Week 9, Thing 23: Summarize Your Thoughts

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
My favorite discovery was the bloglines account and being able to subscribe to news feeds and favorite blogs. It makes my blog even more useful to me since I can access my blogroll right from my blog site! I also especially liked learning to set up a wiki. It's going to help me with a project that I'm working on for my job.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
This program has helped tremendously. A blog is a great way to record my thoughts and ideas as I learn new things. It's much better than taking notes on paper for me. It doesn't take up physical space, and I don't forget where I put it. It's something that I can continually refer to if needed.

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
Yes, I didn't realize that I would find a wiki to be such a useful too. I was surprised at how many new and useful things that I learned.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? I liked the program just the way it was, but sometimes found it difficult to spend as much time as I wanted on particular topics. That's ok though. I can always go back and explore further.

And last but not least…
If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate? Yes, I would definitely participate. This is a great way to learn, and I can work at my own pace.

How would you describe your learning experience in a few words or a few sentences, so we can share our successes and promote this program? Fun, Useful, Creative, Exciting

Week 9, Thing 22: Learn About Audiobooks

This was an especially helpful exercise for me due to the increase of related customer questions. I can instruct people much easier when I have actually explored it myself. My most FAQ has been about whether there's a need to download the software before being able to listen to the book. I downloaded the software for Overdrive onto my computer, and it took a long time with my dial-up connection. I do not have a portable player yet, so I listen to the audiobooks via the computer. I am curious to find out how to put it onto the MP3 player. Can this be done directly or do I have to first download to my computer and then transfer it to the player?

I'm really looking forward to using a portable player to listen to books. Being busy with my children makes it more difficult for me to read print books, so this will be a nice option!

Week 9, Thing 21: Discover Useful Tools for Locating Podcasts

I looked at two tools for locating podcasts. Podcast.net and Podcastalley.com. Both led me to find interesting literature related podcasts like Book Voyages which I added to my bloglines account. I saw several podcasts that do online readings of literature and storytelling! It's pretty neat that anyone can create a podcast. I can definitely see how libraries could use this format for book reviews, storytelling, etc. While participating in the 23 Things program, the podcasts proved to be a helpful learning tool. Sometimes I remember more if I hear it rather than just reading it.

Week 8, Thing 19: Web 2.0 Awards

I explored Minti which serves as an online community where parents all over the world share and post advice about parenting and childcare. I especially like the format where you can easily search for the kind of advice that you want. You can rate the advice that you read. You can also post your own advice. In my case, I searched for "potty training" advice since we've had the potty training palooza at my house lately with my two toddlers.

Overall, I liked the site. You can get a free family blog there, which I may try. It seems to be an interesting way to connect with and even make friends with other parents worldwide. It's also a nice way to find advice from experienced parents. It's fascinating to read parenting blogs and advice from so many different perspectives.

Week 8, Thing 18: Online ProductivityTools

I explored the Zoho Writer online word processor. I am impressed with the online productivity tools and features! I created my document entitled "Spring of the Cats" with a fun story about my family of cat visitors. Then I inserted photos from my photobucket account. I was surprised about how quickly it pasted the photos into my document. Next I tried the publishing feature that let me post it directly to my blog! It was all very easy and fast.

I think that online productivity tools are wonderful. You can just save your documents into your online account and then access them from any computer with internet service! You don't have to worry about what programs are available on the computer since the word processor feature is part of the web site.

Spring of the Cats

Spring of the Cats

 

    We live out on the edge of a farm near a barn, so we do not get too surprised when a stray cat shows up on our doorstep. This first happened six years ago when a skinny orange striped cat whom we named Tansy made her appearance. One year later, our very funny Abner came meowing. Several years went by before a CATastrophic event ocurred during the Spring of 2007.

 

 

    The "Spring of the Cats" started very innocently when a small black cat with white spots followed my husband and kids home from a walk. We felt sorry for him because he was missing an eye, so we immediately decided to keep him. We had noticed another black and white cat that looked like our neighbor's cat following at a distance. The following day, the second cat planted himself on our doorstep and we noticed a third solid black cat lurking in the bushes watching us. On the third day, a fourth black and white cat appeared! Then a fifth gray cat came calling!

