Finito

Re Web 2.0 tool Directory - Shelley and I discovered this site (I think through using Delicious?) while we were preparing for our school ICT Conference where we gave a summary of this online course and discussed "What isWeb 2.0". Great site - makes you realise just how much is out there still to be explored!

Generally, I really enjoyed doing this course - doing it with a friend and colleague was really helpful - I think we both got much more out of it by doing it this way. A couple of small criticisms - the audios listed at the beginning of some of the tutorials did not work and I think there probably should have been a bit more instructional detail on some areas although as I mentioned in a previous blog, we frequently used Youtube when we were in doubt.

Now I just need more time to go back and develop some sort of expertise on those Web 2.0 tools that I wish to continue to use.

#22 Audiobooks and #23 Downloadable Media

• Looked at World EBook Fair - appeared to have to pay to sign up for this one. One of the sites listed was Myebook which seemed to be one of the easier sites to use. Had many self published books and my friend Shelley the teacher immediately saw ways she could use this in the classroom. Come to that, I guess we could certainly be using this with our Reading Skills classes and Book Club.
• Project Guttenberg is a fantastic project and yes I would use Librivox although unfortunately I had trouble using that at school - I think it is just a matter of updating our Windows Media Player. The short stories in particular would be handy for one of our teachers who is often after "oldies but goodies" - some of which appeared to be here.
• Overdrive has been available at our local Public Library for some time now and I have downloaded a couple of audiobooks to my iPod to listen to while travelling.
• We are in the process of experimenting using ebooks with our struggling readers - using the Kindle with the Text to Speech function (even thought the speech leaves a lot to be desired!) has some benefits to these students.

Of course, as a librarian, and even though I love technology, there is no real substitute for the real thing - give me books to read any day!

#21 Youtube and Teachertube

Love Youtube and Teachertube. Throughout this course I have gone to Youtube whenever I didn't understand something and always eventually found something that helped. Reading for this tutorial I found that Google purchased Youtube in 2006 and that it is only one of (but THE most popular) of video sharing sites. Our school has Youtube blocked to students at this stage but staff are able to use it and do so quite frequently. Obviously some dodgy material out there but just so much great stuff that it makes for a wonderful teaching tool. Quite a good introductory Youtube clip on Edutopia on the use of Youtube in the classroom.

Earlier this year (I think) a great Youtube clip was circulating using a Black Eyed Pead song that changed the words to Gotta Keep Reading. Seems everyone is copying this and here is just one example!

#20 Podcasting

I have successfully added the OPAL Podcast to my Blog. I didn't really know much about Podcasting before this session - I thought I did, but hadn't given it much consideration and thought it was simply a voice recording. I know that a number of teachers use Podcasting within the classroom and my first impression was why use Podcasts when you could have You Tube but on further investigation I of course discovered that one of the main differences is the RSS ability of Podcasting. Thinking about this, I could use this for lots of things within the Library situation - Book reviews, coming events, Visiting author talks, guest readers of short stories, etc. I do like this idea and will give this a try once our new web site is up and running.

#19 Rollyo

Again, signed up with Rollyo a few weeks ago but have not had time to blog until now! I have tried using Rollyo at work where I created a Search Roll for the Audio and DVD Distributors/Publishers that I use so that I could search them all in one go to see who had specific DVDs and Audio Books. I love the concept but found that the display of the search results very messy - it seems to display the one result (they were actually probably similar results) many times and I just found it frustrating. Maybe using it for this type of task is not appropriate. I did find it interesting looking at other Search Rolls - especially the Web 2 ones.

#18 Wikis

Began creating a Wiki for my Library's Web page quite some time ago. Found it quite difficult to load images but think that maybe I was not formatting them properly before loading them. The Wiki still needs a lot of work but can be found at Nagle Edmund Rice Library. While I am quite happy to use other people's Wikis, especially ones such as that set up for the National Year of Reading 2012, I don't think I will be using the Wiki that I set up for our Library - would much prefer to have a more professional web site (which we are in the process of doing). I think that Wikis would be an excellent tool for students to use in a classroom situation.
By the way, on this task it says "Listen to audio" but there doesn't appear to be any audio to listen to?

#17 Delicious

Joined Delicious a couple of weeks ago but have not been able to find time to Blog!! Really like Delicious especially the ability to find other very useful websites on Web 2.0, etc. Someone told me today that Delicious was going out of business but I did a bit of research and it seems that Delicious has now been taken over by the founders of You Tube and will continue. So, I think I will continue to experiment with it for a time!