Thursday, August 2, 2007
What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? In closing, I want to thankyou you all for joining us on this learning 2.0 journey.
Wow! Congratulations!!
You’ve reached the 23rd thing.
Be sure to give yourself a pat on the back for completing the program.
There is just one more discovery activity for you to post to your blog
For your last and final exercise for this program please reflect on your learning journey and post a few thoughts.
Here are some questions to prompt you if you're drawing a blank ...
How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
This AID-Learning 2.0 Program has been based on the PLCMC Learning 2.0 program developed by Helene Blowers of the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County.
Many thanks to Helene Blowers for allowing us to use her program.
Learning 2.0 is licensed under Creative Commons
#16 So what’s in a wiki?
A wiki is a collaborative website and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content.
Some of the benefits that make wikis so attractive are:
- Anyone (registered or unregistered, if unrestricted) can add, edit or delete content.
- Tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what been changed and by whom.
- Earlier versions of a page can be viewed and reinstated when needed.
- And users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content. In most cases simple syntax structure is used.
As the use of wikis has grown over the last few years, libraries have begun to use them to collaborate and share knowledge. Among their applications are pathfinder or subject guide wikis, book review wikis, conference wikis and even library best practices wikis.
Discovery Resources:
Use these resources to learn more aboout wikis:
- Wiki, wiki, wiki - from PLCMC's own Core Compentency blog
- Wiki’s: A Beginner’s Look – an excellent short slide presentation that offers a short introduction and examples.
- What is a Wiki? – Library Success wiki presentation
- Using Wikis to Create Online Communities – a good overview of what a wiki is and how it can be used in libraries.
- For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at some library wikis and blog about your finding. Here’s a few examples to get you started:
- SJCPL Subject Guides – a pathfinder wiki developed by the St. Joseph County Public Library system
- Book Lovers Wiki - developed by the Princeton Public Library
- Library Success: A best practices wiki
- Other library wiki examples
- Create a blog post about your findings. What did you find interesting? What types of applications within libraries might work well with a wiki?
So what's in a wiki? Find out by doing some exploring on your own.
You might also like to read Peter Blake's paper from the Information Online 2007 conference
Using a Wiki for InformationServices: Principles and Practicalities
Peter Blake, Australian Catholic University
#15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ...
Listen to this podcast [1:37]-->
powered by ODEOLibrary 2.0 is a term used to describe a new set of concepts for developing and delivering library services. The name, as you may guess, is an extension of Web2.0 and shares many of its same philosophies and concepts including harnessing the user in both design and implementation of services, embracing constant change as a development cycle over the traditional notion of upgrades, and reworking library services to meet the users in their space, as opposed to ours (libraries).
Many have argued that the notion of Library 2.0 is more than just a term used to describe concepts that merely revolve around the use of technology; it also a term that can be used to describe both physical and mindset changes that are occurring within libraries to make our spaces and services more user-centric and inviting. Others within the profession have asserted that libraries have always been 2.0: collaborative, customer friendly and welcoming. But no matter which side of the debate proponents fall, both sides agree that libraries of tomorrow, even five or ten years from now, will look substantially different from libraries today.
Discovery Resources:
OCLC Next Space Newsletter – Web 2.0: Where will the next generation of the web it take libraries?
Five Perspectivesform th eOCLC Next Space Newsletter:
- Away from Icebergs
- Into a new world of librarianship
- To more powerful ways to cooperate
- To better bibliographic services
- To a temporary place in time
Links to more discussions can be located through the list of references at the bottom of the Library 2.0 page in Wikipedia
A great video that illustrates the Web 2.0 phenomenon can be viewed here.
Discovery Exercise:
- Read two or three of the perspectives on Library 2.0 from the list above.
- Create a blog post about your thoughts on any one of these? Library 2.0 - It's many things to many people. What does it mean to you?
You may like to talk about the State Library of Victoria's vision for the future, and how you see web 2.0 being incorporated into this.
#14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati
So now that you’ve been blogging for a while, you might be wondering just how big the blogosphere is.
Yes, these numbers are astounding, but as you’ve already seen for yourselves, blogging is so easy that these publishing tools are being taken advantage of by almost every industry, including libraries.
So how does a person get their blog listed as part of the blogosphere and how can you tag your posts with keywords to make them more findable through a Technorati search?
There are a lot of new features that have been added to Technorati including new ways to search for blogs.
Discovery Resources:
Technorati Tour – videocast of new features & new look
Technorati Popular feature
Discovery Exercise:
- Take a look at Technorati and try doing a keyword search for “Learning 2.0” in Blog posts, in tags and in the Blog Directory. Are the results different?
- Explore popular blog, searches and tags. Is anything interesting or surprising in your results?
- Create a blog post about your discoveries on this site.
OPTIONAL:
If you're up for a challenge, learn how to tag your posts by with Technorati tags so they can join tag searches.
You may also want to consider claiming your blog and creating a watchlist.
NOTE: When adding HTML code, you'll want to make sure you're in Blogger's Edit HTML window.
#13 Tagging, folksomonies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us
Tagging is an open and informal method of categorizing that allows users to associate keywords with online content (webpages, pictures & posts).
In the past few weeks, we’ve already explored a few sites – Flickr and LibraryThing to name two --that allow users to take advantage of tagging.
Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking manager which allows you to bookmark a web page and add tags to categorize your bookmarks.
Many users find that the real power of Del.icio.us is in the social network aspect, which allows you to see how other users have tagged similar links and also discover other websites that may be of interest to you.
For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at Del.icio.us and learn about this popular bookmarking tool.
