Finale

It's probably difficult to pick up on how transforming this course has been for me as I seem to have spent rather a lot of time whining. As I said earlier, one difficulty that was immensely challenging to me and I believe for all non-tech people,  is not fully knowing what the norm is. Many times I would be almost crying with frustration and my husband would say something along the lines of "oh, yeah, well you have to do this now - sometimes that just happens" Glitches that were immediately apparent to him were completely outside my scope of knowledge. And really, there is no other way to get that base other than time and experience - I see that as I begin to recognize "glitches." But it can be very demoralizing at times. 

However, on to the good news. I feel that this has dramatically altered my confidence and ease with the Web. At the most basic level I feel like I'm not having to cover for my stupidity any more and beyond that I'm totally loving the many fun things I've discovered for personal use (Flickr, Youtube, Facebook, creating a second blog etc.) and beyond THAT I'm excited to think about how I can use this further at the Library. I really did feel enormously proud to pull off the Flickr thing with my teen group. In creating it I was also very aware of hitting walls and making myself push through and the thrill (or maybe relief) of succeeding on my own. I know that this was not rocket science but it really was completely out of my knowledge and comfort zone short months ago and now it's not! I found again and again that if I could just push through to the mastery of the "Thing" I generally absolutely loved whatever it was. (Sometimes to an alarming degree!)

The course seems like a framework. But it's a framework where formerly there was none! I'm grateful to know of the many portals where I can continue checking out stuff - and filling in that framework more solidly. 

It's a wonderful course and I'm so glad to have taken it. Thanks for bringing it to Vermont!

 

WEEK 11

So...podcasts. Like everything else Web 2, my family has been way ahead of me. My husband is an avid listener - subscribing to bicycling, Mac and (of all boring things) fish (as in aquarium) podcasts.  Hmmmm so there's one beauty of podcasts right there. Not having to listen to what   fascinates one person and bores the bejesus out of another. Als0, my son has a podcast with his twentysomething friends in San Francisco and though I've listened to his music (through my husband) I now have a connection - through my i-tunes - to listen to the entire show.

 It was interesting to check out the way other libraries are using podcasts, although some - like children's picture books - puzzle me. Plus, with all the copyright restrictions, seems sort of cumbersome. But - it's early days for me yet so I feel like there are many uses that are possibly (hopefully) incubating. And that I can continue to explore through all these portals. There are many subjects that I want to pursue -  the power of knowing how to access is great!

WEEK 11

It's been a blast touring around Youtube - guilt-free "with permission." I love how it's so easy to post to Facebook - and how my selections are so ME. (Laura Nyro - my teen love. Bill Bailey - Chaucer "Pubbe" joke - perfect, Moxie Fruvous - but not the book one) I've chosen to send to Facebook rather than join Youtube at this point - but that will probably change the more I watch.

 Youtube is addictive (DUH.) And social - beyond the comments and send share. As in - "you've got to see what I just saw on Youtube" - the most wide array of people have said that to me! Very very fun.

Week 10 - Last post for 10

So much to explore on the best of web 2 - it could take years! It's great to have this bookmarked! Had fun satisfying the oh so nosy me with zillow and love craigslist and love love youtube. Found some very odd things on the clone youtube and amazed by google maps - need lots more time to check everything out. My fave of all time is still flickr  - which takes me to the "applying web 2 at your library" bit. I AM SO PROUD OF THIS! I just created a Flickr group for my teen group (nhclteengroup) and at the last group I gave them our 3 digital cameras and told them to take ten portraits of each other. (There are 8 teens) They then had to choose a favorite, put on iphoto and then upload to Flickr. I KNEW WHAT TO DO! I can't even tell you how empowering this was - and the teens loved it! Two days later a couple of them came in to the Library to upload more pictures and decided to post pictures of books and do book reviews! They were on fire with it - it will be so exciting to see where they take it. Very cool.

Week 10

My document went through and was processed by Mary on Googledocs. I signed up for Zoho and had some fun playing around with some of their options but I'm still working on sending the final product out. I was really interested in the idea of the Slideshow, which I need to explore more (wouldn't accept my sign in and I cannot figure out why). It takes a lot of time for me to work through the in and outs of learning these applications - and it's still sometimes overwhelming and frustrating but I continue to be excited about the possibilities of these new "things."

Week 10

I am trying to send a post from Googledocs but so far no luck. Back to the drawing board. I have a note at the bottom saying "could not contact blogger.com. saving and publishing may fail. Retrying."

Hmmmmmm. will this publish or are they talking about Googledocs? Forging, make that limping, ahead.

WEEK 9

One of the things that is trying to me, and will obviously just takes time, is the ability to differentiate between when I'm screwing up (lots of times) and when the site or connection is. I get frustrated trying to eliminate all the things I could be doing wrong and then finding out it's a problem of connection - or whatever - when if I knew that I wouldn't have been tearing my hair out. Wikis -case in point!

BUT - I finally posted to Vermont Lib. learn sandbox and added a page (very proud). I've also created a Wiki for a three family camp-out (10 adult "children" and six adults) which was quite an amazing feat of organization last year with seemingly thousands of e-mails to even agree on a date.

