My final reflection on LIS629

This course was invaluable as a fabulous source of inspiration. By getting to work "hands-on" I have overcome some of my web 2.0 and future librarian fears I felt before this course. All the tools I used were fairly easy and it's remarkable how graphic and sophisticated most of them were - and all for free! What used to be expensive programs is now shared online. I am even more excited than ever before to share them as these tools are impressive. I really loved them all but my favorites involved multimedia and strong graphics. I loved creating wikis and using Wix and Glogster. Making an avatar was like playing in a sandbox! I was amazed at all the different tools available from Google. I particularly loved all the image generators and can spend hours creating at BigHugeLabs and Flickr. It was fun making an ALA Read Poster and using Amaztype. I can use these image generator tools as a break for students from intellectually-demanding work in the library or near the end of our class as a closing activity. Making my very first presentation using Smilebox in a matter of an hour was something I never would have imagined before this class. I can use Webspiration to entice my visual-learner students. VoiceThread is a perfect place to collaborate with and among my future students. Using their actual voices will make a strong and memorable connection for them. Making my first-ever movie in Photostory was really a blast. Jogtheweb was a simple and automated way to visually represent a Pathfinder of sources for students. I will refer to these hundreds of websites over and over as I become a 21st century librarian!