Netvibes

How long do you spend before work each morning checking your email, the weather forecast, your blog, your oh so important facebook, news updates, other people's blogs, etc. etc. Probably more time than is necessary thanks to the handy and user friendly Netvibes. Now all the places you love and cherish are grouped on one simple home page. I found Netvibes extremely user friendly. It's easy to add applications such as gmail and facebook, although adding my Flickr pictures has not worked out yet, Dale, if you're reading this, HELP! :) I see Netvibes as being really helpful for our students once we get our new program of online use up and running. It makes it so simple to load your accounts once and then be able to simply click on a tab and access those different pages all from the same home page without entering a username and password for each account every time. Way to go, Netvibes, we'll be great friends in the future!

google docs photo

This handsome looking fellow was found on the google docs photo manager, Picasa. I looked and looked for a feature to directly link the picture from the google docs site to my blog but couldn't find one. I ended up just saving him to my pictures and uploading it like any other photo....oh well, he's still nice to look at.

google docs calender

Google Goodness

Here it is, my first Google Document,, or to be on the trendy side, google doc. These applications are so unbelievably handy! A few minutes ago I uploaded a word document (book report guidelines) from a file on my computer straight to my blog in a matter of seconds simply by hitting publish. It was a pretty big document to put in my blog without having a reason for it, so it's gone now, but it was so easy I won't hesitate in the future to upload a file to my blog using google docs rather than cutting and pasting or saving to my flash drive, opening, blah blah blah. Possibly one of the best features of the google docs is the formatting, or lack there of. You don't need to reformat something if say, you are working from a mac at home and want to email a file to yourself at work where there is a pc. Because although word is supposed to be compatible with both processors, I can testify from experience that it isn't always so. With this handy processing form you can type directly on line and then link it to what you need to.

Week 7 part deux

The sandbox (love the title) was fun because it was interesting to see everyone else's top pics, and it was also a good first experience with editing and adding to a wiki. I was actually surprised to find how easy the editing process was. An activity like that would be a great tool for our students. When you start with "fun" lists and get them thinking that way it opens the doors for other types of sharing and thinking about what is truly important to them.

The Wicked Wiki of the West

Wiki's can be pretty wicked in a "gnarly", "bad is good" sort of way. They range from the elaborate to the basically functional, but are emerging as a trendy and tidy way of connecting people online without the stigma of trying to develop and navigate a full blown website. Wiki's seem to be somewhere in between a simple diary like blog and a fully functional website with all the bells and whistles. Wiki's have the capabilities of links, subcategories,widgets, etc., but they don't have to be started from scratch. Like a blog, there is a pre-established template that just needs fillling in. In terms of the Adult Learning Center (YES, I use the American spelling because it is pronounced "er" not "re" as in reply) I see the wiki as being an important tool for communication between staff from different sites. Because you can go into a wiki and make notes, very similarly to what you do no an online message board, comments, post questions, basically have conversations without picking up the phone and possibly during those around you, the wiki is invaluable as a communication tool. This will also be a good first step in introducing web based dialogue and communication via the world wide web to our students. Some students are already familiar with sites like Facebook and MySpace, so teaching them to use online resources for schooling purposes will broaden their online knowledge. Other students have never been on the web before and wikis are fairly uncomplicated to access and use, so they are a good way for students to become comforable with the internet. a couple questions: Should we keep the Wiki private for students only? How do we set it up as far as curriculum goes?

A Temporary Place in Time

I don't know that I would categorize the online community or web mania as being temporary, but I did enjoy and for the most part agree with, Dr. Wendy Schultz's article "To a Temporary Place in Time". At first I thought that Dr. Shultz was hesitant to admit the appeal and wide spread use of all things online. But I soon discovered that she is not only open to web use in libraries, she is very up to date on current trends such as the virtual world in SecondLife. The main arugment in her article is that eventually, after the online craze has become so large that librarians are being rated and "judged" so to speak: "Who’s the best librarian avatar? How many Amazon stars has your avatar collected from satisfied customers? This could create librarian “superstars” based on buzz and customer ratings. People will collect librarians rather than books—the ability not just to organise, but also to annotate and compare books and other information sources, from a variety of useful perspectives..." there will be a return to the need for that long forgotten past time of reading, relaxing, enjoying the company of actual people rather than the virtual kind. I don't see this happening any time soon, but I do see that trend coming around just as the trend right now is towards the virtual world. "Into a new world of librarianship" by Micheal Stephens and "To more powerful ways to cooperate" by Chip Nilges are more clinical looks at the changing duties of the typical librarian. Nilges article actually lost me a couple of times in the web jargon he is fond of, but Stephens was a somewhat more useful guide to the evolving demands placed on today's librarian. This demand, or means of gathering information, filtering it, and presenting to someone depending on it, can also be applied to Adult Learning. The needs of Adult Learners are changing because society is changing. Will it be enough to upgrade math, writing, and reading skills? Or will the adult learner also need to know how to communicate and naviage the web? I think that the latter is true. Today's world is becoming increasingly dependent on online information and we would be doing a disservice to our student's by not educating ourselves and in return educating them on the practices and benefits of online know how.

Technorati gets technical

Can't say that I'm a huge fan of Technorati. I could only locate anything on Library 2.0 through the blog search. And even then I wasn't aloud to view the Library 2.0 blog because it is "private" and I was searching through the funnel of Technorati as an outsider. I couldn't find anything else about our particular endeavor. Looking at the popular searches I was surprised and a little disgusted to see that Paris Hilton was one of the top ten (and I think even one of the top five) searches. Pathetic! Who cares?? Obviously some Technorati users do. I did find out that Karl Rove has resigned. "to spend more time with his family" HA! I'd love to meet one person who believes that...just one! I guess I didn't see anything that Google or Yahoo don't offer as search engines except that Technorati does have a blog search which the other two don't.

Del.icio.us

Delicious and Nutritous! Or at least helpful. I browsed around the open market of Del.icio.us for a while and even attempted to make my own bookmark, but it wouldn't show up on my toolbar..not sure if there was a filter up against it or what. I had put together a list of about 10 cites all on a certain subject for the bookmark from what other people had favorited. It was interesting to find sites I may never have known about otherwise. Why do all the leg work when someone else has already done it for you? When I searched through the favorites saved on the O.S.N.G.U.P.L. link I discovered this delightful site. I didn't know that there was a website dedicated to all things online in Owen Sound. And not just things that are online. theowen is a great resource for upcoming events, local photographer, all from a uniquely Owen Sound Perspective. Although I enjoyed my search on Del.icio.us, I feel like it's one of those sites that could quickly turn from productive time spent on line researching and tagging, to "oh, no, I just spent 3 hours looking up movie reviews on movies I may never watch" It could definitely be helpful here in the ALC to bookmark sites that our student's would enjoy and have it all in a neat package for them so that they aren't caught stranded in the sea of online information.

Humour Me

Now that you all have seen my toilet humour, I must say that this was too much fun! And if Alex ever reads this blog he will have actual tears from this picture...it's a Torrie family joke the look on his face. I think enough is said on that? I tried to make myself a Simpson character from this site but to no avail as I can't resize or crop photos from this work computer and we don't currently have internet at home. So, I had to use what limited supply of pictures I have here. It's amazing to me the minds who come up with all of these ideas and creative uses for pictures, logos, captions, etc. And the fact that almost all of it is free is really cool. It truly is information sharing. A beautiful thing about the world wide web. Whatever look you want can be easily and inexpensively made if you just know where to look. I plan to keep scoping out the possiblites of how to turn basic pictures into something interesting and personal. Another interesting week in Library 2.0 land!