Sunday, September 28, 2008

Reflections

From 12th August until today. Wow - what an amazing learning programme you ladies on the team have created for us.

I was so apprehensive about the whole programme, it took me until August to even have a go at the first exercise. Now I can't wait to get home and get onto my favourite sites so I can expand on what I did in the exercises.

I loved RSS Feeds and newsreaders, Sandbox Wiki, Rollyo, Zoho writer, Youtube and Podcasts. I will definately use these sites in the future for all sorts of things. The other sites I may return to at some future time, but it is great just knowing that they are out there to use.

When I see some of the things we learned in the exercises on my home computer I now have more courage to try them - without thinking that the computer will blow up!!!!

A huge "THANKYOU" for keeping on our backs and making us feel like losers if we didn't complete the programme in time - NAH!! not really - it was our choice too - and your encouragement - which make us "ACHIEVERS"

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Social networking

List of Libraries using MySpace - great place for library teens to check out library things but date of modification was 2006. 'Recent changes' was the only updated section on the navigation box. Nothing in 'Current events'. - I didn't like this site.

Libraries get social - a positive site. Many suggestions on how to get teens actively involved in their library. - One suggestion is a site where the teens can actively plan the site and update it as they wish within the online safety guidelines.

They can also set up a 'Library friends' page or a 'My Space' account.

A great sociable site for a teenager who is not able to physically meet other teenagers at a library, for whatever reason, but is able to connect through their computer.

I only wish this sort of socialising was around when I was a teenager!!!

My Space, Bebo and Facebook

My Space - a very social site for sharing an interest with the rest of the world - I looked at Matching music interests - Blues and Jazz. I didn't like the page set up very much.

Bebo - In my opinion I thought Bebo was for the more serious people wanting to share with friends. The site has more friendly things to see and work with. A better page set up and easier to work in than My Space.

Facebook - A site for real friends to get together. Thankyou Web 2 people for making sense of the whole exercise by being there as a friend when you signed in. I couldn't download a picture into my profile, but can work on that later.

The whole exercise took so much time as you had to join up to everything, then go back to your Blog mail and confirm your joining. Normally one at a time is OK, but when there are 3 sites, it was frustrating.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

ebooks

When I looked at the Google Book Search it went straight to various categories which you could highlight and find books of interest to you.

Then when I inserted the words 'Works by Shakespeare' in the top toolbar, the first 10 of 427555 items on 'Works byShakespeare' appeared. I didn't bother scrolling down to the last title. I reckon you would need to know the exact ebook you wanted as the site is so large.

The list didn't seem to be in any order but you could look at 3 different views. Each viewing box itemized the titles in a different format. The same extra tabs were on each viewing.

To me it was all a very uninteresting subject - too big, but a wonderful site for resourcing ebooks.

Podcasts

What a time waster - great for newbies like me who thought you needed an iPod to be able to listen to things on the computer. I knew it could be done, and now I know how- many thanks!!!!!

Podcastalley - PodQuiz - weekly trivia quiz - is a fantastic site for those of you who are interested in listening to 20 questions, then at the end the correct answers are given.

Amazingly the broadcaster even got one wrong and so had to apologize at the beginning of the next session and give the correct answer.

Very easy to use and thanks to NSL Learning 2.0 teams instructions, so easy to copy the link into your Bloglines account.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

YouTube

A fantastic site to visit.

One of the things I really enjoy in YouTube is where you are able to watch short videos about a subject you are interested in.

e.g. DIY Musical instruments. There are 40 videos to watch on this subject alone.
From banjos made from biscuit tins to flutes made from different vegetables.

I think a library video that included some fun things would appeal to children along with the info on books on the subject matter and where they were available in their library system.

Web 2.0 Awards list

I visited the TeamSnap site.

It is a great site for managing sports teams. I liked every aspect of the site, it is so easy to shift between pages and update the information as you need to.

There is no installation required, so as long as everyone in the 'team' checks the schedule before events happen there should be no reason for anyone not to know exactly what is happening.

One of the categories could be useful for staff in libraries - e.g. Co-ordinate bringing drinks and refreshments for........