ETL 503 Topic 5: Web 2.0 and The School Library

I have had the most amazing, busy week!  Monday I started my new position as Kindergarten teacher at a local school.  Finally I can put into practice all those ideas I have been pinning on Pinterest!  But it has also kept me very busy after school, not to mention tired.  So study was put on the back burner this week until the weekend.  The house may be a mess but I have ploughed through topics 5 and 6.  Here are my notes for topic 5 which I had to post on the forum.

Key Aspects of Web 2.0 - sharing ideas and info: between teachers, between teachers and TLs, between exec and teachers, between students and teachers, ....possibilities are only limited by creativity. Everyone from the school community can be involved.

Opportunities for TLs- foster collaboration and participation, greater student involvement in the learning process. Links between home/school.

TLs cannot ignore such a unique, useful, interactive learning platform.

TL Blog use - promote new books & library activities, links to author's websites, links and info about searching, evaluating websites, useful links for assignments....

Possible problems - time, finding new ways to encourage readers/interaction.

Wikis - exploring the research process with students, publishing students work, student collaboration, student/teacher collaboration,  teacher collaboration, professional development, use as a sharing platform as you would a blog.

Social bookmarking - used in school context to gather information on specific topics/areas for professional development, collaboration on topics, collating resources for student use/teacher use.

Possible issues - need to check regularly that info is up to date, are there any dead links, evaluate links as you would any library resource which takes time.

Other aspects of web 2.0 - I use flickr for my logging any creative stuff I make and ideas for classroom displays/craft, Picasa for sharing and storing personal photos.  Pinterest has been the most useful professionally for me, it's great for finding ideas and storing faves visually.  I also use twitter for keeping up to date and finding new/interesting happenings in the world of the TL.