IPL Thing #1 Blogging

Hands on Activity
The IPL Learning Community provides a "sandbox site" where you can post to your own experimental blog. The "sandbox" is so-called because it is cleared out and returned to its basic settings every 24 hours (thus you can "play in the sandbox" without having to establish a permanent blog.)

IPL 15 Things Hands-On Activity: visit the IPL Learning Community's blogging sandbox site and practice creating your own blog entries. Additionally, you can practice making a "comment" on other people's blogs.



REFLECTIONS:
The sandbox site link was not working properly but I eventually found the blog. I registered, created a profile, wrote a blog post, and commented on other people’s blog.
http://ipl2.cci.fsu.edu/community/blog.php?u=2193

Blogging for Resources:
Blogs are a great way to provide up to date information on topics, themes, or resources for particular school projects students are researching. I created a PowerPoint presentation on how to prepare for a science fair project but information continously gets updated or better resources may come along. Blogging allows librarians to show and indicate to students which sources they may want to use on the Internet or databases and why so that they can in return make their own decisions based on the examples.

Blogging to Review:
The Martin County Library System offers teens the opportunity to gain volunteer hours or possibly win an iPod Touch if they submit book reviews to the Teen Blog: http://mclsteenbookreviews.wordpress.com/ This allows students to see what their peers are reading and what they liked and did not like.