Week 11/Thing 23

Where to start!
I feel that this course was one of the best learning experiences I have had-- including my courses at Simmons. The lucid explanations of what can be confusing technologies, the wide scope of tools and relevant sources of information, the clear directions about blog topics, and the freedom to work on this course as time allowed were the greatest strengths of the course. 1)My favorite weeks involved photo sharing tools, the online productivity tools, and YouTube week. 2)All of the learning experiences (including the ones I did not especially like such as the avatars or things that I messed up on and had to try over again) have affected my lifelong learning goal to be current in my field and leave my comfort zone often to try new technologies and applications.
3) I was most surprised by several things-- all the cool stuff I could do and just how long each lesson took me. Most of the time I clicked every link and tried to read everything listed. This explains partly why I am so late in finishing. I didn't realize it would take so long, but to me it made sense to use the informational links provided. Another surprise was all the accounts I had to set up.
4)The online productivity tools, Del.ici.ious and Library Thing-type tools are things that will most benefit me personally and my work, although most of the other weeks have things I am already using. 5) I'm not aware of any other social networking tools we did not cover. I also don't know how you would improve this program--the only thing I can think of would be to ask a mentor/teacher/instructor-type person to provide weekly feedback to us via our blogs. 6) I'd like to see a porgram of this type offered at least twice a year. I would definitely participate and look forward to any new things you can provide to us.
Thanks again for a great program.

Week 11/Thing 22

This week helped me to understand how podcasts work and how they can be wonderful (and easy) for small libraries. I really liked what Springfield Library did with he Children's room podcasts. I was amazed to find so many library related help tools that did not seem that difficult to implement.
Finally, I checked over the podcast directories and selected 2 that interested me. I subscribed to Nancy Pearl's feed and also subscribed to Writer's Corner through my iTunes acct. I'd like to get my high school students to do a podcast on YA books and will look into it further--we need some basic equipment--but I think this would be popular. I love the optional assigment-- I don't have a mike but I'll borrow one someplace and come back to this in my blog after the course is over.

UHF Conan The Librarian

Week 11/Thing 21

This week's "thing" is one of favorites --I've been viewing YouTube for some time and I especially like the daily/weekly videos. I'm still amazed at how video sharing has become commonplace (I looked at the other video sharing sites) and how it varies from the "sublime to the ridiculous." I also can't help but see how it is still one of the most powerful for good and bad of the social networking tools. As a school librarian, what's amazing to me is how YouTube videos of differing relevancy are showing up on Google searches for student information on topics. That said, I also like the TeacherTube site.
I signed up for an account and added my fav --"Conan the Librarian" to my favorites-- and downloaded it to this week's "thing."
YouTube definitely has a place on a library website--it can introduce a staff, instruct or introduce the library plaes and procedures like the Harper College Library video, serve as a lively host for book talks, student contests,etc. I like the idea of student created and edited projects without a huge expense of materials(like the old days!)

Week 10/Thing 20

I explored LinkedIn since my daughter at NYU Stern SChool of Businesss had mentioned it as a professional tool for job. I was a litle disappointed in it, but maybe libraries and non-profits are not that well represented here. I saw a blog post in SEOmoz that sort of echoed my findings " ... pondering the value and use of LinkedIn, the professional/business version of the social networking phenomenon. To date, I've connected with 30 or so folks through the service, but they're largely people I know from the industry. I've been introduced to one person through the service, but it was by way of a colleague and could easily have been done through email, too." I also looked at a number of other award winning nominees--especially those in books, web design, etc.

Week 10/Thing 19.1

This is another mini blog entry written in Zoho Writer and posted to my blog. I love the templates and the applications here.

Keeping this short since I've created it in Google docs and will send it to my blog.

The best part of this project is that it gets me to actually try the things I have been reading abvout--in this case, the google web-based office applications. I'm very impresssed--I like the spread sheet much better and made myself a tiny 3 page "powerpoint" presentation that works very well--inserted a YouTube link. I can see how the software giant might be threatened--I personally think these web-based tools will become SOP in the workplace. I also love the share presenatuons and edits--we have a project that will be vastly hastened.