 

 

    By this time I felt overwhelmed with the crowd of kitties who were pleading for food and attention. We were also apalled because we mistakenly thought that two of the cats belonged to our neighbors who were away on vacation. They actually own a black and white plus a gray cat, so we thought that they had left their two cats to fend for themselves! We were wrong. The neighbors' cats and our two house cats were gleefully peeking out of windows watching the kitty saga that was unfolding outside.

 

 

    The cats appeared to be siblings and they were at least six months old. I was worried that we would have a further complicated case of multiplying cats, so I rounded up three of them to be spayed and neutered at the travelling low cost vet. We thought that it was best to take care of that potential problem while we decided what to do. I then began calling no-kill animal shelters and the humane society to see if someone would take them because it was very difficult for us to provide shelter and food for so many cats.

 

    Keep in mind that someone had loved these cats. They were all extremely friendly and loving. Two of them loved to ride in the bottom of our kids' jogging stroller when we went out on long walks! They were obviously used to children. We assume that a family had owned the cats, but had to move or for some reason couldn't continue to take care of them. Instead of taking them to the Humane Society, they abandoned them at the barn near our house in the middle of the night. I suppose they thought that the cats would have a better chance as barn kitties rather than being euthanized at the Humane Society. Since they were loving cats who wanted to be with people, they went searching and found us!

 

    All of the shelters that I called were overcrowded and overflowing with cats, so we began asking aquaintances and friends to adopt a cat. One of our coworkers kindly adopted two! We were very thrilled that two of them would have a good home and could be together there. We continued to try to find homes for the remaining three cats, but could find no takers. Needless to say, we have fallen in love with each one. They are all very friendly and love children. We are planning on keeping them as outdoor cats, but will have to think about how we will shelter them during the Winter. Meanwhile, we have noticed another stray cat hanging around. Here we go again!

Week 7, Thing 17: Add an Entry to the Sandbox Wiki

I got to practice using a Wiki by editing the "favorite blogs" page and adding a link to my blog. The only thing that scared me a little is that I accidentally deleted another person's blog link, but I hadn't saved the changes. All was OK once I hit the cancel button! But I see how easy it could be to accidentally delete someone's post! Yikes! The new thing that I learned was how to post to the wiki and link the post to my blog.

Week 7, Thing 16: Learn About Wikis

I had an eureka moment while learning about wikis. I had previously thought that a blog might work for my ongoing list of favorite CTR web sites, but a wiki would work much better. I am wondering if some of the things like Rollyo and bloglines can be used in a wiki as well.

I especially liked the SJCPL Subject Guides wiki. What a great way for librarians to collaborate and add resources and web links. With a Wiki, I don't have to know html to easily edit and make changes! That is a real plus. I can see how this would work really well if I want to try using it for the favorites list... especially since it is an ongoing project. I think that it may actually be a more productive way to update and make changes to my list since the list is a collaborative collection of my coworkers' bookmarked web sites.

The Book Lovers Wiki is a cool way that a library has provided a forum for their library customers to review and discuss books! It's also an extension of their adults' Summer reading program. I have to admit that I didn't really understand the difference between a blog and a Wiki till now. :)

Week 6, Thing 15: Read a few perspectives on Web 2.0, Library 2.0

I read Rick Anderson's "Away from Icebergs". It made me think about how the Internet has really become a virtual universe rather than simply a research tool. During college, we had just started to use the internet for research purposes.

Now we are talking about Library 2.0 and finding ways to bring our services to customers and into their preferred environment. It will be interesting to see a Library related MySpace page. That's the next thing that I'm going to look at. I read that OCLC has a MySpace page, so I'll explore that next.

Week 9, Thing 20: Discover YouTube

I jumped forward to explore the video hosting site "YouTube". It was fun to locate old TV commercials and TV show clips that I remember from my childhood. It's pretty user friendly and easy to find what you're looking for, but also easy to find what you're not looking for. There are some pretty bizarre things there! I was amazed at how easy it was to paste the video into the blog!

