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

Well I've made it!! I was determined I was going to finish this this weekend come what may. So, what did I think? Well on the whole I think it was certainly a worthwhile exercise and one that I enjoyed. Obviously there were some things I liked better than others but that is only to be expected. I think I have been fairly clear in some of my posts what I have thought about some of the different tools we've used. I have learned new things which is always good. The Learning 2.0 activities blog was clearly set out and easy to follow. One of the most interesting things to come out of it was reading the blogs of other collegues and learning a bit more about them. I was a little disappointed that more of our staff didn't put as much effort into it as some others did but still as I mentioned in my first post, everyone is busy and sometimes finding the time to do just another thing is just not possible. I think this program has reinforced some of my views on technology and how it is being used, or misused, whatever the case might be. Because someone has set us tasks to do which has made me go and use some things I haven't bothered with until now I have actually learnt some stuff I might not have bothered with otherwise. Blogging being one example. I've always wondered why anyone would want to read my ramblings but it's been fun and hopefully we can continue it with WikiWarriors!!!!

#22 Audiobooks (or "The end is in sight ")

Now this is good! I have been familiar with Project Guttenberg for some time. Downloading them and loading them on a MP3 player has definite advantages especially for those of us who struggle to keep fit because walking is boring!! What was that that Joan Collins said? She'd start exercising when she saw a smiling jogger? Something to that effect anyway. Well having an audiobook on the ole iPod might help too. This has obvious applications for the Web 2.0 Library.

#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts! Nodcasts!

I found this session extremely frustrating. I tried all 3 directories that were suggested we look at. Of the three only Podcast.net gave anything remotely resembling interesting podcasts. They were varied and easy to find with the site having a search box as well as an alphabetical index. Contrary to what was said on the Learning 2.0 Activities blog, you did need to download some software to use the podcasts on Podcast.net. It didn't take long though and worked fine after that. I must say that I feel sorry for anyone attempting this exercise with a dial-up Internet connection though as I found it annoyingly slow and I have fairly decent broadband access.

I can see that podcasts would be good for training purposes. I guess the podcasts we've all been listening to over past weeks while doing this Learning 2.0 are a good case in point. I'm not sure I'd bother too much for recreational reasons as I found them tedious and more than a little boring and that was for subjects that I was interested in so I shudder to think what they'd be like for a subject I wasn't interested in!! I also found that the sound quality left a bit to be desired. The diction on quite a few that I listened to was very ordinary rendering the podcast almost unintelligible at times. I hesitate to mention which ones in particular but they were library related sites. On the whole I was rather disappointed with this lesson.

#20 You too can YouTube

Doesn't it make your heart glad to see all these librarians en mass??



I laughed and laughed at Conan the Librarian. Wish he'd visit my work place sometimes!!

#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

Happen to stumble across this Web 2.0 tool and as I usually find trolling the web a bit mindless unless I have something specific to do I thought I'd give it a go as it might help me to enjoy web surfing a bit more. I actually did find I liked it and I think this will be one I will use often now. Before using it you have to download a stumble toolbar that rides in your web browser. The more I see of it the more I like it. If you are interested the above logo is a link to their site.

#18 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops

I've just been playing with Zoho. I can see that this would be a terrific tool for someone who was moving around a lot and needed access to the types of programs that Zoho has and they didn't have their own PC or didn't have access to it for some reason. I liked the way you can download a copy onto your PC if you wish and found I can do most things I can do with MSWord. However I found downloading and up loading stuff painfully slow, especially when inserting a picture, which I think would effect your productivity greatly. So I guess I won't be trading in my Office Suite on my PC anytime soon.

Also had a look at Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Of the two I think I prefer Zoho as it was a little more intuitive to use. Also had a bit of a play with the spread sheets. Same comments as above.

#17 Playing around with PBWiki

Well that was fun! As I love my family's dog, Gus, and think he's just gorgeous I had to add to Favourite Animals page. Just so you all can see how beautiful he is, here he is again. He has developed camera shyness and you can almost hear him saying, "oh, no, not her and that thing again."

#16 So what’s in a wiki?

