Moving Forward in Work and Life

Haven't had a chance to post as you can see. I'd love to change the look of my blog and the subject matter as well. It will be a work in progress. This summer holds many opportunities and I'm looking forward to them all!

Week 9 Thing 23

Wow! I can't believe that I'm finally finished! I must admit I enjoyed this whole process more then I thought I would. It was very challenging some days and other days it seemed very easy. It was rewarding to have weekly goals and then meet them. Without being given the permission to do this assignment, a lot of these sites and new ways of doing things might have remained a mystery to me. I really appreciate being given the chance to do this and feel that I have gained new insights to technology and other aspects of my job as well. It is always important to keep moving ahead and changing, especially when you can do that with your peers and know that everyone is better because of it. Can this information be used for meetings, storytimes, new teams, projects, families, children--yes! Now we can think about how and when!
I think one of the best parts of this project for me personally was being able to share it with my family and show things to my son and know that the knowlege will be there for him when he needs it for school. Knowing that it will change and improve and that I am not unwilling to go in and find it or show him how to do it! I look forward to more opportunities like this one and hopefully I will meet them head on just like this one. There were times I wanted to quit, but my co-workers helped me over the rough patches and I kept moving forward and I'm glad I did:)

Week 9 Thing 22

For this discovery exercise I was unable to access NetLibrary, but was able to take a look at Overdrive. Surprisingly, I did not need to set up an account. I went to the site and was able to look up titles for free and was also able to listen to several digital excerpts for free also. I Googled the site since I could not gain access through the library's website. I liked the way their site was set up and it was very easy to get to popular titles and authors. I really like the vampire series by Stephanie Meyer and they had a listing for the new book Twilight but not a digital excerpt for that one. In Overdrve they also had a link for devices where you could price different compatible phones and mp3's that would take you to the product site, tell you the in's and out's of downloading, etc. I found that very helpful for someone who is just starting out with a new device. I also tried Project Gutenberg which I didn't like quite as much, but found some classic titles available that students doing school reading might need in a hurry if they waited till the last minute, which could be useful!

Week 9 Thing 21

Discovering Podcasts was very useful. If I had more time I would like to create one--perhaps in the future:) I looked at some of the other library sites and how they use podcasts and thought that it would be really helpful to use them for a Spanish storytime or for instruction of another language. If for some reason there is not someone available in the branch that does not speak that particular language then it would be available to the patron. One library had a link to 'Gabcast' which I thought would be very useful. It was possible to use your cell phone to post audio to your blog and to record podcasts, etc. using your cell and doing other interesting things as well. I think out of all of the podcast directories I like Yahoo Podcasts the best. I like the way their site is user-friendly and visually appealing. I could easily search and find what I was looking for. They had a link specifically for education and I found a site called Childrensbook radio that discusses children's books. The creator of the podcast has a wonderful voice which is very easy to listen to, as well as, children of her own so she is speaking from experience. Here is the link Web Site: http://childrensbookradio.com RSS: http://www.webpasties.com/podcast-5006-8...
Podcasts were easier to use to glean information than in a video format and they can be very useful, much easier to produce and view.

Week 9 Thing 20

Exploring YouTube and other video hosting sites certainly was an eye-opener! There is a lot of stuff that's not worth viewing and then there are lots of things that were funny or educational. I thought it was neat that when you watched one video they would suggest another one that was similar, so it would keep you watching and using the site longer! I watched library dominoes and then they suggested one called domino d-day which was really cool! One of my all-time favorite videos is 'Evolution of Dance'. I chose this video because not only is it hilarious, but the comedian, Judson Laipply quickly adapts to each kind of music with a different dance to represent various generations. I think as librarians we are also asked to adapt quickly--to learn new technology, to switch gears from one question to another at the desk, to go from storyteller to team member, etc. We do all of these things with a smile on our faces, just like this video. He gets lots of applause, but we get the satisfaction of helping people.
I enjoyed exploring the site. The only thing that bothers me about the site is that there is a great deal of mixing what is appropriate with what is not. And of course the impatience of waiting for the download!
This would be helpful in the library world in many ways! Even to add useful bits to our website! I will attempt now to add my YouTube video link!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg

Week 8 Thing 19

This was really cool! There were a lot of sites on the Web 2.0 Awards List that I really liked. My favorite was Swivel.com which is a site that makes data useful in a visual way using graphs and charts. It was listed under the Visual Arts heading which had another site called ColorBlender.com, which if you are artistically inclined and love color is a neat site. Two others that caught my eye were Peertrainer--good for having a buddy for working out and getting workout info, and guess the google, under 'Fun Things' was really fun to play. There are so many out there, but some did require a log-in or signup, some were useful and other were more fun ways to pass the time. There were several that could apply to the library setting that involved tagging and community discussions and parents also. This was a good learning experience.

Publishing from Zoho http://max-wherethewildthingsare.blogspot.com

WEEK 8 THING 18

 

I love Zoho Writer!  It took me awhile to get the hang of it and then it was really cool!  I read a lot of the other peoples opinions of Zoho Writer vs. Google Docs and I think I still like this one better.  I can definitely see the possibilities of this Web 2.0 application.  This really has been a great opportunity to find out about all these great technologies that most of us never knew existed.  I would choose to use this over Word any day.  I tried some of the templates available which is a nice thing to have if you don't have a starting point.   .  http://writer.zoho.com/index.do#