My favorite discoveries of the Sno-isle 20 on 2.0 class have been...
1. That there is more to cyberspace than I knew and that the mistakes I make are just more opportunities to learn....I will not bring the cyberspace crashing down.
2. The tools at my fingertips really increased my information world and gave me a sense of inclusion and empowerment. I was able to zoom into locations and "walk" the streets in Google Earth, add information to data bases (if I had information to give) in Wikipedia and share my experiences with others on blogs along with many other things.
There were so many applications that I currently use or will use in the future such as book marking, online applications, friend networks, photo sharing, feed readers, pod casting, Google Earth and maybe overdrive downloads. It would have been nice to have a lesson on "twittering".
As I realistically look at my lifestyle, I do not believe that I will use some of the web accessible programs such as Second Life, gaming, TV and movie streaming or online image generators. However, they can be wanted tools for library patrons and it is good for me to be familiar with them.
This class helped me with my lifetime goals by helping me to become a more informed employee. With this added knowledge, I can gather, use and share more information increasing my value to myself and to others (co-workers and patrons alike).
When I started SIL 20 on 2.0, I didn't realize how much I would benifit from the class. Although I am not an expert, I feel that I have gained some basic skills. As I worked through the class, lesson by lesson, it dawned on me of the many avenues of communication and learning that I had not been accessing. Many patrons could also open up their worlds through the knowledge of these cyberspace tools and programs. It would be wonderful if Sno-isle could offer a revised Web 2.0 online class on it's sno-isle.org website.
Thanks Sno-Isle and yes, I would like to be offered future classes.
Will this class stay up on website so we can review and refresh our memories from time to time?
Friday, April 17, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
#19 Gaming
Well, I felt as if I was back in time when I use to sneak a few minutes on my son's Nintendo....and my skills haven't improved. Gaming is just not my expertise, at least not the action packed games. My hand eye co-ordination is not the best! I did however enjoy the Google daily puzzles. One thing about gaming that bothers me a little is the addictive tendencies....Can time be spent better at other activities?
The Children's game sites were very good. I like the educational bent. The children are learning without realizing it...at least they don't realize it until they get older. Having the games on line also eleminates the need to go out and buy those old CD ROMs. If the game is designed well, educational and fun then it can be a helpful tool for librarians (similar to second life).
Monday, March 30, 2009
# 17 Avatar
My Avatar is me, Serious Sue by name...I do not live in Second Life and probably will not in the future. I rather like finding my information and communicating in real life.
After seeing some of the virtual world, I can see why librarians use it as a learning tool. Many young people enjoy Second Life and I can understand why librarians use it to disperse information, making learning fun. It also gets the person more actively involved with learning, giving them a sense of creation and accomplishment.
Lesson # 16 Online Applications
OK, I think that I have done this right. Here is the Google doc that I created... HERE
#18 Maps and Geotagging
I loved this lesson! The fact that my husband and I are planning a trip to Spain made this lesson particularly relevant.
I have used Google Maps before and a lot of what you get in Google Earth is in Google Maps...but Google Earth has so much more. Currently I am not very interested in Mars, undersea geography or the constellations of outer space, but there is a lot of information on Google Earth for those who are. I like how there are connections to information sources on their tutorials. I can see how this would be handy for students and telescope hobbiests.
I did use this lessoon to find out more about the towns and cities we are going to visit. I looked at the city centers... finding the points of interest(photos included), transportation hubs, and lodging locations. Some of the lodging even showed on Google Earth marked by little red beds, restaurants as little knife and fork symbols. All of this is helping us make our decisions about where to stay and what to see. In Madrid I zoomed down to street view and traveled the streets where a group of hostels were located and found the area full of graffiti and questionable shops. Needless to say, I talked my husband out of booking accommodations in any of those hostels.
Not all of the city and towns have street level views (Edmonds does). I saw a progran on television recently that showed how the street views are done. There is an Oregon company that is hired by Google to travel through all the streets of major cities. They do this in teams of 2 or 3, using volkswagen bugs with multi-lensed cameras (64 lenses in an orb on a pole) mounted on their hoods. The task must be difficult in cities with many narrow, winding, one-way streets.
In conclusion, Google Earth (as well as other map programs) is fun and is a useful tool for librarians to share with their patrons when seeking travel or geographic information.
I have used Google Maps before and a lot of what you get in Google Earth is in Google Maps...but Google Earth has so much more. Currently I am not very interested in Mars, undersea geography or the constellations of outer space, but there is a lot of information on Google Earth for those who are. I like how there are connections to information sources on their tutorials. I can see how this would be handy for students and telescope hobbiests.
