Final reflection and project

This class was one of the most valuable courses that I have taken in my teacher-librarian classes. I don’t know for sure what my future is in the learning commons but I will be able to use many of the ideas, strategies and tools that I have learned in my classroom.

The biggest challenge for me is always keeping up with the rapid change in technology. This course has allowed me to take advantage of any of the tools and technology that I had engaged in before on a surface level to a deeper understanding. It has allowed me to go outside my somewhat timid boundaries when it comes to technology to feel stronger in sharing them. When I first saw that I had to make it through 8 or more blog post I became very nervous and stressed. The first weekend of trying to figure out my way around wordpress just about put me under. Through time and patience I have come to a new appreciation and positive understanding of blogging.

I am excited to utilize what I consider to be useful and fun Web 2.0 applications within my lessons and possibly down the road in the learning commons. Those include “Twitter”, “Padlet”, “Symbaloo” to name a few and others that I hope to pursue in the future. I have seen how some of my colleagues in this class have utilized other Web 2.0 tools and I look forward to experimenting with them myself. I do believe that I will continue to learn a ton from my students as many of them are more competent that myself with some of these tools and computers.

LIBE 477 that Aaron put together was outstanding and I feel that my colleagues did an amazing job with their blog posts. There were so many great ideas and concepts that were shared and explored. I think we were all a little nervous when we got started but were eager to discover new and creative ideas that would help their classroom or learning commons. I wish everyone the best in their future teaching career.

In conclusion

My final vision project was a lot of trial and error. I felt I would take a step forward at moment and 2 steps back. There is so much information on the web that it sometimes gets overwhelming what to incorporate and what to disregard. There is no denying that the future of education is going to be involvedly linked with the digital world. The philosophy of education itself is going through a transformation as we change to ‘personalized learning’ and a reformat in the way that education is delivered. The libraries are changing to learning commons and Web 2.0 tools along with ICT skills are becoming a method teachers are using in the classroom. I want to keep up with what is going on so that I can continue to become a better educator.

Thanks again everyone for your blogs or the comments on my blog, the participation in Google Hang-Out sessions and the great course.

Here is my FINAL PROJECT. Enjoy!

https://pacerlibrary.wordpress.com

References

Abrar, S. (2011). Amazing 3D printer (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aghzpO_UZE

All You Can Books. (2015). Unlimited Audiobooks and eBooks. Retrieved from http://www.allyoucanbooks.com/page/free-trial2?utm_expid=52613335-2.7RFEfY4MTLKXMu-AC9grNg.1

Audiobook image. (2105). Retrieved from www.theawkwardyeti.com

BC Book Prizes. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/news/article/reading-lights-initiative-selected-books/

BibMe. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.bibme.org

Bryne, R. (2013). How to Use Padlet. (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuzciL8qCYM

Canada Book Awards. (2015). Retrieved from http://canadabookaward.com

CBC Canada Writes. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/

Citation Machine. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.citationmachine.net

Cramer, J.(2015). 100 Best Books of the 21^st Century. Retrieved from http://www.listchallenges.com/best-books-of-the-21st-century

Destiny Quest. (2002-2015). Follett School Solutions. Retrieved from

https://destiny.sccresa.org/quest/servlet/presentquestform.do?site=100&context=peckcs

Edmodo (2015). Retrieved from https://www.edmodo.com

Edutopia. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org

Facebook. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com

Fazenda, J. (2015. Nov. 27). 100 Notable Books of 2015. Retrieved from The New York Times website http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/books/review/100-notable-books-of-2015.html?_r=0

Google Doc’s. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/docs/about/

Google Forms. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/forms/about/

Governor Feneral’s Literary Awards. (2015) Retrieved from http://ggbooks.canadacouncil.ca

Greatest AudioBooks: Treasure Island. (Video file). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atBFFhV2Jcs

Holmes, G., (2012). Making a wiki in Wikispace. (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nifezbdV4SA

Kahoot (2015). Retrieved from https://kahoot.it/#/

KnightCite Citation, (2015). Retrieved from http://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/

McCrum, R. (2015). The 100 Best Novels. Retrieved from The Guardian website: http://www.theguardian.com/books/series/the-100-best-novels

Ms. Computer Teacher (2013). Using Symbaloo (a bookmarking service) in Education. (Video File) Retrieved fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbp2CSS7cnk

Muthler, Sarah (2015). The Best Interactive Web Tools for Educators. Retrieved from http://www.edudemic.com/best-web-tools/

 

One Click Digital. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.oneclickdigital.com

Easybib. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.easybib.com

Open Culture. (2015). 700 Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free. Retrieved from

http://www.openculture.com/freeaudiobooks

Minecraft (2015). Retrieved from https://minecraft.net

Pikespeaklibrary (2014). 21^st Century Library – Makerspace Promo. (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MpZnfpybGA

Pinterest. Retrieved from http://www.pinterest.com

Random House. (2015). Modern Library: 100 Best Novels. Retrieved from http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/

Ronan, Amanda. (2015). How to Connect With Teachers In The Social Age. Retrieved from http://www.edudemic.com/connect-teachers-social-age/

Teaching Channel. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.teachingchannel.org

The Canadian Children’s Book Center. (2015) Retrieved from

http://www.bookcentre.ca/award

Twitter. Retrieved from http://www.twitter.com

What is 3D printing? (2015) Retrieved from http://3dprinting.com/what-is-3d-printing/

Wikispaces. Retrieved from http://www.wikispaces.com

 

Sharing My Journey

I want to challenge myself with developing my website to the point of perfection…then I will take a breath and realize my journey to improve and develop the learning commons website will continue even after this class is over. An important vision for  this website is to build connection, resource and to become a useful informational tool that can be useful for my people now and in the future.

