Week 20, Thing 23

Road Runner Librarianous
Originally uploaded by alanhusbandtobysmom.

Well, phooey, I don't really want this to be over. It's been a fun addition to my everyday workload. I'd have to say my favorites from this exercise would be Librarything, the generators, Bloglines/RSS feeds, and Flicker. All of these make me want to spend more time on the computer either creating really bad puns with cartoon character images, or gleaning info. from the massive cyber world out there. (Now if I could just figure out how to add 4 hours to our standard day, I might even get some of the above mentioned accomplished)

I'd say that all of the above were take-away surprises. I just don't spend much time on a computer away from work, since I spend all day in front of one here, so creating a desire to sit in front of a computer screen at home is definitely a surprise. I can also see how a lot of the podcasts etc, could be very helpful at work. That's not really a surprise, but I think it could be a great help here and we should explore, explore, explore!

I really don't have any complaints about the way Learning 2.0 was set up. I'd almost want to make it mandatory (eeewww nasty word that mandatory!) though, because I know people who didn't try it and I think they're really missing out. On top of which I think they'd enjoy it if they'd just give it a try. I do know that if something like this was offered again, I would definitely participate!!!! Amazingly enough, I'd even do if free stuff wasn't involed! ;)

Week 9, Thing 22

Well I went to our site and peeked at
Animals and Their Moral Standing .
I know that many people are reading more and more materials online, but I guess I'm just old fashioned. I want the book in my hands. At least with a book, I can curl up in a comfy chair and read. Somehow a computer screen doesn't do it for me.

The World EBook Fair site was fun and it had some reviews which I like, but again, I can't see reading an entire book online. Admittedly its free and seems fairly easy to use, but my comfy chair and a fire keep calling me away from the computer. Still it's good to know that these resources are out there and FREE is always nice!

And now, gasp, say it isn't so... I move on to the 23rd thing! Feels like I going to be weeping and gnashing my teeth when it's all over!

Week 9, Thing 21

Well I added Libvibe to my bloglines account. It was fun to hear the "library news" even if the last broadcast was in November of 2006. It astounded me that Salinas was mentioned (even on a podcast!!!) due to the fending off of another fiscal hit to their libraries. (You'd think they'd learn from their past "almost closed down the libraries" fiasco, but apparently not!!) As far as "useful", I'm already a convert. I love attending seminars etc. at my desk instead of having to drive to some place else to get the latest and greatest. These could be done inhouse too if we wanted too. Hmmmmm

Week 9, Thing 20

Well I'm going to revise the original blog for this "Thing". I'm still not that impressed with YouTube, but I did find a meaningful video that I liked. It's a tribute to the world trade center so be warned it is hard to watch. Having found this video, I guess I can see why people might spend some time at these sites, but I still think there's lots of time "surfing" for the videos you like and I'm not sure what the purpose (on a personal level) for doing that "surfing" would be. (If I confess to not even owning a video camera, perhaps you'll understand my point of view a bit better. ;) ) On a professional level, I can see how this could be more useful. Videos for processing or repair procedures, or for any other procedure where learning and retention would be aided by a visual could be a benefit.



http://youtube.com/watch?v=b-5JZ6MNsrs

Week 8 thing 19

Well librarything is fun. I was disappointed that LC was down when I was trying to search for book titles. I think I like the idea of finding other possible books to read via "libraries" other people have created the best and because of that I'd always use tags. Here's my link http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=Itsallgood


There was some discussion about White Fang but not much on any of the others. Sigh! ;)

Week 8 Thing 18

Well I think that zoho, couldn't be easier, from signing up to creating a document, to posting it to my blog (see below). Wow Microsoft Word could take a few lessons!!!! I also tried out the calendar/to do list. We'll see how it works.

Well here is my 1st test document. I don't really have anything to "document" but it is fun to see and easy word document being created on the "web" with out Microsoft. I'm going to try and see if this tool "thinks for me" the way Microsoft Word does. If not I may find that I like this one better, since the "thinking for me" always messes up my document. So here's a list of my favorite things (not necessarily in order )to experiment with:

1. Wolves
2. Dogs
3. Ice cream
4. Hiking
5. Gardening
6. Scrapbooking
7. Cats (o.k., o.k. any critter really!)
8. Jamaica

Well that was easy! No software trying to convince me that I HAVE to bullet the next line, even if I indent it. I think I may try to post this to my blog and see if that's as easy!

