Final Project

I wanted to provide links to my final project...

here is the screencast: Final Presentation

here is the wiki: wiki

Johnson part 2

I think my biggest take-away from Johnson's book is "don't be too quick to judgment" when it comes to relative usefulness of pop culture in education. As games, tv, and other media becomes more and more sophisticated there is the potential of learning important skills via these medium. Educators and librarians need to take a step back from quick criticism and really investigate what is out there. While I have some difficulty following the thread that video gaming has actually raised the collective IQ, I do truly believe that there is the potential of lots of learning "under the hood" of many seemingly entertainment based technology. As the digital world is so prevalent in society, writing it off as simply "pop culture" and of no use educationally is a big mistake. Embrace the changes and integrate the possibilities into the system...there are alot of great things to be learned.

Class structure

No, not another post about danah boyd’s thoughts on MySpace vs. Facebook…. a post about 598 and its structure!

In thinking back on the weeks and analyzing them as they unfolded, the only thing that I might think about changing is where Flickr fell in the order. To me Flickr would roll seamlessly after social bookmarking, which would enhance the project of getting to know your classmates (albeit only one week earlier…). I don’t think it is a huge change to flip–flop Flickr and wiki’s but it was really the only change I could think of! I think the class is a winner as is, providing TONS of information on new trends that are relevant to the library. Being guided through foreign territory was a huge benefit for me. It isn’t that I couldn’t have learned the things on my own but having a choreographed roll-out really helped develop the knowledge. The only other small thing I can think of is in the Delicious week… making a stronger statement on the use of descriptions to assist others in “why” a bookmark was selected to represent *you* would have helped me as a new user. I think I didn’t really *get* that until later, I was too focused on the technical aspect of what things to click and load and do.

Well there you have it. I feel confident that I understand enough about social software to “get” why it exists, how it plays out in the library world, and how to jump in if the need arises. I know that I only scratched the surface on some things but feel like I have the tools to now tackle new things as they come, which we all know they will! Thanks for providing a safe place to jump into the deep end of a potentially scary pool!

Minerva survived with her virtual virginity intact!

I found SL to be very frustrating and futile in my first few hours… I figured out how to move around easily enough but really saw no purpose for my movements! I had a hard time finding anyplace I wanted to go. I spent some time trying to change my appearance and was also not hugely successful. I did find some cool red shoes that someone gave me for free in the Cat’s Lair, but struggled with changing my appearance using the edit--> appearance function. I got pretty frustrated just trying to get some jeans and a t-shirt on, I finally gave up trying to change my hair color! I did add some nice freckles though….I do believe that if you are persistent enough or are willing to plonk down some Linden bucks you can get pretty creative about your “look.”

By about the 6^th hour of invested time I could quickly search for new places to try and teleport there but was still struggling with “why” I would want to. I visited Princeton, admired some paintings, rode a merry-go-round and swung at a park, went to a pub but still really found nothing compelling enough to want to do this for anything other than an assignment! I found my prevailing emotion was stress as I was wandering around so I spent some time in the immersive aquarium where I met another noob and we chatted a bit – kind of a cool place to relax for awhile. I did find my way to Info Island and stopped at the readers Advisory station in the library. I was lucky enough not to have to deal with any virtual propositioning... must have been those added freckles!

I guess bottom line is this… if I was looking for information on a college or book I would rather just go to a website and get the information. I am, apparently, just not that interested in socializing with other virtual people. While I “get” the appeal for some people I am just not one of them. Give me a real coffee house or pub and a ftf chat with some random stranger or a friend any day! I am actually kind of surprised that the virtual environment didn’t appeal to my rather nerdy qualities more than they did…. I thought for sure I would find this all extremely fascinating. So I end my SL a little disillusioned but at least I know what it looks like and could reemerge in some other place and time for a second chance at a second life.

