I Can't Believe I Did It All!

I am so proud of myself! I did all 23 lessons in Learning 2.0. Some better than others, some more completely than others, but I gave all of them a serious try. I can see that there are a few of the new technologies that I am relatively comfortable with and I will continue to use them. Wikis and blogs are among these, and actually it was lots of fun to talk about Wikipedia and how to create wikis at Thanksgiving dinner with my college-age nephew and my 24 year old son and leave all the other old folks at the table wondering what the heck we were talking about!

I also love keeping my reading log on Library Thing, and I want to go back and play more with delicious. I see some real potential there. I like Whyville alot for preteens and want to introduce that site to some of my colleagues, and I like having the weather and other useful information show up automatically on my Google and Yahoo pages because of the RSS feeds lesson.

Second life I'd like to avoid (I have enough trouble maneuvering myself through my first life), and I doubt I'll use Flickr much, since I have a MAC at home and iPhoto does many of the same things.

On balance, this was a fantatic program, and I want to thank the library's administration for making this available to us, and Maura Deedy for guiding me along the way. Maura, you have been awesome; enthusiatic, informed and supportive (Maura deserves alot more than an MP3 player for her contribution!)

I hope we get to do something like this again.

Oh where oh where can my avatar go??

I give up on Second Life. I was able to create an account, then I couldn't figure out how to get in and create an avatar. I tried once before. That time I was able to make an avatar, but couldn't figure out how to move around. I also looked at some of the links to ways libraries and schools use second life. I couldn't get into any of them. Grrrr!

To ease my frustration, I looked at a few avatar-using sites for teens and kids that I found listed in a magazine article. I like a couple of these, and I can see how it might be useful to include them on our library site for kids. They are: Whyville.com and Nicktropolis.com. Whyville.com is mostly a free site (although there is a way you can buy "clams" (the whyville currency) for cash. Mostly kids can earn clams without money though, by doing and learning things in Whyville. The site has a nice preteen look, and I like the fact that a user has to pass a long quiz about chat and site safety before they are allowed to start to chat.

Nicktropolis.com is a site from Nickelodeon, allowing kids to create avatars and interact with Nick TV characters. They claim that the site is very safe because they don't ask for any personal information. I didn't explore this as thoroughly as Whyville, but it seems to be worth a closer look; I know we have a lot of kids who come into the library to use the Nickelodeon website.

Facebook

I now have a presence on Facebook --so if you are a Ferguson Library person, please become my friend when you set yours up. So far I am friends with Marilee and Maura. That part is nice, but it seems that, once again, I have mixed feelings about a new technology. I can see how valuable this site is for high school/college age folks, in fact my son, who is now 24, has used facebook for years. But, it also seems like a bit of a harsh world to me, where everyone can see at a glance how many friends you have, and where people can overtly block you if they don't want to hear from you. Measuring popularity was much more subtle when I was that age. (is that good or bad??)

I also was only able to join one network, the geographic one. Because I am an alum, and I don't have an email account from any of my schools, I couldn't join any of their networks (I know, I can try to get an email account if I really want to). I also couldn't identify people I know who are on Facebook easily because my email accounts are not from one of the recognized providers and I don't have AIM friends, etc. There are things I can do to get around that, but they seemed too complicated to me. Besides, most of the folks I would find that way are my kids, my nephews and nieces and my friends' children. I'm not sure any of them would think it's cool to have me as a Facebook friend, and most likely none of them really want me to see what they are doing on Facebook in the first place.

These technologies are fascinating, but I have to admit, playing around them is making me feel old -- I am so not the target market for these things!

Google docs and great aps

I just finished lesson 9--at least for now. If I wanted to explore everything in this lesson I could be at it for months. But, it has been an interesting and productive experience, like all of learning 2.0. The first thing I encountered was a problem; Google Docs cannot be accessed with my Mac browser Safari. But, this wasn't a huge obstacle; I just had to download Firefox as a new browser, and I can use that to get to Google Docs easily.

On Google Docs I started to set up a word-type document describing assembly programs that we are planning to do at schools in January. The coolest thing about Google Docs was the ability to automatically email the document to my colleagues. No opening email, then attaching the document. I really like this feature, and I'm sure I'll discover other neat things as I continue to use it.

Looking at the list of award winning aps there were several that I found intriguing, but I decided to explore one of the city guide sites --Yelp. I'm planning to go to Philadelphia for ALA's Midwinter meting, and I thought this site might help me id restuarants to go to, and maybe some new local sights to see during my non-conference time. Well, the site was fun, but I'm not sure it is going to be very useful to me. There was a lot about nightlife and bars and funky shops and restaurants. Good reading, but I think I'm in a different demographic than the average Yelp user.

