Exercise 23

Just the start .........

I am not saying goodbye to Learning 2.0, but as many other people have quoted 'this is just the beginning'. My eyes have been opened to what is out in the internet, the technology is incredible, the knowledge that can be gained is enormous and the hours of pleasure from the fun sites is just limitless.

I still do not know how many people will come into a library and ask us questions on these topics, but I feel that it has given me more areas of knowledge to understand and help. It has given me the confidence to now delve into the internet and investigate, play and learn.

It took me a long time to initially understand what was required in Learning 2.0 as I thought that the instructions were all over the place. But my first big step took me about three weeks - to set up your own blog and the first posting. Once I achieved that I found the whole process much easier and was able to keep up weekly, bearing in mind that I had dial-up at home, where 90% of the work was done.

As you can see from my blog, I really enjoy photography and find that very easy. Have a great digitial SLR which produces fantastic photos and enjoy gardening, embroidery and live music. Now this comes very naturally to me. Flickr, Flickr Fun, On-line image generator and Librarything were easy, interesting and fun.

Therefore, to me, Technorati was my least liked exercise. In fact, I nearly stopped blogging there as I had difficulty understanding how to place it on my blog. I have to thank all the blogs that I read that helped me over this stage.

Some of the information and knowledge gained from these exercises could be applied to the library and I could see courses being taught through blogs, YouTube, etc. Life in the future is going to be so very different from what it is like now. The differences between twenty years ago in a library and today is enormous. We are asked different information questions, borrowers use our internet site for the catalogue and on-line resources, renew their books, discover our current events and read the library blog. I was very disappointed that there was not more Australian content, especially LibraryThing.

What will be next in technology?

I have really enjoyed Learning 2.0. I really love having ADSL2+. When is the next course?

Exercise 22

eBooks

I have finally got ADSL2+ at home and do you realise the difference it makes! I can now fly along with searching on the internet and discovering the joys of Youtube, eBooks, etc. At work, our workroom PCs are so very very slow, that it was difficult, and at home, had dial-up. So I feel that I have had to work twice as hard as most people!

I looked and listened to books at the World eBook (Gutenberg's Audio eBook Collection) and Historical Childrens eBookseMovie site. With eBooks, you actually download a chapter at a time and it is very similar to using a CD audio book. Having a MP3 player would be great as you could take it anywhere with you.

Found a sight about free eBooks which has many classics of literature in twenty five categories, including adventure, crime mystery, science fiction, fantasy, westerns, thrillers, martial arts, spy stories, historical and humour. Also a few non-fiction items. All have MP3 files. However, only files playing at 8Kb/sec are free. I listened to part of Romeo and Juliet by Charles and Mary Lamb which is the famous Shakespearian play retold for children. It lasts for 45 minutes and I found the quality of the sound was excellent.

http:// www.audiobooksforfree.com

Exercise 21

Podcasts

This is a very time consuming exercise as well. I spent quite a bit of time before I posted my thoughts to the blog today. I viewed and listened to YouTubes and Podcasts. So many very interesting and educational podcasts and some that I would never want to hear again. Most podcasts are fantastic and what a great idea! When I am unable to view the day's news on the ABC or SBS, I know that I can find a podcast or two on their websites.

Also, podcasts would be wonderful idea for future training at the library. I know that the universities now offer to their students the ability to listen and watch podcasts, etc, instead of attending lectures.

Anyway, I have always wanted to visit the Royal Botanic Gardens at Cranbourne, but spent some time instead listening to the podcast and really enjoyed it.

http://www.rbgcranbourne.com.au/feeds/australiangardenaudioguide.mp3

Exercise 20

You Tube

What a time consuming exercise! I could have wasted so much more time, but realise that I must continue. Which was my favourite You Tube. Had so many, but if you watched everything you wanted, I wouldn't have even posted this blog. Really enjoyed 'The two talking cats'. I was able to relate to these little kittens, communicating and touching - two good traits for good friendships.



But, couldn't resist finding the song my blog is named after, Sunday Song, Fire and Rain by James Taylor. Enjoy as much as I did on that Sunday, eight weeks ago. It was rainy and I was looking out of my front window and the song Fire and Rain came into my head and that just gave me the initial inspiration to start Learning 2.0. Mind you, I have many friends and hadn't recently lost a friend. And I hope that Selby will not suffer fires this summer.

Exercise 19

Web 2.0 Tools

Have had a fairly good look at a few of these tools and thought that I would like to try a 'book' tool. Have already looked at LibraryThing and that site didn't have very much Australian content. Thought that I would try Reader2, but that also didn't have Australian content. I am now over books and decided to have a little fun (and don't forget, I am in the older group of the work force and do not feel inclined to go to Face Book or such like)!!!!!!

Anyway, looked at the Fun Stuff and didn't find anything I wanted to try, so looked under the Games title and found Guess-the-google, the image guesing game. And yes, this is my sort of game! If you have ever had to search for an image on a certain topic on Google Image, you are aware of what images are displayed for a certain keyword. This game deals in completely opposite way. Twenty images are displayed and you have to guess the keyword. Well, did I have fun. While I was playing this game, another person with the same name was playing and in the end, I think we were trying to see who could get the highest points.

In each game, you have 10 individual subgames and for each correct guess, you receive 20 points. You have twenty seconds for each subgame. If you guess the correct keyword quickly, you achieve bonus points which are the number of seconds left. My highest score was 347 but some dude named Derrick got 379 (he must be an over-achiever!).

However, the disappointing part of the entire game was that if you guessed incorrectly, it would only tell you the first letter of the correct keyword and you really didn't get time to find out the correct answer. But I will go back and have more fun on Guess-the-google.

I must now continue with the other exercises so that I can finish Learning 2.0.

Exercise 18

I was really happy with my posting for Zoho Writer until I discovered that my smiley faces didn't come into the blog correctly. So disappointed. Anyway, haven't time to stop and look at this problem. Will continue with the rest of the exercises and retry later.

Exercise 18

Online productivity

I have signed up for Zoho Writer and hope to post this straight to my blog.

I mainly use Microsoft Word & Publisher for my day to day work and personal life. Last night I was at a Corel Down Under meeting and someone was discussing whether I should try 'Ventura"' which is a Corel software. I was saying I had some difficulty with my latest Dibble and Hoe Cottage Gardeners Inc. newsletter, which I have used Microsfot Publisher. I have been using Publisher for about six years and think I know a fair bit about how to use it. I thought that I had completed the 20 pages and saved it correctly. Then I printed it to CutePDF Writer to form a PDF file to email to the members. After I emailed the newsletter, had a member email me back to say that the PDF was unreadable. When I went back and looked at the PDF newsletter, in fact, it hadn't been written correctly for some reason. This other lady said the Publisher is very unreliable and Ventura is better. Well, I will have to have a look at Ventura and I am sure that there are many programs for publishing newsletters.

Hence, after that long explaination, I am ready to try Zoho Writer, even though I now have to stop and think, instead of just typing automatically like I do with Word and Publisher. . Now I have learnt how to change colours. Pretty, colourful, and easy.

♥ Just inserting a symbol because I can!.

Now to try to get this onto my blog