Activity 6 Information Literacy: Putting it all together.

I am an escapist. As I read through Heather's multiple findings I must admit to entertaining the idea (more than once) to clap my hands over my ears and make noises to avoid "hearing" any more information on the health risks of my cell phone. I realize this kind of behavior can be dangerous, but I prefer living in a world with a silver lining. As I have recuperated from this information overdose, I realize that I can take this information and use it to my advantage. I can easily store my phone in a place away from my body and I can limit the time I spend using it.
In my findings on recycling and packaging I have made some decisions. However, I also ran into the problem of information overload. Within the overwhelming amounts of information I found; alternate ideas were expressed often. There is a landfill crisis, there isn't a landfill crisis. Recycling is expensive, benefits of recycling outweigh the cost. Each article was backed with information and statistics, so at first I was left feeling a little bewildered. In my continuing search for information about being a more informed consumer, I know that there are things I can do to make less of an impact on the environment. I think everyone agrees that garbage isn't pretty, it looks and smells bad. So whatever I can do to lesson the amount of garbage that my home produces, the better. I do support my local recycling program, however they do not accept glass, so I have been throwing my glass away. Glass takes, approximately, one million years to break down. I will now save my glass containers and take them to a receptacle. I have already purchased my own reusable bags ($1.99 at Kohl's and less if you a percentage off coupon, which my mom usually does). I am also looking into creating my own compost.
When Shopping, I will look for recyclable packaging, larger packages v. individual packages, bulk foods and organic foods.
Bibliography:
1. "Curbside Recycling - Earth911.com." Earth911.com - Find Recycling Centers and Learn How To Recycle. 30 Mar. 2009

2. McConnell, Rita. "What’s in Your Garbage? | Neutral Existence LLC." Stop Global Warming | Neutral Existence LLC. 19 Apr. 2009

3. "Recycling Facts - A Recycling Revolution." Ask.com Search Engine - Better Web Search. 30 Mar. 2009

4. "Shipping and packaging articles." Home Page: California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB). 19 Apr. 2009

5. "Tammy the Turkey's shoppers' check list." Tiki the Penguin's home page - for kids and for the planet. 19 Apr. 2009

Activity 5 Information Literacy: Renewed Search Strategies

As with the person searching for more information about wireless usage and health concerns. I found a lot more information, but in my search, the information I found through the library was much more intensive. Many of the terms were scientific,and not as easy to relate to or understand as the articles I found just searching the web.
I also got several hits for lesson plans rather than real life scenarios. As I continue to find and investigate the matter of curbside recycling, I have decided to change my focus a bit. I chose this scenario because I am interested in doing what I can to help the environment, however, the area where I live is already involved in a recycling program and I have recycled for a long time. The research that I have done so far, however, got me thinking about what I could do in addition to the environmental practices I am already involved with. So at this juncture I am going to focus on consumer environmentalism. I want to know what choices I can make to help reduce what I am already recycling or reusing.

One Last Thing

My first thought is, I hope it's not the last thing. I hope that even though I have completed "the list" I will continue to discover new things that are available online. I have been pleasantly surprised by this discovery tool. I cannot believe how many different things we were able to learn about. I really enjoyed flickr, wordle, great reads, and actually using a blog! The only thing that I came away feeling frustrated with is that there just isn't enough time in the day. I often found myself getting caught up in "playing" and not quite focusing in on the assignment. Unfortunately, many of these tools, in order to be widely used need to be "played" with in order to figure them out. I did find several dead links, but there were always alternative links to try.

Activity 4 Information Literacy

In looking back at the “cell phone” issue, I felt that the person researching the problem followed a logical sequence. She voiced concern about the video and made a decision to find out more information. She found, through YouTube, that the popcorn commercial could not be recreated. At that point she decided to find sites with information that would have a more credible background. Through this search she found a snopes report and a video produced by CNN. At this point she still had questions that she wanted to work out….and the search continues.
Through my own search I have found that implementing a curbside recycling program would encourage a higher level of recycling participation. Before beginning a program several items need to be given consideration, is there an attached fee to participants, what materials will be collected, will bins be made available, how will information be given about the program, etc.
Some citizens may balk at the idea of having to participate, would the program be voluntary or mandatory? Either way, what kind of information will encourage citizens to participate? Facts about waste lifespan, landfill capacity and pollution may help reiterate the need for recycling.
At this point I feel like I have a base level of understanding of what goes into preparing for a community recycling program, but I need to organize my thoughts and facts into a cohesive unit. Also, I know that recycling has enemies. Citizens who want the choice about what to do with their garbage, I struggle with this because of my own personal views.

