A final thought

I am so greatful to the ALSC Technology Committee for giving me a "kick in the pants" to try some of these 21 things and for opening my eyes to possibilities. I try to be open to change and to at least be aware of new things. I am so busy though, and I usually don't put time aside to play. This class has given me a "legitimate" reason to play. I will have to begin putting some of the new things I read about in journals on my RTM account and continue to schedule time to play!

I don't have time to play games, but...

My kids play online games all the time. The biggest problem I have with the games, besides not having time to play, is how some of the games try to lure kids into a monthly subscription. Club Penguin is a good example of this. You can only do so much with the free version. My nine year old has subscribed to Club Penguin several times for a month. She always gets bored of it after a few days. Then it is always a trial finding out how to cancel the subscription so I don't have to keep paying $6 a month for a game she isn't using. Six months later, she rediscovers it and wants to subscribe again.

This being said, I love all of the free opportunities online for kids to practice reading and math in the guise of playing a game. I love all of the opportunities for kids to develop thinking and creative problem solving skills through gaming. I love the opportunities for learning to work cooperatively through games. This past summer, we began circulating ds games and hosted some share play days where we supplied the games and kids bought their ds. All of the games we supplied were single card-multiplayer games. It was a blast. We also had Scratch classes for kids in fourth grade and up to give them the opportunity to create their own computer games and share them with other kids online. And just think, when I was in library school in 1991, there was this cool new thing called the internet...

Remember to Remember The Milk...

I like the idea of RTM for keeping track of things at work. I am often multitasking and moving from thing to thing at lightning speed. I often verbally passing out tasks and expect my staff to think as quickly as I do. Inevitably mistakes are made. Like today when I am stuck on the YS Reference Desk on a beautiful Saturday because I forgot to make a schedule change for a staff member going out of town. Now, the only problem I see is remembering to put things in RTM. I do not have a smart phone or a blackberry, etc. If I am forgetting to write things down, I can't see myself putting them on RTM. Still, as a busy YS manager, mother of two with a new dog, it's worth a try.

Google Docs, Zoho, etc.

I had been aware of Google Docs and had even recommended it to young people, but I didn't really realize it's potential until after seeing the clip you referenced. Then, you blew my mind away with adding Zoho and the other options. I love Zoho! I am going to begin to use it at home. We have had lots of trouble with students using our Microsoft office suite on our computers and then losing documents because they ran out of computer time and didn't save their document to a thumb drive. I love that they can save everything online and convert the document to the format that they need to access at school. I will also be sharing the idea of using zoho and google docs with our local school librarians. I feel like have stepped out of Plato's "cave."

Catch-up time/weeks 6 & 7

Weeks six and seven I chose to "coast", since I was basically familiar with the subject matter. I have taken many webinars and am familiar with podcasts. You tube and I have a love hate relationship. When the kids are using it after school and mucking up the bandwidth, I would like to ban it. Still, when we had an "Avatar, the last Airbender" party this summer when the movie came out, the kids loved using it to see the voices behind the cartoon characters. I am aware of book trailers and have shown them to kids, but have not yet made any. That is on our department's "to do" list in our copious spare time "cough cough." I appreciated learning about vimeo and the other more specialized sites. I looked briefly and will kep them im mind for the future. Ahhh, back on track and it is the last week. I made it!

I am not a fan of instant messaging...

I use it reluctantly on Facebook. If I want to talk to someone, I call them. As a busy Mom, I don't have time to stop and chat when I am online. I see the value though...

GoodReads is great, but what about COPPA?

I have been on GoodReads for several years but did not really use it until the past six months or so. I enjoy the Mock Newbery group, and it is helping me keep track of the myriad of kid's books I read. The problem I have with GoodReads, all social networking sites really, is the terms of use concerning COPPA. According to this law, social networking sites cannot collect personal information about children under 13 without parental permission. Social networks have found that the easiest way to comply with COPPA is to merely ban kids under 13 from using their site. This technically gets them off the hook legally, but does not really address the real issue of use by children under 13. I an seeing younger and younger children using Facebook to communicate with family and friends and to play games. Sometimes they are doing it with their parent's permission, sometimes not. These sites to not effectively block kids from using them, and even encourage kids to lie about their age. As a youth librarian who spends most of her time serving kids under 13, I want a "GoodReads" that they can use.

If a library is using Library Thing to allow patrons under 13 to review a book in their catalog, aren't they violating the terms of use? I am definitely not arguing the validity of the way social networks use terms of use as a way to avoid assuming any responsibility for under 13's using their site. Neither COPPA or social networks are "getting it right."