Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Thing 5

BLOG

What is your experience with public libraries and librarians? Long-time user? Scared away by a mean librarian in your youth?
As a child I loved going to the libary. I remember getting my libary card and then we would go every week during the summer. When I first started my career I would check materials out to use at school and then forget to return them until they were very overdue. Because of this I have had fees to pay and have opted for buying the materials instead so I have them to use.

What would you improve about your library and its services?
Our libary is great! I really enjoying going to our libary and it always seems to have the resources I'm looking for. One thing that would be nice to see more of it educational programs beign brought into our libary. We have a small libary so there isn't as much of that going on. I know at larger libaries like the Minneapolis libaries that have a lot of educational programs going on. I've taught technology classes at Minneapolis libaries with a partnership the Science Musuem of Minnesota has with them.

How do you use the public library to support your teaching?
They have great resources for me to use when developing my lesson plans. I have checked out magazines with current events in science that I want my students to read. I have also collected books on a topic for students to use during their research.

How will using MnLINK help your students? Is timing an issue?
I would like to find the time to show them how to use this because I could then give them assignments where they have to collect their own resources. This would be a great skill for our High School students to have because when they are in college they will just be expected to find the resources they need.

Have you used MnLINK in the past? What was your experience?
This was my first experience in using MnLINK. It was very useful for me because I usually drive farther to a larger library where they have more resources. Now I could look for what I wanted at work or home and then go to the closest libary to pick it up. It is definitly something that I will use more in the future.

Thing 6

Last quarter I blogged about having my class use the Google Docs on a report that they created in groups. It worked really well, but when I was looking at the video in Thing 6 I thought it would be a great teaching tool. It took the students a long time to understand why we were doing this on google docs and the video does a great job of summing it up. Is there a way for us to download the video to our computers? Or can we get the source of the video?

Thing 4

Which customizable homepage did you choose? Why did that one appeal to you? Will you make it your permanent home page?

I created a igoogle homepage, because it allowed me to see my google calendar and blog from one place. It would be nice to see you email there also if I had gmail, which I don't. i have made it my homepage on my school and home computer, because I have all of the information I need during the day posted on there.

Did you find a tool that has some uses for you at school or home? Which tool(s) would you recommend to others?
Both! I really like using it in both places. It is really nice to be able to access the stuff while I'm at work, but if I don't have enough time then I can get it at home. Some of the tools I've put on it are also for personal use (news feeds) so I mostly look at those at home.

How can the online calendars be useful to you?
I absolutly love my on-line calendar! The best thing is that I can access it almost anywhere I have internet access. Before my online calendar I was not successful at keeping a calendar mostly because I did't have it when I needed it. Now I schedule meetings with my students, parents and peers on there. I also keep my personal calendar on there also so I have it all in one place. I've shared my calendar with some friends, which has been great to have when we're trying to find a time to get together.

What about the To Do Lists -- helpful? too much work?
I put a To Do list on my igoogle when I first made it and it wouldn't work at school because it was being blocked. So it wasn't of much use to me, unless I looked at it when I was at home. Today when I logged onto my igoogle I was able to see my To Do list so I updated it and I think it will be more useful now that I can see it all the time.



How would you compare and contrast the use of paper-based assignments and assigment notebooks to the potential use of online assignment calculators and to do lists for students?
I think that it would take a lot of work by the teacher to get it set up at first and to train students on how to do it. In the long run though I think I would like the on-line version because it would be stored in one location and students would be able to get it no matter where it is located.