I've made it to the end, and none too soon. I start a series of Web Wednesday classes for our adoring public this week on some of the more relevant (how subjective is that?!) technologies from MD's 23 Things.
I appreciated the opportunity to spend time with each of the technologies that we have explored over the last few months. Most of them were not new to me, but I certainly wouldn't have learned as much about them without 23 Things. This was a good format for continuing education about new technologies and social networking opportunities... I'm glad to see that ongoing versions of the program are sprouting up and I look forward to learning more as we progress into the techie future!
Monday, September 17, 2007
Thing 22... E-reading
#1 question we get at the desk regarding the e-library offerings: "Where can I find this e-book? The catalog says there is one available..." Yes, well... it may or not be available and it isn't really "here" so much as virtually here. It will be super cool when our catalog is clever enough to bring over accurate availability info from Overdrive -- it's mildly frustrating for patrons to see "available" in our catalog only to go into Overdrive and find that there are 6 people waiting for the book...
I've downloaded books from Overdrive (both audio and print) and been satisfied with both offerings. I have a little trouble with the audio books--moving them to a mp3 player -- but the player could be at fault there - I haven't devoted enough time to figuring that one out. There seems to be something about the Overdrive files-- a DMA (am I remembering the right combination of letters?) security settings on the WMA files that my mp3 player can't decipher, but I'm playing with NetLibrary this morning to see if those files have the same issues. Hopefully not!
All in all, it is a wonderful service, though the borrowing times on Overdrive are a little strange in that you can't return a title early, so if there are 3 people ahead of you in line, it's going to be 63 days before you get a title that is checked out - no hoping that someone 'brings it back on time.'
I've downloaded books from Overdrive (both audio and print) and been satisfied with both offerings. I have a little trouble with the audio books--moving them to a mp3 player -- but the player could be at fault there - I haven't devoted enough time to figuring that one out. There seems to be something about the Overdrive files-- a DMA (am I remembering the right combination of letters?) security settings on the WMA files that my mp3 player can't decipher, but I'm playing with NetLibrary this morning to see if those files have the same issues. Hopefully not!
All in all, it is a wonderful service, though the borrowing times on Overdrive are a little strange in that you can't return a title early, so if there are 3 people ahead of you in line, it's going to be 63 days before you get a title that is checked out - no hoping that someone 'brings it back on time.'
Saturday, September 15, 2007
#21 In search of Podcasts
I'm teaching a series of web 2.0 classes for the public this fall so the tools for locating podcasts are very handy. Most of us have seen the Ask a Ninja video from You Tube on podcasts - something about apple pie and whales... Anyhoo, it seems like some podcasts might help describe the components of web 2.0 to my classes. Since I don't subscribe to podcasts at present, the search tools are useful. The ways libraries are using podcasts - new book reviews, etc... is interesting. I don't see any immediate applications that I'd want to use in my library, but it's good to have these things in my head for possible future projects! As I learned from thing 21, what separates podcasts from normal streams of video or audio is that they generally accompany an RSS feed. Too much pressure there for me! I'd like to do some audio - maybe video - tutorials on the site about how to get to e-books for example... but having to come up with a regular _____ seems like more committment that I can handle at present! (wimpy I know!)
A podcast I do enjoy is the Science Friday program from NPR - good stuff that I usually miss during its original airing.
A podcast I do enjoy is the Science Friday program from NPR - good stuff that I usually miss during its original airing.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
#19 Web 2.0 award winners
There were some neat sites in the list of award winners but I must admit that I am not feeling patient enough to create any new user accounts! (The mapping sites which I was tempted to explore required accounts to see what others had done or to create one's own map/event/etc...)
I browsed Craig's list and was interested to see that there is a new "Western Maryland" geographical select available. Thought there wasn't as much stuff listed there as one can find in the metro DC or Baltimore areas.
