Topic 23 - Where to from here?

Twenty three things is finished, It has been a long journey of fun?, learning?

After a few hiccups at the start waiting for passwords and logins, the course pretty much played out as it should.

The tools we learnt and read about were all new generation but a few of them were all ready known to me.

A few tools can be used in libraries, depending of course on the IT infrastructure. It would be nice to have youtube video's up to show our customer's our services or how to use equipment.

Overall twenty three things was fun, informative and a great staff development exercise.

Topic 22 - Web 2.0 tools

The web 2.0 tool that I have choosen was youtube.

I choose this tool as it has alot to offer libraries in the use of videos, I feel students would rather watch something than read alot of information, (they tend to switch off if theres to much to read)

The visuals would be able to show the students what the library looks like, without them trying to guess from written words,

It is easier to do demonstration instructions for say photocopying, printing, logging onto the computers, searching for a book, opac use, rather than try and figure it out from written instructions , to see the process feels alot better and easier to understand.

Topic 21 - Web Based Applications.

Having used google docs for the duration of this training course I can see how easy it is to use and and access the information.

I do think it would be a good idea of sharing documents if you cannot gget access to our S drive (for presentations,displays) but I think that there needs to be some rules set if using with alot of people .

If no rules are set anyone who has access can change the document or even delete it, as long as that is covered I think its a great tool to use.

Topic 20 - second life

I have had a play with second life when it first came out with alot of hype, I did check out a few places but didn't really seem to think it was as good as it said it was. Now the hype has sorta died down a bit I'm not sure if it's all that popular now.

As for use with libraries I don't know if many people will use it as it seems to need a pretty powerful PC and alot of internet usage. Also why go to all that trouble when you can just google a few clicks and you may get the same results quicker.

Topic 19 - Yammer & Twitter

I haven't played around with twitter or yammer as I have as much as facebook or myspace, but i think its just a smaller condensed version of them. You can only post certain amounts of text.

It seems to be useful if somethig happens at that moment and people would be interested in the event. I'm not sure how this could work for libraries, the only thing I could think off is the letting students know the status of the network, printing etc. (but that may say its down more often than it's up)

Topic 18 - Online Communities

Having previously joined facebook, I know about the tools and options available to its members and I think some of these can be used for tafe libraries.

I also am a member of the TAFESA library page/group and the postings put up there show what facebook can offer. With further postings and playng around it could be a useful tool.

Topic 17 - Library Thing

I am unsure what this could be used for in TAFESA libraries, but it does seem interesting to see what other people are reading or what subject is popular at the time.

I can't really see this being used by students at TAFE, I don't think they will have the time to add stuff or review.

anyway here is the link to my library :

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/goulan

Topic 16 - Image Generators

Image generators are fun to manipulate images and the options are endless.

I'm sure you could find one that could fit in with libraries and would go down well with the gen y crowd.

My little creation's below

Topic 15 Podcasting

Trying to find a podcast that would work was a bit difficult, but finally I have found one

Star Wars Action News

Information about star wars for the ultimate fan.

the RSS feeds are linked on the left, but when you click the link it will open a download link but be warned the file size is 80MB.

Th file sizes could be a problem for some users and access may slow if opening at TAFE.

Topic 14 Youtube & Teachertube

Behold William Shatner aka Captain Kirk singing "Rocketman" at the 1978 sci fi awards.



You can find anything on youtube, but many copyright issues could come up.

Both youtube and teachertube have a good feature in which you can embed the clip into a website.

Topic 13 igoogle

The gadgets you can add to your igoogle homepage are cool, useful and numerous.

You can add quick links to your flickr and youtube account and see your contents.
YOur RSS feeds, Google Docs, Blogs can all been seen in the one place, which makes igoogle sorta like your desktop on a pc, but one that can travel with you .

I also like the option where you can add games.

the downside with this , is the fact you are the only ones who can see the homepage and you cannot broadcast it to others unless you email them a link to it and invite them to view.

If the library canfind a way to add gadgets to its library pagethat everyone can view it would be good and useful.

Topic 12 Tagging

Tagging on delicious is like adding a website to your favourite lists in internet explorer or bookmarks on firefox.

The only difference is, which is a good one if you are using different computers the tagging can follow you.

You can open your delicious website and see all your favourite websites ready for you to use.

An example in its use:

iThis is great for presentations when you maybe using someon else' computer and instead of typing websites you can just click the links from delicious.

Topic 10 & 11 Flickr

You can just about find any topic imaginable on flickr to browse
- which can be good and bad!

I like the option of making photo's public or private.

The bad part was trying to upload a picture to my blog
through flickr's blogging tools, didn't seem to want to work for me.

I ended up copying the picture and inserting it below :)

Taken while on my trip to melbourne to watch the mighty

West Coast Eagles play Melbourne at the MCG and lose :(

i will post a link to flickr with some more once i set flickr up !!

Topic 8 & 9 Wikis

Wikis what can I say, these were fun, It was cool to be able to edit or add stuff to a website in real time and not having to know any html stuff.

The problem with wikis is that other people can delete your stuff or change it, but with some of the tools you can get your stuff back.

The LEARN sandbox was fun adding to a list already created by others , also inserting pictures and colouring of the text I found was quite easy.

Topic 6 & 7 See and Share and Movi

I've haven't had a great luck with both see & share and movi, the programs have crashed it each time during a session, once that problem is out of the way they can be a very useful tool.

see & share allows you to see other peoples desktop in live time, mark and draw on the screen, and have a chat with your fellow meeting buddies.

movi - is sharing your voice and webcam - sorta like a video conference from your desk , which is great if you have a short amount of time instead of the full video conference.

you can also do a one on one which saves you from booking a big room with just one person in it.

Hopefully the next time I use them I won't have any of the technical details and will learn more about them each time I use them.

Topic 4 & 5 RSS feeds

Been a while between posts , but hoping to catch up soon!

RSS feeds are interesting, they have there good points and bad points.

The good - RSS feeds are useful in keeping track of favourite websites when you need to and are using different computers and your favourite website lists can't follow you.

The bad - RSS feeds are sometime not available on all websites and trying to create an RSS feed doesn't always come out the way the way you want it too.

Topic 3 RSS feeds

I like the idea of RSS feeds easy to access the stuff your interested in. A few links do not work but most seem to be ok.

Woohoo! my first blog :)