Check out the wiki Educational Networking. It lists more networks than I could count on Facebook, Nings, Wikis and more. It's outstanding professional development to belong to good groups and get involved in the conversations. There are links to Facebook groups that discuss student engagement and higher level thinking and Nings for teachers of English and Middle School.

Another excellent Ning is The Educator's PLN: The Personal Learning Network for Educators. This Ning has tons of fabulous groups. My classmates might be interested to know that one of them is all about how to get started using Twitter in the classroom. I was so engaged with the different topics and discussions on this Ning, that I had to become a member.

Another Ning I like and am going stay involved in is the Classroom 2.0 Ning. On this Ning I found a group of people who had used Nings and Facebook with students as well as a lot of discussion about the pros and cons and how to be effective. I think it will be very valuable in helping me to develop a plan for encouraging my staff to integrate social networks.

One Ning I think I would like to get started is for the teacher-librarians in my district. Currently, we do not have support or leadership to help us continue to develop capacity. We have a number of new teacher-librarians who are feeling lost and don't know where to go. We have a number of older and more experienced teacher-librarians who are feeling the same. Perhaps a Ning as a place to discuss, question, and share would be helpful.

I could go on forever, but I think there's only one thing left to say - "Let's get this party started!"

Mommy, more smashed 'tatoes!

When my daughter was little, she always wanted "smashed 'tatoes." It was her favourite. I think she liked them because they were easy to eat, filling and she could do cool things with them (like finger paint). When I began reading about mashups, I couldn't help but be reminded of "smashed 'tatoes." After all, mashups are easy, filling and you can do cool things with them too!

Reflection on the Process

One of the simplest definitions of mashups that I found came from Ask Bob Rankin who states, "a mashup is a term that's become popular to describe Web 2.0ish sites that combine the features or functions of one website with another." Like anything to do with the web, mashups have multiplied exponentially. There are now more mashup sites than you probably know what to do with - well, at least more than I know what to do with! Mashups are popular because they're easy to use. People who don't have any programming knowledge (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) can look really talented and smart. As well, I don't know about your computer, but after three people load up all their music, pictures, videos, and whatever else onto it, it can get pretty slow. One of the beautiful things about mashups is that you can use and store them out on the web and not on your own computer! Saves a lot of space!

Through Bob Rankin I found an amazing site called Programmable Web. You won't believe the mashups you can find here! I test drove just a few of them before moving on to my actual assignment. I thought I would share a few that I enjoyed.

I've been a World War II junkie since Grade 10 English when we read the book Diary of Anne Frank. I found a mashup that is a timeline of World War II combined with a map. Also, people can discuss the different additions to the timeline if they wish. Check out the World War II Timeline Project.

GeoWalk is a cool site. Here you can double click any location on the map and learn information about the place and see photos.

Bubblr is a mashup with Flickr that lets you insert cartoon bubbles onto your pictures. You can do it for an individual photo or you can create a comic strip!

Quite literally, I could have been lost in there for ages, but my assignment was already late, so onward I went.

My first stop was to Animoto. I have seen Animoto in action before, but I have never created my own Animoto video. I belong to a library list serve and quite frequently there are posts from people either asking questions about book trailers or wanting to show what their students have done using Animoto.

Animoto is easy to use. You simply upload the pictures you want to use, choose your music, send your video to production and you're done! I only used the free, 30 second option. I wanted to make a book trailer. I decided I'd try making one for one of my current favourites, The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. I signed up for an account and I was off and running. Because I didn't have any personal pictures suitable for this video, I went to Creative Commons on Flickr to access some. This is what was for me, the longest and most difficult part of the process. It took a long time to find pictures that worked with my story. Once they were found, it was easy to upload them; a simple click. Then I was prompted to choose music either from their selection or my own (I used theirs). Then, a click of a button to finalize. Animoto sends a copy of the video to your e-mail address, so you don't even have to wait for it to be finished! Overall, it's a process that couldn't be simpler for a professional looking project! Like "smashed 'tatoes" it's easy. You can do as many different projects and even different looks for the same project as you want. It is definitely filling!

Here is my first Animoto video!

Voice Thread is a unique mashup that has many exciting possibilities for use in schools and libraries. Getting started with Voice Thread is easy. Simply create an account and you can begin using the program immediately for free. You can upgrade, of course, to have more capabilities, but at this time, a free account offers me everything I need.

I actually signed up for an account under the K-12 program. By using the K-12 program, you have extra security so that no one else can read or edit what you are posting unless you specifically allow it. Also, content is controlled and students can be added and allowed under their teacher's account, so no student e-mails are required. All that shows up on the Voice Thread is the student's avatar and first name, so it is a safe space to work.

I did not have any trouble getting an account started nor did I have trouble uploading an image of the book cover I wanted to discuss. My avatar loaded in easily and I was able to record myself talking. The, I wanted my daughter who had read the book to add a comment. Here is where I had more difficulty. I kept clicking on the add a friend and link buttons, but I couldn't see anything happening. She logged in to her e-mail and did receive an e-mail, but when she followed the link, bit didn't get her to a place where she could respond. We played with this for a really long time with no luck. Finally, we clicked on the little house in the bottom left corner. From here we could choose her identity and she could add her comment (she typed it just to switch it up a bit). I have to admit I had a lot of difficulty with this part of it. I know it's not supposed to be difficult for people to add their comments, and it probably isn't, but we sure weren't doing something right!

Well, this is a very basic Voice Thread, but it does give a sense of one of the ways in which I would use this tool most frequently.

