I've had a rough few days!

I went into this class with the mindset that I would do whatever it took to get a good grade, but it seems like things aren't working out for me. I ended up in the hospital with kidney issues, and got a little behind. Then I ended up having an emergency surgery that set me even farther back. I don't feel well, and am on tons of pain and other meds right now. Plus, I have to have another surgery next week! I am hoping that I can continue to manage, but am not so sure! Wish me luck!

Wiki Assignment

I decided to use my school's libary for the Wiki assignment. RRMS is a middle school in the Griffin, GA area. We serve about 650 students, most of whom come from low to middle SES homes (we are majority free/reduced lunch). At this time, all of our students are first-lanugage English speakers. In addition to the students, the library serves about 50 faculty and staff members. Our librarian has been out this week, so I was unable to discuss the current budget with her. I was able to speak with the aide, and she stated that, while she was unaware of the exact amount, that it was very low and not nearly enough to cover necessities. She also stated that the budget had been cut every year for the past few years. I think it would be a natural assumption to state that if the library were to use a wiki, it would need to be either free or very low cost. The library currently has several computers with internet access, but that is the extent of the use of technology. The RRMS library would almost certainly not meet the definition of Library 2.0! The main goal for the wiki would simply be to keep the faculty, students, and parents apprised as to what is going on in the library. The blog could be used to update new book/product arrivals, to update any changes in hours, to post book reviews, and information about the book clubs, yearbook staff issues, and newspaper, all of which are handled through the library.

I used the wiki matrix to compare/narrow down my choices for wiki's. Although the search returned several, I decided to focus on two: Netcipia and @wiki. Both were very comparable. They are both completely free, are designed for English speakers, have no topic restrictions, and offer unlimited bandwith quota. They also both offer a page history, WYSIWYG, and neither offer corporate support. Both seem as though they would fit the needs of a basic, free/low cost wiki that would be user friendly. I might choose the Netcipia over the @wiki, as it has a few additional features that may or may not be useful, such as PDF/XML exporting, offers a print-friendly view, and offers section editing.

I have spoken briefly with our media specialist about the topic of the class, and she has asked if I would share some of the things that we cover in class. I definitely intend to share this with her, as I think it would be a neat thing to do. I think that our students might really enjoy it as well.

Still Trying to Keep Up!

Well, since the weekend ended, I'm having a harder time keeping up. My son's baseball team played what should have been his last game Saturday, but the team won, and so now we have to keep playing till we lose! We have had games both nights this week, and have another on Thursday. I am hoping to get caught up (although I'm not sure that's entirely possible) tomorrow.

I still need to work on making sure both of my RSS feeds are correct. I also need to do the discussion comparing the RSS feeds. I am still confused about this one, and if anyone has any input, it would be greatly appreciated! I also created a wiki, so I need to go back and redo that! Tomorrow is going to be a long night!

Where Did My Weekend Go?

I spent the majority of my weekend reading documents and watching vodcasts/listening to podcasts for the course. Whew! I am still not sure that I completely understand everything that I read, but I feel as though most of it is coming along (especially the concepts about Library/Web 2.0, blogging, wiki's, and social software. I'm still a little confused about the RSS Feed, so my goal for tonight is to master that!

On the other hand, the sheer volume of information/course requirements is quite overwhelming. I don't mind doing the work, but I am afraid that I may end up overlooking something!

This is New to Me!

Although I have little experience (other than Facebook) with using social software and other technology discussed in the class readings, I am looking forward to learning a great deal!