Learning 2.0

I think Learning 2.0 was a great idea! I wish the different activities would have been posted all at once so we could have worked on them at our own pace. There were some weeks when I didn't have time to work on any of the tasks, but there were other weeks when I could have gotten two or three tasks done, but was waiting on the new posting. I still think it was a great opportunity to familiarize myself with all the online tools available to people.

Overdrive

A couple of months ago, I decided to try downloading an audiobook from Overdrive, so I would be familiar with this service we have available to our customers. I downloaded one of the Harry Potter books just to try it out. I probably won't personally use Overdrive, because I am not a big fan of audiobooks, but is nice for people that use those types of materials.

Award Winners

Woops, somehow I missed this one. I took a quick look at some of the different web sites. The one that fascinates me the most is Twitter, though. I am always hearing about how people keep in contact by tweeting. I don't think I would ever use this tool, but it does look like fun. I also think craigslist is a great online classified tool. My husband and I even thought about posting something for sale on their website.

Podcasts

I subscribed to a podcast that reviews upcoming anime and manga. Can you see that I am going with a theme here? I probably would never use podcasts in my personal life, but I did find the concept interesting. I don't personally use ITunes because I have had too many problems with Apple's software for their IPods. Once again, it could be a good communication tool for businesses, but I probably wouldn't use it.

YouTube

I love Youtube. This is one website I use all the time. You can even download most of these videos onto your computer using RealPlayer. Unfortunately, while there is a lot of great stuff on YouTube, there is going to be videos posted that many would find inappropriate or offensive. But I still think this is a great communication tool for businesses and individuals alike. I chose the video that I did because one of my favorite animes of all time is Full Metal Panic and I think this is a great combination of clips from the show featuring one of my favorite songs by Skillet.

Favorite Anime AMV

Online Productivity Applications

Wow, I think these online tools are great for people that maybe don't have access to word processing software. I had no idea these were available for free. True, you can't do as much with a lot of these programs as you can with the software you purchase, but I still think it is great that these are available for free online. I played with google docs and found it very easy to use, which I think is also great for people who have difficulty understanding much of the complicated word processing software out there.

Wikis

While I find the idea of wikis to be interesting, I don't see a lot of use for them in my personal life. I feel like there are a lot of negatives to allowing anyone to edit the information on a certain website. For example, I used to rely on Wikipedia to answer reference questions, but when I found out that the information is not entirely accurate because of the changes that can be made, I stopped using it. While wikis would be useful in a library environment for book reviewing, in other areas it would not be useful at all because of the possibility of inaccuracies.

Perspectives on Library 2.0

I read the first two articles about Library 2.0, and I absolutely agree with what the authors are saying in these articles. It is true that many of the technologies we use on a daily basis are changing every day, and as library workers we need to not only be aware of this but also be open to changes in the way we run our libraries. If libraries are to stay relevant in today's world we have to change and meet our customer's needs. I say this, but I am usually quick to balk at changes in the workplace. I get very comfortable with the status quo, as I believe we all can. That is part of the reason I am trying to keep myself motivated to complete this Learning 2.0 project.

Technorati

I surfed around on Technorati for a while, and I think it does a good job organizing all the different blogs on the Internet. I noticed when I did a keyword search for "Learning 2.0" in blog posts I got a huge array of information that didn't necessarily have anything to do with my search. When I searched for the same subject in tags, I still got a lot of information that didn't fit with my search, but it seemed to limit how many hits I got. I am guessing this is because rather than the words "Learning 2.0" being mentioned anywhere on a blog post, the tags are specifically chosen by the blog author to make searching for a specific topic easier. I couldn't figure out how to search using the Blog Directory though.

Delicious

Here are the answers to the "delicious" questions: 1. 2 2. http://www.spokanelibrary.org/; http://www.spl.org/ 3. 3 4. oanh.tran1964 5. September 19, 2008 6. huh??????????? 7. 0

Rollyo

I had a great experience playing around with searchrolls and creating my own. I think this is a great tool because you can search for information on a certain subject while filtering out all the unreliable websites and garbage you get when using a general search engine. Here is the link to my searchroll: http://rollyo.com/rusalkamoon/animemanga/

LibraryThing

So life has been crazy and I have gotten behind on my Learning 2.0 assignments. But, life willing, I am going to get caught up. I started a LibraryThing account and added some of my favorite manga titles. Once again, I am not sure if I will ever use this particular online tool after this, but it is nice to know it is out there. Here is the link to my LibraryThing account: http://www.librarything.com/home/Rusalkamoon

My Slideshow

Create A Slideshow!

Bloglines

I enjoyed finding different newsfeeds that interested me on bloglines. I used some of their suggestions (I especially love "cute overload") and I searched for some of my own. I was also able to add some of my co-workers blogs. Here is the link to my bloglines account: http://www.bloglines.com/public/Animelover

Technology and Me

I thought I was doing good when I could figure out how to connect a customer to wireless Internet on their laptop. Learning about all these available resources is definitely a humbling experience. I don't know if I will continue to use most of these tools in the future, but it is nice to know they are available. I don't personally use the Internet much except for e-mail and streaming video, but that may be due to the fact that I live where the only affordable internet access is dial-up. I think this may also be why we don't get a lot of questions at our library about these particular resources.

Flickr Mashups and Tools

I had a lot of fun playing with all the different third party tools available for Flickr. I still don't think I quite understand the concept behind mashups, but maybe it's just the incredibly technological terminology used to describe it (I keep thinking about mashed potatoes). Flickr Color Pickr intrigued me the most. I'm still not sure why someone would need to find pictures in a particular color (possibly for display purposes?), but I had fun playing around with this tool anyway. I think the idea of creating a library trading card sounds incredibly outrageous (in a good way) too.

Travel Dreams

japan, originally uploaded by Darrell Neo.

Someday, I would love to visit Japan. The culture and people are so unique to any other place in the world. I would also love to have additional kendo training at a traditional dojo. I think that would be an amazing and humbling experience. For now, I will just have to content myself with gorgeous pictures like this one.

Lifelong Learner Habits

Of the different habits, I would have to say the most difficult for me would be Habit #3: View problems as challenges. I rarely view problems as anything more than a problem that needs fixing. Very often I feel like taking out my kendo sword and beating the problem into submission, but of course that is not what a lifelong learner would do. :) I have to continually remind myself that those very "problems" can sometimes lead to opportunities that can allow for personal and professional growth in the future. The easiest habit for me would be Habit #1: Begin with the end in mind. I am an extremely goal-oriented person. I usually have a list of short-term and long-term goals for my personal and professional development. Most of the time, I consider this attribute positive, but I have learned that it can sometimes be detrimental if I forget to set "realistic" goals.