Reflections on Learning 2.0

For me, this has been an interesting, challenging, eye-opening, and sometimes frustrating experience. I really want to understand and improve my facility with these new technologies but it doesn't come easily or intuitively for me. Going through the motions on some of the programs has given me a little more confidence that I can do it, and it has been a stretching experience.

I think my favorite parts were learning how to set up a blog, and I hope to develop that as a tool for communicating my thoughts about books I am reading. I also was happy to discover delicio.us because that will be a useful tool for me in my work. I was surprised to see how the computer/internet is becoming such an amazing place for sharing ideas and work and how customized it can be for your own particular purposes (e.g., wikis, bloglines, etc.).

My biggest problem is time - time to practice, time to become more familiar with different sites, and simply time to "use" the tools that are available. In the long run, they may save time but until they become part of my routine, it is just one more thing to think about.

In going through this learning process, I found that it was very difficult for me to do it at work. Maybe I was too distracted, but in the few "off-desk" hours I have, it always seemed that there was something more urget that needed to be done. Therefore, I ended up doing a lot of the exercises on my own time at home. I didn't mind doing that, but perhaps in the future it would be helpful to have a scheduled "class time" once or twice during the learning period, so that if people want to, they could attend a lab at a library in their region (maybe for an hour before opening or something like that) just to get a little help as needed or catch up. That would have helped me with some of the obstacles that slowed me down. My local "mentors" were very helpful and willing to do what they could, but I wasn't always available when they were and vice versa.

All in all it has been a good experience and I hope I won't forget what I have learned but will keep on and use some of these new technologies. I think this was a great idea and I would be willing to learn more in the future.

South Park

South Park
Originally uploaded by cajkaren.

This is my feeble attempt with this South Park "game." I needed a lot of help to crop, copy and post it to my blog. Thanks Toni!

Podcasts

I see podcasts as an alternative to video, especially if you don't want your face shown online. In my previous post I suggested the idea of booktalks or teen book "commercials" and perhaps podcasts would be a way to present these anonymously. A story could be read as a podcast also, and children could listen to a story online.

YouTube

It can be addictive looking at the different videos available. Again, I can't believe what people manage to come up with and how they find time for it, but then we all have our own "hobbies" I guess. With the increased quality of video and ability to put it online quite easily, I can see this as being the new way for families to exchange photos with one another.

In terms of library use, I can see this as being a way to link video "announcements" to our library website. Perhaps we could have brief previews of upcoming concert performers, and like the Dewey & Sketch shows, we could have a weekly link on our Kid's Page with a live reading or telling of a story. Kids could just click on the link to hear a new story every week. I can see having teens making video "commercials" for good books they read (if we can get around the Internet safety/liability issue). There could be video clips of librarians doing booktalks or children's librarians demonstrating how to incorporate early literacy skills into story times. Maybe not all of these ideas are desirable, but it seems that there could be many ways of using this technology.

Web 2.0 Awards

It was fun looking at some of the award sites. I especially enjoyed "Guess the Google Image" and "True Stories Told in One Sentence." However, I don't usually have time to play around on the computer so I don't think I would visit very often. I am amazed at what people come up with though. Do they have another life besides computer stuff or do they not have to do household work like cleaning, shopping, laundry, cooking, etc.?

Google Labs

I looked at quite of few of the "lab sites" but I am not sure they would be that useful to me right now. I could see adding the Google Reader to my Google Home Page and it would probably do the same type of thing that Bloglines does with the RSS feeds (if I understand it correctly). The other things were not that interesting to me.

Online Word Processing

I didn't realize that this software was available online. For those who don't have Word or access to it in a particular place this could be very helpful. I can also see how it could be useful for collaborative work in a group project, as well as another way to back up files that could be lost if something goes wrong with your computer.