Multimedia Sharing and my Personal Learning

Well, if I am being really honest, I am most likely to use both of these tools for educational reasons more often than personal. Although, I sure wish these tools were available when my grandma's and my dad were still alive. They would have been fantastic for interviewing them and having them talk about some of the big events in their lives. It would have been nice to have their thoughts and their voices saved forever.

I made an Animoto video with some of the wedding pictures I had loaded up on Flickr. It turned out well, and it was fun and easy to do. It didn't take nearly as long as my other video, but that was because I had all the images.

I can see myself making fun videos from photos of the girls' weekend away or of our dinner club parties. It's easy and it's a fun way for everyone to see the pictures. Plus, I'd look like a real talented video maker!

Voice Thread is one I don't see myself using as often as a personal tool. I can see so many uses for it professionally, and if I had small children, I could see using to do story telling and we definitely would have used it when we lived in Vancouver and all our family was here. But today, I do not see a lot of use for this tool personally.

Multimedia Sharing, Teaching and Learning

So here's where I get very excited. The possibilities for both of these tools on a professional level are huge!

Let's start with Animoto. As a Teacher-Librarian, I am most excited to use this tool with students to create book trailers. I know there are many other uses, but students are creative, and this is engaging work for them. Imagine having them try to pull out the most key images from a novel and try to tell a story and/or pique interest in a novel in only seconds? As well, as teachers we need to provide opportunities for students to learn about all kinds of literacies, including visual. Animoto provides an excellent opportunity to do that.

I teach English Language Arts 20. The two themes for this are Recollection and Anticipation. I have had students do a visual timeline of their childhood, collages, Who I Was poems and other activities to show me what they were like as young children. Imagine the possibilities with Animoto! They could really personalize their videos, and I bet I would learn even more about them. Of course, there are lots of mini lessons and sidebars to a project like this. Everything from use of photos and copyright to visual literacy skills, mood and tone with music and more.

As well, I also have students do book talks and other activities throughout the semester. I like them to do something with the books they read during our independent reading time. As well, I find that nothing prompts students to read a book like a recommendation by a friend. So, creating an Animoto book trailer could be one of the activities they do during the semester.

The Animoto site has lots of great ideas for what you can do with Animoto. Check out the case studies. There is a great Discovery Learning podcast that was set to Animoto and a really good video about bullying by students in a younger grade. I am teaching Grade 7 Health this year, and we are working on conflict resolution. I showed some of these videos to my students, and they are going to begin brainstorming and planning their own next week. Using still pictures and Animoto makes it very doable when working with young kids. Also, check out the iLearnTechnology blog because it has some great ideas for pretty much every curriculum area!

Voicethread has an entirely different set of possibilities, although I always jump first to ideas that will promote literacy and reading. Of course, Voicethread allows the mixing of pictures and videos and five different ways to respond inlcluding by microphone, by typing, by phone, by uploading an audio file or by video with a webcam. One of the ways I want to use this particular tool is with literature circles. It's a great way to record an online discussion. Either students or teachers could post a critical thinking question and everyone could respond to it in whatever manner they are most comfortable.

Another great idea a person could use in any subject is to put up a picture and have students discuss and comment on it. I used to teach History, and in the text there was always a picture for study and discussion. You could put up a picture or pictures in History, Art, Science, any subject and have students comment on them and discuss them. It's quick and easy.

Beth Burke created a wiki called VoiceThread Resources and Ideas and has numerous ideas and examples of voice thread in a variety of subject areas and even for administrative use!

Of course, one of the most common uses for VoiceThread is digital storytelling. There are multiple examples of digital storytelling online. I have never done this, but again, in my ELA 20 class, I usually do a project where students study some children's literature and then write their own. After, we share it with students at the elementary school next to us. I have two ideas floating around. One, we do the same type of thing, but they create their stories digitally. Two, I partner students up with a younger buddy and they create a story together. I will talk to a teacher at the elementary school about the possibility of doing this next semester.

Another great use for VoiceThread would be simply for speaking practice. Having just got through the first set of book talks, it is obvious to me that my students need more practice speaking and planning to speak. I think VoiceThread would be a great tool for them to use in planning a book talk and practicing their speaking so that it is paced properly, clearly spoken and properly pronounced.

I found a Ning by Mark Carls called Voicethread for Educators. There are people from all over the world sharing on this site which is evident from the variety of language one sees upon first looking at the site. But there are resources and examples for all age groups and subject areas here. Another great wiki to check out is simply entitled VoiceThread. This wiki has tutorials, examples and lots of links. Really worth spending some time with it!

Did the multimedia sharing sites of Animoto and VoiceThread measure up? Well, they're easy, they're filling, and you can do lots with them, so, definitely, "More mashups, please!"

SOMETHING WIKI THIS WAY COMES!

I couldn't say "wiki-ed," really, because wikis are far from wicked even though they have been painted (and tainted) with the "wicked" brush. I must say, that prior to the research for this posting, I was pretty liberal with that brush myself!

My objection was not to wikis in general, but rather Wikipedia, in particular. My issue was with authenticity and students using Wikipedia as a source for research and perhaps finding information that was inaccurate. I couldn't embed this little cartoon because of copyright, but it made me laugh out loud and it sums up my previous concerns with Wikipedia.

A Biased Wikipedia Entry

Reflection on the Process of Learning the Tool

Hmm, how to begin without sounding like a total idiot? . . . Nope, not possible. Truth be told, I have used a wiki with students, but I did not connect wikis with Wikipedia! When you get up from falling over laughing....

