Week 10 - Feedback

I didn't enjoy this course to begin with. However with some help and encouragement from Merrylegs, and by the time I had finished Thing 3, I was enjoying it and spending more time at my computer than I should have been. I have learnt a lot of new things along the way, and enjoyed sites like Flickr, Image Generator, LibararyThing, YouTube and Zoho to name a few. So Thank you to ACL Learning 2.0 for making me do the course because I wouldn't have known what great things were out there in the cyber space otherwise.

Week 9 - Podcasts

As suggested, I looked at Podcasts. net, Yahoo podcasts and Podcastalley.com. The latter was the easiest to use. Searched for book reviews and chanced upon Book Bites fo Kids, which had interviews with authors about their books and writing for children. I did not listen to all of them but added these to my Bloglines. Found a few more but one in particular from the top ten podcasts, " Nobody likes Onions " , was very entertaining.

Week 9 - NetLibrary

Week 9 - NetLibrary

A few years ago, when eBooks was first introduced on our library website, I created an account and only used it once. At that time, there were not many books in the eBook collection but now it is getting bigger. I must admit that I don't really like reading books on the screen but however I did spend an hour or two reading from one topic to another. Found a few books and have added them to my Favourites. There seemed to be a large of collection of English Literature (mostly Shakespeare) which I think would be good as a study guide for college students.

Week 9 - YouTube

Week 9 – YouTube

I visited YouTube and was amazed at the number of video clips that could be found. There were many interesting ones. No wonder I can spend hours in front of the computer! I especially like the music category. I found an old time favourite video clip, "Singing in the Rain" by Gene Kelly, which I have embedded in this post.

How could the library use YouTube technology? Well, a video clip with an introduction to ACL and our services and teaching customers how to use our website, or giving instructions on how to use library equipment for staff would be great. Maybe an induction or familiarization video clip for new staff...just a thought. We could have 'staff only' entertainment and comedy video clips that have been created and uploaded by staff who want to share their jokes or interesting things they have done.

Week 8 - Discovering Web 2.0 tools.


I browsed through the Web 2.0 Awards shortlists and to my surprise there were heaps of Web 2.0 websites.Some of the winners, like Facebook, Flickr and Google Docs, were those we have come across in this "Learning 2.0" journey. Just for fun I had a peek at Picnik and learned how to manipulate photos and images. Tried out Google Maps and played around searching for locations in New Zealand and overseas and was thrilled to locate families and friends' houses using the Satellite option. I then tried the Question and Advice category, Say-so and thoroughly enjoyed reading the responses to the question "Is Santa Claus real?" The result at the time I logged on was 466 (of course Santa's real!) and 283 (no, sadly he is not real). My response was "of course Santa is real" and that made it 467!

Week 8 - Online Applications & Tools

It's great to be able to manipulate the same documents/ spreadsheets/ presentations from any computer using these online application tools. I used to save my incomplete work and library photos taken on my digital camera onto my flash drive to work on elsewhere. I can now easily upload files etc from home and access them at work place. I had a look at Zoho writer. The features are similar to Google Docs. Since I already had an account with Google, I decided to stick with it.

Here’s a simple coconut cookies recipe from a colleague at Central Library compiled in Google Docs:

Coconut Cookies

Makes 16 - 18

100g Butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Salt

2 cups desiccated coconut (long strand)

Cream butter and sugar

Add egg, mix well

Add dry ingredients

Stir in coconut

Place heaped tablespoonfuls of the mixture
onto a prepared baking tray, leaving a little
space between them to allow for spreading.

Bake in preheated oven at 180º C for 12 – 15 minutes

Week 7 - Playing around with PB Wiki

I visited the Discovery resources and took a PB Wiki tour, viewed the Video Gallery and browsed the PB Wiki tips. Creating a wiki was a much easier process than I thought. As required, I have added my blog to Acllearn.wiki.com and added my favourite song ‘You Raised Me Up’.

Week 7 - Wikis

Most of us have used Wikipedia and some of us (like me) used it without realizing it is the “wiki” that is referred to in this exercise. I now understand its concept after watching the You Tube video – “Wiki in Plain English.” I can see that it is an efficient way of organizing and sharing information around the world. Topics or subjects in Wiki websites can be edited or updated by any user with limited IT skills. However unlike SJCPL Subject Guides (which is moderated and controlled), the information may not be objective.

I had a look at some of the wikis suggested on the discovery exercise. I must give the BookLovers Wiki a thumbs up! Index to the Reviews is great, not to mention the layout. It would be useful for selecting books for Senior Housebound Patrons and also for those running a book group for Adults and Teens. As for Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki, all we need to know about library-related wikis is listed in its contents.

Week 6 - Web 2.0, Library 2.0

Traditionally, the library has been a place where you borrowed books and/ or looked things up for reference. With the advancement in computer technologies, this is no longer the case. The flow of information has increasingly become multi-lateral: from libraries to patrons, patrons to libraries and to the whole wide world. As pointed out by Mr. Rick Anderson "Away from the Iceberg", the present "come to us" model of library service is inadequate in serving the needs of the community. That is where the concept of Library 2.0 come into play.