I enjoyed this session. I've been a fan of Wikipedia for a while, although one does have to be a bit cautious but then don't we have to be sure of our sources with any information? It was interesting to see to what uses people have put wikis. I agree with one of my collegues in that it would have been nice to have a practical exercise on creating a wiki. I can see several uses for it. The Youtube video, by Commoncraft videos, demonstrating wikis gave three websites for creating wikis. They were http://www.pbwiki.com/ , http://www.wetpaint.com/ and http://www.wikispaces.com/ I like the sound of wetpaint.com! Sounds a bit like another website I like to frequent, namely, www.wetcanvas.com although it is a cyber space for artists and has heaps and heaps of forums on all different types of art and nothing to do with wikis. Easy to get side tracked!!

#15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ...

It was with great interest I read the different Library 2.0 perspectives. I was particularly taken with the views expressed by Michael Stephens found here. I thought he expressed many of my own thoughts on the subject. It would be nice to see a lot of these ideas implemented in my organisation, and dare I say it, the "good, yet fast decisions"! However I also think after reading the perspective of Rick Anderson (found here) that we need to be careful we don't over do the simplifying of things and "dumb down" our services too far. Often not enough credit is given to our patrons for being intelligent too. The majority of the people I see in my work place are very intelligent, articulate and well informed people and it is more than a bit patronising to imply otherwise. Given the opportunity, many welcome the challenge to learn new things. Another point I think is important to make is that not all people are comfortable with all the new technology and many still can not afford it. If you check the ABS figures internet useage is still no where near 100%. These patrons are entitled to use what is really their library in a way they are comfortable with. I also know quite a few young people who aren't all that fussed with all the new technology either and to them the "user’s preferred environment (i.e., the Web)" is nonsensical.

From reading this you may think that I am technophobic but that would also be wrong. I am a keen user of new technologies but I also think we need to be careful we don't succumb to the technolust Michael Stephens mentions. Our library runs very basic computer classes for those patrons who feel a need to learn new technologies. A number don't want to loose touch with what is happening in the world of technology completely and feel an obligation to stay informed if only to be able to stay in contact with and be able to relate to their grandchildren. It might seem like a futile exercise, especially when you look at the staff to patron ratios, but to the few we are able to reach it means an enormous amount.

After listening to and reading a lot of the hype about Web 2.0 and other technology related information about the role of libraries in the new world, one could almost be led to believe that books are an endangered species. But I ask the question, can you curl up with a computer and read the latest best seller? I know laptops are small (and getting smaller) but the aesthetics are just not the same. I doubt that the whole experience of curling up in a comfortable spot with a good read (and maybe a glass of something nice) will ever, ever be able to be replaced try as people might. We may be able to change the way we access other information we need, the way we communicate with one another and socially inter-react but when it comes to a good old fashioned "read" you just can't beat a book.

#14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

Now this I could get used to. Found it easy to use and set up.

#13 Tagging, folksonomies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

I just couldn't get into this one. Although I use a computer in two different places, viz. at home and at work, I tend to use different bookmarks in each place. I also am in a habit of regularly checking and keeping my bookmarks in order and feel no need to peruse other people's bookmarks. I tend to use my own as I know what I want to look at and I don't spend a lot of time just browsing on the internet. I'm not really interested in what other people are looking at. I use the internet as a tool to suit my own purposes and although I welcome new technologies when they arise I usually evaluate them and only use those I have a need for. In fact I find aimless browsing about as interesting as watching grass grow! I'd much prefer to use the time in a more contructive manner. Reading a book, for example, going for a walk to take some photos, drawing or painting something, listen to music, create music, chase after my grandson or maybe learning how to master some new computer program. When I have time that is.............

#12 Roll your own search engine with Rollyo

Found it hard to get "rolling" again after having taken a couple of weeks off. However once I got going I found it all fairly straight forward. I can see I'm going to have fun with this one and see lots of uses for it, especially at work. Found the instructions on the Learning 2.0 Activites page fairly straight forward although I had to re-read it a couple of times but that is my problem with reading things on-screen that I mentioned several posts ago. As it is a couple of weeks since I posted an entry I had forgotten how to change the font used in the blog. You know what they say...use it or lose it!! Took me a few clicks before I found what I was after.

I wasn't happy with my page template once I'd added my rollyo to my blog as part of the search box had been chopped off and try as I might I couldn't get it to look like what I wanted. I tried editing the html but gave up as I don't know enough about it and haven't the time to go and find out just now. So I changed the template.

#11 All about LibraryThing

This thingy about LibraryThing!! I found it fairly straight forward. I can see it would be a terrifc tool to use with a book group that I belong to. Another "to do" for my ever increasing list.

#10 Play around with Image Generators

Being a music lover and a bit of a musician myself I was curious about the The Blues Name Generator. Guess what my blues name is? You have to laugh!!!!!!

It is `Big Mama´ Bella Madison.

I also had a go at the modern art generator with the following result.

Click on the image to go to the generator to have a go at it yourself.

#9 Finding Feeds

I found this exercise a bit frustrating and ended up having a better success rate by going to sites I was familiar with and pasting in the URLs myself. Technorati was the easiest for me to use and I wasn't overly impressed by Feedster or Topix. Google Blog search wasn't too bad. Found subscribing to a journal from Ebsco ANZ Reference Centre easy as.. I'm really looking forward to the next lesson on image generators.

#8 Make life "really simple" with RSS & a newsreader

Yes, make life really "simple"!!! I didn't find this a particularly hard task once I'd managed to read the instructions properly. Does anyone else have a problem reading instructions off a computer screen? For some reason I get along a lot better if I can read instructions off a paper copy instead off the computer screen. I had tried RSS feeds some time ago but got busy with other things and didn't bother with it again. However, this time around I have taken the time to explore them a lot more. I found some very interesting feeds and can see that I will most likely use them now. My reader can be found here. I also had to have several attempts at creating the link to my reader. I had neglected to change my settings to enable sharing and also to give myself a user name. All good now. I found this article interesting http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Vincent_van_Gogh_Masterpiece.html
I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to view the Van Gogh exhibition at Brisbane Art Gallery quite a number of years ago now and have been hooked on him ever since. It was a truly awe inspiring experience to stand before a work from this great artist and actually see his finger prints in the paint.

# 7 Blog about technology

I have just been trying to catch up on some of my reading and as I subscribe to PC World I thought I'd better get October's issue read before I end up with November's before I have finished it. One of the leading articles in it is a report on the first tests the magazine has run on quad-core PCs. They mention the top specs for one the machines they have tested. It has a Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700, 2TB hard drive, 4GB RAM, 24in LCD monitor and a Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics card. I couldn't help comparing it to the first PC I ever bought. It was top of the range at the time and cost me around $2500.00. It was an old 486 that ran at 50MHz, a 500MB hard drive and a whole 4MB of RAM, and, wonders of wonders, it actually had a colour monitor. It had Windows 3.11 on it as well as a few other programs like Works and Bookshelf. Of course we didn't have internet access either. Around about the same time I went to an in-service training day to learn about using the internet but it wasn't anything like what we have now, it was all text based. I guess my point is, we have come a long way in the last 14 years and whereas once owning a PC was something of a luxury it is now fast becoming a necessity. I know I couldn't be without mine for very long. A bit sad isn't it, taking it on holidays!!

# 6 More Flickr fun mark two

warholizer6236315,
originally uploaded by aileenmott.

For similar reasons to the last post I wanted to see what the same photo of my grandson looked like after being given the Warhol treatment. Think I might like the Hockney version better.

# 6 More Flickr fun

hockney5927250,
originally uploaded by aileenmott.

I was rather intrigued by this Flickr tool as I have a love of art, being something of an artist myself. So I combined that with my little guy, my grandson Dylan. He's little but definitely not green!! He is actually a GVRL book bag baby and the book he's "reading" is from his book bag. You have to admit he's cute.

#5 flickr

Eden42,
originally uploaded by aileenmott.

This is a photo I took while on a holiday last year. It was taken from one of the bays in Two Fold Bay, Eden, NSW. I have been fasinated by Eden since reading "Killers of Eden" by Tom Mead years ago. The museum in Eden is also worth a visit if you ever get the opportunity. It was hard to imagine people going out to sea hunting whales in such small boats. Not that they went chasing whales in these particular boats. I just liked the look of them!

While doing this exercise I learnt that I must read the instructions more thoroughly! It took me longer to post my photo to my blog than it did to upload them as I had missed something along the way. Happily I ended up succeeding.

There are certainly some very talented people around though. I could have trolled through Flickr for hours and hours looking at the photos.

I had almost decided not to participate in Learning 2.0 but changed my mind after talking to some colleagues last week. Luckily for me there was one position left. I decided that we are all busy people and if others can do it so can I.

Of the Lifelong Learning habits, Habit 6 is probably my easiest as I have always used technology to my advantage and am always keen to try new things out. I get a real thrill out of mastering new technologies. Habit 4 – having confidence in myself as a competent, effective learner is probably my hardest as I have to continually remind myself that I can. Being a procrastinater from way back, it helps me to have deadlines and, of course, everything always gets left to the late minute.