Singer 4 Life

Overall View

2008-01-25T09:06:00.000-05:00

Learning 2.0 was an experience that I can say that I will not forget. Not that it's a bad thing but because I have learned and experienced some interesting stuff on this journey. There were some things that I truly enjoyed and there were other things that I just really thought "What's the point?" Well, my overall view is that this was a great idea to get staff up to date on the latest technology. I truly understand the concept of the Learning 2.0 experience, but it was very time comsuming. It really took a lot more time than I thought, but it is okay I got through it.

I can't say that I will miss Learning 2.0, but I can say that I will take away a lot of things that I have learned. Learning 2.0 taught me some things that I really didn't mind learning and it taught me some things that I will probably never use again. To be honest this was a lot of information. I don't even think that I will be able to hold on to all the things that I read or saw or even attempted to do in these exercises. But what I can hold I will remember for a while.

So, with all that said! Good Bye Learning 2.0 !

The Experience

2008-01-22T15:35:00.000-05:00

Learning 2.0 was overall a good experience for me. I have learn a lot of new things that I would have never known about unless I participated in this training. Anyway, the main thing right now is that it is OVER!!!!! It has been a very long training session. I would like to say that some of the exercises seemed to be a little bit too confusing for me. I would like to say "THANK YOU" to all my co-workers who helped when I didn't understand.

I must say that the online generators was my favorite and my least favorite was the podcasting. Anyway, it was not what I excepted it to be. I was looking for something a little simple than what we had. The wording used on these exercises were confusing because I am not up to date on all of the terminology that "Computer People" use today. I wish that there was more time spent on certain areas of the training and less time on others.

Well, overall my experience was great. I am glad that I took advantage of this opportunity, but wish that it wasn't so time consuming.

Rollyo

2008-01-16T19:29:00.000-05:00

I found that this site is good, but I didn't see how it was any different from any other search engine. Maybe it's me... And that I don't fully understand how Rollyo works. But other than that I could find what I was searching for. But I did find out that most of the links are blocked on the staff computers. I also enjoyed looking at the free photo site. Seeing pictures of my favorite celebrites in different enviroments was great. I like that site, but once again it wanted you to sign up for a free account to get more information on the celebrity of choose. I decided not to do that. Please NO MORE ACCOUNTS!!!!

Library Thing

2008-01-11T10:55:00.001-05:00

I believe that Library Thing is a good asset to those who are book lovers! It is a really good way to keep up with the books that you have read. Because most of the time we forget the titles of the books we have read when we are trying to make a recommendation to someone that you think might like it as well.

This will be a great way to keep titles and authors organized. In my catalog I have only put in so far 11 titles that I have personally read that I really liked and would probably read those titles again. Or just go back to those for a reference. You can check out my catalog at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/desmith28

Online Image Generator

2008-01-11T10:31:00.000-05:00

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

I love this site! This one was one of the best ones that I have done. It was absolutely fun. I also liked the Warhol Generator as well. Here take a look at the "CADDY"!

This is actually a picture of my car!! I love her..... She is a beauty!!

Podcast & Videos

2008-01-10T16:42:00.000-05:00

I went to the Library Services to Alumni for John Hopkins University: I must say that they do have a few good things available for their alumni online to use. Anyway, I think that this would be a good way for libraries to communicate with the public without them having to come in all the time to receive the help that they need. Instead they can listen to a staff member give instructions one step at a time so that the the customer will be able to use some of the online sources that are available for them to use.

Anyway, on a more personal note: I would not sit and listen to some one talk the whole time I am trying to do something online unless I was just in an emergency situation. But I would sit a watch a video instruction so that I can see exactly what I need to do and what I should not do. But overall it is a good idea.

Podcasts

2008-01-10T14:51:00.000-05:00

I think that the podcast is a good idea, but I could not get into the 1st two sites due to the websense and on yahoo podcasts you had to pay to listen to the tracks. It is good for those that have portable devices were they can download the podcasts that they want. It seems to be easy enough to understand how it is done and what you can do with them.

I would not personally do a podcast but I would if I had a portable device download some of my favorite tracks.

YouTube

2008-01-10T10:55:00.000-05:00

I really enjoyed this one! I could actually spend hours on hours watching all of the videos and clips on youtube. Well, it was very hard for me to actually choose which one that I wanted to use, but I finally made a decision to use this video. It is very funny. I think that this site is very useful. It is sometimes hard to understand instructions in writing, but with youtube it is great becasue we watch and listen to someone actually doing what they are instructing us to do.

