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!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Lesson # 12 Overdrive downloads
Wow, it took me hours to figure this one out! It was fun shopping around the virtual library and picking items. I finally chose an O'Henry audio book on "classic American short stories and and a language audio "In Flight Spanish" to prepare for my upcoming trip.
The trouble started after I had installed the Over Drive Media Console and tried to check out and download the items in my cart. I tried to open them, I tried to save them as files then open them, I tried just about everything I could think of to get them into my Over Drive Library. Nothing seemed to work. I looked through the Over Drive Media Console help menu. I even asked my son. No help.
Finally, I clicked the Sno-isle media help button and it came to my rescue. Since I have Firefox the downloads were being blocked and Firefox had to be instructed what to do with them. Thanks to the good instructions, I went to the tool box and changed the options. The instructions were step by step and clear. I should have clicked that help button earlier!
The trouble started after I had installed the Over Drive Media Console and tried to check out and download the items in my cart. I tried to open them, I tried to save them as files then open them, I tried just about everything I could think of to get them into my Over Drive Library. Nothing seemed to work. I looked through the Over Drive Media Console help menu. I even asked my son. No help.
Finally, I clicked the Sno-isle media help button and it came to my rescue. Since I have Firefox the downloads were being blocked and Firefox had to be instructed what to do with them. Thanks to the good instructions, I went to the tool box and changed the options. The instructions were step by step and clear. I should have clicked that help button earlier!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Lesson # 11 Delicious-Social Bookmarking
Well, this is a tool that I like, being the unorganized person that I am. I like the ability to categorize things (tag) into as many groups as you wish, making it much easier to find the item your looking for. It is now set on my home computer.
I enjoy cooking so I looked up some recipes and tagged them. This would be a good way to create my own "recipe box" on line.
I have not figured out how to share my tags with others yet, but I will be asking around to see if anyone wants to do some sharing and will figure it out.
Librarians must love tagging. It would sure quicken their searches of often asked questions and often sought after subject matter if tagging was used.
I enjoy cooking so I looked up some recipes and tagged them. This would be a good way to create my own "recipe box" on line.
I have not figured out how to share my tags with others yet, but I will be asking around to see if anyone wants to do some sharing and will figure it out.
Librarians must love tagging. It would sure quicken their searches of often asked questions and often sought after subject matter if tagging was used.
Lesson # 13 Online Image Generators
I down loaded this image twice because I forgot to save my blog.
I need to remember all of the steps involved in down loading and posting! This lesson was fun but I don't know if I would use it. I suppose that I would if I needed to create cards or posters.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Lesson # 10 Wiki
Actually, I was surprised to see that there were so many wiki programs out there. I can see that it would be a wonderful tool for any group that needs to organize itself.
I like the fact that anyone can add or edit the information on a wiki website or it can be restricted to members only (user name and password needed) or be private if wanted. The choice is up to the person or group that creates the wiki. With the fact that the wiki is on the web, it is a real nice feature that pages can be repaired if they are spammed or "adulterated" by going back to the original or previous page.
PBWiki seems to be a very user friendly program with some nice plug ins or widgets like chat, templates, calendar, video and slide show options.
Wikipedia is a fun site to use because there is so much information on just about everything. I understand that it is self monitored so not all information can be trusted and it is continually being edited, questioned and changed.
Wiki's can be used by libraries in many ways. They can be used by staff to share information about their work place rules, procedures, meetings, work schedules and workshops. This is different than the Sno-isle intranet website, which doesn't have as much flexibility. The average employee doesn't add or change anything on the website. Libraries can set up wikis for book groups, historical societies, genealogy groups, study groups and youth or cultural clubs. What a good substitute for the old one- way directional news letter.
I like the fact that anyone can add or edit the information on a wiki website or it can be restricted to members only (user name and password needed) or be private if wanted. The choice is up to the person or group that creates the wiki. With the fact that the wiki is on the web, it is a real nice feature that pages can be repaired if they are spammed or "adulterated" by going back to the original or previous page.
PBWiki seems to be a very user friendly program with some nice plug ins or widgets like chat, templates, calendar, video and slide show options.
Wikipedia is a fun site to use because there is so much information on just about everything. I understand that it is self monitored so not all information can be trusted and it is continually being edited, questioned and changed.
Wiki's can be used by libraries in many ways. They can be used by staff to share information about their work place rules, procedures, meetings, work schedules and workshops. This is different than the Sno-isle intranet website, which doesn't have as much flexibility. The average employee doesn't add or change anything on the website. Libraries can set up wikis for book groups, historical societies, genealogy groups, study groups and youth or cultural clubs. What a good substitute for the old one- way directional news letter.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Lesson #8 Facebook, MySpace
I set up a Facebook account. I am not sure if I like doing it. Being a fairly private person, I felt a little intimidated writing about myself.
