Thing #1 - The Networked Student

We’re back! The Common Craft guys are back! The kickball captains have donned swimsuits and life preservers! Woo-hoo!

Librarians will most definitely play a role in “helping students navigate the future” and continue to help our students become lifelong learners. Joyce Valenza put it well in her article “On the Librarian: What’s the point…?, “if you are not an expert in new information and communication tools, you are NOT a media specialist for today.”

As teacher librarians, our charge in all of this is:

1. learning the 2.0 technologies (thanks Kickball Captains/Lifeguards!)
2. teaching/modeling for students and teachers how to use these technologies in collaboration with the classroom teachers and curriculum expectations, while teaching these 3 things - a research model such as the Big6, web site evaluation, and the ethical use of electronic information
3. giving students the freedom to create their learning environment using the 2.0 technology tools
4. having the technology hardware (and GEEK support!) for accessing and using these 2.0 tools.
   

Thing #8 RSS Feeds and Readers

What do I like about RSS and newsreaders? Most of all, I like the idea of having someone (something) out in cyberspace helping to organize my online life for me. I have noticed on several blogs that they have a list (or two) of favorite blogs, and there are notations beside some of the blogs that something new is available. I like that feature. Any timesaver is a bonus. So many blogs, postings, information…so little time!

I would like to use this technology to keep up with not only the blog postings of the SBISD Library Services kickball captains, but also other blogs about school librarianship and children’s literature by authorities in the field, other school libraries and their students, and personal blogs of friends. I find it interesting to look at and explore the blog lists of blogs I enjoy reading to find new favorites.

Teachers and students with similar interests to other bloggers could use the RSS to keep tabs on what others are doing and/or learning. For the reluctant or beginning blogger, using a RSS reader would be a way to get his/her feet wet with the technology without feeling “blogged down!”