Hi
I think I'm finished. Have just commented on blogs. I lost count, so have done a couple of extra ones just to be sure. So this is it from me until we commence part 2 or Web 2.1 or whatever. I will now take a well needed break and get back to work (if that makes sense...) Will be blogging again in the near future.
Ta Ta for now.
XXX Harry
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
RSS feeds revisited
Well according to our assessment I should have provided links to or references to my 5 feeds (excluding any other participant blogs). I think my comment on the feeds was a little more general than that... I'm not sure how to put the links in (an they may not be of that much interest to others). So I'll just list them here:
Now I might actually read some of them :)
XXX Harry
- Dance sport Australia
- Library jobs in Western Australia - career jet
- Lolcats 'n' funny pictures of cats - I can has cheezburger
- State Library of Western Australia <SLWA blog>
- Public Libraries - learning 2.0 basics.
Now I might actually read some of them :)
XXX Harry
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Facebook and twitter - I missed them!
Hello again. I said my wrap wasn't my final blog. I forgot to blog about face book and twitter!
Twitter
What to say about this? I have actually been tweeting more than the minimal amount! Last time I crated a twitter account I had thought that twitter was the least interesting and relevant of all of the technologies that we tried. I feel a little warmer towards it now. I previously understood that people found it useful in conferences to tweet to other participants about which one to come and see. Useful in context but limited were my thoughts on that. I now understand that it has been yet another and at times only medium of communication in disaster situation - now it begins to be an important medium, although what I can't understand is WHY other mediums DIDN'T work!
In libraries - yes useful for promotions. I can see a use for it there. Me - no. I don't think it is something that I am going to use personally.
Face book
Again - not really my thing, although as I have said in my (previous) wrap up I may keep my account so that I can read the face books of (real) friends overseas and see what they are up to. I don't intend to write in mine more than needed for this training.
Another thing, having just revisited a lot of this technology after a fabulous Christmas break, there are adverts on my page! How did that happen? Who put them there? No one asked me and I don't approve of the content of the adverts, let alone the whole idea of advertising in my space. I might have to write something on my wall to the effect that I do not endorse any adverts which spontaneously appear there. Has anyone else had that experience? I don't recall reading that on any blogs.
Useful for libraries - yes - again another marketing/ communicating/ promotions avenue for libraries. Of course the fact that so many of our members use our computers in order to access face book is relevant as well. This is what people want. They get the sort of value out of this that I get out of paperbacks, movies and you tube clips.
There is also a dark side to face book and other social media. The kids (and adults) that meet "friends" who end up being predators indicate that this is also a media that can be abused. This is also something that we need to keep in mind. The world is probably not more dangerous than it was when I was growing up, but the methods by which that danger can travel have increased. Also I am concerned that parents don't all have the skill their kids have in computing and may not have the ability to protect their kids as well as they would like or the kids need. I had a heated discussion recently with a friend about the access her kids had to computers. She is also relatively young and thinks my view of the world is pretty twisted and that such media are safe for kids. True there are not a LOT of abuses of the technology, but wouldn't you be just devastated if one of those few abuses were of someone you cared for?
On that light note I think I'll sign off.
XXX Harry
What to say about this? I have actually been tweeting more than the minimal amount! Last time I crated a twitter account I had thought that twitter was the least interesting and relevant of all of the technologies that we tried. I feel a little warmer towards it now. I previously understood that people found it useful in conferences to tweet to other participants about which one to come and see. Useful in context but limited were my thoughts on that. I now understand that it has been yet another and at times only medium of communication in disaster situation - now it begins to be an important medium, although what I can't understand is WHY other mediums DIDN'T work!
In libraries - yes useful for promotions. I can see a use for it there. Me - no. I don't think it is something that I am going to use personally.
Face book
Again - not really my thing, although as I have said in my (previous) wrap up I may keep my account so that I can read the face books of (real) friends overseas and see what they are up to. I don't intend to write in mine more than needed for this training.
Another thing, having just revisited a lot of this technology after a fabulous Christmas break, there are adverts on my page! How did that happen? Who put them there? No one asked me and I don't approve of the content of the adverts, let alone the whole idea of advertising in my space. I might have to write something on my wall to the effect that I do not endorse any adverts which spontaneously appear there. Has anyone else had that experience? I don't recall reading that on any blogs.
Useful for libraries - yes - again another marketing/ communicating/ promotions avenue for libraries. Of course the fact that so many of our members use our computers in order to access face book is relevant as well. This is what people want. They get the sort of value out of this that I get out of paperbacks, movies and you tube clips.
