Thing 23: Say Au revoir and not good-bye (or is it neither?)

The prompts:

What has changed as a result of this experience?  We are much more comfortable navigating multiple windows, bookmarking, sharing, feeding, gathering (and dispersing) lots of informational screens quickly and comfortably.  Confidence has been gained, vocabulary has been expanded (do you speak 1337?) and fun has been had.

What were our favorites?  We love mashups and image generators (and hadn't even heard the words before).  We have enjoyed linking to fellow book lovers and librarians through Facebook, Ning, and The Library Thing.

Connecting with other 23 "thing-ers"?  Not so much.  The best connection was when we saw each others' work on the Declaration of Independence.  We hope that once the push to finish "things" is past, we can share more relaxed camaraderie hanging around the old Ning site.

Unexpected outcomes?  Goodness, our keyboarding has improved! Mousing, too, and the ability to juggle multiple open windows, links, tabs, etc.  But in all seriousness, it has opened the door to some amazing discussions with the teens in our life.

What to do differently?  Is there a format that would allow the personal responsibility of blogging to connect with a more social format so there would, indeed, be more built-in connection with fellow "thing-ers"?  We had hoped (and expected) greater opportunity to actually JOIN an online community!

23 More Things?  Why, yes, I would!

One sentence?    "No, I'm not goofing around on the web, I'm working on my online course!" 

Thing 22 -- Keep Going!

How to work blogging into one's day and make it meaningful...? Hmmm. As one responsible for staff training in technology, we find it rarely goes over well when one tries to impose additional responsibilities on already overwhelmed staff. So the question is, what job that already exists can be improved or made redundant by the new technology.

Can hardcopies be replaced by posting online? Think about library information, appropriate internet usage guidelines for staff, new book lists or reviews, class schedules, calendars, "tip of the week" -- if the habit has been to plop copies in staff mailboxes, how about putting a link in an e-mail instead? Now that's a document that can't be lost on a messy desk, can be accessed from anywhere, and months later will still be there when, inevitably, someone calls to say they've lost their copy.

And when new ideas are needed, we now have a new and exciting way to find out how others in our field have already succeeded. Of course, we can share as well. Everyone saves time when we're not busy reinventing the wheel.

In short, don't do Web 2.0 too, do it instead!

As to some specific and immediate ideas, Miss Shelved hopes that if she takes a moment to record a book just read she will be less likely to forget that she's read it.

Thing 21 -- even MORE social networking

Visit 23 Things on a Stick

This was fun. We had jumped the gun and joined the 23 Things Ning from Facebook (not even realizing that it was "Ning"-based) so it was surprising to be greeted by name and have a message waiting (thank you, Gale). Had fun adding an old Media Center logo to the photo collection and proudly added our badge.

Gather was less interesting. It seemed rather too self-centered: too many aspiring authors begging for attention rather than a true sharing of the love of literature. Professional review journals are still important even if anyone can chime in with an online opinion -- and an ethical "reader advisor" does not review on demand. Claques and trolls are presented with an open season here.

WebJunction is terrific: we immediately signed up for a Webinar on creating a technology "Petting Zoo" -- that is to say, how to create online "play" that teaches online skill. Nifty idea for elementary media?

We also joined the Teacher/Librarian network and its Elementary subnetwork and entered a discussion of what are the most important things to do on reopening each fall. Lots of excellent ideas and reminders. Time does fly and we'll be back in our buildings in a couple of weeks.

We did enjoy the PC Magazine satire comparing social networks to more physical hangouts, from the undergraduate trashy to the expense account fabulous. Once again it confirms our initial impression that any social opportunity, real or virtual, can be grand if one is there with the right people.

Thing 20 -- or "My Face", er, "Spacebook", er, whatever...

Well, we are in (Facebook) and our significant other (as feared) already has the page tagged, photo-filled, wallpapered and, in general, filled to the brim.  Clearly, this is an activity prone to addiction.  By the time Miss Shelved checks in later in the week she is likely to have potential "friends" in the hundreds.  One supposes this is flattering as well as time consuming.

Groups joined?  23 Things on a Stick, of course, plus Librarians on Facebook and a couple of international Gilbert & Sullivan groups.  Even the deepest dyed Victorians have a web presence it seems.  