One thing I do like about Facebook is that it is connected to Yahoo and it automatically listed my Yahoo e-mail friends and asked if I would like to invite them. It also listed fellow Facebookers who went to my same college, same year. I found two people that I knew and now I can re-connect with them after 30 years!
One of my friends is traveling in Thiland and plans to upload his pictures and share them. I am looking forward to him accepting my invite and to seeing them.
I can see how libraries like Myspace and Facebook to connect with their different interest groups, especially the teen groups with Myspace. So many of them already use it and feel comfortable doing so. They can connect at home with the library staff and with each other. This can make the teen programs so much more flexable.
One thing I do like about Facebook is that it is connected to Yahoo and it automatically listed my Yahoo e-mail friends and asked if I would like to invite them. It also listed fellow Facebookers who went to my same college, same year. I found two people that I knew and now I can re-connect with them after 30 years!
One of my friends is traveling in Thiland and plans to upload his pictures and share them. I am looking forward to him accepting my invite and to seeing them.
I can see how libraries like Myspace and Facebook to connect with their different interest groups, especially the teen groups with Myspace. So many of them already use it and feel comfortable doing so. They can connect at home with the library staff and with each other. This can make the teen programs so much more flexable.
Lesson # 9 YouTube, Hula
I searched through You Tube on the subject of libraries and found a wide variety of videos from seminars about"Google Collections for Java " (above my head), to overviews of individual libraries, to comedy skits about libraries. "Mr. Bean in the Library" was my favorite.
I searched for a variety of subjects and viewed a few (pet antics, Obama, and "most viewed"). I also looked up a video that my son created and stared in a few years ago for Bedford Unicycles, Bedford commercial. It was fun to view it again and I was surprised to see that it was still up there. Does You Tube ever take legal videos down or do they stay up there indefinately until the postee withdraws it.
I looked at Hula and Funcast. I would probably not use them very much because I am not interested in many TV series and most of the movies listed were not ones that I would select. I also do not like looking at a computer screen for long periods of time. I use Netflix and the Library's DVD collection which I think gives me better variety. I suppose the two sites could be used as a tool by libraries if patrons want to access any of the movies(some are clasics), series,trailers, etc.
I searched for a variety of subjects and viewed a few (pet antics, Obama, and "most viewed"). I also looked up a video that my son created and stared in a few years ago for Bedford Unicycles, Bedford commercial. It was fun to view it again and I was surprised to see that it was still up there. Does You Tube ever take legal videos down or do they stay up there indefinately until the postee withdraws it.
I looked at Hula and Funcast. I would probably not use them very much because I am not interested in many TV series and most of the movies listed were not ones that I would select. I also do not like looking at a computer screen for long periods of time. I use Netflix and the Library's DVD collection which I think gives me better variety. I suppose the two sites could be used as a tool by libraries if patrons want to access any of the movies(some are clasics), series,trailers, etc.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Lesson # 7 Flickr
I am just finishing up lesson # 7 and have set up my flickr account but I don't have any of your yahoo addresses so I don't think that I can share photos with you.
I found a website that you do not have to make an account for to download pictures. The pictures are in public domain. The website is http://www.pdphoto.org/.
I found some beautiful pictures of Balboa Park and down loaded them (I also put them in an album on facebook), I grew up in Chula Vista near San Diego and loved going to Balboa Park on Sundays with my family. I thought that you might like to see them, but I haven't figured out how to get them over to my blog. They ended up on my feeds on my bloglines. Help! I finally got them onto my documents and placed one in here. Like the Balboa Park carousel I'm going round and round!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Lesson # 6 Music
Well, after two hours, I have explored some of lesson # 6 and have found that Firefox blocked Pandora"s website so I had to remove the block. I have been exploring and I am signed in on both Pandora and Finetune.
Not being much of a music enthusiast, Finetune works well for me because I can download suggested lists. You can look up artists and they give you information about them, their music and lists of related artists. One thing that I don't like is that they have a policy to allow only three pieces of music per artist per play list. For instance I found an artist named Nobuo Uematsu that I like and could only add three of his pieces. I suppose that I could make an additional list and add three more of his pieces to that list, but that means I would have to find 42 more songs to complete the list or have Finetunes find them for me.
An oddity that Finetune does is that if you start playing your list and decide to click from one song to another without listening to much of them they put up a block up and say "Hey, you have to listen to some of these songs". I found that really weird!
