I DID IT!! I DID IT!!

When I started these exercises, I said that I had always thought of learning in the "classroom" sense. This sure got me out of the classroom and into reality. It has turned out to be a fun and exciting way for me to learn. I found that I loved some of these exercises and learned a lot from "doing."


Some of my favorites were : Flickr, Bloglines, Wikis, YouTube (I had such a good time embedding that video on my blog!!), and Technorati. When I did my assignment for Technorati, I didn't realize just how much you could do on it. Later, one of our student employees mentioned Cowboy Curtis from PeeWee's Playhouse. He said that the guy who played Cowboy Curtis was a famous movie star now. Well, I could remember PeeWee and Chairy, but Cowboy Curtis escaped me. So, I looked him up on Technorati and, by golly, Cowboy Curtis was played by Laurence Fishburne!! I even saw a few clips of PeeWee's Playhouse with him singing, etc. It was a hoot! That's when I realized that we are just touching the tip of the iceberg in these exercises. It is up to us to explore the various tools to get maximum potential from them.

One problem with this 23Things project is that you can easily become addicted to some of the tools. I am getting fairly proficient at loading my photos on to Flickr and manipulating them. In free moments, I am looking at all the library videos I can on YouTube. Last, but certainly not least, I have found that I enjoying blogging!

Several times during the course of this exercise, I felt pressured. I guess it is because there is so much going on in our branch this summer. We are busy! We could have had a little longer to complete these exercises, too. But, I enjoyed the format and the challenge, every step of the way.

If you offered another discovery program like this in the future, would I participate? As they say in Fargo: YOU BETCHA!!

Audiobooks and Digital Collection

I watched the Overdrive videos on how to sign up for and download audiobooks. It took me over a half and hour to do it. I realized, then, that you could actually watch these videos in "installments" instead. I listened to Part 1 of Fahrenheir 451. It was just like listening to a book on CD, complete with atmospheric music. I wish I had an MP-3 player to take full advantage of this digital media library. One can download certain titles and burn them to a CD. I think that, MP-3-less as I am, I will try this in the future. If I had a blank CD, I would try doing this. Unfortunately, not all of the titles give you permission to do this.

Our library system has a really nice collection of books on Overdrive and I hope that others are taking advantage of this collection.

Podcasting

I went to the Denver Public Library podcasts and listened to someone read Red Fox and the Baby Bunnies. It was a picture book. The problem with podcasting someone reading a picture book is that nobody can see the pictures and, excuse me, isn't that what picture books are all about? I know that lots of libraries have similar podcasts on their websites. A long time ago, Broward County had a telephone number that you could call and hear a story. I feel that is a gimmick and a child isn't going to get much out of a picture book story read to them over the phone. Anyway, it was interesting to see how many libraries are into podcasting. (We have some catching up to do!)

I subscribed to CBC Radio: Editor's Choice podcasts on Bloglines, mainly because it was very easy to do and I wanted to get subscribed to something so that I could get on to the next part of my 23things. It turns out that CBC is Canadian, for crying out loud, and I really don't care about Canadian news. I will ditch that subscription and get one to something else now that I know how easy it is to do. I do have to say that while I was listening to my CBC subscription podcasts, I heard one about a Lucy Maude Montgomery conference and she is one of my favorite authors. So, that was the upside to the downer of having subscribed to a Canadian podcast on Bloglines.

Fun on YouTube

I checked out "library" videos on YouTube and found one I thought the folks who work at our library should see.



See, you really can get some exercise at the library! All it takes is an enthusiastic leader!

I think YouTube is wild. There is so much to see and enjoy. I think that we can use YouTube on the library website just like we did for the summer reading program. It is a real eyecatching way to advertise programs.

Web 2.0 Award Winners

I had a great time with this assignment. I looked at almost everything on that chart. I checked out Google Docs. The video "Google Docs in Plain English" was helpful. There should be one of those for every tool in Web 2.0! Commmoncraft videos are the best. I think Google Docs is easier to use than Zoho Writer, but I didn't see that you could post what you write to a blog. In that way, Zoho Writer is better to use. I took the tour of Lulu which is basically for self-publishing and digital publishing. You can publish photo albums... like of your wedding or other special event. It would be handy for someone who does genealogical research to make "books" for members of a family. Lulu will also sell what you publish on their site and you can make 80% of the profits from what sells. They also have a blog site and a newsletter. Perhaps libraries celebrating a 50th anniversary could publish a book that could be sold to raise funds for the Friends organization.

I checked out all of the food related winners and enjoyed a video of how to make grilled clams and mussels. I am just so impressed with the videos I am seeing on these sites! You could spend all day watching videos.

On Biblio, I searched for an old Uncle Wiggly book that I had read as a child. There were lots of hits. If you are looking for an old book, this is the place to go. I can see why it is a winner.

Zoho Writer

I composed my last blog entry on Zoho Writer. I really prefer using Microsoft Word, but Zoho Writer works OK in a pinch. I like it that you can access it from any computer. My home computer came without Microsoft products on it, so Zoho Writer is an tool I can use. I checked out Google Docs, though, as part of the next exercise and found that it is a little more user friendly. I didn't see that you could upload your doc to your blog, though, and you can do that with Zoho Writer, which is what I did! I will play around with Zoho Writer some more. I have found that the more you use these Web 2.0 tools, the more you find you can do and the better you get doing it! It's like learning to play a musical instrument, I guess.

Using Zoho Writer

 

This was created on Zoho Writer.  I prefer Word but, in a pinch, could use this to create a document.