Library 2.0

Wow! I find it mind-boggling to try to think about all the changes that technology has brought to ideas about libraries and librarians both in the present and in the future. As a children's librarian, much of my time is spent dealing with people and the materials that I use to work with people. I simply do not have the time (nor, I confess, the inclination) to get caught up in the exciting world of technology advances. Yet I can see that all of this is important and someone needs to be doing this stuff. It seems to me that we need all kinds of people - the techies and the innovators who can keep us on the cutting edge as well as those of us who still specialize in the face-to-face human interactions. We can and must keep learning from each other.

Creating a Search Engine

I thought the Google customized search engine was much easier to use and navigate. I'm not sure yet whether creating such a search engine is more useful to me than just saving these sites as favorites (whether on my desktop or to my del.icio.us account). I guess it narrows down a general search so you don't get as much junk. The search engine I created for Story Time is below:

http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=016084542355539132816%3Adjfcesy6fbk

Wikis

I enjoyed looking at some of the different wikis as part of this exercise. I can see how this could be useful in libraries. Specifically, I liked the Library Success one because it created an opportunity for librarians to share resources and ideas about programs that were successful. I suppose we could contribute to this one as children's librarians or perhaps create our own wiki at KCLS to share story time ideas. I also like the Princeton Public Library Book Lovers' Wiki and think it would be great to have something like this in our own system, along with summer reading club for adults!

Thoughts on Del.icio.us

In library school I took a very interesting course on classification called "The Organization and Representation of Knowledge and Information," and I was reminded of that when I learned about "tagging" and Del.icio.us. If we are ever going to retrieve information that is important to us (and at my age it doesn't stay in my memory!), we need some way to classify and organize it. I can see how this tool/site might be a good way to save bookmarks, especially in the library where we find a good web site that is helpful for answering a reference question and want to save it for future use. This tool could make those sites accessible even though you are not at the same computer where you originally "saved" it as a favorite.

As far as making shared lists for collaboration on research projects, I don't see myself using this in the near future, but I can see it as something to suggest to people who are doing group projects. I liked the idea of the cookbook, and I can also see this as a useful thing for children's librarians who could build a shared list of good sites that have ideas and patterns that would help in planning story times.

Thoughts on Social Networking

I have to admit that this is all rather new and confusing to me. Just keeping up with "correspondence" on email is more than I can handle usually. Having read some of the arguments for and against having libraries involved with sites such as MySpace, I can see both sides. On the one hand, it seems like a good idea to have a presence where the patrons are "hanging out" so that libraries can communicate news and information to patrons who would use those sites. On the other hand, being a more conservative type, I would want to consider some of the possible implications of getting involved in sites in which there would be links or posts that are disturbing or inappropriate. But then, maybe I'm not really understanding how all this works. I'm in the "old dog" generation which is open to but not necessarily excited about learning all the new "tricks."

Still not easy

I tried searching for sites with "feeds" in several ways, but didn't always find the icons. I think it would be best to be looking at favorite websites and then see if the RSS symbol is there instead of trying to go backward. However, if one is just trying to find other blogs or sites in a particular interest area it might be worth using the search tools.

This was a struggle

I finally managed to set us some feeds on my Bloglines account, but it took a long time. First, I couldn't get a validation email after trying several times. Then, when I finally got that (after changing my email), I couldn't remember how to subscribe to the feeds. Finally, I did that but was so frazzled that I couldn't really have fun with using the feeds. I'm still not sure how this will work to help me, but I guess I just need some time to play with it.

KCLS27things #6

I enjoyed playing around with Flickr and exploring some of the creative things people are doing. I especially enjoyed the slideshow ideas on Smilebox and thought it would be really neat to do something like that after my high school reunion in Japan next year. Many classmates will not be able to do this trip, but those of us who go could put together a nice slideshow.

Chooseabook

Chooseabook
Originally uploaded by cajkaren.

Here's a photo of the cross stitch I did that inspired the title of my blog. I intend this blog to be a record of some good reads in order to help others choose good books.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

I look forward to learning about blogging so that I can share my thoughts on the books I have been reading.