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2 1/2 years ago, Wikispaces committed to giving away 100,000 ad-free, private, unlimited use wikis to K-12 educators. They reached that number this weekend. And are ready to start on the next 250,000! Wow.

250,000 More K-12 Wikis Like the first 100,000, all of our K-12 wikis feature all the benefits of our Plus service:

• full privacy, only the people you allow in can see your wiki
• no advertising, your online classroom will remain ad-free
• unlimited use, as many users, pages, edits, and files, as you like, no limits
• a customizable look and feel, so you can make it feel like home

Share Your Wikispaces in Education Story: Have a great story about how you’ve used Wikispaces? Share it!

If you’ve been hearing about open source software and wondering what all the buzz is about, then don’t miss Karen Schneider’s great article in School Library Journal: Free for All: Open Source Software.

So what is open source software (OSS)? It’s software that is free in every sense of the word: free to download, free to use, and free to view or modify. Most OSS is distributed on the Web and you don’t need to sign a license agreement to use it.

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It’s not too late to join in the All Together Now Learning 2.0 program that started this week. It’s being led by Michael Stephens of Tame The Web.

Free, fun, you’ll learn a lot, you’ll connect with new colleagues. The program will cover 12 topics over the 6 weeks. Join in, have some fun and learn.

To sneak a peek and see who’s already signed up, check out the lists of participants.

p.s. This is being run by School Library Journal, but it’s not just for school librarians!

Hey there, all you school librarians!! Don’t miss this chance to participate in the School Library Journal’s 2.0  learning program and explore the world of 2.0 tools and learning.

The program, All Together Now: A 2.0 Learning Experience, is free and starts Monday July 21.  This is a self-guided program, but you’ll have lots of company to share your ideas and experiences with.  And Michael Stephens of Tame the Web will be offering guidance and advice throughout the program via a blog.

The program wraps up in early September, just in time for you to put your new skills and ideas to work during the school year.

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7/21/08 - NOTE: To get started visit the program’s blog

In something for nothing Aaron Schmidt explains how his library is using Zoho Creator for a handy and effective summer reading program sign up form that is embedded on the library’s web site. After the kids sign up, they’re taken to a page where they can download a reading log and get other info about the program. Very cool. Could be used for many other types of sign up. Free, simple, easy, effective.

As Aaron said: “I’m all for making library services easier to use, but making people’s lives easier is an even better goal.” Couldn’t agree more.

One of the things I love about traveling all over to teach is hearing about new projects and ideas from the library staff in my classes. I always come back with a bunch of scribbled notes on pieces of paper that eventually sift out of my notebooks, folders, pocketbook and who knows where in my suitcase.

So here are the notes that have surfaced from last week’s trip to CT:

• Mystery on Pine Street - Wacky, fun, stop-motion claymation style video created by kids at the Cornwall (CT) Free Library as part of their 2007 Summer Reading Program.
• Forman School Library - Short audio book teasers to encourage summer reading. The mp3 files are stored on their wikispaces account and presented with an embedded audio player.
• Writers Club - Norwalk (CT) PL - Great project had kids reading their own riddles, writings and offering book reviews. They’ve used the handy playtagger audio player that comes from del.icio.us. Nice simple way to embed an audio player on a regular web page.