Just Great!!

Flickr Toys

2008-01-05T11:53:00.000-05:00

"Montagr- What in the world is this?" My first question! LOL

Now that I know what it is. I love this feature on Flickr. Creating a picture with pictures (mosaic) is the coolest thing that I have seen so far in this assignment. Well, this is a great way to use pics. If you want all or most of you pics to be seen this is a great way to do it,especially with the mouse over feature.

I say Cool Beans!!

More Flickr

2008-01-05T11:42:00.000-05:00

There are so many different things that can be done once you have created a Flickr account that I think is very interesting. You can do and create a lot of fun things with your pictures. Here are some of the ones that I like: Photos Cubes, posters, Sticker books, Note Cards and Mini Cards

I thought that those were very unique!

Tags are just labels given to a picture to describe it in one or two words so that it will be easier and faster to find. It is important to tag so that you know where to find certain pictures.

Flickr

2008-01-05T11:11:00.000-05:00

I think that this is a very good site for those would take a lot of photos and are interested in sharing them. I am a little apprehensive about putting my personal photos and infomation on the web. But I really believe that for those people who are open to this will have a really wonderful time using Flickr because of the many different ways you can use this site. It is a great way to post and share your most recent photos that you have taken. I believe this site is good for people who have family and friends in different places that way they can have a way to see some up to date pictures of family and friends. It is also a great way to maintain and keep up with photos so that they won't get ruin by pets, children or even by you because they are located on the computer.

Well, here is a link to a picture that I like. It is the best place to work in the city of VB. Thanks Diane for loading this one to your Flickr account.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vbdiane/2125386906/

Exploring

2007-12-28T14:58:00.000-05:00

The site that I choose to explore was the iGoogle site. I have actually created my own iGoogle page. I love it. I can change the theme of the page to my own personal liking. It was great being able to explore some of the gadget that you can add to your page. You have a variety of things you can choose from: Games, pictures, youtube videos, thoughts of the day, weather, time and you can even put the flower of the day on there. I found it great for keeping up with my Google Reader. It shows me all of the new things that I have not read on my Reader and it also displays for me the actual number of new items that are on the reader. I don't know if this would be a good thing for library or not. It just all depends on how and what you would use it for.

Technorati -

2007-12-28T14:25:00.000-05:00

This one was confusing for me. I had to actually try it more than 2x. I don't think that I would use this at all. To me it is not user friendly. The youtube video that we watched was not helpful at all. The way they had it on the video is not actually how it is. Which made it just a little more confusing than it already was. Anyway, when I did the searches I found that there were over 1,000 blogs about Learning 2.0 and over 1,000 post tagged. I guess I would say that Technorati is a GREAT counter!

Tagging - Del.icio.us

2007-12-17T15:25:00.000-05:00

Well, now I can say that I know what tagging is. At first, I was little confused as to what it all meant and why it was such a big deal to people. I must say that when I looked at the Del.icio.us site I didn't know what I was actually looking at. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out how to view comments about a particular bookmark. But even with this experience, I can see this being used in the library system to help out for reference assistance. It would be a great tool to use to see what sites co-workers have used and what is helpful and what was a waste of time. So, instead of me having to search high and low for a certain topic I can go and put in my keyword and see what taggs come up.

MySpace

2007-12-12T15:55:00.001-05:00

Like I said in my last blog, I don't have a personal MySpace page but I am responisble for maintaining the MySpace account for my church, www.myspace.com/remixconference and let me say it was one of the easiest things that I have done on the computer. I feel that MySpace is okay for what it is supposed to do. It is a great way for people to keep in contact with those long lost friends and family members. I believe that this site is so popular because of the 24/7 access and the ability for people to remain in contact without ever having to see the other person. I guess because I am such a private person is the reason I don't have a personal page. And another reason is because I really don't have the time to sit at a computer and type or post a comment to a friend. But I am the text message QUEEN!

OSN

2007-12-12T13:02:00.000-05:00

I am not against social networking sites but I am cautious about them. I don't think that they are bad sites all together, because they can be used for a positive purpose. I don't have a personal MySpace page but I am responsible for maintaining and updating a page for the church I attend. It is a tool that I use to make announcements about events. It is also a place where I can keep in contact with the members and also friends that are not near. I think the sole purpose of OSN is to keep in communciation with those friends and people that you may not see daily.