Many of the other sites were interesting too, but after half an hour it is time to write this up and move on! (After bookmarking the list to Del.icio.us of course)
Although I don't feel like making any new accounts, being able to log in to a site and retrieve one's work is a really great function of the 2.0 sites. I'd love to see this integrated into the library catalog. I have nothing new to add to this discussion, but seeing patron reviews, being able to keep book lists (that the FBI couldn't play with?) and having the catalog show me what people who read this book are also reading - would be great. Perhaps it is already happening?
I browsed Craig's list and was interested to see that there is a new "Western Maryland" geographical select available. Thought there wasn't as much stuff listed there as one can find in the metro DC or Baltimore areas.
Many of the other sites were interesting too, but after half an hour it is time to write this up and move on! (After bookmarking the list to Del.icio.us of course)
Although I don't feel like making any new accounts, being able to log in to a site and retrieve one's work is a really great function of the 2.0 sites. I'd love to see this integrated into the library catalog. I have nothing new to add to this discussion, but seeing patron reviews, being able to keep book lists (that the FBI couldn't play with?) and having the catalog show me what people who read this book are also reading - would be great. Perhaps it is already happening?
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Thing 20 - You Tube
In a "Washington Post" editorial a couple weeks back, the author marked the anniversary of Diana's death by watching Tony Blair tribute on You Tube... but now that a couple of weeks have passed, Britney is so much more newsworthy. Did I really just write that?! I have to confess that I spent about half an hour reading about her train wreck of a performance at the VMA, finally watched the video and checked out various blogs... What is it about a startlet's journey of self-destruction that is so gripping? So I won't post the Britney bashing (and even funnier defenses) that litter YouTube these days - but that leads me to say that it is a very easy site to search.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Thing #18 - now this we can use!
Online productivity... kind of like having a hard drive online - although not exactly, though there are companies who will store data digitally (another intriguing idea if privacy and security were guaranteed). The potential for joint project and writing assignments is very cool - this could potentially speed up some things - group work is notoriously difficult, but being able to share files in real-time would be a bonus. I like the idea of a program tracking editions like a wikipedia entry. Pretty neat.
Playing in the Sandbox #17
The sandbox wiki is nifty. I checked out My Recent Good Reads, What I am Reading, 23 of mahjchick's favorite romance writers, and many of the random travel and favorite things sites that folks had created. Kudos to everyone who has discovered how to create a blog.
I'm going to skip the doing part of this exercise as I have already created a wiki. I question too whether creating a list of my favorite things is really a good subject for a wiki. How will people contribute to my favorite things--they don't know me, though I suppose they could add ideas of what else might appeal to me. Though that might be helpful to me, it doesn't really add to the common knowledge or promote wider community involvement.
I have two wiki ideas that I want to persue here at my library. A community wiki and a reader's advisory wiki. I also really like the idea of making our adult summer reading group into a wiki (though that might not be quite the right technology). Re. the community wiki, the local newspaper does a wonderful community guide each fall that would make a perfect base for a wiki: churches, clubs, restaurants, parks, recreation, culture, etc... I'm not sure how they will feel about copyright issues but we shall see!
I'm going to skip the doing part of this exercise as I have already created a wiki. I question too whether creating a list of my favorite things is really a good subject for a wiki. How will people contribute to my favorite things--they don't know me, though I suppose they could add ideas of what else might appeal to me. Though that might be helpful to me, it doesn't really add to the common knowledge or promote wider community involvement.
I have two wiki ideas that I want to persue here at my library. A community wiki and a reader's advisory wiki. I also really like the idea of making our adult summer reading group into a wiki (though that might not be quite the right technology). Re. the community wiki, the local newspaper does a wonderful community guide each fall that would make a perfect base for a wiki: churches, clubs, restaurants, parks, recreation, culture, etc... I'm not sure how they will feel about copyright issues but we shall see!
