Mar
28
The Beginning
March 28, 2007 | | 1 Comment
Welcome!
Off the Shelf is a blog for librarians, teachers, teacher-librarians, and just about anyone who is interested in the changing role of technology in education. Given my current role as a teacher-librarian, I will be taking information in, and trying to apply it to libraries and school library programs. The sidebar on the main page summarizes why I started this blog. Essentially, technology, the Internet, and how we use the Internet is evolving - rapidly. As teachers, I think we owe it to our students to get a good grasp on how things are changing, and change with them! I don’t know that I will ever be ahead of the students in knowing the latest web tools, but I strive to keep pace with them. Students these days are (generally) so comfortable with technology that they can leap right in and learn new applications and tools, but they may lack the knowledge to use those tools safely and to their full potential. This is where we come in as educators! My aim with this blog is to discuss Web 2.0 tools and other relevant technologies, and look at their potential role in schools today.
Specific elements I considered include:
Template: I wanted something that looked clean, simple, and somewhat professional (given that this is a professional blog). I think this is accomplished by the white background and information organized into 3 columns with distinct headings. I did search for a template that allowed me to insert my own photos into the template (i.e. header or sidebars) but was unable to find any.
Title: Blogging isn’t a new concept, and finding that perfect name is a challenge, as many great names are taken already. I am pleased with my choice, Off the Shelf, as I think it communicates the idea of a ‘virtual library’ – references, resources, tools that aren’t found on any shelf, but rather in cyberspace.
Sidebar Widgets: Not that I call them “widgets”, but I gave thought as to what information I wanted on the sidebars. I felt it was important to include a brief intro (why this blog?), in addition to links (blogroll) for other websites worth visiting. Aesthetically, I like the calendar, but it serves a purpose as well (you can click on a date and bring up those postings). The list of recent posts is good to include as a quick reference for your readers, as is the archive. The categories section and search window is another way for readers to search for specific information. Although I haven’t decided what categories to use, I will surely add them later for ease of searching.
Comments: This blog is not just for me! I want to share it with others, and encourage discussion around the topic of technology and libraries. Comments are a necessity, as sharing ideas, concerns, and experiences will create a meaningful discussion. I *do* want the ability to moderate comments, to ensure that inappropriate comments (i.e. completely off-topic, vulgar, spam) are not included.
Privacy: This is meant to be a public blog, as I want to talk with people from the larger web community. As such, I have not taken steps to make this private. I have chosen to keep my personal information private, outside of my name and school district, as I do believe in some level of privacy.
Decision to make a blog: I am comfortable with blogging, and feel it is one of the assignment options that would be useful to me in the future, and one which I could maintain. I did decide to use a different blogging website than I usually do (Edublogs vs. Blogger) to challenge myself – not that this program is terribly difficult, but it is unfamiliar. I also felt that a blog was a good medium in which to discuss this topic.
Problems & Challenges: Choosing to use Edublogs took away my previously acquired blogging comfort zone - I no longer knew how to create and modify a blog the way I had in the past. Edublogs is powered by WordPress, which isn’t quite as straightforward as Blogger. It has been frustrating trying to change font size, and Word Press doesn’t seem to allow inserting images into the Heading or the sidebar (things were badly shifted when I tried). I spentquite some time just thinking of a catchy name for the blog, then became frustrated as so many possible names were already taken. I also experienced ‘writer’s block’ when getting started, as though I couldn’t write anything until I had the thought fully developed and worded correctly.
Expectations: I expected to struggle more with writing the content (10 postings) than the structure, but I wound up spending a lot of time on both aspects. Surpises that came up along the way included my inability to change the template (in Blogger you can alter the template any way you want). I was determined to photos, but everytime I tried, the content in the right sidebar shifted. Another big surprise was how long the process took. Each entry took atleast an hour, usually averaging closer to 2 hours by the time I wrote the entry, found relevant websites to link to, adjust format, then fix tiny technical things that came up. As I was unable to insert a photo, I chose to search for YouTube videos that might ’spice up’ the blog.
Results: I have finished the required 10 postings for the blog, and have put some of my reflection in post #10. Overall, it was a good (but at times frustrating) experience to create this blog. I don’t find this program (WordPress) quite as easy-to-use as Blogger, but it did offer some neat features (having categories, the calendar). I think I will continue this blog, as the issue of technologies and libraries will be ongoing. I do admit my greatest frustration came in the inability to insert photos. Everytime I inserted a photo, the features in the right sidebar shifted to the bottom. Frustrating indeed! I think the experience was worthwhile, though, and think my investigations will lead to great conversations with educators in the future.
Coming Up: The next step with this blog is to continue developing it, and increase the number of visitors and participants in the discussion. I will continue to monitor schools and school libraries that are using Web 2.0 tools and technology, and will include tales of my attempts to do the same.
Comments
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Sounds interesting! I find technology intimidating, and it is always my students explaining tech things to me.