It seems impossible, doesn't it. So, I guess that's where this wiki journey began for me. Connecting the dots. I began with Will Richardson's chapter "Wikis" from his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. He opens with his discussion on Wikipedia. I learned a lot about Wikipedia, so I feel I must spend some time addressing it here before moving on to my thinking about wikis in general.

I was one of those people Richardson identifies who didn't "...really understand the first part, the 'wiki' "(2009, pp. 55). This critical blip on my journey to understanding really impacts my use of the tool in a professional way (more on that later). As I read Richardson's book, I stopped in at all of the links he mentioned. I must say, I was amazed when I read the discussion behind entries on global warming at Wikipedia (2009, pp.59). I really did not understand that there was any discussion behind how things were posted. In fact, there is very detailed debate about what goes up, how it is worded, how it might be perceived, and more. Right away, I have one of those "aha" moments. The collaborative and thoughtful piece of this puzzle falls into place for me, and I actually had to sit in awe and think about the impact, or perhaps as Richardson calls it, "transformative" effect this could have on our society and in our classrooms.

As Richardson notes, we are moving "...into a world where everyone has access to ideas and where collaboration is the expectation rather than the exception..." (2009, pp.59). I guess Wikipedia is the creme de la creme of examples! When it comes to worries about accuracy, a couple different points from my research made a difference in my thinking. First, Richardson notes a that "...thankfully, there are vastly more editors that want to make it right than those who wantt o make it wrong" (2009, pp.56). He goes on to cite a test by University of Buffalo Professor Alex Halavais who intentionally created "...thirteen errors on various posts on Wikipedia, all of which were fixed within a couple of hours" (2009, pp. 56). I've heard of other tests like this, and the fix time was even faster. Also, Davies, et al. discuss that Wikipedia is a more accurate reflection of our quickly (wiki wiki) and continuously changing world, and I would add also our demand for instant feedback and information about events (2009, pp. 90-91). Further, the idea that there are "...many authors and editors [who] will go back to, change and even delete..." (2009, pp.90) information is actually more comforting. I remember looking at a book that had been sent to me with my Scholastic book fair. It was a book about countries, but when it came to Canada the only province it really showed was Nunavut. A person who knew nothing about Canada and who read that book would think we all built Inukshuks and know little else about us. I sent the book back with a note about why I would not display it or sell it and a recommendation that it be deleted from their stock. So what happens to all the copies of that book? Oh, there around. But if it had been open source, additions and deletions would be made within hours to ensure the information was up-to-date. (Hmmm, can we call that a paradigm shift for me?) Yes, typically books are vetted and better edited than that one, and that's why we feel safer with information found within them (Davies et al., 2009, pp. 92). I know I feel this way too, but with my reading about wikis and Wikipedia, I understand that it is possible to search the background discussion and authorship to Wikipedia entries (Davies et al., 2009, pp.93). Davies et al. also note that Wikipedia attempts to keep entries "'neutral' ...and to try not to push a particular viewpoint or to persuade readers to take on a particular opinion" (2009, pp.94). I agree that this is difficult to do with many subjects (global warming, for instance), but I find value in that it will push authors to have facts to back up statements.

I spent a lot of time learning about Wikipedia, and I feel that I have some very different ideas about its value and use now. I think when we teach students about it and about how to use it, we need to show them how to look at the discussion and credentials of authors. I also think it's important to have the discussion about collaborative writing and its power.

In my continuing love affair with YouTube, I found a great video that discusses Wikipedia and how it works. It was created by the North Carolina State University Libraries.

Feeling fairly comfortable with my new and improved understanding of Wikipedia, I was ready to continue my exploration into wikis. As with anything, go to the experts, and so I decided to look for best practice. I began by checking out Joyce Valenza's blog and the School Library Journal site. They gave me some links to great wikis for libraries. One of the best, of course, is the Teacher Librarian Wiki by Joyce Valenza. Wow! What isn't here, you probably don't need to know! Check it out.

Another great wiki, for all kinds of librarians, is the Library Success Wiki. It has everything you need to know about libraries and programming for all different clientele.

I spent some time checking out the Educators Wiki. What I liked about this wiki were some of the pages that dealt with math. I am always wondering how I can work with my math teachers an what could I offer them. I also stumbled across this video which some of you may have seen, but I had never. In it are some interesting statistics about teachers and their use of technology, including wikis.

As I mentioned, I have made a wiki before. I made it with the help of a Learning Support Facilitator from our division. It was primarily an experiment, and I must admit, I had no clue what I was doing most of the time. After the initial page was created, I played a little and I created the Literature Circle page for a Grade 10 ELA teacher in my school to use with her kids. I used PB Wiki because it was what was recommended to me, but there are lots of other providers. You can check out my efforts at DCSBookaday Wiki.

In the book Using Web 2.0 Tools in the K-12 Classroom by Beverly Crane, she provides a handy wiki comparison chart. She notes that when choosing a wiki service consideration must be given to its ease of use, cost (many are free, but some have advertising which can be distracting for kids), appearance, security, and usage guidelines that are simple and positive (2009, pp.68-70). As I couldn't very well reprint the chart here, I found a site called WikiMatrix which provides a list of all the providers and you can check off the ones you are interested in and click compare and it will compare every facet imaginable!

