Thing 5 - Teacher Web Page

I have created a web page using Urban Planet, and have linked it to my blog. The web page is a work in progress, and as I use Urban Planet I become more comfortable with it. Of course it takes time, which is a scarce commodity, but it's nice to have a website to use as a teaching tool.

My Visit to San Francisco

I spent MEA weekend in San Francisco where, among other things, I visited a private high school in a wealthy suburb. Of course the school is well-funded, the teachers are well-supported, and the students are bright and eager. But, you know, we have some pretty amazing teachers at our school, and some bright, eager students, and there are some very wonderful things happening right here. It's always interesting to get away and to see things from a different perspective, and I was able to take some ideas away that I can use in my own work. So all things considered, it was a successful visit.

Thing 1 - Understanding Information Literacy

The article from Techknowlogia called "Information Literacy: How does it differ from traditional or computer literacy?" is the article that made me think about the concepts that we deal with. Information literacy takes the mechanics of reading and writing, plus the skills of finding and understanding information, and the art of collaboration, and meshes them into a new form. The result is the ability to solve problems and take advantage of information technology and networks. The challenge, of coures, is to bring our students up to speed, and our teachers also.

Thing 11 - Google

Karen, my Metronet intern, told me last week about a Google feature that could prove to be very useful to our students. It's Google Documents, and it allows anybody to create a document and work on it from any computer, home or school. It can also be used for collaborative purposes. But it's the accessibility aspect that intrigues me. That's because every day, nearly every hour, students come to the library needing to print papers but can't, because they can't access them. Sometimes it's because they've emailed the paper to a hotmail or yahoo account, and sometimes it's because they've used an old computer at home that has old programs that can't be read here by our computers. And oftentimes it's because they've stored it to a floppy disc, and we don't have computers that have disc drives. So this aspect of Google is yet one more valuable tool for our students. Thank you, Karen!

RSS

If RSS stands for Really Simple anything, it's a misnomer! I registered for Bloglines last summer and never could get past the username and password this afternoon. (I will spare you the details but it might have something to do with forgetfulness...) So I registered for Google Reader instead. The process was, indeed, really simple. I was lucky to have my Metronet intern, Karen, here to discuss the pros and cons of Bloglines vs. Google Reader.

New Laptop!

I got my new laptop this afternoon and immediately took it out for a spin! It's GREAT!! I've spent the last hour reading Metromili blogs - fun and interesting. I like the structure of this year's project with the hands-on "things" and am finding that I enjoy working my way through the 23.