Popular Culture and stupidity

The information in Johnson's book was very interesting and he had some valid points. I do agree that there are many things in today's popular culture that do provide great arenas for learning. His points about some of the knowledge gained from certain types of gaming is quite accurate. If you do spend time playing very complex, multi-layered games you can exercise your decision making skills, your ability to strategize, hypothesize, etc. The same can be said for high quality TV and film, there are things to be learned in every medium when the end product is well developed and written to appeal to higher order thinking. So, on the whole, I do not believe that videogames are evil and useless. Nor do I think that people would be better off only playing Zelda than reading a book or playing a sport. There is a place for all of it in a balanced life.

I do believe, however, that he bases most of his "electronic media is good" argument on a small percentage of the actual end product. While he puts forth an effort to say that the dreck of today is still better dreck than the past, really I cannot find that a compelling argument for it's worth.

I guess the bottom line is he believes that media shapes the culture rather than culture shaping the media... a bit like the chicken and the egg...which did come first? He has not convinced me that media drives the cultural and intellectual advances.

I am no gamer...

The challenge this week was to find a game that I could:
A) understand how to play AND
B) find an opponent to play with AND
C) screencast as I played

That proved to be like teaching an elephant to ride a tricycle! I finally gave up on grown-up games and found myself on Webkinz.com in my 6 year old daughter's account. So, to be fair, everytime I go to the library I see kids on the computers playing Webkinz... I decided that if you werent a parent you might never have seen how Webkinz works. With my limited gaming skills I found that ones designed for the under 10 set were just about my speed! So here is a screen cast of Webkinz bowling....

bowling

Best practices for screencasting

Here is an outline of my best practices and a screencast - not sure which you were looking for and was too lazy to ask!!

1. prepare your environment - turn off the stereo, open the programs you will need to show, close unneeded programs so as to minimize potential distractions
2. have a general outline of what you want to say and do, try it once so you have all required info at your fingertips
3. briefly explain any moves/mouseclicks you do if you are making a step-by-step instruction screencast

here is a screencast of "best practices"- after I did it I realized I must not play my music that loud as you can barely hear it in the background! So I guess I can keep my tunes on!

best practices

xboxes, playstations, and wii's - oh my!

You're in charge of getting a gaming system for your library or a local organization...

• How would you research?
• What would your criteria be?
• Which do you think you would get?

Okay - sounds like an easy enough question right? Boy was I wrong! I spent several hours reading reviews and trying to understand all the techno-gamer language to try and start forming an opinion. So here is my answer to the question...

Research --> first you need to decide who the gaming audience is - all library patrons or 18-24 year old boys - because the answer of which console to buy is heavily dependent on who is going to be playing. You can read reviews on any number of websites but I was actually able to follow most of the jargon on this site --> digital trends.

Once you have figured out your target audience then you can worry about building your criteria list on things like price, backwards compatibility, size of the unit, graphics quality, number and type of games available, type of screen it will be played on, etc.

My bottom line.... if I had to buy a console for a library first I would go home and cry....then I think I would settle on the Nintendo Wii, basing the decision on its relatively decent price ($300 to start vs. ps3 at $600), its appeal to users of all ages (vs. xbox 360 where most games seem to be for older teens), its compact size for storage (vs. the ps3), its backwards compatibility with GameCube games (both xbox and ps3 appear to have some backward compat. issues), and its generally more "fun" gameplay. Now having said this... I think that if your target audience is serious gamers who want the more mature games, then Wii isnt the answer. But if I ran a library and could only buy one I would try to appeal to the masses with the Wii.

boyd readings

Based on the readings by danah boyd (does anyone know why she does not capitalize her name?), libraries need to understand that if they want to connect with young users they need to have a presence on multiple SNS networks. There is an apparent socio-economic divergence between MySpace and Facebook users, so each system needs to include accounts in order to reach all of the target audience. There are other smaller niche markets which can be assessed, but primarily teens and young adults are using one or the other of these SNS in order to keep in touch with people. Understanding the different audiences and building a profile to enhance that knowledge would be very important research that a librarian or staffer would need to conduct prior to launching their "presence."

