Audio Books & The End

Well i must say that when looking at the downloadable audio books i wasn't excited, i knew that when i went to look for the titles and authors i wanted they wouldn't be there, seeing that i dont like the classics and my authors are fairly new i knew they wouldnt be there, i didnt particually like the website either, it was structured and it seemed all over the place....

Anyway moving on and summing up my thoughts on Learning 2.0 i can say that some of the exercises i loved such as play week and Flickr and others i hated like RSS and Wikis all boring i must say..looking at learning 2.0 and the benefit it will have in a library service is something that i cant comment on at the moment, i need to see it to see if it works or if it doesnt...who knows???? only time will tell i guess...overall i really enjoyed this learning 2.0 experience and am glad that i have now finished it!!!!!!!!

Podcasts

I found it interesting when i was looking for different podcasts and what is out there is amazing, such a variety of topics to search for...i remember reading an article in one of the papers about how people are now making use of there ipods by downloading podcasts on cooking recipes and work with it straight off their ipod, so i thought why not?? I went looking for some podcasts on cooking and i found heaps but i stuck to the healthy cooking channel for me...anyway the whole experience of it was easy and adding it to my bloglines was even easier. I must say that this technology would be very useful when it comes to libraries, we couold record a whole heaps of things such as library tours, give people online instructions on placing reservations and looking up items on their cards, the possibilities are endless...

YouTube

Well i Have been exploring YouTube, i have used it before and i must say there are some whaky people out there..i picked this video not bacause i have anything against beauty shows but it just shows you that its not all about beauty sometimes brains should come out on top. I'm glad to see that the serious questions are being asked.

There are no stand out features of YouTube that i can see benefiting the library other than the site itself, we could promote the library and library service through this feature which i think would be great similar to how the polititians are trying to win votes on myspace and youtube. I enjoy using youtube for the entertainment and when we have watched the videos for learning 2.0 they have also been good anf quite interesting.

One Sentence

Well i had a play around with some of the web 2.0 winning products and came accross a site called one sentence which is quite interesting, all it is, is people summing up their life in one sentence, they are true facts and quite wacky i must say...it was interesting because there is no order of which the sentences are displayed, so in one sentence someone has summed up their life in a serious matter and then the next is about someone forgetting to make a cake, its quite bizaar but fascinating in the same time...anyway i didnt have a go of it, i find it hard to sum up anything about my life at the moment in one sentence, if only it was that easy like it is for others...well thats all for now, if you would like to have a go the click here

Bye for now

ZOHO

Well i must say that this is an interesting tool once you get the hang of it and everything that it can do, i thought it was just word processing but you can do spreadsheets and presentations and even start your own online tools. I can see the benefits of all this and i can also see the disadvantages such as not being able to use a vast variety of fonts you are limited to whatever is here and also the fact that there is no automatic spell check, something that i have grown fond of in the past, my fingers are quicker than my brain and sometimes the words dont appear as i want..anyway im off to explore the rest of these products, i will keep you posted..

Wikis

Well its been quite a bizaar week, i find myself flat out and having to write about my thoughts on Wiki, well i havent had a go of minipulating anything yet on a wiki so its a bit hard to explain what i think of them, overall i can see the benefit of them but also the disadvantages, information that is added on can easily be changed which is good because it is enabling more people to share information but what happens when ones persons information isnt fact and really is just a bunch of their ramblings on what they think is right....not something that i can see supported by a lot of teachers for school projects i guess...if it was something that was monitored it would be good although a big task it would prove to be more reliable i guess if that was you sole purpose of using it.

I guess i feel a little bit dishearted for the fact that i would be providing someone with information and taking the time to do so...but then someone could come along and delete everything i have just written, i added my blog to the Favorite Blogs page on the Sandbox Wiki which wasnt hard to do at all and not as the instructions say by adding the brackets, they have actually changed it so its just simple text and adding a link...similar to this blog..anyway im not quite sure im content with this weeks activity, it just seemed a little boring but oh well i still had a go, i guess thats all i can do...

Learning 2.0 My Thoughts

Well i have to say that i can see the benefits of learning all the things that we have learnt and the gadgets that we have played around with but i still cant grasp the idea that its the next big thing to come around where libraries are involved...i can see the benefits of us learning this technology and how it can be used to offer different services to patrons, like have a library blog to let patrons know what they should be reading now and so on, whether or not i will get a patron coming to ask me about helping them with setting up a blog or wiki i don't know, maybe they will maybe they wont...overall libraries moving into the web 2.0 era is inevidentable and is something that in time will be all over the place...all of the modules that we cover will benefit one person in one way...How? i dont know the answer to that right now but with a big push for librarians and library staff to understand and participate in the learning 2.0 training im sure we will know soon enough...this training has been fun and something that i have enjoyed and grateful that i know how to use these tools now, but personally its not something that i myself will be sitting down to use all the time, i find myself still living a bit in the old ages and have issues with privacy and putting to much of myself on the internet for people to read, i even find it hard to open up with people right in front of me, so for now i will not venture to much into the realm of learning 2.0 and our web based learning tools but i am happy that i achieved so much so far and will continue until the end

Technorati

Well its been an interesting time discovering technorati, when we were looking over RSS feeds i joined up to see what all the fuss was about, honestly i still dont know i'm a little confused about the whole concept of tagging, although i understand the whole concept of tagging and making up keywords so its easier to find things is great, i just dont see the whole point to it...i did come accross a bit of trouble when one of the sections in Technorati was blocked, the popular tab from the council so i had to get it unblocked so i could view it, not that it was bad, it was just lots of videos and i guess that it can interfere with the council interent download limits not that i watched any..so anyway i thought about how i could utilise this site and decided that i would look up my favorite comedian, david letterman and see what came up when i searched him..a lot of posts came up nothing really interesting, so then i searched the most popular blogs to see what i got up and got a blog called "Boing Boing", it really is an interesting site and i can see why people would add it to their favorites, i also started a watchlist and have added a couple of my favortie searches such as david letterman, ipod and Harlan Coben. i also like this feature as well as it saves a lot of time...i am a little confused with the whole adding a technorati tag to my post so i am attempting to give it a go and hopefully it works out fine... I also claimed my blog and released the spiders whatever that means and i created another widget as a page element on my blog to, a concept that is becoming easier as i go...

technorati+ learning 2.0

Technorati

Technorati Profile

del.icio.us

Well it's been quite fascinating to see how del.icio.us works and the benefits of its use. Overall the idea of this website is a good one, it can benefit a lot of people and establish networks for people. I like the idea that you can share your bookmarks with other people and the fact that it accessible on the interent...Internet Explorers favorites button is great but it is very limited as you can only access it from the computer you put the favorites on, at least this way with del.icio.us you can access your favorites from any computer that has internet access.

I had created my own account and like LibraryThing i will keep adding to it with url's that i find useful...i have also added a del.icio.us badge as a page element on my blog so if you want to add me to your network please feel free. I also had a go of installing the two del.icio.us buttons which was easy and very useful, i dont have to waste time in the future logging on to del.icio.us to add the url, i can add it when im on the page that i want...anyway i got to go...

Rollyo

Well i have finally moved on to Rollyo and i must say that i was confused to begin with, i understood the whole concept about what Rollyo did but when asked to create my own one i have to say i went blank...i love those moments where when asked for input or an idea nothing comes into your head and you sit there for ages thinking about the problem knowing that you will never think of a solution any time soon..so yeah that was my first problem...what am i suppose to make my Roll about?? I searched around and look for ideas of other peoples rolls and eventually came up with a book review and search roll (how original) seeing i work in a library...i was looking at putting on shopping but i like to shop in an acutal shopping centre and if online i only use ebay so it wasnt going to be to inspirational if i went down that road.

So i finally decided on my book review and search roll now all i had to do was to add my sites that i think would useful when searching for reviews and books, well i found a few such as Oprah's BookClub and i added Fiction Connection also, their were a number of others that i found useful that i added also.. so my rollyo search was created now i had to test it out and it actually worked, it was good because it actually shows you which sites were searched and all results were actually relevant to what i was searching for...(something that after years of searching pointless website i am grateful for). I also added a Rollyo widget onto my side bar which allows you to search my Rollyo on Book Reviews & Searches, i hope it works for you.

Overall i can see the benefits of using Rollyo especially within the library as you can specify which sites you wish to come up, if we had subject specific searches as we do with all of our school projects that we have it would be beneficial for us to seach that roll and not waste our time on other search engines that may bring up the results we want but we would of wasted a lot of time searching for it...

Anyway i'm off and will have a play around with LibraryThing and Rollyo as i need it i guess..might even have a conversation or two on LibraryThing about my favorite authors..

LibraryThing

Well i have been playing around and have signed up for LibraryThing which suprisingly was easy to do and to add your books was even easier... i was a bit daughnted by the idea of cataloguing my books as i have never dont it before but i think the whole concept of cataloguing is lost on the site, all i did was type in the title of my book and everything including some covers were already added for me.

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

I have included the link to my catalogue so you can see the five books that i have added and maybe i might find time to add the rest, especially my Harlan Coben novels.... i still have to play around and see how this site can benefit me especially seeing all the other people that are interested in the books that i like and to see how many other people have catalogued the same book. I also added my LibraryThing widget onto my sidebar so anyone can search for books on the website which i also thought was cool...Until next time..

Week 5 - Play Week

Well i can honestly say that so far i am enjoying this week it is so much fun especially when i relised that my favorite chocolates of all time has a generator that i can make my own characters to, HOW COOL!! I would like to introduce you to Princess Cupcake my very own MM character, if you click on the picture you will be taken to the website where you can create your own as well...

I also had a search around on the internet for other types of generators like text generators and i had a go of creating my own glitter text which was also cool and if you click on the image you will be taken to the website.

There are all sorts of generators out there that are amazing, one that I came accross thanks to Andrew was Simsponize Me, it's a site that once you have uploaded a photo of yourself on there it makes you into a simpsons character, for some reason it didnt like any of my pictures so it didnt work for me but if you would like to give it a go here is the address

http://simpsonizeme.com/

Anyway thats all for me i have to go back to work..

I'm getting edgy

Well i can't say that i was thrilled to come into work today and find out that the next weeks exercise (mind you week 5's) isn't available yet for me to start....what am i suppose to do now....so anyway i went ahead and had a look at the websites that we will be covering in the next weeks such as LibraryThing and Rollyo...they are quite interesting i must say and a new way of looking at how things can be categorized. Although i haven't registered yet( i thought i may way until the activity is listed so i can listen to the podcast) i think that i may already enjoy using LibraryThing, i still find it a bit hard to grasp the concept of why people would want to catalogue their books on a website but hey i guess until i try it i can't judge it..so until the exercises are released for me to participate in i really can't say much else...

A little confused

Well i'm on to the next part of learning RSS feeds with looking at the different search engines that they have and i must say it's a little confusing especially when you don't have anything in particular to look for...i have tried different search terms and to get the results i want was a little difficult but overall it may just be something that overtime i will pick up i guess and most of the time it may be by sheer conincidence when i'm on a website that i see that they have an RSS read that i may want to subscribe to it.

I can see the benefits of RSS feeds especially when it comes to the library and using them for our databases like EBSCO, there may be times when we are unindated with requests on a specific topic for a school project, instead of always looking up different places we could just set up a feed and update it with latest articles on that particular topic...i think overall that RSS feeds will be making there way into our everyday lives whether we choose to accept them or not..they are the way to get access to latest information in half the time.

Week 4 - RSS Feeds

Well i suprise myself everyday and have found time to excel into week 4 activity which is learning about RSS Feeds. I have had some previous experience using RSS feeds but very minimul, when i purchased my Song Ericsson mobile phone i was curious to see what this curious looking orange RSS symbol meant.

Soon enough i was exploring and found out that it was a RSS feed to BBC America and gave me update everyday on current events around the world..well I must say that this intrigued me enough to look into RSS readers at a very beginner stage and suss out what is available out there. I noticed that one of my favorite websites Flight Centre had recently introduced RSS feeds into its website and i was curious to see how it worked on a desktop computer.
So off i went and downloaded a feeder program one similar to Bloglines and started using it. At the beginning it was great, then one day it decided to stop working and wasn't updating anymore..i don't know why and lost interest in the whole program.

So here i am again attempting to use RSS and it has been good and as i remember it. Interesting though that you can add your blogline to your own blog - i know in the exercise it asks you to just add your RSS Feeds into the post with the address line but i thought i might explore a bit more and have added a Blogrole to the left of my blog so people can always have quick and easy access to my feeds.

