Halloween

Method 12

After completing these exercises, I will be able to take some new things back to school with me in the Fall.  I  was really surprised by how many podcasts are out there.  Method 11 convinced me to use a podcasts for lessons that I have to repeat over and over.  Orientation will be my first podcast that I will use the first week of school.  I was also grateful to learn more about computing in the cloud.  Our district seems to be moving rapidly in that direction and I embrace it with open arms.  If I could think of one way to improve these exercises would be to have one geared just for school librarians.

Method 11

I can see that Podcasts would be a good way to spotlight a special collection in your library.  I am considering doing a podcast for the beginning of the year orientation for my students.  It would be so much better than me saying the same thing approximately 40 times and leaving out important  information because I thought I had told them the info, but actually had told another class.  In fact, doing this step has convinced me that I WILL do some form of recorded orientation to ensure students get all the information about our library that is necessary to be successful patron of our library.  My eyes were opened to how many podcasts are available out there.  I had no idea there were so many on so many different topics.  I will be exploring this more in the remaining days of my summer.

Beyond Method 12

I think the best nugget that I got from this exercise was the Gutenberg Project information.  I am so happy to know about this wonderful, free resource that I plan to utilize in the fall.  Most of the exercises I was mostly familiar with, but I did learn some additional information about each step or tool.  I will be adding the job search information to our library webpage.  I really had never thought much about high school students needing help with job searches.Screencast-o-matic was another nugget that I discovered and will use with our students and teachers.  I used Jing many years ago, but didn't like that the tool put that yellow sun thing on my desktop.

The exercises were aimed more at public libraries and I think having a class like this that focuses on the school library would be beneficial.  Most of the tools apply to both, however the school library has a different focus that the public library.

Beyond Method 11

I am not in a public library so I don't really use surveys with students about library services.  I have used PollEverywhere in faculty meetings and with students at the end of the class period to get their ideas about the learning.  Students love being able to text their answers and this feature makes it fun for them to share their thoughts.  
I have used Socrative recently and it was a big hit with students and has a poll feature.  

SurveyMonkey would be a good resource for schools to use with parents. Most all parents have email address now and this is helpful with mass communication as in the past when most parents didn't necessarily have an email account.

Beyond Method 10

I have attended several webinars and really enjoyed the video conferencing.  I have used Skype and Elluminate for video conferencing and both were easy to use and extremely useful.  I have also used JoinMe to work on a project with a colleague. This is a great collaboration tool for librarians and teachers to use that save time and money.  Just think about it... The teacher was at a school on the other side of town and we met without having to drive 7 miles to meet.  It is wonderful.. I think that the video conferencing could be utilized in a library more often.  I have used Skype to have a speaker in another country talk to our students in World Geography classes.  Students absolutely loved it and listened intently.  I would like to Skype with some authors this next school year for our students.  Video conferencing saves schools a ton of money and are easy to setup. 

Beyond Method 9

Digital storytelling is one of my favorite tools that I get students to use to present information that they have leaned. Students get so involved in the creation of their story it is sometimes hard to get them to finish the project due to them wanting everything to be perfect. It is great to watch.  I did a quick video on National Gaming Day 2012 to encourage students to attend.  I like to use Animoto to promote activities that the library is hosting as well as showcasing a past event.