So Long Farwell Auf wiedersehen..

This is my final blog that is part of the IST 611 Syracuse class. Tommorrow I will be heading to Germany to meet with Rebecca and Dietmar so before I say my goodbye here is my reflections about the blogging experience.

I must admit that I liked the blogging experience more so than I had anticipated. I previously created a blog for my school library about January of 2007 in a Region 9 technology workshop however I have not used it. I had intended to use it with my grade 6 reading club as a safe space to continue our book discussions. When asked to create a blog for this class I used my preexisting blog http://ps108library.blogspot.com/. At least this made the first part of the assignment easier for me. I used the basic template design and then I saw how my classmates in my yellow group customized their blogs so you can say that Margie, Stacy and Gloria inspired me to bring it up a level.

An important part of why blogging was an engaging and successful experience is that I liked being in a group with these three wonderful women. For me it seemed that we took our blogging assignment seriously and every week we all posted at least once on our topic as well as other topics that interested us. We all responded in a timely manner to each other in a respectful, encouraging way.

Another reason why I enjoyed blogging is that I thought that I had very interesting topics to blog about, digital storytelling and vlogging. These topics made the assignment relevant for me. My first topic was digital storytelling. I found so many interesting resources that I look forward to sharing with my students and teachers and what’s even better is that I have it ready to show to all of them on my blog. I could have continued on this topic throughout the course. I have to admit that I did post on that topic afterwards because I just found the most moving movie created by a young 15 year old girl. My hope is that when I show this story to my students that they too will be inspired to tell their stories in a digital format. I look forward to collaborating with classroom and the technology teacher to make this a reality. By then I will have the consent forms that I need and can post those stories first on TeacherTube first and then onto my blog. My other topic vlogging was just as interesting especially when I was found some cool vlogs that are being produced by teachers. I thought that these two topics went hand in hand and are a huge piece in blogging. Some of the other topics that my classmates had to blog were interesting. Their blogs were a method for me to learn about technologies that I was unaware of such as Elgg, Filamentality. Other topics were not as interesting for me and to blog about them for more than 2 weeks must have been a challenge for my classmates. However every week there was something new and relevant to read about. I am unsure how I would have felt about this experience if I had a topic that wasn’t of importance for me.

I look forward to using blogs in my library with students on various curriculum subject areas as well as topics that my students can relate to. When I go back to work I would like to survey my students and staff and see what blogs that they read. I would love to start a blog about the Summer Reading Program and discuss what great books were read. I can see blogging as a useful and effective tool to keep in touch with my students, staff and parents about what is going on in the library. No more lost memo papers all you have to do is look for the posting on my blog to find what you missed. Classroom teachers can use it to post assignments or missed homework for absent students and to keep the parents updated on class curriculum and events. The possibilities are out there and now it its time to bring it into my school where it can be a useful resource. Wish me luck. This was a pleasurable and educational experience thanks to team yellow for going with me on our journey to blogging I couldn’t have done it without you. Enjoy the summer.

Cyber Safety

This weeks topic is Cyber Safety. I talk to my students alot about being safe on the internet. Since so many of my students use My Space or other social network sites I like to inform them of the dangers they may be putting themselves in. I share with them Katie's story from web wise kids, and on the teenage catergory you can see a movie with Katie telling the story in her own words.

I added a Cyber Safety Category on my portaportal page. I am going to set up a parent workshop this year with the help of my Parent Coordinator. I believe it just as important to educate our parents as well as our students.

I just found this wonderful PSA about identity theft on www.staysafeonline.org. Here is an easy way to view the clip. It is scary how easy you can lose everything a once. Technology can sometimes be a double edge sword.