Ning seems interesting!

I can see Ning as a more compelling use of SNS...building a social network of specific people for a specific purpose makes some sense to me.I could see using it to prepare and promote a conference that would showcase events and the people involved or to gather feedback on an idea from a specific user group, etc. In the library world I could see creating a Ning based on shared interests...bookclubs, online gaming clubs, etc. Having the ability to appeal to the social networking principles but with a more selected and purposeful group...yeah I see that.

I am sure that the limitations of "upkeep" are more difficult than with MySpace or Facebook exposure - you would have to explain more and justify why you weren't just using a mainstream SNS. But I think the overriding usefulness would be compelling enough if the ning was well thought out and designed.

Sticky = voyeurism

So I have decided that voyeurism is a huge part of why MySpace and FaceBook are "sticky" sites! As a brand new SNS user I found that I could have spent quite a bit of time strolling down memory lane to see what old classmates (that I havent communicated with in over 25 years) are doing. But really do I need to? Or is it some crazy desire to peek into their windows without just knocking on the door? Same goes for old co-workers...I worked in the Silicon Valley during the crazy internet years - there were alot of shared experiences that are not easily repeated and you develop oddly intense relationships at work at 3 AM. But I left that world and the people behind, until I started peeking at them too! So I guess I am just a voyeur at heart - didnt want to actually communicate but had a great time poking around! I think that is a large part of what makes these sites "sticky" - you can see what many people are doing with little personal committment.

Then there are the other users, who use the sites to truly live their life in a digital world. I think I am too old to get on that bandwagon!

Deleting friends in MySpace

Screencast of how to delete a friend on MySpace. Since my account is getting deleted every night I have now mastered the deletion of "Tom" the random MySpace friend - so thought I would share it with any other new to MySpace users.

http://screencast.com/t/nIC1eAwn

Copying Gabrielle!

So I saw this on Gabrielle's blog and thought it was pretty clever.... here is my Dewey Section:

Tamara's Dewey Decimal Section:

194 Philosophy of France

Tamara = 013181 = 013+181 = 194


Class:
100 Philosophy & Psychology


Contains:
Books on metaphysics, logic, ethics and philosophy.



What it says about you:
You're a careful thinker, but your life can be complicated and hard for others to understand at times. You try to explain things and strive to express yourself.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

My favorite videos

While I was very impressed with all the videos... I was especially impressed with (in no particular order) Gabrielle's, Roel's and Renee's.

Gabrielle's was just plain hilarious besides being technically great. --> link

Roel's pictures were stunning, so even though making it caused great grief the final result was worth it! --> link

Renee's was very clever with a nice music/picture combo (plus a great idea that I will use next time I am expected to bake cookies). --> link

Great job everyone!

How To use WordArt

This screencast will give you simple instructions on how to use MicroSoft Word to make bookmarks for storytime at the library.

WordArtDemo

Learning how to perform the Cruyff turn

In this short video a soccer player can learn how to perform a Cruyff turn, named for the famous player Johan Cruyff. It is used in order to change the direction of play if an attacking player is approaching.




Click to play

link:

http://blip.tv/file/1423187

My Monsters

Here is a real quick video of my kids in various Halloween's past - figured it was "that time of the year"... (there are some classroom shots - they aren't ALL my kids!).





Original video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp9O_SRoSfQ

educational vs. entertainment

In the Pew report on Online Video usage, the general statistics certainly point to much higher viewing numbers for entertainment videos versus educational videos. This statistic is not surprising nor is the data that points out the significantly higher viewing stats for younger vs. older viewers. What was interesting to note in the report was the consistency of viewing for educational videos across all demographics. While the numbers are not as high, they are much more balanced - old, young, male, female - roughly 20% of the population turns to the Internet to learn something via online videos. So while educational videos may not ever see the sheer number of hits that an entertainment video might, there is a significant market "out there" for online educational videos!

