I didn't really have a "favorite discovery" or "exercise" in the Discovery 2.0, at least not as it relates to a particular tool or feature. I think the thing that sticks out the most are the great variety of tools "out there" and available that many people are using (whether I find them worth while or not!)
I think initially, excited about completing this program. Toward the end, after 'one more' exercise for a tool that I find no personal use from, it became more tediuos. Which is really strange, becuase I usually am very keen on using and learning new things. I don't think this program has necessarily affected my lifelong learning goals, with the exception that in the future, I will likely not try to do so much at once. Even with a 4 month time period to finish this (and it was mostly finished in a 2 month time period), it felt like a lot in a little amount of time.
One of the unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised me was that I reconnected with some of the tools I'd come across in the past and picked them up again. And, with others, I let them lie! One of the tools I began using again, was Pandora.com, the only music genome project.
If I was to suggest something to do differently for this program’s format would be to offer fewer hyperlinks explaining a topic. I think some people (not me) felt that all had to be read... rather than some. I tended to only read those that I was unfamiliar with, and after I read one hyperlink for a particular topic, I didn't read more unless I didn't feel like I totally understood the topic. Most of these were not new ideas to me (at least not conceptually) and I had a good grasp with many of the concepts to start with.
Overall, though this post tends to have a slightly negative bent, I think it was a good experience.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Item 22: Alternative Blogging
Initially, my impression of microbloggin was "does anyone really need this?" Personally, I think I can live without them. I don't think anyone really needs to see what I'm doing "right now"... if I'm taking the time to type something, really my "what I'm doing right now" would always be "typing on my computer on Twttr" (or other microblog).
I have seen Twitter in use (but didn't make my own account) and checked out Tumblr as well.
Trying to think outside the box, I'm trying to see other uses for this type of blogging. I think, like the list in David Lee King's blog about 10 ways to use it is forseeable -- if you have family & friends that you're IM'ing, emailing, or blogging with anyways, this might be a nice alternate option. Also, maybe if you were in networks that had a purpose (maybe there could be a librarians Twitter that posted quick Q & A's that people didn't need to research, but worked more as a have you heard of, or does this plot sound familiar? You know, for the patron who says "I'm trying to find a book I read 20 years ago -- it's got a picture of a horse and two kids on the front. I think it was a yellow book, and it was about growing up with horses" (or some such vague reference question... or hey, maybe reader's advisory for a topic you're not superfamiliar with and maybe you don't have access to any ready reference materials...
Overall, for me, it's just one more way to be over-communicated (like over-medicated).... a bit too much of a good thing.
I have seen Twitter in use (but didn't make my own account) and checked out Tumblr as well.
Trying to think outside the box, I'm trying to see other uses for this type of blogging. I think, like the list in David Lee King's blog about 10 ways to use it is forseeable -- if you have family & friends that you're IM'ing, emailing, or blogging with anyways, this might be a nice alternate option. Also, maybe if you were in networks that had a purpose (maybe there could be a librarians Twitter that posted quick Q & A's that people didn't need to research, but worked more as a have you heard of, or does this plot sound familiar? You know, for the patron who says "I'm trying to find a book I read 20 years ago -- it's got a picture of a horse and two kids on the front. I think it was a yellow book, and it was about growing up with horses" (or some such vague reference question... or hey, maybe reader's advisory for a topic you're not superfamiliar with and maybe you don't have access to any ready reference materials...
Overall, for me, it's just one more way to be over-communicated (like over-medicated).... a bit too much of a good thing.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Item 21: Audio/Video: Video
I've seen and used YouTube before, but I hadn't used any of the other video sites, so I tried blip.tv and MetaCafe. MetaCafe was nice becuase I could filter a search to a categories ( I searched "visiting Alaska" in the "travel & Outdoors category"). I ended up watching someone's home video of visiting Homer, AK. Blip.tv didn't have any categories to search in, so the same search, and I noticed under the screen pics of the videos, it showed the string of tags that my terms were found in... of course, not all were relevent, such as "visiting Buenos Aires"....
On Sciencehack, I scrolled through one of the categories "How is it made" and watched the first little bit of how they make firemens' helmets.
Maybe it's the connection at the library, but almost every video I watch paused every few seconds (well, every 10-15 seconds) as it loads or whatever it does.
I found a funny video on YouTube of babies laughing (yes, I have babies on the brain)...
I think there that video clips could be used to promote library activities, showing clips from similar type programs (showing how much fun a program is), and/or even doing something simple like having a YouTube "StoryTime" -- somethng like, "can't get enough of the X librarian at storytime? Visit her online and have her read books to you at home! Then having a link (or embeded video online) of someone doing a storytime. There are probably endless possibliities of using videos for marketing or promotion of past and future programs.
