Step 2 -- Grab a blog.

The web2.0 tool that I use is instant messaging. Twenty years ago, I spent 1 to 2 hours a week on the phone with my sister who had moved 1500 miles away. We wrote lengthy letters to each other, and talked on the phone. Even after I got a computer, I used it primarily as a word processor because she didn’t have one. Once she got hers, we used email almost exclusively. Our snail mail was limited to once or twice a year. Then, as we moved from dial up to DSL, we started using instant messaging. She teases me because I continue to write everything in complete sentences and use proper grammar, spelling and punctuation. We email each other about once a week, but chat almost daily. I can’t remember the last time I called her.
I’m excited about learning about and introducing her to new things. I’ve heard of or even lightly used some of these tools, but I would like them to become as second nature to me as the instant messaging.
I was amused by his comment about reflecting. When I first started my career, I used to hate that. Just give me the facts and move on. It seemed like a waste of time. Now that I’m older and more experienced, I appreciate that time for reflecting more. I have developed an understanding of its value.
The second video (The Machine is Us/ing Us) made several important notes on the way that digital text has transformed the way we communicate. The evolution of code has made it so fast and easy to post to the Internet that almost anyone can do it. It has made it simple for the masses to communicate their messages to anyone who wants to view them. That this video spread so fast demonstrates just what I think he was attempting to explain. I found it so interesting that I clicked on and watched An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube.
What do these things mean to me? I fondly remember my librarians from school. Ms. Ritchie was the one who inspired me to be a librarian. Up until then, I’d wanted to be a teacher. I remember snatches of conversations that I had with her many years ago when I was in sixth grade. I have conversations with students daily on an individual basis that I hope are having a positive impact on them. I see many of these tools as an opportunity to have those conversations with many more people: chances to share a reaction to a book I read, chances to share videos I found or articles I read, or discoveries that I’ve made, chances available to me that Ms. Ritchie didn’t have. Web 2.0 provides opportunities to explain things that I don’t always think of when the students are physically here in the library. Rather than report to the library, do their research and leave, they could refer to a website to see other information that was discovered by others at a later time, react to information that they found, view it from a different perspective. These tools allow teachers and students to engage in that critical reflection. I found this website. How accurate is this information? Is this a reliable site? Why or why not? Students can help each other understand why they shouldn’t accept everything that they see online as completely true.