Web 2.0, you're costing me $59.00 per month, but who's counting...

Like any love/hate relationship, once you know it is ending, it is hard to let it go. I think most everyone complained (okay, whined) at one time or another over the past 4 months of surfing, but I challenge anyone to say that they didn't learn something that they will use in the future.

My favorite discoveries and the ones I use alot now, are Earthgoogle, blogs, Flickr, on line applications and tools, gaming and PANDORA PANDORA PANDORA. I LOVE having my 60's folk music streaming over the computer while I work on reports or other tasks.

Other Web 2.0 training that will assist my lifelong learning goals in the areas of gardening, carpentry and watercolor include RSS and News Feeders, Wikis, search engines, tagging, photos and images and on and on.

Now that we are familiar with this style of self taught learning, it would be great if we had the topics available so that we could work ahead when we had time and not get frustrated when work interfered with completing our weekly task. It would have been easier to talk in a group setting about our struggles and successes with web 2.0 if PSA 1s could have participated, even on a voluntary basis. They also work with the public in helping them on the public PCs.

I would certainly participate in this type of self-paced learning in the future, even if I have to be dragged kicking and screaming at times.

Now, if you are wondering why this exercise is now costing me $59 per month, here is why. If you read my earlier blogs, I mentioned (whined) several times that I only have access to dialup internet service where I live so I can't use Pandora, downloadable media, podcasting, YouTube and most gaming. So... I visited my local wireless cell phone store recently and subscribed to one of their broadband plans with a usb modem for my laptop. Now I access Peter Paul and Mary wherever I go, for only $59 a month.

Gaming cleanses my mind

I'll have to admit that gaming is my personal addiction. Ever since my daughter gave me a handheld Sudoku gaming device (2 years ago), I can never go to sleep at night without playing a few games. The beauty of handheld devices is that they are backlit, eliminating the need for turning on a light.

Now if only my computer was small enough to tuck under the covers, I could play jewelquest to the wee hours too.

As far as implications for our workforce, gaming can be very relaxing and stress relieving, if only because you are concentrating on playing the game and forgetting about all those other things that seem to run our lives far too often. Gaming is also a way to connect with kids and teens, or at least understand some of their language.

It is always fun to turn a patron, be they young or old, onto playing games on the computer. Especially for newbies, since they are learning how to manipulate the mouse, keyboard and reading the screen.

Research does show that playing games or working puzzles helps stave off Alzheimers and I need all the help I can get!

Bigfoot was my neighbor

For once, I followed all the directions, downloaded Google Earth and then typed in my address. It was fun to watch it zoom all the way in to my house, just like it does on the network news. I then started looking around my neighborhood and discovered a small orange round dot on the map.

Imagine my surprise when I clicked on it discovered that there had been a Bigfoot siting on October 20, 1973, about 500 yards from my house. This was only three months after I had moved here.

There have been no sitings since.

hmmmmmmm......Did I scare him off?

Avatars Abound

What did you think? It was easy and fun to create the avatar, however when I tried to copy it to this posting is when I ran into difficulty... That is, until I remembered the "add image" on the posting site. I will take it on faith that the gibberish that is on the screen as I type this, will become a real live (fake) person.
I suppose if I needed to have an image of myself on a website, I would rather it be a virtual self, just for privacy reasons especially if I were a young kid. Those photos posted on line are too easy to manipulate and could cause irreparable harm.

Answer these questions in your post as well.

Do you already live in Second Life? No.
If you don’t already live in SL, would you like to live in Second Life? Not at this time.
Why or why not? Not enough time to do it justice.

Online applications and Tools

I've been introduced to Zoho and google document before, and I do recommend them to patrons who are using our computers, so that they can save their documents before timing out. Personally, I am on overload so I am sticking with Microsoft word etc for now.

Searching, Searching......

I'll admit, I'm too comfortable in using google, since it is right there on my screen, but now that I've tried dogpile, mamma and rollyo, I'm ready to check out other search engines.

For my search string, I used "Free Potting Bench Plans". I've done this search in Google,in the past, but there were too many hits that weren't actually free.
So, with Rollyo, I struck paydirt. The first page of hits had so many free plans for potting benches that I didn't need to go further.
I tried Mamma next and had more sponsered sites that wanted me to buy plans. I did find a few that were also on Rollyo.
Dogpile was the least effective for this particular search. Not only did it have lots of sites that were not free, it also seemed to generate several "Netflix" popup ads.

Interestingly, the potting bench I plan on building (pictured here) came up on Rollyo and Dogpile. I was able to download working blueprints right from the Rollyo's link. But Dogpile's link sent me to a site where I would have had to pay money and order the plans. Go figure.

Doesn't this look cool!!!! I'll be building this while I'm waiting for the library addition to be built this summer.

Podcasting

Which library podcasts did you listen to?
I listened to and subscribed to Book talks quick & simple. I also subscribed to a basic French podcast, where I supposedly will learn to speak fluid French just listening 15 minutes a day. peut etre...

Do you see podcasting as a useful tool for Sno-Isle Libraries?
Perhaps this would be a way to have virtual workshops so staff don't have to travel to SRV for training.

Any ideas about which topics our patrons might be interested in hearing?
I don't know what patron might be interested in, but I did come across the "Famous Speeched podcast list which would be very helpful for students. Now if I could only remember how I found it.

Do you have any experience with listening to, or creating podcasts?
No, and I am unable to use it on my home computer at this point.