Practice 1-1-09

Zoho and Google Docs

♥♥♥♥  I love Google docs and zoho looks good, too. Google docs has been a great place for me to save those one or two files that I have needed countless times and did not want to plug in my flash drive to access them.  I use them for reminders and for when I have a list of info I want to remember all in one place. I think the hardest part for me to wrap my head around is the fact that they all link together. When I master that, I think I will be more efficient.

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Wikis

I love the idea of wikis: this summer I created one for my school and have 3 or 4 people on my staff using it. Until now, I have been the webmaster which works fine for school and community information. But now we wanted a place to post our documents and sites for a literacy program and that  meant all of the info people wanted on the web  also HAD to come through me - ugh!! I am too democratic and can get too busy for that. The wiki was the answer. I hope to continue to introduce more of my staff to the wiki and make it a truly dynamic and user-driven product.

Slideshare

Boosting Creativity

I liked this slideshare power point well enough to post it to my blog. The problem with really great power points is that they are and should be bullets/shorthand for the discussion or "lecture" that goes with the slides.....so many great ideas and background info are missing from the slides I watched.  Unlike many others in Nebraska Learns, I did not find myself infatuated with all I saw.  I might return now and again just to see what was out there. Some of the Social Media predictions were quite the downers!!

Library 2.0

In each of the articles I read, one thing keeps jumping out at me; it is the idea that we have to change the SYSTEMS in order to make them as easy as possible for our users to interact with. We have to stop thinking of ourselves as being able to reach and teach all of our users - it just can't be done. Instead, we need to set things up so that our users can be successful when they interact and access information. That sounds like a great goal but, honestly, I need a lot more time, thought, advice and information in order for me to do this successfully at the elementary level. If anyone out there has any ideas, feel free to jump in.


And my early frustration with this reminds me of the view of the one librarian in these articles; that we would move from Library 1.0 where librarians were the keeper of information to Library 4.0 where LIBRARIANS would be in demand - at least those who could sift through and make easily understandable this vast world of new ever-changing information. Sounds like a good goal.

Delicious

Delicious was another site I had used during my summer class at Doane and while I liked it, I had not been back to it since June. I had forgotten how much fun it was as well as how useful it could be. I like the new look of the site and found it easier to use than it was this summer. It is one of the few places where I really enjoy the social aspect of the we.

The tagging is an awesome feature and I added the Holdrege Library bookmarks page to my network as it is outstanding. Each time I see the "clouds" of tags, I fall in love with them all over again and wonder why I don't use them more. I may find a way to add them to a page for my school.

Library Thing

Well, it's the end of a long week; my book fair went well considering the economy, but my brain is exhausted. Still I wanted to make sure I was caught up and so played on Library Thing. While I liked the access and easy ability to make lists, I don't know that I want to use it a lot. I have other tools that serve me almost as well.
I know I should try to put a widget on this page for it but for now I am just going to add the link: http://www.librarything.com/

Thoughts on Technology

Technology: I can't live without it, yet I feel like I am running to stay up on it. I realize I have been a computer user for 15 years - where does the time go?  I thought I was really on top of things and I still do many things well. But I have to say, the WEB 2.0 stuff has really been an uphill curve. It is a different mindset. My life already seems full and as to this new social aspect of the web, well, I can barely keep up.  

I do love it, though. My son and I just practiced using the google chats as we talked with each other on our cell phones. We just tried out some new things and laughed as we went. I adore the features of Flickr and as I was talking with my son, I was busy uploading photos so I could make prints as a going away gift for a friend. My son was also trying to help me with the features of Facebook that I can't seem to get around.

Upon reflection, I know I am pretty good at these things; there is just so much to do and so little time!!  I want to know how everyone else keeps up!!

I really thinkSunday evening is NOT a good time to blog. This is 2 Sundays in a row that I feel tired and frustrated....by tomorrow, I will be rejuvenated and ready to try new things.

I LOVE this week of just catching up. I am looking forward to retrying some of the activities we have done the last few weeks.