Week 9 : #23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning...

Yayyy- I have finally reached the end of Learning 2.0 It has been a fun, enjoyable program with a few frustrating moments. Our Webmarshall security was a bit of a hinderance for some of it but all in all I had a good time and learnt alot. It was good to find out what resources are out there and I was surprised about how much I actually didn't know or had never even heard of. I even managed to teach my daughter a thing or to. Hopefully some of the things we have learnt about will be implemented into future library programs as I can see a real benefit to our borrowers.

Week 9 : #22 Audiobooks (or the end is in sight)

I think downloadable audio books are a great idea, especially if you can find some free ones. I don't see this to an end to traditional library borrowing but just another extension of services we can offer our borrowers. Audio books are already popular with borrowers but some of them are recorded on up to 14 CD's. This can lead to CD's going missing or getting damaged, which is sometimes costly to replace. Being able to download books onto your MP3 players will get rid of these problems. I especially like the subscription services such as Netlibrary and Overdrive which also gets rid of library fines for borrowers by simply deleting the audio file once the loan period expires. Fantastic!

Week 9 : #21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

I had a look at some of the podcast directories and I liked the ease of Podcastalley the best. I use iTunes alot at home to search and download music. I can see that using podcasts in the libraries would be a good service to offer. Borrowers could download book or movie reviews, students could download lectures, the list of things to download seems to be endless these days.

Week 9 : #20 You too can YouTube

YouTube is a fantastic time waster. You can get lost for hours watching videos, each one linking you to another. YouTube could be used in libraries in various ways- educational, tutorial and for fun. I didn't attempt to upload a video to my blogthis time as there were to many favourites to choose from.

Week 8 : #19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

I had fun looking at the award winners from the Web 2.0 Awards. I few sites I looked at and liked were : Cocktail Builder (yum), Lulu, One Sentence and LastFM.
http://www.lulu.com/
http://www.cocktailbuilder.com/
http://www.onesentence.org/
http://www.last.fm/

Week 8 : #18 Web-based Apps : they're not just for desktops

I found using Zoho quite easy and fun to use. I can see why some people see this as a big threat to Microsoft office. I managed to write, insert a picture, change background colors, font colors, font sizes and styles. I also had a go at publishing my post to my blog which you can see below.

first try

This is my first go on Zoho writer.  I like the idea and can see why Microsoft would be a bit nervous about this sort of free software.   

Will try to insert a picture now :

 

 

Will also try to insert a table:

easy	easy	easy
easy	easy	easy

 

Nowtoplaywiththebackgoundcolors....

 

andfontcolors....

Fonts andsizes....

Emoticons....

1. bullet
2. points

and I think that's enough!

 

Week 7 : #17 Playing around with PBWiki

Adding my blog to the favourites on PBwiki learning 2.0 was very easy. The hardest part was deciding where to add it. As Greater Dandenong didn't have it's own heading I added my blog to the bottom of the Australian blog list.

Week 7 : #16 So what's in a wiki?

I think Wiki's are a great way to share information. You would have to try to monitor the content being added but on a whole I really like the idea. Just looking at the "Library Success : A best practices wiki" you can see how you can use this tool for virtually any subject to do with libraries. A disadvantage I can see is that because anyone can add to a wiki the content could be subjective and only the authors opinion on the subject. I would not use a wiki as my sole source of information for this reason. On the whole though for sharing information, book reviews, training ideas......the list is endless, I think wiki's are a fantastic way to share information.

Week 6 : #15 On library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ...

It was interesting to read these articles about where Web 2.0 can take libraries into the future. Once borrowers learn how to use these search features for finding information I can see how print material may become a thing of the past. The again, I also believe it depends on the type of borrowers your library caters to. We have a large LOTE population as well as a growing elderly population who wouldn't embrace this new technology. We would have to find a way to balance using this technology without alienating borrowers who simply just want to come in, browse the shelves, have a quick chat and take home a pile of good books to read.

Week 6 - #14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

Technorati is a website to search for Blogs. I did a search for my blog and found it straight away. I also looked at the 100 most popular blogs (actually I scanned the titles of the first 30 before losing interest) and was surprised at what was rated as most popular - Boing, Boing. I didn't do the optional extra challenge of tagging my posts as it looked a bit difficult so I did the other option of claiming my blog. Technorati had a bit of a seizure when I tried to do this and kept freezing on me (does this mean my blog is not worthy of claiming or was it our dreaded Webmarshall causing problems again?) so I might have look from home to see if I am more successful in claiming and adding other blogs to my watchlist.

