The End

I have enjoyed this exploration of the Web 2.0 world. Some of the products I think offer great potential for a teaching and learning environment, while with others I remain to be convinced. But all certainly worth investigating, even if just to know what they are.

There were some things I never really worked out eg Rollyo which if I am understanding it correctly, offers great potential. But I never really got it to do what I thought it should and therein lies MY problem. Sometimes I need to be shown how to do things, or ask for immediate clarification at the time of doing it, and thats when the online thing falls down for me.

When thinking about some possible improvements I thought I would like some exercises to force me through the appropriate steps required to master some of the less intuitive applications, rather than just reading, playing with and assessing them. I would also have liked a bit more feedback.

But I have enjoyed it, learnt much and will hopefully continue to develop my skill base.

Thankyou

Audio Books & Media Downloads

#22 & #23


We have been using audio books for many years, as would most libraries. The most obvious use is for sight impaired clients, or those with other learning difficulties. In fact my association extends back to the 70s when I was working as an OT. We had the most complex tapes that came from the ‘Talking Book Library’ that kept reversing on themselves. You needed to be a rocket scientist to work them out. So cassette tapes, CDs, via an Mp3 player or any other of the formats available these days are sooooo easy.

E-books I have grown to love when I thought I wouldn’t. I will still collect hard copies of my favourites, but how many things do we read and discard – all that crime fiction for instance. As a keen traveller, both commuting and overseas, the e-book provides the perfect solution to the weight problem. And speaking of weight, what a good idea to put all the school text books onto an e-reader so that overloaded schoolbag that causes scoliosis in young backs can become a thing of the past.

I would love to see a standardisation of format so the reading devise would then not necessarily be restrictive.

I have been following with interest the debate between publishers and libraries on the logistics of ‘lending’ e-books and will wait with bated breath for the final solution.

Of other downloadable media, the most obvious to me being music, I think the biggest issue is copyright in all its complexities.

YouTube and TeacherTube

#21 & #22

YouTube has replaced the ‘Idiot’s guides to everything’!

There is a how-to for anything you can think of, and then more. So long as you are a little discerning you can find more than adequate instruction. There is a lot of rubbish – just try searching ‘Australian history’ on TeacherTube, but also much of substance.

YouTube is also a source of immediate world news coverage. Every world event will have images on YouTube before even a TV camera has time to get there. And there is many a humorous clip to get across a message eg. the Mr Bean series.

There is much to love.

Podcasts

#20

I do use podcasts and have subscribed to The Book Show from Radio National. I am however rather recalcitrant in actually getting around to then listening to them – a bit like all those TV shows I used to tape because I didn’t have time to watch them live. So where was I going to manufacture the time to watch them later!!!

However unlike the videos I can load these onto my Ipod/phone and listen to them on the train – much more portable.

I have, up till now, viewed them much like an audio-book and have focussed mainly on literature. But reading other people’s blogs I see I really should at the very least check out TEDtalk, seems to be everybody’s favourite.

Rollyo

#19

I was having extreme difficulty trying to drag the bookmarklet to my favourites until I realised that only worked with Firefox and I am using Explorer. I am still having trouble getting it to do what I think it should and everytime I use a different computer and try to login, it doesn't recognise me - only on the one where I originally registered.

Can anybody help?

However I do like the idea of custom building a search engine - like a much more refined look at 'hot lists' that we librarians are so good at creating only far more efficient for the end-user.

Google Custom Search

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Wikis

#18

I like Wikis as they are easy to establish, simple to use and collaborative. There are so many immediately do-able projects that lend themselves to Wikis that even the busiest teacher/librarian can get started immediately. The most obvious are reading lists compiled by both librarians and students (individually and collaboratively), book reviews, local history projects, subject lists of websites etc. I know that there are probably other more sophisticated tools, but sometimes I think sticking to the KISS principle is the best way to go.

The down side is that they are freely accessible, which leaves them a bit vulnerable. But the interesting thing is that once a community is established it tends to self-regulate, as illustrated by the most obvious wiki, Wikipedia.

We have started using what I think is probably a wiki, called Libguides - it allows nominated users to create/edit pages that are publically available.

I thought the sites provided for exploration were very good, but I couldn't find a "how to..." amongst them, if you needed one. I found this one pretty useful, wikiHow, so thought I would share it.

Delicious

#17

I think delicious is a really useful tool (I sound like the Fat Controller!) Moving between home and work computers and sometimes between work computers means my favourites are available wherever I am.

The Public/Share facility then makes it truely a social networking tool.

Thumbs up from me.