Technorati

So many of these things are fun and exciting as I start to play, then I hit a snag and get frustrated. I was having a good old time in technorati, claiming my blog (I figured out that one), then setting some favorites. I picked a couple of blogs by teen authors I like (Meg Cabot and Mitali Perkins), then tried to find blogs for Chris Crutcher and Sarah Dessen (no luck, but I bet they have them), and added some general library blogs. So far, so good. Then I tried to do the learning 2.0 exercise by searching for learning 2.0 in two ways. I can't do it, because for some reason I still get the old Technorati homepage, which only allows one kind of search (no blog directory). Anyway, I can see the value of Technorati, even if I didn't get to explore all of the features and I can see how enormous the blogosphere is --but I think I'll have to look a little more to find blogs about some of the things I'm most interested in.

delicious is yummy

I just spent some time watching the delicious tutorial and reading the articles about delicious. I think bookmarking favorite sites and tagging them has lots of potential, but I am a little intimidated by the more advanced uses of the site (though if I try a few it may make more sense). Also, in watching the tutorial it became very clear to me that I am still living in the technological dark ages (although learning 2.0 has helped in that regard --maybe now I am in the technological enlightenment??).

I can see the Youth Services department of the library using delicious as a way to share good sites for reference work and class visits. There are some topics (for example Explorers) that the kids need to research each year, and we always need a readily available list of good websites on these topics.

I can see using delicious to create and add to webliographies. During the rollyo lesson, I created a search engine of Autism sites. In it, I listed about 10 sites I know that are good to go to for information on that subject. Now, after learning about delicious, I think this is a better place for that list of sites (I don't really want to search them, I just want access to them in one handy place). It would also be useful to see what other sites people have tagged on that topic.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have begun using Library Thing to keep track of all of the books I read. One of the things I am doing in Library Thing is adding tags to the book titles. The tags serve as memory aids (so hopefully when I want to find the book about the homosexual boy who goes to Brown I'll be able to do so.)

Wikis

I have a little previous experience with these, having created a page on the ALSC wiki based on material produced at a preconference last June (on library services for people with disabilities). That wiki was a little complicated to use, mostly because of style rules.

I think wikis are great, and I see a lot of applications for them in the public library. First of all, I think they make great internal communication tools for library groups, such as our teen tech pages or the members of T-MAD (our teen advisory board). I can see a wiki as a good vehicle for sharing fingerplays and songs with parents of young children. In Youth Services, we currently maintain a physical bulletin board where I post notices of workshops and other information for parents whos kids have disabilities. If parents, educators and locl organizations had access and enough of them knew about it, a wiki would be a wonderful addition to or replacement for the physical bulletin board.

My Thoughts on Web 2.0

I read several of the documents about the future of libraries. I don't know, I agree that the new technologies make it easier to access information and that "paperless reference" may be the wave of the future, but we don't yet have anything electronic that takes the place of a good old-fashioned book. Manufacturers of e-readers keep telling us it is coming, but I haven't heard of one yet that even comes close.

And, I also think the physical librry still has a role to play in the community --with programs and face-to-face interactions. Maybe second life addicts enjoy doing all of their living electronically, but I don't think most of us do. Give me body language and the sound of live (not electronically delivered) speech and music. Besides, how do you shake a hand or get a hug online?

My LibraryThing Catalog

Instead of writing posts about books I'v read, I've decided to keep track of them using a LibraryThing catalog. Just click on the url at the left side of my blog to go to the list of my recently-read books. This list will also take you to book summaries and reviews, so you can decide for yourself if you also want to read what I've been reading. I may use these posts to tell you what I especially like and dislike (just because I read it doesn't mean I think it's good).

Net Library and OverDrive

My first attempt to access ebooks and audiobooks was met with frustration. I couldn't seem to be able to download anything from Net Library and, because I have a Mac, it didn't look like I could use Over Drive at all. After wasting time trying unsuccessfully to make it work, I gave up and sent a "Help" email to Maura. She kindly explained that I had to register for Net Library at the Ferguson (and then went ahead and registered me--yay Maura.) Now I can use Net Library at least. It does seem unfair that Over Drive is not Mac-friendly, but I wonder if there is another service that is. Is there a Mac user out there who has discovered another good source of e books and audiobooks? Let me know if you have.

You Tube

I just spent some time looking at videos of folks on crutches (misery loves company). What I don't like about the You Tube videos is the quality, many are very amateurish, murky and hard to hear (at least the ones made by individuals). I found one I enjoyed, of a college student climbing stairs on her crutches. Very impressive, but I couldn't understand what she was doing well enough to duplicate it, so I think I'll continue to do stairs on my bottom for the time being.

