Since I first started blogging back in 2006, and following the thought leaders in Web 2.0 in education and libraries, I have also tried to encourage school libraries and teacher librarians to become leaders who develop a Creative approach to Web 2.0 Learning.
From very early on I have been inspired in Library 2.0 thinking by Michael Stephens, Joyce Valenza, Kathryn Greenhill, and our own teacher librarians, like Jenny Luca, Frances Manning, and all the other wonderful thought leaders listed in my Lib Bloggers collection.
So back in my own school after my stint as Education Consultant, it was time for me to roll up my sleeves and and get on with it.
As part of our National Literacy and Numeracy week activities, we launched our own Simply Books Website!
With the help of our Second Life friend and fab consultant Jo Kay, we have a very Web 2.0 online presence which is actually blogs, wiki, and much more – branded for St Joseph’s College.
Our focus is to promote reading and good literature, as well as providing links and information about quality approaches to boys reading education!
By sharing our passion for books and reading, it is our mission is to transform boys into lifelong readers.
Simply Books blog promotes our library’s work! Students Say blog promotes the kids work! Simply Books Wiki stores information, promotes our main activities, and will also be the home of our online Readers Club so that parents can join in with book discussions – lots of our families are anywhere but in Sydney as we are a boarding school!
Best of all, we are blending lots of Web 2.0 tools – Flickr, Delicious, Twitter are active and linked to the site – soon to be added is our own SimplyBooks YouTube channel with our first video. Our Library Thing site is still to be developed to promote best reads (easier than sending out reading lists) and much more.
This is the beginning – and our hope is that Simply Books will grow in scope and interactivity in the coming year!!!
Congratulations Judy. This is a fabulous site. Well done.
This is fantastic, Judy, and brings everything together. We have various things about reading and library activities on our intranet, but it could be improved in terms of layout and Web 2.0 applicatons.I might speak to my people about some of your ideas. I’m looking forward to meeting you during the PLP program.
Judy, that is a terrific site – well done. Is this something I can link to in my news posts on my litblog, or would you rather it was promoted strictly amongst librarians? It’s very well done. (Read about it on Kathryn G.’s blog).
Congratulations Judy. This is a wonderful composite of so many brilliant ideas coming together with Web2.0 tools. I will be following what you are doing with great interest and will certainly be passing on the Simply books website link to my staff.
Hi Judy,
Looks great – and I’m sure the boys will love it – great ideas there for the rest of us…maybe a competition between schools???
Congrats!
Hey Jude,
Looks wonderful I personally am always on the lookout for a good read and would love to follow and join in the discussions which occur through the love of books.
Congratulations