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.

What a time saver! LibWorm seems like it is THE place for the most current LIS news, reports, and information. Certainly because many of the resources are personal blog pages, so there is a certain amount of bias to consider, but still a great place to start when looking around in the LIS world.

If someone wants to buy me a present, buy me a lifetime membership to LibraryThing.com! I love it! I have checked this site out before, and I still really love searching through it. This time, I set up an account and added a few books, but it would be great to get my whole library recorded here. I really like how it directs you to others with similar book tastes. Great conversation starter! When I do have it updated with the books I own, it would be a great tool to share with my students. They could go to my catalog and see what books I have and decide what they want to check out next! I do have to say that I'm tempted to buy the CueCat so I can easily scan in my books. That little gizmo is just cool! I wandered around in the "Groups" tab for quite a while, finding all different groups I'd love to join. There are some great conversations going about books...a beautiful thing!

This did not simply mean no one could call me. It also meant the end of my text messaging and mobile Facebook and Twitter updates. A sad day people...a sad day. So, the message in all this? Well, I can't believe how dependent I have become on my friggin' phone! Seriously Alicia! I used to roam around without a cellphone without a problem. When I finally did have a phone, no one texted me because it did not exist. Now that phones do so much, I rely heavily on this silly piece of plastic and fancy touch screen. It's crazy! Am I now encouraged to give it all up and go back to a life without a cell phone? Well, no. I will just take a moment to revel in my new-found insight. Sheesh...now excuse me. Have to get back to charging my Berry...

Old Blackberry...sad Alicia...

New Blackberry...Happy again!

I think it will take me a while to get used to Digg.com. I did check out the news site, but did not make myself an account. It is a very cool idea, to have people vote on top news stories and share news from different places, but it felt disorganized to me. I won't give up on Digg totally though. I think I'll check back to the site occasionally and see how it has changed and see what news reports have surfaced. I will certainly be able to see news reports I would have otherwise missed out on. I'm so glad that I was able to learn about the "naked thief who stole french fries from Wendy's." :) My life is better for it.

Love Delicious!! I was first introduced to Delicious at a technology training a couple of years ago. The lady referred to her Delicious page where we could find some great links for classroom use. Well, I had no clue what she was talking about! Once I figured out what it was, and used her links because they were great, I didn't do much else with it. Finally, this school year, I broke down and created my own account. I wanted to have access to great sites at school that I found while I was at home.

I have used tagging through my Delicious page, but have not yet seen it being used in libraries. I can certainly see where that would be useful though. We all know there are rules that govern how libraries are organized, but if patrons were able to do it, wouldn't it make sense that it would be a better system? After all, they are the ones that are using the tags and organization. The only problem of course is that the way I would tag an item may not be the way you would. And now we have chaos.

Tweet Tweet! I am a fairly new user of Twitter, but I love it too! (I think I just love fun techy things really because so far, I'm a fan of all 23 Things!)

Ah yes...IMing. A wonderful invention! I remember in college my roommate and I would IM each other through AIM....from across the room! And for some reason, it was a blast. IMing is still a blast and I think it's so fantastic that libraries are beginning to use it. I have heard that some of the larger libraries have the option from their site to chat with a librarian. What a terrific way to reach a wider audience.

How funny! The day after I work on my Ning posting for 23 Things, I find (through Facebook) a link to a Ning for my alma mader! My high school alumni now has a Ning for all the Fort Zumwalt South grads. May have to check that out!

I have seen this site used for a large number of people to access different documents and discussion. When I attended the NCTE conference this year, all of the session leaders were posting their documents and materials on the Ning and referred to it in their classes. Participants were encouraged to check the Ning frequently to keep up with all of the great things made available. I do appreciate the fact that you do not need a log-in and an account to search around through the Ning pages. I took some time to browse some of the library-type and YA lit-type sites. Some of them looked pretty fun! Great conversations were going on among people of a common interest. I am choosing not to sign up with Ning simply because I do not think I will participate. I may be back to look through some of the discussion about different novels though...those were great!

I just added my Twitter account updates to my blog!  I'm very proud of my campus as well.  My principal has created a Twitter account (with a nudge or two from our amazing iTeam gal!) to keep us updated during the summer.  Now my colleagues will be joining Twitter and maybe my blog will get a little added attention.  

Groups in Facebook are fun!  Not only does it show your interests to others, but it also shows support for you find to be important.  There isn't much of a commitment and you can easily check on updates the group posts.  It is fun to see that there are others out there interested in the same things you are!

Can I just start this blog by saying that I heart Facebook!  I have been using it for over a year I guess, and it is a constant source of update for me.  Facebook has put me into contact with high school friends I haven't seen since graduation and I may never have the chance to see again, but I know what they're up to and we can easily and quickly communicate.  It is fun to read the status updates of my friends each day too...a fun little highlight for me.