As the the "fastest growing" claim, the web is fickle.  There will be a new hot presence soon if not already.  One suspects that if the old-fogy librarians are joining, Facebook is already passe. Not far off the topic, for example,  teens of our acquaintance tell us that Second Life is already fading due to too much corporate and institutional presence as well as attacks from Trolls (sociopathic hackers).  Keeping alert is never the same as blazing the trail.

We did poke about in MySpace (and not for the first time, as it has been a bone of contention at our district middle school/high school level in recent years).  We looked at library pages.  One can only agree with the blogger (see resources) who wondered if teen patrons really wanted to "friend" their libraries on line.  On the other hand, libraries who actually offered services (as opposed to a theoretically hip presence) online were making an impact.  Readers' advisories, catalog links, venues for recommending new materials and/or  services all allowed users to connect better and ask for what they need. Can't argue with that.  This does, however, require that someone is actually  listening.  Too often (and Miss Shelved will not deny that the shoe fits...) web pages are created in a joyous frenzy of newly acquired skill -- and then left to languish, out of sight and out of mind. 

 

Thing 16: Assignment Calculator

Funny how some people are naturally organized and love to check off the steps on their planning calendars. However, those who are not naturally organized are usually the most resistant to preparing and following plans. Miss Shelved fears that assignment planners wind up being the same kind of tool as diagramming sentences: those who understand love doing it; those who really need the exercise usually avoid it at all cost.

On the other hand, the planner (or even the simplified version: the what to do when you're running out of time) would be EXCELLENT for use by Special Ed. staff for use with students with IEPs. Rarely do classroom teachers really break up assignments in a way that special learners require, and many special learners have particular difficulty seeing both the "big picture" and the steps involved at the same time. Thus, a "map" with this kind of specificity is incredibly useful. Having the steps set up by date is a huge boon: one would love to see more teachers require students to report in at various stages. This might help avoid the "all-nighter" and the resulting temptation of plagiarizing. Of course, at the college level, such babysitting is unlikely -- which makes it all the more desirable that research coaching occur before that time.

In sum, Miss Shelved feels there is little here that we don't already know and try very hard to practice (now it's just in an on-line version). Will this give us and our colleagues the time to teach and model all these steps for each of the gazillion students who pass through our hands in any given academic year? For, really, it will not do simply to hand students the URL. Nothing will replace the time required to sit and work with a student who needs support.

Thing 15 - In need of a 1st life, let alone a 2nd

If Miss Shelved wanted to spend time being ignored by people much cooler (not to mention younger) than herself, and with a deeper appreciation of the ambience and available activities, she could frequent a local singles bar. At least there, she might get a drink. . . 

We have tried MMORPM's before.  In teaching a research unit (oh, the typical elementary animal report!) we introduced students to the WolfQuest game co-sponsored by the Minnesota Zoo. In that game, too, Miss Shelved wandered for hours, desperately looking for something to do, and never caught a rabbit (and you ain't no friend of mine)!

Young people of our acquaintance tell us that they log on with friends to play such games, which might make it much more fun.  High school chums now scattered across the country at various colleges reunite to kick necromancer butt (or whatever).  We spent a dull hour riding the rides at the Prim Heart Amusement Park, poked around Info Island, and never felt comfortable in our avatar. Moving around felt much like being in an Imax movie:  faintly seasick-making. 

Again, we would suggest that all these online activities are more enjoyable as part of a group. Probably the most fun so far has been co-editing the Declaration of Independence because everyone was involved (even if it was at different times).  If all the 23 Things participants were able to meet at a site on Info Island and interact, that would be more useful. Logging in blind at 9:30 am was a lonely experience.

As to library usage, we did note that there were scheduled activities like book clubs and author appearances that sounded much more like it. (We may try crash the party sometime in the future to see if scheduled activities make the scene is any more exciting.)  An institutional (premium, that is $$) membership with a resident geek to create activities would be a delightful interface for a teen library. Were Miss Shelved a YA author she would want a presence -- and doubtless her publisher would spend big bucks to create a sensational interface in her name. 

Thing 14: Book LIsts

This one took more time that expected because we wanted to stay and play. Add 5 books? In no time at all we'd added 18 and the titles keep coming to mind. (Miss Shelved will have to log off to tend to some of those dust bunnies...)

It was interesting to note which titles had huge followings (the edge has to go to best sellers as well as titles of most interest to heavy computer users) and which didn't (one of my favorites had only 82 hits). YA tends to outclass juvenile, understandably.

Would love to link this to the library's Moodle page -- an easy way to highlight new purchases. We will have to keep searching to see if there is a way to display LibraryThing selections on our search stations. Any ideas?

