Monday, August 25, 2008

#17 Learning 2.0 SandBox wiki

Loved the opportunity to read and contribute to some of the wikis. I chose restaurants & movies of course! Two of my favourite past-times.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

#16 So what's in a wiki?

I can see how wikis would appeal hugely to frustrated authors and editors of the world. And it's great that you don't need to be a technological whizkid to be part of the wiki world. I can also see why schools wouldn't want children using wikis as sources of information as it would/could be unreliable and biased. So I'm a little perplexed as to the popularity of them as resources. ERL and others require the participants email addresses to guard against what one library service referred to as 'vandalism'. How is it policed though with regard to content? Does that become a time-consuming task for someone as the wiki grows in size?

One application I thought of for ERL is a 'seniors wiki page'. Given the amount of seniors and retired people now becoming au fait with the internet and computers, a wiki with links to senior activities, 'freebies', and other items of interests could be well used.

#15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

Library 2.0 is a challenge in a lot of ways, to try and create a harmonious transition from the traditional 'shhh...' of library spaces, to the world of infinite possibilities that technology is hurtling us toward (or at least it feels that way sometimes). As a librarian in my 50s, I cling to the idea of a library being a safe haven away from the hustle and bustle. A place where questions are answered, minds are stimulated, and children are introduced to the joy of reading.

That still happens of course but now the answers come in so many different formats. Listen to a podcast from the library homepage, access the library 24/7 from anywhere in the world via the internet. Use free on-line databases, listen to e-books, join in on-line discussions & on-line book-clubs. The rustle of pages turning is being replaced by the clicks of a mouse.

I know 20 years from now libraries are going to be very different places from what they are in 2008. And so they should be. Do we want libraries to stay stuck in a time warp? Remember card catalogues and date stamping books? Possibly a lot of what we are using now to access information will seem just as quaint and obsolete in 2028.

Monday, July 21, 2008

#14 Technorati

Not to sure how useful I have found this. I worked out how to 'claim' my blog though and now other bloggers can check out my blog from Technorati.

#13 Del.icio.us

Sadly I've learnt that I can't load up the software on my work computer so I will have to look furthur into this from home.

Monday, July 14, 2008

#12 rollyo

Well I struggled a bit with this one, mainly because the instructions on Learning 2.0 were slightly different to the reality, but I managed!

Monday, June 9, 2008

#10 Image generators

Had a lot of fun with this one. Easy to just keep clicking away and get lost in the graphics. Great way to share photos, jokes and be creative yourself.