VBPL WiKi

2007-12-11T10:12:00.000-05:00

After visiting and adding my pick to the VBPL Wiki I find that it is very simple to add my comments to this page. I didn't find it hard at all to figure out how to post what I wanted to say on this page. The only thing that concerns me is that fact that anyone can get on and if they wanted to change what I said. That doesn't seem to be a good thing, cause then if that happened I would have to constantly go back and rewrite my comments. I think that the best way to use Wikis is for a collaborate assignment between more than two people that are not in the same place at the same time.

WiKis

2007-12-05T16:00:00.001-05:00

The most interesting thing that I found out about wikis is that there is a lot of them out there. I never knew about wikis until now and I am amazed to find out that there are a lot of library systems already using them. The other thing was that there is a lot of information available on these wikis. TONS....

WiKis are good for the projects that are to be a collaborate effort. If you would like for someone else to make changes and share ideas that you haven't thought of then this would be a great way to do that.

This is all still new to me so, not much to say about it.

VBPL & IM

2007-12-05T15:30:00.000-05:00

After experiencing the IM throught VBPL I have found that it is a great way to get a response in a timely manner on specific questions that you may have at the time. I think that this is an asset to the VBPL system. It give the staff the opportunity to use this not so new technology 4 the work enviroment and it also gives our customers another way to access the library.

I really believe that this is a great way 4 us to keep up with the times as well as us getting info out to an individual in a few moments.

IM & Libraries

2007-12-03T11:55:00.000-05:00

I believe that libraries should use IM because it is a faster way to get information out to the customers. It is a way to actually help the customers that are online at the time needing some right now assistance. IM is a tool used because it is faster than email and you are actually talking to some one right then and there rather than waiting for some one to email you back. Which could take days or even weeks.

Change is inevitable and with the new technology that comes out each year it will help us not to be so out of date with today's users.

ttyl...

Searching 4 Feeds

2007-11-26T10:22:00.000-05:00

Well, I tried to search 4 feeds on Topix and Syndic8, but I found that it wasn't very helpful 4 me. I guess if I was looking for something specific it might have worked 4 me. I think that this was an interesting thing, because when I typed in a something that I wanted to find, it actually pulled up everything that it had with that word or phrase in it. Well, all I can say is that I like going to a particular page and clicking on the RSS feed button. Especially, if it is a site that I visit frequently.

Single Mom

2007-11-21T14:50:00.001-05:00

I am the proud mother of one handsome son. He is the reason why I do the things that I do. I am encouraged just to know that he loves me regardless of what mistakes that I have made.

This is to all the single moms out there! Be encouraged and know that regardless of the mistake or challenges that you have to face know that you are the most important person to your child. So, keep your head up. Things are going to get so much better. As a matter of fact you look so much better in the future.

Smile Ladies, You Are Loved!!!

RSS Feeds

2007-11-21T14:25:00.000-05:00

I have a question first.... Who's Hungry? For information that is...

Let me just say the RSS feeds will prevent you from starving. This is a great way to get the most up to date information that you want to know about in one place. It is nice to know that I can have the information come to me instead of me searching all day long on page after page for one story that i want to read.

This will definitely cut down on research time. RSS feeds will enable us to get the new info faster

Library 2.0

2007-11-15T15:40:00.000-05:00

Let me just say that Library 2.0 is going to be an eye opening experience 4 me. I think that library 2.0 will be a great opportunity for the staff of VBPL to learn and teach others new technology. I like the idea of "Coming Out of the Box" or should I say "Eventually" coming out of the box. Because some of us will take longer than others to explore the new technology of the 2.0 World!

7 1/2 Habits

2007-11-14T14:53:00.000-05:00

Life long learner is what I strive to be.....

Of these 7 1/2 Habits there were 2 that I feel will be hard for me

1. viewing my problems as challenges

When it comes to technology I am not the brightest of them all but I can be a quick learner as long as I don't have an over load of info to maintain.

2. creating a tool box

Who has time 4 creating anything these days. Not me!!

The easiest thing is having the confidence that I will be able to be an effective learner. I am more than confident that this will definitely be a learning experience.