Deborah's "Bugging"* Experience
Journal Entries
(BUILDING URBAN GARDENS*)
for Students




07-08-03

What do you think a digital library is? What did I learn today?

I think a digital library  is a collection of information that is electronically stored and accessed.
Today I learned from the inquiry a few things that I have now forgotten from my previous WIT experience.
I was not dismayed but a little frustrated that some information that I had previously learned has now 
escaped my memory banks. In addition to feeling frustrated, I feel a little excited that I can take a little extra
time and go over that material and refresh my memory. Hurray!!!!

Today, 07.09.03, new materials have been presented, however, it really is a review of  some of the skills that
we will sorely need in order to accomplish all of the tasks that must be acquired for the duration of this class.

The primary material that was introduced was the tools of creating the web page, toggling between two different
sites, linking a web site to another web site, opening pages in Netscape composer and other task.

The most fun part of the day was a more relaxed atmosphere in which we simply worked on the machine and began
to get the feel of doing small tasks such as changing the color of text, and background text.  The Sony machine is like
no other that I have ever touched and it feels so doggone good.

But, learning about digital library systems must have many other attributes other than how good the machine feels.
So, given what has been learned today the most intriguing question is what to do with this new found knowledge. 

 

Today, 07-10-03, was a really good day for productivity.  It seems that some of the previous skills are resurfacing and becoming 

current knowledge as opposed to forgotten past knowledge. One lesson that I enjoyed working on was working with

images. Yes, I previously have worked on locating and playing around with images until a web page had the look and

feel that I was trying to create.  It was more than fun.

 

There are many modes of learning a task. I realized that since I had previously learned how to do this task that it

should perhaps be somewhat easier to learn this time. Yes, I was right but I was also a bit excited at accomplishing a

task that was a relearning experience but also moving at a reasonably decent pace.


07-11-03. We attended the first plenary today. The presentation was on "Passion Curriculium" by Diane Joseph.  It was

well presented and an interesting approach to describe how learning and teaching can be affected by the attitude of teachers and learners alike.  After the plenary we played Jeopardy.  It was fun,  but  it also allowed  the participants an opportunity  to  find out about what they need to bone up on.  My partner and I received a nice reward for winning Jeopardy.  Cool  beans, I'd say.


07-14-03.
 An ideal situation for  a digital library is  to have available enough  computers that  have access  to the internet. Currently,  Neil School is  having  an upgrade to  its  technology department.  The  school  rooms  will all have  wireless
access to the internet.  Also, a digital library with all possible resources of accessibility to digital resources would be great.


07-15-03.
I think that the collection at Neil could really  benefit from the addition of a digital library. Currently, the collection contains the general selection of  monograms, video, reference and practically no audio materials. The library has  a limited number of internet ready computers. However, the school is being made ready for wireless internet access in each classroom.


07-16-03


Todays tasks were easy.The skills that I used (toggling, copying and pasting) were more than useful because I used them
with more speed. Additionally, I used my e-mail easily.  The web searches and browsing was a very good task because I have
been a browser for much of my computer lifetime. Today was a very good productive day.

07-17-03

Todays tasks were the best yet--they do say that the best is still to come!!  The most important accomplishment was the quantity
and quality of work that was achieved.  Again, toggling was a skill that made all of the other tasks so much easier.  As new
urls were located on gardening websites for children, it was just a quick method to toggle back and forth.  Additionally, some other tasks attempted and executed were copying and pasting into the e-mail property for transportation.  Ultimately, all of the work was up-loaded via ws-ftp-95, on my web site. Also, a brand new home page was created all in the name of  gardening for kids.

-How do digital library function in the school library management plan?  The digital library will play a integral part in the
educational role of the school library.The technology in the school is being updated to the wireless format. Therefore, it will be essential to include the digitized collections of digital libraries in the library management plan.


07-18-03

This is the day that I have been waiting for.  The main concept for my digital library has become crystalized and has
gained great clarity in my mind.  The theme for my work is gardening, and I can now visualize an entire unit to create and
finalize this project.


07-21-03

Today is still an exception to the experience that I had when we first began this project.  It is truly exciting to begin to create links, the digital library and inquiry unit for my Digital Library for(experimental)  Gardening. It was also my assignment to present the site of the day topic. The first site visited was the Garfield Park Conservatory. Currently, the conservatory has elected to present limited access to the site.  Therefore, some additional sites were also viewed with well detailed information on gardening projects for kids.




07-22-03
I had a chance to do some prelimanary inquiry unit work.  It will be really great to start the inquiry
unit and answer all of the questions pertaining to teaching  gardening projects for
children.  That is the primary focus of my digital library.



07-23-03

This was a great and very productive day because I was able to work on the inquiry unit and
accomplish a lot of work.  I had a chance to link quite a few interesting web sites on gardening
to my inquiry unit.

07-24-03
 I have very grandiose plans for implementing my project.  However,  because gardening is an activity
that can be very labor intensive I need to be very practicle.  Therefore,  I will have students to become familiar
the  fundamentals of gardening.  This will require a good lesson plan and an opportunity for the students to search
the internet for WIT projects about gardening, and other related web sites as well.  It will be especially helpful for
the staff and students to become familiar with  digital libraries and inquiry units.  

07-28-03

I visited and learned about a great space museum over the last week and will bring information to the
class about it soon.  The space center is located in Indiana and has a great hands on program for groups of
children or families.  One of the topics that was introduced to me via hands on study is "How to feed astronauts
in during space exploration." Currently, Iowa State and Tuskeegee Institute are working on this project.  I located
much  information was available at the Iowa State web site. It was very interesting that the NASA FoodTechnology
Commercial Space Center held a convention last week here in Chicago.  The convention included the competition
on food products that may be used in space.  Todays work at WIT has been very productive. I have perused the
rubic for this section and was able to mentally visual most of what I would like my final WIT 2003 product to contain.
I believe a few more graphics may be  very appropriate for  the home page.