My 3 Blogging Hats

Teaching Hat:

• engaging students in meaningful writing for authentic audiences
• student portfolio development
• literature/discussion circle
• "supports critical thinking, encouraging students to think and reflect prior to writing."(Trexler, 2010, p105)
• engaging students and teachers using technology
• allows all members of a class an equal voice
• sharing ideas and understanding
• school library blog
• student reading group blogs
• sharing passion for technology in education and school libraries
• offering PD to teachers

Learning Hat

• Personal Learning Community (without a doubt)
• professional resources available through searching credible sources
• links to new resources through the blogs I follow
• collaborate to present ideas to colleagues/followers
• using Google Reader for updates from blogs I follow
• life long learning will be up to date, relevant and accurate
• RSS feeds how did ever live without you?

Personal Hat: 

• possibly create a blog to share my interest in watercolour painting (might have to wait now I am on this journey to Web 2.0)
• developing my voice
• Should I delete my Facebook account due to a few negative experiences and focus more on blogging?
• feeling validated by repeat viewers from around the world
• I think therefore I am a blogger

Five Blogging Fundamentals: Step Two

What have I learned about blogging?

My experience creating and posting to Steps to Web 2.0 has given me some insight into blogs and blogging.

1. Create a site with an interesting design:

    -preview as you play with the layout to see how things look

    -don't hesitate to change the design if it isn't working (most recently-November 13, 2011)

Blogger Design Page

2. Use interesting titles and tags:

    -play with words but be clear about the content of your blog and posts
    -tag each post to clarify content
    -be flexible and creative

3. Add images, screencasts or videos to create interest:

     -enhance using public domain, creative commons or original digital images

4. Include hyperlinks to internet sources:

     -include links to items you talk about and sources of further information. Reading on the Web includes hyperlinks which make your blog interactive and enhance content 

5. Share your passion

    -create a blog for your personal digital videos, photos, your interests, travels, or personal news or opinions

    -read, follow and comment on other blogs that interest you

   -if you want to introduce blogs to your students you need to blog yourself. Richardson (2009) states,"if we want our students to learn from blogs, we have to experience that learning first hand."(p.43)

My 3 Social Bookmarking Hats

 My Teaching:
-research - grade 8 Body Systems
-private group creation (class/subject/teachers)
-collaboration and sharing of links
-in lieu of "can I email this to myself?"
-critical thinking re: creation of tags and selection of links
-writing annotations
-selection of text for highlighting
-bookmark appropriate sites for student pathfinders
-Student learning communities
-opportunities to connect to other researchers

My Learning:
-research for all graduate courses
-sharing links with colleagues and group members
-daily updates = instant PD!
-life long learning
-"cloud" access to all links
-extend my PLN to teacher librarians, teachers and others interested in Web 2.0 
-access far more on the internet through groups and those I follow
-subscribe to groups for updates, annotations and bookmarks


Personal:
-use a private Diigo group to save bookmarks presently residing in my favourites on each computer I use
-tagging is changing the way I work with Web 2.0
-connect with like-minded educators and teacher librarians
-expand my use of the internet to personal interests: storytelling and watercolour painting

My 3 Video sharing hats

My Learning:

-professional development topics

-YouTube "how to" video
-to help my nieces with their education and life choices

Teaching:

-engage visual learners

-video production for a variety of purposes

-promote books with book trailers

-video storytelling

-background knowledge for curriculum topics (natural disasters)

-YouTube "how to" (Khan Academy)

Personal:

-step by step watercolour instruction

-create more storytelling video files

-create video files of family events

My 3 Podcasting Hats

My Learning:

-follow episodes of TED Education, The Audacity to Podcast, and Clever Sheep
-unlimited possibilities for professional development (if I only had an ipod)

Teaching:
-engage auditory learners

-alternate presentation task

-read aloud books for English Language Learners and add to library blog
-enlist students to read aloud for school library podcasts

-engaging students in learning through use of Web 2.0 audio files

-sharing with parents
-presently collaborating with a grade 8 teacher to produce podcasts for water issues project (6 more microphones are on my shopping list)

Personal:
-send audio messages to friends and family

-promote my storytelling as a business

-add 'think aloud' podcasts to my artist website

-blog posts as audio files

My 3 digital image sharing hats (with respect to Joanne deGroot's 500 hats)

Personal:

-share family event photos

-share personal event photos with absent family

-share photos of paintings with the world

-join Flickr watercolour artist groups 
-reference photos for paintings

Learning:

-building (PLN) learning networks with T-L Flickr groups

-studying the work of watercolour artists

-share comments with artists in my groups

Teaching:

-use to develop background knowledge with flickr visuals

-virtual shared experiences

-introduction to biomes, aboriginal peoples environment, country studies

-sharing school events

-virtual yearbook photo collection

-reference photos for electives watercolour students 

Note: I offer a watercolour painting course to grade 8 students in the library. As a result of my exploration of Flickr I created a gallery of pictures including a colour wheel, a palette of colours with paint tubes, and examples of watercolour paintings I found in the Flickr groups I follow. I was able to show slides of my own paintings and suggested we might create a gallery of student work. A collection of Flickr images of iris' and poppies helped students visualize the flowers for their floral paintings.

Grade 8 Watercolour Elective Flickr slide show

Moving Forward with flickr: Step Three

I am developing some comfort with flickr and its associated tools and I can see myself sharing my paintings with the world (I can’t believe I wrote that). I found I am able to easily upload photos, store them online and manage the photos with the available organization of sets, collections, favourites, tags and groups.

Flickr tags

There are many books and web sites available to help me get started and help me explore ideas and more I am sure to come across in my ongoing learning.

•  Choosing Web 2.0 tools for learning and teaching in a digital world. Berger, P., & Trexler, S. (2010). Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.
• ·The Digital Diet: Today’s digital tools in small bytes. Churches, A., Crockett, L., & Jukes, I. (2010). Kelowna, BC: 21st Century Fluency Project
• Technology Resources for Schools 
•  Classroom Uses of Flickr 

Tomaiuolo (2011) identifies Flickr uses by librarians. “For example, the Librarian Trading Cards Group is an area where librarians frequently display their whimsical side to colleagues. The Libraries and Librarians Group at Flickr connects 3,700 information professionals spread across six continents.” (para.10) I added these two groups immediately.

I may be almost as hooked as PC World’s Nikki McDonald. McDonald writes: “After just over a week of using Flickr, I'm hooked. I've gone from checking my e-mail account every 2 minutes to checking my Flickr account instead.” (McDonald, 2005,para. 7) Using Flickr has encouraged me to share not only my paintings but also my personal photographs online. I am interested in the Libraries and Librarians group and the connection to the world of libraries it offers. I was surprised to find this group and others connected to librarians and libraries and look forward to further exploration.

In my school I would like to encourage teachers to use Flickr to develop Flickr sets and introduce students to digital images as part of Geography and History units. I might add a photostream link or set to the library blog for easy access. I need to investigate if my sqworl visual bookmarking pages will accept photostream links from Flickr.

"Registered users can comment on photos, create image "pools" and users around a central
theme, and actually select favorite pictures." (Stephens, 2006. p.58) I am excited by my exploration of Flickr. I hadn’t realized the scale of possibility for flickr use for me personally, professionally, or in my role as a teacher-librarian.

As a result of this exploration I am excited to try the Google image sharing tool, Picasa and begin collaborating with my colleague to add photos to the blog Paths to the Future: 21st Century School Libraries.