As the digital generation ages, I would imagine that online use of educational videos will keep pace. It is a format that they are used to and turn to quickly when looking for information. Producers of online educational videos should feel comfortable and secure in the market place (as long as they don't expect anyone to pay for the use!).

We Are SCILS598f08 (sung to the tune of "we are family")

It was a very interesting study of our school and personal lives to review the Flickr groups. What I discovered was...

We are a very mixed bag of grad students when it comes to how we are completing this program. Some on-campus day students, some on-campus night students, one that this is their first "only online" class, a few strictly online students... really no clear "winner" in this category. I think that speaks to the outstanding nature of this program that 20 people seeking the exact same degree are able to complete it in such a variety of ways. I feel like Rutgers is on the leading edge of education with this model, and am quite happy to be a part of it. After viewing the pictures of the "chairs of death" I am especially happy for my comfy, ergonomically correct, rolling wonder in my basement! I also learned we all have the same books at home :)

Personally, we all seem to be focused on many of the same things; our families, pets, outdoor enjoyment, books, and travels. We have a couple of oddball hobbies (not that the hobbies are odd, but that each one is not universally represented...) and more than a few caffeine addicts - but I think that goes hand in hand with grad school! I think we are a pretty interesting bunch, I would like to meet us!

PS - There are definitely a few very good photographers here as well (not me though - I am happy if people all have heads in my photos...).

It is all about balance

With shelf space being a "fixed" quantity, pushing collections into the long tail requires balance. By lengthening the tail in each library that would require shortening the head. There is only so much physical space, so the more that libraries play into the niche's, the less they can provide for the masses. But is a niche in one library a part of the mass in another? The best way for libraries to effectively represent the entire tail is the use of consortium's and inter library loans. Page 148 of Anderson's book says it all about the balance between heads and tails:

" If you just have the products at the Head, you find that very quickly your customers want more and you can't offer it. If you just have the products at the Tail, you find that customers have no idea where to start. They're unable to get traction in the marketplace because everything you're offering is unfamiliar to them. The importance of offering the stuff at both the Head and the Tail is that you can start in the world that customers already know: familiar products that tap into and define a space."

Libraries have to work hard at balancing the head and tail as well as locating for their patron's things they cannot immediately provide. Then they can tap into both the Head and the Tail.

The pop-in

So it was pretty cool to pop a little mp3 in my blog - I can see how this could enhance the whole blogging experience. There are some things that just are better communicated with sound...imagine blogging about your new favorite musical artist.... now imagine blogging about said artist AND including an mp3 podcast of them. Or how about those bragger blog's where people talk about all the wonderful things their kids do...and including the trumpet solo or soliloquy from the school play. I can definitely see where an occasional podcast popped into a blog would be an enhancement.

Where I see a problem is if you are a text based blogger who learns a new trick and includes podcasts in every blog - that would get tiresome and not serve the purpose of the blog. People are not always in a situation where they can listen (think cube farm at work and no headset...) when what they are expecting to do is read.

So podcasts in blogs are kinda like pop-in's from people - no big deal that you didn't know ahead of time for the occasional pop-in...but really quite annoying when it becomes habitual!

I hate Halloween

I know, I know how can you hate Halloween? Well let me tell you a little story...

click player to hear more....





click link if you prefer....

Halloween Story

Make It, Get It Out There, and Help Me Find It

Where do libraries and librarians fit into the "Make It, Get It Out There, and Help Me Find It" equation?

Make It --> Libraries provide the tools and training to assist patrons to become new producers. Workshops on how to publish, how to use new technologies, etc have been part and parcel of the public library domain for a long time. They have also lead by example. The number of libraries that are creating content on the web grows everyday.

Get It Out There --> Looking at the aggregator aspect of providing materials for public use - isn't that really what a library is? One big aggregator providing content to the marketplace? By sharing resources with others, libraries are able to provide inventory on demand, no matter how small the niche market.