Week 7, Thing 17

Well it took me a bit to get logged on to the Favorite Blog section, mostly because I didn't read the whole exercise 1st and so I didn't have the password. DUH!!!! Oh well it's a good thing I plan to retire early, cuz I don't think the brain would last till 65! I did have fun posting to the Favorite Vacations Spots section. I do hope I did it correctly though. I just added on to the Vegas "page" It seemed somehow, like I should have created my own "section", but I decided that maybe that was too blogish and not wiki-ish enough so..... I think I addressed the library and wiki's question in the last blog, but procedure pages from our intranet might be nice.

Week 7 Thing 16

Well I visited several of the wikiweb sites. I could see how it would work for a procedural intranet site as long as certain standards were maintained. Of the sites I visited it seemed the ALA wiki was the easiest to edit (no password etc. seemed to be required). I did like the subject guide wiki the best (from a patron's point of view). It was a bit "wordy", but it did have fun outside links, on your topic, plus the "books to read" listed.

Week 6 Thing 15

Icebergs
Originally uploaded by bods.

O.k. I have been the obedient worker bee and have read "Away from Icebergs", "To better bibliographic services" and "To a temporary place in time". I never know what to say about articles like this, but I want that flash drive so.... ;)

Away from icebergs: O.k. he's told us what he thinks is wrong, now come up with a way to fix it. Why is it these "doomsayers" always rattle on about what's wrong, but rarely seem to have solutions to fix their perceived problems. It's not that he doesn't perhaps have valid concerns, it's just that I'd like to see some suggestions to move forward with. For example: if the people won't come to us, how about we go to them. Could we have our own "Geek Squad", and perhaps expand the ILS system to some form of home/dorm delivery system? These are ideas that are completely off the cuff without any planning or even real thought, but at least they offer something positive to try, rather than just stating we "need to change".

O.K. this is me meekly stepping off my soapbox now. Perhaps I should cut down on the caffeine!

Learning 2.0 is a great way to find out what's out there on the web. I looked back at my flicker blog and saw that it was tough for me at first, but I had no problem getting this picture in this post. Perhaps there's hope for me yet! ;)

Week 6 Thing 14

Hello again! Well I did play with Technorati and I must say that I liked searching by the tags the best. It got me to the info I wanted without having to scan through other blogs that were about web 2.0 etc. Though the blog posts search screen did have a handy little directory that got me to learning 2.0 stuff fairly easily, and I liked that. Unfortunately, ADD eyes went straight to the blogs at first and didn't even see the directory. Not Technoratis fault, I just saw blogs and skipped right over the important stuff. The blog directory was o.k., but you still had to sort through all the listed blogs and many of them weren't about learning 2.0. You did get the shortened version and were able to see the tags so that helped. I still think I'd pick one of the other two search choices over the directory.

I also hit the "popular" area and had fun with the piano playing cat video and with Boing Boing.

Tagging seems like a decent option for "acquiring subject headings" for the "cataloging of materials" in the blogging world. Depending on how you search, it can give you blogs you don't want because it doesn't search as a phrase, strictly as individual keywords. Also what you would tag something, might not be what someone else would tag it. I think they need to turn on the "bat signal" and get "super cataloger" in there to clean all that up. You know "able to create order out of chaos with a single subject heading" ;)

Week 6 Thing 13

Well I checked out del.icio.us and I think it's neat, but perhaps more intriguing for people who spend more time surfing than I do. I don't have a ton of bookmarks so for me it's just as easy to use the bookmarks. (Though after 2.0 is done, I may have to start becoming a geek, cuz there is lots of fun stuff "out there") I could see how libraries could use this to find out what new and innovative "thing" is being done out there. The library catalog articles were interesting that's for sure. Some guy created his own "googleish" catalog and is sharing the coding for it with others. Not really sure if I think that's a good thing, but I'll leave that rant for another post! ;)

On to Thing 14!!!

