Thing 16

Both the U of M Assignment Calendar and the Research Project Calculator strike me as pure gold. I put in sample assignments and found helpful step-by-step guides. I will definitely show it to my seniors. As a media specialist, it is imperative to show students the basics of a Boolean search. The glossary of terms in the RPC gave me a wonderful link to Kathy Schrock's Venn Diagrams that I plan to use when I present to classes in my high school media center. It would be interesting to interview a U of M librarian and ask whether or not students actually use these tools.

Thing 15

Gaming: I created an account in SecondLife. My avatar walked and flew around. It became apparent that there's a lot of choices and ways to "live" in SL. To become proficient I would have to spend more time and that strikes me as boring. I guess I like reality too much. My niece took me around SecondLife with her avatar. She's much better at navigating and really "living" in SL. I'm glad I've seen what it is and maybe I'll go back and try a few more moves but it's really not my thing, for now.
So, where does that leave me with gaming in general? To promote gaming in my high school media center I would have to show my administration that the games are focused on math or reading or higher order thinking skills (like chess). That's the bottom line, otherwise, the argument would hold that we're using school resources for the wrong reasons and students can play games at home.
This is a blast from the past, but our tech para said he would like to see Monopoly, Scrabble or chess clubs become part of the media center's draw. He's talking hard copy not electronic. So, how does that fit into the "gaming" theme??

Thing 14

I started a library in LibraryThing. You can link to MY LIBRARY and tell me what you think of the choices or make more suggestions. It's just a beginning, but the implications for sharing are amazing.

I can see our media center using this as a link on our new library web page. Students can comment on books they're reading AND it would be a great way to feature new acquisitions. It seems that once new books are shelved it's easy for them to be forgotten. I would love to have a LibraryThing page that we call "New Arrivals." Both staff and students would be able to see the actual book covers which would definitely promote circulation.

Thing 13

What about the to-do lists—helpful, too much work…?

• Which start page did you choose? Why did that one appeal to you? Will you make it your permanent home page?

I chose iGoogle. It seems to be the one most people at my school are using. Our staff development focuses on iGoogle, so it seemed a good choice although Page Flakes was a fun discovery. It seems very user friendly, as well.

• Did you find a tool that has some uses for you at the library or at home? Which tool(s) would you recommend to others?

I really like Ta Da. It's like a stickie, but web based. I loaded it on my iGoogle page and also tried the email feature. Both work just great!! Up until today, I've used Stickies religiously off my dock and that works great when our internet is down, which, at home, is all too often.

• How can the online calendars be useful to you?

Our district email program, Entourage, features a calendar. We have all of our mobile carts and computer labs on a sign-out through the calendar function. It works great. We can also send our individual calendars to one another for meeting sign-ups.
What I like about iGoogle is using it with my husband for personal use. If I get an appointment, I can put it on a "family" calendar which he can access and add to, as well.

• Did you try out Backpack?
  

I looked at Backpack and it seems ideal for business use. I wondered if departments at the high school would find Backpack a good communication/organization tool. I plan to show it to one department and get their reaction before making a big deal out of it. Our district also uses Moodle which seems to be a good way for teachers to communicate with families and students, but I'm not so sure about with one another.

• Did you try any of the other tools in the list?
  

This seems like an invitation to a summary statement. There's a lot to use "out there." A person could drive themselves insane trying to embrace all the options. I have to decide what works best for now and use it for, say, a trimester, then I'll re-access. For fall term, I'll try using iGoogle which has my calendar and Ta Da list on it. This will mean not using Stickies for the short term which could be disastrous if my home internet service continues to be spotty. Stay tuned!

Thing 12

I went to: Newsvine, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon. My favorite is StumbleUpon. I didn't understand it at first, but I registered anyway. When my registration was complete, THEN the full menu of topics was presented and I could click on my favorite ones. Now, when I "stumble" I get web sites that are in one of my chosen topic areas...so cool! My very first "stumble" was Library Chick which I've heard of but never had a chance to bookmark and explore further.
Every time I click on Stumble! I get something intriguing. So, I guess I'd call it a productivity enhancer because at least I'm surfing in a limited scope. This could get addicting!

Thing 11

I've been using Del.ic.ious for a few months now. It's great to be able to access my favorite sites from any computer. Also, the tagging is an awesome organizer as it would be impossible, otherwise, to keep track of information.
What's new for me is using it for research. I tried searching a few topics and got hits on every inquiry. The implications here could be quite interesting for high school students as an alternative to the almighty Google search. Of course, our media program offers amazing databases as well, but students might appreciate the "2.0-ness" of Del.ic.ious as one more way to access information.
In regards to our library, there's no end to the ways we could use Del.ic.ious for organizing pathfinders. This will be an exciting option as we develop our new web page. I have tagged all the libraries mentioned in 23 Things on a Stick. The sites they find useful are gold mines for my quest to develop relevant links for the patrons of my media center.

Thing 10

• What did you find interesting about the wiki concept? I like the idea of people interacting on a web page and not just reading it (static). It's more social.
  
• What types of applications within libraries and schools might work well with a wiki? Good question. Perhaps book recommendations by students/staff would be a start. Maybe develop pathfinders for specific research assignments.
  
• Many teachers/faculty "ban" Wikipedia as a source for student research. What do you think of the practice of limiting information by format? I support it, if for no other reason than to force feed students to use free online databases such as Academic Search Premier and not just automatically going to Wikipedia or doing a general Google search. Also, there's a lot of garbage out there. Students aren't always so discerning about fact vs. fiction. For example, the New York Times did an article last Sunday (Literacy Debate-Online, R, U Really Reading?) and sites an experiment by the University of Connecticut in which 90% of students thought the North Pacific tree octopus was real (http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/)! This is alarming to say the least.
• Which wiki did you edit? I edited the 23Things On a Stick wiki. It was easy.