Discovery Resources:
- Us.ef.ul: A beginners guide to Del.icio.us
- Several Habits of wildly successful Del.icio.us users
- Social Bookmarking in Plain English: Another Commoncraft Youtube video which explains Del.icio.us in user friendly terms.
Discovery Exercise:
- View the Del.icio.us tutorial to get a good overview of its features.
- Take a look around Del.icio.us using the PLCMCL2 account that was created for this exercise. Note: In this account you will find lots of resources that have been highlighted or used throughout the course of the Learning 2.0 program.
- Explore the site options and try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users. Can you see the comments they added about this bookmark or the tags that they used to categorize this reference?
Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool.
Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance, or is it just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere?
OPTIONAL:
If you’re up to the challenge, create a Del.icio.us account for yourself and discover how this useful bookmarking tool can replace your traditional browser bookmark list.
You might even want to explore Del.icio.us’ latest addition, a network badge.
#12 Roll your own search engine with Rollyo
Do you have a group of websites that are your favorites? Or a set of similar online resources that you frequently use to answer homework or reference questions?
Rollyo allows you to create your own search tool for just the websites you know and trust.
Take a look at some of these search rolls that have already been created:
- Public Domain e-Books Search
- Rare Book Library Search
- Free Photos
- Quick Quotes
- Explore other rolls here.
Discovery Exercise:
- Explore Rollyo and create an account for yourself.
- Create a search roll for any subject you like.
Create a post in your blog about your experience and link to your search roll. Can you see a potential use for tools like this?
OPTIONAL: Add your searchroll to your blog
1. Go to Rollyo at
http://www.rollyo.com/
2. Click on DASHBOARD
3. Scroll down the page and click on SEARCHBOX
4. Put the name and URL of your blog in the place provided
5. Click on the search rolls you want and click on the > arrow to transfer them into the into selected SEARCHBOX ROLLS box
6. Go to STYLE and select the type of Rollyo icon you want (it will preview your selection )
7. Go to the COPY AND PASTE CODE BOX. Highlight all the code that is in the box and copy it to your clipboard (highlight the code, go to edit on the toolbar and select copy OR hold down the Crtl key and click the C key at the same time )
8. Sign into your blog and go to the dashboard
9. Go to template
10. Select Add and arrange page elements
11. From this page select HTML/JAVA SCRIPT and click Add to Blog
12. This will lead you to a page that has a space to put
a. A title
b. Contents
Key in a title (Such a rollyo)
Cut and paste the html contents you have copied into the CONTENTS
Do this by going to Edit on the toolbar and selecting paste OR hold the Ctrl Key on the keyboard down and click on the V key at the same time
Click on SAVE CHANGES.
Preview your blog and the rollyo search should be on the template down the side of the page
#11 All about LibraryThing
Are you a book lover or cataloger at heart? Or do you enjoy finding lost and forgotten gems on the shelf to read? - You can even view your books on a virtual shelf,
- add a widget (see sidebar as an example) to display titles that are in your catalog or
- install a LT Search box on your blog.
So why not join the ranks and create your own library online. With over 65,000 registered (BTW: LibraryThing also has group forum for librarian users and over 4.7 million cataloged books, so you're bound to discover something new).
Discovery Resources:
- About LibraryThing
- Library Thing tour
- LibraryThing blog (updates & news)
Discovery Exercise:
- Take a look around LibraryThing and create an account.
- Add a least 5 books to your library.
- Blog about your findings and be sure to link to your LibraryThing catalog.
#10 Play around with Image Generators
Listen to this podcast [1:00]-->
powered by ODEONo, I’m not talking about those gas powered back-up things. The generators I’m talking about allow you to easily manipulate images and graphics to create fun images like these:
For this discovery exercise, I just want you to have fun.
If you’re having difficulty getting your image added to a post in your blog, ask a co-worker for help. In looking at several staff blogs, it’s easy to see that we have lots of people in the system who have figured out how easy it is to add images to their blogs.
Discovery Resources:
The Generator Blog
Letter James
FD Toys
Also try searching for online generators, text generators or image generators!
Discovery Exercise:
1. Play around with some image generators and find one that you like.
2. Post the result of your discovery process in your blog.
Note: Be sure to include a link to the image generator itself, so other participants can discover it too.
So take some time and have fun with this exercise.
#9 Finding Feeds
Now that you have a newsreader (your Bloglines account), you can begin adding other newsfeeds that interest you. There are several ways you can locate newsfeeds:
- When visiting your favorite websites -- look for news feed icons that indicate the website provides it. Often a feed icon will be displayed somewhere in the navigation bar of the site. (Here's an image that contains a sampling of several feed icons).
- Use Blogline's Search tool - Bloglines recently expanded search tool lets you search for news feeds in addition to posts, citations and the web. Use the Search for Feeds option to locate RSS feeds you might be interested in.
Other Search tools that can help you find feeds:
- Feedster - One of the largest collections of RSS feeds, Feedster lets you search for feeds in three categories: news, blogs & podcasts
- Topix.net - This search tool allows you to locate recent newsfeed items based upon keyword or phrase searching. The tool focuses specifically on news and media outlet RSS feeds for information, not weblogs.
- Google Blog search - This is still in BETA mode, but appears to be a good search tool
- Technorati - Technorati is a popular blog finding tool that lets you search for blogs. Since RSS feeds are inherent to all blogging tools, Technorati Blog Search can help you find RSS feeds for topic specific blogs you may be interested in.
Additonal Resource: Technorati Tutorial on finding and adding your blog
Discovery Excercise:
