Whew! What a learning curve for me. In thinking about the questions regarding what I learned, etc., I think I have pretty well covered my experiences and my new knowledge (pretty much everything!) in my blogs. I realize my blog is very boring right now because it is only about 23 Things, but I hope to do better shortly. It has been a crunch with other work related deadlines to complete 23 Things itself.
This experience has led to interesting conversations in the workspace, the sharing of tips for accomplishing tasks, debates about some of the sites and the useful of some of the tools and software. Recently, we also had a lot of laughter at a staff meeting as we shared some interesting and possible X-rated snafus while we searching in various areas, such as blogs themselves, technorati and Youtube. We also did have serious discussions about how we are sharing information, how different staff members are utilizing the information to organize and facilitate their work and the realization that it really took a community for most of us to work with the technology that was new to us. I think that these experiences alone are amazing in a workplace.
I think my utube video sums up my sense that there is so much out there and change will be so quick that I wonder how I will keep up. There is also a question I raised in blog about the library's role, if any, in helping teachers keep up so they can help their students to not just use these sites and tools to find the latest crazy video, but also other information that will be important for school, jobs, life. Hearing stories from my daughters and having the help of one daughter with this project has made me realize they really are in a very different place from myself in availing themselves of technology, willingness to experiement and experience in computer and technology use. However, even this dinosaur has been helpful to my teacher daughter as she has learned new things along with me. She just told me that as she now knows about RSS, she has added some feeds to her school webpage that will be helpful to her students and will be using some of the other tools also. YEA! There is still hope for me and I need to find time to play and use what I've learned and set up!
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Week 9, Thing 22; Overdrive
I have been a slacker about investigating audio books or ebooks because almost all my pleasure reading is done in bed late at night as I deal with my insomnia. However, this may be a new adventure for me. I signed up for an Overdrive account and have downloaded the necessary software so I am ready to roll. Browsing under suspense and mystery titles by several options I did find some new titles in a series by James Patterson that I was not familiar with yet. May give it a try.
Week 9, Thing 21: Podcast
Podcasts that have been linked to the learning activities throughout 2.0 have for the most part been very helpful. However, going to the podcast sites to find library related items, I found somewhat frustrataing as I tried to find appropriate key words to search. There seemed to be a lot of misleading podcasts that popped up on the directory list for certain searches, even for education. However, I finally hit on some good key words--duh--in Podcast Alley. I subscribed to the site and then uploaded a library related series of podcasts, called "Library Vibes" which seemed to be timely updates on news in the library world. And--the podcast for August 30 actually included mention of a children's book about penguins--how appropriate. Library Vibes is now linked on my bloglines and it should be fun to give them a quick listen.
Week 9, Thing 20: UTube
I have not been to YouTube before and it was an interesting experience. Just surfing what people are viewing at the moment, got me hooked on some other videos, especially since the first one I viewed was of a horrendous big air skateboard crash. I found many of them to be superfluous or totally non-interesting to me. Did have fun looking at some possibilities for my blog under the key word search children reading--I really wanted to post one of Miss Francis of Ding Dong School reading poetry--times have changed! For one thing most of us don't wear pearls in storytime. However, I heard about the video "did you know" and thought it was very relevant to the whole exercise of 23 Things and how fast education and technology will happen----especially put in terms of statistics for the world today. Hope you will enjoy looking at and thinking about this video.
Week 8, Thing 19; Web 2.0 list
So much to choose from and so little time. It was cool to see things we have visited, signed up for and worked with and where they were ranked on the current award list.
I went to the book site that was listed as first place--Lulu. I was surprised to see it is a book publishing site as I had assumed ( I know never to do that) it would be some kind of book list. And actually it did have an extensive list of self-published books. This is a fascinating concept that writers can just go on line and publish and sell their own books. As far as usefulness in a library setting, it could be a stretch, but maybe people who can't find exactly what they are looking for in the catalog, might want to see (and hear about) self published books on a subject. You'd have to be sure they realized what the site was about, but it could be of help. It could also be of interest to those patrons who want to get a book published, but haven't been accepted by a publisher. Who knows--
I went to the book site that was listed as first place--Lulu. I was surprised to see it is a book publishing site as I had assumed ( I know never to do that) it would be some kind of book list. And actually it did have an extensive list of self-published books. This is a fascinating concept that writers can just go on line and publish and sell their own books. As far as usefulness in a library setting, it could be a stretch, but maybe people who can't find exactly what they are looking for in the catalog, might want to see (and hear about) self published books on a subject. You'd have to be sure they realized what the site was about, but it could be of help. It could also be of interest to those patrons who want to get a book published, but haven't been accepted by a publisher. Who knows--
Week 8, Thing 18; online productivity
Again, a new world of possibilities is opened. This really could solve some problems as I switch between computers with different software installed. I joined Googledocs since I already had a Google account to use Blogger. I created a word document for an upcoming project and am happy that it will be easy to access as I continue to edit and add to that document. It took a little while to learn a few ways of working with a different tool bar, but so far so good.