I found at the bottom of Last.fm's home page a listing of music concert appearances that can be sorted by location. I changed the location to "Seattle" and was able to find up and coming concerts. If I was a music buff, I think that this service would be great.
I have explored Sno-isle's music feature and did run across some interesting music from other cultures (like Tuvan throat singing and Indonesian flute music) The Smithsonian site does give a lot of musical variety. I had trouble setting up a folder and have not yet figured what I have done wrong.
Not being much of a music enthusiast, Finetune works well for me because I can download suggested lists. You can look up artists and they give you information about them, their music and lists of related artists. One thing that I don't like is that they have a policy to allow only three pieces of music per artist per play list. For instance I found an artist named Nobuo Uematsu that I like and could only add three of his pieces. I suppose that I could make an additional list and add three more of his pieces to that list, but that means I would have to find 42 more songs to complete the list or have Finetunes find them for me.
An oddity that Finetune does is that if you start playing your list and decide to click from one song to another without listening to much of them they put up a block up and say "Hey, you have to listen to some of these songs". I found that really weird!
I found at the bottom of Last.fm's home page a listing of music concert appearances that can be sorted by location. I changed the location to "Seattle" and was able to find up and coming concerts. If I was a music buff, I think that this service would be great.
I have explored Sno-isle's music feature and did run across some interesting music from other cultures (like Tuvan throat singing and Indonesian flute music) The Smithsonian site does give a lot of musical variety. I had trouble setting up a folder and have not yet figured what I have done wrong.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Lesson # 5
RSS and Feeds...
I like the idea that all of my web sights and blogs are shown on one page and they let me know if there has been any action on them. No need to click on them if there hasn't been.
I can keep track of the feeds that I am interested in without having to search through the internet.
I can understand how Librarians could access information faster to help patrons. For instance genealogy feeds could be grouped together to make information about the subject more at the librarian's fingertips...Speeding up their ability to answer questions.
I am confused though when I added the feed to....
"Sno-isle Libraries News" and I couldn't seem to get to the articles even though I get notices that articles have been added.
Folders also throw me. Are they used to group your feeds by interest? Also the Blog tab. What is it used for? Do you blog from it or do you separate your blogs from the rest of your feeds with it?
Obviously there is more for me to learn!
I like the idea that all of my web sights and blogs are shown on one page and they let me know if there has been any action on them. No need to click on them if there hasn't been.
I can keep track of the feeds that I am interested in without having to search through the internet.
I can understand how Librarians could access information faster to help patrons. For instance genealogy feeds could be grouped together to make information about the subject more at the librarian's fingertips...Speeding up their ability to answer questions.
I am confused though when I added the feed to....
"Sno-isle Libraries News" and I couldn't seem to get to the articles even though I get notices that articles have been added.
Folders also throw me. Are they used to group your feeds by interest? Also the Blog tab. What is it used for? Do you blog from it or do you separate your blogs from the rest of your feeds with it?
Obviously there is more for me to learn!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Lesson # 4
I have talked with two of my fellow bloggers by Instant Messaging. So I do understand how to invite and accept invitations. I have sent a video and a website URL to them but have not figured out how to form a group talk and would like to know how.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Lesson # 3
I am really confused about the "recording of my progress" on the Progress Log.
I have checked the first two lessons off but am not quite sure about how I respond to the remainder lessons.
After thinking about it, I guess after typing my URL, I am suppose to put the date that I completed the lesson and blogged about it.
I hope that that is right.
Serious Sue
I have checked the first two lessons off but am not quite sure about how I respond to the remainder lessons.
After thinking about it, I guess after typing my URL, I am suppose to put the date that I completed the lesson and blogged about it.
I hope that that is right.
Serious Sue
Lesson # 2
Things I want to accomplish for this class.
The main thing I want to do is become familiar with the different programs so that I can be of help to patrons who are using any of the programs. I would like to be able to assist them with good competent problem solving and helpful answers.
I also think that it would be good to learn about the tasks for my own personal use.
I have found it a little difficult remembering the steps in each lesson and have found myself logging in and out a lot, wasting a lot of time I have found that if I bookmark my different websites, ( gmail, blogger, sno-isle intranet, etc) it make things a lot easier.
Serious Sue
The main thing I want to do is become familiar with the different programs so that I can be of help to patrons who are using any of the programs. I would like to be able to assist them with good competent problem solving and helpful answers.
I also think that it would be good to learn about the tasks for my own personal use.
I have found it a little difficult remembering the steps in each lesson and have found myself logging in and out a lot, wasting a lot of time I have found that if I bookmark my different websites, ( gmail, blogger, sno-isle intranet, etc) it make things a lot easier.
Serious Sue
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