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Wild and Wonderful World of Wikis
I've created one unsuccessful wiki and have plans for another which I hope will be more useful... The dud was a PB wiki that I built for a group of homeschoolers for whom I was doing an Internet class. My grand idea was that they would continue to use the wiki to add sites that they discovered etc... "If you build it they will come" but you still have to provide valuable enough content to make the trip worth the bother. Lesson learned. In my defense (perceived failure makes me feel defensive I suppose) I really just wanted to play with the concept and had just learned about PB Wiki from a colleague who'd gone to the 2005 Computers in Libraries conference.
My latest brainstorm is that a wiki would be a good place to keep our reader's advisory book lists. Several of us here at the library are working on a series of bookmarks and reading lists and a wiki would be a nice way of storing our collective project while also allowing our patrons to get in on the fun. Still in its nascent stages... we'll see how well this one goes.
Ideas that impressed me from this lesson's explorations:
The St Joseph's Public Library's in Indiana has subject guides that are pretty fabulous - great that they integrate catalog selections with their subjects http://www.libraryforlife.org/subjectguides/index.php/Main_Page
The Princeton Book Lovers wiki is a great idea - we just finished a summer reading club for adults and I should have been doing this! Folks wrote all sorts of good reviews that need a viewing space. A good fall project? Definitely an idea to be implemented next summer...
And of course the Library Success: Best Practice wiki is terrific, it comes to light all over the place and is one of my del.icio.us bookmarks.
My latest brainstorm is that a wiki would be a good place to keep our reader's advisory book lists. Several of us here at the library are working on a series of bookmarks and reading lists and a wiki would be a nice way of storing our collective project while also allowing our patrons to get in on the fun. Still in its nascent stages... we'll see how well this one goes.
Ideas that impressed me from this lesson's explorations:
The St Joseph's Public Library's in Indiana has subject guides that are pretty fabulous - great that they integrate catalog selections with their subjects http://www.libraryforlife.org/subjectguides/index.php/Main_Page
The Princeton Book Lovers wiki is a great idea - we just finished a summer reading club for adults and I should have been doing this! Folks wrote all sorts of good reviews that need a viewing space. A good fall project? Definitely an idea to be implemented next summer...
And of course the Library Success: Best Practice wiki is terrific, it comes to light all over the place and is one of my del.icio.us bookmarks.
#15 Library 2.0 where are we going?
The language of library 2.0 has been around for long enough and I've read enough journal articles and attended enough meetings and conferences to leave me with a (slightly fuzzy around the edges) impression of library 2.0 It seems to involve, comfortable, cozy library spaces (library as 3rd place), with study space, meeting and greeting space, ample access to technology, and a generous online presence to insure that the library is open 24/7 --at least to community members who are connected to the web. What library 2.0 does for those on the other side of the digital divide is still classic library 1.0 service: teaching technology classes, providing free computer access, and doing good old fashioned collection development to provide materials to those who can't or won't venture into the electronic collection.
While I buy into the theory that libraries have always been innovative and therefore library 2.0 is not a drastic departure from business as usual, this is a different era simply because technology is moving so quickly. Using a product like camtasia to create online computer tutorials seems like a very wise investment of time and energy. Teaching computer skills to non-users is a vital part of libraries roles in bridging the digital divide. Creating a myspace account for the library is not absolutely required, but many libraries are finding a niche in the social network of their neighborhood teens. Other libraries are finding that they are connected to YA authors and other YA librarians--a useful connection, but not necessarily the initial goal when the account was created.
Ah, so much to say and think about. However, since the debate will continue well into Library 4.0 we'll just keep cranking along trying new things--keeping the good stuff and ditching the not-so-applicable ideas.
While I buy into the theory that libraries have always been innovative and therefore library 2.0 is not a drastic departure from business as usual, this is a different era simply because technology is moving so quickly. Using a product like camtasia to create online computer tutorials seems like a very wise investment of time and energy. Teaching computer skills to non-users is a vital part of libraries roles in bridging the digital divide. Creating a myspace account for the library is not absolutely required, but many libraries are finding a niche in the social network of their neighborhood teens. Other libraries are finding that they are connected to YA authors and other YA librarians--a useful connection, but not necessarily the initial goal when the account was created.
