Exercise # 23 - LAST ONE

I'm still feeling quite blogged down with all the blogging passwords, links and confusing manipulations of screens, tabs and applications. At one point I did think "blogger this, I'm giving up" but my dear workbloggers wouldn't let me! Thank you, with blogfelt gratitude.

The last few exercises were definitely the best but I'm still getting hot and bloggered.The information out there is mind-blogging and Generator was FANTASTIC.I'm still not too sure how to use various applications to their full potential eg: boing boing, technorati, flickr, mashups, del.icio.us, rss feeds, zoho and rollyo but will persevere and redo all the exercises again until I see the light.

I do understand that it was a 'self-discovery exercise' but having reached dangerous blood pressure levels a few times I wondered if it was really fair on us "cybersissies" with minimal guidance? While help was offered, a few snatched minutes or telephone calls wasn't the best way to deal with problems.I would have liked a brief demonstation beforehand on what each application can be used for.As a result I'm still a bit confused with all the passwords, having gone round in circles and forgetting where I had started. The instructions in Korean wasn't a great help either! Sometimes things did not seem to work as they should and I don't know if was just me, the application or a glitch in the internet.I couldn't figure out how other bloggers found sites and information- had that page in my computer fallen out perhaps? I felt as if I'd been given a beautifully illustrated book but not being able to read the text!

Time was also a big problem and I don't even work a full week! Congratulations to those who managed to fit it all in- I don't know how you managed.

Thank you for the opportunity though and I learned a lot from my fellow bloggers' blogs.I also learned how to (sort of) manipulate different screens, find and create links and being forced to "go out into cyberspace" via a fixed format without just stumbling around on my own.I can now use the Internet more effectively which will eventually help me provide a better service to library patrons. I admire the "help team" for trawling through all the blogs and doing their 'real' jobs inbetween. I'm blogging proud of us all!

Exercise # 21 - MySpace and Facebook

Bebo - Rotorua public bebo site was fantastic for younger patrons. This is a good way to introduce them to the wonders of the library world in a 'cool' way!

MySpace - I was amazed at the array of videos, tv series, news, music etc that was available as well as the very 'personal' stuff posted for the entire world to view.Not being very interested in anything on offer (statue mishap in church was very funny)and I tried to put in my own search item but nothing came up. is this only a passive site to view?

Facebook - Yes, I reluctantly gave in and joined Facebook.I am horrified at all the 'friends' I have accumulated via other friends.Perhaps in time I will become less of a ninny regarding my and others personal stuff but in the meantime am treading warily.It was quite exciting seeing Northshore Library staff there but only 5? Where are the others? and, Ramona, where is the "virtual pillow fight" facility please? That would come in handy!

I do have a friend who enjoys using Facebook to keep track of her childrens activities and their friends.

exercise # 22 - Social Networking

I used to think Northshore Libraries website was very good but I can't believe whats actually out there in cyberspace.I like the 'static' appearance of our "whats on", "new books" and various other useful bits of information but I am a library enthusiast.

For "screen-agers" this may be seen as dull and outdated. They seem to respond more to 'cool' Myspace/Facebook applications complete with flashing lights, different colours, their own 'comment and blog space', youtube videos, flickr, podcasts, rss feeds etc.

If this digital world is what it takes to attract younger patrons to the library then this is a wonderful tool to encourage and to receive feedback from them - after all, this is the next generation of library users.

A whole new breed of cyberlibrarians will be needed to monitor the Myspace walls,answering queries, updating information etc. This change is inevitable.

PS: I did enjoy reading the authors' own blogs though!

Exercise # 20 - ebooks

I loved the idea of Amazons 'Kindle' - being so portable, compact, battery run, no wires,fairly cheap (but not sure of the cost to load books onto it).Apparently it holds free Wikipedia, 200 books, 1000's of magazines and newspapers with the option to upload more when necessary.

The BEST thing I discovered about ebooks was that whilst reading the type one also has access to pictures, sound clips, video and animated graphics.I couldn't download any though to verify this.

Looking at Project Gutenberg I found "Taming of the Shrew" easy to find but couldn't download any of it. Perhaps I had to download other applications to view but ran out of time. This is something I definitely will be getting back to.

Loved Google Earth and You Tube - Can you imagine zooming into a part of the world and watching videos about that very location.

exercise # 19- podcast

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94921468

Still a bit confused about this but potentially quite useful.

