What is that other University up to?

I was looking at Lisa's library learnings and her Youtube download on 2nd life. One of the items that came up below at the end of the show was from a Murdoch librarian. It was interesting to see how they were seeing it was useful, and how they were controlling the useage of 2nd life within the library setting.

I enjoyed our last meeting, can't wait to see the pic's.

Klickety

Web 2.0 Done

I have achieved 23 things with Learning 2.0, but somehow I feel it has just begun...

I have enjoyed most of it, better than doing real work on Dreamweaver ,which I am dreading getting back to now I have finished this! These are my responses to the learning 2.0 questions:

What have you personally learned from this program?

I guess I am a lot less daunted by the interaction with strangers that web 2.0 presents as a community. It is actually quite exciting getting comments from people about the work being done on our blogs. I have also learnt how easy so much of it is to get great looking results without too much work behind the scenes for us bloggers. There are so many places out there to find people with something in common that you can interact with.

What have you learned about yourself, others and the organisation in which you work?

It has been great to work with the other members of the focus group. RSBLG has been very helpful, when things looked a bit tough. It is a bit difficult as we are spread across three campuses, so working together as a group did not happen too often. But we would always have a chat about things if we did catch up, and I really enjoyed how mystified everyone around us was as we sprouted all these words which to them meant nothing!

What was the most important skill you have learned and why?

I think I would agree with JMCG on this one. Blogging is the most important, as it is the most useful, and so easy. Blogger is a great tool, and setting up is so easy. The interaction is almost instant as people from across the world comment on what you have written. It is quite personal and I am sure the most heavily used. The other items could be useful as a research tools, such as RSS feeds, or a bit of fun like Flikr, but the blogging is sure to have the biggest influence of 2.0 I think.

What action will you now take if any?

I am sure that I will continue using some of the tools that I have learnt to use. I am thinking of creating a personal blog or wiki of my upcoming wedding. I am having fun with my avatar I created on 2nd. life. Work wise, I guess I will be part of a focus group to see if there is any future direction we should be taking with ECU library and Learning 2.0.

Would students use these technologies as part of the library’s online environment?

If we created a catalogue where tags could be added, that would be useful. I am sure the librarians will make use of the RSS features to help students and academics. The RSS feeds are already available on our databases, it is just a matter of getting familiar with them.

Is there some specific technology that you would like to see the library adopt ?

I do like the idea of catalogue description tags, and being able to leave comments and ratings on library item records could be useful.

We can continue creating podcasts, which we could improve on and broaden.

Thanks for this opportunity, it has been a fun learning experience.

Klickety

Learning 2.0 Finale

The Web 2.0 awards showed so many sites, it was difficult to see which ones would be best for a library type of application.

I tended towards my favourite addiction: mapping. I checked out www.wayfaring.com , but the map just did not show up, but the tags did. I think it is great to be able to tag where you have been on a trip and write a little speel about each point. I started doing this on maps.google.com , this was more successful than wayfaring. It was good because once you have your google sign on there are so many applications that you can use, where as with wayfaring I needed yet another sign on. I found however that even after saving my work, it did not show up the next time I signed into it. Perhaps I needed to look for the link somewhere. There is another similar application that I have bookmarked on my home computer that I can't remember the title. (This is where Del.icio.us would have come in handy) it shows you the distances between tags. I have used it to measure my jogging distance around Yokine reserve and found I was not doing 5km as I was guessing I was. It is a bit like an online pedometer.

As far as library applications, I could not really find any use within a library other than perhaps a link on the library homepage to show where we are on the map of Perth.

I also checked out some Widgets, bookmarking and travel sites. I can see how Widgets could come in handy if you chose an appropriate item. I would think it just clutters up your screen a bit more though, not something I would go for.

Klickety.

Trying again with Youtube

I failed to be able to get my video from Yahoo video to my blog. So RS & NH had better luck in Youtube, which I have followed with some success! This one was just a bit of fun.

I found a good library podcast on Podcast alley "Library Geeks" which was easily added to my bloglines. I have already made a podcast for the library. I found it quite difficult as the SOE does not support ITunes, and I needed this listen to my blog. But there is some very helpful people out in the ECU community who gave a hand. Also trying to get my hands on a Mac was difficult at the beginning, and it would wipe whatever work I would do as I moved from campus to campus. So I found making a podcast for ECU quite challenging. There is so much more you could do, but it is hard to get the time, always something new to move onto!

Klickety

Yahoo Video comes to Klickety

This is my attempt at putting a Yahoo video on my blog. I chose this video because I like this concept of people creating there own chat shows, or mini soapies. The guy on here - Justin has a camera on his head 24/7. So you can always hear and see what he is up to. There are similar people going around the streets now with cameras attached, and you can view what they are seeing on Google Earth. It is a bit scary and I am sure lots of fodder for places like YouTube will come up.

As far as libraries go, I can see useage for embedding tours and tutorials on our website. Students could rate them with the star system, or comment to others if they are worth watching or not. When searching Yahoo video last night, I found a lot of video's I could not watch as they were embedded elsewhere, so that was frustrating. I guess the same could happen to others. It would be easy to waste a lot of time trying to find something usefull.

Social Tagging

Looks like this one is the librarian winner. It seems del.icio.us has many features that could be used by students for finding information on the web other than the traditional web searchers that the owners are in charge of. I like the idea of everyone putting in their own headings on an website. The problem is if the subject is a bit obscure, I tried putting in "Welsh Wedding", and there were nowhere near as many selections as I found on Google. I guess it is a matter of time.

Having your own bookmarks follow you around is nifty as well. Although my own bookmarks are very different from work to home, I can see how well it would suit students moving from one environment to another.

I am beginning to enjoy the interactivity of it all. Been seeing comments on our blogs, not just by us! It is a bit of a buzz to think someone else thinks it is worth having a look at your blog, even if it is just to tell you they like your colour coordination!

Klickety