I can think of ways that this would be useful. If a customer is searching for a famous speech, chances are they might find it here! You might be studying a certain era like the 70s. You can watch videos of commercials and TV shows to see how people dressed or how they danced, etc. It's a wonderful resource in this respect!

Scary?

My daughter used to be scared of the Honkers on Sesame Street. I think this video is so cute.

My favorite Sesame Street Song

This is my favorite song from Sesame Street. I loved Ernie as a child and this song almost makes me cry whenever I hear it. I don't know why! :)

Telephone Reference Tikes

Week 6, Thing 14: Discover Technorati

I just read a post that I found through technorati describing it as the "google of blogs". It does seem to be the way to locate blogs on a particular topic. When I began searching on the term "Learning 2.0", a
23 things learner's blog came up near the top of the list!

It's interesting to see the many types of multimedias tagged in blogs. There are posts, videos and photos. I looked at the blog "Boing Boing: a directory of wonderful things" because I keep hearing about it in the news and on other blogs. Technorati.com rates it as the most popular blog in the world! One of the posts has a discussion of Sesame Street characters that adults were scared of as children. Each post includes a YouTube video clip of the character! I initially didn't have much interest in the ever so popular YouTube, but I'm looking forward to exploring it more. I think that I'll skip out on watching the girl spitting video or anything like that.

Week 6, Thing 13: Tagging and Discover Del.icio.us

I have been looking for a way to create a favorites list of links for CTR. I have a favorites list, but I wanted a way to save the list to all of our computers including the telecommuting ones. Wow! This looks like a good way to do it. I wonder if I can create an account for my department. That way we could access the bookmarks anywhere. I will explore that potential further. I think that this is a great research tool.

Week 5, Thing 12: Rollyo Search Tool

It took some exploring to figure out how to create my own Rollyo search tool. I really like the idea, though! I put together all the animal classification and information web sites so that it searches only those sites. This has an extraordinary potential of being extra useful for me.

I have a huge list of "favorites" that we use in CTR to answer questions. Wouldn't it be interesting if I could categorize them and put create search rolls for each category? Then I wouldn't have to go to each individual site. I will definitely explore this more!

Week 5, Thing 11: Library Thing

I set up my Library Thing account and added some of my favorite books to my catalog. I included my favorites from childhood. It took me a while to locate the place to go to create the widget for the blog. After setting up your catalog and choosing the way you want it displayed, go to "tools". I like Libray Thing and will be doing some more exploring and adding to my catalog! Here is the link to my catalog! http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=christyluvs2read&shelf=list

Week 5, Thing 10: Image Generator

I created my Meez character. I found an easier way to do it. If you have a Photobucket account, you can just pull that up and click on the button "Create Avatar" at the top of the page. This allowed me to create my meez avatar, save it into photobucket and then easily paste the html code into my blog. I think that it's a mash-up between Photobucket & Meez. Here she is! Wish that I were this skinny!

Photobucket's "Creat Avatar" feature was a very user friendly and easier way to create an avatar, in my opinion. I can't say enough about how great Photobucket is. You can set up a free account in Photobucket by visiting the following link. Have fun!

http://photobucket.com/

Week 4, Thing 9: Merlin and Locating News Feeds

I added Merlin to my blogroll and took a closer look at it. I think that the Learning Links section is especially helpful. I want to learn more about the handheld devices. Will I ever need an iphone? I think it is probably going to be very popular in our busy mobile environment.

I used Bloglines to locate and added several news related feeds that I am interested in. Many are library related, but I put a few personal interests on there too. I was excited to realize that when I add a new feed to my bloglines account, it automatically updates my blogroll listing on my blog! Very nice! I tried the Technorati feed finder tool, but found it a little overwhelming. I like Feedster much better... seems more simple for me to use!

I Love My Digital Camera- Part 2

I'm still amazed by digital photography. I have never been able to capture an image in such detail with a film camera. I have been having fun taking pictures of our flower garden. I just have to share this one.