It was an interesting experience to add feeds and i must say i was a bit apprehensive in adding fellow library 2.0 blogs as seeing i was making my feeds public may tap into privacy issues..so therefore i did have a go of adding their blogs to my feeds but have now deleted them so rest assured my feeds are all public and contain only news and holiday items...an i even added the Library 2.0 public libraries blog....yey... I am getting the hang of it and getting hooked...i think i need all the exercises unlocked so i can finish it...well until next time bye for now

I learnt something new

Well i have just learnt something new today, i have added a flickr batch onto my blog which is really cool so when you are looking to the left of this posting you will see all my pictures that i have in Flickr coming up randomly, ahh it's amazing what you can learn. I also learnt how to add my pictures of Hamilton Island into Flickr Maps which was also cool. I had the oppurtunity to see what pictures other people had taken from the Island as well.

It's an amazing feature where instead of typing in picture of places to see you can just find it on the map and there you go, it's right in front of your eyes and another feature which i liked was that it informed you of how many pictures from each place there were.

Oh well i guess you do learn something new every day..

Hamilton Island

Hey well i'm getting hooked on this and am on my laptop at home mind you in bed adding photos to Flickr as we speak, they are taking a bit of time to upload so i thought while I wait why not post another post. I have also added some of my pics from when i went to Hamilton Island on here, i actually went Parasailng this time which i must say i found amazing, it was the most calming experience in the world although i do have to say at times it did get a little nerve racking with the wind and the elastic pulling from the boat.

I do have to say but the whole experience of Hamilton Island is one only that can be lived and not talked about to much, i have been once before on a day trip and knew that i would love to return there again, i got the chance this year and we stayed in a palm bungalow which was secluded and private in the gardens of Hamilton Island. The overall relaxation of the holiday was superb, sitting by the pool all day drinking cocktails was not all that bad and there were a numerous amount of watersports on the beach to do every morning including Kayaking and Paddle Sailing and Snorkelling.

The only down fall to the bungalow that we stayed in was that it wasn't self contained as many of the accomodations isn't on Hamilton Island it can get a bit expensive when eating out all the time, we had buffet breakfast included every morning which was a bonus because it was really nive and filled us up for the majority of the day. I was lucky enough on one of the my breakfast sitting to have it with the Koala's on Hamilton and i actually got to hold one and have my photo taken with it. It was an amazing experience, they are so small and cuddly.

Well that's all from me and Hamilton Island i'm tired and have to go to sleep..Goodnight.

Week 3 Flickr - Whitehaven Beach

Whitehaven Beach, originally uploaded by Vandelizer.

Well i have been exploring Flickr and have manged to join up and add photos of my own to it of when i went to Hamilton Island and the soccer, some parts were a bit tricky to do but i kept at it and figured it out. I will be bringing more photos along and i have also added sets to my photos and tags, concepts which i found very hard to clasp at the beginning but i am slowing making progress.

Anyway i thought for my post i will add a picture of my favorite beach in the world which is Whitehaven beach. When i went to Hamilton Island the first time i was fortunate enough to visit, it is remarkable with it's endless white sand and beautiful clear water. I was amazed as when i got there with the ferry we were unable to dock on the sand as it is protected. We had to catch a little dinghy across and on our way back we were hosed down so we didn't bring any sand back with us. Very wierd experience but one i would do again given the chance.

My Favorite Author - Harlan Coben

I was introduced to Harlan Coben about 3 years ago when one night i was unable to fall asleep and the lure of late night television sucked me in to watching the Today show that is filmed in America. They were interviewing Harlan Coben with his book at the time which was "No Second Chance". The intrigue of his story and the way of his writing got me interested to want to know more and dive into the world of mystery and suspence.

Until reading one of his novels i have not been able to read books of any type, No Second Chance was a book full of crime and suspense, it kept me on my toes and guessing who done it until the very last chapter. So begun the journey of reading all his other novels that he has written and being hooked to the point that i have my name on waiting lists when a release of a new novel has come out.

I have written to Harlan a number of times by just visiting his website and to my surprise i have actually received responses. I can suggest him to any of you out there that enjoy a real thriller and who done it, not one of his novels have let me down so far. Happy reading, i hope you all enjoy him as much as i have...

Week 2 - Blogging

Well this is very interesting i must say..venturing into the world of blogging, something i never suspected i was ever going to do.
It's really wierd at the fact that i am typing this and it will be published for all to see and read, kind of spooky in a way like publishing your diary online..
Anyway can't say i had trouble doing this, it was pretty easy.. i do have to go unfortunately...still plenty of work to do.
So until next time see you around..