Challenge 23

Challenge:
1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? And last but not least…

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?

Whew! There were times when I thought I wouldn't make it through.


1. My favorites were exploring YouTube and playing with pictures to add to my blog.

2. This program has definitely gotten my feet wet in seeing just the sheer volume of tools and fun things that are available online. I had no idea. I never took the time to listen to a podcast before. They're fun...but yes I like video accompanying it. Hey, I grew up on tv.

3. The takeaway...I'd love to spend more time on YouTube...though I'm not sure how useful and constructive that would be. I view it more as entertainment. Looking at the EBooks has got me wanting to peruse the library for a book to check out and take home. Need to finish taxes first, though.

4. Thanks to the Virtual Services Team for working on all the exercises, activities, and resources and updating their use for the SJ Libraries. It was all great...even with some of the exercises being a hair-pulling challenge.

5. I would love to participate in other discovery programs. I have to say, offering incentives for completion are very good to encourage participation....otherwise one tends to only work on other projects with due dates.

"That's all, folks!"

Challenge 22

Challenge:
1. Visit sjlibrary's ebooks (FYI: It's a quick link on the home page)

2. Explore World EBook Fair' site for FREE downloads from the Gutenberg Project. Also just explore the site - there's much to check out.

3. Create a blog post about your findings.

I was excited to visit sjlibrary's ebooks as I've never, ever looked at an ebook before. However I was dismayed to find that my computer had difficulty installing the plug-in. Hmmm, guess I'll have to call IT about that. Bummer.

I had tried to view "Wives and Daughters" by Elizabeth Gaskell that came up in a search under "children fiction" as keywords.

"Dogeared Pages Make Me Crazy" allowed me to view the SJLibrary EBooks on her computer, since she already had the plug-in installed. I was able to view many, many chapters of "Wives and Daughters", but I tend to agree with "Dogeared Pages Make Me Crazy". I'd rather curl up somewhere warm and comfy to read a book, especially a long book like "Wives and Daughters".

For World EBook Fair' site, I accidently chose a Buddhist story about an otter...but then was asked for username and password..ooops. Ok, found the free ones and picked "Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases" out of the Top 100 Downloads.

Some cool ones:
"The moonlight, like a fairy mist, upon the mesa spreads"

"Style comes, if at all, like the bloom upon fruit, or the glow of health upon the cheek"

I even found a library one:

"Buried in his library like a mouse in a cheese"

Challenge 21

Challenge:
1. Take a look at one or two of the podcast directories listed and see if you can find a podcast that interests you. See if you can find some interesting library related podcasts here like book review podcasts or library news.
2. Add the RSS feed for a podcast to your Bloglines account
3. Create a blog post about your discovery process. Did you find anything useful here?

I tried Podcast.net and typed in "library" as a keyword. I found a couple of entries that I found interesting.

I was drawn to the Sunnyvale Public Library podcasts because it appeared that they were archiving their events as podcasts. The first podcast I listened to was "Sunnyvale Voices - How Apricots Were Grown and Dried"



I then clicked in to the UC Santa Cruz Synergy Lecture Series for Lecture 6, Dr. Mary Silver, "Red Tides, Shellfish, and Cultural Dietary Traditions".



I did find this podcast lecture interesting, yet I found myself wishing there was video accompanying the lecture....like the Google/UC Berkeley set-up. I didn't listen to the full lecture....but I find it very cool to be able to hear lectures without worrying about being graded or tested on the information later.

UC Berkeley on Google Video

I then tried Podcastalley.com and chose the "Environment" genre. There was a Monterey Bay Aquarium podcast called Monterey Bay Aquariums "Aquarium of the Air". They had a podcast called Wild About Otters New Exhibit Opening. This was so fantastic! It featured Michelle Jeffries, the associate curator of mammals, talking about their new exhibit.

Wild About Otters at Monterey Bay Aquarium

This podcast meant a lot to me....as our zoo babysat the Small Clawed Asian Otters for the Monterey Bay Aquarium for about six months...until the Aquarium was ready to accept them. It was so exciting taking care of these precious little rascals. They were hungry all the time, no matter how much or how often they were fed, and they let you know by making loud crying/chirping/whining noises.



Here is a youtube video of the otters at Zoo Atlanta and you will understand what I'm talking about.




So yeah....podcasts are really great and quite useful....even if I run with the topic so I can find online videos of what I'm looking for.

Here's the Bloglines Adds:

http://www.bloglines.com/public/Matchadragon

Challenge 20

Challenge:
Explore YouTube & find a video worth adding as an entry in your blog.

Create a blog post about your experience. What did you like or dislike about the site and why did you choose the video that you did? Can you see any features or componets of the site that might be interesting if they were applied to library websites?

I love YouTube....though sometimes in the past I have had trouble viewing entries. I think it may have to do with upgrades and such. Never wanted to bother IT to fix it for me...though everything seems to be working today.

I was first introduced to YouTube when my boyfriend sent me this clip of him playing a Celtic frame drum. Even though the sound is a little off from the image, it's really him playing. Of course, it's my favorite YouTube clip.

He also sent me this clip of how to open a young coconut in a much safer manner then I had been using....probably has saved me a few fingers.



As for library applications, the time for entries seems to be very short...so to me it makes more sense for literature entries for Children....such as Alligators All Around. Maybe we could stick this on our library catalog!

Challenge 19

Challenge:
1. Take a look around LibraryThing and create an account.

2. Add a least 5 books to your library.

3. Blog about your findings and be sure to link to your LibraryThing catalog. How popular were your books? Did you find any discussions about your favorites?


Here's my library from LibraryThing:
LibraryThing for MatchaDragon

The most popular book that I had was the "Island of the Blue Dolphins" which I haven't read in many, many years....but it left a strong impression as being one of my absolute favorite books. It had some discussions associated with it on LibraryThing.

Most of my other favorite books aren't popular at all, but I still love them.

Challenge 18

http://www.patrickchingart.com




Challenge:
1. Create a free account for yourself in Zoho Writer
2. Explore the site and create a test document or two.
3. Try out Zoho Writer’s features and create a blog post about your discoveries.

So the publishing in ZohoWriter worked by hitting the Publish, post to blog option...and the entry is the post before this one.

The hard part was coming up with something to write....I tried to write a poem and found that it wasn't going well with creating something so early in the morning.

I thought of adding my favorite recipe for pumpkin soup. I tried to copy and paste the recipe from Microsoft Word and Zoho Writer had a hissy fit with all kinds of error messages. When I'd close one error message, another one would pop up in its place...so I eventually had to go to Task Manager to shut down the entire thing.

I'm thinking Zoho Writer truly wanted me to write something rather than paste something in.

I ended up going with a favorite poem since the sandbox exercise was so fun in sharing favorites.

Perhaps I will try using Zoho Writer to to the Pre-Performance Review Worksheet that we're all so fond of.

Publish Post to Blog from Zoho Writer

EQUINE EQUINOX

Standing brightly in fields of water-washed green,

herds of ponies trot together, the northern lights in their manes.

Steam boils forth from nostrils

like hot tea spitting onto hearth stones.

Hoof upon hoof pressed into earth's lightness

and, while speaking in tongues, haunches turn wildly,

bowstrings and light rays in tendons ache to cover some ground.

An out and out gallop across shaded sand would be a fair thing today,

but as meadowlarks put feathers down, pronouncements of place, another voyage awaits.

Beyond folded fence posts in arroyos that remember nothing but sand dollar bones,

a stirring in the wind reminds the spirit-beasts of their truest nature.

They fly, felt but unseen.

Frank MacEowen (c)2001

Moss Roof, Stone Pillow: Poems of the Celtic Dreamtime

Challenge 17

Challenge:
1. Access the SJLibraryLearning 2.0 Favorites wiki and create a login account for yourself.

2. Add your blog to the Favorite Blogs page. That's how we'll know that you've been there.

3. Create a post in your blog about the experience. How might you use wikis in your work at the Library?

This is so cool! I love playing around with fun favorites.

I added my blog to the sandbox, my favorite book, and a favorite animal.


I think the best way to use wikis in my work at the Library is to place procedures onto a wiki. It might make it easier to update them and have the procedures more accessible to the department and student assistants.

Challenge 16

Challenge:
1. For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at some library wikis and blog about your findings.

2. Create a blog post about your findings. What did you find interesting? What types of applications within libraries might work well with a wiki?

Once in a department meeting, MinervaShelved asked me to quickly come up with the definition of "wiki", which of course, caught me off guard and excruciatingly slowly the definition came to mind...it's the Hawaiian word for "quickly, very fast". It's also the name of the little bus that will take you to the various terminals in the Honolulu airport.

The first wiki I looked at Book Lovers Wiki. It didn't look at all as to most wikis that I've looked at. Most of the wikis I've seen really do seem like they're pages out of an encyclopedia. This wiki was so much more colorful and Amazon-like. I had fun perusing all the different books that the summer readers have read and reviewed. A very cool community project!