 So again - once I've got it in my brain, I love it. And feel proud.

WEEk 8 Again

OK, I finally get it. This site(delicious) was not easy to access or manoeuver.( I always spell this word wrong and lazy me - I'm not getting up - a bad librarian) 

 I had trouble with an initial password and it took days for them to get back to me. In their instructions they said "change your temporary password right away" - and I spend AGES trying to see where to do that. Probably me being dim but surely there are many dim newbies out there. Why frustrate us? 

Sort of a boring page. I don't like overkill but this is pretty institutional looking. Also, the presentation is silly. Why isn't "add this bookmark" not the biggest button in sight?

Anyway........I finally get it- took me a while to grok the social networking aspect- and it seems like a very cool site. I have already spent way too much time exploring the first few posters who matched my url links. So.....I'm all set up and will start to use in earnest when I get the rest of the 23 things under my belt!

WEEK 8

Well....waiting to hear from Del.ici.iuos or however you spell it on why my sign in failed. They will be e-mailing the answer to my other computer  - unavailable as my husband is doing free lance graphic work. I know this is the continual whine of late blooming techies but honestly! Sometimes it is an infuriating world.

So, I fast forwarded to Technorati site which to me is attractive in concept but dismal in design. Way too cluttered and pop culturish.  The blog statistics are really unbelievable so I appreciate that there's a way to find and be found but still........as I've heard it said......... the people who are code monkeys are not graphic designers. This kind of layout is a bother to wade through and very unappealing. Anyway, I did peek in to some conservative scary rants, some creepy college frat type info on bar types and some other random stuff. 

I will return here in January though to register my new blog because, hey, I'm looking for wide exposure now too!

WEEK 7 Once Again

Librarything was one of the few 23 things with which I was already familiar. When I began to use it I found it an interesting puzzle to decide how to choose what books would go into my library.  Other people's apparent catagorizing didn't appeal to me. I finally settled on books  that had been or are important to me and books that I'd love to talk about with anyone who had read them, books that I'd recommend  (some)and (some) books I've just read.

In other words, a fairly idiosyncratic system - which was also often evident in other's libraries and is part of what makes this Web 2 stuff all so very very cool.

Week 7

Week 7

Week 6

Whoever designed this course was a genius. 

This was a week when I might have said "too hard, no time , I'm overwhelmed"and packed it in. Instead, week #6 really did allow me time to pull back, take a breath and not feel like the train is leaving the station with everyone else on board but me!

I'm writing this weeks ahead, and still behind, but really appreciate the space that week 6 provided.

Week 5 Social Networks

I felt a little strange creating a Facebook - everyone seemed so young when I was checking it out - but there I am! I had to really work hard to figure out how to get photos from my iphoto to my Facebook album but I'm proud of my persistence (if not my language) in getting them on there.
Like Flickr, my excitement about this site is mainly being able to post and share photographs. Several years ago, I entered the on-line genealogy community and it's been a blast connecting with long lost family scattered around the world. This seems like a quick and easy way to share old photographs of distant relatives (I have a bunch of those) and I'm looking forward to doing that.
Again, the very best thing about doing this is the comfort I now feel in knowing about it. As a librarian it feels great to feel solid rather than out of the loop when kids and teens are coming in using social networks (as most of them are.)

Week 4 RSS Feeds

Week 4

I finally worked through th RSS feeds - it was a challenge. Even after listening to the intro and watching the quickie cartoon - there was something about creating a new place in which to have the RSS feeds appear that didn't click. After getting it I'm not sure what all the difficulty was - but trying to figure out which to subscribe to, viewing them all and not having experience enough to make really informed judgements was all part of it. I finally went with Google Reader and have subscribed to three feeds.
Frankly though, I'm not sold. The space is cluttered and distracting and because I subscribed to two places I had already bookmarked (which I checked now and then) I feel if anything that I've put more on my plate to read. This could all fall into place for me though, I know from experience that feeling comfortable and accessing these things intelligently takes time.
I do feel good about knowing what RSS means - one more tiny step in the direction of computer literacy!

Week 3 - Flickr again

Oh yes, and the mashups were fun - hard to control the cursor on Retreivr though. Plus, a little bit of tech cheating on montagr because they colorize-unlike the book montages. But still amazing. 

Week 3 - Flickr

What a cool and amazing site this is. I've had a blast searching out places I grew up and places I have always longed to see, relatives and friends and vintage pictures.  I have also been awed by all the incredible award winning photos. 

And of course, every stream you follow opens you up to other streams -so addictive!

I have not yet opened an account but think I will - although my former picture taking obsession has taken a major dive since my kids got older. Still - a lot of old photos to post!

Week 2 Create a Blog

Apparently Blogger is the easier site but somehow I still find ways to tie myself in knots. I have an odd mix of attraction and aversion to Web 2. Or perhaps the aversion is just getting Web 2 skills into my screaming protesting brain - I've always enjoyed playing around with this stuff once I finally get it.
I don't have a burning desire to post anything other than 23 thing commentary right now but who knows - maybe I'll be spouting out volumes of opinionated blather by the time we're through.