Having watched part of the first World Series game yesterday, I was interested in videos of Pedroia's homerun in the first inning for the Red Sox. I couldn't find anything. I was surprised -- I thought folks would put something on You Tube immediately.

I do see ways to use You Tube in the library, particularly with teens. We could show videos on selected subjects at T-MAD meetings, have kids produce videos of their own as a program, etc. It may be worth asking our teens for ideas on how to use these new technologies with them (they know a lot more than I do).

More About Books

I've been at home for the past three weeks with a fractured knee cap, so, as you may imagine, I have been doing lots of reading. Some teen books, some adult. Ones I've especially liked are Slam by Nick Hornby (teen) about a young man whose life revolves around skating (on a board, not the ice), until, at 16, his girlfriend finds herself pregnant. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie (also teen) was a pleasant surprise. The cover and the title didn't appeal to me, but the story is charming; profound and funny at the same time, while taking on a number of serious issues with a light touch (alcoholism among Native Americans for example). On a different note, I read and enjoyed the adult memoir by A.J.Jacobs called The Year of Living Biblically. With the writing of this book in mind, Jacobs set out to follow all of ther directives in the bible for one year, turning him from an average American into a white robe-wearing weirdo with a flowing beard who refuses to touch women. His attempt to determine what the bible requires of him takes him to the Amish, Christian evangelicals, orthodox Jews and eventually Jerusalem. He is both irreverant and sincere, and I enjoyed accompanying him on his year of discovery.

Podcast --Listen while I write

Through Yahoo I subscribed to NPR story of the day, and I am listening to that as I write this post. Very nice. I have a MAC, so I am familiar with ITunes, and I've used it to access podcasts in the past. I like having another source in Yahoo, but the site says they are discontinuing the podcast feature next week. Oh well, I'll have to try one of the other ones or go directly to the iTunes lists.

Flickr fun?!

I enjoyed the opportunity to see what flickr was all about, and I admit, without Learning 2.0 I probably would not have done this. It still seems pretty daunting, I could use several weeks on each lesson--but I did get a basic idea of how the service works and used it to organize photos taken at my husband's ordination last year. The problems I had were in iding the photos to upload (I didn't get to see them before I chose them), and in dealing with images that uploaded more than once.

The trading card seems like lots of fun. I am making one of my husband and his fellow graduates, for him to share with the ordination class. I think they will like that.

Some Recently Read Books

Since I'm calling this a book blog, I thought I should mention some books. I recently read The Road by Comac McCarthy. It is beautifully written and haunting..but the subject matter is difficult. The book tells the story of a young boy and his father wandering in a post-apocolyptic United States; scavenging for food and avoiding other survivors, some of whom are cannibals. The releationship between the father and son is touching, as is their attempt to hold on to goodness under very trying circumstances. I highly recommend this adult novel.

I also read the teen novel, Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer. The third book in a series featuring teen Bella Swan and her Vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen, continues storylines introduced in the previous two volumes. There is more about the tension between Edward's vampire "family" and a group of werewolves who live nearby (one of them, Jacob, is also in love with Bella). Bella still want to become a Vampire herself, and as her high school graduation approaches, so does the time when Edward promised to transform her. These books are fun reads, and are really teen romances, with lots of sexual tension (but little or no action) and an overlay of the supernatural (vampires and werewolves) to add to the excitement. The books are best read in order-- the first is Twilight, followed by New Moon. I can see why these are so popular with older teen girls.

The third book I want to comment on is called The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd, due out in 2008. It is a British mystery story with an adolescent protagonist who has an Autism Spectrum Disorder, so it is being compared to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. While Dowd's book is entertaining, and the mystery has some unanticipated twists, I thought that the depiction of the main character is less convincing than the protagonist in Curious Incident, but maybe you have to know a lot about Asperger's to pick that up.

Wandering in RSS land

Well, the world of RSS is new to me, so it is great to discover it. I found the easiest way for me was to go through Yahoo, where I already have an account. In My Yahoo there is an area that lets me select any number of feeds that I want to add to my Yahoo page. Now I have news, the weather, a word of the day, and other interesting tidbits available whenever I log into Yahoo. I can add or delete RSS feeds easily. I found Blogline.com much harder to deal with, but I will play with it some more.

Username and password woes

I finally got in to the tracker, but I had some trouble with the username and password. Didn't realize I had to register and used the username and password I was originally given. Frustrating, but satisfying when I figured it out, registered and got to use the tracker.

Now I know to keep all of my usernames and passwords straight. With different ones for email, yahoo, google, learning 2.0, etc. there is no way I can remember them all without a cheat sheet.

Now I can get my flash drive!