Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Summarizing my Learning 2.0 Thoughts

I'm yearning for more!  Give me more to learn!  I had a fabulously fun time learning all this new technology.  I'm leaving this experience with much more Web confidence and am wide open to exploring any new technology that falls in my computer path.  

I'm taking with me some technologies that I'll continue to use: LibraryThing, Opera Web Browser, Flickr, Bloglines... Well, I'm not going to list them all out here because it's a majority of them! Looking back at the exercises, I feel that I didn't give MySpace a fair shot, so will take it upon myself to trudge through the accounts until I find something meaningful.

All in all,  a very cherished experience!  Thanks, Rasmuson, for making me more technologically advanced.  It's just what I needed.

Bye bye!

Monday, August 6, 2007

Try a New Web Browser

I've been hearing about Opera and Firefox for so long now, it's a relief to finally use these web browsers and be in the know. Too easy importing my IE bookmarks into both.

My favorite feature in Opera is Speed Dial, allowing me to open multiple websites as tabs within the browser. Makes for quick and easy access with one click away.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Grokker Search Engine

Grokker is such a friendly search engine. Grokker offers to save my searches in a working list, and it also allows me to bookmark and to email and to post my findings to my del.icio.us account. It's super easy to save or share information found through this search engine. Love this!

I performed a "Ted Stevens investigation" search and came up with these quirky results in my outline:

  • Cause me some Trouble -- A quote from Stevens on his worry that a corruption investigation could "cause me some trouble" in running for reelecion. Well, yeah, let's hope so. Anyway, thought this was a funny and invaluable way to index some of the articles written about this fiasco.
  • Story -- Yeah, I know! This doesn't refine or improve my investigating too much.

But I did find other outline terms very helpful which allowed me to quickly access articles containing information I wanted to read. And I found the map view hard on the eyes. It was trickier to scan through this view quickly to find exactly what I wanted, so prefer the outline view.

All in all, am impressed with Grokker, but I find I'm quite devoted to Google. At least I know Grokker exists and will probably use it from time to time.

Monday, July 30, 2007

MySpace

I dutifully met the minimum requirements for this exercise because I just don't want to invest any time in figuring out this social networking tool. So, did everyone meet Tom, the president of MySpace? Did you see how many women and men were hitting on him! Eeewww! And I resisted the urge to check out the swingers involved in the MySpace community. Maybe if there was a group for old married Goody Two Shoes like myself I would be more inclined to perk up my profile in MySpace, as it is, I'll stick with my safe blog which I'm loving!

Google Labs/Google Base

I'm officially unthrilled with Google Base. Don't see any need for it whatsoever. I'm thinking what content would I need to post for Google users to see? After some thought, came up with nada, zilch, zero. Figure if I needed to advertise our rental, I would be an old-fashioned fuddy-duddy and place an ad in the News Miner. Wouldn't this be more effective than using Google Base? The News Miner's online anyway.

And I wouldn't go through here to buy any product either. Ebay and Amazon are my two top choices, along with some established companies I would search out directly.

Did some searches for my favorite yummy treats: chocolate pudding and rhubarb recipes resulting in hits not so different if I searched through Google itself since limiting the search by cuisine, serving size, main ingredient doesn't refine much.

I felt my techno-Pollyanna spirit wilting! But then Google Labs pulled me out of my Learning 2.0 funk a bit.

One of their latest ideas is displaying search results by time or by geographic location. Viewed Thomas Jefferson and the Civil Rights Movement queries and found that my search results were enhanced by the timeline feature.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Google Maps/Google Earth

Found a satellite shot of my house from far, far away. Zoomed in as close as I could get, and couldn't make out much except to notice that it was an older shot before the addition was built on.

I'm a big fan of Google Maps and use it to get directions and to find distances to new destinations. Really interesting maps are featured on this website and was mostly impressed with America's highway: oral histories of Route 66.

Looked through the Gmaps directory, the online mapping mashups guide and found Favorite Run, a great tool to use when mapping out running routes on established streets and roads, but not so handy for Equinox Marathon training since a lot of the course is on trails.

I got airsick flying in Google Earth! Traveled to more places in 20 minutes than I will fit into my whole life while playing on this website.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Podcast Search Tools

I added Endurance Planet to my Bloglines account. I really had no idea there was this big podcast world out there. Being the ignorant one, I thought ITunes was pretty much it.

How about we add podcasts to Rasmuson's homepage? For Book Festival next year we can podcast a really enthusiastic advertisement about the festival events and record some authors reading short excerpts from their books. What other events are coming up? Let's podcast them. Why not?

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Web 2.0 Awards List

See my new clock over there to the right? I'm all about the widgets. Maybe not so useful but at least I'm getting experience embedding and exploring the different tools. Noticed LibraryThing came in 3rd place for the Books category! For shame! Also, noticed several more tools listed on the "short list" are ones we're working on for Learning 2.0. Recognizing a lot of them makes me feel like a Web 2.0 aficionado.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Online Productivity Tools

I'll be using Zoho from now on. I have so many word documents on our old PC in the garage and stored on discs stashed in our home office. Whoa to me if I need to find a particular document and fast. winksealedPlus, I like these Emoticon faces.innocentsmile And the ability to post to my blog and insert Web links and images.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Wikis & libraries

I like wikis that don't look like wikis, such as the BookLoversWiki and the Bull Run Library Wiki, otherwise they're not too much fun to look at.

We should use our wiki more! Instead of sending a gazillion emails regarding a Goldmine glitch, let's post it to our wiki.

