In the beginning......

At the beginning of the learning journey I felt a bit like the attached image- entering the big unknown. I knew that there was an end but what would I discover and with whom would I be taking this journey? I'm glad this phase of the journey has ended mainly due to time constraints but I know that I've only skimmed the surface on many of the Web 2.0 tools that were covered. I've also discovered that you just need to explore a bit at a time (which I hope to continue to do somehow) and this will lead to many other discoveries. I particularly enjoyed the Flickr mashups,Del.icio.us, revisiting Wikis and of course reading and exploring the other bloggers who have embarked on the same trip.The next question is "Where to from here?" . All these ideas being bounced around. I now feel like an active player and not on the outside so much anymore and hope that my learning journey continues!
Thanks to those you made this program available!

Are you listening out there.......

(Image downloaded from Flickr by Shotsbyme who was reading a book on his vacation in Italy)

Providing online audiobooks as another library service is really appealing for a number of reasons-
no cost in the handling and transferring items
no lost or damage to items incurred
portability for people traveling , they don't need to haul around bulky CDs or cassettes which may be damaged or lost
no overdue fees to contend with if they have a use by date feature
24/7 accessibility
on the downside-
patrons require software program to download to their computer or
require MP3 player
? how long does it take to download an entire book(wouldn't be a good idea if you had a slow Internet connection)-maybe they have an option of downloading at the library?!
But old and out of date prints were available to be downloaded which is a bonus. Audio in languages other than English would be fantastic for our multicultural community or for anyone learning another language other than English.
Had a look World EBook Fair - Gutenberg's Audio eBook Collection site found it relatively easy to use with the alphabet option. There's an enormous amount of info out there but as the attached image shows there's nothing better than reading outside - plus once you fall asleep you can use the book to shade your face!

"Flashing 12"

I know what I am now! I'm a "Flashing 12"! Nothing like a tutorial to explain things. ( by the way a "flashing 12" is someone who's VCR/DVD etc player is flashing 12.00 as an indication that they haven't or don't know how to set the time on their machines) As for podcasts I found out that they are audio programs that are free of charge but you need to subscribe to them, you can listen to them simply on your computer and you don't require a software program. Hmmm! so why then when I tried to listen to a podcast did it say I needed to install plugins!? I'm confused. But I didn't let that stop me from exploring. I had a look at all the 3 podcast directories mentioned and found Podcast.net the one that gave me more relevant info due to the fact that you can fine tune your search by selecting e.g. keyword and then enter e.g. "library". Podcast.net had 48 entries while PodcastAlley.com had 126 entries of which many where public library entries. Didn't like the Yahoo Podcasts found it too hard to search.
I can see many uses for podcasts in the library - visually impaired patrons to explain library services and to provide material for their use
- training for library staff-SirsiDynix podcasts
- found podcasts for learning languages
- book review podcasts
I really like the idea of having audio as part of the library service where it can be easily accessed from home but again the limiting factor would be bandwidth.( I don't have broadband at home which limits me from accessing anything really fast).

YouTube - if only I had a broadband connection!!!

The only problem with YouTube is that you really need broadband, because if you don't the waiting time for anything to load is sheer frustration.I think as a teaching tool YouTube is fantastic. You only have to look at all the CommonCraft downloads that were used throughout the Learning 2.0 journey to see how effective this is-too bad about not having broadband at home- hope Mr "Kev 07" Rudd will live up to his pre-election promises. Got a good laugh from "Conan the Librarian" and also searched for some YouTube book reviews - maybe this might be a good way for the extrovert to review a book - good for young teens maybe? Found a very talented sulphur crested cockatoo called Eleanor who has more rhythm than most of us humans-dances to Backstreet's "Everybody" - have a look!

And there's more to explore!!!

The category I selected was from start pages - PageFlakes. PageFlakes is a personalized homepage on the web where you put weather forecasts, local news, photos, music, podcasts the list is endless. You can have more than one page, you can create a page with friends or on your own. It was really interesting exploring the public pagecasts - go on have a look http://www.pageflakes.com.
and there's more it's free. It's a pandora's box of ideas.
In a library environment it could be linked to homepage to feature local weather, local news and events, maps and because it updates automatically it would be a good way of getting patrons to login just to have access to this information therefore increasing overall exposure of the library.
It even had a pagecast with "What's Web 2.0?" !

Zoho take 2

Hi again, this is Zoho take 2 without the smiley faces. Tried to send an earlier version but when I posted my blog all the smiley faces reverted to text. Hopefully someone out there can explain what I've done wrong. I'd have to get use to some ot the options available if I continued to use it - creature of habit with microsoft office.

The concept of having a web-based option that are available as alternatives to traditional desktop office applications could be useful for a group of people editing the same document. Also the ability to add comments box above the text in question is helpful.

I'm not sure if I would use it again but like all the other applications I've learnt about it and it might come in handy one day!

Wiki Wonder

This was relatively easy compared to some of the other tasks that I've undertaken. To add my blog to the favourites page I found that you didn't need to insert [] brackets, it worked perfectly well without them. I can see how easy it could be to add and edit info. Wiki wonder- I wonder why I 've been so biased before over wikis!