The next wiki I looked at was the Bull Run Library Wiki and it also didn't feel like a wiki to me. It was more like a webpage for the library...though I could go through and see all the updates over a 3 week history.

I liked the concept of the Albany County Public Library Staff Wiki. The procedures documentation along with photos was really nice to see. I did find it awkward navigating through the wiki. After reading a page, I'd have to navigate with the back button or the home button to reach another topic I was interested in. I guess I'm just used to navigating webpages and not wikis.

What types of applications within libraries might work well with a wiki?

I like the idea of placing our department procedures on a wiki, but maybe having a menu or link at the bottom of the page so after you're done reading the entry, you can move on to the next topic of interest within the wiki.

Challenge 15

Challenge:
1. 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.

2. Library 2.0 - It's many things to many people. What does it mean to you?

The OCLC newsletter was very informative in seeing how various people see how they can create libraries of the future...in being proactive about making information much more accessible to library users. The authors have a much more in-depth perspective than I do....metadata, instant messaging, 2nd life. Things that are not very second nature to me.

My school days encompassed photocopying journal articles one page at a time...not much online access available. It's sometimes difficult for me to try to envision how today's students want to access their information...though EASY would be a good start.

What does Library 2.0 mean to me?
I'm tending to agree some of the statements by the author Dr. Wendy Schultz of "To a temporary place in time...On the way to the library experience of the future." I'm loving how things are now...such as the library being part of the community...where I can currently hear author talks or presentations regarding current events. Library 2.0 is making it easy for me to look up whatever information I want, wherever I want....with coffee or hot chocolate in hand, preferably with a toasted croissant (where the hardest choice to make would be chocolate or almond filling).

Challenge 14

Challenge:
1. 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?

2. Explore popular blog, searches and tags. Is anything interesting or surprising in your results?

3. Create a blog post about your discoveries on this site.

4. Now that we’ve worked with tags in Flickr, Del.icio.us, and Technorati, what are your thoughts about tagging? What are its advantages? What are its disadvantages?


I took a look at the keyword searching. The results were very different. The blog post search was too general, pulling up 30,610 blogs with "Learning" and "2.0" within the posts....Office 2.0, Community 2.0, E Learning, Web 2.0, etc. The tag search was more specific with only 274 blogs, as well as videos and photos. The blog directory was the most specific pulling up library specific learning 2.0 blogs, including the SJSU/SJPL blog.

When searching the popular blogs, it was interesting to see "Boing Boing" as a familiar name.....from the RSS Feed/Bloglines exercise. I found a Boing Boing post about Headless Cockroaches being able to survive for weeks. They have an open circulatory system, unlike people, so there's not a significant drop in blood pressure when decapitated. They also breathe through pores in various parts of their body, so repiration is not badly affected either. It sounds like they would likely expire due to infection or lack of nutrition.

Thoughts about tagging.....I think it's a great advantage to be able to pull up information that other people have tagged on topics that pique my interest. The disadvantage is sometimes thinking of tags to add onto information that I'm "putting out there". Are people really that interested?

Challenge 13

Challenge: View Del.icio.us tutorial, explore SJ Learning 2.0 del.icio.us account, and create a blog post.

I like the idea....of being able to have your bookmarks with you on something like del.icio.us and to be able to pull them up wherever you are, but I'm not that mobile computer-wise yet. I have the important bookmarks memorized....kind of like the phone numbers that I think are important. I don't do speed dial very often, unless it's someone's phone number that I'd have to look up anyways.

Right now it seems like quite a bit of work to pull a del.icio.us bookmarking page together for my purposes.

I see people like my brother and my boyfriend putting every kind of music that they have onto the tiny ipods.....so they can leave everything at home and only take their little gadget with them wherever they go. I have yet to find time to scan in some favorite photos onto a computer, so that I'll have digital access to them instead of digging through a box in the garage when I need to find a photo of something.



What I did love about the SJ Learning Del.icio.us account was being able to find interesting articles and blog posts such as "When tags work and when they don't: Amazon and LibraryThing", "Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library's Services", and "Flickr Photos from Innovative Interfaces". These are things that I wouldn't ordinarily search out...but I do benefit from if someone else organizes them all together for me and has them all in one place.

Very cool. But would I set up my own? Maybe tomorrow.....

Challenge 12

Select Search Engine...WildlifeConservationSearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

Challenge: 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 using the "Create a Searchbox" tool.

