Online Book Communities

Maybe you've heard of Goodreads?  You probably know it as a site that can tell you a synopsis of a book, maybe a place to give you some good reviews?  Did you know that it also is a good place to connect with other people who share your literary tastes? 

Besides Goodreads there are actually four other really good online book communities:  LibraryThing, Shelfari, Booklikes and Biblionasium.  Each site offers basically the same thing:  a virtual bookshelf for books you have read, will read  and are currently reading plus reviews/discussion with people.  Some of these sites are more detailed than the others and offer more bells and whistles, but each of them are great places to become part of an online book community.

Goodreads

Goodreads is an easy-to-use website that looks a lot like Facebook by appearances and actually works with the site.  Once you register your information you can instantly connect with people you know from FB.  It will tell you all the books that your friends have read, are wanting to read or are currently reading now.  I thought that was nice because it is logical to start book talks with people you already see somewhat on a daily basis, versus completely starting from scratch with strangers.

 

 

The home page also has recommendations for you, along with books you can directly link from Amazon.  It has five main tabs:  home, mybooks, groups, recommendations and explore.  My books has a listing of all the books you have told Goodreads you have read.  It shows you your rating, date read and date added.  I tried creating a k-2 shelf and a 3-6 shelf.  I was not completely able to "sort," the books onto the shelves, but perhaps on further investigation I could.  The only way I could see them on different shelves was by "books have read, books will read and books planning to read." 

 

 

 

It also has some helpful links to the left side like:  most read author, stats, recommendations and shelf cloud for multiple shelves.  Groups has multiple groups you can join in with.  Groups in the area, featured groups, official groups, groups who share your same tastes and so forth. 

 

 

 

Explore simply has new releases, featured authors and books  of the month you can look into.  There are also giveaways, reviews, new releases and popular releases of the year.  Simplistic, well-connected and easy-to-use.  Goodreads is my favorite of the five mentioned. 

 

 Booklikes

 

Now for a change of pace.  If you like talking about books you have read and want to have discussions on them, then Booklikes is the place for you.  The homepage is an immediate feed of blogs that members are talking about.  It encourages you to do the same.  Goodreads offers just quick tidbits of what your friends are saying about books they are reading, while this site is offering full-blown discussions on books. 

 

If having lengthy discussions isn't for you at-- least straight off the bat--you can go to the left side and click on a bright green rectangle noted "dashboard" and you can choose other things to do:  shelf, timeline, discussions, friends, book catalog, giveaways, events, book clubs, daily deals and other neat things. 

 

 

Again, I looked into sorting them my way, this time by genre.  I was not able to do that, but I could sort them by "books have read and books planning to read."  It also let me choose if I wanting a "listing format," of the books or just a "bookcovers format" of the books.  I chose the bookcovers. 

 

 

 

 

Although, not initially my favorite, this site could grow on me.  I liked all of the features it had to offer.  Like Goodreads it was simplistic and you could upload video, quotes or text directly to the site.  I found that quite interesting. 

  

 

Library Thing

 

 

Library Thing is not as pretty to look at as either of the other two mentioned above.  When I first looked into it, it made me think of what a working author might like to use.  It has several snippets of things that it offers all on its home page.  While I didn't particularly like it, someone else might. 

 

 

 

 

I looked in the "your books," tab and was able to see a "listing format," and a "covers format."  The listing format was rather busy looking, but had some wonderful links that allows you to:  connect with book reviews, make reviews, connect instantly to blogs on it, see topics that it touches on, see the ratings, buy it through Amazon, Audible, World Cat, bookstores near you, find ratings on it and when it was at its highest in popularity.  There were so many links I found myself lost in it all!  However again... this aspect of the site shows me that a working author could really use some of this information. 

 



 

 

There was one link to the site that I particularly liked.  It catered to my high-interest in trivia.  It gave lots of facts about:  top-rated authors, top-rated books, most-reviewed books, largest libraries and other little-known facts.  I particularly liked knowing that one of my favorite authors was on this site and uses it.  Just knowing that motivated me to check in more.  Another interesting feature was that it allows you to connect locally with people and events happening around you.  You put in your zip-code and it connects you with near-by bookstores and libraries.  It found two events coming up, "Fancy Tea and Fantasy Authors,"  and  Jan Jarboe Russell in January.  While this site was not my absolute favorite.  It is a great site.

 

 

Shelfari

 

This site is sponsored by Amazon.com.  I personally like Amazon a lot.  I'm able to find some great deals on the site so using it in conjunction with an online book community makes sense.  Goodreads is cashing in on the personal appeal through a site like Facebook and Shelfari it seems is cashing in on the material appeal of Amazon and connecting you to books that way. 

 

Again, like all of the other sites, I was only able to sort by "books read," and "books planning to read."  This time the shelf actually looked like a shelf, which I liked.  I could only see my books as a bookcover and not as a list.  There were a lot fewer bells and whistles here.  I could rate the books, link it to a blog and mark it as a favorite or put it on my wishlist, but that was about it.  It is not nearly as complex as LibraryThing. 

