Week 5 Facil Collaboration

This week we were working on our Google Site. I created a wiki 2 years ago (I used it as part of my resume to get my current job), but I haven't done a lot of work on it since then. I decided to try a google site this time to see if there was a lot of difference between the two. I found that the google site was very easy to create and I liked the different layouts that I could use for each page. I am trying to find a way to present some of the information that I want my students to use in a more visually appealing way. Currently we each have a "webpage" on the district site. However, these pages all have to use the same size font, design set-up, etc. and allow for no creativity. I also have many of the same links on the Library Catalog home page, but that too is not visually appealing. I am learning that I can embed some things, but I have to know HTML code in order to do this. Alas, I am HTML illiterate. So I have my wiki site. However, that is just one more place to put all of the information and for students to have to find. I really want to be able to put all of the relevant information in one place, but I want it to be engaging and user friendly. Is this really too much to ask? Although the google site, like my wiki, is easy to use...again it is just one more place to make my students look....

Week 4 Facil Collaboration (Social Bookmarking)

I was introduced to Delicious three years ago and absolutely loved it. I loved that I could bookmark the sites that I had been looking at for research and be able to easily find them again no matter where I was, and what computer I was using. I also learned that adding people to my "friends" list made it easy to benefit from their research as well. If I was struggling to find some information, I was pretty sure that someone else from my class had found something useful. The one thing that I didn't pick up on right away was the importance of tagging and notes. I would bookmark a site, but I wouldn't put a lot of thought into the tag. Then when I would go looking for it, I would have to wade through a lot of other bookmarks to find the one that I wanted. I also realized that a good note as to why I had chosen this website could be equally important. Last year Delicious was sold and I eventually moved my bookmarks to Diigo. One thing that I like about Diigo is the ability to annotate the sites that you bookmark. This makes it much easier to find the relevant pieces of information when you finally get back to it. The social aspect of these bookmarking sites is becoming more and more important to me. I get much more productive search results from searching the bookmarks of people who work in similar fields, than just doing a random google search on the same topic.

Week 3 Collaboration Using Web Tools

This week we were looking at RSS feeds. I love RSS feeds. I barely have time to check my own e-mail somedays, there is no way that I would be able to keep up with the blogs that I like to follow. RSS feeds allow the new posts to be sent to me, all in one location. It makes it a lot easier to check the posts once every few days and know that I haven't missed anything. It also makes it easier to quickly glance through and decide what I would like to read, and what I can save for later. I have gotten a lot of really valuable information this way. The blogs that I follow have varied, I've dropped a few - only to pick them up again later - and added a couple of others, but it really makes the whole process a lot easier to keep up with (I love one stop shopping). I have tried getting my staff to use these without a lot of success. The ones who like the feature were already using RSS feeds when I started last year. Those who weren't using them yet, really haven't seen the use yet. I did manage to convert a couple of teachers last year, and I hope to grab a few more this year. Maybe the word of mouth will finally get the rest of them to crack. Those that have switched love how much easier it has been to get good information. They have it sent to them, instead of having to go looking for it!!!!!

I think one of the problems that I had with Twitter the first time that I used it, was that I was following basically the same people on Twitter as I had RSS feeds for. Therefore, I really felt that I was just getting the same information twice - in different formats. This time around I am trying to follow some different people of Twitter and I think that it will actually be really beneficial.

The other topic we were supposed to be looking at this week is photo sharing sites. Good, Creative Commons and/or copyright free image sites are really important. However, my students have run in to a number of inappropriate images on Flicker. They had typed in very innocent search terms and pulled up some disturbing pictures that weren't being blocked by our system. I have created a list of other sites that they can use as an alternative to google, ones with either Creative Commons or copyright free images, but Flicker is not on the list.