Activity 3 Information Literacy

There are a lot of sites that offer information about recycling. My first find provided several tips for how to begin a curbside recycling program. The information within this site gives many practical ideas about how to start up a recycling program. Other sites that I found of interest were created by cities who already participate in a recycling program, colleges and universities, and environmental agencies or groups.
Most groups do seem to have an agenda, these individuals and groups want to provide information to help people see the importance of recycling. They have done this by providing information about what goes on when we don’t recycle (An aluminum can, can sit around for 500 years!) and what we can do, individually, to help.
In this initial search I found universities, political groups, environmental groups and concerned citizens who had put together research about recycling, with funding coming from those same groups.
A lot of facts were given about the need for recycling and the detriment to our environment when garbage is thrown away. There were also lots of announcements about starting new recycling programs and how to encourage participation and knowledge within these programs.
"Curbside Recycling - Earth911.com." Earth911.com - Find Recycling Centers and Learn How To Recycle. 30 Mar. 2009
"Recycling Facts - A Recycling Revolution." Ask.com Search Engine - Better Web Search. 30 Mar.
In comparing my search with the search about cell phone use I found that we followed some similar patterns. We began by looking for related information and from there, accurate and viable information. The difference I found was that the cell phone research was being done to discredit something they had found on the internet/T.V., while my topic seemed a little more grounded. Most people realize that there is a valid need for recycling.
The cell phone researcher found information through YouTube, CNN, and snopes.com. After finding this information she still had questions about health issues that might arise from cell phone use and the “safety” of radio waves.

Wordle

This was fun to play with I'm not sure how I would incorporate it in the classroom. I can see that there are ways to create tags that are links to other sites which might be a fun way of connecting information.

How about YouTube?

This was a great exercise for me. As a mother I have a very paranoid vision of what YouTube is. My children are not allowed on YouTube, but every once in a while they come home and have a particular video that they've heard about at school. So then we go together and find out what it's all about. So, until today that summed up my YouTube experience. I still have some concerns, for example I couldn't find a way to determine whether a video was appropriate or not without actually watching it. All of the videos I saw were fine, but how can you tell without making a mistake? Also, unless you know exactly what you're looking for the search process can be extensive. So, with that out of the way, I was pleasantly surprised. I watched a very informative piece about the lack of clean water in Africa. I also found several videos about teaching reading, books being read, author interviews and author readings. I had no idea there were so many options within YouTube. One other drawback I noticed was that some of the videos aren't very well done. In using clips, as a librarian, you would just have to make sure everything was carefully checked before hand. I chose the video below because, as a librarian, I thought it was funny. I also thought it might be a clip I could use when introducing book care at the beginning of the year.

No cookies?

Learning 2.0 week 9 continued

Today I also took a look at biblio, imcooked and last.fm. I felt like "biblio" would be a good resource for librarians. This would be a good resource for searching out hard to find texts. "imcooked" was interesting from a personal stand point, but I am really impatient and unless it's something I'm really interested in I don't have the time to watch other people cooking. "last.fm" was my favorite and I am now listening to my newly created musical library, but again I'm not sure how that would apply to the library.

I like it!

Ok. I'm impressed with how simple it was to post my document to my blog. I also think that by creating the document within a word processor, there would be several more options available.

Learning 2.0 - Online Applications and Tools

This week we were introduced to online applications.  I know that I have been in a situation when the computer I created a document on and the computer I wanted to use it on were not compatible.  Having an online application seems very practical.  I'm going to attempt to embed this particular document into my blog.  Then I'll decide if this is all it's cracked up to be.

RSS- so simple!

I am continually feeling inundated by the amount of information, usernames and passwords that I am adding every time I click into learning 2.0. However, I hope that the RSS feeds will work for me. I feel bad when my sister asks if I've seen something new on her blog and I haven't. Now I should get a little nudge that lets me know when she's posted something new. I would like to know if setting up a little "alarm system" is possible or do you have to check your bloglines account?