Wikis and my Personal Learning

My life is pretty much consumed with my family and my work. I don't have a lot of time for hobbies or new interests, so the few things I do use my free time for are home decorating, reading, Scrabble

I found a wiki for home decorating through Home Wiki. This is a neat idea for me as I love to share ideas about decorating and I'm always looking for new ones.

I could spend hours playing Scrabble, and I found a Scrabble Wiki! I couldn't believe it! So, I think I will begin visiting this wiki and maybe even begin a thread for a post. I would love to come up with an easy list of words that consist only of vowels since that's usually what I end up having on my board.

There are lots of wikis about books and reading. A few I played around on and think I would like to return to are Book Lust Wiki. Another really great wiki is Library Thing's Group page which has wikis for all kinds of readers. I love to read, and I love to talk about books, but I don't get to do it a lot. I think hanging out on a wiki for books where I can add my comments and read other people's thoughts is a great idea. Because I am often housebound due to my husband's illness, this is a fun and exciting way to remain engaged with people who enjoy the same things I do.

Another way I think wikis could be helpful for me is when I plan shopping trips for the ladies in our division. For about five years I planned all ladies bus trips to Edmonton for shopping. This involved a lot of organization, and I was forever misplacing slips of paper with this or that. A couple of my friends helped with organizing games and different things for the trip. We could do all our organizing on a wiki. The really cool thing would be that whenever I forgot what we were doing or who was doing what, I could look it up instead of having to call someone and admit that I had no clue. Wikis would make me look way smarter!

Wikis, Teaching and Learning

As I was researching wikis, I came across a very simple definition in the appropriately titled Wikis for Dummies by Dan Woods and Peter Thoeny who define wikis as "...a collection of Web pages that anyone can edit" (2007, pp. 11). My first thought was "Oh." Yup! That's all I thought. It was such a simple explanation. Of course, I did have other questions. My biggest one was "How is a wiki different than a blog?" My very favourite answer came from Mike Sansone who is a Conversation Conductor and Social Mediatician (I'm no techie, so maybe he didn't create his own job title, but...). Anyway, Sansone makes numerous comparisons to make his point, but my favourite is his comparison that blogs are like Bill O'Reilly's show; people can call in and comment, but it's Bills' show. Wikis are like The View; everyone around the table has information and contributes.

As near as I can tell from what I've seen, wikis have two primary purposes. They are places where students can write collaboratively, and they are places where students can share their learning. I am about to begin working with our Grade 12 ELA teacher and literature circles with students. I suggested having students do their literature circles with wikis for a few reasons. One, students enjoy working collaboratively and discussing their ideas. Their wiki would provide them with a forum for doing this while still allowing the teacher, who cannot sit in on every discussion, to follow their thinking. Two, it would be easy to track who was contributing what. Three, we usually have a number of snow days in December and January. If students were working through a wiki, they could still work from home even if they couldn't get to school. After studying Wikis, I wanted to be sure it was legitimately the best forum for what we wanted to do. I discovered that we were right on track.

In Using Web 2.0 Tools in the K-12 Classroom Beverley Crane outlines ten reasons why wikis are important and worthwile for use in classrooms. "Wikis:

1. enable team members to work on an assignment at any time, from any location with an internet connection;

2. encourage student involvement

3. offer a powerful yet flexible collaborative communication tool for developing content- specific Web sites;

4. provide a central place for groups to form around specific topics;

5. provide students with direct (and immediate) access to a site's content, which is crucial in group editing or other collaborative project activities;

6. show the evolution of thought processes as students interact with the site and its content;

7. promote pride of authorship and ownership in a team's activities;

8. showcase student work;

9. encourage collaboration on notes; and

10. promote concept introduction and exploration" (2009, pp.64).

I am excited to begin this project, and have gone so far as to develop the opening page and the links only. These are some beginning thoughts only, and as the teacher and I work together we will add information, instruction, links, and more. You can take a look if you like at DCSVetter. I chose to use Wikispaces for this project. Initially I created a page on Wetpaint, but I didn't like it because of all the advertising that appeared on the page. The only way to get rid of it was to pay. So, I set up a page on Wikispaces, and there was no advertising, but after I added links and pages to the menu, Google Ads appeared. I don't like these ads, but again, it requires money to get rid of them. They are not, however, as distracting as those on Wetpaint, so I guess we'll deal with it. I should note though, ads are not a problem on my PBWiki page.

I learned a lot about wikis. I haven't used wikis much myself. I certainly haven't searched a lot of them out to see what other people are doing with them. Of course, surprise, there's a ton of great stuff out there! There are some great opportunities for student learning with wikis. I found a great wiki called Reading 2.0 which shows different ways to use technology to promote books. I plan on using some of the ideas here in my own library.

Something "wiki" this way comes? I say "Woo hoo! Bring it on!"

EXPLORING THE AIRWAVES WITH PODCASTING

Get a Voki now!

In keeping with my theme of exploration, this week I ventured into yet another Web 2.0 tool. I took to the airwaves to learn what I could about podcasting. I must admit, I have begun some of my explorations with much more trepidation than others. Probably based on my comfort with the topic when I began, as in, had I heard of it before? Well, I felt pretty comfortable as I began with podcasting. I knew, generally, what it was. I had heard a podcast before. I had been part of a podcast before, so I began this particular exploration feeling pretty confident. I beleive that was my first mistake.

