e-learning coordinator @ skills tas

Week #2 Exercise 2

2009-05-25T15:57:00.004+10:00

The two avatar creation sites were very different - faceyourmanga.com was very quick and easy whereas http://avatars.yahoo.com/ was time consuming and complex BUT fun to play with.
Well these are my thoughts.

Week 1 Exercise #1

2009-05-05T09:27:00.002+10:00

Of the 7 n 1/2 lifelong learning habits I consider the easiest to be number 2 I accept responsibility for my own learning [been doing it long enough to get those assignments in on time]. I also realise how close my goal is - the light is appearing and even getting brighter!
The hardest might be number 5 because I dont understand what is meant by creating my own learning toolbox?

23 things

2009-04-30T15:59:00.002+10:00

Hello Peter and fellow steppers,
this is going to be fun - I'm slightly interested in being one of the 200 first finishers as I'd like to win an mp3 player - too honest...

New job @ skills tas

2009-04-24T22:11:00.002+10:00

Hmmm well what a lovely new reason to keep my blog up to date. I've joined the Skills Tas team as a elearning coordinator. One week into it and it's been interesting - never had the blue screen of d.... before but have now!
What's that I always told learners of technolgy - you cant break it! The box was bad - nothin to do with me.
One thing tho - we get comfortable in our SOE - v different in other worksites obviously... steep BUT okay I like challenges :-)

Carn then - can I remember how to blog?

2009-04-06T20:55:00.002+10:00

Hi Roger,
Nice to hear from you and welcome to the Polytechnic :-)
I'm actually hoping to leave pretty soon ...
I do have a story to tell but maybe I should wait until an appropriate opportinity.

Why last post?

2008-07-21T15:39:00.002+10:00

Maybe I could reivigorate my site!
Let's see what happens - I think I will try and diarise our library changes - we're moving from a TAFE institution to a Polytechnic.
It works in NZ so why not here? I think the user age groups differ significantly. Well we'll see.
Going to send a picture too!

Last post :-(

2007-12-21T14:48:00.001+11:00

It's true I've finished the 23 steps, I'm going to miss you! Wonderful learning experience and my hardest of all learning goal of not being able to PLAY has been quashed forever!!!

My favourite tools are igoogle, bloggin, delicious (n tagging) library thing, RSS feeds and the whole darn thing really.

My unexpected outcome was that I didnt want it to end, I havent posted for over a week, as the end was inevitable! Boo hoo

On a positive ending, I can still play and have heard a whisper that there may be similar steps in the not too distant future.

Bye :-)

Getting social with MySpace

2007-12-21T14:20:00.000+11:00

I've looked at both Facebook and MySpace and purely because my daughter is with MySpace I have concentrated on this one. For a definition I checked out Wikipedia - pretty much a tool for social networking but as these examples show, can be useful for contacting people and building relationships within a library environment.

Art in the library Australian

Teen zone American

I can imagine us using the tools for sending messages, linking various interest groups via blogs, creating a library profile (about the library and it's people) services, links to interesting places and all the while creating access to library content!

Podcasting

2007-12-12T15:49:00.000+11:00

I starting using itunes when I got myself an ipod (to help with bike riding), from the online store I subscribed to some free podcasts, n purchased some songs for around 30c each. I can now listen to music or radio broadcasts from my pc or ipod.

I'm very over my current music on the ipod, and as the itunes library holds many more songs than my ipod can ever hold I can change them around - which I should do now!

For the library exercise I checked out Sirsi dynix , a colleague had shown me some interesting podcasts that she had subscribed to. The site provides a great intro to podcasts.

Personally, not at all interested in knowing how to do my own podcasting BUT never say never, the library website might have a need for it! Here's a 4 step how to guide

You Tube

2007-12-12T15:30:00.000+11:00

OMG - this is an amazing tool, huge potential and the more time I spent looking around the site the more intrigued I became. I actually found my son's youtube account and subscribed to it! He has posted 5 videos of bmx stunts and tricks and one on how to drink beer quickly using a gravity assisted device.

As a learning / teaching tool there are a huge number of videos to support delivery especially if using technology comes into play.

I found the subject headings didnt help me find clips, it appears that videos can be tagged but I'm unsure how to search using them (no cloud?). The search box is good and once you've come across something youtube gathers similar content together making it easy to choose.

I have spent toooooo much time playing with youtube, I wanted to load my avatar icon as my login pic. Unfortunately youtube won and I failed to change it... I had to download a video first and capture this - then make a change - very confusing!!! As I dont have a video to upload I was going around in circles.

Let me know if you had more success than me! I'll be chatting youtube stuff (and beer consumption) with my son in the future as he has obviously got his head aroung it!

Discovery web 2.0 tools

2007-12-11T11:03:00.000+11:00

Unbelievable to think there are 300 - 500 web 2.0 tools currently on the net... makes you wonder how many will actually end up dominating. From the web 2.0 awards we can see those that were shortlisted.