There is also a dark side to face book and other social media. The kids (and adults) that meet "friends" who end up being predators indicate that this is also a media that can be abused. This is also something that we need to keep in mind. The world is probably not more dangerous than it was when I was growing up, but the methods by which that danger can travel have increased. Also I am concerned that parents don't all have the skill their kids have in computing and may not have the ability to protect their kids as well as they would like or the kids need. I had a heated discussion recently with a friend about the access her kids had to computers. She is also relatively young and thinks my view of the world is pretty twisted and that such media are safe for kids. True there are not a LOT of abuses of the technology, but wouldn't you be just devastated if one of those few abuses were of someone you cared for?
On that light note I think I'll sign off.
XXX Harry
Monday, January 17, 2011
Geocaching and wrap up
Phew... I remembered my password after the Christmas break.
This is not really the final wrap up as I know I haven't done everything exactly so for the assessments exactly right, so I'm going to have to review it all too.
Geo caching
I couldn't participate in this as I didn't have access to any of the required technology. I didn't even know what some of it is :)
However the library geo caching thingies seem quite fun. I wonder however how the kids in the story time area can manage with all the technology if I don't even know what it is. Somehow a simpler Easter egg hunt could be better... I know my troglodyte tendencies are showing again...
I have been looking at my assessment requirements and realised I have to do 100 words on each topic, not each blog, so am now editing this !
When I went to the Geo caching website it was interesting to note that there were a number of caches in my area, even one in my specific suburb. It was also interesting to note that there were subjects of interest eg there was a star treck cache. I also like the way that it was organised by date, so that you could see what caches were most recent. However it did look like most of them had been found - even the very recent ones. I was a bit confused about the little symbols and what they all meant. Some of them were obvious, but others were unclear to me. I guess that's one of the things that you learn as you go along if doing this sort of thing.
Wrap up.
What have I got out of this course and what will I use? Having done something similar before I already got a lot out of that IE learning what the heck all these words mean and what people are doing on computers. This time I got more detail. There are some things I will use personally (no really) eg RSS feeds. I did actually send one to my work e mail and will do a little more of that. The social stuff actually freaks me, so although Delicious would be a great idea for me at work I will continue to create favourite lists on lots of different computers just so that I don't have to share with anyone else. However weirdly I might keep my face book and g mail, accounts. the g mail account because my personal e mail is very bouncy and unreliable at the moment. I have friends on face book (real ones that I know in person) who are overseas and it might be a way of keeping up with what they are doing, but I wouldn't use my account to post my information. I'd still send my friends personal and specific and "old hat" e mails. I guess doing this this time has clarified what I like and dislike about the web 2.0 stuff and as I have said earlier I am a reader, not a writer. (I LOVE you tube). I am also now more comfortable showing people HOW to do things - as I said in my first post I think showing someone how they can set up an e mail account so that they can start applying for jobs is one of the most important things I can do in the library. I know this is easy for some but not so for me and also for some of the people we get in libraries. It always surprises me when I find that I am a bit more computer literate than someone else. I also have a real big bee in my bonnet about processes that require people to have computer skills which may not be an essential part of their jobs as I think that actually discriminates against groups of people who have less access to this sort of technology - such as older people, women, people without the funds etc. I also see this as one of the main reasons to have computers in libraries, so that people can have access to the technology. I also like to see when people have access to training and support in using the technology. I love it that we run computer courses for seniors in one of our libraries and I see myself as one of the supports (despite my limited knowledge). I have worked in academic libraries where students are just expected to have the computer skills and had students on the phone in tears because they couldn't work the library systems to request books sent to them as external students in the country. I have been able to talk the students thought the processes so that they could get their books, so that they knew how to do it the next time and so that they didn't feel so damn stupid after all. They were not stupid, they were unaware of some procedural steps. I also get really angry that we make processes so traumatic for people. Again I see this as discriminatory. However I am always happy when I am able to bridge the gap a little. It's funny showing my Mum how to do stuff on the computer and find she is asking the same sort of questions that I asked not so long ago - so what is the difference between a web address and a web browser anyway and why can't I put this (address) in google? and what does "internet" mean anyway - what IS it? These questions seem smart when my mum asks them. I felt dumb when I asked them. Stepping down off my soap box....
We can use a lot of this technology in libraries. Face book, twitter and pod casts and yes, Geo aching can all be used to promote library services and events along with web pages and good old fashioned fliers (some of which I create in publisher). I don't see that this will be my role as there is always going to be someone in libraries with better computer skills than me (or we are all in deep trouble,) but it is always good to have a bit of an idea about how such clever people do what they do. I actually went on a web page creation workshop at one stage, not so that I would ever be a web master (is that the term?), but so that I would have an understanding of what they do and how and also of the strengths and limitations of web pages - what can they do.
