As a tech leader, I try to stay ahead of the curve as much as possible. When I was presented the opportunity to attend Act 48 workshops for free I took it. In addition to trainings offered through my school district's summer professional development for free, there were also funds available from a PDE Act 183e Grant to take certain technology workshops at MCIU. Which is where I am right now...and where I was on Monday afternoon.
After reviewing MyLearningPlan I realized that I have spent 31.5 hours this summer in technology workshops. Phew. I'm actually in one RIGHT NOW learning about...blogs, wikis, and forums. I like to attend workshops on topics I don't know about...and topics I DO know about, like...blogging. The thing about technology is that the more things change, the more they...change. Technology is never static, never stable. There is always something to learn. These workshops also afford me the time to play with applications that I may have been really meaning to get to, but there is always, always, always something else. For example, I just learned about technorati. I had heard the word before, but never investigated further. Technorati is a search engine for blogs. And I'm not there...that will have to be remedied. Soon. I'm pretty sure I have to start tagging my posts. I'll get to that...one day. I also played, just now, on Curriki.org a site I signed up for during its inception when there was absolutely NO content. Now it is full to brimming with great ideas, even for teaching lessons in the library. So I'll have to get back there. I added both Technorati and Curriki to my Diigo page which will automatically update to the Delicious page as well.
So, what else have I been doing for 31.5 hours?!?
Intro to Smartboard Notebook 10 - Why the New Version? (again, I am relatively well-versed in Smartboard, but since mine was delivered mid-way through September there was no "official" training, so this offered the opportunity to review post-maternity leave year and to learn about updates to the program.)
Moodle Overview (Moodle proved to be relatively non-applicable to me and something I didn't see an application for at my level/position. It seemed more geared to online course creation.)
Lead Teacher Workshop (Mandatory)
Solo Software (A program that our district subscribes to that "reads out loud" for students on the web and on ebooks. It also has a component to "write out loud" with students as well as many other awesome applications that can be utilized by students with special needs OR any students who might take advantage of these tools.)
Using Google Docs in the Classroom and to Organize Your Life (While I already used Google Docs, I learned more about the available templates and the opportunity to write live in real time on the same document with a collaborative group. I've now created spreadsheets to keep track of budgetary expenses and a calendar for school as well as a document to input all my lesson plans. Starting from scratch has its benefits!)
Restorative Practices Book Club (A new program for school wide community building - an initative for this fall and an opportunity to talk about it.)
Elluminate (A tool for online learning - I had a class two days later utilizing elluminate so this refresher reminded me of some important aspects and helped me to familiarize myself with elluminate.)
Safari Montage (A video program that our school is subscribed to starting this year. We will continue to have a year of overlap with Discovery Education United Streaming, but this should offer us a place to upload our TV Studio morning show for students to watch from archives.)
ontheshelf4kids is con-tech-ted in many different ways.
Image courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/qthomasbower
Twitter
Through twitter, a professional learning network has been established. Furthermore, parents can follow ontheshelf4kids on twitter as we tweet about our daily do-ings in the library.
del.icio.us
Delicious is a bookmarking site where we have begun to collect a variety of websites sorted by tags for use in the library, by teachers, students, and parents as well.
diigo
Diigo serves essentially the same function as Delicious but has further capabilities such as adding highlighted areas to text on webpages, sticky notes to annotate, and more - both Delicious and Diigo have the function of creating groups as well which will serve well for connecting our library to other libraries which might benefit from sharing in our list of links to resources.
flickr
Flickr is a site to collect photos. I became inspired when searching for creative commons licensed photos using a search for library. I came across a colleagues' collection of photos of school library displays and decided I would like to share display ideas as well. I have to check into sharing photos including students as to our photo release form, or I can edit the photos so that students are not discernible in the photos. But I can definitely see the applications for using flickr and also for teaching students about using creative commons licensed images through this site.
Facebook
ontheshelf4kids also has a facebook presence. I plan to utilize this as one more tool to reach out to families, students, teachers, and others to publicize the great happenings in our school library.
Library Thing
Library Thing is a site to showcase the books in your library. Using this site we can create widgets to create flash files of book covers for the side bar of the blog. You can also write reviews and interact with the collection in other ways. I'm still thinking about how to best use this tool and decide if Follett Destiny might have some of the same features.
Blogger
Clearly, we are here on blogger. I haven't even conceptualized the entire scope of this blog just yet. I plan to use my school website blog as well and may reserve this blog for professional sharing. It may also be a jumping off point for student project blogs that may appear separate from this title. I plan to use our school website blog to share about specific happenings with classes and offer students the opportunity to blog about their experiences during library lessons. I'd like for this blog to have a specific format, but don't want to limit myself to just sharing book reviews, or technology integration ideas. I want this blog to be VERY open ended, but I'd like it to be organized and reliable as well. Any feedback is welcome. I was thinking there may be a rhyme and reason to daily posts, like Tech Tuesdays, or Fiction Fridays. This is still a brainstorm in its infancy, but hopefully it will flesh out quite nicely.
Time Ticks On
July is almost done and August will be here much too quickly. Summer reading is in full swing here (a post I plan to share shortly). I am attending many professional learning opportunities in August and plan to post more about each as well as the preparations that will be happening in our library. The first day of school will be here before you know it!
After reviewing MyLearningPlan I realized that I have spent 31.5 hours this summer in technology workshops. Phew. I'm actually in one RIGHT NOW learning about...blogs, wikis, and forums. I like to attend workshops on topics I don't know about...and topics I DO know about, like...blogging. The thing about technology is that the more things change, the more they...change. Technology is never static, never stable. There is always something to learn. These workshops also afford me the time to play with applications that I may have been really meaning to get to, but there is always, always, always something else. For example, I just learned about technorati. I had heard the word before, but never investigated further. Technorati is a search engine for blogs. And I'm not there...that will have to be remedied. Soon. I'm pretty sure I have to start tagging my posts. I'll get to that...one day. I also played, just now, on Curriki.org a site I signed up for during its inception when there was absolutely NO content. Now it is full to brimming with great ideas, even for teaching lessons in the library. So I'll have to get back there. I added both Technorati and Curriki to my Diigo page which will automatically update to the Delicious page as well. 
So, what else have I been doing for 31.5 hours?!?
