Conclusion and Self Assessment

    I've learned a lot about different kinds of new technology over the course of this semester in school.  This new knowledge has piqued my interest to find new ways to use technology in my classroom, in my future library, and in my personal life.  I have already shared new things I've learned with my technologist, who in turn, shares with me!  I have asked to have a Promethean board in my classroom next year and plan to use it daily.  I think what has happened is I’ve gained the knowledge and courage, I suppose, to try new technologies instead of just talking about trying them.

    I've thought about how to keep up with the new innovations in technology, in order to be a more effective teacher and future media specialist.  Several things came to mind- keep lines of communication open with the school technologist and media specialists from my school and other schools, try out technology ideas mentioned in listserv emails, and read articles about new technology ideas in journals related to education, librarianship or technology.  I plan to create a database, which organizes the technology into categories useful to teachers, students and myself. 

    Although I've always been a fan of technology in the classroom, the idea of implementing the new technologies into my elementary school lessons and future library “lessons” is exciting! I've already spoken to a 5th grade teacher about students using Googledocs and Wikkis to create collaborative documents for projects; I’ve shared a research idea with kindergarten that helps them research in an appropriate way for children of their age group; I'm in the process of creating a Qlubb site in order to organize a group of volunteers to help with a “Garden Clean Up” event at school, and let’s not forget that awesome Promethean board!

The Job of Organizing

    The more I learn about Web 2.0 the more I love it! I think it's wonderful that there are sites available on the web like NetVibes, Protopage and PageFlakes that allow people to get organized.  I don't know anyone who couldn't use a Personal Information Space!  This tool can be changed and rearranged as the user's needs change. It allows the users to have all of their most important sites right at their fingertips. I think this will be a tool that librarians can use to help students and teacher- colleagues gather all of their resources into one place to make them more efficient at school.  Librarians will have to keep up with the newest technologies and websites in order to help those students and teachers stay on the cutting edge.  I can see "organization workshops" to get people started and notices on the librarian's blog or the library website to keep them updated. 
    The social bookmarking site Diigo would be an example of the type of channel a person could have on their information space. To me, the tags on Diigo are similar to keywords that help me to more easily categorize "bookmarked" Websites and to help others locate Websites that may possibly contain the information they are seeking.   I think the more familiar I become with Diigo, the better I will be at naming tags in a way that will help others to find Websites that match their needs.

About: The Machine is Us/ing Us By Michael Wesch

    As I viewed the YouTube video about Web 2.0 by Professor Michael Wesch, I thought, “Wow! There’s a lot of information here and it’s moving pretty quickly from one thought to another," a bit overwhelming, actually. So after watching it a few times I thought about the question- What was Wesch trying to say when he entitled it “The Machine is Us/ing Us”? Why did he give that name to his video?  I think he meant that the Web 2.0 tools that people all over the globe are using “is us” because it’s all about people connecting with each other and the world around them through the many social networking tools like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, to name a few.  It allows anyone to show their creative abilities and allows for self-expression through avenues like personal Web sites, blogs, Flickr, and Image Chef. It allows people to collaborate on projects when they aren’t even in the same room, city, or even country with tools like Wikis and Google Docs. It’s amazing how web 2.0 tools have brought the people of the world so much closer together-- “us”.

    The “using us” part was explained when he said that every time we make a new connection we are teaching the machine. Imagine millions of people are making millions of connections day after day! The machine needs us to change and grow, like a brain needs information flowing over neuropathways to function, learn, grow and cause change—The machine is “using us”.

QR Codes

    Have you heard of Quick Response Codes, or QR codes?   They’re like a bar code that can be read by a smart phone or special QRC readers.  QR codes link you to different kinds of information, and can be found printed in magazine ads, in news papers, on business cards, on book jackets, and many more places including on food and clothing!  When I first learned about Quick Response Codes, I wasn’t sure how a librarian could use them, then I thought about the kinds of things library patrons might want to access quickly from the convenience of their cell phones (or QRC readers).   

     The Quick Response code could link to a librarian’s blog to announce special events coming to the library, like a book fair, or a visit from a storyteller, author or other special speaker.  This could also be done through a link to the library’s monthly calendar of events.  Librarians could use the QRC to highlight a book of the week, by creating a link to a review of the book or to information about the book. To highlight authors or illustrators, a link could be made to their web sites. The QRC could be used to connect students to research resources, acceptable use policy information, or instructions on how to properly cite sources.  Students could tell others about their favorite books through book reviews.

    The QR codes could also be used for practical applications, like allowing teachers to access the library’s browser while planning lessons.  Parents could access information about their child’s library account to find out about overdue books or pay library fines.   A book fair catalog could be created, so parents could browse with their children, before coming in to make a purchase.  The possibilities for using QR codes in connection with the library are pretty exciting! 

Individual Technology Assessment

     When I saw the definition of technology in the power point provided  "… a broad term dealing with the use and knowledge of tools and crafts." (Wikipedia, 2006),  I started to think about the tools I have used over the years in my teaching experience. Of course I've used things like the overhead projector when I taught 5th grade- old school, but effective for standard lessons that I didn't want to write over and over again on the board.  I prefer to use my computer, a Mac, to teach through Power Point presentations, Keynote presentations and You Tube clips. I taught my 5th graders how to use Power Point to create their own presentations. I also like to photograph my students with a digital camera while they're working, which the older students later used in applications like Comic Life to create their own comic strip or poster.  I  am learning the ins and outs of using the new projectors, which we use in the computer lab and in classrooms with Promethean boards. I've taken lessons at our school to become more proficient at using these tools.  I would like to be able to use the Promethean board with my pre-k students to make daily activities, like the calendar, interactive and fun and to show video clips of the students doing things like counting, presenting playground rules, reviewing color words or shapes, and singing songs with motions.  They love to watch themselves on the big screen.  I'm working with a colleague, who uses the Promethean board daily, to learn how to do these things. I'm amazed at how technology has changed during the 16 years that I've been teaching.  I hope that I can keep up with the changes to come.