Week 9 - Thing 23

Well, here I am at the end of the 23 Things. I feel like I have at least touched on some of the new "Things" that are out there. Names like Blogs, Blogger, Flickr, RSS Feeds, Rollyo, Tags, Wiki's, and Avatars are now familiar to me.

I enjoyed Week 6 lots, because of the information on Web 2.0 and Library 2.0. That was a wake-up call for me about how fast things are changing. I think I had become complacent with the technology I use the most, and haven't been willing to reach out and grab the new technologies that have become available to us. I just wasn't interested in leaving my comfort zone.

However, the ever changing Internet and new advances in technology will leave me in the dust of the past if I'm not careful.

There was one unexpected outcome of this program for me. A customer showed up at the Information Desk one day and informed me that we had been in the same 3rd grade class. He had pulled out the old class photo, plugged some names into Google, and my Blog popped up. He said he was in the area and decided to stop by and see me.

This was all very innocent, however, we changed some of my Blog's settings and now my Blog doesn't pop up in a Google search anymore. I'm thinking it might be a good idea to add "security options" to one of the exercises in the future.

Previously I saw things like blogs as being useful for other people, but not me. I'll be more curious now about new "Things" I find on the Internet, and realize they may be for me too.

Thanks for all the work that went into making the 23 Things avilable to us, and for making it a priority for library staff. I learned a lot and feel good about having completed the program.

Week 1 - Thing 1

OK, I'm ready. Here we go.

Week 3 - Thing 5

I signed up for a free Flickr account, and maybe one day I'll add some pictures from my digital camera. I am realizing how my slow, dial-up computer is holding me back from using the new things that are available to us. I found Flickr easy to use and added a picture to my Blog. I have actually gone back to Flickr several times during these exercises and added more pictures to the Blog, and changed some old ones. I also figured out how to use Blogger's photo upload tool, which is pretty easy once you do it once. Then the pictures don't disappear as you add more entries to the Blog.

Week 9 - Thing 22

Recorded Books is a great option for the library to offer customers. I've noticed this summer we've had more and more questions about them, and whether they can be downloaded to an MP3 player. I looked into OverDrive and, of course, we can't use it on a library computer. But you can browse through the collection. I found a book "Can't Wait to Get to Heaven" by Fanny Flagg that looks like it would be a real hoot. However, my home computer has a dial-up connection, so forget about even trying to download it.

Week 9 - Thing 21

I found Podcast.net pretty slow on our computers. I liked Yahoo Podcasts, but had trouble finding one that had an RSS feed. I added the Business Week Cover Stories Podcast to my Bloglines account. It's a good site that provides interviews with the writers and editors and they offer their impressions and insights about the print story.

I did find some Podcasts that I would like to investigate, such as learning Spanish. For library purposes, there are multitudes of podcasts that are useful. I could see BCPL adding them as a link from the Home Page. There were several children's book radio podcasts and a "Storynory" podcast that offers free audio stories for children. "English as a Second Language" is a useful podcast also. There were lots of sites for learning languages. There is a world of opportunity out there!

Week 9 - Thing 20

I explored YouTube and found a great video called "Women in Art". It shows famous portraits of women and the faces slowly change from one to the other. I tried unsuccessfully to place the video in my blog. I also looked at some of the suggested videos like the library dominoes. I think someone had way too much time on their hands!

Week 8, Thing 19

I explored the Web 2.0 award sites for travel. All 3 sites were on the list of winning sites. Farecast.com was a 1st place winner, while Kayak and Real Travel were 2nd and 3rd place winners.

I used Farecast.com to investigate a trip I'm planning. It actually gave me slightly better fares than expedia, travelocity and cheap air. Kayak gave me similar fares. Both sites were easy to use. Real Travel provides different information with itineraries, attractions and links. People can share their experiences on this site as well. It also provides "travel deals", although there weren't any for my destination (Costa Rica), of course. All 3 of these sites are great.

Week 8, Thing 18

I used Zoho to publish a cartoon joke to my blog. It came out way too big and you could only see part of it. I went back to Zoho and updated the joke with another one that is all words and published it to my blog instead. It worked fine. I'd like to explore this word processing tool farther, since it seems to work really well.

Library joke

One day a librarian sees a chicken walk up to her desk and cluck, "book-book-book- BOOOOOK." She follows the chicken while it pecks at six books and pulls out a library card.

 

The next week the whole sequence happens again, and the curious librarian follows the chicken to see where it's going with all these books. She follows it to a pond, where the chicken gives the books to a frog, who glances at the titles and throws them aside, saying "readdit! readdit! readdit!"

Week 7 - Thing 17

I investigated the Maryland Libraries Sandbox Wiki and there was a note that someone edited the Home Page for our wiki and deleted all the labels that linked to all the pages that belong to other folks. Anyway, I went to the "What I am Reading" page and added a quick review of the book I am currently reading "When a Crocodile Eats the Sun" by Peter Godwin. That was very easy to do. I also added my blog to the Favorite Blogs page. That was a little harder to do because I was looking for world/chain icon on the toolbar. I couldn't find it, so I used the "Link" icon instead, and that worked fine.

