Summary

Interesting exercise. Some things weren't new, others really stretched me (RSS is still a challenge). I'm keeping the links to 23 things and will try some of them again. As far as assisting in life long learning, technology is cool and I'm not intimidated by it. Just don't know how blogs fit in to my paradigm.

Overdrive

I tried overdrive, since that's what CCLP subscribes to. I noticed
- Not many current titles
- No indication of how long the wait is for a hold
so
guess I'll stick with books on CD until Overdrive becomes more available

Itunes

I do have iTunes loaded on my pc and I have watched season 3 of Lost - just days after it was broadcast. My computer doesn't have enough memory to keep the movie running, and I have to shut the program down, usually twice, while watching an hour (or 45 minute) broadcast. Next time, we use Scott's computer with more power. We have also been watching Ninja for a while - very clever.

YouTub

A family friend is in 2nd grade and totally engrossed in Pirates of the Caribbean I tried the YouTub search and found several interesting sites. I was VERY glad to see that "Jennifer love haveit sex in forest" required a login - keeping my friend's little eyes from something his parents would probably not want him to see. I also watched 70's commercials and went back in time to a gentler, kinder era of Captain Crunch.

2.0 Awards

Looked at several "award winners". I know that CraigList and similar sites are popular, and have their place, but I haven't found a use for them. I do like Library Thing, which I explored earlier. I have found several authors that I am trying out - may post my opinions later!

google docs

I used Google Docs since I already had a log-in from the blog (sweet)
tried several different features - here is the trial document:
This is a test to see how easy it is to create and change
Lists seem pretty easy
Wonder if they can be stopped without clicking the icon
YUP - just press enter twice. It also doesn't leave a blank line after the list. 2 points
Can add words to the spell checker, now I'll have to create another document to see if it remembers my list. Now I'll spell a word incorrectly to see how that works. Choices were good 2 points.
now, to save and create document number 2...

so - my evaluation is that it is nice to have the online version, but I still prefer doing stuff like this off-line and saving it to my hard drive. Guess I'm old fashioned!

Sandbox

I posted my thoughts under
Random Thoughts
On the sandbox web site and linked it to my blog. This was not an easy thing to do - the instructions are VERY vague and it took several people to figure it out. I'm suggesting that this part of the instructions include:
First you name your page and then create the content. Once you have completed the page, you would save it.

Then you go back to "home" - or the FrontPage and at the bottom of the page, click on Edit Page.

Once you are in the edit screen of the page, go to the list of wiki pages and insert (or add to the bottom) a heading or label or whatever you want to call it ... let's say you created a page called Favorite Beaches. On this page, you would type Favorite Beaches, then you would highlight it and click on the little Link icon on the toolbar... a pop-up box will open and you would click on the drop down box that says Link to Wiki Page, your new page should be one of the choices. Select it and you should be good to go.
this was from Irmgard Brown, and was very helpful to me in completing this task

wiki

Wiki's are great and are a wonderful and easy way to let people know what's up
but
1 - Wiki's need to be updated regularly - St Joseph subject had parts which had not been updated since 2006. I don't think it should be put up if it is not going to be maintained.
2 - The Wiki format of several sites looks the same, not very interesting
3 - Library wiki is in date sequence with oldest first. hard when you want the most recent and have to scroll through many entries
4 - Princeton book lovers was more interesting but even that had an article from 2006 on the front page - not current! that really surprised me, even Princeton Public Library doesn't have the resources to keep their site current

Future

Myspace, blogs and wiki are popular and noticed. They can be a great tool, assuming they are updated and maintained and interesting. Several sites are old and boring, which is worse than not having anything up at all. Creativity is important, and librarians don't seem to have that attribute.

Tags

Found some interesting blogs using "learning 2.0" One guy couldn't find the keyword search for "tag" (which was in the advanced search), but I found his blog using all of the words in the blog search. However, this general search did bring up several blogs not related to Learning 2.0, just to learning in general. The tag search was most consistant in giving me the information I wanted about other people's view of Learning 2.0. My guess is that those who actually know how to use tags, also have the most information.

rollyo

OK - finally found a way to get the information about Disneyland. Rollyo had some of the same sites as the others, but about the 4th hit, I found exactly what I was looking for. Guess blogs don't work as well as web sites for the kind of information I wanted.

related blogs

Well, we are also going to Disneyland at the end of November, so I used every blog search for Disneyland dinner (looking for suggestions and comments). Even when I went to the advanced search in Technorati, I got so much junk that didn't have anything to do with dinner or Disney. I think people just put random words in their blogs so that others will read them, a big disappointment.

RSS

I have been following the blogs that I put into my feeds. It is a convenient way to check the sites every week or so to see if anything new has been posted. Some blogs obviously post more than others. One news posting I used deleted the entries after 5 days, but I'm guessing that it isn't NEW any more.

Del.icio.us

Did the Delicious thing - great idea, if you work at the same computer every, however, being a sub, I can't use the tool bar on "my" computer, since I work at a different work station each day. Will probably try this at home on my computer.

Library Thing

My book list is - http://www.librarything.com/catalog/marciar So far I've only listed Daniel Silva books. I really like the author, but am disappointed when I try "if you like..." lists. Maybe some of the suggestions such as The Faithful Spy, or David Hagberg's series staring Kirk McGarvey will satisfy.

Technology ??? !!!

Blogs and lists make my head spin. Our daughter, Jamie, blogged every day during her three week trip to Asia. It was fun to read about her experiences and make comments, ask questions and participate in her learning experience. We also have a family page on MyFamily.com which allows us to share pictures, write comments and list birthday present ideas, so I was looking for something different. FOUND it - I will be uploading pictures to create puzzles for my grandsons.



I've also put some captions on pictures we share on MyFamily. here's one. I think they should go to more story times, they like xbox 360.

Making Plans

Flickr has so many beautiful pictures of Mykonos and Santoni, I'm wondering if we'll need totake our camera! We fly into Athens, spend one full day touring, then board a ferry for 4 nights at the Dorion Hotel on Mykonos. It's going to be a tough decision, should we spend our time lying around the pool, relaxing?

Or

should we visit the windmills and "Little Venice"?

Auspicious Start

Since we're going to Athens, then on an island hopping cruise in the Aegean sea, I'm researching some of Greek mythology. We're also visiting Patmos, so we'll be discussing St John and his imprisonment as well.

Our first experience with a cruise started with our ship - Sea Diamond - going to the bottom of the sea. In April, while waiting to dock at Santorini, in calm, sunny weather, the ship hit volcanic rocks (which had been there about 3,000 years) and sank within hours. Looks as though the Captain forgot to look down! Auspicious start? My view is that Greek cruising couldn't be safer now - how can they let a second disaster happen and stay in business?