Reflection on the Process of Learning the Tool

Podcasting, according to Will Richardson in his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, is "basically the creation and distribution of amateur radio, plain and simple" (p 110). Sounds easy. In fact, recording a podcast is relatively simple. I downloaded Audacity to my computer and it was pretty much that simple to get started. To be honest, and it will be painfully obvious if you actually listen to my podcast, I did not prepare a script of anything. I thought I would just experiment with the process of actually recording something and doing some editing. It reminded of me of the first time I recorded an answering machine message. I must have stopped, erased and started 50 times!

Eventually, I did get something down albeit something pretty unoriginal. I tried at times to back up to where I had messed up and re-record. I had some difficulty with this because at first I was just dragging the cursor and not using the little I selection tool. Navigating the airways of Audacity is doable, especially once I found the Audacity Wiki which helped me to do absolutely everything I wanted to, and showed me just how much more is possible by looking at all the topics. It's such a large wiki it even has its own search feature (which I recommend). The wiki is a competent co-pilot as you take to the podcasting skies.

The turbulence came when I tried to embed my podcast onto this blog. It wasn't just the minor barely look up from your reading turbulence either. It was the "Holy smokes! Where's my life jacket?" turbulence. If you read Will Richardson's Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, you will note that he very aptly describes the process of embedding an MP3 file in the chapter entitled "Podcasting and Screencasting" on pages 116-119. I thought it sounded easy, and I suppose it is relatively simple, IF you have the program needed to convert your Audacity file into an MP3 file already on your computer, which I did not.

I found out easily enough what I wanted to do, but, I confess, I used the first set of instructions and not the Audacity Wiki I referred to earlier. I had to download LAME (it lived up to its name in my early attempts) which is a program that basically converts an audio file into an MP3. I must have tried this download five times before I decided to look somewhere else. I guess that was the beginning of my frustration. I was doing what I was supposed to, but every time I went to convert the file to MP3 it would say it couldn't find the Lame file even though I could clearly see it on my desktop! Skip forward to my favourite find, the Audacity Wiki. I searched the term "Lame Installation" and found step-by-step instructions. I was walking on air!

My next step was to stare at my blog posting screen for an inordinate amount of time - just in case the "Embed MP3 Here" button jumped out at me. It did not. A little late I recalled Richardson's earlier explanation about the need to find someplace to put the file - someplace out in cyberspace. I went first to Podcast Alley but had no success because I couldn't upload my file to their site. I could upload if I had a url address, but I didn't. For better or worse, I "googled." I found a link to Podbean. I liked the name. It sounded cute, maybe juvenile, maybe easy.

Podbean is a site which provides free podcast hosting servies (for a limited bandwidth and file size) and access to a wide variety of podcasts. So I joined yet another online community. It was a simple two clicks. I clicked "Upload" and then an upload button which allowed me to browse for my file. It was that easy. I felt like I had just landed on the moon! Euphoria!

Podcasting and My Personal Learning

Although I felt that I knew what podcasts were, I did a little reading in one of our texts, Will Richardson's Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. I followed our trailfire and watched the Podcasting in Plain English video on YouTube. I also went to the Education Podcast Network which indicated that the easiest way to understand podcasting would be to "...imagine a merger between blogging (regularly posted articles of news, insight, fun, grips, literature, and more) and radio (an established broadcasting medium that people have listened to for news and entertainment for generations). " In a quote attributed to David Wienberger, the site notes that "In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen people," as a result of the wonders of podcasting. Where my understanding of podcasting differed from the actual was in the distribution phase of the process. As Will Richardson notes in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, "And it's the distribution piece of this that's impportant, because although we've been able to do digital audio for some time now, getting a lot of people to listen to it hasn't been very easy. Now it is" (p 110). The ability for people to subscribe and receive podcasts whenever a new one is posted is key to the whole podcasting phenomena. Podcasts are linked to RSS feeds, and as we know, they come to you!

After I tried out my first podcast, I went back and made a second, just for fun. I decided to talk briefly about my favourite novel of the past couple of years, The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. This was super easy to do now that everything is set up on my computer. It could be dangerous though. I could start to think everyone needs to hear what I think on all kinds of topics. But doing it a second time did show me how simple the process could be.

I spent some time listening to other podcasts. The airwaves are not unchartered territory for exploration. They are well used and many have been settled there for some time with new explorers arriving daily.

My greatest interests revolve around books and reading, so I searched around for some podcasters with similar interests. I found the Librarian on the Loose who looks relatively new to the scene. Another podcaster I found very useful to me is Books on the Nightstand who talks on books for kids, young adults and adults.

I also enjoy home decorating and crafting projects. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those crafty people who make these amazing, look like store bought things. I just like to try different things for my own enjoyment even if they end up looking like something my dog dragged in. I came across Craftzine.com which has a whole pile of crafting podcasts on all kinds of different ideas. Could play in there for a long time.

I thought about the benefits of podcasting for me, personally, as I listened to Joyce Valenza and Doug Johnson in the Women of Web 2.0 Show #65. I listened to them as I prepared our supper. How convenient is that? I find it difficult to separate my personal learning and professional learning because little that I do, aside from Scrabble on Pogo, is not work related. I am always looking for things that will help me to offer more to students and teachers, so in that way, my personal and professional learning are closely related. Podcasting could make me much more efficient and knowledgeable as it's definitely learning on the go! Now I just need an iPod or MP3 player to take with me. It might even inspire me to walk more often. I could technically be "working" while I'm walking! Brilliant!