I was very impressed with the list of resource tools for spreadsheets, etc. that are now available on the web. I got excited when I saw the calendar program "30 boxes" as it had been mentioned in one of the wiki sites. I wanted to know more about it and decided it will be a great help to me, not only with personal calendar organization like birthdays, but also to be able to see and print monthly calendars with work schedules. My palm pilot is great, but downloading the calendar is no longer available with my home computer, so 30 Boxes will solve my problem of seeing the month or more at a time.
These web tools could really be magic as we learn more about them.
I was very impressed with the list of resource tools for spreadsheets, etc. that are now available on the web. I got excited when I saw the calendar program "30 boxes" as it had been mentioned in one of the wiki sites. I wanted to know more about it and decided it will be a great help to me, not only with personal calendar organization like birthdays, but also to be able to see and print monthly calendars with work schedules. My palm pilot is great, but downloading the calendar is no longer available with my home computer, so 30 Boxes will solve my problem of seeing the month or more at a time.
These web tools could really be magic as we learn more about them.
Week 7, Thing 17; sandbox wiki
I feel proud that I could now handle this relatively simple post of my blog to the sandbox wiki. I realize my blog is pretty boring with only entries so far about 23 Things activities, but I will try to get some of my England pictures up there to make it a little more fun. Posted to Love the Rockies and fun to see another CCPL entry under comments.
Week 7, Thing 16; wiki's
As CCPL has used wiki's for several different projects in the past such as development of the Finksburg Branch, I thought I knew something about wiki's. Again, I was wrong. There are a wide variety of wiki's out there and more uses than I was aware of. I think that there are uses that can be very applicable to library communities, such as Gail's proposal and Dorothy's collaboration on a Peer Coaching wiki that developed out of the Peer Coaching pilot. This has been a real learning experience in ways to share professional information to a group and to replace a "binder" of information with expanded information through video, downloadable text, and comments from librarians. It can then be shared with a larger library community also. Some of the wiki's that I browsed were more informational or useful than others. The Princeton book review wiki was pretty straightforward in providing that service on a simple level--reviews were not in depth but gave a flavor of the reviewer's thoughts about the book. I found the Bull Run Library wiki interesting in that it was "run" by a patron and while it purported to be about programs at the library had expanded to postings about other libraries, including an article on Maryland doing 2.0, and even referrals to blogs and websites about a variety of topics.
The Library Services wiki was a great example of how the library community could contribute to professional information on a national level about a huge variety of services or information areas within professional needs and responsibilities. I will be referring to the teen programs section for further information to use in LATI about teen progrogramming. I think wiki's about major events, planning and soliciting public input, such as the Finksburg wiki as excellent ways library could use wiki's . Probably the most disconcerting aspect is being open to editing and adding to posts can be done by anyone, although most times libraries would be more restricted than say Wikipedia.
The Library Services wiki was a great example of how the library community could contribute to professional information on a national level about a huge variety of services or information areas within professional needs and responsibilities. I will be referring to the teen programs section for further information to use in LATI about teen progrogramming. I think wiki's about major events, planning and soliciting public input, such as the Finksburg wiki as excellent ways library could use wiki's . Probably the most disconcerting aspect is being open to editing and adding to posts can be done by anyone, although most times libraries would be more restricted than say Wikipedia.
Week 6, Thing 15; Library 2.0
Wow! Hard to comment on just one of the articles about Library 2.o as I found myself caught up in the whole discussion with the links from one point of view to the next. The utube video was extremely interesting and I checked out a utube response that raised some interesting points about media being the message and questioning the participatory experience, especially sensory on the web. This debate was later raised in some of the points of view about web 2.0 and it will be interesting to hear the results of the study on virtual reference and patrons experiences re: satisfaction with the interface and information.
