Monday, June 16, 2008

Thing Three - RSS

RSS feeds are interesting. I can see how I would use them with older students, but k-5? I'm not sure. I subscribed to a few that might help me stay on top of new books. They were School Library Journal and the Minneapolis Public Library. I used the Google product, so that was easy to set up. Now I am trying to figure out how to add it to my blog. That is challenging to me right now. For this to be useful I will have to set aside a time to check the feeds. I can see where it could get to be lots of information to sort through and read.

Second Thing

I'm looking at the concept of Library 2.0 from the perspective of a teacher. As an elementary media specialist it is my job to prepare students to use the library media center, now and in the future. Hopefully, they can use what I teach them as a base for the changing times ahead.

I am looking forward to learning some new technology tools and thinking about how I can incorporate them into my lessons. Of course time and access will be considerations for me. We already have a very full curriculum and when you add new things, old things need to go. What to cut? There is also the problem of lab space. One of my schools has one lab for 520 students. Luckily I get priority scheduling for my media classes. However, our goal is for students to use technology across the curriculum. It is difficult if there is no available lab space.

I like the idea of a welcoming environment with convenient access to technology, but what does that look like in an elementary library? For sure not a coffee house with games! My day is filled with scheduled classes since I cover the teacher's prep time. I think my job will be to prepare them to use technology to learn - from pre-planning to presentation and evaluation. That should keep me busy.