Podcasting, Teaching and Learning

How can podcasting impact teaching and learning? Let me count the ways! No, actually not possible. Podcasting has a couple of real benefits. One, it's relatively low tech in the scheme of things. It doesn't really require any special equipment besides a microphone, and that's relatively inexpensive. In fact, I don't even have one. I have a built-in microphone on my laptop and that's what I used. Secondly, it's not a complicated technology. Press a button and talk. Use the wiki for help editing until you've learned how it's done and then post.

One use for podcasting that Will Richardson speaks about in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Tools for Classrooms is the possibilities for language classes. I work quite a bit with our French teacher, and I know that she still does a lot of print based work. I cannot wait to talk to her about podcasting. I'm sure we can find a way to hook up with a class in Quebec or Manitoba or even over the pond and perhaps students can practice with native French speakers. Talk about authentic learning!

The Education Podcast Network is a wealth of ideas and information. We have a teacher who is teaching a couple of new Science classes that he has never taught before. There are 55 secondary school podcasts on this network. I am going to show him a couple, and he is going to love me. There are tons of ideas on this network for every subject area.

In an article found in Teacher Librarian volume 34, no 3, 2007 by Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson entitled "Podcasting in the school library, part 1: integrating Podcasts and vodcasts into teaching and learning", the authors discuss some key ideas for choosing podcasts for your students to listen to. Because the airwaves are chalk full of podcasts, teachers must spend some time looking for the casts that have good content quality. As the authors note, "Because anyone with a microphone and access to the Web can create a Podcast, it is important to consider the authority of the author. Many interesting programs lack credibility when they fail to distinguish fact from opinion or provide inadequate citations" (p 54). As ever, we must be vigilant about authority and quality when sharing sites with our students.

Lamb and Johnson go on to identify some podcasts with different types of formatting. For example, podcasting is a great way for students who have worked on collaborative projects to share their work. Some podcasts maybe invite listeners to add to them or help them to reach a joint goal by having listeners share their knowledge. News stations like CBC, BBC, CNN are podcasting and will have search features allowing you to seek out specific subject areas. I stumbled across a NASA podcasting site. How engaged would students be if they were getting current feeds right from NASA? I don't even like Science and that excites me!

Of course once we move into the realm of History and ELA, I begin thinking about book talks, museum tours, and historical reenactments. I have been working on my library website for quite awhile, and now I'm thinking that I need to add a page with links to podcasts that pertain to particular subjects or topics. And, I need to find some that students will enjoy for fun. As Lamb and Johnson point out, we need to keep learning outcomes first and foremost in our minds (p 56). How will they actually help students? Is the podcast the best way to get this particular type of information across?

From Learning in Hand, I found links to a number of interesting and worthwhile podcasting sites. My favourite from this article is Grammar Girls Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing as I am a bit of a nerd in that department. But also, I remember seeing this girl on Oprah a number of years ago when she did a show about people who were becoming "famous" on the web. I think I will use this in my English class this year. They're great mini lessons.

One important benefit of podcasting is, as Lamb and Johnson articulate, it's value in differentiating insstruction. "A student who has difficulty reading in the content areas may find Podcasts as a way to access high-quality information" (p 56). I remember years ago ordering a cassette (yes, I said cassette) copy of To Kill a Mockingbird for a student who needed to have it read to him. I remember the cost was about $150, and that was a lot for what was essentially one book. With podcasting, students could access a lot of audio and video information for free!

One site I cam across is the Our City Podcast. It's a podcast by kids for kids, and only one school from Saskatchewan has added to it. I think Delisle will be the second! I am going to show this one to my Grade 7 and 8 Social Studies teacher. I think this will work well with a unit she is doing, and it will be exciting for students.

Back in 2004, Steve Sloan from the San Jose University wrote the following:

"I have been thinking a lot of the potential of the medium. I really think there is something here for education! In my opinion Podcasting is a great tool:

• for distance learning
• to facilitate self-paced learning
• for remediation of slower learners
• to allow faculty to offer advanced and or highly motivated learners extra content
• for helping students with reading and/or other learning disabilities
• for multi-lingual education
• to provide the ability for educators to feature guest speakers from remote locations
• to allow guest speakers the ability to present once to many sections and classes
• to allow educators to escape the tedium of lecturing
• to offer a richer learning environment"

Those are a lot of great reasons! I would add flexibility and the option to hear a lesson/lecture a second or third time.

In Saskatchewan, three big issues in our curricula are differentiated learning, distance education, and English as an additional language (EAL) learners. Podcasts suit the students in all three of these categories and more. While they are great for the student with reading disabilities, they also suit the needs of the gifted learner who might be reader for more advanced material or who could create material to help struggling students in his or her class. EAL students could listen to books or they could have translations of school rules, upcoming events and more for students and their parents who may not speak English. There are infinite possibilities, really.

Learning about podcasting did not feel as overwhelming as the vast expanse of social bookmarking nor am I swinging through with the same kind of ease as I did with YouTube and video sharing. Their electromagnetic waves are crackling and abuzz with loads of information and infinite opportunities for teaching and learning.

EXPLORING SOCIAL BOOKMARKS

If exploring video-sharing was a jungle, the exploration of social bookmarking felt like a long, hard trek through the desert. It felt like it would never end, and I kept hoping I had found exactly what I was looking for only only to learn it was a mirage!

When I began looking for social bookmarking sites, I began with the idea that it would be one-stop shopping. I thought that I could have absolutely everything on one page. What I wanted was one page that showed links to all my tools including my blogs, blogs I follow, Twitter, Facebook, Nings, and a record of the web pages I had bookmarked in with annotations for quick recall. I wanted something to keep me from being overloaded. What I've since found out is that while there are pages that can do a lot of that (iGoogle), there is not one page that can do it all. In fact, much of managing that overload lies with me as I learned in an called "Information Overload" which was linked to our Diigo site by my classmate Cindy. Obviously, my expectations came from a faulty understanding of exactly what a social bookmarking site was and what it could do.