Ah, so much to say and think about. However, since the debate will continue well into Library 4.0 we'll just keep cranking along trying new things--keeping the good stuff and ditching the not-so-applicable ideas.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
#14 Technorati
How tags work... what do you know, tagging is just like cataloging--the more tags, the easier the object is to find! I read someone's post (sorry I didn't save the link) who is a school library person and he/she (?) was musing about the possibilities for having students tag a reading. Instead of the classic question "what is the main idea," students would share their tags and the teacher would be able to see what the kids were picking up. (pardon the dangling preposition) It's an interesting idea--the cumulative tags would let the instructor know if the lesson had sunk in and if the students were comprehending. I suspect that this is just a new label for a process that teachers have employed before, but technology does allow tag clouds to create a visual representation of ideas (but again, this has been done with construction paper and yarn for years) which can be super useful for visual learners.
Technorati is a great search engine for the blogosphere and I did encounter some very interesting sites. The top_____ sites are interesting to check in with from time to time if only to know what is going on in the bigger pop culture world.
P.S. Yippee for advanced Search options!
Technorati is a great search engine for the blogosphere and I did encounter some very interesting sites. The top_____ sites are interesting to check in with from time to time if only to know what is going on in the bigger pop culture world.
P.S. Yippee for advanced Search options!
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Lucky #13
Del.icio.us provides an interesting service for organizing bookmarks that can be accessible from anywhere online. This alone is a great service for those of us who have bookmarks in Firefox and Explorer and work on three different desks depending on the day. I am not disciplined enough to have exported and installed all of my bookmarks on the two reference desk computers as well as my office computer... but del.icio.us might be new and interesting enough to get me there!
It is even more useful (I suspect) as a citation searching tool of sorts for intrepid explorers. Much like writing a research paper or working on an annotated bibliography--after a while the same authors start to pop up. This lets you know that you are starting to get a good grasp on your topic as well as giving you new avenues and authors to research further. The tagging aspect of social bookmarking allows this same functionality. We can track other libraries or individuals who are interested in the same ideas that we are, and learn about new technologies or unknown web domains from our explorations.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'll have to spend a bit more time with this to know how useful it can really be, but the idea is certainly interesting.
August 11 - I'm sold I think. As I encounter more great ideas and programing tips in the wiki section of thing 16, I'm bookmarking like mad and realizing that once I bookmark in my browser, I seldom revisit or remember why I thought a site was so grand. Del.icio.us to the rescue...now I just have to keep using it and making good tags!
It is even more useful (I suspect) as a citation searching tool of sorts for intrepid explorers. Much like writing a research paper or working on an annotated bibliography--after a while the same authors start to pop up. This lets you know that you are starting to get a good grasp on your topic as well as giving you new avenues and authors to research further. The tagging aspect of social bookmarking allows this same functionality. We can track other libraries or individuals who are interested in the same ideas that we are, and learn about new technologies or unknown web domains from our explorations.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'll have to spend a bit more time with this to know how useful it can really be, but the idea is certainly interesting.
August 11 - I'm sold I think. As I encounter more great ideas and programing tips in the wiki section of thing 16, I'm bookmarking like mad and realizing that once I bookmark in my browser, I seldom revisit or remember why I thought a site was so grand. Del.icio.us to the rescue...now I just have to keep using it and making good tags!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
#12 Roll ur own
So, Rollyo is an interesting idea, but I'm not getting it fully. The internet is huge (hence Rollyo's attempt to make it more manageable) but I don't know where the answer to my question is located, why would I want to limit where a search engine looked? I trust my search queries more than I trust my knowledge of all good potential web sites.
If I want to find out how to spell a word, I'm better off sticking it into Google (or heaven forbid, getting an actual dictionary off the shelf). I tried Ashley's spelling and synonym Rollyo with the word "courteous" misspelled several ways - it wasn't clever enough to understand what I was misspelling...