Thing 13 -- and we're over the hump!

How appropriate that Thing 13 (the "now you're past the half-way mark" activity) should be productivity enhancers.  It also served as a reminder to me to be grateful to my school district (Hopkins, west of MPLS) for already providing its staff with many useful online tools.  Some of which it would behoove Miss Shelved to get to know better.  Well, what better time than the present?

To respond to the prompts:

***Start page?We have had a Google start page for some time, but this was a good time to refurbish and add some of the services the 23 Things folks have introduced.  Useful to have widgets like weather and local gas prices available . . . both of which are behaving immoderately in recent days. It is the #2 page on this computer, since the internet startup is a district page (about which we have no complaints!)

***Useful tool?  Miss Shelved has long been a fan of stickies.  These tend to serve as to-do lists as well as reminders.  Doubtless there would be times when it would be useful to access this information online, or form a different computer.  However, it is at least as likely that the information will be needed when offline.  Miss Shelved will stick (hmmm) with her local stickies for the nonce.  However, MyStickies was a big hit (see below).

***Calendars are a resource for which Miss Shelved must be deeply endebted to her district. We share Entourage calendars with capabilities to schedule, invite, sync, etc.  Upon touring the list of recommended online calendar sites, we decided instead to take an hour (2 as it turned out) to explore our current tool and become a better user.  Adding tags, finally sync-ing in holidays, changing preferences to make better use of invitations -- all should add considerably to one's productivity.  Sometime the best way to learn something new is revisit what you already started.

***To-dos?  We'll stick to stickies.

***Backpack:  What a terrific resource for an ad hoc group. However, for professional groups that supply their staff with computing capability, one would think that such resources would already be shared.  But one could see a group coming together to organize a fundraiser, or a performance, or a slate of PTO meetings using this to link users from many different home or corporate systems.

***What else is good?  Loved Gliffy -- easy creation of flowcharts and floorplans.  See Miss Shelved's "Dream Office"   with grand piano and hot tub.  Ooops:  this was supposed to be productivity enhancement, not time-wasters.  Still, one can dream.  And MyStickies is a neat way to remind oneself why a particular website raised one's interest in the first place. 

Thing 12

Digg and its ilk make one happy to a an elementary librarian. One supposes that a public reference librarian might need to keep up with what the world is reading/viewing/thinking and would find the socially edited "news" sites useful. Admittedly, Miss Shelved does take a periodic peek at Disney, Nickolodeon, and movie trailer sites, for example, to keep up with what the little darlings are talking about. However, one would never confuse keeping a finger on the pulse of mass publicity with being truly informed.

The most worrisome part was the amazing uniformity of the sites , with the same soundbites and images topping the charts. The ease of voting also leads to fears of manipulation -- does ubiquity start to equate to plausibility? What an excellent reminder to get one's real news from a variety of sources. The BBC never headlines the same news as the New York Times -- or the Wall Street Journal, for that matter. And don't simply read those of similar political persuasion. Lowest common denominator news is not likely to expand one's mind.

Thing 11

Oooooh are we loving Del.icio.us! What a terrific way to overcome the limitations of our bookmark bar and the annoyance of perusing "history." Loved the BUTTONS, which will now supercede all new additions on Miss Shelved's button bar. We especially liked (and will introduce to our classroom teachers at summer's end during workshop week) Pagekeeper. At the elementary level, teachers are urged to provide hotlinks rather than have students attempt to type in URLs (with uncontrollable, unintentional and sometimes unfortunate results). At the Media Center, we facilitate this by maintaining a school "links" page which shows up upon internet login. However, teachers fail to request that sites be added, neglect to request that sites be deleted, and often find that the lists have gotten too long to be particularly useful. Pagekeeper is the ideal solution to individualize and quickly update for classroom use.

Thing 10

Point of etiquette: does one place an edit at the beginning or at the end of the page? In the case of an actual wiki article, one assumes there would be a logical organizational outline that would dictate exactly where one would stick in one's oar, as it were. In this case, Miss Shelved has to agree with MysteryLvr (SEE above) that this particular page is less a wiki than a practice page with no real organization to the contributor's comments.