On Sciencehack, I scrolled through one of the categories "How is it made" and watched the first little bit of how they make firemens' helmets.
Maybe it's the connection at the library, but almost every video I watch paused every few seconds (well, every 10-15 seconds) as it loads or whatever it does.
I found a funny video on YouTube of babies laughing (yes, I have babies on the brain)...
I think there that video clips could be used to promote library activities, showing clips from similar type programs (showing how much fun a program is), and/or even doing something simple like having a YouTube "StoryTime" -- somethng like, "can't get enough of the X librarian at storytime? Visit her online and have her read books to you at home! Then having a link (or embeded video online) of someone doing a storytime. There are probably endless possibliities of using videos for marketing or promotion of past and future programs.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Item 20: Audio/Video - Podcasting
I checkedout out all three podcast sights and didn't enjoy searching on any of them! I was looking to see if there was a podcase on book reviews or new books.... I didn't find much. I ended up adding an RSS feed from http://podcastalley.com/ to my bloglines account.
When I started looking at some personal topics that were more relevent in my life, (in podcast alley) when I clicked to 'get podcast' there were intermediary steps to download a podcast agregator, then to get login name, then to listen... too many steps even for something I'm actually interested in (as I have alternate sources... if this was my only resource, I'd likely take the time to download and set up an account...)
When I started looking at some personal topics that were more relevent in my life, (in podcast alley) when I clicked to 'get podcast' there were intermediary steps to download a podcast agregator, then to get login name, then to listen... too many steps even for something I'm actually interested in (as I have alternate sources... if this was my only resource, I'd likely take the time to download and set up an account...)
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Item 19: Audio/Video - Music and other Audio
It was funny; while working on this section, I had already previously opened up Pandora and was listening to it as I worked. I've known about Pandora (and have used it) for the past year or so. I really like it, becuase I'll just put it on in the background and it keeps playing songs it thinks I'll like basede on the "station" I've selected. I really like Josh Groban, have this artist as the "station" I listen to most often, and usually like the artists that they play on this station. When I don't, I simply rate it with a thumbs down symbol and it skips over the song. Yeah!
Last.fm was neat too -- comparatively, for my purposes, it was a little overloaded with more things to do -- watch videos, listen to a couple tracks of the artist I input(and offer to purchase them), see who is currently also listening, listen to the "station" for the artist, see artistst they list as being similar, etc... see the top listeners for the past week (who really cares about this?!?!?)
Anyways, it may be due to experience, but I preferred Pandora over last.fm.
I also went out to the Gutenberg.org's Audio Book collection and Mango Languages websties. I'd heard of the GAB collection and come across it a couple time to meet patrons needs at the reference desk. Personally, I don't care to read 'for fun books' online... I could download some of the audio books in MP3 format, but the one I did look at (Jane Austens' Pride and Prejudice) was so big, it'd probably take up half of my 2 GB MP3 player. Maybe if I was at home, I'd download them and update them to my player on the weekends. I usuaully only listen to books on my MP3 player when I'm traveling... well, I am traveling in the next two weeks, so maybe this weekened I'll download a good chunk of the book.
As for the Mango Languages website, it sure started of simple! But, sometimes that's all a person needs. It would be neat for kids who are leaning about another culture and want to learn how to say a few basics, like "hello, how are you?" I briefly looked at the first quarter of the first spanish language. Mostly basics, but easy enough to follow along. I also took a peek at the Japanese and Greek ones; becuase the tutorial shows the text of the foregin lang in the alphabet of the culture, I think it would be a lot harder to learn these ones.
I think libraries could definitely make use of these resources. Project Gutenberg could be used when a student needs to read (or listen) to a book and we don' thave any copies left in the system (of course, they'd have to have a computer and the internet at home.)
As for whether CDs are dead, I think that eventually they will go the way of tapes and whatever came before tapes... Tapes are still around some (hey, I still have a tape player in my car and listen to boooks on tape), but, like VHS tapes, no one really buys them anymore... With technology moving as fast as it is, it seems that no media type is safe from extinction.
Last.fm was neat too -- comparatively, for my purposes, it was a little overloaded with more things to do -- watch videos, listen to a couple tracks of the artist I input(and offer to purchase them), see who is currently also listening, listen to the "station" for the artist, see artistst they list as being similar, etc... see the top listeners for the past week (who really cares about this?!?!?)
Anyways, it may be due to experience, but I preferred Pandora over last.fm.
