Re-evaluation of Self Assessment

     My assessment of myself in technology has changed since the beginning of this course.  I would say that my view of myself in technology is stronger now than when I started the class.  I have learned many new, exciting Web 2.0 tools.  I enjoyed making the QR codes and have started noticing and using them more with my phone.  I thought that blogging might be difficult for me since I am a person that usually keeps most of my thoughts to myself.  But I found it is very therapeutic for me in a time of my life that is filled with uncertainty and changes.  Wikis seem to be harder for me to appreciate but I think they are a wonderful tool that can be used by librarians and teachers for class collaboration. Diigo was also something that I thought was a superior tool for combining favorites into one location.  I tagged many of my old favorites from first grade for future reference there. The personal information space seemed a very practical way to be able to see all your Web 2.0 tools at one time. 

        I will have to keep up with these new innovations of technology through the internet.  I think that my list serves will help as well as my memberships in state and national library associations will also be a benefit.  Social networking and looking for librarian wikis and blogs will be helpful in staying up to date with technology too.

        I do not have any specific plans for implementing this technology in an education setting at the moment since I am not teaching or employed at the present time.  I would like to visit my daughter’s high school English classes and work with them on a project implementing something I have learned in 5720.  There might be a chance with my mentor at the freshman campus library for me to work with some teachers on implementing some ideas.

The Job of Organizing

     I think it is great that the job of organizing Web 2.0 is in the hands of the “everyday” folk. Yes, this is going to make it more challenging for the librarian who is going to need to keep up with all the new trends and then facilitate this learning to the students of the 21st century. Both students and staff should be able to use this this new information effectively in their studies, work, or when they socialize. So they will need advice, guidance, and teachers will need in-service training too. This information literacy skills and abilities should be a key focus in the curriculum and librarians need to help make this known in their school. Teachers and librarians will need to work together even more. Teachers should have the subject knowledge while the librarians bring the knowledge of information literacy. Together they can collaborate motivational and challenging lessons with Web 2.0 helping them extend the subject matter and having great resources to use effectively with students. Tools such as Wikis, blogs, social bookmarking, podcasting will enhance these opportunities for learning. Web 2.0 will also change how librarians handle and manage books. They may be seeing and handling less hardback books, and then adding into their library more e-books, e-learning, and mobile learning resources.

     After examining my tags from my Diigo account, I feel that if you do the tagging correctly that these would be more helpful than the traditional subject headings. I find that Diigo is very useful organizing tool because it is on the web. It seemed I would always want a particular site from home when I was at school or vice versa. It is nice that both school and home can be combined into one location. It eliminates the long list of favorites and never being able to locate the one you wanted.

The Machine Is Us/ing Us

   Professor Wesch titled his video, “Web 2.0 The Machine is Us/ing Us,” which is a very clever title.  His point is that people created the machine, so it innately is "us" because anytime a person adds more information to the machine, the machine/technology grows, thus "using us."  So the machine is "us", but the machine is technology too. More and more people are using technology.  But the machine/technology is becoming who we are as a person almost.   Every time we go to the WWW and view, link, write, post, change information, and tag, we teach our machine/technology a little bit about ourselves and the machine/technology grows, and evolves.  We teach it and other people teach their machine/technology about themselves a billion times a day.

  Text no longer links information but people do.  People are linked together by their sharing, trading, and by their collaboration of ideas with their machine/technology because complicated code is no longer needed to upload content to the web.  We are different people because now we are using things  like blogs and wikis.  There is sharing of videos and pictures and social networking that has become part of our daily lives.  The technology that people use continues to change, grow, and evolve more each day.

   In fact, it is so complex that information is mashed with more information to create endless opportunities for people to find data or information.  The question Professor Wesch poses is " Who will organize all this data?"  The answer is obvious-we will.  The machine is "us" because it is people who develop this new technology and input the information or data.  But the machine is "using us" because it has to rely on people to develop the information for the technology.   I think Professor Wesch wants us to rethink and edit things about ourselves and the machine/technology, especially about legal issues, ethics, and our responsibilities to this new technology.  We must be careful and thoughtful in our decisions.

Quick Response Code

   Quick response codes could be one of the up and coming technological items.  They aren't new but have failed to catch on quickly with people.  I have enjoyed making my Quick Response codes and I am anxious to find some to scan in places where I go.
   As I think about using them in my library, I have had to brainstorm many possibilities with myself.  It is obvious that QR's could go on books. Scanning them could take you to more information about the author or illustrator.  It could be a list of other titles of books written by that author.  The QR could take you to a website about that author, or the movie about that book.  It could even be a game that might go along with the book.
   If I was at an elementary library I would think about using them as an introduction game taking the class as a group to different parts of the library.  Another time I might use them would be at Open House and parents would have their phones available to scan with their child checking out library information.
   There could be posters about book fairs with these QR's on them that could take parents to the website on information about the kinds of books and prices available.  Another good idea I had was to use them on bookmarks handed out during the week and the children could come in and scan their bookmark for a prize or a free book at the end of the week.  I would like to put these on backs of chairs for teachers coming to an after school workshop in the library to scan and win the drawing.
   I think these QR's have some good value in their use at school, but one of the big obstacles is going to be each school district's cell phone policy.

Individual Technology Assessment

   My personal technology assessment is average. I am fortunate to have seen and experienced many technology changes as my children grew up. I changed with them. The older child had less technology experience while the younger child has had lifetime technology experience, even though they are just six years apart.
   I felt I was a leader of technology at school. I always wanted to be the first at trying new technology things. It started in the mid 90's with a computer incentive program. If you were selected and attended training, you were awarded a computer, TV, VCR, printer, and Aver key setup for your classroom. At that time, you had to setup your system yourself and install the provided programs. But as more computers were added to the district, so were the controls. So setup virtually has become non-existent and installing programs yourself has gone too. I feel that where this was once a strength it has become a weakness for myself and teachers in the district. We have come to rely on a few selected people to solve our everyday problems of technology. It not only applies to computers, but projectors, printers, cameras, and other technology tools.
   Also, I was trained on Smart boards, cameras, individual response clickers, new software, or new programs. The weakness is there is no or limited access to these things or never enough time to learn how to use them effectively in your classroom.
   For the past three years I have followed the district's plan to improve at technology. I feel reaching Level 3 is one of my other strengths. I attended technology workshops after school hours. I  used the school website and posted things on the website. I was asked for advice by other teachers on troubleshooting their computer problems because of this.
    I decided to ask my very technology adult child what he felt was my strengths and weaknesses in technology. He said I was very good at "Print Shop" type things. I laughed because he must have always seen me making certificates for my students. He said my weakness was that I did not google for answers before I asked him. I have to agree with that. He has been my strength to technology and I need to let him go and become more confident in my own ability to solve my own technology problems.
    My best strength that I will use is my willingness and eagerness to learn new technology, and to try new things like Facebook, or blogging or tweeting. I will address my biggest weakness by looking and finding technology solutions on my own first.