I felt the comments in "Away from the icebergs" may be more relevant to college and university libraries. We may be experiencing a flat lining in circulations, but certainly not the 55% at his university, but we are also very pleasure reading focused. I agree user education is the key and we need to start early in the formal education process--but how does the average teacher in the classroom keep up in order to help students learn important web skills and decision making--does the public library have a role here?
I found "In temporary spaces" extremely thought provoking--refering back somewhat to the sensory participatory experience and how that may be reflected in the virtual web. Learned about new concepts to me--Library 3.0 and 4.0 and SecondLife3 being used by savy web users.
Sorry, I couldn't stop at one --"A rural school district" seems to have many lessons on success that would serve well for many libraries to look at.
I felt the comments in "Away from the icebergs" may be more relevant to college and university libraries. We may be experiencing a flat lining in circulations, but certainly not the 55% at his university, but we are also very pleasure reading focused. I agree user education is the key and we need to start early in the formal education process--but how does the average teacher in the classroom keep up in order to help students learn important web skills and decision making--does the public library have a role here?
I found "In temporary spaces" extremely thought provoking--refering back somewhat to the sensory participatory experience and how that may be reflected in the virtual web. Learned about new concepts to me--Library 3.0 and 4.0 and SecondLife3 being used by savy web users.
Sorry, I couldn't stop at one --"A rural school district" seems to have many lessons on success that would serve well for many libraries to look at.
week 6, Thing 14; Technorati
This was a very interesting tool that opened a new world for me about blogging. The video was helpful in finding out where to search in different ways. Searching by blog using Learning 2.0 brought up numerous hits that did not directly relate to the key word idea I was searching for. It gave hits for any combination of Learning and 2.0. I did see some recent posts by others who are pursuing 23 Things. Searching by directory drastically reduced the number of hits to 553, but again, really had to search to find something most relevant. Using the tags search was quite a surprise as it showed only a few direct hits on the key word on the first page and also some links to video clips. This was the most useful search.
I think of myself as someone who keeps fairly abreast of the news--living with a news editor--and with the more popular culture, but doing the blog searches for favorites, top search and top blogs--I was amazed at how out of touch I apparently am in regard to the younger generations. I did not even recognize some of the names or subjects on top blogs and favorites! After looking at a few, I felt even more of a dinosaur, especially after reading blogs about Ron Paul running for President, popular music hits from groups I never heard of, etc. I realized that if you want to know what teens, college age and 20 somethings in particular are talking about and seeing as important doing Technorati blog search would be one way to keep in touch. Of course I was not as surprised by the amount of interest in technology blogs as this is such a hot topic and again, one I'm not as familiar with.
I mentioned this site to my husband and was surprised that his news organization will take punitive action, including dismissal for employees reading blogs at work. It seems they may be missing the boat in keeping a pulse on what different segments of the population are thinking and where the interest are.
I think of myself as someone who keeps fairly abreast of the news--living with a news editor--and with the more popular culture, but doing the blog searches for favorites, top search and top blogs--I was amazed at how out of touch I apparently am in regard to the younger generations. I did not even recognize some of the names or subjects on top blogs and favorites! After looking at a few, I felt even more of a dinosaur, especially after reading blogs about Ron Paul running for President, popular music hits from groups I never heard of, etc. I realized that if you want to know what teens, college age and 20 somethings in particular are talking about and seeing as important doing Technorati blog search would be one way to keep in touch. Of course I was not as surprised by the amount of interest in technology blogs as this is such a hot topic and again, one I'm not as familiar with.
I mentioned this site to my husband and was surprised that his news organization will take punitive action, including dismissal for employees reading blogs at work. It seems they may be missing the boat in keeping a pulse on what different segments of the population are thinking and where the interest are.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Week 6, Thing 13: Del.icio.us
At first I had some trouble understanding the difference between delicious and the other bookmarks like bloglines. The first tutorial did not seem to helpful, but the second resource made it a little clearer. With some help from my friends, and especially my daughter Heather, I had an epipheny and realized that the real blessing of delicious is being able to search my bookmarks on any computer, any where, any time. I have opened a delicious account, but have only added 1 web site so far. I did find a web site on one of the library web sites to add to both my blogline and eventually to my rollyo account (starfall). It was a web site I had heard mentioned by some parents at a workshop, but couldn't remember later. That was a nice surprise.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Week 5, Thing 12: Rollyo searches
Rollyo could be very helpful in rapidly retrieving new and/or pertinent information to be used for handouts, newsletters, workshops for various projects I'm currently working on, such as the emergent literacy grant. It could also help me to stay current by quickly searching my most commonly used sites and subject areas. For example, I've started to create a school readiness search which can be accessed below.
