While waiting to PAY for a new ID card at work cuz I'm a nincompoop, here's how I'm keeping myself occupied. Boo irresponsible me!

Well, I made it! I feel much accomplished and great about my new-found knowledge about some amazing applications. I definitely have a most favorite app...Library Thing! I haven't yet paid for a complete membership, but it's something I want to do this year. I want to make my classroom library more accessible to students from home. They can certainly look through my books while at school, but it would be great if they could look closer at titles they're interested in. It would also help me to have an online record of the books I own so I do not overbuy...which has happened before believe me.

I can't wait to share all the new technology available for libraries! I was planning to send my school librarian the link to my 23 Things blog so she could browse through the applications I was introduced to this summer. I am absolutely going to suggest that we create a Facebook page for the library and advertise it to the kids. I would be willing to help keep it updated with announcements about new books, links to websites we want the kids to know about and maybe even some book discussion. I'm also really hoping, along with my tech dept. member on campus, that students can all sign up for a Google account to begin using Google Docs. I'm already planning to speak to my principal about this. She is an advocate for technology integration and this would be one more skill the students can learn. I think it will be such an easy way to move documents between students and staff without messing with our network folders and such. And of course, in my own classroom, I want to push podcasts and perhaps wikis to get students creating and discussing and LEARNING in a Web 2.0 way that they will enjoy and gain so much from. I'm excited to share what I've learned this summer!

Podcasts...it's like radio on the internet! I have enjoyed listening to podcasts myself and incorporating them into libraries is such an amazing idea! I really enjoy listening to This American Life, a podcast FREE through NPR. I also really like the game show format podcast Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, again through NPR. With book trailers becoming more and more popular in libraries and classrooms, that same idea can easily blend into podcasting. Two of my students chose to create a podcast last year for their final research project and they turned out awesome! They researched the topic, wrote a script, added sound effects, and recorded it all at school. It was so fun to see them get excited about a project they designed. The other kids loved listening to it too. If I had had more students choose this project, I would have put the podcasts onto iPods and had the kids enjoy them that way.

I love YouTube! I have found it so useful and was thankful when my school district unblocked it for teachers. It contains some amazing resources for teaching concepts and reinforcing learning. I have shown movie clips, teaching videos, commercials. It's fantastic! I recently uploaded my first YouTube video and it was very easy. Interested? Click here!

The only wiki I am familiar with, before this posting, was wikipedia. I have used it myself to look up general information on topics I wanted to know more about. I allowed my students to use it IF IF IF they used the original resource the information came from. One of the best parts of wikipedia is located at the bottom of the article. The primary resources are listed, many websites, that can be used to check the information is accurate. It's a great way to keep kids honest and to lessen the chance of finding bad information.

Google Docs can be VERY useful for schools, libraries, co-workers and just about anyone collaborating on a document. This is great! The IT person on my campus was sharing Google Docs with the staff last year. She is hoping that all students can have a Google account so that teachers can share documents with them in a new, safer, and much easier way. As of now, we have a Share drive on the network that students and teachers can use, but there are so many bad things about it. Documents can be deleted accidentally or purposefully by other students, it is a hassle to find the right folder, and it's just and old way of document sharing. Google Docs would really save us! It is definitely overwhelming receiving so many emails about the same document. This would help tremendously. When librarians and teachers are working together on a lesson, Google Docs would help keep everything straight and still allow for revisions. Students working in groups could also use this when assigned group work. And it gives kids another tool they will have for the future to help develop their technological skills.