Thursday, September 20, 2007

#23 Summarize Your Thoughts 9/20/2007

This is it the end. I am very happy to have completed this program.

Some of my most favorite journeys on this program were being able to post the YouTube commercial to my blog. I thought that this was the best. Although I think that the MEEZ's and the AVATARS are scary, I did have fun playing with the various characters.

This program has not really assisted or affected my lifelong learning goals. Learning to interact with people I don't know on the internet has never really been on of my lifelong goals. I enjoy my everyday life. I enjoy the people I work with and most of the patrons that I see at work. I also do a great deal of volunteer work within the community. My lifelong goals have to do with becoming a good person. I do like to learn new things, but more hands on things. I do not want to spend my entire life in front of the computer. I would be missing out on my family and watching my children grow.

I did not find any unexpected outcomes. The take-aways are that there is too much information on the internet. There are too many people who like to hear themselves think, and want others to know what they think to be gospel. I've also take away the knowledge that there are an awful lot of people out there ready to give their opinion.

I think that the next time a program like this is offered, it should be made more job specific. At the circulation counter, we do not need to use any of these various interactive resources.

I found this program very time consuming. It is very difficult to find off desk time from the circulation counter to complete the program. I did find that I enjoyed some of the various book review sites. This may help me to find another author that I would enjoy reading.

All that I know is I am certainly glad to be finished. It's Party Time!!!

#22 Learn About Audiobooks

During this exercise, I had a very difficult time establishing an account with NetLibrary. Every username I tried was rejected. I think that there was something wrong with the site. I was, however, successful at establishing an account with Overdrive. I found many books that I would be interested in downloading. This process seems very time consuming. I would love to try this feature. Unfortunately, I have dial up at home, so it would take a lot of time. I think that downloading books is something that I could really enjoy. I am going to do some more exploring with downloadable books after 23 things is finished. I was surprised to find that the NetLibrary tutorial stated that downloadable books would not work with ipods. This would be a very convenient way to listen to books while walking, cleaning the house or even grocery shopping. I hope to use this feature again

#21 Discover Podcasts 9/20/2007

I found this whole exercise a little difficult to understand. I looked at all three of the suggested podcast directories. I found Podcast.net the easiest of the three to use. I think that if I were to utilize podcasts, I would find many categories quite interesting, particularly those categories of exercise, book reviews, and political - news information. I also would enjoy listening to all of the talk radios. I did find some library related sites that I thought would be helpful, such as LitListen Books, SwappeBooks, The Library Channel and Tele Read - Bring the E-books home. I was not able to figure out how to post a podcast to my blog.http://www.talkshoe.com/custom/images/icons/TC-7022-MainIcon.jpg
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Saturday, September 15, 2007

#20 DISCOVER YOUTUBE 9/15/2007



Wow!! You really have to be careful with this one. If I ever thought that all of these blogs and posts were for the self-serving, I know it with regard to YouTube. People can video all sorts of wierd things. You can really learn how sick minded some of the people of this world are. It is really frightening. I looked up some of the dachshund and hamster videos and did enjoy those. However, I looked up the "how-to" category and whoa!. People will really film almost anything. Also, in the news recently, it was discussed about the person who was defending Britney Spears. I wish the people of this world would stop seeking the shock factor and their 15 minutes of fame. Some of these videos are downright disgusting. I think if parents allow their children to view YouTube, they should be very cautious and view what their children are viewing. Some of this is downright disturbing. I did not check, but what is to stop someone from making a video about how to make a bomb or other device for destruction. There seems to be no control as to the content of these videos. avg

#19 DISCOVER WEB 2.0 AWARDS LIST

I looked through the whole list of Web 2.0 Awards nominees. I did a little bit of people searching on pipl.com. This website did scare me, however. It seems to me that you can find out anything about anyone on this site. This site made me realize how much personal information is out on the world wide web about people. Identity theft really is frightening to me. It is no wonder how it is so easy for people to steal your information. The existence of this site really has opened my eyes. I did enjoy the LibraryThing.com site. This site would be very helpful for the library, because it would offer an insight to suggest book titles. This was my favorite and the one site that seemed the least harmful.