Week 7, Thing 16

I read through the material on wikis and learned what they are, and how they work. I liked the Bull Run Library Wiki. There was a lot of good information in it. One question I've had in mind was answered through this wiki. Good news folks, there's a Learning 2.1 being developed!! Knowing how fast technology changes, I was wondering how quickly Learning 2.0 will become outdated, and how we will learn new information. I looked at new items 27-32, and saw things like Omnidrive, Plaxo, UR Books, Scrapblog and Photo Bucket. I also read about "Blurb" a book publisher, and a web site for finding out "What song was #1 when you were born...married, etc. So cool. There was also a list of free reference wwebsites for 2006.

Week 6 - Thing 15

OK, I watched the video "The Machine is Us/ing Us" and now I get it. This is really big. I now understand what Library 2.0 and Web 2.0 means. And, now Learning 2.0 makes sense to me. I mean, I originally thought this was a good learning experience and I supported the initiative, even though it is a big drain on time with our busy work schedules. Now I see the importance of going through this exercise. Sometimes it takes awhile for the detail to spin around in the brain before the pieces begin to come together and then emerge into a big WOW!

So, this is something that we are part of. Not just the younger generations who are growing up with the new ideas and participatory technology. It's exciting and a real opportunity to think "outside the box".

Week 6 - Thing 14

Several thoughts about "Technorati. Of course, it's a great way to locate blog posts. I looked at doing a keyword search for "learning 2.0" in Blog posts, Tags and the Blog Directory. I got 3,692 hits with the keyword search, and my search term came up highlighted. It seemed like all the results were from blogspot. The Tag search only gave me 3 hits of Blog postings, and the Blog Directory gave me 152 hits.

Lots of ideas and thoughts about "Learning 2.0" came up in the postings. Mostly I loved the Blog name "Infolitter". There is so much information "out there" that "litter" seemed like a perfectly descriptive name. Wish I had thought of it first!

Exploring the top blogs, searches and favorites was fun. However, I felt like you really have to be "into" a topic to use them. By just browsing, I felt like I was in the middle of a conversation without knowing what everyone was talking about.

Week 6 - Thing 13

I listened to the Tutorial on Del.icio.us and, at first, had trouble getting it to work on my computer. Finally it came through. After using the discovery exercises I can see how this can be used, but I don't think I will pursue it at this time. Obviously, Flickr's tags are very useful for finding pictures on a subject.

Week 5 - Thing 12

Roll, roll, roll......I created a search roll for "Great Recipes" and linked it to my blog. Try it out!
I think there are lots of uses for this such as special health needs, music, gardening, and any special interests or needs a person may have. The more I explored it, the more I liked it.

Week 5 - Thing 11

I thought Play Week was going to be an easy "catch up" kind of week. But it turned into a pretty busy week. We had a lot of "end of FY" work to do, and that made it hard to get back to the 23 Things.

But I did get to the LibraryThing. It's very easy to use, and I liked the suggestions it gave me, based on some of the books I catalogued.

Week 5 - Thing 10

I went right to the Lolcat Image Generator and added a picture of a cat to my Blog, and the words "Isn't this just the cat's meow?". It was pretty easy to do. However, last night I tried it at home on my dial-up computer and all I can say is don't try this unless you have a fast connection!!

Week 4, Thing 9

Well, this exercise was fun. I really liked Merlin's RSS feed on Geocaching. I was out hiking one day and ran into 2 people who were geocaching. They explained it to me, and said they go all over the country hiking and enjoying this new sport. It is a new, fun way to explore that is just beginning to catch on.

I also liked Feedster. I imagine I will return to Feedster to find other good RSS feeds on topics that interest me. It seemed to be the easiest for me to use, and had the most interesting feeds. There's a whole new world out there that I would have never known about.

Week 4, Thing 8

This exercise has been pretty time consuming. It's overwhelming how much information is at our fingertips, literally. If I just had a brain that worked at the speed of light, I could absorbe a small piece of all this. My level of awareness has also been raised so I'll recognize the RSS feeds now, and I'll keep adding some new ones to my Bloglines account.

Tagging

These are the rules:
Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

This is too much like junk mail so I'm not going to send this on to others. Sorry.

Week 1, Thing 1

I read the blog and found out about the program.

Week 3 -Thing 6

I spent way too much time with Flickr. It's a great program and I'd like to use it for my own digital pictures. Unfortunately, my computer connection is dial up and very slow with any kind of graphics.

Week 3 - Thing 7

I just love my digital camera so much I just can't imagine anyone who doesn't have one. I gave my 88 year old father one last year and he's taking lessons and using it way better than I do.

I also got an ipod last year. What a great gadget. My son figured I'd never use it. Well, he was sure wrong. I use it in the car, at the gym, and around the house. Sure beats carrying around a pile of CD's.

I know how you feel!

originally uploaded by kittykins!.

Blog cat!

Passion beauty

Passion beauty, originally uploaded by natureloving.

Flckr photo

Week 1 - Thing 2...Item 1

The 7 1/2 habits of lifelong learning make perfect sense. It's nice to see the points in writing. I really like the idea of viewing problems as challenges.

Week 2 - Thing 4

My blog is registered with BCPL

Week 1 - Thing 2..Item 2

In response to the question about creating an entry about the which of the 7 1/2 habits that are the easiest and hardest for me, I'd say Habit 7 1/2 (Play) is the easiest...duh!, and Habit 3 (View problems as challenges) is the hardest, although I agree with the concept.

Week 2 - Thing 3

Well, it says I've created a blog. Just like that!