Our school has been using Google Docs for about a year. It has many advantages, one of them being that it's free, for our District. Our team has the tech teacher on it, and he has been teaching us how to use the calendar, email, and documents. When our team meets, we use a form he created in Google Docs so that, no matter where we meet, we have a form available in every room in the school. Then we take turns taking notes so that we become more familiar with it. We also have a place that houses our team notes and we don't need to have the notes emailed or have a hard paper copy, especially if we are all at the meeting. He usually sends the notes, or a notice that our team notes are available on Google Docs, which also saves the Principal time if he doesn't want to read the notes. I feel that the word processing is pretty easy and doesn't need to be more sophisticated, as it might have to be if you were writing something like a resume using Microsoft Word.
We are also using parts of the program to prepare grades and to prepare a document from a grade-level team before it goes to the parents. Internal public library work could use the program, also, to save time. Members of a committee, library directors, or trustees could create a document together that could be checked by all first, and then go out to the public. Plus, preparing newsletters would be much quicker, making all involved feel they were part of the creative process.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Adding to a wiki -still lesson 9
I was able to add to the "favorite restaurants" page of the vermonts23things@hotmail.com! It took me awhile to figure out how to add to the blog, though. It's supposed to be easy to do but couldn't find how to add the link without going back a page to see the directions for adding. The directions mentioned putting the label URL in the correct place.
I can see that adding to wikis can be lots of fun. How to use in school? It would be a different way to build an all-class project on a topic, such as elephants. Each student could add a link with information about elephants, as well as add more info. Wikis are great!
I can see that adding to wikis can be lots of fun. How to use in school? It would be a different way to build an all-class project on a topic, such as elephants. Each student could add a link with information about elephants, as well as add more info. Wikis are great!
Lesson 9 - Wikis
This, for me, was one of the most interesting lessons. I had used wikipedia but hadn't seen any of the other sites. For new librarians, the website that taught about librarianship was simple to use. I looked at an article about weeding, which is very challenging to someone new in the profession. I agreed with most of what they said, since I do thoroughly weed my elementary school library all the time. I liked what they said about taking a shelf a week to work on.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get into the website on library instruction, which I would have looked at for suggestions on teaching different skills. When you can't get on a site, you don't know if it's your computer, or the fault of the site.
The Bull Run Library site was terrific, much more updated than our public library site, including a video on RSS that I watched for an earlier lesson.
I used the Wiktionary to look up a word from the book I am currently reading, The Great Wide Sea. It was easy to use. When I saw that there was a Wikipedia article, I went to it to see a picture of a bimini. We used to have one on our boat, only I didn't know that is what it's called! I looked up dinghy (which I know) just to see what it would say, and it, again, referred me to Wikipedia. This makes me think that I should just go to that site first, and skip the Wiktionary, unless it's a foreign word or something very unusual and hard to find.
Wikihow could definitely become addictive, because I love to see how people do arts & crafts projects. But there are not enough "how to's" on that site yet to really be helpful. I did look at the article on walking meditation, since I learned how to do that in Thailand at a Buddhist monastery. The article was pretty simplistic and the video was banal. There was a basic explanation, but even I could describe the many steps that we learned in more detail.
I do feel that, for the most part, wikis can be used in public libraries and school libraries, as long as people understand that they are not always reliable or even factual.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get into the website on library instruction, which I would have looked at for suggestions on teaching different skills. When you can't get on a site, you don't know if it's your computer, or the fault of the site.
The Bull Run Library site was terrific, much more updated than our public library site, including a video on RSS that I watched for an earlier lesson.
I used the Wiktionary to look up a word from the book I am currently reading, The Great Wide Sea. It was easy to use. When I saw that there was a Wikipedia article, I went to it to see a picture of a bimini. We used to have one on our boat, only I didn't know that is what it's called! I looked up dinghy (which I know) just to see what it would say, and it, again, referred me to Wikipedia. This makes me think that I should just go to that site first, and skip the Wiktionary, unless it's a foreign word or something very unusual and hard to find.
Wikihow could definitely become addictive, because I love to see how people do arts & crafts projects. But there are not enough "how to's" on that site yet to really be helpful. I did look at the article on walking meditation, since I learned how to do that in Thailand at a Buddhist monastery. The article was pretty simplistic and the video was banal. There was a basic explanation, but even I could describe the many steps that we learned in more detail.
I do feel that, for the most part, wikis can be used in public libraries and school libraries, as long as people understand that they are not always reliable or even factual.
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