Thing 23 - Ending Contemplations

My favorite site from this collection of exercises was wordle. I had seen it used before but had never tried my own hand at it. But I really love how easy it is and how fun it is to mess around with the fonts and organization to totally change the feel of the collection of words. But beyond the fun parts, I think this collection of 23ish things to know about has been a little eye-opening for me. Usually I stay with the websites I am comfortable with. And the applications and options I don't know about stay that way until I need some random things like a trading card of myself for a project. To learn about all the different options of ways to organize or socially interact with information has showed me just how diverse the options really are. I am glad to be able to file away many of these different tools, or at least the ideas of the tools, for opportunities in the future. And this knowledge will go well with all the other ideas and concepts I pull out in my learning environments in the classroom and my practical life out in the library environment and beyond.

I think the format of this workshop was well laid out. Anyone could easily follow the instructions or links to complete the assignments and all the different concepts were well explained. One big thing infiltrating all different aspects of life is social networking so an inclusion of some type of technology relating to that might be a useful addition to other workshops in the future, possibly?

Oh, and thanks to whoever organized, put-together, discovered, correlated, worked through, experimented with, and decided upon all the 23 things to do with this exercise!

Thing 22 - Tumblebooks

I looked through Tumblebooks on our own OPL kids page and was surprised by what the ebooks really entailed. I was expecting the click through the pages of the picture books just like I click through the pages of regular adult ebooks I read online. However here, they slide and flash and move the pictures all around, almost like a movie. It reminded me of the stories read on Reading Rainbow when I was a kid, where they showed the actual pictures but made them more animated and full of motion instead of static pictures. Quite entertaining. And quite a find that I had no idea OPL had!

One frustration I had with it was the slower loading time without notes to the reader that the loading is still taking place. When the first picture came up, I automatically assumed the whole book was loaded. However I found that the title page really was supposed to give you something to look at while the book loaded. A small "loading" bar would help with this small misunderstanding I would think.

Thing 21- Podcasts

I've listened and downloaded hundreds of different types of podcasts in the past, so for this thing, I opted to not actually download the software in order to access a new podcast for this exercise. However, I did go and look through the podcastalley directory and found it to be pretty useful. I'll post a link here to a podcast I would like to access from a different computer when I have time. So for ease of access: http://www.dakineguild.net/hgp/hgppca.xml.

There are many obvious ways that the library could be using the concept of podcasts. Letting users upload their own to promote or talk about their recent reads or favorite books would be one way. Or the podcast technology could be useful for promoting different community activities or library events to more technologically-active users; or even to work in conjunction with nearby school environments of learning and interaction with information and technology. A very useful tool.

Thing 20- Youtube. The ever present video viewing medium of my generation

What I would like from YouTube is some sort of tagging system. They have similar movies along the side which might possibly lead to the movie you are looking for, or might not. But unless you know a very similar title to search for the exact clip you are looking for, you might not be able to find it.

I'll post a video a couple of my friends put together in what is most entertaining part of Youtube, all the people I know who are on there.

Let's stir up some friendly competition - Thing 19

I looked through the site NowPublic.com. It is a site which is comprised of world news, reports, pictures, facts, opinions and breaking stories of anyone who wants to post on the site. I read through the ranking system and was intrigued by what the site is actually out to achieve. It states that "the more you contribute and get involved, the more you’ll move up". Anyone can post and move up in getting points to move their stories higher up in the leader board and onto the front page. I liked how this work as any person is given the chance to tell the rest of the reading world whatever they have found out or think the others need to know. However, I do know that because of how the information is submitted, it would be harder for me to take what I read there and believe it fully. It would take more research on top of it to gain the authority needed for the information read.

I'm not sure how this concept would fit into the library world. There are many libraries which already do many wonderful interactive pages for book reviews or to facilitate community involvement. Maybe people like to work for points, though. And for bragging rights. And if we assigned points or stars to each person who posted reviews or made comments, it would spark more competition and therefore more interaction?? I like that idea...

Thing 18 - Googledocs

As I looked through Google-docs I was struck with how much more it resembled an email creation screen reather than a Word docuement interface. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, I'm still not sure since I was expecting a little more intense interface to write in. But regardless, I still see this as having great potential for use in the future. I especially like the option it gives you to always have access to the document no matter what computer you are working at instead of worrying where it is saved or not. A good tool which seems very useful for real life needs.

Thing 17

Not sure if we are supposed to blog about Thing 17 but I will anyway. I posted on the favorite blog page and then tried posting on the favorite vacation page. Interesting way to gather information or ideas...