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#18  9/15/2007 LOOKING AT ON-LINE PRODUCTIVITY TOOLSinnocent

 

 

 

I think that the idea of online producitivity tools is a very good concept, especially since documents can be easily shared between pcs.  I, myself, have had to retype documents due to the fact that Microsoft and Wordperfect did not work well together.  Online productivity tools would eliminate this problem.  The idea that they allow easy collaboration by allowing multiple users to edit the same file (with versioning) and allow users the ability to save and convert documents as multiple file types can be both positive and negative.  It is positive, because when working on documents, especially legal documents, time can be saved if all parties can add to the document online.  I have worked for lawfirms in the past.  Every time changes were needed to a document, it would have to be typed, printed, copied and mailed or couriered to the other lawyer.  This could often be a very time consuming process.  With online productivity, however, as the lawyers discussed their various changes, they could be made easily and without delay. I would think that many businesses could benefit from the easy access of online productivity tools.  Corporate business meetings could all be accomplished more easily, because all parties concerned could be looking a the same document at the same time.  A possible drawback to the online productivity tools could be the potential for someone to be able to "hack" into a document for destructive purposes.  Also, if any of the information contained in the document was personal and confidential, I believe that having it online could make it accessible to too many people.  Unfortunately, this is a day and age where we have to be so careful about people who are dishonest and deceiptful, why make it easier for them to have access to certain documents and information.

 

I did find this Zoho Writer easy to use.  Let's see what happens when I try to send it to my blog

Thursday, September 13, 2007

#17 SANDBOX WIKI 09/13/07

I thought that the Sandbox Wikis were very interesting. However, if I'm going to play, I would rather play at doing something around the house, crafting, for example. I do not consider continuous typing on the computer as "playing". I would rather be out for a drive, hiking, camping, or going on vacation. I would prefer that people stay out of my "sandbox" if they do not belong there. For this exercise, we have to blog about the experience. I just view the "Sandbox Wiki" as somthing I have to do for the Maryland 2.0. I do not consider it an "experience". I think and "experience" as something life changing or exciting. This is neither of those. avg

#16 LEARN ABOUT WIKIS 9/13/07

I found wikis to be very interesting. After reading about them, I am surprised to find myself wanting to explore the further after I have completed the 23 Things. Who would have thought that? I am going to keep in mind some of the wikis that were referenced in this exercise and research them more at a later date. I think that within libraries, wikis could be applied to online bookclubs. Patrons interested in certain genres could look at various wikis to find new authors that may be of interest to them. Also, I think that librarians could share ideas with other libraries throught the world with regard to new programs. They could share programs that were successful or not so successful within their branches. I think that the librarians who specialize in the pre-teen and teen age groups could also have a wiki that the teens could use to contribute their ideas for programs for the library. It could be a safe place on the internet for teens to talk to each other. This could be monitered by the librarian for safety. I did find it interesting that one of the wikis stated that due to vandelism, that anyone who wanted to use the wiki had to confirm their password. I thought that this was a good idea. It may give a certain degree of control as to the content of the information shared in the wiki. Due to the editing by anyone feature of most wikis, I would never tell anyone to use a wiki as a concrete source on a subject, especially politics and history. Too many people try to pass off their opinion as fact, when, in fact, their viewpoint has no factual basis at all. It may be helpful to use a wiki just as a reference to find out what a new "term on the street" might mean. I think that this would be helpful to teachers in the middle and high school system to find out what their students are talking about these days. School teacheres are another group that would possibly benefit from a wiki, because they could share information and ideas with other teachers about programs they taught and positive teaching methods. So what's in a wiki ....... well, alot more than I ever thought. AVG

