Grand Finale

Well finally I too can add my reward for finishing the 23 things, was it only that many? I have enjoyed the program and I love being able to have such a cute dog on my site. Just as klickety says, I feel I have just begun...

ELLE

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ECU Library Learning 2.0 - My Thoughts

Just because I can...This was my first ever digital photo...Kings Park WA - Fraser Ave.

Hi

My final task for this program is to share some thoughts with you about the Learning 2.0 program. I have found the discovery approach ideal and have enjoyed the social networking aspect of this program. I have had a great time working with our pilot group of staff and look forward to sharing the program with the rest ofthe staff next semester.

What have you personally learned from this program?

Participating in this program has reinforced how much I enjoy working with people. I have learned some useful skills and had fun at the same time. There is so much information, that tagging was a welcome skill as it made finding information that I was looking for easier. I think the idea of some organization appealed to the librarian in me and also because of the efficiency aspect, although I do enjoy serendipidity from time to time. A place to manage your sites and your passwords is also useful.

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

I have found that the organization in which I work is filled with people who are interested in others and what they are doing and are willing to contribute in any way they can. through this program I have had support from instructional designers, learning development staff and academic staff. ECU has a key focus in engaging students, so others in the organization are interested in social networking tools and how they may be used in an educational setting.

The pilot group was a great group of early adopters that embraced the program and helped us learn from each other. I think they shouldall be proud of their achievements.

I related to the discovery learning aspect of this program as you learned as you used the technology. Many of the activities involved using the technology and at the same time exposed you to others output and so couldexperience and particpate in the whole social networking idea. As a library we have always embraced engaging with our students, however, these technologies take us out of our safety zone and expose us to a greater degree of engagement than we have previously experienced.

What was the most important skill you learned and why?

I liked the Blog as it could be used as an effective reflective journal. The most important skill I learned was that social networking was key to engaging others. Tagging was important to facilitate getting connected to others with like ideas. How current library technologies were often restrictive was also reinforced. This maybe linked to pricing structures used. Many of the Web 2.0 technologies required passwords to access, so it is not this aspect that is the problem. I think this one needs more thought.

What action will you try now if any?

I would like to try a number of things. Firstly, encourage the Library to replace its Web news with a Blog News so that we can get direct comment from our users.

Secondly, investigate replacing our subject guides with a subject Wik, so that we have greater flexibility.

Begin a Blog aimed at Faculty or School level as this is a useful diary.

Participate in our ILCommittee approach o provide small learning bites on various subjects covering a range of formats to cater for varying learning styles - podcasts, printed sheet, camtasia PPT etc.

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

If the technologies were done well and applied adult learning principles, I am sure students would use them: ie short, well done and relevant. I think students muight enjoy commenting on library news and services as this would be an extension of the library as part of their community.

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

A news Blog to replace the Web news

Use a Wiki , rather than email when gathering comments from staff on a collaborative project

Develop more podcasts for IL purposes

Adopt corporate tags and a corporate look for some technologies

Collect useful topic podcasts etc. and include as part of subject directories of useful websites

I look forward to hearing others ideas in the focus group meeting with the pilot group. Thank you all for sharing this journey. This program has only been a beginning as there is so many more things which capture ones imagination and need following up. I didn't list them as important, but Flickr and Youtube certainly require further investigation.

ELL

Youtube

Hi
Well I love Youtube and all these free videos. They can be quite amusing and useful for whiling away a bit or a lot of time. Like all of these web services they range from perile rubbish to educative and very interesting to the individual. I would, however, expect a very different continuum of titles for each individual. I think there is immense capacity for those interested in a topic for research.

I must say I liked the video of library dominos, but it doesn't beat the Wonder Women episode where she knocked all the Library of Congress shelving into a domino with one kick.

But for something serious, I like the set out of Yahoo videos.If you search for Information Literacy, you get a lot of titles. I particularly like the approach in a video called Discovery Information Literacy (~8mins). another video called What is IL? also provides useful background (also ~8mins). Sunny's Speech (1 min) was an interesting study in bad classroom management, with Sunny up the front, obviously trying to lecture using a screen with invisible text. Sunny couldn't be heard and the class was consequently playing around with each other out of control. A useful training video.

From Google video I noticed that education videos had the longest durations per title, often longer than 1 hour. The Facebook lecture was useful and maybe should be explored by academic libraries as it is aimed at campuses. A benefit for students using Facebook is that it can organise friends in class groups.