Exercise # 17 - Web 2.0

With so much to choose from this was quite difficult. I did enjoy Events which could then be broken down into Comedy, Family, Theatre, Festivals, etc.It told you what was going to happen, when and a little information about the event BUT it was all in America so Whats The Point? Is there a similar site in New Zealand?????

In a library setting this would be jolly useful to the community instead of having to put local items up on a physical noticeboard.

Check it out yourself:

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/search/?search_placeid=YP2B0HibApl1IcIVWg&category_id=11&type=Events

worldcat.org was useful too but again, only found books in America.

You Tube Fun

Wow, I do like this - all I need is the time to discover all it has to offer.

Youtube is so easy to use. I especially liked the funny video clips (funny animals was one) and I can see the possibilities of being helpful to people with the "forums" where one can ask questions, get support, and give advice. The " create a group" would be very useful to the community and I can imagine how wonderful it would be to actually see real-life people demonstating pruning roses (for example) or propagating plants. I suppose cooking demonstrations on tv is actually "grown-up you tube"!

Zoho

http://cybersissy.blogspot.com/2008/09/zoho.html

Zoho

Well, this seems too good to be true......

Ive been quite embarrassed by my ineptitude.... but had to try spell check.... and it worked...



but where the hell are the beautiful smileys I had here?

Got quite excited as Zoho seemed so easy to use, similar to Word but with all the optional extras (smileys) and menu thingies (spell check, font, colour etc) so close at hand. I liked the idea of being able to "preview" pictures and images too and the best thing will be to share for example holiday photos and let friends comment on each one! It also promises an 'instant chat facility" and when time allows I will have to come back to this one later!

Exercise # 15 - rollyo

This site seemed a bit bland at first and not very satisfactory regarding "rare books search" and "quick quotes" as advertised.

Then I created an account and searched for "World Affairs" as being one of the categories offered. Rollyo then informed me that "no web pages meeting that criteria" !!Well, HE can just Rollover and die then with THAT attitude!

Then tried "Travel and hotels" (wishful thinking but maybe one day) and lo, found a link and here it is (hopefully)....

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/bluelist/index.cfm?fa=…

p7igqmsbp0ax6.png hosted at ImageShack.us

Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!

exercise # 13 and a half!

Exercise #14 - Library Thing

By Jove, I think I've got it.......and about time too.

Library Thing is great for small institutions and personal use. I would have liked to list "reading for the future" but couldnt find a category though I know there's got to be one. It is good for sharing others peoples book reviews and reading lists of books similar to your own, but I was just wondering if it were possible to get into anothers list by category alone eg Philosophical books?

I do enjoy our own "OPAC" system for tracking down similar books.

Here (hopefully again) is the link to my Library Thing.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=pricemurdock3&deepsearch=

Exercise # 13 ***

I have now been on Generator for three weeks and its been the best three weeks of my life! (Well, almost!)

I LOVE Generator. I want to use all of it (and I will sometime).

Tried the "Comic Strip" but was only given the option to Print or email but not to save - so how could I have done this, O Generator Gurus?

Also tried to send "Glowtext" to blog but couldn't. Hopefully this one came through.

exercise # 11- Wikiwonder

Wiki certainly looks too good to be true and so easy to use.

I have tried to send a link to Pom Thesaurus 'The Wonder of Wikis' as that sums wikis up perfectly....but I can't. Please go to Favourite blogs and read it yourself.

Thank you, cyberNINNY!

exercise # 12 All about linking......

Just wondered why some of the blog names in sandbox couldnt link to their original posts? Found this exercise a bit confusing......

exercise # 10- Web 2.0

Yes, yes, yes, it's all great, BUT will anything ever measure up to holding a physical book, smelling the newly bound pages, caressing the shiny colour illustrations, flipping through the chapters without getting middle-finger paralysis and stretching out comfortably to read for pure pleasure?





Granted, it's a great way of hunting down loads of information in a hurry, from many sources, and without even moving from your computer chair. I was wondering if this generation of cyberkids are getting the complete picture of the information they are seeking? In our day (said mother grundy!) we had to locate, for example, the actual country we were working with, trawl through atlases to find it (thus learning about others on our way) and choose relevant encyclopedias based on what we wanted to portray. Now, they just type the name in (if its misspelled it is automatically corrected!) and information comes pouring in. Not having done the research are they aware of what factors are important and unique or does the end justify the means? Are they rushing through life with a smattering of knowledge in the quest to get as much of it as possible? Could they be taking some information out of context? Sure, their assignments will be beautiful works of art with downloaded pictures, fancy texts, links to other sources, maps and amazing technological techniques.