I've been exploring photobucket. It's very straightforward and easy to use. I've been putting together photo albums for my kids so that they can each have their own baby picture albums. I have lots of pictures stored on little photo cards, so there are many that I need to print out. I've been thinking about using photobucket's service to print them out and have them mailed to me.

Week 4, Thing 8: RSS & Newsreaders

Yay! I did it! I feel like doing a little dance. I figured out how to put my blogroll links into the template! Want to find out how I did it? Just leave a comment, and I'll be happy to share.

I think that I'm going to like RSS and newsreaders. It is especially nice to quickly read the headlines rather than having to visit each site to read the latest posts and news. It saves time and will allow me to look at more information. I won't have to fish through all the ads and pictures. This is helpful when I'm using my home computer which is dial-up. I don't have to wait forever for the picture to download and can quickly read the article.

This technology will be a good way for me to have time to read work related news feeds . I also think that it could help me to have quick access to bestseller book lists or book clubs and other useful information. I can use it to keep up with many more websites because it allows me to bypass all the ads and images, and I can access all this from one spot...my bloglines account!

I'm going to go ahead and post my bloglines url. It took me a couple of tries to get it right. At first I didn't realize that I needed to create a username different than my login e-mail. Here it is!

http://www.bloglines.com/public/Christyluvs2read

Week 3, Thing 7 Anything Technology

I love my digitial camera! Now that I am learning more about Flickr and other photosharing sites, I am seeing that the possibilities are endless. I have had my camera since Christmas and can tell that the quality of the photos is so much better than my film camera. What a wonderful way to store photos and share them with family who live far away!

I want to say something about Photobucket. http://photobucket.com/ I especially like it because it is so user friendly. Once you upload a photo, it puts it into three formats: The Url Link, HTML Tag and IMG Code. You can choose whichever format fits your needs. I've had the most success with copying and pasting the HTML Tag into my blog.

Week 3, Thing 6 Flickr Mash-ups

Wow! I like Flickr Color Pickr. I like that I can click on a color or shade on the color wheel to bring up the pictures. The pictures are vividly stunning. I'm trying to figure out whether I can copy and paste any of these pictures from flickr into my blog. :)

I just discovered these other mash-ups or apps in flickr. Try "retrievr". It's quite amazing. You draw a picture and it locates photos that match or have similiar elements as your drawing! It's addictive. The other apps on this page are interesting! Take a look! http://www.flickr.com/services/

Ha! I did it! I created a fun photo card using Trading Card Maker! Ta da!

Week 3, Thing 5 Explore Flikr

One cool thing about Flikr is that I can search the public photos by camera type! I pulled up photos taken using my brand of digital camera. This is a wonderful feature if you are shopping for a new camera. Once I pulled up the photos , I have the option to look at customer reviews of the camera. We could refer patrons to this resource if they're looking for consumer guides or user opinions on digital cameras!


I also explored the geography feature where I can point and click on a map to pull up pictures taken at that particular location. This was fun for me since I sometimes feel a little homesick for my hometown in Tennessee. I looked at pictures of landmarks there. Then I did a general search for "Cades Cove, Tennessee". Cades Cove is located in the Smoky Mountains close to where I grew up, so I love the place. My search pulled up many beautiful pictures of the mountains, old homesteads and cabins.



PS....Another photo sharing site that I like is www.photobucket.com

Week 1, Thing 2: Pointers from Lifelong Learners

I listened to the podcast of the 7 and 1/2 Habits of Successful Lifelong Learners. The most difficult habit for me is habit 1 "Begin with the end in mind". Sometimes I don't set my goal and plan out how I'm going to get there and then run into problems causing me to become disorganized or to stray off track. The easiest habit for me is to "use technology to your advantage". The internet is at my fingertips and is the biggest tool in my information toolbox right now.

Week 1, Thing 1: About This Program

This is my first post! I am looking forward to learning about new technologies and applying them to my job. Just a few weeks ago, a customer asked me where they could go to obtain a free avatar that they could use for online gaming and blogging. I had no clue to what an avatar was until I did a little research. It'll be helpful to be more clued in to these 23 things.