Help Me Find It --> According to Anderson new tastemakers are "people whose opinions are respected" (pg. 107) and a librarian is typically used as a filter of information because their opinion is respected. They are also reaching out beyond just their own opinion by providing methods for other patrons to share their views. The use of surveys, book reviews, and book lists of frequent library visitors are providing community based recommendations as well.

When looking at these three forces, you can see that libraries and librarians have always been a part of the Long Tail.

Drank some more of the Google Kool-Aid

So I checked out the Google Analytics and the nerd in me was pretty impressed! I couldn't believe how much info you could actually get to - now I just need a reason to care! (I do understand that I would care if I hosted a website or blog read by more than just my classmates who *have* to - but I don't, so really there is not a lot of relevancy for me today on this. I will care some other time though....)

What I did learn is that Steve has trained us all pretty well and the Firefox visits beat the IE visits 70% to 30% - apparently you can only drink so much Kool-Aid from the big guys before you have to try the Delaware Punch. (does anybody else remember Delaware Punch? OMG it was good!)

Also there are alot of people on T1's - so I am guessing that several people might be doing some blog reading at their "day job"!! T1's beat out DSL, but only by a hair. And I am so sorry to the 2 people who accessed via dial up...life must be very painful over dial up.

Online and loving it

Here I sit in my third semester at Rutgers in the SCILS program. In that time I have changed my commute from the living room to the basement, upgraded my backpack from a stack on the floor to real shelves, and learned more than I ever thought possible without setting foot on a college campus. I am an online student who fits school in with all the other things that make up a life and I never have to drive to New Brunswick to do it. It has been odd to adjust to not seeing people but it hasn't impeded my ability to get to know my cohort. Of course I could trip right over them in the street - but that is a whole 'nother story! When I talk to non-students about the program the typical reaction is "wow - you can do that? how does that work?" and I always answer the same way...if I wasn't able to get my degree online I couldn't be going to school right now, so no matter the potential issues it is worth it!

Here is a picture of the building that I travel to for classes....



If you want to take a look at some more of my classrooms, my backpack, and what keeps me going go here --> my SCILS life

If you want to check out what my classmates SCILS life looks like try here --> my classmates

So go ahead - take that online class, it won't hurt you (much).

Heads or Tails?

When thinking about the long tail vis-a-vis (that's a fancy word for in relation to - for you "Fancy Nancy" fans out there) the library I am pondering the space versus potential use continuum. In order for libraries to serve their communities they need to provide a balance between "head-y" things and "tail-y" things.

Everyone that walks in the door is equally capable of asking for the latest James Patterson novel or a book published in Mexico about the Mexican Army and specifically General Miguel Lamego. So the trick is in the balance, because while there may be more people looking for "The Dangerous Days of Daniel X", they can readily find it if you happen to be out. Whereas the user looking for the book on Miguel Lamego probably doesn't have anywhere else to turn. The library can prove its ultimate usefulness in being able to provide materials (either in house or via ILL) that are clearly the tail end of the spectrum.

Are they ready for some collaboration?

In every class you hear the dreaded words "group project" and your palms start sweating, heart starts racing, and eyeballs roll all the way back in your head...why? ... because until now it was just such a pain to parse out the duties and keep track of the work involved in group work. Collaboration tools like Google Docs and spresent can certainly take some of the pain away and should be used for both on-campus and online students for their group work. I have only been in this program for a year and thinking back to my first group project and the weekly phone calls and 3 trillion emails back and forth to put together a PowerPoint presentation literally gives me hives.... If only I, or my professor, had known about these tools life would have been much better (shout out to Sue for our weekly phone calls!). So the short answer to "would it make project creation easier/faster?" is YES YES YES YES YES.

But the real question..."would professors accept them"...
I think within our academic community there is as big a mixed bag of skills as anywhere - there are some professors who are completely on top of all that is new and helpful and some professors who may as well be taking notes on a stone tablet. Each professor has the apparent flexibility to set their own technological requirements so trying to get some to think outside their box just wont happen. The best case scenario would be teaching the students the value of the tools and making it so easy for the professors to view the final work that they would not care how it was created.

the virtual me

So I was/am brand new to delicious so you are more than welcome to take any comment I have with a grain of salt...