To me I see this course a bit like that - it gives me more of an idea of what and this time a bit more of how this technology can be used in libraries and I will be better able to follow the conversation of staff who make these sorts of suggestions instead of glazing over.
XXX Harry
This is not really the final wrap up as I know I haven't done everything exactly so for the assessments exactly right, so I'm going to have to review it all too.
Geo caching
I couldn't participate in this as I didn't have access to any of the required technology. I didn't even know what some of it is :)
However the library geo caching thingies seem quite fun. I wonder however how the kids in the story time area can manage with all the technology if I don't even know what it is. Somehow a simpler Easter egg hunt could be better... I know my troglodyte tendencies are showing again...
I have been looking at my assessment requirements and realised I have to do 100 words on each topic, not each blog, so am now editing this !
When I went to the Geo caching website it was interesting to note that there were a number of caches in my area, even one in my specific suburb. It was also interesting to note that there were subjects of interest eg there was a star treck cache. I also like the way that it was organised by date, so that you could see what caches were most recent. However it did look like most of them had been found - even the very recent ones. I was a bit confused about the little symbols and what they all meant. Some of them were obvious, but others were unclear to me. I guess that's one of the things that you learn as you go along if doing this sort of thing.
Wrap up.
What have I got out of this course and what will I use? Having done something similar before I already got a lot out of that IE learning what the heck all these words mean and what people are doing on computers. This time I got more detail. There are some things I will use personally (no really) eg RSS feeds. I did actually send one to my work e mail and will do a little more of that. The social stuff actually freaks me, so although Delicious would be a great idea for me at work I will continue to create favourite lists on lots of different computers just so that I don't have to share with anyone else. However weirdly I might keep my face book and g mail, accounts. the g mail account because my personal e mail is very bouncy and unreliable at the moment. I have friends on face book (real ones that I know in person) who are overseas and it might be a way of keeping up with what they are doing, but I wouldn't use my account to post my information. I'd still send my friends personal and specific and "old hat" e mails. I guess doing this this time has clarified what I like and dislike about the web 2.0 stuff and as I have said earlier I am a reader, not a writer. (I LOVE you tube). I am also now more comfortable showing people HOW to do things - as I said in my first post I think showing someone how they can set up an e mail account so that they can start applying for jobs is one of the most important things I can do in the library. I know this is easy for some but not so for me and also for some of the people we get in libraries. It always surprises me when I find that I am a bit more computer literate than someone else. I also have a real big bee in my bonnet about processes that require people to have computer skills which may not be an essential part of their jobs as I think that actually discriminates against groups of people who have less access to this sort of technology - such as older people, women, people without the funds etc. I also see this as one of the main reasons to have computers in libraries, so that people can have access to the technology. I also like to see when people have access to training and support in using the technology. I love it that we run computer courses for seniors in one of our libraries and I see myself as one of the supports (despite my limited knowledge). I have worked in academic libraries where students are just expected to have the computer skills and had students on the phone in tears because they couldn't work the library systems to request books sent to them as external students in the country. I have been able to talk the students thought the processes so that they could get their books, so that they knew how to do it the next time and so that they didn't feel so damn stupid after all. They were not stupid, they were unaware of some procedural steps. I also get really angry that we make processes so traumatic for people. Again I see this as discriminatory. However I am always happy when I am able to bridge the gap a little. It's funny showing my Mum how to do stuff on the computer and find she is asking the same sort of questions that I asked not so long ago - so what is the difference between a web address and a web browser anyway and why can't I put this (address) in google? and what does "internet" mean anyway - what IS it? These questions seem smart when my mum asks them. I felt dumb when I asked them. Stepping down off my soap box....
We can use a lot of this technology in libraries. Face book, twitter and pod casts and yes, Geo aching can all be used to promote library services and events along with web pages and good old fashioned fliers (some of which I create in publisher). I don't see that this will be my role as there is always going to be someone in libraries with better computer skills than me (or we are all in deep trouble,) but it is always good to have a bit of an idea about how such clever people do what they do. I actually went on a web page creation workshop at one stage, not so that I would ever be a web master (is that the term?), but so that I would have an understanding of what they do and how and also of the strengths and limitations of web pages - what can they do.
To me I see this course a bit like that - it gives me more of an idea of what and this time a bit more of how this technology can be used in libraries and I will be better able to follow the conversation of staff who make these sorts of suggestions instead of glazing over.
XXX Harry
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