Week 10 Lesson 23: Summary

Well, this has certainly been an interesting experience. I think my favorite thing was finding the handbell podcast. It has been really fun to listen to. I've also learned quite a bit about social networking sites. This was really important for me to learn about due to the fact that the junior high kids from across the street all have My Space or Facebook profiles. I have enjoyed them for myself. I was able to get in touch with friends from high school I have lost contact with. However, I don't believe I would want my own child to have a profile until they are at least 25! In the future, I'd like to learn more about gaming sites, especially Runescape. It seems all the kids around here play Runescape.

Week 9 Lesson 22: Downloadable Media

I'm not really one for audio books. My short term memory is screwy so I cannot absorb a book that is being read to me. I am very visual and like having the book in front of me. For that reason, I didn't really like LibriVox or Wowio. Overdrive seems to be o.k. though. I was looking through the music category. There isn't a lot of music yet but it seems to be building up. I liked the Acoustic Abstracts CD. It is relaxing guitar music and heaven knows I need relaxing music right now. Better yet, it allows the music to be burned to a CD. I think I might go home, check it out and burn it to a CD. I'll be able to check out my computer's burning capabilities too.

Week 9 Lesson 21: Podcasts

I looked at all three podcast directories. I think the information is starting to become overwhelming. I decided to look at the music podcasts and see if I could find any handbell podcasts. I play with my church's advanced handbell choir. We continually try to push ourselves. I thought subscribing to one might give tips on how we can continue to improve. I was able to find one. I'm listening to it right now. At first I wasn't all that impressed, it sounded like a couple of guys just hanging out. However, the longer I've listened the better it has gotten. They will be interviewing a handbell guru next week so maybe I'm willing to continue listening and hear some of her new techniques.

More YouTube

O.K. I love this one and I had to post it. This Wake Up Cat video rings true to the whole cat thing.

Week 9 Lesson 20: You Tube

In order to see this video click here


O.K. I'm a sucker for cats with my five at home. As I searched YouTube, I found further proof that cats are not as digified as they want you to believe. I have to admit, I was surprised at how many R and X-rated videos I found even in the pet section. I guess it's further proof that we have to watch kids because truly anyone can post anything to the Internet.

Week 8 Lesson 18: Social Networking

Well, I set up a Facebook account for myself. I know I didn't HAVE to, but I've had a few friends asking when I would join them on Facebook so I figured I might as well. I thought it was quite confusing to use at first but I think I'm getting the hang of it now. I still don't have my profile quite the way I want it at the moment. I'm quite a private person and am unsure about giving out quite so much information. Even though I have a personal blog on another site, I set it so people couldn't see any more information other than my name.
I had quite a bit of fun searching for various friends. I ended up finding 3 of them so far and possibly a 4th. I sent them all messages. Maybe this will help us keep even better track of each other.
I also looked at my sister-in-law's MySpace profile. It is pretty cool. She has pictures of her kids scrolling across the bottom.

Week 8 Lesson 19: Zoho

Week 8 Post 17: Zoho

Hi this is cool. Instead of e-mailing a document back and forth to myself I can do it all on different computers and save it on the Internet. I'm able to get on it any where. And look, I can do different fonts and sizes. I can highlight my work. I can change the background color or letter color. I can add different symbols ψ. The only bad thing I'm finding is that it keeps refreshing itself and moving my cursor to the beginning of the document. It is annoying. How do I make it STOP?!?!?!?!

Week 7 Lesson 17: Anything Technology

We get to write about anything technology related, right?
Well, I must say, my favorite technological advance is probably e-mail. I was in high school when the entire e-mail craze started so it wasn't until college that I really caught up with the whole "new" way of communicating. But, I must say it has been really fantastic over the past 13 years. (Man, I'm getting old!) My husband and I grew up overseas and it has been a wonderful way for us to keep in touch with our old friends from high school. Now, with just a click of a mouse, we can communicate with people in Belgium, Norway, Scotland, India, and everywhere else. It's so much cheaper than picking up a phone.
More recently, I've also learned the joys of blogging. I started a personal blog (on a different provider) months ago. Now, instead of sending out individual e-mails, (something I am notoriously bad at) I just update my other blog and my friends can follow our lives with our cats and other adventures. It really is a small world after all!

