Watch this space

OK, so all my spouting about turning over a new leaf this semester has amounted to nought. And now I am in mad assignment mode, trying to get too much done, too well, in too little time.

I will be on placement soon, and I am hoping then, without 3000+ word assignments looming, there will be opportunities to share the many things I am learning in this course with you.

Until then... Adieu.

PS - I am reading the Monster-Blood Tattoo books by D. M. Cornish, and enjoying them immensely. It is the second time I have read the first two, and I am enjoying them even more than I did the first time. Yes, always time for reading, no matter what. It just happens to be while I'm eating breakfast instead of "just 'cos" at the moment.

The following is the slideshow I created for my first ETL523 assignment (uploaded onto SlideShare). I am far from completely happy with it, and am yet to know what mark it received. I will be presenting it next week, in the scenario of a teacher librarian presenting to a school staff meeting. I feel that it was rushed, as I did not have nearly as much time as I would have liked to spend on it. If you download it you can see the notes to go with it as far as I am aware (be warned that the notes needed to be written in an academic style, and are quite extensive!).

Now to prepare myself for the actual presentation... preparations so far making me more concerned rather than less! I am not sure whether to condense what I have written into notes, or to speed read what I have got as I present it. Will practise both ways and hopefully that will give me a good idea about what I should do.

The library without walls

View more presentations from jessthomas49.

PS - those pictures on the first slide were joined perfectly when I made it, I'm not sure why there is a gap between them now :(

Slideshows

cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by Stuck in Customs
I have learned so much about how to create a more engaging slide show presentation completing this subject. I now have an in-built fear of bullet points for example. I understand what it means for a picture to be 'CC' (and no, it has nothing to do with corn or chips). I am able to get photos from Flickr, and to attribute them correctly. I understand the impact a single picture can have, and how that can be enough visual stimulation to make a point at times, particularly if you have something important to say while your audience gazes at it. I have learned that a white background is actually the most effective, as it will work in any environment, and will make your information stand out more clearly. I know to keep the colour scheme simple (for my presentation I have chosen to use three colours - blue, purple and pink - to fit with the picture of my title page, and feel concerned that this is getting carried away). I know to not put too much information into a presentation - to limit it to three main ideas. I know not to put too much information on one slide.

I am finding it difficult, however, to fit my presentation with all of these recommendations when I am limited to twelve slides. I am sitting here wanting to fill a slide with a picture that illustrates a simple point that I wish to make, but instead I need to fit three points onto the one slide. How then do I make that slide attractive? I know white is the best background colour if you are going to have one, but I'd rather not have to have it visible on every slide. If there is anyone out there who can give me some advice on which direction I could/should take, that would be much appreciated.

E-Learning Handbook for Teachers

A useful guide to using Web 2.0 technologies to support learning:
E-Learning Handbook for Teachers

CC Attribution Helper

Just testing the latest thing I've downloaded to help me: Flickr CC attribution helper. In order to download it, I had to first install Greasemonkey.

The idea is that it will put html code to correctly attribute the photo I am about to use, down on the bottom right hand side of the page in Flickr CC. I can then copy and paste this code into my post. I am unsure whether the picture itself is included in that html code, so will test it out now...


cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by Carlos Porto
Yep, sure is! :)

Embedding Google Books

Learning new skills all the time. Today I am learning how to embed a Google book into my blog. Let's see if I can do it, then I'll explain the process...



This document explains the process clearly (I will embed it as well):

Google for Teachers



Basically, you find the eBook you want to embed (selecting Google books in the advanced search window will ensure you have a public domain book (I think... the options differ from the description in the document above), then you click on the 'link' button up the top right of the screen, copy the embed code, and paste it into your new post window. To change the size you need to adjust the width and height numbers within the code.

If you haven't already, give it a try! Embedding things is somehow very exciting and rewarding.

Quote of the day, April 20, 2011

"First and foremost, the librarian 2.0 should understand the users at a deep level - not just as pointers and clickers - but also as end-users in terms of their goals and aspirations, workflows, and social and content needs."
- (Abram, 2009, p20)

This says to me that we always need to keep what we do as teacher librarians in context. And we always need to make that context about the students and their (lifelong) learning needs.

Reference:
Abram, S. (2009). The emerging Gen M ecology: What will their world look like? Chapter 12 in Teaching Generation M: A Handbook for librarians and educators, ed. Vibiana Bowman Cvetkovic and Robert J. Lackie. London: Neal-Schuman Publishers.