Good Reads

I hope it's ok, my sister already belonged to Good Reads so I did that site instead. I believe the purpose and tools are very similar to Library Thing.

Rollyo

I can see how this could be very helpful, however, is it much different than bookmarking? or creating a blogroll on your blog?

Photo Generator

Fun! I really liked playing around with this one. Once again I've spent way too much time messing around. I forgot to set my kitchen timer.

Activity 2 Information Task

I was surprised by how gullible I was. I had seen the original cell phone popcorn party and just thought "Wow!" I never questioned the integrity of the experiment and possibly worse, I never considered the health risks if the experiment were true.
In reading through the different scenarios, I decided to focus on the idea of trying to implement a mandatory curbside recycling program. This particular topic is of interest to me for a few reasons. One, I have been recycling for several years, well before family and friends around me. I started with bins in my garage and once a month I would haul my bins to the local recycling center. This job was a huge pain, especially during the winter and my garage was always a mess with overflowing bins. Two, the city where I live, recently implemented a mandatory curbside program, which caused some concern for many citizens. I was thrilled because I no longer had to make those cold, Saturday morning trips. The more I recycle, the more I realize the many other things that I could be doing to help the environment. I am hoping that through this activity I can find other ways of beefing up my own recycling program. For example, I know that there is more to recycling that simply throwing the cartons in the right bin. What kinds of containers are best to buy originally? What are some ways that I can reuse materials that I already have? Is the mandatory program working? Are we seeing a difference in the amount of waste that makes it into our landfill? As I began to think of this topic I got a few ideas for how I might begin a search; "reduce, reuse, recycle", recycling programs, reusing ideas, and city recycling programs. I started with "reduce, reuse, recycle" and found a kid friendly site through the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; There were lots of definitions and examples that would help define what recycling is and how it can help the environment. I then tried to find information on recycling programs and how they are working. Logan city offered information on their program, but no statistics for how it is working. Reusing items can be a big part of recycling and the following site gave lots of ideas for household reusing;
In order to discuss the implementation of a recycling program I would want to know basic recycling facts and have some information regarding other recycling programs. Environmental Green offers a variety of facts about recycling, how it is helping and what more we need to do. I think this would be a good place to start.

Activity 1 Information Literacy

As a student and teacher in today's world, I feel that information literacy is incredibly important. We are surrounded by a massive amount of information and if we don't have the skills to find, organize and use the information it won't do us any good at all. I often find when I search the internet I become unfocused and I get easily distracted. I finish a late night of homework realizing that I haven't accomplished any of the tasks that I began the session with. The problem isn't finding information, but how to manage the information that you find. During this stage it becomes necessary to weed out information that doesn't match my needs or isn't accurate or even being able to identify which source is providing the best information that is available. Because of this it is imperative that students are aware that there are many avenues that are available to them. The web offers a variety of different search engines that enable a searcher to be more specific in their query, resulting in information that will be best suited to the individual's needs. Students also need to know that the internet isn't the only source they can go to for information. Students need to be aware that there are many resources in books, magazines, and even people.

Wiki

It was fun to go through the different wiki pages. However, now I feel a little confused. Several of the pages that I looked at felt more like blogs than pages of an encyclopedia. It was also interesting to note that one of the great things about wikipedia is that anyone can share information and that the one draw back is that, anyone can share information. A few of the sites that I went to had security measures in place. Comments had to be previewed or e-mail address had to be given before information would be posted.
I can definitely see how a wiki could be useful within a library. In fact I'm still trying to figure out the best way for my students to comment and I wonder if a wiki page would work better than a blog. Anyone with thoughts on that?

And this is where I get into trouble

I finally figured out how to "flickr" spell and now it really bugs me that it isn't "straight", but it is definitely past my bedtime.

Did I do it?

On Flickr

Flickr

Well I gave flickr a try. I have used Snapfish in the past and it seems similar. It makes me a little uncomfortable having my families photos open to "everyone" so I uploaded some pictures of my dogs. I tried giving them specific tags so that I could find them through flickr's search, but I couldn't get my pictures to show. Any ideas on what I'm missing?

Step Number 2

I really like being able to work through this list of tasks. I'm sure that has some kind of psychological meaning about my personality. This is my first year teaching in the library. Previously I have taught second, seventh and sixth grade.