What Is This Blog -- And Why?

Just in case anyone has stumbled upon this blog unaware, I thought that I'd explain the spark that led to this flame.

Along with several other people, I am in the final days of a summer school graduate class at Rutgers University. The class, taught by Steve Garwood, is designed to introduce and provide a practice ground for using several of the newer Social Information tools, that are largely free (Open Source) over the Internet.

The platform for this blog is free. The class has also created podcasts, worked with Flickr, created wikis, and played some online games.

The experience has been great -- as far as I am concerned. My only regret about my experience is that I took the class during the summer. A summer session does not allow enough time to adequately learn how to use these resources. That was not a shortcoming of Garwood's. It is merely the summer school system.

As it turns out, we have only had time to scratch the surface of what is available in Social Information. I especially want to learn how to create audio-visual blogs or vodcasts.

I do expect to delve into that area further.

This class was taught via screen captures, Camtasia software, and vodcasts.

I intend to continue this blog and the numerous other blogs that I began during this session.
ReadyReadz Wiki
KidReadz Teachers Blog
Dr. Seuss Wiki
My Rainbow World - A Wiki Curriculum
Brer Rabbit Wiki
Brer Rabbit Blog
TeenReadz Wiki
TeenReadz Blog
KidReadz Blog
Caldecott Medals Wiki

Working Through Silence at Rutgers

During this semester, I am taking a class in Social Information. We have read some books that ostensibly have little to do with being a librarian. Yet, on closer inspection the books say much to all of us--even librarians.

Here are a few more of my photographs:
www.flickr.com/photos/jkscils598x08/

I am pursuing my degree online; and I do most of my work late at night. I guess I can honestly say that my best friends are my children, my dog, and my books. Yet, as I did this project, I realized that I have a few more best friends, including the children who I serve as a Children's Librarian, Starbucks coffee, color, my computer--equipped with my gigantic monitor, and art.

The following set, titled "Sounds of Silence," says more about my graduate work at Rutgers: www.flickr.com/photos/organize/?start_tab=set s

You might want to also see photographs taken by my classmates.
www.flickr.com/groups/scils598x08-edexperienc e/