I thought the bookmarking exercise as a means of getting to know more about each other was only okay for that purpose...because there are ding-dong's, like me, that didnt put anything in the description to say why the site was important, some of the bookmarks, like mine, just didnt grab my attention. The other thing that I got very confused about was who was marking what...if it is meant to represent "us" as a "whole" I think it does that fine - but if it was meant to have me get to know Tara, for example, not so much...as I struggled to piece together who was marking what and building a profile for that person.

So if you want to use this tool as a "virtual introduction" for another class setting then I think there have to be a few more ground rules...
1. you must provide some insight as to why that site was important (I WAY more enjoyed those bookmarks than anyone could have enjoyed mine...)
2. I think you have to tag each with the user name ...tascils... etc and then look at the lists individually as well as a group tag ...fall08... to see the overlap.
3. you would have to assume that there is the possibility that there are users unfamiliar with delicious and account for that in the beginning

so that's my .02

PBWiki I still like you better

So I took a look at WikiSpaces this week and found it very similar to PBWiki in most of the functionality. The editing, inviting, linking pages and files, etc etc etc all looked very similar. Though I must admit that WikiSpaces seems to have more flexibility in changing the themes, colors, look and feel, logo type things. I do not think the free version of PBWiki is all that flexible in "look" issues.

Okay - now for the big guns.... the free version of WikiSpaces has the dreaded ads that you have to pay to turn off - now $5 a month ain't bad if there is some compelling reason to do it - I think the PBWiki upgrades are most costly than that - but I wonder if $5 really accomplishes what you want? I didnt go down that road to determine...

I also really missed my sidebar - I like my sidebar - I use my sidebar - I need my sidebar - the WikiSpaces navigation on the left is okay but it just seemed like if you had a really big wiki that list would get cumbersome.

So ultimately I think I like my PBWiki better still but it might be worth looking at what $5 a month would get you if you are ready to start giving up the "free"dom.

Interestingly enough, my son's high school Media Center uses WikiSpaces for their "Assignments and Pathfinders" here is a link if anyone is interested --> http://hvcentral.wikispaces.com/

Brown and Duguid

Brown and Duguid bring up several interesting points in this week's reading. One of the implications for the educational system that I see if the re-training of the American ideal of a college education for outbound high-schooler's. The reality of getting your education online is a very different reality than people have ever experienced. Parents are in no way prepared to even think of that possibility for their child and the high school's are probably not well versed enough in what is available for students that could and would thrive in that environment. It is easy to see a "fit" for adults returning to school after years in the workplace, convenience alone makes online schooling viable. But what about 18 year olds that have struggled to fit in the school environment already? Could they be a candidate to get a degree against the odds? How about the kid who really would like to go to college but for some circumstance (home issues, health issues, etc) just cant get to the campus they would like to attend? There are a myriad of reasons that a graduating senior may not go to college, but is your average high school guidance counselor prepared to think out of the box to find solutions for kids who could be successful in the digital environment? I really doubt that they are - but would love to be proved wrong!

honestly - Magnolia is not intuitive enough

Even though I am completely new to social bookmarking/tagging etc and the first time I ever tried Delicious was this week (Steve - you aren't reading this right? I found my "new to me" other ways!!) I can quickly tell I prefer Delicious over Magnolia. I signed up for Magnolia and honestly was at a loss - there is just no easy way to start. Okay, I gotta admit, I like the Magnolia graphic, it is peppy and my favorite color scheme but beyond that - not so much... I found a group that is in a class a little like 598 and using Magnolia, in case anyone is interested in what they are doing at San Jose State -> http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/classes/coursedesc.htm but beyond that I am bouncing around and not getting anywhere. It could be I am not concentrating, or it could be that it just isn't as easy to get going, I don't know! I must admit, I didn't add the buttons to my toolbars etc, as I already have more than enough junk going on for my personal, spare aesthetic tastes, but really it should be self explanatory what to do! So after its 15 minutes of fame I am giving up. Did I give it a fair shot? probably not. But in today's busy world with the myriad of choices at our fingertips I have to learned to move on if something just isn't clicking with me! So I am moving on and hoping that another classmate can better describe a product that I just didn't get!

