Week 7 Thing 17 SandBox wiki.

Well, I finally was able to post my blog on the favorite blogs page. It should have been so simple but figuring out how to do it was not so simple. The Point and Click edit feature did not work so well for me. Once I figured out how to do it, though, it is easy. The directions could have been more explicit. That would have saved me quite a bit of time. I was also able to create a new wiki page. That was neat, once I figured out how to do it. Time is of the essence and I sure seem to consume a lot of time doing these excercises.

Week 7 Thing 16 Wikis

Well, I have explored the world of wikis and the world is pretty neat. Lots of neat ways to use them. I read how teachers are using them to communicate with their students and are replacing class handouts by using wikis. I explored a literature wiki and found a topic that interested me, Chic Lit. (For those times when you are brain dead and can't handle anything more than that.) I looked at the one about New Orleans conference and that was pretty neat how info was collected about the conference events and also about things that were happening in the area and places to go. I'm sure that the people who were natives of the area were a great asset in sharing info. Wikis are a neat way to organize events without having to constantly e-mail each other. Can't wait to set one up for this purpose.
I went to Technorati and researched the videos about wikis. Watched several about how to set up and use wikis. These videos made it seem easy. I hope this is so when I set one up.

Week 6 Thing 15 Perspective on Web / Library 2.0

It suddenly dawned on me when I was reading these articles what a huge responsibility librarians will have in the future assisting patrons. The library as we know it now will no longer exist. Wow!
The article I chose to comment on is "Away from the Icebergs". In this article Rick Anderson states that there are three "icebergs" that pose threats to the future success of libraries.The first one is the "just in case" iceberg. Libraries retained a comprehensive collection of materials "just in case" a patron requested it and when they did ask for it, it took time to get the materials. But it is not necessary now or in the future to keep collections because everything is accessible on the Web and patrons can get anything they need online. Do we need to even have collections now?
The next "iceberg" is reliance on user education. Anderson states that libraries do not have the capabilities to be teaching due to poorly equipped libraries and insufficient staffing. Therefore services have to be simple for the patrons to use without training, and if this is not possible than the services need to be fixed.
The final "iceberg" is the "come to us" model of library services. Before if you wanted access to something special you had to go to the library. You no longer need to do this because of the internet so the libraries must figure out ways to bring services to the patrons, rather than insisting they come to the library. Anderson says that libraries need to integrate their services into the daily fabric of life; work study, play.
Anderson finishes his article stating that there are two directions that professions can go when changes come about: they can toss out everything including the good stuff or fail to acknowledge and accept the changes that are occurring. He says that libraries tend to follow the latter path and it is necessary to change this direction.
All of the changes that are coming about with library services in relationship to the web are fascinating... scary, too. Trying to keep up is daunting. I agree with the author that we really need to look at where our libraries are going and what the role of the librarian will be.

Week 6 Thing 14 Technorati

I like Technorati. When I first looked at it there was so much info available it was overwhelming. But that is also a good thing. There is so much, you can find something on just about anything you are looking for.
After doing keyword searches for “Learning 2.0” I did find a difference in the results. In tags there were 28 results, in blogs 62 results, and 1,239 hits in the directory. I guess this changes all the time, though.
I got hooked looking at the videos. There were so many that I can use, either as tutorials for myself or with my classes or for personal use.
I searched "North Captiva Island" and found so much info that was interesting. It gave factual info such as the layout of the island and rental/ buying prices (HO, Ho!) to posts with photos and comments on how much someone enjoyed the island, an actual connection with real people. I read to find out if anything was written that was familiar to me that I could connect with.
Technorati is a great tool for searching for blogs that interest you and I 'll be using it a lot for all sorts of things.

Week 6 Thing 13 Del.icio.us

I like this program. It's nice to be able to access your bookmarks no matter at which computer you are working. I opened an account. It was easy to do so and easy to bookmark sites. This is something I will use and continue to add to.

Week 5 Thing 12 Rollyo

It was not difficult creating an account for Rollyo or to create a searchroll. This would be good to have easy access to so many websites that you know you could use without having to look at lots and lots of sites. Having so many searchrolls to look at that others created will cut down on the time that it takes to select good sites.