Thing #23... The End... or is it??

All done!! or am I? I think in reality, this is only the beginning. This whole program has given me the boost I needed to do more exploration.

What I liked best? Flickr, hands down. Close second are Bloglines and del.icio.us. I use all three daily, but flickr has help the most because me and my friends are always sharing pictures. What I disliked (even though no one asked) was eBooks. I am sure they are great, but it's just not for me.

How it's assisted with lifelong learning? Well, helped me get started and showed me how easy some of this stuff actually is. Most of the exercises were much simpler that I had imagined.

What would help? Maybe offering tutorials on each specific exercise. For example, if the exercise of the week is flickr, have a open lab that addresses that specifically.

Oh yeah, I would interested in a future discovery course.

Thing #22.... eBooks

I have to say, that of all the Things we have done, this is my least favorite. I wasn't too crazy about netLibrary and while I managed to find a book of interest on Overdrive, reading it on the computer got tiring very quickly. My eyes were killing me after about 30 minutes. Now, I could print it, but printing out a book is probably more expensive then buyting, so why bother? And quite honestly, if reading it on the competer was hard, I can only imagine the fun trying to read it on a smaller screen would be. Plus, I just can't see curling up with a good Palm device on the couch to enjoy a good book. Technology is wonderful, but in this instance, I have to go with the old fashioned method.

Thing #21... Podcasts

OK, I really liked this lesson. I have never really done much with podcasts unless it was something sent to me by a friend. Seems like it could be useful in doing research, but I think it would require more equipment than the library has available to it's customers at the moment. Overall, an interesting lesson, I found a great podcast that I will hopefully listen to often.

Thing #20, part 2... More YouTube

Getting the video to post to my blog was simple thanks to YouTube, all you have to do is give them your account information. No HTML editing necessary. I have used youtube before, mainly when friends send me links, I have not really searched it. It is fairly easy, the only thing I didn't care for were the really long videos (short attention span here).

Thing #20.... YouTube

I did a search for library and this was one of the videos that came up. Thought it was interesting because it shows a different side of what goes on in a library. Granted, it is not an everyday occurance, but libraries are not always the quiet, tranquil places that every thinks. Everyday, the real world comes into our libraries and it is not always the good stuff. I actually left a comment about this video on Youtube, so feel free to read it if you like. Be warned, there is a lot of foul language in the video and in the comments.

Thing #19.... LibraryThing

I really enjoyed this task. I found some good groups and it seems like a really convienent way to find material I would be interested in. No more roaming around B&N or scrolling through Amazon to find stuff, I can just search here and find out what other people who have similar tastes are reading. I added some books, but there are still lots more to come, I may even splurge and buy the lifetime membership just so I can all the stuff I want. Here is the link to my catalog, but I also added it to my link section. Happy Reading!!

http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=sjmatt

Thing #18... Zoho

As you can see below, not only did I get to use Zoho, but I also managed to publish it straight to my blog!! (applause applause!) Actually, this is a pretty cool tool, and as I don't have Word, Excel or Outlook on my home laptop anymore (virus, no more fileswapping for me!) this will be a very useful tool to have around. I am going to check out the other similar ones, such as the Google one, so see how they compare.

Zoho

Ok, so what can I write about??  Well, so far, this whole Learning 2.0 has been a lot of fun and very useful.  Love the Flickr and Bloglines and am slowly the other tools as time allows and as I need them.  As far as Zoho goes, seems to work just as well as MS Word.  I was able to not only create a document, but was also able to edit a document previously created in Word.  This will be pretty useful, since my laptop at home doesn't have Word or Excel on it anymore (long story, let's just say Trojan horse virus and leave it at that).  Hopefully this will post straight to my blog from Zoho. 

Thing #17.... Learning 2.0 Sandbox Wiki

Ok, this was a lot of fun and relatively easy. I added favorites to books, vacation spots and tv shows. Also added my blog to the favorite blogs area. This might be a good way to share information among staff, esp on the branch level.

Thing #16... Wiki

I admit, I had never used Wikipedia. I tried it a little today, but mostly followed the other links provided. Seems that there are a lot of pros and cons to using a wiki, you just need to be sure a wiki will work for your needs. It's nice that you can control the content, but on the flip side, it does kind of defeat the purpose of a wiki. Spam and vandalism are just some of the problems you can encounter in a wiki, unintentional misinformation is another. But overall, it can be a really good tool for people to share information. I think the only thing about a wiki that would worry me would be accuracy of the information you get, esp if it is open to anyone. Anyways, on to the next thing...

Thing #15... Web 2.0

First, let me tell you, Friday afternoon is not the time to try and read a screen full of text. I actually read 3.5 of the 5 links, but started getting too drowsy. Not because of the content, but because the week is almost done and my mind did not want to let my eyes read anymore. Of the ones I did read, I liked the first one the best. I could relate to what he said, esp the part about the "Just in case" collections. To me, the reference collections are a 'Just in case" collection. Much of what is there can be found online, yet we continue to keep them on our shelves. This is especially frustrating in branches were space is a premium (yes, even in the new branches, space still matters).

So what do Web 2.0 and Learning 2.0 mean to me? So far, it has been an opportunity to learn some technology that I had previously been afraid to use and it has also created yet more for me to read in the form of blogs (I have become addicted to a few blogs). Bloglines has become a second library for me to read in additon to the books I find and the stuff TiVo has waiting for me.