Nings

This past week has been very informative as to how Nings can be useful in the professional setting. I can't see it of much help to students at the elementary level at this stage. They would rather be in their gaming websites than in a collaborative Ning anyway. Nings are considered social networking sites and our schools are blocked from them. I did find, after hours of searching, a good Ning that I'm following and participating in, the Library 2.0 Ning. I did find that the videos are now able to be searched, as you have to put the word "video" in the search area in the upper right hand corner. Then the videos can be seen.

As far as the Web 2.0 applications are concerned, I do think that there are a lot of applications out there that can be used by the everyone. All they need to do is to learn about the directory. If I wouldn't have learned about it in this class, I'd be searching tremendously for applications that we could use. There are so many things out there for us to use, however, many are not fit to be used in the educational setting. Most need an email address. There are some out there for the younger students, but without an email address, they wouldn't be able to use them. Perhaps this is to make the parents aware, as well, as to what is out there for their child/ren to get into, especially if they are unsupervised. I do think, with all the information available for free, one wouldn't have to spend a cent to get something worthwhile to use.

On a further note, we did use DimDim to get together with our group this past week. It was a good experience, but would have been better if the microphone I had would have accessed the site. We had been on this site before with Louie and the experience was about the same. It's hard to read and follow the discussion at the same time. I could see where I could use this feature when participating in a collaborative discussion with the other librarians in the district, but I'd much rather meet in person. It's great for long distance learners, however, and I could see myself teaching other students how to use this feature on the web to collaborate on their projects. They'd probably love the idea! Once again, though, not all my students have access to the Internet. I asked students yesterday if they had access to the Internet by a show of hands and found a few hands that didn't get raised. DimDim reminds me of the cartoon show, The Jetson's". They had a video conference every time they answered the "phone"! As much as I think we're in close to living in the Jetson's era, I still haven't seen that hover car. When I do, and everyone has one, then I'll know for sure we're living in the future!

Web 2.0 Info

This has been an interesting week, as I was looking high and low for a new Web 2.0 application for my paper. I did my paper and found another interesting link I think all should know about. It's Webspiration!. This is a version of Inspiration that was just released for the web, and does allow for collaboration among various groups of people. I did subscribe, which was free, and it was interesting all the information that was asked. I know they won't share it, but nevertheless, they asked for it. You can assign your own user name and password. The only drawback I could see was for elementary students wanting to use it. Unless you have an email address, you can't use it. It was meant for anyone, as students was a targeted group.

I like the fact that it has various icons used for creating the web, and I also like that you can add your collaborators. You have to have their email addresses to add them, when you create the chart. I can see where students needing to use a graphical user interface for any of their courses would be able to use this one. It's almost exactly like the program Inspiration, which school districts have to purchase. I can see where applications for use in creating an outline for writing, a presentation for PowerPoint, or just wanting to organize ones thoughts. Creating a timeline is another way to use it. It's nice that it can be emailed to professors, so once done, there is no paper involved. It's a great site for students to have access to. I learned about this from the Technology Learning feed I subscribe to. 

I found, searching the GotoWeb2.0.net website, there were a number of good things out there. I joined one called Journeys, which let me choose anywhere in the world to tour. I could set up my own tour, and thought about having this one to do a report on. The tours weren't the best ones to go on for younger students, however. I did join the Seven Wonders of the World and started a profile. I got started, but the journey only happens offline. That meant I could explore around, but wouldn't be able to reach my first destination until later. I can see myself going back to finish the tours, and could see college students use this to find the great brewery sights, or take a winery tour. They could even find the best no tee shirts beaches around the world. Unfortunately, those would limit any teacher from using this site for their students to do some research with. I can see adults using it to take virtual trips and seeing the various sites with some information given about it. I did get to choose my own house, a castle, and a vehicle to move around in - a hover craft. I could start out anywhere in the world I wanted and was able to meet various friends along the way. This website is supposed to let you move around and meet others. Unfortunately, I haven't been on it long enough to meet any buddies yet. I think this is one site hoping to have others around the world gather global cultural information without having to leave their home. 

I was amazed at a lot of the sites that are out there. So many of them would be good for elementary students, yet they all would have to have email addresses to sign up, even the ones for the younger students had to have their parents sign them up. Or else they would have to be over the age of 13 with their own email address. I wonder how many students lie about their age to sign up for some of the sites. I saw a great one about making cartoons, but the content wasn't appropriate for younger students. There was a lot of violence or inappropriate pictures portrayed in their demo for young students. 

Another I found I thought might be good was called Lookybook. It's one that features new picture books with reviews. I can use this one as a place to go to for book reviews about new books that are coming out. It has genre or subject searches, although I found the genre search not separated, and not all genres were listed. Of course, there aren't too many genres for picture books. At present there are only about 300 picture books listed. That means it's a newer website and a lot of the author/illustrators either don't want their new books listed and reviewed, or they haven't been contacted as yet. When I first looked at it, I thought it might be a place for students to write their own reviews, but was wrong. Turns out they can read them, not write them. It's a place for anyone who purchases books to read the entire book first, before deciding whether or not to purchase it. 

On the whole, I found GotoWeb2.0.net a great site for all of us to look at and be aware of all the applications that are out there for us to use. It's one I'll be going back to for my own use, as there are a number of applications I can use.

Podcasting

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Using Gcast was easy enough to do. I've put the instructions for anyone to use the Destiny OPAC library from the Oconomowoc area school website.  I find students forget to take their book mark home of the site, and teachers, parents and students would be able to follow the podcast directions to get into the website. Another option would be to embed this into my teacher page on the school website, if that would be allowed. I'd have to check that option out. I did have  a little frustration when I posted this podcast. It was added to the first podcast I created, so there are two showing up. I tried to edit the html, but wound up having some problems deleting the correct code. Needless to say, I was a little frustrated creating the second one without it getting attached to the April podcast. If anyone has suggestions as to how to get the first one off, l would appreciate it!