Thursday, May 28, 2009
Thing 47 -- Evealuation
Just completed the rather lengthy evaluation, and found in filling it out I was forced to rerun many of the lessons/things I'd covered this year. Very impressive and again informative. My congratulations to all the folks who complied both of these Web 2.0 lessons -- really great work!
Thing 46 -- Web Junction
I'm a huge fan of Web Junction and find the site not only informative but fun. this "thing" prompted me to explore deeper. In the past I've taken classes -- for free -- via Web Junction, and now I'm perusing more. At last year's MLA conference in Mankato I was pleased to meet many fellow Junctioneers -- and it made the experience all the more rewarding.
Thing 45 -- Clouds
Looking to do some clouding of my own with online backup. SOS is a site that charges for the service, so that is out. I did find the slideshow at: http://www.slideshare.net/webgoddess/collaborating-in-the-cloud very informative and suggest anybody who wants to social network and explains the tools. When you use calendars and other networks you can enable your coworkers or friends and family access to your agendas for the coming days/months. I've been using Google calendar for a couple of years and myself and another librarian (who share a sub) make ours accessible to each other. The bottom line is you're using other systems to store and share your data. Pretty cool stuff...
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Thing 40 Mashup on the Web
From video to simple spelling the mashup sites help you do some squishing or changing in all manner of forms. Was so caught up in the links, time got away from me and I have to open the library in 10 minutes. Craziest was Lazy Library where Amazon only pops up books of 200 pages or less when you search! Talk about lazy!
thing 38 screencasting
I'm afraid I haven't been listing my "things" by their number -- if I find time, I'll go back and fill those in...
The following are examples of Screencasting:
At http://www.indeavors.com/resources/ppt1_tut.htm I found Optimizing Pictures in PowerPoint with a short tutorial video. Wonderful. Takes you through the steps of "downsizing" photos so that your finished presentation doesn't take up so much computer space.
Tried to view Peter Rabbit (under same heading as above), but took too long to load -- must not have checked out optimizing!
And the How Scholarly Search Engines Differ short video (from the UCLA Library) actually compares databases and gives you search limits to make the comparisons yourself. This will be an excellent tool to share with your college patrons.
What is screencasting? It's described as "A screencast is a digital movie in which the setting is partly or wholly a computer screen, and in which audio narration describes the on-screen action" in the link to O'Reily Media, and goes on to describe and demonstrate numerous variations to try -- everything from a white screen for a basketball coach to write on in real time ("animated whiteboard"), to editing and delivering.
And in iLibrarian I found A Quick Guide to Screencasting for Libraries, a two-page article with pretty specific information to get a person started.
And, best of all, at screentoaster.com you can create your own -- and it comes with a quick demo to get you started. Amazing stuff -- Googled into Times Square, made a quick recording, put it up on YouTube (the toaster site compresses it for you) and "You're ready to share it with the world." Very impressive.
The following are examples of Screencasting:
At http://www.indeavors.com/resources/ppt1_tut.htm I found Optimizing Pictures in PowerPoint with a short tutorial video. Wonderful. Takes you through the steps of "downsizing" photos so that your finished presentation doesn't take up so much computer space.
Tried to view Peter Rabbit (under same heading as above), but took too long to load -- must not have checked out optimizing!
And the How Scholarly Search Engines Differ short video (from the UCLA Library) actually compares databases and gives you search limits to make the comparisons yourself. This will be an excellent tool to share with your college patrons.
What is screencasting? It's described as "A screencast is a digital movie in which the setting is partly or wholly a computer screen, and in which audio narration describes the on-screen action" in the link to O'Reily Media, and goes on to describe and demonstrate numerous variations to try -- everything from a white screen for a basketball coach to write on in real time ("animated whiteboard"), to editing and delivering.
And in iLibrarian I found A Quick Guide to Screencasting for Libraries, a two-page article with pretty specific information to get a person started.
And, best of all, at screentoaster.com you can create your own -- and it comes with a quick demo to get you started. Amazing stuff -- Googled into Times Square, made a quick recording, put it up on YouTube (the toaster site compresses it for you) and "You're ready to share it with the world." Very impressive.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Thing 34
Been at it all morning. It seems the more computer literate I try to get, the more illiterate I become. Never giving up, here are some of the "things" I've tried my hand at today...
Thing 34 -- Is This Our competition? Online Answer Sites takes you to distancedegrees.com, a very interesting site with the heading: Lose Your Wikipedia Crutch: 100 Places to Go for Good Answers Online. Scouting out six or or, I found only two to be outstanding and something to pass on to library patrons. These were ibiblio.org -- a "higher learning" database in which I lost myself for nearly an hour, and scholarpedia.org, which, according to its intro is "...similar to Wikipedia with some major differences. Each article is written and edited by an expert in the field, and all articles must be approved before they become part of the site, helping to ensure the information you get is accurate." I find too many students rely on Wikipedia and it's iffy information.
I also had time to look at some answer sites, my favorite of which is askville.amazon.com -- just click on a subject area to peruse the questions about, oh say Arts and Crafts. The Qs & As are really fun and interesting.
That's all for today. Looking forward to the next session, and more free time to go back to these favorite sites.
Thing 34 -- Is This Our competition? Online Answer Sites takes you to distancedegrees.com, a very interesting site with the heading: Lose Your Wikipedia Crutch: 100 Places to Go for Good Answers Online. Scouting out six or or, I found only two to be outstanding and something to pass on to library patrons. These were ibiblio.org -- a "higher learning" database in which I lost myself for nearly an hour, and scholarpedia.org, which, according to its intro is "...similar to Wikipedia with some major differences. Each article is written and edited by an expert in the field, and all articles must be approved before they become part of the site, helping to ensure the information you get is accurate." I find too many students rely on Wikipedia and it's iffy information.
I also had time to look at some answer sites, my favorite of which is askville.amazon.com -- just click on a subject area to peruse the questions about, oh say Arts and Crafts. The Qs & As are really fun and interesting.
That's all for today. Looking forward to the next session, and more free time to go back to these favorite sites.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Still here, just like Istanbul and Athens!
Returned from my Turkey and Greece vacation last week -- 13 glorious days exploring Istanbul and small Turkish towns, the isles of Kos and Rhodes, then three days in Athens. Here's a link to photos (just copy and paste):
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AatGbRu3ZtWQB
Have to get back to the More Things -- have about a dozen reviews in these blogs. Hope to get in the prize drawing...
More later.
Lois
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AatGbRu3ZtWQB
Have to get back to the More Things -- have about a dozen reviews in these blogs. Hope to get in the prize drawing...
More later.
Lois
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