Shelfari - my thoughts

Okay before I start let me make it perfectly clear that I know I am "different" than most when it comes to visual vs. text... I prefer the written word to pictures almost all the time, a picture does not always paint a thousand words for me! For whatever reason all the new *visual* stuff like visual dictionaries, visual displays of search returns, etc etc etc just confuse the heck out of me - give me a good old list any day!

Shelfari is designed to display your book collection virtually. I use (not very regularly) GoodReads currently so I understood the premise before signing up. Shelfari is definitely made for those people who like a visual representation of the topic. There is a customizable bookshelf that can display the covers of your virtual library. There are lots of ways to share your books and ideas with others, discussion groups, friends, etc. Each process seems very easy to set up, even for me! The only thing I had some trouble with is figuring out how to add new books. I found the button to do it, figured out the search, but did not get the feedback I was hoping for that I had correctly selected the books. Some of the cool things that I noticed were.... there is a tag cloud (like in delicious) for linking to book ideas, it seems very easy to move your books around to different shelves, there are tons of book reviews, there is an area that you can ask for recommendations, etc.

Overall - if you like the big visuals this is the one for you. If you are a more text based person then give GoodReads a try!

Information Overload got you down?

Try using an RSS aggregator to mitigate the problem! Used properly RSS aggregators can really help individuals facing information overload. By creating your own feed of the information you want to read you can eliminate, by never even seeing, things you do not have any interest in and focusing your limited attention to those items you *do* want to see. I think it takes some time and experience to determine how much and what you want to be fed every day but the ability to tailor your inputs to the number and type you can handle is a very powerful tool.

Looking to learn a new language?

Try Livemocha --> http://www.livemocha.com/

According to their own documentation...Livemocha is an exciting e-learning Web 2.0 startup founded by a group of experienced and successful entrepreneurs based in the Seattle area. Livemocha addresses a $20 billion worldwide language learning market fueled by rapid globalization, immigration and travel. Livemocha is a first of its kind web based language learning solution integrating online instructional content with a global community of language learners.

Basically - you sign up and can take lessons in a foreign language - then they will help you find a partner to practice with so you become more proficient. I thought it was very interesting. Maybe I will learn Italian in my spare time?! Oh right, I don't have spare time.

Enjoy!

Slogged thru the rest of Feed

While I did not particularly enjoy reading Feed, it was an interesting study in possibilities. How close are we to that society? Close but no cigar yet...The idea is there though. The notion of having data constantly updating and feeding to you is a reality - the receiving device just isn't implanted in our head yet. It is not that big of a stretch when you see a trio of kids walking down the street texting each other instead of actually *talking* to each other. And really, the consumerism is already there as well, just not in the same technological framework.

Most striking? That still has to be the inability to write any longer. Again, not that far from reality! My teenage son can barely print anymore much less write in cursive.Those skills are just no longer promoted in school because their reality is most things are turned in electronically.

As an aside, my 6 year old daughter asked me the other day to buy something or another (don't recall...) and I said they were all out. Her easy answer... "just go to dot com and buy it, you can get anything there." I can only imagine the society she will be a grown-up in!

interesting site

So as I was cruising around I found this site -->http://supercrazylibrarianguy.wordpress.com/

and thought it was interesting. Technically it is just some guy's blog but as I was looking I saw that many, many of the tech tools that we are going to be exploring have a quick post about them, including some basic starter steps to get you going. It just seemed like a good place to get basic info and somewhere that you could direct others for explanations of terms that they may run into with a brief "lesson" to try. The biggest appeal for me was everything was in one place and easily accessible.