I will go in search of other participant blogs to find folks who are excited about this tool. I'll let you know if I'm converted enough to make my own!
If I want to find out how to spell a word, I'm better off sticking it into Google (or heaven forbid, getting an actual dictionary off the shelf). I tried Ashley's spelling and synonym Rollyo with the word "courteous" misspelled several ways - it wasn't clever enough to understand what I was misspelling...
I will go in search of other participant blogs to find folks who are excited about this tool. I'll let you know if I'm converted enough to make my own!
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Library Thing (#11)
It's hard to envision my home library sitting here at the reference desk... Suffice it to say that I have more books than I can recall at this sitting, but wow - what a fun tool Library Thing is! I really like the Unsuggester what a hoot. Apparently if you like Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me (as I do) then you will not like George Orwell's Down and out in Paris and London or Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. Now I do like reading Orwell, but I don't quite get (much to my dismay) Pynchon - I read about half of Gravity's Rainbow before I gave up and decided that I did not like the sensation of being in the kind of hallucinations that accompany a high fever... I totally get the social network when it comes to books - I like seeing how many matches there are between my book shelves and those of other folks. It's super cool to get book suggestions from other people (much like Amazon I guess) who have the same books. A++
Thing 10...
I am dying to use the Simpsonizer that I found as a recent entry on the Generator Blog. Sadly there is too much Simpsons mania right now and the web site is swamped. I'm a huge fan and can't wait to see what I look like as a Simpson's character.
I've played with name generators - my pirate name
My pirate name is:
Red Charity Kidd
Passion is a big part of your life, which makes sense for a pirate. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr! my goth name, even my stripper name (sorry is that not keeping things clean?) Amusing for a slow afternoon. The calendar generators and other assorted methods of personalizing mugs, magazine covers and the like are a really neat idea for gifts, jokes, etc... The sky is the limit if you have a good imagination and some coding ability!
I've played with name generators - my pirate name
My pirate name is:
Red Charity Kidd
Passion is a big part of your life, which makes sense for a pirate. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
I have a daemon!
The movie the Golden Compass is due out in December and a friend of mine just sent me a link to a daemon matching "tool" on the movie's web site. Did I get assigned the right daemon? 12 days to go before it settles into its final form...
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
MERLIN...sortof
Well, I started to explore MERLIN, but now I'm waiting for my user account to be approved so I can't go as deeply as I will later.
I did go to Meez and create an avatar - good, mostly clean, fun...
I'm excited to subscribe to the MERLIN feed - any tools that help me stay abreast of technology make me happy.
My other mission with RSS feeds is to enable (and understand) how the technology works with our new "Reader's Corner" newsletters and Dear Reader content. I'll keep you updated on that!
A recurring theme in my posts has been a low pitched whine about time and how long these technologies can take to thoroughly explore. While searching Google for MERLIN, I came across a blog from a BCPL librarian named Ellen. She refers readers of her blog to a post on David Lee King's blog, http://www.davidleeking.com/2006/09/19/making-time-for-web-20/ entitled "Making Time for Web 2.0." It reminds us that the reason we're doing 23 things and getting hip to web 2.0 is that this is where our patrons are (and have been for some time) so it's critical that we keep up if we want to be relevant. Admonishment taken - I'll try to be more upbeat. :)
I did go to Meez and create an avatar - good, mostly clean, fun...
I'm excited to subscribe to the MERLIN feed - any tools that help me stay abreast of technology make me happy.
My other mission with RSS feeds is to enable (and understand) how the technology works with our new "Reader's Corner" newsletters and Dear Reader content. I'll keep you updated on that!