The video from YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch@=6gmP4nk0EOE, entitled "The machine is us/ using us" sums up the Web 2.0/Library 2.0 phenomena.

I suppose in this computer age, we have to embrace Web 2.0 and Library 2.0. That is where the future lies. However we need to upgrade our computer skills first before embarking on this journey. I guess that is the reason we are learning "ACL Learning 2.0"

Week 6 - Technorati

Technorati is another website you can get carried away with. I could while away many hours on there if not for my teenage son asking me ‘what’s for dinner’ and informing me that it is time to prepare dinner. Anyway I started by setting up an account, then I claimed my blog and did a search for “Learning 2.0.” The results: Blog posts 1727 hits, Tags 276, Blog directory 391. The results would always vary depending on the date and time of the search.

I explored some of the popular blog, searches and tags. Unsurprisingly Boing Boing seemed to be the favourite, and I’ve been to it a few times. I enjoyed watching some top videos on popular blogs and I added The Two Talking Cats to my Favourites just for the fun of it. I hope it works.

Week 6 - Del.icio.us

I had a look at Del.icio.us and after watching the tutorial on video, I created an account. I looked at the popular and recent links and then I tried the subjects or categories I wanted. I found some interesting websites that other people have used and added them to my favourites. It's good to be able to bookmark a webpage, tag and add notes, and I can see how easy it is to retrieve the webpages later on. Another good thing about Del.icio.us is that it allows you to access your account from any computer. Here's the
link to my account http://del.icio.us/queenielovesfood

Week 5 - Rollyo

The instructions on Rollyo are not so easy to follow, however I managed to get help, created an account and added some of my favourite websites to my searchroll. I reckon it's just like adding to 'favourites/bookmarks'. However it is good to look at some of the useful websites people have created. I managed to add two useful websites (about similar subjects) from looking at others' searchrolls and I am sure that my own searchroll will be helpful to other people.

Week 5 - LibraryThing

I like LibraryThing and I'm sure many of us would agree that this is very useful, especially in our line of work. Had a tour and signed up and added books to my library. I would love to add more but for the time being just ten, as I will be using it again. It's so simple, easy and straightforward. My library address is http://www.librarything.com/catalog/queenielovesfood

Letter James

Week 5 - Image Generators

Love this site, its fun and straight forward. Guess I could spend hours playing around and creating personalised stuff. Went to Letter James and had a go, used the image (motiv 82 - Chicago Wacker Drive) to personalise it. I had a look at FD Toys and it is quite similar to the site in which I did my trading card.

Week 4 # Thing 9 – Library/News Feeds

I explored some of the search tools listed in the ACL Learning 2.0 website. Personally found Bloglines search tools easy to use. Technorati – I enjoy this site especially on humor but quite frustrating as it takes a long time to load up. Synic8.com is just a mass of feeds; difficult to find what you want. I was unable to get into Feedster, made several attempts, keeps on showing a message that it is updating its website. Topix.net is a good website to get NZ feeds. Its webpages are well organized too.

Week 4 # Thing 9 - RSS Feeds

I visited the CNET and learnt what RSS feeds are. Found my way around using the tutorial, managed to set up my own Bloglines account and subscribed to 16 feeds. You can view these at my url: www.bloglines.com/public/queenielovesfood. Adding feeds to my Bloglines account was, in the end, relatively easy. I added some of my favourite websites to my Bloglines feeds. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. Back to the tutorial again; I realized that to have RSS feeds, the URL must end with xml.

Week 3 – Mashups & Third Party

Yes, I have been to Mashups. In fact I got rather carried away browsing interesting sites like color picker and Flickr Toys. I also created a trading card and sent it to a workmate. Last weekend, while having lunch with my family I took an interesting picture, very original, and I thought it would be nice to use on my trading card. How did this picture come about? A spring roll slipped away from a pair of chopsticks, dropped into a dipping sauce that created a smudge on a tablecloth and this brought to life the Alien staring at me!

Week 3 - Photos & Images

Not doing any baking this week, spent my hours (spread over several days) on Flickr. I signed up and managed to upload a photo from a website. What I intend to do ( when I have the time in future) is to create a family album to share with families and friends overseas. I tried to get to Mappr, but it keeps timing out, so I had to give up. On Technology, well I subscribed to Skype about a year ago and really think it's great! I get to see families and friends on the webcam although we have problems with the sound system.

Week 2 - Social Networking

This week has been quite good. Have been to various sites and with help from a work colleague (she's great!) I have managed to create accounts on Bebo, My Space and Facebook. I think I will be using the Facebook site frequently. My daughter (who lives on her own) added me as a friend on Facebook a few weeks ago and now I'm able to look at some lovely photos of her and all her friends. This is really great! I've also joined the Auckland City Libraries, For Life! group and sent a message to an ex-work colleague to be a friend. Bebo is confusing and I'm not too keen on this site. After 3 or 4 unsuccessful attempts at pasting and typing the URLs, I managed to add a link on my blog to a Josh Groban webpage. As for My Space, I'm sure I'll be using this site at some stage too.

My First Post

After many attempts I finally managed to create a blog! It's really frustrating, especially somebody like me who doesn't like spending time on a computer. Having fun? No, not at this stage. On the positive side I hope I will start to enjoy it.