Wrapping Up

It's getting close to the end of the semester and it is an exciting and busy time. Although I'm not currently planning on going into a school library when I graduate I thought that this course was really helpful. What stands out to me now as being the most helpful part of this course was the powerpoint presentation. I think that this skill is important for all fields of library science. It is important to be able to develop a presentation that is both interesting and informative that will benefit your audience. I also loved learning about tools that are available on the web that can be used in the field. Additionally the information on copyright was also beneficial.

eBooks

This week we are discussing ebooks. I've been reading a lot about ebooks are eReaders, particularly Apple's new iPad. There are a lot of advantages such as text-to-speech, text searches, built in dictionary, etc. I really want to own an eReader but haven't managed to find one that I love and can afford at the moment. But when I get the chance (and hopefully once the price goes down) I will get an iPad. I want to see for myself what it is like to read an ebook so that I can help patrons to have a better experience with it. But I don't see myself totally giving up a printed book. It was one of my first loves.

Google Resources

I was really excited to see the links that were posted for this week. They all focused on using Google in the classroom. This is really helpful because my powerpoint presentation is about how to use Google in the classroom. Now off to continue working on the presentation!

Online Conference

This week I watched a bunch of videos from an online conference on technology in schools. I thought there was a lot of valuable information to be learned from the different presentations. But I also was frustrated because for some reason the videos would stop in the middle and I had difficulties trying to get them to play the end. I don't have much experience with conferences and I think that they can be a little intimidating. However, I thought this online conference was a nice introduction to them. I will definitely be looking for more.

PowerPoint

This week we looked at some presentations and demos on how to effectively use PowerPoint. It was a little difficult for me because I use a mac. So although I am running the latest version of PowerPoint it's layout is similar to the older version of Windows PowerPoint. Some tools were moved around and it took me an extra minute or two to locate them and figure out how they work on my version.
I did find the information on using master slides to be very helpful, specifically when designing your own look for your presentation. I still like to use the pre-designed backgrounds to be more professional looking. In order for my previous presentations to stand out I would look for consumer-designed layouts that are available for download from Microsoft's website. Particularly in the last summer session I took Health Science Librarianship, and I found presentation templates with a medical theme.

Collaboration

I was a little hesitant this week about working in groups. In another class I just finished a group assignment and it wasn't the smoothest work group I have been in. I was very happy to see that my worries were for nothing after getting in contact with my group members this week. It has been a much more positive experience.

In our groups we are looking at school library websites. I have to say that the more examples I look at the more I realize that there is no perfect library website. I can see myself picking and choosing different elements of the websites I visit to create my own ideal website. At times I question what has been done to some library websites. Particularly with the Springfield Township High School website. Their main page is very visually pleasing (http://www.sdst.org/shs/library/). But when I click on a link I feel that the beauty and organization have been replaced with a jumble of links (http://springfieldpathfinders.wikispaces.com/). Hopefully this was taken into consideration when designed and has been found to work for their users.

More Thoughts on Copyright

This week our discussion was focused on copyright. I find copyright to be somewhat intimidating, particularly in school setting. I wish that teachers were given more courses or information on copyright because it is something that really effects them. I don't think that school librarians should have all the responsibility placed on them. If we, as school librarians, can inform teachers about copyright laws and be available as resources to them. By providing knowledge and information to teachers we can hopefully remove the stereotype of being seen as the copyright police.