Week 5

I have spent a good portion of my time so far this week working on my google site. It can be accessed at: http://sites.google.com/a/wolfmail.stritch.edu/rvmslmc/ if you would like to take a look. As of right now it is still a work in progress. Google sites are a great way to organize information for library media centers. I can utilize a variety of Google applications within the site such as the calendar, docs, reader, and many other applications. I have set up my site to act as the website of the middle school library media center I will be working at in the fall. I provide a variety of links and information on ready reference, policies, citations, teacher resources, parent resources, and many others.

Week 4

Well, the information overload continues as I have been learning about and utilizing diigo.com to bookmark valuable websites I have discovered. My diigo site can be viewed at http://www.diigo.com/user/ajmayer14. I am just starting out with it, so there is not a lot of information there yet, however it will quickly develop with time. I could see myself using diigo in multiple ways in my upcoming job. I am able to annotate and highlight web pages for myself or for others to use. I could use diigo to search for keyword matches which will lead me to finding other diigo users who are finding and linking to sites that I find relevant and interesting. When diigo is combined with RSS, it becomes even more useful in a classroom setting. I would have students start their own diigo accounts, then I would create a unique keyword that they add to each site they save. Then I search the community archive for the keyword and subscribe to the RSS feed for the results. From there on forward, once any student saves a site I will be notified of it and know who saved it. I also could use diigo to share information with my colleagues. As a library media specialist, I need to be able to get appropriate, relevant information to colleagues and diigo allows me to develop a highly personalized, organized, searchable archive of information to share with people.

Sunset

DSC00467
Originally uploaded by ajmayer

This picture turned out fairly well considering it was taken from a my car while driving across the highway 41 bridge over Lake Butte des Morts in Oshkosh.

Week 3

I have been fascinated with RSS since first being introduced to it last week. I had never heard of it until taking this class and I'm amazed at the ease of which to find and organize information out on the web. I am using Google Reader because it comes highly recommended in our textbook and I am already using Blogger and google mail so it was a smooth transition. I already was subscribed to two blogs because I am following them and have begun following many other blogs for both personal and professional use. I think the best feature is the sharing function. I can have all my favorite posts listed in a separate place and have it made available for public viewing. My site is http://www.google.com/reader/shared/ajmayer14 if you want to check out what I'm sharing. As of right now I have four items up there but I know I will be putting more up there soon.

I think Reader would be extremely useful with students. If I was having my students blog, I would subscribe to their blogs and every time they posted something I would know. I would also have them set up a Reader account and have them subscribe to each others. The opportunities are endless because there is just so much information out there.