Catching up today. I can't seem to think that Facebook is good for me to use for our high school library. I originally had gotten on Facebook to keep in touch with my children and grand children in Texas, Hawaii, and Alaska. However we now all have iPhones and we find that facetime is the way to go. I would be too worried about having drama on my library Facebook. Our school has My Big Campus and next year our 5-7 students will have iPads. I recently started buying eBooks and I plan to really get involved in MBC instead of Facebook. I signed up to follow people on twitter back in November. (when I was working on Cool Tools). Since then, I have found that I am not as interested in it as I thought I would be. A couple of my twitters that I follow tell me mundane things about their lives. If I figure out how to stop following those two, I will end those relationships. :). I really love, love, love Pinterest. Did I say how my I love that Pinterest? I find so many awesome ideas for the library. Of course I don't want spend money and they are all about creative ideas!
I've been a part of Library 2.0 for a couple of years. I receive emails, but I haven't participated.
Somewhere in this class, I was introduced to Edudemic and it is pretty awesome. I also registered for teacherlibrarian.ning.com. I set them up on my iPhone, since that's the one I have all the time. I think I prefer that right up there with interest. Its really neat how you can see that I'm not alone in all the changes I have been making in my library world. My IT guy told me that he thinks its great that I don't sit back and push (print) books.
I love change in the library world, but sometimes I think "whoa". I remember when I wanted to become a librarian. There was no internet and computers had just come out.
So I'm reading that I can use a PLN to highlight student work, book discussions, feedback on services, trivia contests, weekly list of titles, answer reference questions, and give information on library services. I just have to find the PLN that works for me. But most of all I need to decide what PLN works for my students and faculty. Email works for faculty, somewhat. However I'm don't want to be the person that sends emails that become a joke. We have a person that sends 'news' every Monday. No one reads them. I can't see Facebook working either. Our school has a Facebook account and it seems to be a small population that is connected. Hopefully next year MBC will take off big time here and I can have my PLN there and do all of the above. My daughter gave me a Google desk calendar for Christmas. I post the questions in the hall. When a student solves the question, we check it, sign it and post the answers on the bulletin board. With a PLN with followers, I can post the questions every day and students can respond. Then they can come in the library to pick up a fun size candy bar for answering the Google a day. The candy is a great motivator.
Our school had us sign a paper that we can't socialize with students through social media. This was a result of things going from bad to worse.
I am in charge of doing lessons for grades 5&6 in another building. If I use MBC with the same guidelines written in Mashable.com Best Practices for Educators, I will have students excited about library class! I will be able to teach from my building and get to know my students! The past two years were not fun.
I figured out how to unfollow a person on twitter, but I am still unsure how to use hashtags. I tried #tlchat and then found that I just spent 30 minutes reading their tweets. My problem is I can't stop reading!! I was reading an article of 170 ways to use a word cloud. It mentions using the Web 2.0 write with me. I Google it and can't find that tool.
The link for 'Libraries use facebook' didn't work.
I have saved urls and joined another twitter. I think I have an understanding that I won't use Facebook and twitter with my students. I will use twitter for resources for teaching. -Julie