A recurring theme in my posts has been a low pitched whine about time and how long these technologies can take to thoroughly explore. While searching Google for MERLIN, I came across a blog from a BCPL librarian named Ellen. She refers readers of her blog to a post on David Lee King's blog, http://www.davidleeking.com/2006/09/19/making-time-for-web-20/ entitled "Making Time for Web 2.0." It reminds us that the reason we're doing 23 things and getting hip to web 2.0 is that this is where our patrons are (and have been for some time) so it's critical that we keep up if we want to be relevant. Admonishment taken - I'll try to be more upbeat. :)
Sunday, July 8, 2007
RSSing our way to Lifelone Learning
Apparently I had set up a Bloglines account for a computer class that I was going to teach, so this exercise was already half finished. RSS feeds are a terrific service, but one still has to make time to read all the goodies that are collected. The list of things I am interested in and should be reading and keeping up with is far longer than the amount of time I will realistically devote to reading through the articles that Bloglines pulls for me but it sure makes headline skimming easy... Visit my blogline at http://www.bloglines.com/public/cplymire
One question that I have regarding Bloglines, why would I want to use their Bloging option?
One question that I have regarding Bloglines, why would I want to use their Bloging option?
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Technology Smeknology
So for thing #7, I have to say that I am a bit confounded by technology today. I am trying to turn a Word document into a .jpg for use with our new Dear Reader Reader's Corner pages. Who would have thunk it would be so many steps... Dear Reader displays print newsletters as jpgs when it emails them to patrons...and converting from Word to jpg creates files that are way too big, hence the attempt to go from Word to pdf to jpg.
I've downloaded a freeware pdf converter called Software995 -- it's a good, free tool that I have used before. So Word to pdf is accomplished with a minimum of fuss. (However, there was a short detour as I tried to use the Google documents tool which will only upload documents as html -- completely destroying all Word formatting. Oh well. it would have been a nice CPU space saving alternative to Software995!) Now I am stuck with how to get my image into a jpg.
For a relatively low price I can download a universal document converter which will turn my pdf into a jpg... but it's the age of freeware, so perhaps there is a cheaper/better alternative? What do you know? Software995 has a freeware option that works with Pdf995 called Omniformat. For the trouble of a pop-up ad every time I use the software (this wouldn't happen if I upgraded to the fee based version of their software, but acknowledging that I am using a sponsored version of their software is a small price to pay!) Omniformat creates a folder on my hard drive and once I tell it to start scanning, it will convert any file that I save to that folder into a jpg (or any other format that I specify). Pretty neat. The graphic quality still leaves a bit to be desired, but perhaps that is a struggle for another day.
It seems there is some lesson here about technology--at what point does technology cease to make life simpler and start to make a task more complicated? Days like today make me feel like I have crossed that line into the more complicated...
I've downloaded a freeware pdf converter called Software995 -- it's a good, free tool that I have used before. So Word to pdf is accomplished with a minimum of fuss. (However, there was a short detour as I tried to use the Google documents tool which will only upload documents as html -- completely destroying all Word formatting. Oh well. it would have been a nice CPU space saving alternative to Software995!) Now I am stuck with how to get my image into a jpg.
For a relatively low price I can download a universal document converter which will turn my pdf into a jpg... but it's the age of freeware, so perhaps there is a cheaper/better alternative? What do you know? Software995 has a freeware option that works with Pdf995 called Omniformat. For the trouble of a pop-up ad every time I use the software (this wouldn't happen if I upgraded to the fee based version of their software, but acknowledging that I am using a sponsored version of their software is a small price to pay!) Omniformat creates a folder on my hard drive and once I tell it to start scanning, it will convert any file that I save to that folder into a jpg (or any other format that I specify). Pretty neat. The graphic quality still leaves a bit to be desired, but perhaps that is a struggle for another day.
It seems there is some lesson here about technology--at what point does technology cease to make life simpler and start to make a task more complicated? Days like today make me feel like I have crossed that line into the more complicated...
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Thing #6 is for the birds...and people with disposable time...
...Not the whole of thing #6, just the trading card maker. I've tried really, really hard to make a librarian trading card on the mash up - big huge labs (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/deck.php) , but to no avail. Actually, once I did end up with a card, but I'd used the wrong image, so that was a bust too. I enter the location of my image, my text and hit create and Nada... over and over and over again... Isn't this one of the definitions of insanity? Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results? I give - a moratorium is hereby declared on using software to do something that I don't really need in a medium that I don't really care about.