Week 7 Lesson 16: Wikis

I believe Wikis are a great idea. They seem to be a great way to share information between individuals who care about a certain subject and live far apart. I especially liked the Book Lovers Wiki and the best practice Wiki. Now libraries all over the country and even the world can share a program, idea, policy or other activity that worked well in their library. There is nothing like having a place to bounce ideas around. One man's success can be shared with the world.

Week 6 Lesson 15: Library 2.0

What is Library 2.0? I see "Library 2.0" as bringing the library to the user. In the past, the user always had to come to the library to receive services from a certified librarian. This is no longer the case. Thanks to services from the Web 2.0, the library can be brought to the public. Library 2.0 is techology driven. Library's now have such a strong presence on the Internet, an HCPL customer can now live in California and still use our services. We now bring the library into the users home through Chat services, online registration, library blogs, digital media, and other services. Providing users with the ability to look at (although maybe not edit) a library's del.icio.us account allow the user access to librarian approved websites for their information needs.

"Library 2.0" means staying innovative. "Library 2.0" means modifying services according to library users needs. I liked Dr. Wendy Schultz's take on "Library 2.0". She sees libraries of the past as being in communities, where as now, libraries are communities. Library 1.0 was seen as a physical building and a necessary commodity within a community. Library 2.0 is now a virtual world that is user centered. Library 2.0 is not a necessity but instead a place with a product that needs to be marketed to sell.

Week 6 Lesson 14: Technorati

Technorati looks to be an interesting tool. However, I am not any more impressed with it than I was two weeks ago when we looked at it earlier. It seems to be difficult for the average user to search. It works the same way many other search engines work where it finds sites through electronic means. Just like all other computer based programs, it cannot think for itself. Therefore, unless the exactly correct search terms are used, it is very easy to have a result list that is either too broad or too narrow to be of any use. I found it interesting that when I did a tag search, I found 54 blogs with "Learning 2.0" as a tag. The same search under blog directory produced 57 blogs. I suppose it doesn't matter what the tag is, Technorati searches the entire blog and sends back results for all blogs about "Learning 2.0" whether they are tagged that way or not.

Week 6 Lesson 13: Del.icio.us

I set myself up a delicious account a couple of months ago. I have not added many bookmarks yet. Many of the bookmarks I have added so far are recipes I have wanted to keep track of. I have added many of my other bookmarks I had in my Yahoo! account to delicious. So far, many of my tags have remained simple such as recipes, work, libraries, etc. I see the benefit of tagging for people with hundreds of bookmarks in their account. It is a way to easily find resources at a few clicks of the mouse. There are definite advantages for reference librarians using Del.icio.us. Reference librarians are depending more and more on the Internet as reputable organizations are using the Internet to spread information. These websites are very valuable for up to date information that is not possible to read in a book. We use the Internet every day. Now we can keep track of usable websites with a few clicks of a mouse.

Week 5 Lesson 12: Library Elf

I've tried out Library Elf recently and don't know if I like it or not. On the one hand, it is rather redundant. I already get e-mail notificaions about holds, due dates and overdues. On the other hand, it is rather nice having books on both my card and my husbands card listed in the same place. I can actually see what is going on with both cards at once. Better yet, they are listed in date order so I can better see which books I need to pull from my husband's classroom on any given day. I have also been told that you can renew your books straight from the e-mail Library Elf send you. That's pretty nice to not have to go through the hassle of pin numbers and such to renew books. Perhaps Library Elf will grow on me.

Week 5 Lesson 11: Library Thing

I took a look at Library Thing over the past couple of days. I decided to start cataloging a list of books that I want to read. About a year ago, I decided to "catch up" on my books by reading from one of those 100 greatest books of all times list. I'm not that far into it. Now, though, I have a great place to keep track of those lists and whether I actually own the book. Now I can just tag a book as read. I've added a widget to the right side of the blog, click there to link to my entire list. I haven't finished adding the entire list yet, so stay tuned for more books.

Week 5 Lesson 10: Avatars

Here's the ideal me on vacation. Cute!!