GoogleTech Talks are worth a look also, with many useful topics covered. Customizing Collections was a video that I liked, as it provided an historical context for where collections are headed from an humanities point of view.

Youtube has some great music clips, and not just modern teenage. I found some great stuff on American folk songs such as Pete Seeger and the Weavers.

Social networking is certainly alive and well in video land and the question about whether serious stuff should be included as well is often asked. Does this mysterious group of social networkers want to mix social and serious stuff. I suspect that 'they' is a very diverse group, just as the content is diverse and so there is a place for all types of content. I think that usage statistics on categories or types of topic would be a nice feature for those with a research bent. The platform allows for searching by keyword which is great when trying to locate material.

I have chosen the Discover Information Literacy video to illustrate that I can embedd the HTML required to save a video to my Blog.

Web 2.0 Awards

Hi All
I tried to get an award image for this entry, but it was taking too long, so no picture. I found the award site most interesting as it gave a very good indication of what social networking is all about. I didn't find some of the sites very appealing, but then that is ok.

Libraries need to keep an eye on moblile technology developments such as twitter, as a possible distribution platform for services.

these award winners were firmly based in social networking. I liked the service that posed the question: what are you doing? Many of the answers were in foreign languages unfortunately.

Collaborative writing and word processing site has potential. It could be quite handy to use when jointly writing a paper.

some sites rate quite low on usefulness, such as fuzzmail. Why would anyones friends want to see all the corrections and typos in real time when writing to them.

I need to chse up more info on widgets as they sound like a great idea. You can insert a translator widget into your site which will convert it to one of about six different languages.

I recommend everyone take a look at the awards as they give you a flavour of Web 2.0. Particulalry interesting are all the site names. Well onto Youtube for my next assignment and some more fun. I shall be investigating some folk music videos I have been told about and also the library ones of course.
ELLE

Catching up after holidays

Hi Everybody

I have one more exercise to go and I to can add the cute little dog to my Blog. I had two weeks holiday of which some was spent with the family in Kalbarri. It was very nice and relaxing and I would recommend it for those wanting to get away and particularly for those with children. we had the 4 year old grandson and he had a ball at the river. he wan't too keen on the idea of catching and eating fish though.

Kalbarri, situated north of Geraldton in WA, is based at the mouth of the Murchison river and the sea and is surrounded by National park, so one has the benefits of a seaside holiday with the calm of the river and inland activities such as the gorge. In addition, the is some good spa or beauticians where one can get facials, massages and other treatments to add some variety.

Enough of my reminisces as I have to get on with the next task as I am lagging behind the others. Once I have done my final task it will be back to Del.ious and Flikr for some further playing around.

ELLE

Podcasts

I found this week's activity most interesting. Just as some people are addicted to Blogs, others are to Podcasts. Subscribing so that you receive new content is a great idea, as it means that you do not have to search far and wide again to get updates. I would recommend the Yahoo tutorial. I found this approach easy to follow and pleasant on the eye. Additional information was quickly available. www.nonstopmac.com
This tutorial identified podcasts as audio.
A number of video applications are out there which follow a similar format, but the are not technically podcasts.

I would recommend this tutorial format for use by library information literacy aspects of learning. The pictures at the top of the page added colour and appeal, and everything was delivered in short clear snapshots in steps of three and with only minimal links out. I recommend it as template.

I would recommend that we add RSS feeds to our existing library podcasts or at least, investigate making them a series to which we could add an RSS feed. We also need to add the length against each one. I found this invaluable in planning my time, when deciding whether to listen to a podcast now or reschedule it. Some of the Sirsi Dynix podcasts go for an hour. These are very good podcasts, but not targetting the net genners out there.

I think, that like all social networking technologies, strict selection criteria is needed when creating a directory suitable for attaching in an academic library collection. Nontheless, I believe that this is a task worth investigating as it enhances our existing collection, providing a format to many who maybe too busy to investigate scholarly sites and evaluate them. I would suggest that by being critical, the lists we as librarians choose for this purpose would remain small and focussed.

An additional activity is to create podcasts in the library setting to either advertise a service or to teach some aspect of library knowledge, such as identifying the different types of journals and their uses. I think podcast technology quite suited for this . As podcasting is an audio platform it assists librarians in providing for differing learning styles in their teaching materials. This option is suited to those with an 'aural learning style."

ELLE