 

I have 5 categories that I want to share on my website but I must admit that collaboration corner and technology are the 2 categories I get excited about working on the most. Having a collaboration corner that colleagues at my school or teachers around the world can connect with will be extremely useful. I have learned a great deal from my colleagues blogs in this course and that I incorporate similar sharing and unlimited connections everywhere. I look forward to the website having the ability for teachers in my school to connect with teachers around the globe to share projects, thoughts, strategies, tool etc. I think this would be amazing! I am trying to incorporate an educational blog and padlet into this website category. Check out a collaborative padlet from one of my previous classes. I want to get teachers engaged in the collaboration corner so that they can share ideas, gain strategies,resources and educational tool for their classroom. This could be a powerful opportunity!

The technology category has endless possibilities so I need to narrow the sub-categories down. I look forward to sharing some of my ideas on the website that would be helpful for classroom teachers or  teacher librarians. I could also use this as a place to share a Web 2.0 tool, the latest TedTalk video

I hope to do my own screen cast tutorial and show off  production using the 3D printer in the makerspace area of the learning commons.

This journey of building a website has not had its struggles. From picking a theme and making sure every box is checked properly so that categories look the way you want them to look or menus and widgets lined up and connected accordingly. I find that I will put a check in one box that I think is the right box, preview the post and what I thought should be there has vanished. I have walked away a few times L and come back with a better demeanor J. This has happened a few times (or a few too many times) but I continue to build and construct. Thank goodness that I can continue to use YouTube to help me through my struggles anytime. I do feel that you are only able to do so much with the free version of wordpress and I am not willing to pay for more at this time. Who knows…perhaps the premium version would be even more complicated. My goal is to keep the website manageable and accessible for teachers in a simple but meaningful direction.

I look forward to the end product and sharing it with you.

References

Driscoll, Tom (2013,Feb. 7). 5 Minute Guide To Screencasting (Video File). Retrieved fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5HVHXh5Wjc

LLED sharing favorite Tech Tools (2014). Retrieved from

http://padlet.com/mmbottineau/jqr7viun8tol

TedXvTalks (‪2012, Nov. 12).A Diffferent Way to Think About Technology in Education (Video File). Retrieved fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D17P3kqB3_0

My Final Vision Journey!

Throughout this course my eyes have been opened to the endless possibilities of connecting to the world. I had this boxed in mentality that the effort I was doing in my classroom was only for my students and colleagues. NOW…we can connect and share globally!!!

Image via http://www.fiscalliteracy.com

 

Who is this Vision for? 

My vision for this project is to develop a Learning Commons website for my school, but as I continue to build the site, I want to have limitless connection to the world. I need to get this website up and running so that students, teachers, parents and staff can navigate around and find information they need regarding books, research, activities, collaboration and technology. I want to have the ability to post pictures and ideas of what is happening in the LC Makerspace and display what students are creating on our 3-D printer. My school community would be my first target audience.

What is my rationale?? The website rationale is that it is a source of information to my school community; this would include students, parents, teachers and staff. I want the website to be an accurate and complete picture of what the Learning Commons can offer. When people connect to my website I want the  home page to be vibrant and exciting! Other pages need to be informative and fill the needs of the school community. To support this rational I have set up a few goals for the Learning Commons website because it is important to meet the NEEDS our school community.

Some goals are:

1. Provide support and enhance student learning, reading, writing and use of technology.
2. To foster and encourage a love of books and reading.
3. The website should be a site where teachers and teacher-librarians can collaborate with each other for inquiry projects, Web 2.0 tools and a resource in developing and assessing new learning tools, strategies and pedagogical approaches.
4. I want the website to serve as a resource that students and teachers use as a tool for learning!!!
5. My end goal is to build a LC virtual website that is a communication and information link to anyone at anytime. I want to be able to collaborate and connect 24/7! 

Direction??

I have a clear idea and good direction of what I want to do but I am still working out the final details of the website. I have some great ideas for pages but I have been slow at building it…picking a theme can be overwhelming alone!! This link shows that the title and site  https://pacerlibrary.wordpress.com and that’s my beginning! There is a vision in my head and some thoughts down on paper but still have tons of creative work to do.

References

Baker University Library. (July 29, 2013). Virtual Library Tour. (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEXYkdkWbqM

Ed Galaxy (2014). 5 Things Every School Website Should Have. Retrieved from http://www.edgalaxy.com/journal/2011/8/5/5-things-every-school-website-should-have.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Edgalaxy+%28Edgalaxy+-+Where+Education+and+Technology+Meet%29

Vision image retrieved fromhttp://www.fiscalliteracy.com/2011/03/financial-literacy-begins-with-the-power-of-a-vision-to-transform-your-life-and-your-finances/

Walbert, David. (2014). Best Practices in School Library Website Design. Retrieved fromhttp://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/969