Google Reader vs. Bloglines

Having graduated from blog virgin to blog neophyte my ability to compare product lines is fairly rudimentary. But here goes...

Google Reader does not appeal to me aesthetically. The left sidebar navigation seems like it was just slapped together without much care for appearances. I also feel like the "trends" section is completely useless (maybe I am missing something - do other people care about these statistics?). The one area that I felt was superior to Bloglines was the ease of retrieving all past items in a blog without having to open the actual blog.

BlogLines has a much more appealing look and feel. The tabbed navigation on the left hand side seems easier to manage. The things I did find more difficult were using the hotkeys and finding the all items display function (it is there just not as easy to locate).

I think either reader would do the job, I just like the look of BlogLines better. That's my .02.

"Feed" freaked me out!

Well I must say the premise of "Feed" freaked me out! Desirable? No thanks! Possible? Hope not! Although I gotta admit the potential of walking down the street and seeing a great pair of shoes on someone - then instantly knowing how much they cost could be quite intriguing!

The sensory overload depicted in this novel is just too much for me! I am rather "spare" in my visual and auditory sense needs...having all the twitter-ing and meebo-ing and RSS feed-ing is already causing me to twitch - imagine what Titus' brain is doing!

The other portion of the book I found quite interesting was the panic created when they got hacked and subsequently disconnected from their feed. I imagine it is a bit like a current day high school-er losing their iPhone :)

Though for sheer entertainment value the bit on page 65 about reading and writing and protesting the "silent e" at the School(trademark) was hilarious!

I am interested to see how the story ends....more thoughts later.

Blog site comparison

After setting up my first ever blog - actually I have hardly even ever read any blogs - I am a blog virgin - I tried to set up a second blog on WordPress to compare... here are my very rudimentary thoughts.

Blogger -->

easy to set up, intuitive
was able to see how to change settings and start blogging right away
customization, while not extensive, was available - decent for a free product
the blog following section was easy to understand
preview mode to see what the posts look like was helpful
it had more than enough features for a beginning blogger

WordPress -->

easy to sign up for but then not nearly as intuitive to get started
I actually struggled for awhile after the intial sign up to see how to post
after the initial chaos... it did seem more robust, more options
had many features that I am sure other people know right away what they are for - I do not have enough experience with blogging to find the use yet for many of the features!

in a nutshell -->
beginners or casual bloggers go to Blogger
more advanced users or people who feel like they immediately want to start on a more robust platform give Word Press a shot

Just me and my gadgets

The Brown and Duguid chapter this week really rang some bells for me. I part-time telecommuted for years and found the same ups and downs as the reading relates. My company at the time got on the bandwagon of issuing laptops to everyone and "freeing" the employees to work from anywhere. What I found was I put in at least 12 hours a day of work between the office and home which didn't make me feel "free"!

As far as impact for libraries...I think the biggest point is the technology itself doesn't make or break the exchange of information it is still a people based process. Providing tools that work for people is the key - if the patrons want the technology provide it. If they don't - don't force it to be the only option. Just because something *can* work doesn't mean it has to....find the balance that works for your community. My tiny boro library appeals heavily to the pre-school set and has no need to Ask a Librarian IM services - my larger township library services the community at large and has added many more social software tools to their offerings.

NMH School library blog

I found this library blog --> http://nmhlibrary.typepad.com/the_reading_room/ and I liked it alot. Visually it had clean lines with clear links to other information I might be interested in. (I know you arent supposed to end a sentence with a preposition, but really does anyone say "in which I might be interested"??) Anyhow back to the blog - the entries are concise with a mix of pictures and text and MOST IMPORTANTLY they are regularly blogging. I was suprised to see how many blogs I ran across that were not updated very often - what is the point of that? I thought the "Bookmark of the Month" entry was a great idea as well.

On the flip side... I found this blog --> http://www.grandviewlibrary.org/ wow scary - I was completely overloaded. There could be the best information in the universe here and I would never know because there is just too much for my pea brain to process on this page.