Thing 4: RSS, Personal Home Pages and Feed Readers

Although I love Personal Information Portals and RSS feeds, I wasn’t able to focus on this blog post until I got through the last couple of weeks before vacation! No snow days have been a killer! I discovered personal information portals and RSS feeds a couple of years ago and set up a iGoogle page at that time. I like that I can have a separate tab for each facet of my life! On my library tab, I set up RSS feeds for a number of library gurus, tech gurus, and educational gurus. Through trial and error I did realize that some blogs’ RSS feeds didn’t work using iGoogle, so I set up Google Reader.  I always try iGoogle first; if it doesn’t work I try Google Reader. 

Last year I had the juniors and seniors set up iGoogle pages (many already had them), so that they could utilize the RSS feeds available from the library subscription databases. I was hoping they would embrace this “push technology.” I tell them once they have all the RSS feeds set up it’s one stop shopping! I had them practice the RSS feeds with the sports section of the Post Star and with Scott Westerfeld’s blog.  Once they did this we hit the databases and practiced using the MagillOnLiterature RSS feeds for The Great Gatsby.  We did learn the EBSCO feeds were easily added to the iGoogle pages, but we had to set a Google Reader for the Gale product’s RSS feeds. To be honest a few of the students understood the power of the RSS feeds, others not so much. Those that did use the RSS feeds during their senior research project definitely understood how the RSS feeds streamlined the gathering of sources for them.  The seniors used them again this year, with a short review of how the RSS feeds work.   I think this year they had a better understanding of the technology.  I’ll also have the juniors set up iGoogle pages and use the RSS feeds when they start their research project.

Thing 3: Online Communities

I've had a facebook and twitter account for some time. I use my facebook more for a personal online community, although I'm friends with professional colleagues. I'm enjoying the SLS Cool Tools facebook group. It's great to see what "cool" things are happening in other libraries.  One gets to pick the brains of colleagues without being in the same room! Although I haven't been big on tweeting, I do check out the library gurus' tweets! It's great if I just have a minute or two to see what's happening in the library and tech world, that I might want to investiagate further.
I did try to put a twitter button on this blog, but I wasn't able to figure out where to paste the code.  I thought it would be under my profile, but there was no place to edit the html. Maybe someone can help me?!?

Thing 2: Part 2

I figured there would be a number of staff and students who received e-readers for the holidays, so I wanted a way to highlight Overdrive and the library's Nooks. After watching Paige's Voki, I thought it would be a cool tool to try.  I just typed in my text because I didn't have a good microphone at home.  As you can see there was a little problem with the pronunciation of e-reader.  I'm going to try again Monday at school using a microphone.  I have a visual impaired student and I think this would work great as a presentation tool. She could create a Voki and then record her information.

Thing #2

Iphone Animoto: The Barn
When I got the email about Thing #2 Storytelling I was in the middle of a Book Trailer project, using Animoto, with a seventh grade English class. I also had just  received an email  about the iphone and ipad app for Animoto.  I decide to use  Animoto because it was tool I was familiar with, but try to use the app for these other devices. Of course then the holidays came along and need I say more... I took Polly's advice and used pictures I had on my iphone, so that's why it's garden video! This video took about five minutes to produce.


Ipad Animoto: Keelin's and Jimmy's Wedding
I also used pictures I had on my ipad to produce this video, thus the wedding video. I really  love the ease of using Animoto to produce videos.  I've done a number of different projects, with my seventh graders, using it.  Most of the projects revolved around books. Simple to use, simple video. For more complex videos I have the students use iMovie. As far as the apps, it was quick and easy to produce a video using both the iphone and ipad. The one  drawback was it limited the number of pictures/slides to 12. Depending on the project this may or may not be a problem. I can see the schools that have classroom sets of ipads being able to  use the Animoto app to create great projects.


Last year Amy Carpenter, shared an Library Highlights Animoto video she produced for her administrators and board. I loved the idea, so I did one of my own. Professionally, Animoto is an easy tool to use to showcase "evidence" for the APPR.


I'm hoping to explore another tool, using the photos of our seniors visiting and using the ACC Library this past week! A big thank-you to Joyce Miller!

Thing #1 Blogging

I'm Terese Brennan and I'm the 7-12 librarian at Cambridge Central School.  I'm participating in this program because I love to learn about new tech tools that I may be able to use with students and staff in the library. I've take a number of classes from Polly and I know I'll learn about extremely practical tech tools. I also figured it was an excellent opportunity to learn from my colleagues (without having to drive on wintry roads). I had a blogger account all set up to use with my seniors last year, but never used it. I choose blogger last year, because once the students have a Google email account if gives them access to all things Google.  We have used iGoogle as a personal learning environment, so that the students can set up RSS feeds to the subscription databases and other resources.  We also use Google sites for the seniors  to use as a research reflection log.