Regarding research, however, this is an ideal way to have access to information from many different sources. Different peoples' ideas are instantly accessible which allows for more creative thinking and even better ideas to emerge.





It all boils down to provide the facilities and resources which suit the individual who can use it whichever way he chooses. Libraries are very good in this regard and the North Shore Libraries vision in particular is the epitome of catering to each users needs and wants, physically and emotionally.

exercise # 9 again!

I went into Technorati's "blog posts", "tags" and "blog directory" to search for "learning 2.0" as directed and yes, the numbers were totally different and continually rising. When I saw the words 'screencasts, skypecasts, podcasts, meta description etc I started to panic. I'm obviously not doing this correctly but I didn't think much of the first two and felt I was getting "blogged down" hahahahahaha.

However, I did enjoy the layout of the 'Blog directory'. This allows one to browse through the different topics in categories, for eg Entertainment, Lifestyle, Sports, Business, Technology etc.

I did enjoy Technorati's Popular feature showing little videos of world news as it happens! This actual footage seems much more real to me than merely reading about it in the newspaper.

To brighten up my entire day was a notice that kept coming up while I was toiling away which said" we are experiencing some search instability while we restore service - please bare with us"

I am still laughing.......even though I had lost 3 hours work because I had clicked on Publish and it wouldnt accept the curser as I didnt realise that one had to forcibly CLICK onto the wretched thing to get it to work - another valuable lesson learned!

Discovery exercise #9

I went into Technorati and did a keyword search for "learning 2.0" in Blog posts, in tags, and in the Blog Directory.

exercise 8 -Tagging

Tagging seems good in theory but a little clumsy in these early stages.

Technorati was quite fun and useful for a quick whizz around the world looking for the latest news that comes up unbidden. I was pleased to find a window that enabled one to type in a specific search eg snow on Ruapehu and lo, information and even pictures about Ruapehu emerged!

Del.icio.us wasn't as useful as most people have been describing. Perhaps I've got the wrong end of the stick but I find it quite difficult to understand and to manouvre it to find anything I'm interested in. I found the numerous sites (book marks?) that others had looked at but, of course, predominantly American based. Perhaps when time allows I will explore it further.

What I've Learned....

I think that Google Favourites is much easier to work than Bloglines regarding RSS feeds.
Interesting exercise though. It really is very handy having all the feeds in one place without having to go into lots of different sites.I also found it more convenient to open up 2 tabs (internet connections) rather than continually going back to previous pages.

I keep getting caught with the new terminology: for example I keep wanting to create a "new Blog" instead of a "new Post"! You can only catch me 14 times..........

Can someone tell the difference between 'Blogger' and 'Bloglines'?

Terrified of technology...

I still think that something this smart REALLY ought to be more user friendly but I am still learning things slowly.

Very smart using technology as a new way of advertising. Put this on your spare wheel cover instead of "going golfing, fishing" etc....

Fun cards

Well, thats been a good and useful exercise.Couldnt get into FD Toys,or Librarian Trading Card but discovered ecards, postcards. Quite easy to follow those instructions.

Tried to upload the epostcard but failed.

Click on x and hopefully card will appear!

Life's a Beach.......

...cake and waves- who could ask for more????

Flickr seems to be more user-friendly when the husband helps!

Dimly, I can see the exciting possibilities of this service but still treading warily. Once you get going it seems to make sense.I'm still a bit dubious though about putting my photos on the web even if marked "private". Flickr seems similar to Picassa which has the same privacy issues.

just practising.....

Consider your life

Do you enjoy what you do? If not, why? Life is too important to waste on things you don't like, people you don't want to be with and then spending time resenting this. Most people worry about stupid things without appreciating this beautiful country, nature all around and how precious those close to you are without you even realising this. Even random meetings with people on the beach, on the road, even in your place of work, can add value to your day if you embrace every encounter with an open mind and spirit. Don't waste time on the little things- look at the big picture and realise that we may only have one life- make the most of it!