Saturday, September 8, 2007

9/08/07 #15 PERSPECTIVES ON WEB 2.0

I read Away from Icebergs, Into a New World of Librarianship, and To More Powerful Ways to Cooperate. Yes, I agree that the library needs to remain up-to-date with technology to meet the growing Web needs of its patrons. However, we also need to remember and stick with the basics. The United States, in my estimation, is no longer the world's most intelligent super power. Some of our educational standards have had to be lowered in order to allow people in the lower socioeconomic communites to succeed. We also have an ever-growing illegal immigrant population who are using our schools who do not know the language and have limited reading skills. The libraries need to take into consideration that these people may not have access to computers to gather information. They need to have certain methods in place to help these people. I hope that we never live in a world where we have libraries without books. There is nothing like sitting out on the porch on a warm summer day with a good book that you can hold in your hand. I think that on the Web, people can, throuh hacking, alter information to their favor and ruin the credibility of certain sources. Libraries need to be sure that they are careful in managing Web information for its patrons.

9/08/07 DISCOVER TECHNORATI

First of all, no way do I want Technorati capturing or monitering my blog. I viewed this site and tried to pull up blogging on topics that I find interesting, stained glass, for example. So many blogs appeared with these words in them, however, they had nothing to do with the subject which I was searching. It seems as if people blog about every event that happens in their life just to vent their frustration. Why do I care about what happened to a person when they woke up in the morning? I certainly wish no ill will on anyone, but I do not wish to read blogs about people who just like to hear themselves talk. Why don't they just buy a cheap diary? Why does the world have to know? I did find one blog with which I agree. It was a person who wondered what happens to all the blogs that are inactive or never used again. What valuable space to they take up in the world of technology? Is all of this blogging really necessary. Does blogging and tracking of the blogs open the world up to the crazy people in this world who could be potential predators? Also, I find that the one thing that I notice with all of the blogging is the poor grammar and sentence structure of users. We are supposed to be one of the most intelligent nations in the world, but our people cannot construct a proper sentence. I guess what I am trying to say is that I really do not like any of this, nor do I see its potential usefulness. All of these various blog sites, bookmark sites, and other information sharing sites seem as if they do the same thing just in a different format. I think that they are designed so that there is a whole different "computer-geek" language to make one group of people feel superior to another group of people.

9/08/2007 TAGGING AND DISCOVER DEL.ICIO.US

At the time that I tried this, I could not access the tutorial. I did, however, browse some of the websites listed under PLCMC. Under one of the sites, I saw that 14 people had bookmarked the particular site. When I looked at it, all that I saw were various photos of people and things that I do not know or were not of interest. Maybe I am missing the big picture of all of this. While I will agree that I think that it is important to stay knowledgeable and up-to-date with information and the latest technology, I still believe that peering into other user's filing cabinet can lead to being wide open to unreliable sources. Without knowing the user that the file cabinet belongs to, how do you know that they are of sound mind to have the most reliable information. Many of the links, I do not understand. This link always leads to another link, which leads to the next link and so on and so on. It seems that too much information is out there. I can see that this would possibly be a tool for research assistance, but again, you would have to make sure that the sources that you found were reliable. Also, in my life, I have not had to research topics which require such indepth work to gain information. Also, I do not spend so much time on the computer that I need to have bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

09/06/07 #12 ROLL YOUR OWN SEARCH TOOL WITH ROLLYO

This was a very interesting site. I think that for people who do a lot of research, this would be a very useful tool to use. I am not sure, even after exploring Rollyo, that I really understand its use. Are these just sites that you visit often? In my opinion, you would have to really have confidence in the sites that you use as to the reliability of the information that they contain. There is so much information available on the web. Some of it is reliable fact and some of it is based on someone's point of view as to how information is presented. I think that you would have to spend many hours on your various topics of interest to make sure that you are getting accurate and reliable information. There are many people in this world that want to sell people garbage information. It is good to be able to share with people the sites that are reliable. I am still not sure if I am correctly understanding the purpose of this site. Here is my search tool link

Powered by Rollyo

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

09/04/07 LibraryThing Catalog

This is the most useful of the 23 Things that I have seen so far. I believe that this is the one that is most relevant to my experience. I like having a variety of books to read. Having suggestions of various book titles may expose you to a new author that you have never tried. What a great source of new reading material. I think that this is the one site that I will visit even after I have completed the 23 Things.