Reflection on the Process of Learning about the Tool

First, when I began this project, I did not even know what social bookmarking was! I guess that says a lot about my level of technological savvy! Wikipedia defines social bookmarking as "... a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata, typically in the form of tags that collectively and/or collaboratively become a folksonomy." This definition was, surprisingly, not that helpful at clearing things up for me.

Early in my journey, I came across a blog by Kevin van Zonneveld that provided a list of social bookmarking sites. This was written in 2007, so it is quite certain that the list is not complete; however, it served two purposes for me. One was to show me just how many social bookmarking sites were available (and make me wonder where in the universe I had been) and the other was to provide some quick links to other social bookmarking sites I could try.

From the list I randomly chose a few social bookmarking sites to visit including: Furl, Fark, StumbleUpon, Connotea. Furl was a mirage. A lot of mention of it in various searches, but it was bought out by the company that runs Diigo, so it no longer exists. According to Wikipedia, Furl did what other social bookmarks do by allowing users to share and save web pages as well as annotate them and mark them with keywords, but it's one most desireable feature was to archive the web page, so if the page disappeared from the web, it was still accessible through Furl (something Diigo does now).

Fark is a mirage also, but of a different sort. You think you're getting something useful, but it turns out to be only in your head. Fark is a nonsense site. Members can submit links to "news stories" that aren't really news stories at all. It has a small membership fee ($5/month) which would allow you to receieve all the links in real time (1800-2000/day). Considering I'm trying to learn to manage information overload and be purposeful in my choice of information and technology, this put Fark out of the realm of anything I would consider.

Connotea was not eye catching, but it appears to do the job. It was super easy to sign up for though as it did not request the lengthy contact information that other sites do which made me like it. It does all of the basics, but nothing seemingly special that I could see. You can bookmark sites, share them, annotate them, and tag them. You can search other people's libraries to find links you like, and there is no storage limit.

StumbleUpon is a social bookmarking site I had read about and thought had potential to be everything I was looking for. To back up a bit though, the site uses a thumbs up/thumbs down approach to rate sites. It collects quality sites and connects fellow "stumblers" to sites matching their preferences and interests.The more you rate sites, the more the site gets to know your preferences, and the more personalized it becomes. It has an easy search bar and across the top of the page is a list of topics to look around in and contains web pages, videos, blogs, and photos. Unfortunately, I was turned off this site pretty quickly when I tried to watch a video and was presented with an ad first. But also, it appeared to me to be more for entertainment and personal interest than professional interest.

Well, after all that wandering, I developed a powerful thirst, and YouTube came to my rescue. I found a quick and easy video about social bookmarking. It explained social bookmarking using De-licio-us, and made it all look remarkbly easy.



This helped a lot in terms of understanding how it worked and what it did. My next stop was De.licio.us to actually try a few things for myself. Navigating De.licio.us is quite simple. It has three simple tabs across the top allowing the user to quickly access the newest (fresh) bookmarks, the most popular and to explore tags. I found the explore tags the handiest. I could just put in a topic and come up with a list of tags. The descriptions underneath the links make it quick and easy to decide if you want to actually link in. A friend of mine told me that she likes De.licio.us best for sharing information. She said it was very easy to create a list of links to share with people and send off the whole list. In his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, Will Richardson concurs. He states, "Whereas Diigo is about saving content, Del.icio.us is about sharing links in as easy a way as possible (96). And it is easy. As Richardson explains, you can search by tags, and you can create a URL for Google Reader with http://de.licio.us/rss/tag/tag-you-want-here, and it will send you everything with that tag (p 96). As he notes, "...you could do this without ever visiting the site" (p 96). I might have continued to pursue this particular site were it not for the research of a classmate who told me that Diigo had some excellent features that made it the oasis in the vast desert of social bookmarking.

I have only been using Diigo for just under a week and already I like it. It wasn't that I didn't have some trouble figuring some of the tools out though. I signed up for a Diigo account after my classmate said it would be a good place for our group to share research and discuss our topics. And she was right. Diigo, the oasis of social bookmarking, can do so much.

First, I signed up for Diigo and uploaded the toolbar. Everytime I log on, my Diigo toolbar is there. Everytime I find a web page I want to keep, I simply click the Bookmark button on my toolbar. It saves the URL and the title. It allows me to write an annotation of the site, tag it, add it to a list and/or to a group. This all takes seconds.

My Diigo page is organized with a listing of web sites I have selected. I had three choices for how I wished this page to appear, but my favourite was easily the third choice which is "Best for edit and manage." It has tabs across the top called "More Actions," "Share to Group," and "Add to List." As well, I can easily show the annotations I have made with the click of a button on the top bar as well. This puts everything at easy access for me. Along the right I can find "My Tags," "My Lists," and an easy "Add a Bookmark" button.

