Well, I had my doubts as to whether or not I would finish this challenge. I was so completely overwhelmed when I started this project, that I didn't even want to finish it and regretted starting it. But now that I am at the end, I can honestly say I am glad I did it. I DO feel more comfortable with all the different web 2.0 resources, and want to challenge myself to use them on a regular basis so I can get comfortable with them. It is a true challenge, but one I think I can meet.
Where to go from here? Using one of these resources/tools every day will be my goal. Just ONE of them, so I can retain the information and gain from them. I will check my bloglines account and keep up with those, while downloading books and saving documents to Zoho. There is so much to do, but it is more fun to do now that I have a bit of confidence. Thanks to Diane, Jackie, Allyn and Annette for all your help and encouragement!
Thursday, September 27, 2007
#22 Audio Books
I have discovered the joy of audio books this summer while taking my oldest son to college. they helped the nine hour drive go much faster and kept me awake, which is always a good thing!
Since the library is not going to be using netlibrary, I focused just on Overdrive. This will help me most when assisting patrons who want to download books and listen at home. I will be downloading one tonight onto my computer at home, so I will then be able to transfer the data to the new MP3 player I will be getting next week! I think I will be using it a lot in the future. I like the idea that you don't have to sign up in the library first to get started. I watched the video clip on how to proceed with the checkout process, and I am ready to go! I think I will choose James Patterson's book, 1st to Die, as my first book, just because so many patrons read this series and this will get me started. I read one of his other books last summer and enjoyed it, so this will be a good way to start.
Since the library is not going to be using netlibrary, I focused just on Overdrive. This will help me most when assisting patrons who want to download books and listen at home. I will be downloading one tonight onto my computer at home, so I will then be able to transfer the data to the new MP3 player I will be getting next week! I think I will be using it a lot in the future. I like the idea that you don't have to sign up in the library first to get started. I watched the video clip on how to proceed with the checkout process, and I am ready to go! I think I will choose James Patterson's book, 1st to Die, as my first book, just because so many patrons read this series and this will get me started. I read one of his other books last summer and enjoyed it, so this will be a good way to start.
#21 Podcasts
Well, because I already have a Yahoo account, I went to check out Yahoo podcasts. There, on the header of the site, is an announcement that they will be closing the site on Oct 31, 2007. That means I needed to move on to another directory to get familiarized with that one--I am in this for the long haul and don't want to bother with something that short term.
My next stop was Podcastalley--because I just liked the name!--shallow, but that is the way the net works sometimes! I found a site that sends out podcasts on homeschooling, which should be kind of fun to experience. There I found a site for homeschoolers and one for history, so I subscribed to both on my bloglines account. I look forward to hearing the information from both podcasts!
The url's are here.
http://www.summahistorica.com/podcast/rss.xml for History According to Bob
http://feeds.feedburner.com/HomeschoolPodcastNetwork for Homeschool Podcast Network
My next stop was Podcastalley--because I just liked the name!--shallow, but that is the way the net works sometimes! I found a site that sends out podcasts on homeschooling, which should be kind of fun to experience. There I found a site for homeschoolers and one for history, so I subscribed to both on my bloglines account. I look forward to hearing the information from both podcasts!
The url's are here.
http://www.summahistorica.com/podcast/rss.xml for History According to Bob
http://feeds.feedburner.com/HomeschoolPodcastNetwork for Homeschool Podcast Network
#20 You Tube
I must admit that this site is the one that I am most familiar with. My 16 year old son watches old cartoons on the site all the time. There are even segments of the recently released "Transformers" movie on the site, and it hasn't been released on video yet. You can tell it was done with a cam-corder in a theater. Copywrite issues abound, but all told the site is great!
I have already posted a YouTube site that shows my kids in Africa--so scroll down and see what they have to say--it is great ( of course, I am completely objective!)
I have already posted a YouTube site that shows my kids in Africa--so scroll down and see what they have to say--it is great ( of course, I am completely objective!)
#19 Web 2.0 awards
I went through the list and had a great time playing on the arcade games at http://arcaplay.com/. I felt guilty playing arcade games at work, but this is the 23 Things, right!!
I also went to the social mapping at Frapper (http://www.frappr.com/). That particular site kind of gave me the creeps--stalkers would have no problems with this site--pick a target and find them in the area. One of the groups had to do with adoption and even had first and last names of some adoptee families--once again, a little too much information. I am finding that some of the social sites are too personal for me to feel comfortable with. When I watched the Sandra Bullock movie, "The Net", I developed a healthy fear of how the internet could be used against you. Safeguards are in place, but the hackers can tear it apart. That makes it a bit much for me, personally.
Having the list helps you find even more organizational tools that would help in the library. Desktop2 didn't load very well, but that doesn't mean it isn't a good site. I looked at Backpack, and thought it would be great for those who want a PDA but can't afford one,or if they have a laptop they can use like a PDA--too cumbersome for me personally.
So much of this technology just requires hours to sit and play on and decide which one will meet your needs. So far, even with time here at work, I don't personally have the time to access all of them. It will be fun to try though!
I also went to the social mapping at Frapper (http://www.frappr.com/). That particular site kind of gave me the creeps--stalkers would have no problems with this site--pick a target and find them in the area. One of the groups had to do with adoption and even had first and last names of some adoptee families--once again, a little too much information. I am finding that some of the social sites are too personal for me to feel comfortable with. When I watched the Sandra Bullock movie, "The Net", I developed a healthy fear of how the internet could be used against you. Safeguards are in place, but the hackers can tear it apart. That makes it a bit much for me, personally.
Having the list helps you find even more organizational tools that would help in the library. Desktop2 didn't load very well, but that doesn't mean it isn't a good site. I looked at Backpack, and thought it would be great for those who want a PDA but can't afford one,or if they have a laptop they can use like a PDA--too cumbersome for me personally.
So much of this technology just requires hours to sit and play on and decide which one will meet your needs. So far, even with time here at work, I don't personally have the time to access all of them. It will be fun to try though!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
# 18 Online Productivity
I must admit that Zoho has been the one feature that I have heard about and really wanted to play with. I have set up an account and will use it often to back up my homeschool information from home, so I can access it anywhere. That will save a lot of time and free up storage space on my home PC.
I think this is probably the resource I will use the most--I can't wait to transfer more info to my account!
http://writer.zoho.com/index.do
I think this is probably the resource I will use the most--I can't wait to transfer more info to my account!
http://writer.zoho.com/index.do
#17 Sandbox Wiki
This is a great site, much more like a community blog. I liked posting things to several sites-favorite vacations (http://marylandlibrariessandbox.pbwiki.com/Favorite-vacation-spot) and favorite childhood book (http://marylandlibrariessandbox.pbwiki.com/Favorite+Childhood+Books).
I did enter a wiki-page under homeschool resources, but couldn't add it to the favorites page because there was an unusual message about a edit lock on that page. If I had continued, I would have erased someone else's work, and I didn't want to do that. Check out the wiki entry at http://marylandlibrariessandbox.pbwiki.com/Homeschool%20resources
I did enter a wiki-page under homeschool resources, but couldn't add it to the favorites page because there was an unusual message about a edit lock on that page. If I had continued, I would have erased someone else's work, and I didn't want to do that. Check out the wiki entry at http://marylandlibrariessandbox.pbwiki.com/Homeschool%20resources
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