Well, it's finally over - for the time being!
Favourite discoveries, experiences
- setting up a blog and thinking up different uses for one
- plus helping in setting one up in my library
- I think students would find them useful and interesting; it's up to the library/originator to attract their attention with the right sort of information
Effect on lifelong learning goals
- we have to keep learning!
- when I see these examples and make myself spend time trying them out, it's very apparent that libraries have to move with the changes ... but make them relevant to user needs
Take-aways, unexpected outcomes
- the extent of technological changes seems so far-reaching - even 3D programming now in a format for use by the general public, programs such as wordprocessing being incorporated directly on to the Web (viz. Zoho)
- plus, we can really plan to improve on the relevance of our traditional library catalogues, so that searching really will answer the questions people ask for in the current era
What could we do differently
- I suspect we all had difficulty with some parts depending on our background and interests
- links are prone to constantly not work / go out of date also
- a slightly more structured setup was one of my thoughts, but in retrospect you probably need to "ferret" around a bit to learn some of the sites and the full extent of their services
I would happily participate in future ventures - many thanks to Robyn for tweaking this to suit TAFE Queensland purposes.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Online Communities
I've been on to the Edna site and realise just how much we could all be "talking" with each other on the Net. It's strange how doing the 23Things course suddenly makes this seem obvious - perhaps we should be contributing to all these groups, instead of making yet more different ways of staying in touch.
I'd like to know what everyone else thinks.
Certainly there's a place for it in the workplace - maybe if there weren't so many links and sublinks to navigate in our TAFE arena, it would be very very useful. It needs to be something you can access very directly, otherwise people will tend not to use it. As a comparison, would Y Gen be using ipods if they were obliged to circumnavigate numerous hierarchies ...
I'd like to know what everyone else thinks.
Certainly there's a place for it in the workplace - maybe if there weren't so many links and sublinks to navigate in our TAFE arena, it would be very very useful. It needs to be something you can access very directly, otherwise people will tend not to use it. As a comparison, would Y Gen be using ipods if they were obliged to circumnavigate numerous hierarchies ...
Task 21
I cheerfully launched into Task 21 as a fun Sunday afternoon pursuit, thinking this would be a relatively quick and painless exercise.
I tried these popular directories - Podcast, Podcastalley, Yahoo - looking for podcasts.
Even with broadband access, downloads were fraught with difficulty. Quite often nothing loaded, or only partially so. More searching practice with the first two directories I think would assist me find some really useful sites. Yahoo apparently will be discontinuing their service late October, and many of their podcasts are now dated, no longer being updated, etc.
One unusual podcast that I did manage to play has remained in my mind - Garden Trains Radio - because a nice topic like that just has to blend well with a Sunday afternoon! Alas, just as the friendly "gardening" radio voice announced how to subscribe to this series on an ongoing basis, once again the Net happily dropped out on me. I finally saved a feed regarding the Iditarod (as Microsoft feed) which I always find interesting when all else fails.
If someone is out there in cybrary land reading this and can recommend some interesting library podcasts to feed to, I would really appreciate this!
I look forward to some comments ....
I tried these popular directories - Podcast, Podcastalley, Yahoo - looking for podcasts.
Even with broadband access, downloads were fraught with difficulty. Quite often nothing loaded, or only partially so. More searching practice with the first two directories I think would assist me find some really useful sites. Yahoo apparently will be discontinuing their service late October, and many of their podcasts are now dated, no longer being updated, etc.
One unusual podcast that I did manage to play has remained in my mind - Garden Trains Radio - because a nice topic like that just has to blend well with a Sunday afternoon! Alas, just as the friendly "gardening" radio voice announced how to subscribe to this series on an ongoing basis, once again the Net happily dropped out on me. I finally saved a feed regarding the Iditarod (as Microsoft feed) which I always find interesting when all else fails.
If someone is out there in cybrary land reading this and can recommend some interesting library podcasts to feed to, I would really appreciate this!
I look forward to some comments ....
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Daily Motion
You could spend hours searching here! To whittle the results down to exactly what you want needs a bit of practice. I am not a big fan of broad subject groupings, so decided to really hone in on tags and other subgroupings wherever possible. Finally I looked for Creative + Animation + Macromedia Flash, and found two interesting results. Here is a football stick figure having fun:
Discovering Web 2.0 tools
I looked at Medstory - it's good to find a new "version" of a search engine for medicine/health - in Beta mode, patent pending.
I tried this for searching nursing topics, and quite like the neat subject approach provided - it is easily recognisable for anyone with a medical/health background. Since it is non-Australian in construction, you need to keep this in mind when saving sites for Australia (scope of nursing is an important issue). I like the del-icio-us and RSS possibilities provided, and the capabilities for selecting audio/video, Research, etc.
All sites I chose for saving were easy to save into my accounts. There are of course, some blind/out-of-date links. I do think design and access and content are inextricably linked on the Web - the only small criticism I have is the front page! Although clean, and devoid of lots of content (which is good), I needed to scroll down to see the rest of the page. It's an understatement of the wonderful sites lurking within. It's a great dotcom site of use especially to library and other professionals. Thank you Web2 technology for letting me find yet another little something of practical benefit.
I tried this for searching nursing topics, and quite like the neat subject approach provided - it is easily recognisable for anyone with a medical/health background. Since it is non-Australian in construction, you need to keep this in mind when saving sites for Australia (scope of nursing is an important issue). I like the del-icio-us and RSS possibilities provided, and the capabilities for selecting audio/video, Research, etc.
All sites I chose for saving were easy to save into my accounts. There are of course, some blind/out-of-date links. I do think design and access and content are inextricably linked on the Web - the only small criticism I have is the front page! Although clean, and devoid of lots of content (which is good), I needed to scroll down to see the rest of the page. It's an understatement of the wonderful sites lurking within. It's a great dotcom site of use especially to library and other professionals. Thank you Web2 technology for letting me find yet another little something of practical benefit.
Zoho
Now here is a really useful type of wordprocessing app plus! Why don't I use this all the time to put items in my blog. It's happily transportable - doesn't matter where I log on, I don't have to transport files from home to work to wherever else, it's all usable from the Net.
I like the toolbar - everything up there to choose from straightaway - link button to insert a site, table button, comments button, emotions to let me send you an immediate Smiley, and so on. 
This is obviously just scratching the surface of all the Zoho possibilities - lots more apps are available to really get information to people, share it around, and encourage feedback. It's simply a matter of finding Time to explore and figure out exactly how these things can be harnessed in your workplace ...
PBWiki
Now that was nice to be given our own sandbox to experiment with!
Actually I am beginning to define some situations where wiki use in the workplace would be useful. It could be good for keeping people up to date with a project development - you know the sort of project that isn't easily controlled with Committee meetings. Sometimes the project takes twists and turns and you just want to be able to record some of this easily and get the latest facts out to people.
However, I think we could be a bit limited by space, so would need to look at the subscription options to ensure we didn't run out of room! We have all experienced how limiting the TAFE allocation of email accounts can be, so you'd need to set up properly before engaging the Wiki concept.
Actually I am beginning to define some situations where wiki use in the workplace would be useful. It could be good for keeping people up to date with a project development - you know the sort of project that isn't easily controlled with Committee meetings. Sometimes the project takes twists and turns and you just want to be able to record some of this easily and get the latest facts out to people.
However, I think we could be a bit limited by space, so would need to look at the subscription options to ensure we didn't run out of room! We have all experienced how limiting the TAFE allocation of email accounts can be, so you'd need to set up properly before engaging the Wiki concept.
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