Rollyo was a new concept that took me a little while to wrap my head around. I understand the idea of limiting searches, but I guess I'm concerned I'd be limiting too much by only searching the websites that I'm familiar with.

The next challenge was that I had to think about the topic I wanted to create a search roll for.

I considered some library related topics, but then ultimately decided there were more wildlife conservation websites that I was familiar with.

Rollyo Experimentation

Mountain Gorillas - Adult Female
Originally uploaded by Lucy in London.

I listened to the podcast and tried out some of the Rollyo links.

I didn't exactly find what I was looking for in the Public Domain ebook search or the Rare Book Library search.

I had fun with the Free Photos searching mountain gorillas, I found this beautiful photo and thought I would share it before moving on to Challenge 12.

Challenge 11

Challenge: Explore any site from the Web 2.0 awards list, play with it, and write a blog post about your findings.

I went to the Web 2.0 site and clicked on "Philanthrophy" under the Awards Categories.

There weren't enough nominations to warrant a winner in the category, though it did list an Honorable Mention called http://givemeaning.com/

I felt that the website was a great way for people to set up fundraisers easily and get the word out fast. There were many sites for walking for AIDS or stairclimbing for cancer.

I sent the website address to a colleague, as she supervises zoo teens that are raising funds to purchase bulletproof/stabproof vests for police dogs as part of the vestadog project.

http://www.hhpz.org/supp/vols/vesta/vestadog.php

Challenge 10

Challenge: Play around with an online image generator.

I had fun with HeroMachine.

http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heromachine2/heromachine2.asp


It was fun choosing different features, colors, and backgrounds. I could spend way too much time on this.



I then tried the Comic Strip Generator. These were fun to create....and so many options to choose from!

http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/






I really liked ImageChef.

http://www.imagechef.com/

9th Challenge

Challenge: Locate a few useful library related blogs and/or newsfeeds.

I listened to the podcast and then started reviewing Blogline's Search Tool and Feedster.

Ok...so I forgot about the part about the feeds needing to be library related.

For Blogline's Search Tool, I entered lomilomi to search for feeds relating to Hawaiian lomilomi massage. Of course, nothing came up.

I then entered "Zoo" and found the San Diego Zoo blogs. Wow....this is so cool! The post that caught my interest was "Breakfast with the Orangutans" by the senior mammal keeper. She begins her day by checking on the orangutans at 6:00am every day. Boy, I thought I was an early bird!

It turns out that the zoo blogs contain a plethora of entries from the San Diego Wild Animal Park and CRES (Conservation and Research for Endangered Species).

I then tried Feedster and searched Congo hippos. I found the blog for Wildlife Direct and made my way to the Gorilla Protection blog. Interestingly enough, today's post mentioned thanks to some of the recent donations that were made. I'm currently in the process of assisting a local fundraiser to raise funds to support the rangers protecting the Congo wildlife and it was very uplifting to see thanks being given to our organization's ringleader for our past assistance to the rangers.

Ok...so now I've started blogging and have actually read the directions, let's see if we can find library related news feeds.

I tried out Topix.net and found a library news feed as well as a library news forum. I read a very cute story about a man returning "The Prince of Egypt" along with a check for 47 years worth of late fees. He had checked out the book as a 9th grader and recently found it while looking through a box in the attic.


Now I've tried Syndic8.com and found a bunch of postings about libraries. I found librarian.net, a library weblog...which led me to LibraryThing.com/blog/ that had a cool entry about a bookpile contest they were holding in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The contest asked for bookpile photos to be posted on Flickr with the tag "LibraryThingBHM" for Black History Month.

Here's one of the photos:


Library Thing BHM 006
Originally uploaded by benhbleckley.

Last, but not least, I tried Technorati and found a blog about Learning 2.0 called LibraryCrunch. It appears that he's a veteran of Learning 2.0 starting in 2005. He even has a feed that included his blog on talkr.com...which has audio for every blog...in case you don't want to read.

Ok, so now I have a ton of feeds added to Bloglines. The question remains....when will I have time to read all of the new posts?

8th Challenge

Challenge: Learn about RSS feeds and set up a Bloglines account.

RSS Feeds....Really simple syndication.

I had some difficulty setting everything up. I hope it gets really simple from here on out.

The discovery resources provided by the Virtual Services team were extremely helpful. It did make it seem very easy.

However while trying to set up the Bloglines account, some of the screens are now very different than the screen shots in the "Using Bloglines Tutorial". Hmmm....perhaps Bloglines made some updates? It made following the directions more of a mystery.

