Lookybook

I would love to know what you think of Lookybook. This site allows you to view children’s picture books to help you decide on purchasing or choosing books from the library.

PBwiki classroom tip

I just read a good tip by Kristine from PBwiki on using a wiki with a classroom of students in a computer lab:

“Create lots of pages to avoid Edit Collisions”

In a wiki only one person may edit a page at one time. Create several pages so that students may work on a page and not just sit there waiting for a turn.

Presentations and workshops

I have been pretty busy with presentations and workshops in the last two weeks. I thought that you may be interested in what I’ve been presenting. The week before last I presented a one-hour professional development event for teaching staff at a middle school in one of the county school districts. The topic was the MeL (Michigan Electronic Library) databases – subjects and features, staff and student uses. The next day I presented a two and a half hour workshop on podcasting to middle school staff in another school district. Luckily, everything worked great – Audacity, Soundsnap and Switchpod.

Two weekends ago I presented a 50 minute session on “Web 2.0 for Educators and Students” at the Michigan Reading Association Conference at Cobo in Detroit. At this conference I was representing MAME – the Michigan Association for Media in Education which is the statewide association for school library media specialists. I am the 2008 President of MAME and a few of the MAME officers presented at the conference, in part, to communicate the role of the media specialists in schools.

Last Thursday I presented on Web 2.0 to a group of public librarians holding a meeting at the beautiful West Bloomfield Public Library. I really enjoyed this presentation and it was fun to present to my fellow librarians. They asked some great questions and I learned some new things myself because public librarians use some Web tools that are different than what is used in schools.

The attendees for all of these professional development events were interested and engaged. They asked good questions and many told me that they truly plan to use some of the Web 2.0 tools in their work.

Marcia Mardis – LJ Mover and Shaker!

Wayne State University, School Library Media Program, Assistant Professor Marcia Mardis was named one of the 2008 Library Journal Mover and Shakers. Among her many accomplishments Marcia encourages school media specialists to show classroom teachers how to use technology to enhance student learning and is cochair and coauthor of the American Association of School Librarians Standards for 21st Century Learners.

The Michigan Reading Association Conference at Cobo

Today I presented at the MRA conference in Detroit. My presentation: “Students, Educators and Web 2.0″ went so fast! I had 50 minutes to cover blogs, wikis, podcasts and several other Web 2.0 tools. The attendees were great. They asked some good questions and were interested in these tools. About 30 people attended the session. If you would like to access the links I mentioned in the presentation click here.

I noticed a couple things in my surroundings while sitting at a table in the Cobo lobby. First, many, many Red Wings fans walking by and the scrolling sign outside Cobo advertising a June concert with Allison Krause and Robert Plant. I will have to look into that one. I would love to see it!