Final Thoughts

I learned a lot in this class about how to use web 2.0 tools and how to use these tools to better meet the needs of users. I am hoping to someday use some of these web 2.0 tools with students. When that time comes, I will be ready to use them in the media center to improve services to our students and to help others in the school use them, too.

Even though the class has ended, I will continue to use Google Reader to monitor feeds and keep current on technology, libraries, and education. I will also continue to use del.icio.us. It is a much better way to organize the sites that I use at work.

This class made it a lot easier for me to work on Minnesota’s 23 Things on a Stick and to help the other media specialists in my district. I hosted meetings for them to attend, so we could work on the “things” together. Everything fell apart after I contracted a virus that turned into pneumonia. I have been told that it will be awhile before I feel 100% and my energy levels return to normal.

Thanks for a great class! I have to count it among my favorites.

Group Project

I was part of the podcasting group. Before we even decided what our podcasts were going to be about and who would be our audience or users, we decided to listen to what other libraries were doing. We definitely heard some good and some not so good podcasts. Listening to other libraries’ podcasts and to book talk podcasts gave us some good ideas. Any library considering podcasting should listen to other libraries’ podcasts.

Creating our podcasts was a lot of fun. I have a MacBook, but I had never really used GarageBand before. I was amazed by how easy it was to create a podcast.

Our group also decided to meet using Meebo and Google Docs. We created our own chat room in Meebo and had the option of viewing the chat log later, which was great since I had pneumonia at the time. I was able to go back and review what had transpired. Using Google Docs to create our presentation was effective in that we all could edit and view the document. I had never used Google Docs before. I would recommend using Meebo and Google Docs to other groups, who don’t live in close proximity to each and who need to meet.

My Paper

In my paper, I will explore massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). MMOs are highly graphical 2-D or 3-D video games played in virtual worlds online. Players create avatars that interact with the gaming software (the virtual environment and computer-generated characters within it) and with other players. In MMOs, thousands of players’ avatars exist in the same game world at the same time. One of the most popular MMOs is World of Warcraft (WoW), which hit the 10 million player mark in 2008.

MMOs like WoW are growing in popularity and involve a variety of literacies and practices. I will explore these literacies and practices using the research of Constance Steinkuehler. A few of these practices and literacies include:

• Collaborative problem solving practices in teams within the game. For example, in WoW, players regularly enter “instances” or “raids” to battle monsters while making their way through dungeons and other areas.
• Novel literacy practices including the use of specialized forms of language for in-game social interaction.
• Scientific habits of mind such as hypothesis testing and revision.
• Forms of computational literacy represented by player-generated artifacts such as user interface modifications or “mods.” Mods are patches to the game software that change the user interface in some way.

RSS Feeds

For an aggregator, I choose Google Reader. I found it easy to use. I even added some feeds from School Library Journal’s web site, some education blogs, and some school library and technology blogs.

I love RSS feeds. Having these RSS feeds is keeping me current on technology, education, and issues concerning libraries. I have even been able to bring up information from my feeds in my other class. We had talked about computer games in schools and media centers. I was then able to talk about a post that I had seen in my feeds.

There are definitely ways that libraries can use RSS. I even came across a post in my feeds about this topic from The Moxie Librarian called 10 Ways Libraries Can Use RSS.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Computer and Online Games in Schools

Computer and online games in schools has been a recent topic of discussion on our state listserv and on blackboard for one of my other classes. It has been interesting reading the variety of responses, which range from absolutely no to only educational games to yes if no else needs the computer for homework.

Doug Johnson in his article Game On lists 10 reasons for games and three reasons for banning games. He lists some good reasons for allowing games, such building reading and math skills, practicing learning strategy and logic, and practicing social skills when working in teams. One reason for banning games is that kids playing games might be taking away resources from kids who need to do “real” school work. I could see how having kids playing games when someone needs to do homework might be a sticky situation if you have a limited number of computers.

On the state’s listserv, Tom Ross, said that there are two more reasons for games: remain relevant in the lives of our students and influence the values of this generation for the future.