The subscribe page on Bloglines is now missing the text entry boxes for Blogger, LiveJournal, and Xanga. There's only one text box now....which ought to seem simpler, but it sometimes rejected blog addresses that had the orange RSS box showing at the bottom of the Mozilla Firefox window. I had to fiddle with some of the addresses by removing the "http://" and could get some to work.

I found that I also wanted to rename some of the feeds, but had trouble with this, too. One of the feeds that I added has an address in html, rather than just a name. Another feed that I added has "++++" as the title, only because the feed has that text in as decoration for the layout on the blog page. I finally figured out how to change the name. Good, now everything looks much better.

The "Share" tab for Bloglines that was shown on the Learning 2.0 screenshot to find the public url was now listed as an "Additional Feature" in a different location.

After much trial and error, I have the public url and managed to make it a live link:

http://www.bloglines.com/public/Matchadragon


Now that all is in place, I think I'll be able to enjoy what RSS feeds are all about........tomorrow.

Whew!

7th Challenge

Challenge: Create a blog post about anything technology related that interests you this week.

Webcams have caught my attention.

Nurturing long distance relationships can be tough....but the idea of webcams has come up.

Having live face-to-face webcam sessions rather than just voice-to-voice over the phonelines truly blows my mind. It used to be something that only happened in the movies.

As of yet, I'm one of the few holdouts that has no internet access from home.....but folks are slowly talking me into coming out of the cave and joining the rest of the world.

If it does happen, you can be sure that it will be high-speed internet with a webcam.

6th Challenge

6th Challenge
Originally uploaded by MatchaDragon.

Challenge: Have some Flickr fun and discover some Flickr mashups and 3rd party sites.

I elected to use fd's flickr toys to create a magazine cover.

The easy part was selecting an image. The hardest part was trying to find a catchy title for the magazine....especially one that would fit on the page just right.

I couldn't figure out how to adjust the size of the font, so it was a little tricky trying a bunch of different layouts so the text wouldn't run off the page for the various entries.

Overall, I'm very please with the end result. I'd page through the magazine with interest.

5th Challenge

Manuel Antonio Beach V
Originally uploaded by No Fixed Abode.


Challenge: Explore Flickr and learn about this popular image hosting site.

A couple of years ago, I had the fortunate experience of vacationing here for a week on Manuel Antonio Beach in Costa Rica.

Friends of my boyfriend invited us to share a house with them near this beach. It was a 5 minute walk through a beautifully forested area to the private gate that led to this beach.

The sunsets would reflect in the wet sand turning everything into a stunning salmon color.

There were tiny hermit crabs walking around carrying their shell houses on their backs.

We could walk along the beach to the very end where the Manuel Antonio National Park was located. We spent all day combing the park trails for the endangered Central American squirrel monkey. There were fascinating sloths, colorful birds, huge iguanas, lightning-fast lizards, playful capuchin monkeys, and many scurrying red and purple crabs....but we didn't see a single squirrel monkey.

The next day, we were resting at the house....and an entire troupe of Central American squirrel monkeys came to visit the front yard of the house. It was amazing! A couple of mothers had tiny babies riding on their backs. The squirrel monkeys were so petite in size, compared to the capuchin monkeys....which eventually chased the squirrel monkeys from the yard.




It was a wonderful vacation.

4th Challenge

Challenge: Register blog and begin Learning 2.0 journey.

Completed registering and I'm on my way.

3rd Challenge

Challenge: Create a blog and add first post.

Been there, done that! Yay!

2nd Challenge

Challenge: Which of the 7.5 habits was the easiest? Which was hardest?

Probably the easiest is #7.5....Playing! I have no problem with playing. I love to tinker and try to figure things out by testing, trying, and having fun all at the same time.

The hardest will probably be #6...using technology to my advantage. Tackling learning new technologies will be very much like playing. However, my expertise in technology is lacking in some areas and I may not immediately employ using something technological that I haven't mastered yet.

We shall see....

1st Challenge

Challenge: Read Learning 2.0 blog and find out about the program.

I looked over the 23 challenges, things, exercises, etc. on the Learning 2.0 blog.....seems a little daunting and intimidating all at once.

It's not the destination that important....it's the journey....right?

Testing 2.0

Library Learning 2.0. I had always thought of myself as tech savvy. I started out with an Atari pong game. I used an Apple computer at school. I was always the person called on to set the clock on the vcr. I got left in the dust somewhere between cell phones and dvd players. I'm hoping this Learning 2.0 program will help to launch me back onto the cutting edge.