A techno book?

As part of my Sunday morning ritual of reading the Strib, I always make a point of checking out the Target ad (whether I need anything or not.) The gift/technology item that really surprised me was the newest in book technology. It was a Sony Digital Reader "book" for $299.99. ( image courtesy of www.gizmosforgeeks.com)


Basically, it stores up to 160 books, includes an MP3 player, and eradicates the need to print books on paper. You upload the book(s) of your choosing, lets say all seven Harry Potter books, and then you have an easy, digital, portable way of carrying around all seven books to read. (Because who would want to wait until you get home to grab the next book in the series to begin reading? Not those in the instant gratification world!)

It seems like a terrific idea for college students--$300 for the gadget and another $10 to download the book you need for your undergrad? The benefit to this is not having to go to the bookstore, buy the book for $120 that someone else has highlighted, and then sell it back at the end of the term for $30. To me it seems like a plus for the college group, especially when you do the same thing 2-3 times a year with 4-5 books for a course. I know this is designed to be one of those overpriced gadgets you are supposed to buy for the person who you don't know what to buy for, but who really is the market for this? Is it that difficult to carry one book around, let alone needing to carry 160 to choose from?

But are books printed on paper that bad? If as a society we transition from books as we know them now to digital books, will we ultimately lose some form of culture in the end? Will candle stores begin marketing scented candles modeled after the smell of old books, once we've switched over to digital books? I'm interested to know how all the librarians/media specialists/English teachers feel about this.

The Base Line

After learning about databases last week, I am hopeful that they will continue to be used for all research applications. I used to be afraid, very afraid, of databases after many a search turned up to not have useful information for me.

The coolest database, that we have access to at the high school, is the decades site. You can even research newspaper headlines from the paper printed on your birthday! It would make research that much easier for students who are given the task to discover what happened on the day they were born. (As if that wasn't monumental enough!)

And even though we are learning all these tricks to make our searches that much more precise, I still find myself wanting more in terms of results after a search. I realize that there is no search engine that can read my mind and find exactly what I am looking for, but perhaps someday there will be. It would be nice to type something in (such as a recipe for red velvet cake, for example) and not have to filter through all the other gobbeltygook that comes along with the search results (ex: red cake, velvet cake, red velvet, etc.) even when you do use quotation marks to keep things together.

I do have hope, though, after learning about databases that one day searching will be easier and more thorough. Thank you for instilling that hope in me!

Thing 5

I have always been a fan of the public library system, even though I worked at one for only 10 days (one can only sort and shelve books for so much time before it becomes the bane to your existence.)

I am a proud card carrying member of the Carver County Library system, and enjoy looking for books on their website. You can see a book advertised on a TV show (such as Studs Terkel who was featured on the CBS Sunday Morning Show last week), hop on your computer in your jammies as you're watching TV, and request the book to be held for you at your local library. The lazy person in me likes that I can have the book delivered to the library in Watertown, and I don't need to drive all the way to Waconia, Chaska, or Norwood/Young America to pick it up.

Another nifty thing about libraries today is the self check-out system. While the system at the grocery store or Home Depot has a tendency to get stuck and stop working, the library one is very easy to use, and great when there's a line or no librarian to be found. Plus, on those days where one may be feeling a bit anti-social, you can visit the library and get your book without actually speaking to anyone.

What I would change about libraries is to make the online books a bit more interesting. It's great to have access to professional journals, but it would be nice to find a Harry Potter book on there when the wait time is several weeks or months otherwise. I also wish it were easier to use some of the online databases. I realize there is a specific method to accessing the information you need, but I don't want to search through everything. And I guess part of me is too afraid to ask the librarians for help. (They can be kind of scary!)

Thing 4

Following in the footsteps of others . . . I too am not feeling overly creative this afternoon. I've been meaning to blog about Thing 4, so here's my chance! Sorry, it's a bit wordy.