For those that appeal to me I have chosen a few - standing out is del.icio.us - fantastic tool for sharing information socially using tags... brilliant idea with huge potential for library use.

For images I love flickr, youtube for video BUT special mentions for biblio.com and librarything for library oriented uses - with some social networking exploration ideas too.

For fun - fwditon.com - just for jokes and to play a quick game by Grant Robinson guess the google

Online productivity tools

2007-12-11T09:43:00.000+11:00

AKA web based office applications like word, excel, databases and even powerpoint. Pretty darn good idea, especially for sharing across networks and especially for editing purposes and especially good for overcoming application version translation (e.g Word 2.0 - 6.0).

Tried accessing zoho writer without success, I registered but was unable to do anything other than that - weird AND too time consuming so I gave up and tried google apps instead!

This application is free and very useful! I played with both and presentation (like ppt) and have found it okay to use, certainly lots of potential although it is hard to imagine people not having similar applications already included in their PC package... but we do have a machine at home without word!

See my presentation test using google docs, click on 'start presentation' top right hand view.

Wiki stands for quick

2007-12-03T16:36:00.000+11:00

What CAN'T be a wiki?

2007-12-03T15:34:00.000+11:00

Wikis appear to provide many uses... lists and lists of lists and dont we love lists! Great range of settings and screen arrangements too. Possible means for providing subject lists, info content manager, endless uses... e.g. we are using a car parking wiki...

Consider tho, if protection and privacy are issues perhaps other means of sharing need to be considered.

Library 2.0

2007-11-30T15:38:00.001+11:00

Means making our library presence interactive, participatory, collaborative, fun and user driven. Blogging and gaming are examples of how we might make the library relevant to kids....um I mean students. We are in the post google phase ... another paradigm shift according to Rick Anderson.
http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/2.htm

Rollyo

2007-11-09T12:01:00.000+11:00

Interesting concept, I think I'm getting it but need to play a little longer. I have created a couple of my own rollyos and used others, I wonder what it will look like! Type in a search term e.g web2.0 in the rollyo search box and see what happens... dont wait too long coz maybe nothing will!

Library Thing

2007-11-07T14:01:00.000+11:00

This is a very very very cool tool. Great method to form a book club, I like the fact that you can get summaries for each and the tag clouds! I'm in heaven...

Here is a short list of some of my favourites, will keep adding!

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/gailywaily

If you're looking to find a good weekend read this site can help you find something. I think there is a book swap thingy too.

Image Chef

2007-11-07T10:11:00.000+11:00

This is a great site to create your own unique signs or images with text, good for playing around!

Here's the link

www.imagechef.com

RSS feeds

2007-10-26T12:32:00.000+11:00

The more you look the more you find. For fun I think the google reader is the easiest to set up. From my account you can just select from the list of fun, sport or news and other...
I have subscribed to a couple of professional ones.

librarianinblack linda provided this as a sugggested feed to subcribe to. Looks good, provides knitting patterns too!

Smile (in Marburg)

2007-10-23T19:44:00.001+11:00

Well why not? I got this picture from flickr, looking for something to do with libraries and found the 'smile' graffiti. From flickr I clicked on the link to add straight to my blog.

http://www.flickr.com/

About the technology

2007-10-23T16:36:00.000+11:00

It so amazingly vast! Guess the best we'll ever hope to achieve is the ability to keep up with it! Nah that wont happen ... ummm I'd love to harness the creativity of the iGeneration.
Just had a fun time playing on dumpr.net
See the pictures of the learning centre and potato heads.

Flickr fun - can be once you have the hang of it

2007-10-22T15:27:00.000+11:00

This is just how I feel at the moment... overwhelmed, not sure about all this technology!

2007-10-22T15:23:00.000+11:00

Welcome to Flickr

2007-10-22T14:42:00.000+11:00

I joined up so I could get some pictures, I posted a couple of the Learning Centre (and used these as tags) not so intuitive to do tho.
Got a little side tracked and hoped to look into second life, they wear really cool outfits in second life. I've made enquiries about joining...

igoogle

2007-10-18T09:18:00.001+11:00

Wow! Hard to describe best features, tools and gadgets when it is just soooooo much fun! Ummm I like the 'to do list', the gem game and I like to read my stars to start the day, not always... sometimes, I like the hangman game (good to help with my poor speling).
No luck finding darth tater yet :-(

Why I hunt for spuds

2007-10-12T12:16:00.000+11:00

To make additions to my family of potato heads. I really want to find Darth Tater. If you see one can you please let me know.

71/2 Habits

2007-10-11T14:42:00.000+11:00

My habit at the moment is looking for new potatoes to add to my collection.

But first the question - my easiest habit is accepting responsibility for my own learning, I've been doing it long enough now to realise I'm hell bent on this study thing! It's actually a habit of mine.
Hardest is the play - I have forgotten even how play, the last time I played was with a Nintendo Wii trying to play tennis it was heaps of fun! Perhaps I will be able to relearn how to play as my grand daughter grows.