I did use this lessoon to find out more about the towns and cities we are going to visit. I looked at the city centers... finding the points of interest(photos included), transportation hubs, and lodging locations. Some of the lodging even showed on Google Earth marked by little red beds, restaurants as little knife and fork symbols. All of this is helping us make our decisions about where to stay and what to see. In Madrid I zoomed down to street view and traveled the streets where a group of hostels were located and found the area full of graffiti and questionable shops. Needless to say, I talked my husband out of booking accommodations in any of those hostels.
Not all of the city and towns have street level views (Edmonds does). I saw a progran on television recently that showed how the street views are done. There is an Oregon company that is hired by Google to travel through all the streets of major cities. They do this in teams of 2 or 3, using volkswagen bugs with multi-lensed cameras (64 lenses in an orb on a pole) mounted on their hoods. The task must be difficult in cities with many narrow, winding, one-way streets.
In conclusion, Google Earth (as well as other map programs) is fun and is a useful tool for librarians to share with their patrons when seeking travel or geographic information.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
# 15 Search Engines
I had some fun doing this one. A few weeks ago my husband (Irv) and I were down at Golden Gardens at sunset when I saw a small animal in a brushy area by a small creek. At first I thought it was a very large rat, but I saw no tail. It looked about two or three pounds. Perfect thing to investigate using the previously created searchrolls of rollyo, mamma and dogpile. I also looked at mega search engines... google, yahoo and ask.com (ask.com lists unrelated comercial sites first).
I narrowed the critter down to a nutria or a mountain beaver and entered the same search phrases for each searchroll. Rollyo was my favorite though I did not find that much of a difference between it and dogpile. I didn't like mamma much because it first listed comercial sights that didnt' relate very closely to my inquieries and had a lot of ads next to the articles. They took up the right half of the page.
I found out that it was probably an elusive mountain beaver which makes me feel better than if it had been an invasive nutria. Nutrias have long rat like tails and can weigh up to 10-20 pounds.
Although it was dark and it was hard to see much detail, I don't think it had a tail.
Both searchrolls (rollyo and dogpile) had newspaper articles on the animals and a blog site (same one) that was real interesting. People blogged about their sightings and some bloggers even took pictures which they posted. These pictures helped me with the identification of my sighting.
Maybe if I used these engines more often, I would be more proficiant with them.
I narrowed the critter down to a nutria or a mountain beaver and entered the same search phrases for each searchroll. Rollyo was my favorite though I did not find that much of a difference between it and dogpile. I didn't like mamma much because it first listed comercial sights that didnt' relate very closely to my inquieries and had a lot of ads next to the articles. They took up the right half of the page.
I found out that it was probably an elusive mountain beaver which makes me feel better than if it had been an invasive nutria. Nutrias have long rat like tails and can weigh up to 10-20 pounds.
Although it was dark and it was hard to see much detail, I don't think it had a tail.
Both searchrolls (rollyo and dogpile) had newspaper articles on the animals and a blog site (same one) that was real interesting. People blogged about their sightings and some bloggers even took pictures which they posted. These pictures helped me with the identification of my sighting.
Maybe if I used these engines more often, I would be more proficiant with them.
Friday, March 13, 2009
#14 Podcasting
Well, I looked through the "list" of library podcasts and selected two...infopeople and Pierce County Library. I used my bloglines when subscribing to these and found that I could get the written articles but could not play the audio or video ones... So I broke down and subscribed to itunes which included the downloading of quicktime. Now I can view and listen to the whole podcast feeds on Bloglines.
But now that I have itunes, I felt that I had to make use of it too. I subscribed to LearnOutLoud.com's Audio Book of the Month using itunes. It only gives the first chapter or two of each book, but this may introduce me to books that I might otherwise ignore and miss out on.
Info people had a lot of good articles on how library systems can improve their services and I listened to one of their podcasts about how a national study has concluded that readership is up among the American population. I also read an article about usage of library space, which I believe of interest to Sno-isle librarians because of the ever expanding sources of material and our limited public space available. I subscribed to the Pierce County Library podcast just to keep abreast of what other nearby library systems are doing.
The podcasting lesson was fun but I don't know if I would want to use it routinely to keep up with many subjects. I guess I am getting over stimulated with the web 2.0 and am ready to just settle down and get lost in a book off the shelf!
But now that I have itunes, I felt that I had to make use of it too. I subscribed to LearnOutLoud.com's Audio Book of the Month using itunes. It only gives the first chapter or two of each book, but this may introduce me to books that I might otherwise ignore and miss out on.
Info people had a lot of good articles on how library systems can improve their services and I listened to one of their podcasts about how a national study has concluded that readership is up among the American population. I also read an article about usage of library space, which I believe of interest to Sno-isle librarians because of the ever expanding sources of material and our limited public space available. I subscribed to the Pierce County Library podcast just to keep abreast of what other nearby library systems are doing.
The podcasting lesson was fun but I don't know if I would want to use it routinely to keep up with many subjects. I guess I am getting over stimulated with the web 2.0 and am ready to just settle down and get lost in a book off the shelf!
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