Thing #23 - The End

Now that it is in the rearview mirror, I have got to say that Learning 2.0 was a positive experience. It was also an extremely frustrating experience for me because I am soooooo non techie and not the type who enjoys spending time exploring things on the computer. But now I know about blog's and wiki's and podcasts and rss feeds and uploading photos and making posters and trading cards and the ease of information access like never before. The program definitely shoved me out of my comfort zone and although I hate to admit it, that was a good thing. In this day and age, anyone can benefit by the exposure to the Web that Learning 2.0 entails.

Flickr and YouTube were definitely my two favorite things. I will access YouTube on a regular basis now to check out scenes from old movies that crack me up.

One observation is that I found I could not get much done on the library computers and did most of the program at home. The only thing I could suggest that could have been done differently is perhaps holding a periodic Q&A session or having a resource to email questions to when you get stuck. Having said that I realize that struggling through the times I was stuck probably helped me to a better understanding of the issue I was stuck on. Plus, I could have used my blog to ask for help or use comments on other people's blog to ask for help.

Anyway, I'm glad I'm done but the program exposed me to a whole bunch of things that I'm glad I learned.
Tim

Thing #22 - Audiobooks

Wow! In the near future we'll be doing everything through our personal computers. The Greater Phoenix Digital Library is pretty amazing. I will probably always be a reader of books rather than a listener to books but I had no idea that you could download books to listen to and sometimes even be allowed to burn a copy to a CD. What a great service to people who can't physically access a library or who want the efficiency of downloading titles. The digital media tutorial on the GPDL site was a terrific help when installing the Overdrive Media Console onto your home computer.

There is a vast selection of books to download but I must admit it took me awhile to find something of interest that was actually available. And...if Microsoft and Apple can ever come to an agreement that allows using your iPod to listen to the audiobooks I may actually listen to one sometime!

Thing #21 - Podcasts

My nephews make podcasts all the time and I always thought you had to be a techie genius to do that. You don't! I enjoyed this exercise and really liked NPR's podcasts selection of podcasts regarding election issues. Podcastalley was a good site especially to search for sports podcasts and I added a few to bloglines. Through bloglines all my rss feeds are in one place and I can easily check them out without searching around all the sites.

Thing #20 - YouTube

YouTube is too cool! Libraries could use YouTube for all kinds of things like promoting programs, events and exhibits. I loved searching YouTube for scenes from old movies. Like Stripes...

Thing #19 - Web 2.0 Tools

Web 2.0 awards is a great site. There are over 200 award sites listed in 41 different categories. The category I focused on was City Guides and Reviews and my favorite site was www.Yelp.com. I bookmarked this site and will definitely refer to it often. It allows you to select a city (approximately 100 cities across the country) and read reviews on topics ranging from restaurants to pet care to religious organizations to automotive service....you get the picture. It's a good site to check things out in Phoenix and also a great tool if you are travelling to another city. Anyway Web 2.0 awards is worth checking out, maybe someday libraries will be added to the awards categories.

Thing #18 - Web based apps

Google docs was easy to sign up for and easy to use. As technologically lame as I am, I was easily able to create a test document and upload an image titled "breakfast of champions".

Thing #17 - PBWiki

I edited the favorite movie page.

Thing #16 - What's in a wiki?

How I wish there were wiki's in ancient times, like when I was in school doing projects and papers collaboratively with other students. Evidently, they are quick to build and they definitely afford all users the ability to easily edit, change or rewrite the stuff you are collectively dealing with. The Booklovers Reading Club wiki linked to the Princeton Public Library was cool. Wiki's are a natural for book clubs, especially when members are homebound or not able to physically get together. The ALA 2006 New Orleans wiki was very informative. There is a link to fundamentals of editing which helped me understand that process and also a very good link to help you understand the 3 types of hyperlinks. Finally, the Library Success wiki is a great place for libraries to share success stories and collectively develop best practices in our industry.

Thing #15 - Library 2.0

Like it or not the new digital lifestyle is here....and it's not going away. Shared network spaces will continue to bring more people and collective intelligence together to drive education, research and entertainment. Library 2.0 seems a natural evolution to me as we continue the tansition from issuing printed material to helping customers find information wherever they are. Collaboration in this development on an open programmable web will help libraries, big and small to advance as rapidly as is going to be necessary to continue to be meaningful to our digital age customers. Having said this, I must add that my favorite aspect of a library is the physical nature of the library community where living human beings have a place to go for their own personal discovery and may do so at their own pace.

Thing #14 - Technorati

I found that Technorati is a good tool to use for blog searches. I got 2,295 results for "Learning 2.0" and paired it down to 191 results for "Library Learning 2.0". There seemed to be alot of technology blogs like Boing Boing (over my head), also tons of political blogs. I spent a bunch of time searching for sports commentary (endless blog content in this area). I guess when you are tracking 51.5 million blogs you can get to about anything you want to.

Thing #12 - My Space & Facebook

I must admit that I used my son's email address to create a MySpace page, using fake info of course. I guess I am wary of exposing myself to the public on the internet. All of my son's friends are on MySpace but none of mine.

I do think MySpace and Facebook could possibly be beneficial to the library especially connecting to younger people and advertising events to friends.

Thing #11 - Librarything

Another interesting site I had no idea was in existence. Here's a link to my library.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/tmoncher

Thing # 10 - Image generators

Interesting exercise, here's the poster I made.

Thing #9 - RSS news feed searches

Seems like I've been searching for something all my life and not really knowing what it is I've been trying to find. I've sometimes thought my search was about discovering my true purpose, or connecting to nature, or deepening my relationships with my fellow man, or finding the meaning of life, or discovering the holy grail, or whatever......but after doing "Thing #9" I finally realize that what I have been searching for all thse years is actually RSS news feeds!

Actually, it is so easy to connect up to a news feed source about practically anything you are interested in. I used the Blogline's search tool and Topix.net and both will get you hooked up to about any source you could imagine. I also just googled a bunch of sites that were interesting and they all had RSS buttons for news feeds. Pretty amazing.

Thing #8 - Bloglines

After fighting thru Flickr I was more prepared to deal with setting up a Bloglines account. It really was quite easy (maybe reading the tutorial and following directions actually helps?!?). It was also very easy to find news feeds to subscribe to. I am a sports fan so I was delighted to find that my favorite professional teams all had feeds available to subscribe to.

Thing #7 - Technology

Technology, technically, is a 10 letter word. Too me however, it seems more like a 4 letter word. I would love for the world to move slower. I would love for my brain to be bigger. I would love to have less information to process. I would love to return to the days when you could do business with a handshake and could talk to a real person on the telephone instead of an automated menu. I miss Andy Giriffith and Opie and Barney and Beaver and Wally and Eddie Haskell.

Oops....gotta go.....I need to answer my e-mails, text messages and cell phone messages before I set the DVR to record what I'll be missing on TV while I go hop on a machine to give me some exercise before I pick up dinner at the drive thru to save time so I can get home to answer my e-mails, text messages.......

Thing #6

I used the trading card maker thingamajig to make a trading card of my brother in law's dog.

Willie Mays Monument AT&T Park

Willie Mays Monument AT&T Park, originally uploaded by Joe Butler.

I chose this photo for Thing#5 because one of my co-workers, Russ is an amazing sports trivia expert and we both like the "Say Hey"kid.