Useful Things?

[Diane]

Anybody have any favorite Things for use in school libraries? I think so far I have liked blogging and wiki pages the best. I am still trying to come up with innovative ways to apply web tools in the media center.

[sharleen berg]

I am interested in how you are using blogging in your school libraries. I work in a private school PreK - 8 and we are still on a fixed schedule with some flexibility. I see many useful applications but have yet to implement any of them effectively.

[Patti Schneider]

Sharleen: I have not used my blog in school but I do have a teacher who has a Sports in Lit class and each student in that class has to set up a blog and blog once a week. That was how I was introduced to blogging. Not sure with just one other part time library para that blogging is going to take off here but at least I know how to set one up and how it all works just in case someone else needs assistance setting one up!!! I find that many of the "things" we are learning about might not be used in a small school setting but once again it is good to learn about them and know they are out there.

[Sheryl G]

Last Year I blogged a book with our 5-8th grade students. The students really enjoyed it. They read the book and the posted their opinions on the blog. I have found that students have no problem using and interacting with internet technology. My biggest problem has been trying to convince faculty and administration that libraries are now online.

[Librarylady2002]

This is an interesting idea. Our community ed director is thinking about book clubs. I wonder if she has ever considered something like this. I've also tried to get kids to do video book reviews... but maybe making them more accessible could be interesting.
Have you had any issues or concerns with privacy and student access online?

I've had a hard time thinking about blog application as well.

[Sheryl G]

Yes, Student online access was a concern. I let the students know that I would view all comments before allowing them to be posted. (You have this option within your blog setup.) Not to censor their comments but to ensure the blog was being used only for comments about the book.

[Patti Schneider]

Diane: Since I am the librarian at a very small school library, there a many of the"things" that I probably won't utilize as much as bigger libraries, but I am glad to be learning about them anyway. It is amazing what is all out there!!!

[Karen Christensson]

I have used a wiki and a blog in the past - during the annual research unit we do through our school library media program. I teach in a K-5 school and grades 2-5 participate in the unit.

A couple of years ago we chose to study Ancient Egypt and the kids could go on our "all class" wiki and write a little something under the heading that interested them - some cultural topic pertaining to Ancient Egypt. We had a lot of contributions to our body of knowledge after 3 weeks or so.

This school year I chose to focus our library unit research on the Dromedary camel because the whole school was studying the Arabian Peninsula. The end product of the research was to draw a Dromedary camel that included 14 features I had posted to a blog. I gave the students the blog address and a template of "how to draw" a camel. That blog URL is http://ourcamelblog.blogspot.com I posted a feature or two every day over two 5-day school weeks. The kids could go online at home and work on their camel.

All assignments in my library program are voluntary but I generally get a nice participation. These research units are valuable to the students because over 3 weeks I model the entire research process in front of them - whether they actually do any hands on or not.

[Jean Haberman]

I've been encouraging the staff and students to use Delicious for their bookmarks so they will have them available at home and at school. The teachers can sort them by units, etc. and have them easily available when they need them.