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We’re having a great and productive day here at Nioga Library System in Lockport NY. We’ve spent the morning sharing ideas about using 2.0 tools in libraries. Everyone shared what they’ve been doing in their libraries, their successes and challenges. Suggestions and ideas have been flying like rapid fire. Lots of the ideas are (or will be soon…) on the class wiki page.

After all the idea sharing, everyone outlined what project they want to work on this afternoon. In some cases this turned out to be something different than they had planned on doing when they arrived. All are real world projects that they’ll be able to use back in their libraries and communities.

And since I brought toys to play with, Lorraine decided to test out my Flip video cam. Here’s her quick test video. We’re having fun and getting some boot fashion tips too!

Top Tools for Learning is an invaluable list of 100 learning tools compiled from the contributions of over 150 educators who each submitted their top 10 tools for learning. The top tools include del.icio.us, Firefox, Google Reader, Skype, Wordpress and Audacity. From the list, click on the names of the tools for useful comments from the contributors.

While you’re at this site, be sure to check out 25 Tools: A Free Toolset for Learning 2008, which includes a page of learning activities for each tool.

As if that wasn’t enough good stuff, there’s also the Directory of Learning Tools with information on more than 2,000 tools organized into 40+ categories.

All of these are from Jane Hart who blogs at: Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day.

Flip Video has committed to giving away 1 million Flip Video cams to qualified non-profits to help them tell their stories. Check their guidelines to see if your library or organization qualifies.

Pure Digital Technologies announced the Flip Video Spotlight program in September 2007 at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. We imagine the impact that video would make if every nonprofit organization had a camcorder to tell the world about problems that need to be solved, opportunities that need to be seized, abuses that need to be corrected, and people who need to be extolled.

The Program will distribute Flip Video Ultra camcorders. These are easy-to-use, high-quality devices with on-board software to enable editing, organizing, and video publishing through AOL, YouTube, MySpace, and other popular video sharing sites.

I just ran across the California 2.0 Curriculum Connections wiki. It has some great ideas for using 2.0 tools in the K-12 curriculum. The wiki is a part of the California School Library Learning 2.0 project.

Another great repository of curriculum ideas is the Classroom 2.0 wiki.

You’ll find these and a selection of other resources for school librarians in the School Library section of my wiki.

Friday night, 10pm. School librarians who’d been working all week, then attended a Friday night, 4pm-9pm training session that was continuing all day Saturday. Yet here they are, at 10pm still playing with their computers and showing each other all the great stuff they’ve been working on. Eventually they did join us for a glass of wine in the next room, where the talking and swapping of stories and ideas continued. Wow, what a group! Thanks guys for a whirlwind of a weekend retreat. See you next time! The link to the workshop page: Inquiry meets 2.0

I’m sorry I had to cancel my T-mobile hotspot account today (and no it had nothing to do with Starbucks canceling their contract with tmobile!). I’ve used T-mobile for nearly 4 years now. Never had any reason to call customer service or support. The service always worked as promised and billing was never a problem. In an attempt to consolidate some of my communications services, I’ve opted for a Verizon broadband card for my laptop, simply because that’s who I have for my cell phone service. Though I did reconsider during the multi week hassle of activating the Verizon card.

Back to T-mobile. When I called them today, I really expected to spend ages canceling the service and to get a barrage of questions and pressure to stay with them. Though they did suggest that I could have used their broadband card for my laptop, the service agent was most pleasant and did not pressure me. The whole process was, in fact, painless! No long phone tree menu of choice after confusing choice to get to the right person. The first person I spoke to was able to help, was friendly and efficient. If ever I need to change services again, T-mobile will be top of the list.

Thank you!