Web2.0 Tools

[Sandy Rowland]

Thank you for welcoming me to TeacherLibrarian Ning. I found you by taking an online summer class called School Library Learning2.0 sponsored by the California School Library Association. What I have learned in the course will dramatically change my teaching next year. It is embarrassing to admit, but no one in our district uses blogs, wikis, tagging, or RSS. I have heard these terms at conferences and read about them in periodicals, but had no idea how powerful they could be and how easy to use until I experienced them for myself.

I would love to hear from others who have used any of these tools with teachers and students. How was the research process improved? Were there any challenges I should know about before I begin? Which tool would you suggest I try first?

[Sandy Rowland]

I wonder if any school has created a faculty wiki or blog where teachers could discuss common issues like discipline, scheduling, budgets, etc.? It seems to me if teachers learn to use online tools professionally, they might want to use them with their students.

[Sandra Carswell]

We have a new website program in our district, schoolwires, this year. It has the ability to add podcasts so I think I'll try having my student aides create podcast booktalks of their favorite books to post. I also think having students create wikis for research projects would be great. I'll suggest it to the teachers. They may be blocked by our filter though.

[Sandy Rowland]

Best of luck!

[Randy de Jong]

I will try to do so. I am interviewing for a position right now. I am supposed to have one more interview.

[Sandy Rowland]

Thanks Randy. Maybe we could stay in touch and see what progress we each make in this regard.

[Randy de Jong]

I alos took SLL 2.0 and finished a while back. I see the same problem in my district. The main problem that I see is the firewalls in place for secuity reasons through the district. Also some of the acceptable use policies seem to ignore some of the positive tools available. I am going to address this a bit this school year and see if there is a compromise or a way to do it outside of the school network without too much difficulty.

Randy de Jong