Exercise #10 MEEZ Image Generator



This was the most fun of all of the 23 things. In my opinion, however, this again offers an escape to people so that they can avoid reality and hide the person that they are in reality. People in this world do not seem to be able to accept who they really are. They cannot be content. Image generators such as this allows the individual to create an image of who they think they are, not who they actually are. It was fun to play with all of the characters. Without the 23 things, I would have never know that these play creature acutally existed.

09/04/07 Merlin & other Library Related Blogs Exercise #9

Merlin and other library related blogs are very useful for librarians to keep up-to-date with what is happening in not only their library system, but others throughout their state and national systems. Technology changes very rapidly in today's world. It is important that libraries keep pace with knowledge so that they will remain an invaluable information and reference source for patrons. If we want to maintain the existence of libraries into the future, libraries and librarians must remain informed about the latest technological advance. As an employee involved in the circulation, I do not see the benefits of the blogging technology as much as I see it for the librarians. The one use that I see for MERLIN is to possibly gain knowledge of how other libraries function in the areas of circulation. In this way, we can eventually have all state systems be streamlined, so that we can become more flexible for use by patrons. I do not spend a great deal of time on the computer. Other than to occasionally browse various blogs, I do not see this as a valuable resource for me at this time. On further thought, however, perhaps if I had a question about a related health matter, I could discover a blog which would allow me to find an article or latest medical advance, or blog with others who may have the same condition. Information sharing such as this helps, because you then know that someone else is out their who may have similar experiences.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

09/01/2007 BLOGLINES - RSS INFORMATION

Bloglines are a very useful and quick way to keep up with news and other information. I like RSS and newsreaders, because they keep you up-to-date on the latest information about a particular subject. You can also see the opinions of others. For myself, I do like to keep up on the news, so I think that I could keep up-to-date with newspapers and other resources more quickly with RSS and newsreaders. However, I do not spend my life on the computer. I prefer to listen to various talk radio stations and keep up with my news that way. I do not want to be tied to the computer. I feel that many people will miss out on what life has to offer, because they are spending way to much time reading all of the feeds. Libraries can use RSS and newsreaders to keep up-to-date with the latest technology and interests of their patrons. In this way, libraries can offer programs and services that will keep current with the interests of patrons. Also, patrons look to the library for current and accurate information. We need to know and be aware of this information so that we can remain a reliable source for the community.

09/01/07 THIS WEEK'S TECHNOLOGY INTERESTS

This week I am interested in learning about the various "Really Simple Syndication" (RSS). I do like to keep up on current news local, state, and national. I often listed to talk radio. I hear the various moderators discuss how many newspaper sites and other publication sites that they use to do their research and keep current with news and information. I am also interested in other topics and am looking forward to keeping current with those topics.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

My creation


My creation
Originally uploaded by greeneanne83
This is my first and only movie production

DISCOVERY, WEEK 2, BLOGGING

Blogging has its good points and its bad points. It is good to be able to share information with other people. It is nice to know that other people may share your particular point of view. It is bad in that there are times that you don't necessarily want to know other people's opinions. It would seem to me that people may take the opportunity to say hurtful things in writing that they may not say to someone face to face. I think that also misunderstandings may occur due to taking the written word the wrong way.

DISCOVERY WEEK 1, INTRO - POINTERS

I think that the pointers for lifelong learners was interesting. It gave me information that I already knew, but it was good to be remined of the opportunities of learning.

7 Habits of Successful Learners

The hardest habit to follow as a successful learner is setting a learning goal and making time for it. It is so easy to get caught up in day to day activities that I tend to put off learning new things, because I need to focus on family and responsibility. Also, using technology to your advantage is hard. The TV is a technological tool that prevents me from doing better learning activities. The easiest habit is 7 1/2, playing. Doing fun things, especially with the family is great.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Photo Technology

I like the new photo technology that is available. It really makes it much easier to preserve all of our memories. In the future, our children will be able to have so many more memories of their childhood to share with their children and future generations. When their children ask, "What were things like when you were 12?", all anyone will have to do is pull out a video, or a disc and relive the moments. I think that it is great.