Thing 7:

For this thing, I opted to try out podcasting. Our 12th grade English teacher had recently asked for my help in getting her students podcasting, so it was an opportune time to experiment. She has a cart of Chromebooks in her room, so I was specifically looking for a free tool that would work well with these and allow for some editing.

I tried out Audioboom first, but as of October, it appears to have gone over to paid service. That won't work for me in this project, so I kept looking.

I tried out Clyp, both on my Chromebook and as an iPhone app.  It is a quick, easy way to record and upload an audio file. I preferred the iPhone app. The audio quality was much better and the app allowed for clipping the beginning and end of the recording, which the website did not. I think that the phone app has some promise as an option for some students.

Next I tried out the Chrome Extension Beautiful Audio Editor. This is a much more full featured experience, but I am concerned that it may be too complicated for some. It does have Google single sign on, works beautifully with Chromebooks and automatically saves to Google Drive, which I think are great features. 

I think I will plan to give our students both options--Clyp & Beautiful Audio Editor and let them decide what works best for them. I'm also trying to decide how best to provide recording space and will be pondering that as well.

I'm not sure how I'll use podcasting myself. I hate hearing my voice recorded. When I've recorded in the past, I've done it as part of a screencast. At the moment, I can't think of a reason to podcast, but I'll keep it in mind with tese new tools at my disposal!

Thing 4: RSS

I've been using RSS for quite some time. I used to have a Bloglines account, but switched over to Google Reader some time ago. I love how it integrates into my iGoogle page. I use my iGoogle page as my home page on all my computers and love having everything at my fingertips.


Since I already use iGoogle, I checked out NetVibes. One big thing I noticed immediately is the ability to make my page public. That could be really useful for my library. My iGoogle page is very personal, and includes links to all kinds of things--Facebook, Twitter, email, bulletin boards I read, my banks, personal and work blogs in my feed reader--the list goes on! I like the idea of a public space and a private space. Netvibes might be able to fill this public space niche for me quite nicely. 


 Over the course of the summer, my school is leaving our existing web platform and migrating over to BlackBoard for our classroom web pages. I can't really visualize how this will work for the library, so I am investigating other alternatives. I can see Netvibes fitting in somewhere--I just don't have the big picture yet.


 A few things that are in my feed reader: 
Paige Jaeger's LibraryDoor
Joyce Valenza's Neverending Search 
Buffy Hamilton's UnQuiet Library 
Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog
Steve Danna's Race to the Top Reflections
Stephen's Lighthouse 
Lindsay Cesari's No Shhing Here

Thing 3: Online Communities

I've had a Twitter account for quite a while and find it interesting, though I find myself fluctuating between using/monitoring my Twitter stream heavily and avoiding it entirely. Most recently, I've taken to using it when engaged in some professional development activity (the NYLA conference, SLMS retreat, and most recent SLS liaison meeting come to mind). I tweet little bits of info and things I want to remember, then use it as a digital notebook later. If I'm at a big enough event, I'll also use other attendees tweets as part of my digital journal, and glean information that I hadn't seen/noted myself. I have a few issues with Twitter. I find that it can be a bit overwhelming--if I sit and watch my Twitter feed and check out all the links that go by, I don't get anything 'on task' done. If I don't watch it, I feel like I'm missing so much! I often find that it's an all or nothing proposition for me. Also, I have a dumbphone with a pay-as-you-go plan, so I can't tweet mobile-y unless there is wifi. That can also be a bit frustrating.

For this thing, I checked out paper.li, and I really like the way it organized links and videos from my Twitter stream! I may start watching the feed only for bits of info and stuff and look for the links and videos via paper.li. Very cool!

Thing 2: Digital Storytelling

I poked around with several tools for thing 2, exploring how I might be able to use them in my library and school.  I tried out Knovio, and it looked really neat, and worked fine for my first test presentation, but when I went back to create a video to embed in my Prezi, it wouldn't record my audio and video.  I played with the settings, but it wouldn't come together.  I'll explore that one more later.  I think it could have real use for my teachers if we try the concept of flipped classrooms, which I've been hearing a lot about lately.  I also think it could work well for those students who are anxious about presenting or who cannot be present in a classroom when it is time to present.  I'm definitely adding it to my virtual toolbox. 

I signed up for a couple of other tools as well, including StoryBird, and will try those out in more depth in the future.  I've been meaning to try Prezi though, as I've seen some really neat Prezi's and really despise PowerPoint.  I haven't had time, so I decided that would be my tool.  I created a little Prezi using photos of my kids.  I wanted to try including a video, and had tried to do it with Knovio, but failing that, went back to my old friend Animoto and whipped up a quick video to include, just to see how it would work. I really dig the outcome and will try to incorporate Prezi into my prefessional work as well as using it with my students.

I am also really excited about the links to copyright-friendly images and sound and will add them to our library page listing those resources.  Yay for more resources!

Here's the Prezi I made:

Test on Prezi

Thing 1: Blogging

I am Amy Carpenter, the librarian at the Stillwater Middle/High School.  I'm taking part in this program because I thought it would be a great way to learn about new tools and new ways to use tools with my students and faculty.  I've actually been blogging for several years, on and off on various blogs, but am anxious to try out some of the blogs designed for use with students.  I'm also interested in interacting with my colleagues and sharing nifty ideas.