I think that some computer and online games do have a place in schools and media centers for the reasons listed above. Games can make learning fun and are relevant to our students’ lives. There are students who play online or computer games at home.

Social Networking Tools and Schools

I recently was sent a link to a survey from the AASL (American Association of School Librarians) on the listserv that I subscribe to. The 2008 School Library Counts survey includes questions on social networking tools. One question asked if working with students on units of instruction–alone or in collaboration with classroom teachers–you use, or support the use of the following social networking tools: virtual worlds (e.g., Second Life), existing social networking sites (e.g., MySpace, Facebook), user-created social networking sites (e.g., Ning), virtual schools, Internet forums or bulletin boards, online chat, wikis, collaborative real-time editors (e.g., GoogleDocs), blogs, social bookmarking (e.g., del.icio.us), social libraries (e.g., Library Thing), podcasts, instant messaging, text messaging and other. You could respond with the one of the following: yes; no, but not prohibited; or no, because prohibited.

I have heard of schools that filter a lot of the social networking tools like my school currently does. I have heard of schools that don’t filter all of the social networking tools and educate students on how to use social networking tools safely. If I am ever employed by a school district that doesn’t filter many of the social networking tools, I will certainly know how to use them and how to educate students on how to use them.

My Second Life Experience

I became curious about Second Life after attending two conferences over the past five months that offered sessions on it. After seeing Second Life on our syllabus, I had to download it and check it out.

I started out on Orientation Island, where you complete tasks that teach you how to fly, chat, move, alter your appearance, drive a vehicle, and search. Right away, I had people wanting to add me as a friend. I thought that this was odd since I hadn’t even chatted with them. I declined their offers. I did chat with someone from Brazil. Another person was looking for someone who spoke German.

In Second Life, you must walk around other avatars or you bump into them and move them. This one male avatar bumped into me when I was trying to learn how to alter my avatar’s appearance. My avatar then moved off the screen. He did this a few more times and eventually went away.

After completing all of the modules or tasks on Orientation Island, I randomly chose one of the doors that teleports you to another place. There happened to be streaming music in the area that I chose. Again, I had people wanting to add me as a friend without chatting with me beforehand. I logged out after that.

Second Life is interesting, but I am not sure if I need a Second Life when my first life keeps me busy enough.

Social Networking

I have been asked numerous times if I have a Facebook and/or MySpace account. Some of my friends are on Facebook, and some are on MySpace. I even have some friends in Sweden on Facebook. Of course, their pages are in Swedish. It is fun to look at my friends’ MySpace and Facebook pages.  I currently have neither, but maybe some day I will start one.

I recently had a 6-7 year old ask me if he could go to MySpace.  I said no. I knew that no student can access MySpace or Facebook in our district, because these sites are blocked by the filter.

The one social networking site that I love is del.icio.us, a social bookmarking site. I had heard of this site before. I wish I would have actually looked into it before this class. I just love being able to access my bookmarks anywhere and being able to tag them in a way that makes sense to me and hopefully others.

Today, I was exploring Ning, which allows you to join a social network.  I found a Ning site for Minnesota’s 23 Things on a Stick program, ALA, and Second Life Librarians. I will eventually join the Minnesota’s 23 Things on a Stick Ning to complete one of my 23 things.

Teen Library Site and Teen Tech Week

I came across this site while looking at podcasts for our group project. The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (PLCMC) in North Carolina has a site for teens with links to their Flickr account, MySpace page, podcasts, YouTube videos created by their teen patrons, Gaming Zone blog, events in Teen Second Life, etc. What a great way to reach and involve teens! Here is the link to the PLCMC Library Loft: http://www.libraryloft.org 

The library also has a Teen Tech Week March 2-8, 2008.

Teen Tech Week is a national initiative sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). The purpose is to ensure  teens are competent and ethical users of technologies.  Here is a link to the YALSA site:  http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teentechweek/ttw08/ttw.cfm