Yahoo! Avatars

Widget Fun

Today, a member of our staff was playing around with Feedster. She was able to figure out how to add a widget to her blog. Now, we're all doing it! I did mine on Major League Baseball. I'm a huge Astros/Cubs fan. (I was raised in Houston by a member of the Cubs Nation.) We follow and root for both teams. The big question in our family is, has Next Year finally arrived? Follow the widget on my blog to find out!

Week 4 Lesson 9: News feeds

I couldn't really figure out the outside tools such as Feedster or Topix. I found it was easiest to just find the blogs myself and paste them into the search subscription box. That is the easiest way to find blogs and news feeds to follow. I subscribed to one more baseball blog so I can now follow my beloved Cubs during their World Series run. I also liked the 200 most popular feeds and the quick pick subscriptions button found there. I would have loved to explore the "Newest Feeds" button but so many people are currently using Bloglines, the connection is INCREDIBLY slow. I may wait until next week when the traffic on the information superhighway lightens up.

Week 4 Lesson 8: Bloglines

I actually have had a Bloglines account for about two years now. I think it's great. I've been using it to follow the hurricane season, baseball season, get recipies, and of course several library blogs. It has been rather convienient to use to follow the IHCPL blog. I see the assignments when they are posted. Just to make sure I knew what I was doing, I also signed up to follow my sister-in-laws blog. It is pretty nice to follow. There are all kinds of pictures of my nieces and nephew. I can watch them grow up, despite the fact that they live in North Carolina and I'm here in Texas.

Week 3 Lesson 7: Using Pixer

Well, I used Pixer on one of my cat photos. I'm not super happy with the results. The black cat turned colors when I tried to lighten up the wood behind him. Here's the before and after shots.

Week 3 Lesson 6: Fun with Flickr Mashups

O.k. Here at my library we have been having lots of fun with the Flickr mashups. We have been having the most fun with the trading card creator and "Spell with Flickr". We've been making trading cards for our various pets and putting our names and various words into Spell with Flickr until they have come out all pretty. I have tried some of the other mashups such as Tripper map and Yahoo Trip planner. I have not had much luck with Trippermap, but Trip planner has been fun. I've been trying to plan my dream vacation, a trip to Ireland. My cousins and I would love to go together on a heritage trip. We plan on going to a pub in Dublin still owned by our distant relations.

Spell with Flickr

Here's one of my cats name done in cool lettering!

Trading Cards

Ah, making a trading card was kind of fun. I was able to make one for one of my cats. She's a little Miss Priss but very lovable towards humans.

Week 3 Lesson 5: Our New Cat

My husband and I just adopted a new cat. He was living in the backyard of one of my coworkers. Here are two pictures of Frankie, one from when we first got him and a second taken just last week. Look at how he's grown.

Week 2 Lesson 4: Internet Safety

There is just too much information you can put on the Internet nowadays. Thinking about it though, it has been like this for well over a decade when chat rooms first hit it big. People need to understand that speaking to someone in a chat room is just as dangerous as those strangers your mother always warned you about when you were a child. Personally, I try to keep as much information off the Internet as possible. I never click on a pop up. I only enter in financial information in a secured website such as Amazon. I avoid chat rooms and other places where I don't know who I could be giving information to. I even went into Google Earth and deleted my address information. I have no child yet, but when I do, I will be glad for my slow dial-up connection at home. I hope it will discourage my child from getting on websites where they will be encouraged to pass on that information. It will make any talks we have more effective.

Week 2 Lesson 3: Strengths and Weaknesses

My biggest strength, I believe is the ability to think positive. I am of a generation who grew up with computers and, therefore, should be very comfortable with technology. I have to admit, in the past, I have been one who has not liked change. However, as technology has grown, I have come to realize that it is also becoming easier to use. I have discovered how much easier it is to live with this technology. I am looking forward to learning more about the Web 2.0 as we delve deeper into this new technology.
I believe my greatest weakness is giving myself credit. I am a perfectionist and I must be able to do everything equally well. I often get discouraged at things when they do not go perfectly. I am going to need to learn that things do not have to be perfect in order to succeed.