Goldmine would be so much more interesting and user-friendly, spunkier if we added some wiki functionality to it, like book reviews and synopses. I'm sure we would attract higher patron use and circulation would take off.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Web 2.0, Library 2.0

"Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an "architecture of participation," and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences."--Tim O'Reilly

Wow! I would be foolish to not see the value of participating in Learning 2.0. Besides it being an incredibly fun learning experience, the "fun" I'm having is contributing to and enhancing the applications as I'm using them. Collective user intelligence is built into the design of these applications so when I participate by adding my books to LibraryThing or tagging a website in my del.ico.us account, my input is now available and hopefully, helpful to another user. The social computing aspect of these tools is phenomenal for both play and work.

In the no. 2 2006 issue of Next space: the OCLC newsletter, Michael Stephens writes this about librarians embracing Web 2.0 tools, a trait he believes is important to have:

"This librarian recognizes how services might be enhanced by the Read/Write web and how new services might be born in a climate of collaboration. This librarian uses Instant Messaging to meet users in their space online, builds Weblogs and wikis as resources to further the mission of the library, and mashes up content via API (Application Program Interface) to build useful Web sites. A Google map mash up of local libraries created by Chicago librarians is one such instance of building tools via new resources. Other librarians creating MySpace profiles and participating in other thriving communities build connections online where their users live."

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Technorati

Add to Technorati Favorites

I found 451 blogs and 26,266 blog posts on Learning 2.0! There's 26,561 posts tagged with Learning 2.0, plus, this one I'm about to add to Technorati! Learning 2.0 is HUGE.

Shon's getting involved with the Learning 2.0 craze, too, and was thrilled when I found Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things, an award winning blog (blogs win awards?!) and the 2nd most popular blog listed with Technorati. This blog satisfies his techie cravings with all the latest and greatest info. authored by the editor of his favorite magazine, Make.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

del.icio.us

This is a great tool--accessing my bookmarks wherever I'm at with any computer having an internet connection. Subscribed to the Obama, marathon and bean soup tags and found some worthwhile websites to add to my favorites.

LibraryThing

I'll continue to use LibraryThing. It's really easy to use and I love the LibrarySuggester, a generated list of books recommended to me based on the books I included in my catalog.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Rollyo

I created my own searchroll, Alaska Marathon Girl, but unsure if I'll use it much. This is a compilation of my favorite running websites, but each one provides distinctive info. from the others. I use the Running Club North website to check out local running results and race information. I use Peak Performance to find cutting edge information on training and nutrition; Sport Alaska for Equinox stats. So, while it's nice to have them grouped together for my running resources, there's no real possibility of the information I'm seeking to be found in more than one of these websites. So, why not just go to this website directly??? Don't know how useful this will be for this purpose, anyway, but can see the importance of it for other applications and topics.


Thursday, June 7, 2007

Image Generators


I got my name in lights with notcelebrity.co.uk

Too many generators, too little time! It was hard choosing just one.

There were a few generators with unacceptable HTML coding and Blogger wouldn't display. Eventually, I would like to learn more about HTML.

YouTube





I love this website, and am amazed with the volumes of videos they have on anything and everything.

Last night, Shon and I were talking about our favorite commercial and how we missed seeing it once we stopped our cable service. We found this commerical within a few minutes on Youtube! What is NOT on Youtube?

So as far as any features or components of the site that might be interesting if they were applied to library websites, the opportunities are limitless. Adding visual and audible dimensions to any subject enhances learning and information, and is much more interesting and fun! There's a ton of stuff out there on authors, books, technology, libraries, and countless subjects that could pertain to the library community. There's no excuse not to learn and use this technology!

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Useful Library Blogs

Here's a great list of library blogs that are useful and informative. Some are just downright fun!

2006 Best Blogs for Libraries

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Technology Sites

Shon has been talking about the iPhone for months now and was so disappointed to hear the release date is set for June 29th. I don't think he can hold out for 24 more days! I don't share his excitement about this product, and instead find it unnecessary and too extravagant.

Yes, it is a cell phone, address book, Web browser, music player and TV rolled into one, BUT Shon already has all of these things. And it's so expensive with a hefty price tag ranging from $499 to $599!

Flickr Mashups

10-09-05_0939.jpg
I used the Flickr Wallpaper Generator which is great because it proportionately fits the picture to my desktop without skewing the image and there's also a calendar included that's incredibly handy. Selected an action shot of my favorite runner, Deena Kastor, who will inspire me to get out there and train hard so I can kick-butt at the Equinox. She's my running hero!

Flickr

We recently bought the home of our dreams so are postponing our next vacation until a big chunk of our mortgage is gone, but I'm already planning and daydreaming about our next trip away from the cold winter, and I think Santa Fe is the place to be! I'm really interested in the Catholic and Mexican cultures there, along with the architecture and the yummy cuisine. Plus, we get to see our good friend, Cynthia, who lives nearby.



St. Francis Church



Santa Fe, New Mexico; 10/06


Santa Fe, New Mexico; 10/06




Some Santa Fe Food

My favorite Santa Fe food item.



One BIG stuffed pepper



happy meal

Monday, June 4, 2007

7 1/2 Lifelong Learning Habits

My very first blog post! YIPPEE!

I think the 7 1/2 habits of lifelong learners is valuable information and gave me insight to my own strengths and weaknesses, namely my weaknesses!


I need to beef up my confidence and learn to enjoy the learning process along the way instead of soley focusing on the end results and being so performance-driven and goal-oriented. It's hard for me to have fun when I put this kind of pressure on myself!


Objective: I shall have fun learning along the way!