Web 2.0 Add-Ons

[Joanie Proske]

Which is your favourite Web 2.0 Add-on which you would recommend Teacher Librarians add to their computer?

[Lesley Edwards]

On my Mac I have buttons for adding an RSS feed, and bookmarking using delicious and/or diigo, and Awesome Highlighter. Love Firefox!

[Jan McGee]

I love Freescreencast.com (http://www.freescreencast.com) and Glogster (http://www.glogster.com). I'm also using Smilebox (http://www.smilebox.com) quite a bit. I'm in love with so many Web 2.0 applications! You might want to take a look at my new wiki http://www.ladigitalimmigrants.wikispaces.com.

[Lesley Edwards]

Jan, you are my new hero! My mind is spinning with all the ideas I gleaned from your wiki. You Rock!

[Jan McGee]

Lesley,
Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm glad you found some ideas you could use. I have had a wonderful time working on the wiki. I think I needed a little boost today, too. I'm giving two presentations tomorrow at the Educational Tools for Success Conference at the Monroe Campus, University of Louisiana-- "Webvertise Your Library" and "Glog On!" --and I think I'm having a few "butterflies" this evening! Good luck with your projects!

Jan

[Joanie Proske]

Jan,

You are truly amazing! I'm busy exploring through your wiki - it's going to take me a while as there are so many interesting ideas - each one worthy of a good explore. May I ask why you created this site? Is it for a school library, use by colleagues or did you just want to organize and store these great applications all in one place. I'd love to know more about what you do and why you created this wiki. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Joani

[Jan McGee]

Joani,
I've been a school librarian for 29 years. I stepped into the role of full time technology coordinator at West Monroe High School this year when doing both the library and technology in a school with 2000 students just became too much. I am one of two library coordinators for my district and I participate in my state library organization. I built the wiki to encourage the librarians in my district and in my state to incorporate more Web 2.0 technology into their library programs. I started a Ning for our state school librarians about two years ago and began posting some examples to encourage others to collaborate and share. The Ning has moved very slowly. There is only collaboration if there is conversation. So far, it has been mostly one directional. I also found that the Ning really didn't fill my needs for multiple examples, etc.
I was asked to do a presentation on Library 2.0 applications in October for a regional library conference and I wanted to be able to make the examples available to everyone. So, I started the wiki, which just keeps growing. (And, I actually just worked up the nerve to share it beyond my district today when I read the post about our favorite Web 2.0 applications.) I'm sharing the wiki with the teachers in my school, librarians in my district and anyone else who might find it useful. I've enjoyed exploring other Library 2.0 and Web 2.0 sites, but I've always wanted to see more examples of the different applications. I'm trying to create samples for each application that will serve as a springboard for other ideas. Anyone is welcome to use what I have on the pages. I would appreciate it if others would share their ideas, also. Thank you so much for your encouragement!

Jan

[Jo-Anne Gibson]

I can't live without my del.icio.us and Google Reader RSS feeds.

[Richard Beaudry]

Hi Joanie,

I am going to suggest a few Web 2.0 applications that I have encouraged my students to use. All the suggestions that you have been given by our fellow colleagues are the best known and most popular tools and I would also recommend them. The ones that I am going to suggest are less known but useful for students working in group projects.

Zoho Show - Most students have done PowerPoint presentations and are quite familiar with the concept. Zoho Show takes this one step further. It lets students share the work on the presentation online. Rather than having to arrange meetings or exchanging flash drives, students can work on the project online. Zoho offers the same tools as PowerPoint and some additional Web 2.0 tools such as embedded video.

Zoho Writer - Is the same concept but with word documents. Students can share their work online. Google documents and other similar programs are available and used by students.

Other online presentation tools that are popular with students are Slideshare (which many teachers and librarians are now using to post their presentations online) and Splashcast that a few students used last year. Splashcast has a steeper learning curve than other tools to get started but the results, as the students stated, are awesome.

Another Web 2.0 tool that a few students have been using is Sketchcast. My artistic background does not permit me to use this tool effectively but some student presentations have been interesting and original when using this tool.

Richard Beaudry
Librarian
Langley Secondary