Final Project Reflection

1. We chose to target middle school age group. We chose a magical and wizardly theme based off of the Harry Potter Series. Middle school students like reading these books and magic and mystical things are always interesting. We created the wiki in fun colors, but not vibrant colors to go along with the theme. A lot of the tools that we chose to incorporate into the wiki were interactive. Gizmos, photostory, Google doc. presentation, and taking a final quiz are all interactive technology tools. Because the subject of the wiki was a bit dry, we decided that the wiki needed to have a theme that the students liked and it had to be fun to navigate through so that the students would stay engaged in learning the information.

2. The creation of online collaboration and communites via social networking tools can have an enormous impact on school media centers. These networking tools can help the students learn about other classrooms, countries, students etc. Authors of books can speak to the students without actually visiting the school. School media centers need to have the technology tools and equipment so that students can interact on a global level and so that in the upper grades the teachers will have another reason to take their classes to the media center.

3. The Google doc. presentation was easy to use, but it did not have as many fun options as powerpoint presentation. I also found that when changing the font, color, and other options on the wiki that it was frustrating to use. Many times the changes that I wanted to make did not go through until the 3rd or 4th time I attempted to change it.

4. Although we did not have to meet in person I found it easier that we did, but it was difficult to find a day that we both could meet. The library that we met in provided access to the internet, but the internet was extremely slow so it was frustrating and took longer than we expected. I like collaborating because the project seemed to be a bit easier to divide up some of the parts and work on other parts together. Overall working together helped the project come together and be successful. Things that I had trouble with Carolyn helped me and things that she had trouble with I helped her.

photostory

Photostory creation

Creating a photostory was a lot of fun. I can see how time consuming it would be for a perfectionist. Although I do not think of myself as a perfectionist, I certainly was constantly changing things around to make the photostory to view and hear interesting to others.

Big Huge Labs - Images

Worked with Image Generator - Big Huge Labs. Very useful tool. I was able to create a badge. This would come in handy when the third grades learn about immigration and Ellis Island. The students can become an immigrant and a badge can be made for each student advising where they are from etc.

Creation of Wordle

This is a fun tool that can be used in the library for many different projects such as for: Creating vocabulary list, significant words in a speech, characters in a book, authors, words in a poem, creating a poem, having the students provide a list of words that for instance describes fairy tales and then create a wordle with those words.

Social Networking

Delicious is a tool that is very useful to bookmark and tag anything that I would find useful in my personal life or in my professional life. It is useful because Delicious is a website that can be accessed from any computer which means that I could access my bookmarks from anywhere there is a computer. It is also a social tool so I would be able to see what others are bookmarking and if those bookmarks would be useful to me. I can also search topics on Delicious and if anyone bookmarked those topics I would be able to view that as well.

Library Thing is another tool that would be useful because I can keep track of all the books that I read. It is like a running catalog of the book. I would be able to attach a widget which would provide me with a picture as well of the book.

Twitter and Ning are social networking tools that could be very helpful when conversing with others. Ning is more of a professional networking site.

Uses Of A Blog

I would use the blog that I set up in various different ways. One way would be for discussing books that I have read and encouraging students and staff to enter into the conversation regarding the books. This might also encourage others to read the books or other books from that particular author.

I would also use it to inform students, staff, parents, and others of what is new in the library, what books, media etc. is new in the library, what is available to them.

The blog could be used to link to other schools around the world so that the students can interact with other students around the world.