 

However if I wanted more options I could click on a tab marked books and see lots of great things that they had to offer.  Really though the Amazon website has a lot of the same things and I didn't find it so different.  When I tried to connect to people through the "community," tab I got an error every time.  I thought that was ironic.  I tried "members like me," and "most active," but still couldn't get through. 

 

All in all I found this site to be pretty good, but not enough to come back to.  Amazon.com offers pretty much everything I need and plus I thought the other three sites were more reliable if I wanted to connect with people to discuss books. 

 

BiblioNasium

 

This site is completely different from all the rest.  This is a kid-friendly site that is password locked for parents, teachers and students.  As an educator I could go in and buy books, obtain reports, make book suggestions to my students, find resources to share with parents, students and colleagues or even set up "book challenges," for my class.  The site is primarily for elementary aged students, perhaps middle school as well.  The previous three would be better for high school. 

 

 







 

 

When I looked in the resources tab I was amazed at how many wonderful links there were.  I liked how it brought so many great resources together.  It linked things like:  reading organizations, book lists like award winners, best of lists, notable articles, fun stuff for kids, lexile connections for parents, places to find book donations and book clubs.  I felt this link alone was the most valuable of all because it was loaded with so many great things that parents could immediately access. 

 

 

I also liked how the main sidebar remained there no matter what page you looked at.  Another thing I particularly liked was that students can see your book shelf and see what books are your favorite and what you recommend that they read. There have been countless times parents have asked me what books I recommend or where they can find certain books.  This site has all of that.   

 

The only thing I thought it lacked was a place for students to talk about books they have read.  It did have a "review," tab, but that was it.  With regards to the age of the user, this is probably for the best.  Literary discussions should most likely happen in class and this site would only be a springboard into such activities. 

 

BiblioNasium is a winner.  It's simple, well-organized, password protected, well-linked and easy to use for parents, students and teachers.  I like it. 

 

Conclusion

 

There are some great sites out there.  Shelfari was my least favorite and Goodreads was my most favorite.  I felt Goodreads had the best balance of links and was the easiest to use.  I also liked that it connected me to friends I already knew for book discussions, whereas the others did not.  BiblioNasium was great as well.  I think in the future it could replace a lot of paper logs I use in class.  It would be beneficial if there was an app for it so that parents wouldn't have to stop and use their computer, but could quickly pull it up on their tablet and fill it in that way.  That was something I didn't see, but overall those were the winners I found.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Podcasting in the Classroom and Library

 

https://soundcloud.com/user288203499/sets/poems

(my podcast on a silly poem by Kenn Nesbitt)

Podcasts are great little audio files that let you hear information when you want it.  They can be used for something as simple as telling about a project or as complicated as a radio show.  In education, they are used in numerous ways. 

There are podcasts devoted to author talks, technology, trends in education, inspiration and thoughts on particular lessons being taught.  Most of the time they are found embedded in blogs, however they can also be found in various educational websites and through podcast media like iTunes or Podcast.com.  What's particularly nice is that once you find a blog you are interested in, you can subscribe to it and listen to it when you want to, whether that be in your car on your phone or on your computer.  Thanks to technology, you are not at the mercy of a radio show time table!   

For students podcasts can be used in equally effective ways.  Students can use them as a way to reflect on what was learned after a unit of study or aid them in research.  They can be used to take notes from if a lecture was missed or be used to record and share authentic musical pieces as well as record and share authentic speeches or recitals of poetry.  Podcasts can also be used from one year to the next, in which students demonstrate to upcoming students what they learned after a particular unit.  Podcasts can be used to share information across the country or across the world.  They also work especially well for auditory learners who do best by listening to information.



Podcasts can also be used with QR codes.  They can be embedded into blogs or downloaded onto a phone or computer.  What's nice about it is that students can display their work, have a QR code with it and then parents and friends can scan it and listen to them tell about their work or project.  It gives a student a new sense of ownership and pride in what they have accomplished, (not to mention of course it is just fun and exciting).

Some of the best tools to create podcasts include:  Soundcloud, Audioboo or Podomatic.  Each of these websites are free and pretty simple to use.  They only record sound and offer no visuals.  As far as hardware, be sure you have a microphone to get the best sound quality.  It can be done without, but you may sound a little muffled and not as clear as you would like.  Another thing that is helpful is to prepare and practice what you are going to say.  You want to be sure that your message is clear and pleasant to listen to.  Nobody wants to hear a rambling, unclear message. Once you have your podcast to your satisfaction, you can publish it to iTunes, Podcast.com or Ourmedia.org.  Be sure to promote it so that others will know about it.  You can do this by posting your URL link of your podcast feed. 

              

   

With some simple instructions and a few lessons a student can be taught how to create a podcast.  If you don't want to get too involved and use QR codes you could just have students download the podcast into their personal e-mail or virtual tech folder and use it in class or e-mail it home for parents to hear.  Start small and have students write up what they want to say about a picture they did.  Have a day to just record the message into one of the above suggested podcast sites and save it into their home drive.  You could take another day to go in and have the kids e-mail it to their parents at home or to siblings.  Once you get the hang of it, the possibilities are endless!  Easy, effective and exciting for kids, podcasts can bring new meaning to enrichment.