As to the utility of wikis in general, there are situations in which the sharing of knowledge among peers and/or practitioners is pure gold: educational best practices, etymological research, folklore, pop culture, technological troubleshooting, for example. In other cases, say medical research, one might need to be rather more careful in checking the antecedents of shared information. Wikipedia, one gathers, relies on a dedicated cadre of self-appointed citizen editors who work arond the clock to keep the site cleared of misinformation, at least some of which is supplied by well-meaning librarians (a few well-known to Miss Shelved!) who plant articles to prove to their students the unreliability of the source. As in any social network, the key is getting a quorum of authentic contributors and keeping the riff-raff out. (Miss Shelved 7-16-08)

NOTE: This is the edit added to the 23 Things Wiki page

Thing 9

This was somewhat frustrating. Having successfully leapt the hurdles of invitation, there is little instruction to help one to actually open the document in editing mode. Google Doc was fine. Zoho,on the other hand, would allow me to post a comment, or copy the document into a personal file and edit it. But the document would open (from the 23 things link) with no editing and few options. Following a link to "sign in now" (again . . .) allows one to search for a document, but "23-things-practice-document" was not to be found.

Still, it was a particularly fine exercise -- on this beautiful day after the 4th of July -- to work at editing the Declaration of Independence. One must note, however, the limitations of team efforts. Having had the privilege (?) of working on several committees responsible for "mission statements," one acknowledges that through two or more heads may be better than none, such efforts do not lend themselves to felicity of expression. One suspects Thomas Jefferson would have been horrified to have had the rest of the "team" offering their emendations and suggestions. Having Adams and Franklin breathing down his neck was probably annoyance enough on the day.

If one may also comment on the level of glee evinced by some of the editors (and the disapproval of others), Time Magazine offers a wonderful article on Mark Twain this week, and includes a telling quotation that is most apropos: "A discriminating irreverence is the creator and protector of human liberty." Lets keep the giggles coming, shall we?

Thing 8

This is a work in progress.

My slideshow (on Thumbstacks) is available at:

My 23 Things Show

My photo slideshow is above (Thing 8 continued)

My database (all of three entries to start) is at:

Books I Have Read

Perusing this assignment left Miss Shelved with the smug feeling that, to a great extent, we had "been there, done that." Our districtwide server's capacity for sharing is extensively used to share photos, slideshows, databases, and documents among colleagues. Then, when attempting to pull up some archived photos it came to our attention that the district server is down --and likely to be so for much of the summer--for upgrades. Ah, yes, there is a great deal to be said for saving to the web. Necessity is the mother of invention. To the prompts:

• Use for these tools? Photo slideshows are fast becoming a tradition for graduations, retirements, etc. Indeed, such products as PictureTrail raise the bar for the poor Media Specialist who can surely (in her ample free time) womp up several of these imaginative little entertainments each spring. One supposes if it must be done, these tools make it easier. The slide sharer used (Thumbstacks) was somewhat balky. Sharing presentations is often a necessity -- but it would be preferable to be able to share ones already created with more user friendly software. Surely, presentations are rarely prepared (at least at this presenter's level) with the forethought of sharing. As for databases, the same would hold true: one creates a database for personal or team use rather than assuming it needs to be public. Lazybase does allow one to upload an existing database, but Miss Shelved could not try that method since her district server (where such things reside) is down.
• Ease of navigation? Thumbstacks lacked basic instructions and relies heavily on right clicks -- an initial stumble and ongoing annoyance for the Apple user. Also, items carefully and artistically laid out on a slide do not stay in place and look sloppy in presentation. Picturetrail, on the other hand, was very easy (though adding pictures was time-consuming). Lazybase was okay. The ePortfolio site was the most interesting: clearly on-line resumes and portfolios will be the norm.
• Would you recommend? Maybe Picturetrail. Certainly ePortfolio.
• DO you use other sharing tools? Yes: our district has had Moodle pages for a few years now. These are designed for on-line courses, but different teachers use them in different ways to share information, photos, blogs, calendars, etc. with students, colleagues and parents. Moodle is useful, but could also be more flexible and easy to use. Adding a photo, for example, requires a good few too many steps, IMHO!
  

Thing 6

This is an area in which we have had a little more experience (not to mention a lot of fun).  The trading card came from HugeLab (with pic from Simpsonize.com), as did the pixellated bookshelf.  The biker is from The Generator Blog.  A little imagination in Media Center signage, decor, web postings, etc., can be very inspiring, especially for reluctant readers.

