Blog Dreaming

#23 ebooks

blogdreaming — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:51:06 +0000

The ability to download to a generic player like an ipod is potentially going to open up a new potential for ebooks. The challenge will be to find content that is relevant in schools- the text book market could be an opportunity for developers. In the meantime, we are yet to see the ipod as a ubiquitous presence- interesting to consider the factors which might make this happen. I liked the concept of the serialized fiction provided at: http://www.podiobooks.com/ which employs the use of podcasting and RSS technologies.

#22 Second Life

blogdreaming — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:33:58 +0000

I first saw a library’s foray (Murdoch University) into Second Life on the giant wall screen at Expermedia at the State Library of Victoria last year. This experience really “took you into”the simulation- you really felt like you were flying!! It is interesting to see the University and Corporate experimentations with this technology. It would be useful to reflect upon what the potential barriers to schools this may have (eg, cost, time)and how this may be overcome eg. support at organizational level- eg. CEO or Education Department.

#21 UTube

blogdreaming — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:12:20 +0000

Look… and ye shall fine. There is some great stuff on Utube about 21st Century Teaching and Leaning. I love this one….http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tahTKdEUAPk&eurl=http://www.librarybytes.com/2008/06/education-learning-o-change.html It features Stephen Heppell who I heard speak at a conference in 2000, he coins the phrase “nearly now” in reference to the type of learning environments web 2.0 can create. He suggests they have the power to spawn greater reflection and risk taking in students. The use of embedded Utube or Teacher Tube videos in our own blogs, appears to have great potential in bringing them to life. All I need to do now is figure out how to do it…

#20 Podcasts

blogdreaming — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 11:25:04 +0000

Most useful were the resources on how to make podcasts. It could be a great to inspire greater student participation in blogs. See: http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/00-podcast-tutorial-four-ps.htm I thought that the Education Podcast Network will most probably have podcasts for my immediate use. Note the section on Information Skills, featuring Connect Learning from David Warlick. http://www.epnweb.org/index.php?request_id=3&openpod=6#anchor6

#19 Rollyo

blogdreaming — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:26:22 +0000

Once I worked the navigation of signing up to Rollyo, I can see it may be handy as a personal search tool.

http://rollyo.com/index.html. I used it to create a portal for my favorite Web Indexes such as:

Connect http://www.education.vic.gov.au/secondary/

The librarians Internet Index http://lii.org/

and http://www.intute.ac.uk/

I have had difficulty making my Rollyo public however to share. Will have to keep working on this one.

# 18 Wikis

blogdreaming — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 05:04:02 +0000

Wikis appear to present a myriad of powerful possibilities. Eg:

1) Collaborative subject guide, involving library patrons

2) Adding wiki functionality, through patron recommendations, within catalogues

3) Staff projects Eg. Development of library procedures

4) Collecting blogs ideas. See: http://teacherlibrarianwiki.pbworks.com/Links+to+our+blogs

I can see an immediate use in encouraging students to share their recommendations according to genre, so that we can track the type of genre our students are enjoying.

I especially like the wiki-Library Success – http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

That was set up for ALA to encourage the library community to share their success stories. The links to online training courses could be very useful. http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Online_Training_Resources_for_Librarians

This notion of collegiate sharing could be very useful in time-strapped schools.

#17 Library 2.0

blogdreaming — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:33:56 +0000

The hope that the Library 2.0 movement will open up interactivity with patrons is interesting. It seems we have already succeeded in opening communicaton between library colleagues within and beyond library organizations. That in itself is a positive first step.

# 16 Delicious

blogdreaming — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:15:26 +0000

Now that I have a delicious site:http://delicious.com/blogdreaming I can begin to see what all the fuss is about. It is worth reading the recommended notes from Us.ef.ul. I would agree the secret to this is effective use of tagging. I have also begun to experiment the social networking aspect- finding tags from a fellow user of my favorite photography website- Bluesky Photography. http://blueskyphotography.wordpress.com/ It could be helpful in my situation where I am working on multiple worksites. Is this yet another example of the latest thing-”Cloud computing?” I would like to spend some time reviewing Camilla’s Delicious Bookmarks- this could be a great way of peer sharing with colleagues. http://delicious.com/celliott

#14 Google Books

blogdreaming — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 12:51:27 +0000

It is interesting to see that OCLC Worldcat is being harnessed to access library catalogues.

Google provides an impressive array of options. When searching The Adventures of Tom Sawyer I could:

1) Buy the book

2) Borrow the book (via OCLC Worldcat)

3) Read reviews

4) Find other editions

5) Read references from Scholarly Works

The potential for integrating Google Books within the library catalogues/websites is evident.

This provision of “limited preview” and full text is exciting- here are a few gems which I discovered…

Popular_Mechanics

The_Little_Prince

Just_So_Stories

Portals_and_Libraries

You can now even read Treasure Island on your iphone.

Google is negotiating an agreement to make it possible to preview or access more full text online.

#13 Google maps

blogdreaming — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:49:38 +0000

A perhaps unforseen use of user created maps in Google has emerged from Victoria’s bushfires- (go to Victoria and click on link to Victoria’s bushfires). I have noted that Google maps links well with photography- it uses Panoramio rather than Flickr. This could be a useful tool for Geography/SOSE teachers….