I also went out to the Gutenberg.org's Audio Book collection and Mango Languages websties. I'd heard of the GAB collection and come across it a couple time to meet patrons needs at the reference desk. Personally, I don't care to read 'for fun books' online... I could download some of the audio books in MP3 format, but the one I did look at (Jane Austens' Pride and Prejudice) was so big, it'd probably take up half of my 2 GB MP3 player. Maybe if I was at home, I'd download them and update them to my player on the weekends. I usuaully only listen to books on my MP3 player when I'm traveling... well, I am traveling in the next two weeks, so maybe this weekened I'll download a good chunk of the book.
As for the Mango Languages website, it sure started of simple! But, sometimes that's all a person needs. It would be neat for kids who are leaning about another culture and want to learn how to say a few basics, like "hello, how are you?" I briefly looked at the first quarter of the first spanish language. Mostly basics, but easy enough to follow along. I also took a peek at the Japanese and Greek ones; becuase the tutorial shows the text of the foregin lang in the alphabet of the culture, I think it would be a lot harder to learn these ones.
I think libraries could definitely make use of these resources. Project Gutenberg could be used when a student needs to read (or listen) to a book and we don' thave any copies left in the system (of course, they'd have to have a computer and the internet at home.)
As for whether CDs are dead, I think that eventually they will go the way of tapes and whatever came before tapes... Tapes are still around some (hey, I still have a tape player in my car and listen to boooks on tape), but, like VHS tapes, no one really buys them anymore... With technology moving as fast as it is, it seems that no media type is safe from extinction.
Item 18: Online Applications/Tools: Google Docs
I really liked google docs; however, in my personal life, I don't have much use for them at this point. I can see how they would be very helpful for students at almost any age. When I was in college, there was something similar (a way to collaborate) but it was more of a posting a file online to a mailbox and then the other team members would download, edit, and repost. This didn't eliminate multiple copies, but it was a way to collaborate without sending millions of emails.
I made a sample presentation and "published" it, but couldn't get the frame to appear below (an error popped up with eBlogger), so here's the URL:
http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dcsrfz5g_1fxhnhqg4
I made a sample presentation and "published" it, but couldn't get the frame to appear below (an error popped up with eBlogger), so here's the URL:
http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dcsrfz5g_1fxhnhqg4
Item 17: Cool Stuff
So, I entered my blog URL into the The Blog Readability Test and I just found out that the reading level of my blog is "high school reading level." Hmmm... Interesting. Not sure how useful that is to most people, but, interesting.
I attempted to register for a login for Scrabulous but never got the reply email that contained my password.
Moving on (actaully, while waiting for the password) I went to Yahoo.answers, set up a profile, and got hooked. I think it's the librarian in me... I'd find a question and just wanted to answer it! I started off easy, answering a survey type question (how many pets to I have) for a student who needed to ask the question of 20 people and graph the responses... I moved on to another question about a high school student who was interested in becoming a pharmacist, wanted to know about the employment forcast, potential income, and courses she should focus on. My most difficult question was from a parent who was trying to help their child do research on a paper. Supposedly, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had made some contributions to the field of mathmatics and the daughter was supposed to write two pages on it. After researching the topic on our online databases (biography databases) as well as googling some terms, I began to wonder if the daughter misinterpreted the assignment! I posted what I found (only confirming that IF it was true, there wasn't anything listed in the several biographies I came across)... I questioned whether it was not the poet, but maybe another Longfellow....
Overall, the Yahoo answers was fun (from the perspective of a librarian) but when I was scrolling through the homework help, I got the feeeling that a lot of kids were using it to get out of doing their own reserach!
I attempted to register for a login for Scrabulous but never got the reply email that contained my password.
Moving on (actaully, while waiting for the password) I went to Yahoo.answers, set up a profile, and got hooked. I think it's the librarian in me... I'd find a question and just wanted to answer it! I started off easy, answering a survey type question (how many pets to I have) for a student who needed to ask the question of 20 people and graph the responses... I moved on to another question about a high school student who was interested in becoming a pharmacist, wanted to know about the employment forcast, potential income, and courses she should focus on. My most difficult question was from a parent who was trying to help their child do research on a paper. Supposedly, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had made some contributions to the field of mathmatics and the daughter was supposed to write two pages on it. After researching the topic on our online databases (biography databases) as well as googling some terms, I began to wonder if the daughter misinterpreted the assignment! I posted what I found (only confirming that IF it was true, there wasn't anything listed in the several biographies I came across)... I questioned whether it was not the poet, but maybe another Longfellow....
Overall, the Yahoo answers was fun (from the perspective of a librarian) but when I was scrolling through the homework help, I got the feeeling that a lot of kids were using it to get out of doing their own reserach!
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