This has been the most beneficial training I've ever had. After 16 years of teaching, you can imagine all the useless workshops I've sat through. Unfortunately, it has been even worse since I moved to the library. I'm thrilled that I got to spend this summer learning something I can actually use with my kids!
1. The things I am most excited about taking back to school with me are Library Thing, Photostory and Rollyo. I'm doing Battle of the Books at both of my campuses this year. I plan to set up a book club on Library Thing, so we can discuss the books even when we can't find time to meet. My students started using photostory this past year, but I never took the time to mess with it much. It is surprisingly easy! I think the kids and teachers are going to be thrilled with my booktalk. I also think I will use Rollyo to help design search engines to keep my 7th graders somewhat controlled when they are doing their initial research.
I really enjoyed playing with the image generators and mashups. I think my students will be equally excited about playing with these apps.
The RSS Feed is something that I now use daily. I love having my blogs all come to one place, so I can read them at my convenience. Honestly, I find myself using my cell phone to read while waiting on my children. What a good use for that time! My favorite blog discovery is A Chat with Mary.
2. As a librarian, I know how important it is to keep up with my students. This was a great opportunity to get a jump-start on technology that they will love to use. The RSS Feed will help me stay on top of things both professionally and personally.
3. I was surpised at all that google really offers. In the past, I've been more of a "yahoo-girl." Now that I am aware of all that google has, I see myself using it more.
4. I don't know of anything that I would change. I loved that I could work through the activities when and where I wanted. I feel like I waste a lot of time in workshops where our skill levels aren't even remotely comparable. With this program, I zipped through the things I already knew about (delicious) and spent more time on the things I needed to learn (photostory).
5. I would definitely participate in another discovery program, since this is one of the most professionally beneficial things I've done in a long time!
6. The 23 Things Program helps turn librarians into true media specialists!
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I agree about the wasting time in workshops--think if every workshop was set up like Library 2 Play how much fun we would have and how much we would learn!
ReplyDeleteHi Misha! I think that you and I and all the WISD librarians should great a discovery program like this for the WISD teachers! If we build it, surely they will come!
ReplyDeleteOf all the great things we have learned, I'm sure the teachers would find lots to love and use as well! Maybe we can build it in time for them to get Staff Dev credit for next summer-- or even in the spring! What do you think?