The only thing I really had trouble with was figuring out how to edit a tag. I would click on the box next to the web page, click on a tab, and click under "More Actions" to choose "Revise tags." I kept getting a box that said "Revise tags," had a white space that looked like I was supposed to write in it, and it had "Submit" and "Cancel" buttons. Everytime I tried to write in that little box, it wouldn't let me. After much frustration, I came to realize that after each annotation in my list, there were buttons called "Snapshot," "Edit," "Delete," "Share," and "Preview." A press of the edit button brought up my initial annotation with a list of the tags, and I could easily go in and make any changes I wanted. The best thing about Diigo, and the feature that endeared it to my classmate, is the ability to read a web page, highlight (in different colours) and write sticky notes with questions, comments, reflections, and anything else you thought of. It's easy to see the annotations after as they are each marked with a number. A click on the number reveals all the annotations at that location. The only tricky part for me, and I believe it was my computer that caused it, was that sometimes when I highlighted a passage and wanted to annotate, I couldn't get the annotate on as my cursor kept jumping around. To illustrate how quickly it works at hooking you up, within minutes of my list of sites going up, I could, depending on the site, access as many as 21 other people who had tagged something similarly. I expect that as I get a better handle on the whole tagging folksonomy, I will be able to produce better tags and access more like information.

Social Bookmarking and my Personal Learning

I have compared Social Bookmarking to a desert as I felt I was wandering, lost for so long, and I could not see anything real, as in really useful to me. In actuality, it was probably my knowledge base that was more like a desert, lonely and empty. I started from zero on this topic. Had no real knowledge of even what it was much less how it worked, so my personal learning on this journey has been steep.

Doing research for my discussion and for this posting, I really used the Diigo site and am now enthralled. Although I haven't had time to search for topics of personal interest, I know what social bookmarking is, and why it is such a helpful tool. One of the biggest benefits being that when I am on different computers, I can access any of the sites I have bookmarked.

Another major benefit became apparent in doing research. I was having trouble finding some of the research I was looking for. I happened to be on Donna Desroches' site, who I know as the President of the Saskatchewan School Library Association and Teacher-Librarian extraordinaire, and I found the links to her bookmarks, so I searched social bookmarking and found a couple of articles that gave me some of the information I was looking for. Being able to access the research of others is quite a priceless feature. It saves time, and if you know the person is an expert in the field, the sites marked are most likely relevant and of quality. As Will Richardson states in his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms "It's like having someone do the research for you" (p 94). As Richarson explains, Diigo offers unlimited opportunities to find just what you're looking for. When you save somethign with a particular tag, you can see how many others have saved the same site, you can search those persons' sites, and you can even subscribe to an RSS feed for particular tags "...and get anything anyone in the Diigo universe saves with that tag (p 95).

Tagging was another concept I really did not understand prior to this assignment. As I noted earlier, it's an important concept for social bookmarking. In my reading, I often saw the word "folksonomy" and did not really understand what it meant either. In Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, Will Richardson explains that "...in working with your community of researchers, new tagging systems will emrge and become accepted that will allow all to participate in this [organizing information] process" (p 90). So instead of a system created by professionals in the field, everyday users of the web will create "folksonomies" and patterns will eventually be created that will become acceptable and understood by everyone (p 90). This really shows how interactive and creative the read/write web is.

Social Bookmarking, Teaching and Learning

The impact of of social bookmarking on my teaching, learning and work in the library is going to be big! I was very excited when I read "All Together Now" an article by Donna Derosches written for School Library Journal. She spoke specifically about how she had used social bookmarking to create a list of websites for an assignment which students could access using the tags they had been given. Students were also encouraged to add to their list. What a wonderful way for students to contribute to learning. It is authentic. She also notes that she uses it in the library. "Teachers and students use the tool to tag interesting reviews to recommend books and DVDs for the library. " This appeals to me as it is a collaborative and engaging way to involve everybody in the school library.

On his blog "weblog-ed: learning with the read/write web" Will Richardson writes in an entry entitled 'New Reading, New Writing' that "The idea that I can not just annotate a paragraph or a sentence or one idea on a webpage but that I can engage with others in sharing our thinking about that particular sentence or idea is at once powerful and daunting. I mean, imagine the meta conversations we might be able to have over different passages in the classics once they all get scanned and put online by Google (or someone else.)" Imagine the possible uses in the classroom. I often teach students about writing a literary critique, but I think it would be so much more exciting to have access to the writing, and have students think and write critically online. They would be able to build from each other's ideas and carry on meaningful dialogue about what they are reading. Powerful!

I recently put together my first library website, and one of the things I have been trying to get up and running are Pathfinders for a few of the research topics that seem to occur each year. I know that Pathfinders are different as they include links to books, database information, etc., but it sure would be great to be able to bookmark sites and tag them with a unique tag, so that students could quickly access their topic to find web-based information. I know for a fact that in the past two years I have searched for information on the same topics, passed it on to a student and then done the same for someone else in the next semester. Certainly introducing students and staff to social bookmarking would be much more efficient. Although, it is interesting that on a Teachers Teaching Teachers Podcast (#166 09-02-09) Joyce Valenza remarked that she was beginning to notice "...that those students who have been introduced to social bookmarking in Delicious and Diigo are becoming less likely to use the library databases." I certainly would not want to see students give up databases for social bookmarking, but according to an article entitled "Tags Help Make Libraries De.licio.us" by Melissa L. Rethlefson for School Library Journal, it could be the ease with which social bookmarking can be done. This, then, will be another important consideration for teacher-librarians; we must ensure that while social bookmarking finds its place, students continue to understand the importance of databases.

Personally, I began my exploration of social bookmarking feeling like I was wandering, parched, in the dry desert. Not that there weren't social bookmarking sites in abundance, but many were more like a mirage of the real thing than what I was really after. Am I out of the desert? No, but at least I have a camel to ride!