Technology
I had an internet/reference books research assignment for 5th grade on Monday a.m. and for the 3rd time in a row (with these same students) I had problems. Twice, NO internet available at that hour and this time I had only 2 of 7 computers on-line. This is after the tech says ‘you’re all set’…Trying to balance real life with what we are learning is difficult at times. Many of the technologies we are being exposed to I can see in use at public libraries and in h.s./middle school. I believe that there is definitely a place for the blogs in elementary, but when they cannot keep us online it does make one pause.
For use in my school sites, one item that would make an impact for my 3 schools would be a discussion of the 40+ books on our Quincy Literature Contest List. Many 4th/5th grade parents have questions and many read these titles with their children; a forum on-line would be interesting not only for them but for parents whose children will be coming into the contest. School newsletters generally come out 3 times a year and there is no feedback option.
In perusing many of the public library blogs I discovered some interesting tidbits-many had not been updated since 2004/2005. Did the person responsible move on to another job? Why is the site still listed? Checking into many of them, I discovered that many of their links had disappeared and went nowhere. Also websites listed for children were really only ‘for sale’ sites. If you post a site for your patrons, should you also not try to follow it through before posting?
Tufts Library in Weymouth had teens do their blog with their own insights/own language/own uploaded photos. They appear to be very active in working WITH the library-nice touch.
Newton Public Library had a blog where different librarians posted new book reviews in a more casual style and not formal reviewing. One stated that it was one of the best books she had ever read; comments from patrons were allowed and one patron ripped apart the book and review. You do put yourself ‘out there’.
I had to laugh when I read class responses say “I COULD have gotten lost on del.icio.us” because I DID get lost on del.icio.us for 2 days this weekend. One link kept linking to another and I was one lost puppy …’delicously’ so.
I had no luck uploading a photo to my site from Flickr; it kept stating that the ending was wrong even though I typed in exactly what it said. Just realized also,a post I made about Miss Daisy’s photo never made it up on her site. This really gets pretty frustrating when nothing seems to be working correctly! Help~Susan
February 7, 2008 at 6:25 am
So sorry about the Internet problems at your school. I imagine it makes it difficult throughout the school to get any learning done when there are continual network problems.
Kathy K. had a similar problem with her Flickr photo. One suggestion I found on the Flickr help pages was to make sure to include the http:// in the address. This didn’t work for Kathy, so she has contacted Flickr tech support. I’m guessing it is a glitch on their part.
Also, your comment on Daisy’s blog may not have been appearing because she may be moderating comments, which creates a lag time in seeing the comment display publicly.
I often find that libraries start a blog, but then find the time investment is more than they had counted on. Or, sometimes, they never really had a purpose for their blog, so it never takes off. Or it could be that the person behind the blog leaves.
Jessamyn addressed this a bit during her presentation this morning. Her take was that it was okay to decide that a blog has served its purpose, and it may even be a good idea to leave it up so that people could refer back to it, but that you should at least put up a final post explaining that the library has stopped contributing to the blog, but will continue to maintain it on the site. As an example, a blog used to support a One Town/One Book program would certainly have an ending point, but could also serve a purpose remaining on the site. However, if it’s a news blog with the last post being from August of 2005, it’s probably a good idea to take it down.
February 7, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Kathy-did use the http://…. I am trying even when it does not appear to be. For instance, clicked on your name link w/ SEMLS address and spent 20+ minutes typing you an email Tues. and ‘pop 3 server’ or something similar came up in a box instead of going through. When you hit that pop 3 server, that means its not in your sent file so gave up. Same thing happened when I did an email to Vicky Beavers in January-pop 3 server and nothing in ’sent’. Frustrating. Susan
February 11, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Hi Susan,
Does this just happen when you send e-mail to SEMLS? We do have a new e-mail server, but I have heard of any trouble. If you get the message again, can you print it off and fax it to me so that I can look into it further? Or do you think it’s on the school’s end?
Kathy K. did figure out that her trouble with Flickr was caused by a typo in the Endpoint. But I wouldn’t worry about getting that to work now. Feel free to call me if you need any help getting through the assignments. I’ll be in the office everyday this week except for Friday. I’m on vacation next week, but I’m guessing you are too!
June 19, 2008 at 10:51 am
Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation
Anyway … nice blog to visit.
cheers, Forlornly.