Woo-Hoo!! Last post!

My reflection of Plans 23 Things...

My favorite excercises were Flickr and LibraryThing. Of all the things we learned about during this program, those are the two I think I will continue to use the most in the future... Although I also liked de.lici.ous and find myself using that more than I thought I would.

I am not sure that it affected my lifelong learning goals at all. I do love to learn new things, and especially things that will be useful for me in the future, but really I think I things I learned about here will just enhance my personal life at thins point.

I was surprised that there were so many online programs that I was not familiar with, and so many that I can see myself using in the future.

As far as changing the program, I think it was great - very well organized.

If you offered another discovery program like this in the future, I would definitely participate.

Excercise 22 - Net Library

Net Library is a program I am already familiar with, as we have a subscription through our library. I think it is a great program, although I prefer to read books on paper rather than on a computer screen.

Podcasting - Excercise 21

I have an iPod, which I love, but I have never actually listened to a podcast on it. When I listen to podcasts, it is usually online through my computer. Most freqently, I search for podcasts through iTunes, becuase I am familiar with that program. The podcast I listen to most often (I am a little bit ashamed to admit this) is the one found on the Grey's Anatomy webpage. They normally review the last espiode, give an interview with one of the cast members, and give you a clue about what might happen next week. Other than that, I haven't really gotten into the podcasting craze... although I might look into it now.

Excercise 15

It was interesting to read about what people feel the future of libraries is going to be, and it will be interesting to see how that matches up with what happens in the future...

Excercise 19 - Web 2.0

Just the short list of the Web 2.0 Winners was overwhelming to me... I have heard of a few of these applications before, but most were new to me. One program on the list that I use regularly is Pandora. It's great! It's like an online radio station. You just type in the name of a singer or group that you like to listen to, and Pandora finds music that is similar to that style. As it goes along, you can tell the program whether you like the music it selects and it will customize your listening experience even more. And the best part: it's free!

There were also several other programs on the list that look very interesting to me and I plan to look into them in the future.

Technorati - Number 14

This was a really difficult excercise for me because I am not sure what exactly I should blog about. I can definitely see benefits of using technorati, especially if you are into reading other peoples blogs - it would be a great way to keep track of which blogs have new posts without having to visit every site. At this point, I do not visit enough blogs for this to have a practical purpose for me. I can not really see how this is useful for a library, so maybe that is where I am having trouble...

YouTube

Here I go, out of order again... This is excercise #20

I loved YouTube. We are getting ready to move to Japan, and I think this will be great for personal reasons - I will be able to upload pictures of my daughter to share with our family back in the states. I have already been experimenting (see video below).

The things I love about YouTube are 1)it is so easy (and quick)to use and 2) My family can view videos without creating their own account. I am sure there are negative aspects of YouTube also, but for now, I am very excited about the site and anticipate using it a lot in the future.

Excercise 16 &17

I am going completely out of order with these excercises now.

Excercises 16/17 were about wiki's and how they can be applied to libraries today. I added my blog to the PLAN wiki, and my favorite vacation spot.

I have actually used wikis before, in college in one of my LIS classes. My professor set one up and members of the class were required to contribute to it. It was a neat idea, but I didn't see any practical purpose.

I have also used Wikipedia. While I realize that anyone can add to wikipedia so it is ovbiously not 100% accurate, it is a great resource for finding information quickly.

As far as how wiki's could be useful in a library setting, I am not sure I see a lot of practical applications. It could be neat to have one in conjunction with a book club, where members could reccommend their favorite books, or even just one for favorite books, but beyond that, I don't see a lot of uses for this particular thing.

I have gone a little bit crazy with a lot of the activities on here and I am having a lot of fun, but I think it is safe to say I won't be setting up a wiki anytime soon.

Del.icio.us

Back to #13 -



This is my network badge for del.icio.us. I was, initially, skeptical about this. I didn't think it would be useful to me, until I started using it. We have several computers in my house, and it would be nice to be able to save and sort the pages I like. After using it a bit, I see that as I am browsing the web, I would be able to click a button, add a few quick tags, and save the website to my site, accessible at any computer. It was very quick and painless. This would help me as I am researching information about whatever my current interest - I would be able to easily keep track of and organize any information I think might be useful.

As a former student, I can see that it would also be very useful as a research tool, especially for students using public computers since they would be able to access this where ever they log in.

I think I will continue to use this tool in the future.

Google Docs

I think I like ZoHo better than Google Docs... It seems to have more options and be a little bit more user friendly.

I am going to try to publish this now, from Google Docs.

Woo-Hoo! I am having so much fun :)
(I was going to insert an emoticon, but I don't see that option here in google, so I guess that is another feature I like about ZoHo)

By the way, this is excercise # 18 - I am out of order because I was looking for one I could do on a government computer :)

** I could not get this to post to my blog from google docs - I copied and pasted it into a regular blog post. Hopefully that is something I can figure out in the future :)

ZoHo

This is my attempt at using ZOHO writer to publish something to my blog. 

 

Having never used the program before, I am not sure if it is something I would like.  I like learning about new technology, but as I am already very familiar with MS Office, I am unsure if I would want to use this program.  It would save a money over having to purchase software though, which could definitely be a plus.  I wonder if this is similar to Open Office?  That is a free program I have heard of, but do not have any personal experience with.

 

One thing is for sure - there is a lot of technology available that I have never been exposed to before and I am seeing a lot of great applications for these programs, both within a library and in my personal life.  Everyone should be required to do these 23 things!

 

Ok, now I am off to try to figure out how to post this...