RSS Feeds and Subscribing

#14 & #15

I have subscribed to e-newsletters in all their inceptions since the begining of public use of the internet. And whilst I still think this is a useful way of receiving updates on what is happening in my fields of interest it can lead to a very crowded mailbox, especially if you are away and don't read work emails for a while.
Therefore the concept of RSS feeds is very sound on many levels; timeliness, convenience and provides much broader coverage than is available from e-newsletters alone.

I have suscribed to a number of my favourite websites and have had discussions with a teacher regarding setting up a blog for student assignments and being alerted to new postings via RSS.

MySpace and Facebook

#13 & #14

I set up a Facebook account some time ago but I haven't added to it since. I did intend to use it as a communication platform whilst travelling, but tend to text or simply email more. However I have found it very useful to keep up with what my interstate and overseas nieces and nephews are up too (and my own children on occassion!!) But I will make more of an effort to upload photos when away - although I tend to keep time spent on a computer to a minimum as we are usually only travelling for weeks, not months.

I have now also set up a MySpace account also (I'm becoming very confused with all these names and passwords......) I immediately received the 'Hey good looking' award for my profile photo - its a donkey!
Without spending a lot of time exploring, my first impression is that it has a more funky look to it than Facebook, but really wouldn't know why anyone would prefer one over the other.

Flickr

#12

IMG_7805, a photo by autonome on Flickr.

I found this beautiful image of Lijiang on Flickr Commons.
I have also uploaded a very few of my own photos taken in Peru to my own Flickr account.

Reecie2011's photostream on Flickr.

A few photos from our Sth American holiday in 2009

Library Thing

#11
I think this is similar to GoogleBooks, but I found it easier to use.
I didn't find too many of my books amongst the favourites, nor did I find any discussions.
There were also some recently published books I tried to add but they weren't found even though I searched using all the available sources. Is it linked to Amazon?

Image Generator

#10

I thought this was fun and am sure I will be able to find more use for it than this - but time constraints at the moment only allowed a cursery examination. I will get back to it when my need arises.

I used comicstripgenerator.

Virtual Worlds

#9
I have had a play with Second Life, created an avatar and entered some worlds, although I really didn't participate just observed. I watched the video for Exit Reality and wondered why the 'other' guy was there as he didn't say anything at all - maybe he was virtual.

But I can't see any real benefit for the time and energy expended. Maybe its my age but I think its just a gimmicky approach to social networking which in my opinion, can be conducted possibly even more effectively over simpler platforms.

I'm sure for gamers its just an extension of their life, but not mine, I prefer the real thing.

But it was fun having a look.

iGoogle

#8
I had, in the past, set an iGoogle page according to the brief introductory instructions on the page, and I thought what is so good about this - frogs or sunsets. But when I had a look at some of the other blogs and saw what they had done I went back and had another look. Thank you 'Seekingfinding' for your screen shot that showed what it could look like. And so I found a beautiful background from National Geographic on Colourful India (my next travel destination) that changes with the time of day and the seasons. I went into 'add stuff' and put up My Bookshelf - which is still empty but I will now be encouraged to fill it, translators, currency converters, news sites etc that I currently just have bookmarked. And when I have more time I will really investigate further to see what else is out there.
Always something new!

Google Books

#7

I have searched for books and found reviews. Great for keeping slightly abreast of all the new YAL that is proliferating the shelves at the moment and sounding more knowledgable than I am when talking with the students.

I will investigate the Book Shelf further for use with our Year 7 and 8 reading classes as a way of keeping track of what the boys are reading.

Google Maps

#6

Love Google maps for directions.

My only real criticism is that the ETA doesn't take into consideration the volume of traffic. Maybe an addition to the program could be 'a time of day' option to more accurately estimate the time required to get from point A to B.

Very handy travel tool.

Google Docs

#5

I created a Google Doc using a Scrapbook Album template. A lot of fun but as I read my fellow bloggers comments I also see I need to explore this facility in much greater detail.
That is definitely on the to-do list.

I am a little confused as to the machinations of the privacy bit, but hopefully I will work it out as I go along.

Web 2

#4

Technology has such built-in obselescence that trying to keep up with everything is impossible. Therefor part of the reason for participating in this course is to help me to identify the social web technologies that enhance the core concepts of collaborative teaching and learning.

What is it that empowers the library user to be an active participant, co-creator, builder and consultant in the creation of meaningful content?

Reecie's 1st Blog

#2
I would like to establish this blog to use as a travel/photo diary to communicate with my collegues and family whilst travelling.

More to come.