Week 6 - #13 Tagging, folksomonies & social bookmarking with Del.icio.us

I had fun searching Del.icio.us and I joined up and made my own account- http://del.icio.us/lanneh . Looking briefly at del.icio.us it is just another way to bookmark favourite sites with the "social" aspect added. I have loaded the del.icio.us buttons onto my internet browser for easy access and future tagging so hopefully this is something I will continue use in the future. (Unlike some of the other stuff I have learnt so far- it has been lots of fun but I don't think I will retain alot of it.)

Week 5 : #12 Roll your own search engine with Rollyo

I have never heard of Rollyo before and was happy to see it was very easy to use and set up my own search roll. It's a great way to clump all your favourite web pages onto one search engine, making it easier and quicker for searching in the future. I made up a romance reader search roll and have added it to my blog.

Week 5 : #11 All about LibraryThing

LibraryThing is a great website for booklovers. I enjoyed searching for my favourite books and seeing how other people rated them in their reviews. I found it easy to use but had to change my blog template to accommodate my book covers in a layout that I liked best.

Week 5 : Play Week #10 Play around with Image Generators

I created this "mini me" in Doppleme.com. I can see this is going to be a fun week of learning! The link to Doppleme is http://www.doppelme.com/create/ I looked at Onemorelevel.com and made my own pocket emo but unfortunately I was unable to post the direct link to my emo. Here is the link to the website instead : http://www.onemorelevel.com/games.php?game=543
I also made a message on the Bob Dylan generator which was fun. Here is the link to that generator : http://www.dylanmessaging.com/create

I think that's enough as you could definatley spend all day looking and playing with these websites!

Week 4 : #9 Finding Feeds

Finding newsfeeds was quite easy to do. I searched via Bloglines which I found was the easiset to use. I also briefly checked out Feedster, Topix.net and Technorati but didn't spend any time on them as I think you could easily spend hours searching and choosing which feeds you wanted to subscribe to. I subscribed to 2 newsfeeds on Bloglines for this activity: Dear Author, which is a romance review site and Nancy Pearl book reviews as I went and saw her at the State Library earlier in the year.

Week 4 : #8 RSS and newsreaders

I found this exercise a bit frustrating only because on my work computer Webmarshall won't allow me to see all the exciting links that I painstakingly added. I will have to check from home to make sure that I worked through the exercise correctly but on the whole it was pretty easy to do.
Here is my bloglines address: http://www.bloglines.com/public/Lanne

Week 3 : # 7 Technology

My first taste of technology was with our first family computer which was a Vic 20 (pictured). This computer was promptly updated to the more technologically advanced, but no less clunky, Commodore 64. We mainly used our computer for playing games which at the time were fantastic and had cutting edge graphics but compared to today's games and graphics they were really basic and boring. In High School we had a small computer room which had about 15 Apple Macs and Computer Studies was an elective. I learnt how to write up a small computer program which made my name appear on screen surrounded by flashing stars. This was all saved onto a floppy disc which really was floppy. Unfortunately seeing my name flashing on screen was not enough to hold my attention and I promptly lost interest in computers until I discovered the internet about 10 years later. The internet has now become a tool that I simply can not do without. I use it for everything- from searching for information, banking, booking holidays, downloading music, keeping in touch with friends and of course using it for work. Hopefully this program will help me learn how to utilise the internet even more to my advantage.

Week 3 : # 6 More Flickr fun....

Again, it took a while to work out what I was doing but I got there eventually. This is a trading card that I made up of my daughter and her Uncle getting ready to ride in the MRA Xmas toy run which they go on every year.

Week 3 : Photos and Images #5 Discover Flickr

Hmm, that took longer to work out than I expected but I am pleased to say that I didn't ask for any help although it probably would have been a lot quicker and easier if I did.

Week 2 : Blogging / And so it begins....

I have actullay set this up from home (gasp!) as I am on 2 weeks leave and don't want to be left behind. I can also use this to my advantage and cheat by asking my 12 year old to help me out as she is a bit of a computer wizz. I used to be a computer wizz myself but have somehow become one of those adults who scream for their kids help when something inevitably goes wrong. This program should be alot of fun and I am looking forward to working through it.