Thing 5, continued

warholizer
Originally uploaded by lesley_hendrickson

As suggested, it is possible to have way too much fun with this application. One can think of all kinds of signage opportunities (Flickr Spell)

Thing 5

Thing 3 -- and a jolly good time was had by all

This assignment certainly got the juices flowing!  Miss Shelved spent many hours and  visited some fascinating sites.  Who knew librarians were warriors?  or avengers?  or "shifted"?  It seems everyone has a good deal to say.  Again, the prompts are as good a way as any to get one's thoughts in order.

• What does Miss Shelved like about RSS and newsreaders?  The Vienna newsreader has been on our dock for a while now, but little effort had been made to personal the datastream -- which makes it rather useless.  This assignment was a nice little push.  We tried Google Reader to make a change (though Vienna is rather easy to update as well). Time will tell how essential it may become, but the key is finding the right inputs.
• How might we use this? Once anyone finds the right sources for news, views, tips & tricks -- which is to say, finds the right community (what Web 2.0 is about, after all?) RSS feeds have to be the way to go.  In fact, during her peregrinations, Miss Shelved found a wonderful site for children's book bloggers, called "Jacketflap" -- and was most annoyed to find that it did not offer an RSS feed.  We may need to put a bee in that webmaster's bonnet.
• Which search tool was easiest?  Familiarity is always soothing.  Google searches certainly provide that.  Clearly there are some drawbacks to accessing all one's services at one point, but there are navigational advantages as well.
• Other ways to locate feeds?  One's fellow 23 thing bloggers had some lovely ideas.
•  With all the postings from ALA going on at the moment, it is difficult to tell which sites have ongoing substance.  One of the worldwide websites that looked intriguing turned out to be defunct, no new posts for over a year.  Miss Shelved will try to nod in frequently on her current selections and comment again in a few weeks. 

Thing 2

Fascinating reading/viewing.  The times they are a-changing, indeed.  To sort her thoughts, Miss Shelved will respond to prompt questions as offered.

• Where will one find the time?  Miss Shelved is among those lucky creatures (finally) to be in a position to take summers off. A perfect time  . . . yet it has taken until late June to complete Thing 2.  Hmmm.
• Why participate?  Even elementary students are rapidly becoming involved in on-line communal activities.  The elementary Media Specialist is frequently called upon to be the guardian of security, voice of reason, and academic arbiter of web activity. One has to keep up just to keep the little darlings out of trouble.  And just maybe we would actually like to be in on the fun sometimes.
• The web has revolutionized the way this reader uses public libraries.  Online catalogs and reservation allows one to do all the browsing over morning coffee.  Browsing can include checking new titles lists, readers' blogs, and librarian recommendations.  **It has also made book ordering a breeze:  vender on-line catalogs connect to the same reviews, allow one to see the cover (and often contents) before purchase. **This Media Specialist has a true appreciation for Wikipedia:  it is the finest source for "common knowledge" that is often anything but common.  Where else can one find the meaning of an obscure reference like "Jenny Hanniver" (see Philip Reeves's "Darkling Plain" series) or check the history behind the new film "Mongol"?  As a reference maven, one must still urge students to use it as an overview and introduction --and to exploit its bibliographies--rather than rely on Wikipedia as holy writ.  Miss Shelved is aware that she treads on dangerous ground here. **As an avocational  theatre artist, web research has been an huge boon.  One used to hunt fruitlessly for costume plates in public libraries, often to find the books gone or the pictures razored out. Now amazing visual materials are all on-line.  And don't even ask about the sea change now that musical scores can be accessed digitally.  ** Lastly, while hardly putting a dent in the long list of digital resources Miss Shelved has enjoyed in recent years, there is Sudoku, which has probably had the greatest impact on use of time...
• Where is Miss Shelved in terms of Web 2.0 knowledge?  Baby steps!  But toddling as fast as she can, and definitely well ahead of the typical user of her library.  Some staff are still getting used to on-line catalogs. Shared staff calendars were the big breakthrough this academic year. As for students, most have deep experience but only in a narrow area, say an MMPRG or two, and honestly haven't a clue how to find actual information on line.
•  What are we looking forward to?  Having audibly sniffed at one's younger relatives' time-wasting in on-line fantasy role-playing, Miss Shelved has her own fantasies of kicking necromancer butt as a buff young avatar.  All in the name of research, of course.

The First Post

Miss Shelved finds herself amazed at the variety of informative websites now available at the click of a few tiny buttons.  She is interested in learning more about this phenomenon by participating in 23ThingsonaStick -- a delightful name.  She eagerly awaits confirmation of said participation as well as further instructions.