The site that Jennifer pointed us to in her Week #3 email http://flickrvision.com is a really cool example of a mash up, and like the rest of flickr - neat if you have unlimited time and love photographs and have a secretly voyeuristic tendency to want to know what other people are doing and seeing.
The site that Jennifer pointed us to in her Week #3 email http://flickrvision.com is a really cool example of a mash up, and like the rest of flickr - neat if you have unlimited time and love photographs and have a secretly voyeuristic tendency to want to know what other people are doing and seeing.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Week 3: Flickr phun
Time is flowing oddly these days, but sometime in the last couple weeks we had a baby shower here at the library for one of our children's librarians. This fabulous diaper cake was one of our centerpieces. Exactly the kind of image that should be shared with the world, no?Regarding Flickr - I realize that everything is owned by someone, and usually one of the big kids, but come on, how many email and user accounts do I have to subscribe to before I am a social, savvy being?
Flickr is an interesting medium for sharing. Like many other sites and activities it is easy to get sucked into --I just spent 10 minutes watching stpiduko's "People I Asked" http://www.flickr.com/photos/eamon/sets/72157594526998899/ it's an amazing collection of photographs of people far and wide, strange and not so strange. But really, was it worth 20 minutes (yeah, I got sucked in again) of my life? Sure --this woman's tattoo is amazing! I'm really more voyeur than social networker - I have no desire to tell stpiduko how fabulous he is (surely he's heard that by now) so I'm not really being social am I? To loosely refer to John Bender - where do the lines fall between demented, sad and social?
P.S. My attempts to post Flickr images with the URL option were wholly unsuccessful... so much for technically savvy.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Nifty Widgets
I was searching the web for a better template for my blog, and found a Soduku widget instead. amazing what folks have put time into...
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Week 1: 7 1/2 Habits
#1 Begin with an end in mind
I tend to learn for the sake of – without a goal firmly in mind. I also tend to change directions often enough that where I end up is not where I thought I might be when I started. This is generally not a problem in terms of learning, but it does make me feel a bit scattered from time to time. (yeah, I've studied greek, latin, and french and not learned any of them with any degree of mastery...) So we're going to say that this "habit" might be a challenge for me.
Hence the saving grace of making the goal very general - I will endeavor to learn all of the web 2.0 tools that I don't currently have in my toolbox. There! That's an achievable end goal...
I think I do pretty well with the other habits of lifelong learners: I like to play, I view problems as challenges (after a modicum of whining and complaining), I enjoy expanding my learning toolbox and sharing the tools with others. As per my confessions about seldom acheiving complete mastery from #1, I will say that I could be a little less hard on myself (habit #4 - confidence in self as a competent effective learner) but perfectionism is a cross I must bear.
What is it about blogs that makes so many of us share inordinate quantities and levels of information with the world???
I tend to learn for the sake of – without a goal firmly in mind. I also tend to change directions often enough that where I end up is not where I thought I might be when I started. This is generally not a problem in terms of learning, but it does make me feel a bit scattered from time to time. (yeah, I've studied greek, latin, and french and not learned any of them with any degree of mastery...) So we're going to say that this "habit" might be a challenge for me.
Hence the saving grace of making the goal very general - I will endeavor to learn all of the web 2.0 tools that I don't currently have in my toolbox. There! That's an achievable end goal...
I think I do pretty well with the other habits of lifelong learners: I like to play, I view problems as challenges (after a modicum of whining and complaining), I enjoy expanding my learning toolbox and sharing the tools with others. As per my confessions about seldom acheiving complete mastery from #1, I will say that I could be a little less hard on myself (habit #4 - confidence in self as a competent effective learner) but perfectionism is a cross I must bear.
What is it about blogs that makes so many of us share inordinate quantities and levels of information with the world???
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