Week 5, Thing 11: Library Thing
My Library Thing Catalog
This would be a really quick way to catalog a large personal collection. I am not sure how much I would personally use this tool, but it could be very helpful for a book club. I think that it would be great to use it to find people with the same reading tastes and perhaps form book clubs online to read popular and favorite books, or even obscure and unique books that not very many people read. This could potentially bring people together with the same interests and they could chat online about the books.
This would be a really quick way to catalog a large personal collection. I am not sure how much I would personally use this tool, but it could be very helpful for a book club. I think that it would be great to use it to find people with the same reading tastes and perhaps form book clubs online to read popular and favorite books, or even obscure and unique books that not very many people read. This could potentially bring people together with the same interests and they could chat online about the books.
Week 5, Thing 10 image generator
I used the "back to school" generator because 23 Things makes me feel like a kid starting school again. The generators look like they could be a lot of fun, and could be used to add spice to things like powerpoints. However, true to form for me, the generator sites I first tried (including the chocolate bar site), would not let me save and import the whole image.....what a bummer! Hence the above quote on my back to school board.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Week 5, Thing 9: library related feeds
Tried several of the search engines to find very specific information related to my job in relation to preparing for workshops on emergent literacy. Lots of stuff that related to one key word, but not the essence of the total search. Did add topix.com to my blogline as there were at least several recent relevant hits, including two articles from today, one from Buffalo, New York paper and one from a Canadian study on teaching boys to read (says females are better tutors--interesting). I'm sure that as I have time to try limiting or learning how to limit searches, I will get more specific hits. It was a little disconcerting to come up unexpectedly with a pornography site with a hit for Westminster. I bet someone doesn't know what their daughter at college is putting online.
I had already signed up for Merlin when it first went live, but now will be much more likely to view it and keep up to date with it added to my blogline!
I had already signed up for Merlin when it first went live, but now will be much more likely to view it and keep up to date with it added to my blogline!
Week 4, Thing 8 RSS and Bloglines
This was an entirely new concept for me--as has been most everything else. As I don't regularly subscribe to many sites and no blogs--I don't have time to read and respond to my email--this was exciting to realize that not only could I subscribe to some great sites related to libraries, but also to current news and easily access them through one!! site. I have shared this with my daughter Heather who is going online to sign up now as RSS was new to her also. This will also be a faster way of finding out what's going on nationally in libraries instead of waiting for the journals to arrive on my desk and then finding time to read them. RSS and bloglines will be very useful in my various tasks and I look forward to adding some other blogs and web sites for news, etc. The bloglines process itself was so easy and I found the first video tutorial (RSS in Plain English) and the sign up tutorials very effective and time saving.
Here is the link to my Bloglines!
Here is the link to my Bloglines!
Week 3 Thing 7: technology post snapfish.com
Thanks to my daughter, Jennifer, I learned about the site, snapfish.com, to load my vacation pictures. I could then email them to family and friends so they could quickly (or in my case not so quickly because there were over 400)view them to find out all the cool things we saw during our week in England. My daugher Heather then helped me navigate snapfish to order prints of pictures that I particulary wanted to use in a scrapbook of the trip (which I may get to some day in a future life). I am proud that I discovered a way to get better ratio's in the digital images when printed than Heather had discovered because she had requested a border on her prints. The snapfish prints have arrived and they are fantastic--and even with postage, much less expensive than I could have printed them at home or elsewhere. Time saved to be able to quickly do this at home from an internet site has been wonderful and there are various options for formatting your photo printing. You also have options to make other items--like in flickr. Oh yeah--one important thing I forgot--snapfish.com is free to create your own account.
Week Three Thing 5: Picture from Flicker
This a a view of roses along a garden wall at the Brantridge Estate in Balcombe,England. This was part of the former ducal estate where we spent a week's vacation in June.
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