Week 5 thing 12

Well Rollyo was fun, though I'm not sure why you wouldn't just use the Favorites catagory. I can see that it might help you find other sites on a specific topic without all of the potential garbage you might get with a google search. Anyway for those of you who enjoy canine critters heres the link to my searchroll

http://www.rollyo.com/search.html?q=dogs&sid=272298

Week 5 thing 11

Well I looked at the real estate site called propsmart. It seemed to have properties from all over and that was fun. (Planning that move for when I retire, you see! ;) ) I looked at campfire as well and took the tour. It could be really useful at work I think. It is a chat room site and I admit I've never "chatted" so maybe I'm too easily impressed, but it seemed easy to use. It allowed you to pick who you'd want to chat with by listing those individuals or deleting them. (It's good to have power, evil laugh!!!) But seriously, it did seem like it could work well for brainstorming on projects or between committees etc. Hmmm perhaps to even talk to several realtors about where I'll move to when I retire. ;)

Week 5 thing 10

Well I played with http://atom.smasher.org/error/ to complete my generator exercise. Here's my "error message" image. (Any excuse to eat!) Too fun, the possibilities are endless!

Week 4 Thing 9

Well I'm fairly sure the "just searching and hoping to find the news feed icons "is the way I'd go (yeah right!). The other tools were much easier and took a lot less time. Of course if I was just surfing the web and an icon popped up, that's different, but.... I think I liked Topix. net the best, but Feedster was pretty good too, though I think I could be very content with just using the bloglines links for the time being. ;) Next stop Week 5!

Week 4 Thing 8

Well, I've read the informational items for RSS and newsreaders. I'm still wondering how people manage to read the copiuos amounts of information that some of them seem to be reading, but then I guess most of them aren't gardeners, or scrapbookers. ;) It should be interesting to try this out though, especially if there are blogs on the previously mention subjects!!!

I've also played with Bloglines and have 16 different feeds in my "file" This was really fun and I can finally understand why people might become computer hermits. ;) I didn't have a problem with adding feeds until I tried the 3rd way listed. It consisted of copying just the name of the blog if it was on Blogspot etc. It just didn't work for me and as far as I can tell, I was doing it exactly the way I should have. I did add several with the subscribe link that Bloglines supplies in its list of feeds. That was super easy and left out the copy and pasting steps. Much more efficient. Tomorrow I try the URL address challenge.

Week 3 Thing 7

Well, well, well, technology that interests me huh. O.k. I am currently very excited about two (probably very common place) things. One is my new digital camera. I love it because it's a single action reflex which eliminates the delay that most digital cameras have. (Important to me because I can't seem to train the dogs and cats to "hold that cute pose" for the span of that annoying delay on most digital cameras. This is probably due to faulty training on my part, but.... ;) ) Hopefully soon I'll learn how to do more that just point and click, but in the meantime point and click really works!!!
The next thing that I'm excited about is my husband's Ipod. He got one for Christmas, and Santa (that would be me) hinted strongly that (s)he could use one for a birthday gift. After all I'm just trying to save my marriage. He's become an ITunes junkie since Christmas and I believe I need to maintain a certain level of "common ground" for a healthy marriage. ;) More on either Santa's new Ipod or the mysterious theft of my husband's Ipod after a certain date in April!
P.S. In case you need to know this too, I've officially posted to another learning 2.0 participants blog.

Week 3 Thing 6

Cake anyone?
Originally uploaded by alanhusbandtobysmom.

Well here's my 1st creation using a Flicker Toy, thanks to Trading Card maker. This was fun and it makes me wonder how much more fun this could make any b-day party, etc. Just make the guest of honor their own "Stats card". (She laughs wickedly) ;)

Week 3 Thing 5

Well once again I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am not a computer whiz. Flickr has just about done me in. Hopefully there will be a picture with this post, but if not I'll try again tomorrow. After all, I may not be a whiz, but I am tenacious!!! ;)

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Week 2 thing 4

I can see how posting like this could be really fun and hopefully the committee can keep track so I can get my "free" flash drive. Gotta love those "free" flash drives!

Week 2 thing 3

Blog info. This was good, but all the different "names" you had to come up with are a bit confusing.

Week 1 thing 2

Well I'd say that the hardest part of being a lifelong learner would be having confidence in myself. Too much second guessing in my life. (Goodness did I say that, maybe I shouldn't have, no it will be o.k., well may not after all everyone will see this :) ) ACK!!! See what I mean ;) !!!

The easiest part would be mentoring others. I like to do that, it helps me remember what I've learned.

Week 1 thing1

Thing one was sure easy enough and seems like this should be fun.