Computer Survey

I finally finished compiling the data for the online computer survey that I did with 3-6 grade. It was very interesting. Here is the computer survey. Of course, it is only as accurate as the students were honest with their replies. It also included deaf ed and they may or may not have understood everything. The results hopefully aren't too skewed.

Beginning or End?

WOW! I can't believe everything that I learned through the 23 Things. When this all started I thought I thought I'd go through the exercises and probably not use any of the things. I was surprised that I really liked several of these things and will definitely continue to use them. The exercises that were related to photos were my favorite: online photo sharing, mashups, online image generators, animoto, etc. However, I was shocked to discover that I really like the RSS feeds. I still don't check it every day, but I always find something interesting when I do read the feeds.

This experience has opened my eyes to the way people are utilizing the web today. It has created many conversations with teachers in my building about the way we are currently teaching and the change in the way students receive information and that we are not on the same wave length. Often times I hear teachers talk about how low students are, but when I was conducting the computer survey with 3-6 grade, I realized that if students can do all the things online that they were discussing, then there is more going on in children's brains then we realize. We just have to tap into it. As the librarian, I believe that I need to help tap into this by utilizing some of the information learned in the 23 Things. I just have to figure out the best way to do this.

I also discovered that most of what we did is unknown to most people. I have talked to several different people at school and most of them didn't have a clue about what I was talking about.

I would definitely go through another exercise like this and if you were to change anything, it would be to have several get-togethers throughout the time period. Granted we are to be learning online, but there is something to be said about working among fellow bloggers. Overall, I highly enjoyed 23 Things and I take away many new tools to be used in the library.

Thing #23 - Creative Commons

I like the idea of Creative Commons. It makes sense for those people that aren't overly concerned about money and just want their stuff out there to be used. In this digital age, it becomes more and more important to know about copyright in all forms. I searched for CC items and found many images and other info. However, I wasn't able to find anything that had been changed or modified in any way - or I didn't know what I was looking for. I must admit that copyright related to the internet baffles me, but CC makes it a little easier to get through it.

Thing #22 - Animoto Signing Choir video

I had a difficult time last night at home trying to post to the blog, but today it was easy as pie. I showed it to some kids this morning and they wanted to know if I was showing it on announcements this morning. They thought it was neat. I think it would be fun to use it for graduation slide shows and other special events. It might be worth investigating the $3.00 version for a longer movie. I wish we could use music that was downloaded since they have a limited selection. Other than that, it was fun!

Thing #22 - Animoto

I liked Animoto. However, I found it very slow when mixing the video. I tried to download some music from the web to use in the video and couldn't make it work. I then had issues uploading the video to the web. I will have to continue to work on it.

Thing #21 - Podcasting

I learned in an earlier staff development that podcasts aren't podcasts unless they recurring posts. I signed up for a few that day and didn't keep up with it. I looked at the different directories for this exercise and determined that once again, I won't keep up with it. I like the idea, it just isn't for me. I would most likely search for audio files for particular subjects at various times throughout the year. I did investigate the different resources and determined that Yahoo podcasts have limited feeds for the searches I conducted related to the library/books. The Educational Podcast Directory had hundreds of feeds, but it wasn't the most user friendly site. I thought that Podcast.net was the most user friendly, but I had difficulty subscribing to a feed. It was nice to learn that there are numerous ways of discovering podcasts should I ever want to subscribe to one.

Thing #20 - YouTube

I enjoy YouTube as an adult, but I realize there are issues with children - as with many things on the internet. It is very easy to find inappropriate video so I don't think it would be appropriate to turn students loose on YouTube, but it would be perfectly acceptable to use clips from YouTube in the classroom. However, you have to keep in mind that amateurs upload the video and so quality is not always good. It is evident in this video of Henry Winkler. I chose this because I was able to hear him in person today and really enjoyed his speech.

I turned my 10 year old nephew on to YouTube over Christmas. He'd heard of it, but never really watched any video. My dad had received an email with a Rube Goldberg type of video in it and my nephew really enjoyed it so I showed him how to search YouTube for other Rube Goldberg video and he spent the next hour or so on YouTube. He is now a frequent watcher of YouTube, according to my sister. We have a student at school that has uploaded cartoon video to YouTube that he created. I cannot remember his user name so I will see about finding it out and posting a video. All of this to say: students are using YouTube.