Reflection

Since I began my study of Web 2.0 earlier this semester, my use of the Web has definitely changed. I had previously used various aspects of Web 2.0 such as Library Thing and Facebook, but I now use other tools and technologies that I hadn't tried or even heard of in the past. I now use Delicious to bookmark my websites. Using Delicious is much more effective for me because I am able to tag all of my chosen sites and even place them into various categories called stacks. Another tool that I plan on using is Blogger. Through my use of Blogger in this class, I have realized how much information and resources are out in the blogging world for teachers. I hope to create my own blog for this purpose very soon as well. Also related to blogging, I plan on experimenting more with kid-friendly blogs that i could potentially use in my future classroom. I find myself being constantly amazed at how the Web is ever-changing and always try finding ways that I can use the various aspects. The Web is definitely becoming more personalized, interconnected, and useful in my everyday life

Library Thing

I've been using Library Thing for quite some time and am constantly impressed by how efficient and easy it is to use. With the use of tags added by Library Thing members who have actually read the books, it is easy to search for and find books relevant to the specific topics you are interested in. When viewing the information page for a certain book, such as The Book Whisperer in the included link, I am able to determine what the book is about. The tag cloud, group of tags added to describe the book, shows what words the users have chosen and how many users chose those descriptors. The larger the font size of the tag, the more the tag was chosen. By looking at the tag cloud for The Book Whisperer, I am able to see that the top tags associated with the book are educationl, literacy, professional development/reading, and reading instruction. Having read the book, I believe that those tags would be appropriate for the book, but I feel as if classroom or children's books/literature could tagged more and, therefore, larger in font size in the tag cloud.


http://www.librarything.com/work/8040673