Where to from here?

In review I did enjoy 23 things very much. All my frustration was with computer access and the inability to complete online tasks at work that worked perfectly on my home computer eg. Flickr. Studying online meant I was able to work at my own pace and dip into topics. I found I didn't attack 23 things chronologically often leaving more the more complicated tasks (or those requiring concentration) until I had some time to myself. I did find the early part of the project a little difficult because of competing workloads and I'm not sure I got the most out of those earlier topics. It was so interesting to see the breadth of tools available to everyone online. It does mean that life long learning is available to anyone with internet access and not just to those enrolling in traditional courses. I loved the explanatory videos on youtube as I am a very visual and hands on learner. This is why I enjoy the online learning that is interactive. The downside was that every time I had a problem I had to ring/email either Steve or Helen and I didn't have someone to chat to about each topic. And technology problems I did have! I have enjoyed keeping this blog and reading about the learning journey of others but I note not everyone involved either followed my blog or made comments. And I found after a while I stopped adding people to blogs I chose to follow as time lagged. More involvement this way would have given me that feeling of common purpose I require when I am learning. I would definitely put my hand up again for this form of learning/staff development..

Web 2.0 tools

Checked out Myheritage.com a site that creates family trees. Quite a few around and this looked to be easy to use unlike some of the others I have come across. Cannot see any use for this in our library service. Tried to get into Im cooked but it was blocked as dangerous. Checked out urban spoon. Great site to check out restaurants in Adelaide. Also took a tour of the Lulu site - self publishing. Very interesting - this could be of interest to students wanting to publish works or collections of student work. Of course I'm unsure what this means in regard to IP. So interesting to see what is out there and the number of tools - this is just going to keep expanding and we'd better be up with it!

What me having trouble doing something...??!!

Trying to post my audacity file to my blog from LEARN Network Office Live Workspace. Am following instructions but after I click on Edit HTML I don't know what to paste as I'm not sure what the code is that was copied onto the Workspace. Any ideas if there is someone out there

Zoho writer

Publishing to the blog was easy once I remembered my blog login was my email address and not the name of my blog. If I have one tip for anyone who is doing this it would be to be meticulous about logins and passwords. I thought I had been but it has caught me out a number of times

first go

Trying this out in Zoho writer. I am becoming a bit fogged by all these new tools and am hoping we start to use some of these for work purposes as I am sure to forget them as soon as I stop doing 23 things

Second Life

I had been introduced to Second Life at a LEARN meeting last year (see all the interesting things you hear about at LEARN meetings) I was able to create an Avatar. I find the whole thing a bit weird and if you have been on there for any length it feels a little like being a creepy extra on 'Shaun of the Dead' Regarding how we could use it for libraries - I think we should have a presence in any world created by programme areas for our students. Or being a part of a library world that is relevant to us and our services. Linking seems pretty simple on Second Life but I'm not sure whether a separate TAFESA library world is warranted. But in saying all of this what is the point if we aren't supposed to access it from work.

Facebook

I have been on Facebook for a few months now. My daughters encouraged me and I thought I would give it a go. I'm getting less interested in it as most of my friends aren't on there but it has been good to keep up with friends and family overseas. Plus those closer to home I don't contact on a regular basis. I became a fan of TAFESA Libraries very early on. And I have a decent number of 'friends' I do find it odd that people can have so many 'friends' on Facebook. Over 400! give me a break. The traffic on your home page must be impossible to keep up with. No wonder my girls are always on it. And I can't be bothered with all those 'gifts' people send. But if to want to add me as a friend then feel free especially if you are new to Facebook.

Library Thing

I have already used Library Thing and I think I joined up after one of our planning days where Desmond? had demonstrated it. I went home and added some of my favourite books to the site and have logged on occasionally since then. It is interesting to check out people who are interested in similar genres to me and it is interesting to see how similar tastes are. As to how we could make use of it? Reviews of purchases, create a link from LMS to library thing especially to link to similar items and give users ability to suggest or review items. Would be less commercial than a site like Amazon.

Daisy is my baby

Daisy is my Maltese Shih Tzu and yes I love her

More problems

Still problems with the cookie message even though I have been through the instructions and set cookie settings as instructed. Then I couldn't get into this blog as I kept getting a Google error message saying I looked shifty....... I resorted to calling Help Desk but it had them stumped. Getting the same error message but now I am in and feeling slightly faint due to the effort involved. Certainly am wasting an inordinate amount of time with these problems whilst trying to catch up during this quieter!!?? time

Scrapbooking tool

Again problems - trying to put photo into a scrapbooking background - could upload and edit but couldn't get a finished product. Tried Layout editor and HTML could edit in both but couldn't get a finished product - kept saying error on page. Giving up (again) for today and will try at home.

Image generators

Lots of fun

Web 2.0 for our libraries

Hmmm...hopefully a new library management system will enable us to embrace this. There are so many options to be more interactive with our clients. Unfortunately we are more reactive than proactive. I was very interested in what Rick Anderson had to say in his article Away from the “icebergs” "We need to focus our efforts not on teaching research skills but on eliminating the barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need" Are we trend spotters? We need to identify those in our library service who are and disseminate this information so we aren't always playing catchup.

Cookie problems

I have created shortcuts with bookmarks on IE toolbar. When I use this format to enter a site eg. 23 Things Progress Log or Blogger Dashboard, I cannot enter site as it tells me I have disabled cookies but when I check the settings everything is as it should be. But if I enter from my favourites list then access isn't a problem. I'm becoming quite frustrated with some of the inconsistencies with the IT tools used in 23 things. I couldn't use Firefox this morning but could use it 2 weeks ago. Problems with Flickr etc etc etc. I believe I probably have spent up to 2-3 hours over the course of the programme trying to get around these difficulties.

Flickr again

Had huge problems (as per previous blogs) uploading photos to Flickr at work. When I was able to get near our Mac at home I was able to load up to 200 images with no problems whatsoever!!
So I can lay Flickr to rest. Regarding how we could use Flickr for TAFESA libraries. Again we could use it as a tool to share marketing and promotion ideas.

Adding photos from the internet

Thank you to Anne Brumley for these great photos from Flickr

Have decided the best way to do this is to save the image to my desktop and add it to my blog that way. Still having problems adding images to Flickr - when using Firefox my organisation wouldn't even let me onto Flickr although I could get on using IE. What the..........