Week Twelve Reflections

LM_NET

            Now that Barnes and Noble has presented its Nook the to world, the great debate has begun, what is the best electronic reader out there? Shonda Brisco writes on LM_NET on November 5^th about some of the research she has found about the Nook vs. the Kindle.  Some library media specialists are looking into the possibilities of using these readers in their collections and are trying to figure out ways of being able to check them out. I believe students would be very interested in electronic readers.  Some would truly benefit from Kindle’s ability to read books to the owner.  Other students would just appreciate the technology and that would be enough to inspire them to read.  I think we  as librarians are going to have to get creative and figure out way to use these in the future.

            Nicole Meintz posted some questions about the Pulitzer and Hugo awards on November 5^th.  Apparently, an 8^th grade teacher in her school has her advanced readers use novels from these categories to study.  The librarian was wondering how appropriate these novels were and if she should have them in the regular circulation.  I read many, many, many young adult novels being a reader teacher but I have to tell you that they are not all created equal.  To this day, The Giver by Lois Lowry is my all-time favorite story and it received the Newberry award but not all of the books that have won the same award are as good in my opinion.  I think with all books added to the collection, the media specialist will have to read reviews and check them out before adding them in.  Just because a book has an award doesn’t mean it must be added to the collection.

 

BLOGS

            On October 22^nd, the Unquiet Librarian wrote about AASL using GoAnimate to advertise the Blogger’s Café.  It seems similar to Animoto but with more animation effects.  I think students could really see value in learning how to use these free applications on the web for school projects. GoAnimate is more advanced than Animoto but I could see students learning about this after-school and creating some amazing stuff!

            Doug Johnson always has some interesting thoughts posted on his blog, Blue Skunk Blog.  Today he wrote about how signs in libraries are too restrictive and how if they were written in a positive tone then more people might be willing to use the resources we have available.  I agree with Johnson.  I think that if students don’t feel comfortable using the libraries then they will continue to avoid them.  It needs to be a place of social learning as well if we are to hook students.