Which customizable homepage did you choose? Why did that one appeal to you? Will you make it your permanent home page?
I chose the iGoogle homepage for my project. Part of what appealed to me with this site is the fact that I can make it look (virtually) however I choose. I love being able to change the images/color spectrum when my moods need to be matched, and I love that I can use gadgets of my choosing. I use Yahoo! as my primary email server, so I only visit iGoogle to check my reader for Mili. Maybe someday I'll use it as my primary, permanent home page.

Did you find a tool that has some uses for you at school or home? Which tool(s) would you recommend to others?
My favorite gadget on iGoogle is the daily how-to. I've actually used it in my advisory to teach students how to make animals out of bath towels. It generally has very crafty stuff on it, but I like how random it can be and how varied the projects are. (I'll be you never realized you can make a wallet completely from duct tape!) If I see anything on this gadget that I think has a further application for my classes, I will usually bookmark it and save for my students.

How can the online calendars be useful to you?
The nice thing about online calendars is that they are usable almost anywhere you are--school, home, work, the library, out of town, etc. Normally, I just use the calendar on Outlook for recording significant events and meetings. But I can see the use of the online calendar for places other than work. I don't think I'll actually begin using other online calendar sites. For 1--I have a calendar as it is. For 2--what happens to all the cute calendars I'll inevitably receive as holiday gifts?

What about the To Do Lists -- helpful? too much work?

I almost always work with a To Do list, but I think the computerized version is one more unnecessary step for something already easy to create. I'll take my scratch paper and pen version any day!

How would you compare and contrast the use of paper-based assignments and assignment notebooks to the potential use of online assignment calculators and to do lists for students?

First thing, what do you do for students without computer access outside of school?

Transitioning into all technology will inevitably leave some students/people behind.

I have used online assignments this year so far, and the students seem to have some difficulty in finding my website, the assignment, or the motivation to do it. I had a student comment last night that he chooses to work on the computer because it feels like he's just playing around and not actually working. Education should be fun, but it also should represent what the rest of the world is like. I know we are becoming more technologically advanced daily, but I think, for the sake of history and all other cultures with writing, we need to continue to have students use their handwriting for other than scrawling on bathroom walls.

iPlanitude

A coworker clued me into a neat website today, especially for any geography classes. It's called iPlanitude.com and it's a compilation of videos from around the world that others can add to, and shows examples of daily life activities. Anyone can add videos to it, and use it free of charge. Right now there are a few videos from Latin America and Tibet you can watch. But the neat thing about it is that they are also looking for students to create short videos about daily life in America to post to the site. It might make for a really neat assignment for those students going somewhere for Spring Break (or even just staying home, too!)

Oh yeah, and the two responsible for this site are teachers here at CHS! Heidi Berbee and Allison Hanson created this site, with two others, in response to other requests from teachers about finding short video clips that show life outside of the US in an interesting way.

Delicious

I'm trying to remember, how do I stick the icon for delicious on my browser on my computer? I can't remember how, and didn't see anything on their FAQs about it. I know I would definitely use it more if I had easier access to it!

Thanks!

Thing 3

Looking at the RPC and other research tools, I think they can't do anything but help students to get more organized and make a better end product. I would say for myself, teaching research is very difficult. Maybe it's because of my age, but when I'm looking for an answer to something, I want it now! Not only that, but I am a huge procrastinator when it comes to projects. I feel that whatever I can do to prevent my students from falling into the same procrastination pitfall is great (and they're still young enough to not get stuck in a bad habit like that.)

At this point, I'm not planning to use the RPC in class as I don't really have any big projects on the horizon. However I do plan to use it when assigning larger projects in the spring to help students get a better idea of what to do.

It's easy in my classes to have our own sort of RPC as students don't have homework (Alt. School philosophy) so it's not depended on the student to do all the planning. But I guess for my planning purposes, it would be a good thing!

How to stay sane? Having more than 24 hours in a day! Seriously, more time to do things would be ideal. It's hard to squeeze all planning and worktime into a short time during the day. I do a considerable amount of work outside of school (as does everyone else) and I still use every bit of prep time for coming up with what's new and fun.