Thoughts on Learning 2.0

I'm really glad I have done this course, although finding time was rather difficult, and I certainly did not give everything the time and attention it deserved. I could have spent hours exploring to wonders before me - but I have all my notes and will revisit many of the sites I have bookmarked - using del.icio.us, of course!
I definitely want to make use of blogs and wikis, both internally amongst library staff and with our patrons. My catalogue of books is growing on LibraryThing, my del.icio.us bookmarks and tags are growing almost daily, and I LOVE the bloglines - it saves me heaps of time. Others are just plain FUN to play with - flickr, image generators, the list goes on.
Thanks to all the staff who kept encouraging each other to keep going with Learning 2.0, even when time was tight and we had to move on before we were ready - we will have to do an update and refresher soon!

Week #9 - podcasts, video and downloadable audio

Podcasts were good, but loaded very slowly on my poor old chugging computer. This is probaby the one week where I had actualy discovered a fair bit of this myself - especially the audio (I LOVE my I-pod). YouTube I have played with a fair bit over the past few months, too, but the World E-book Fair was a bit of an eye-opener, and I know I will be revisiting that site a fair bit.

A long gap between blogs

It had been a disgracefully long time since my last blog - in the meantime I have done a 5 day OH&S course, a 4 week course on answering genealogy questions for library staff, and (more or less) kept up with my general job. It has certainly been exciting!!

On to week 9!

Week #8 - a comment on Zoho

Below is my first Zoho document - a quick play around with some of the basic features of the program. The ease with which I posted it into my blog was amazing, although the two pictures I included do not seem to have come through properly (this may just be my computer). I was even able to go in and edit the document in the blog, which was very handy. From a "publish on the internet" point of view I really like this, although I'm not convinced it will replace Microsoft Office - but I could be wrong!! Lets go back and see what else I can do!
Cheers

Week #8 - Zoho ; First try

Whoo-hoo - isn't this cute. Lets just press a few of these buttons and see what this thing can do!!

This is my favourite cat photo (thanks FlickR) and i have managed to add a comment to the image - just point on the photo to see.

OK - what else can I do???

PRETTY COLORS

AND BACKGROUND COLORS

Fonts, fonts, fonts, and more fonts

Bold, italics, inderline, strikethrough, ^superscript, _subscript, all the usual bits and pieces I can do in a normal work document.

I don't mind the toolbar, although with the internet explorer toolbars at the top there is rather a lot of stuff to look at. I think the biggest adventage of this is the ease of sharing and multiediting features. Time to save and see if I can link this into my blog.

Week #7 - Wikis

Despite the pressures of time (see my previous rant), I'm really glad I have taken on this course, as so much of what we have covered I will keep using. Just about all my bookmarks are now on del.icio.us (very timely, as I worked at Tongala branch Saturday, needed one of my sites and found it quickly using del.icio.us - thanks!), and I really enjoyed the wikis this week. I loved the Book Lovers Wiki from Princeton Public Library and would like to do something similar for us - it would be fantastic for readers advice. My main reservation is the lack of control (yes, OK, control-freak tendencies here) but being able to restrict access and track changes would help prevent abuse or inappropriate use. I have browsed through several of the wiki hosts and it would certainly be possible to set something up. I shall cogitate further.

I have succesfully managed to link my blog into the Learning 2.0 wiki - shall have to check that I am not getting all the update e-mails - think I may have neglected to untick the notify box. Ooops!

Ok, the phone has rung again - that was my FIFTH phone call while typing this - I think I had better give up for now.....

Time - where has my day gone???

Time!! There is NEVER enough of it. The 7.5 Habits of Lifelong Learning don't say anything about finding the time to actually LEARN!!
Habit 1 - Begin with the end in mind - and make sure you have the time for the journey
Habit 2 - Accept responsibility for your own learning - and for finding the time to DO the learning
Habit 3 - View problems as challenges - Yes, the problem of time is definitely a challenge
Habit 4 - Confidence - I am confident I WILL find the time ; it will just be challenging!
Habit 5 - Learning toolbox - Well I did PUT time management as one of the tools in by toolbox back in week 1
Habit 6 - Useing technology - yes, it CAN save time. And when it is't jolly working properly, it can sure waste a fair bit of it too
Habit 7 - Teach and mentor - sometimes I spend so long teaching and mentoring I run out of time to do stuff myself
Habit 7.5 - Play - it I had the time to play with all this wonderful new stuff I am learning as much as I want to, I probably wouldn't be griping about TIME!!!

I'm out of time - more later

Week #6 - del.icio.us

This was entirely too much fun - I really like this concept. The next time my computer is upgraded at work, there will be NO chance I will again lose all my bookmarks - they will all be found at del.icio.us/TechnoToria Well some of them can be found there already - and now that I have managed to get the del.icio.us buttons on my toolbar, I will progressively add to them over the next few weeks. Even better - the next time I am working at another computer and can't remember an address I want to get into, I will still have access to my bookmarks!!

Cheers

Week #5 part 3 - Rollyo

Not too sure about this from a "library patrons coming in asking questions" perspective, but personally see the use - searching several trusted websites at once without the irrelevant guff coming up.
I have created a few searchrolls and put a link on my toolbar - I will see how much use I make of it. I have a feeling it just might grow on me.......

Week #5 part 2 - LibraryThing

Now this was fun!! Worked much better too! My list can be accessed at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/ToriaG

I only have a few titles listed for now, but can anticipate becoming seriously addicted to it. I particularly like being able to choose which book cover to display - so I can actually show the cover of the edition I own!

Week #5 - Image Generator

After playing around with the image generators I have come to the conclusion that our internet connection here is too slow - I keep losing things and timing out and not uploading properly and am sure the level of muttering is unsettling other staff. Sorry everyone!!

Usualy technology behaves for me, so I have tried to be patient and persist with it today - at least this one (kind of) worked.

Cheers

Bloglines

I have just been back into my Bloglines account, caught up on all the new posts by fellow staff, created 2 new folders (news and movies) and subscribed to a few sites for each. I really like this concept - you don't have to keep going into blogs etc you have visited before only to find nothing new - this tells you when there is new content/new posts and takes you straight to them. How clever is that!

I have tried to visit and leave a comment on the blogs of fellow staff at Campaspe this week - it is nice to find some feedback on your thoughts. Learning 2.0 has generated a lot of comment by staff, and I think we are all finding the same main problem - simply finding the time to get everything done!

Cheers

Week #4 - RSS

I have just completed the Week 4 activity and now understand what RSS feeds and Bloglines are. Isn't technology WONDERFUL. I think I have even managed to make my blogroll public - here's the link
http://www.bloglines.com/public/TechnoToria

I even managed to put the links into two folders, one that is general and a libraries folder that has all the blogs of my fellow staff at Campaspe Regional Library. I even feel I understood what I was doing!!

How good is that!!

Week #3 part 2 - Favourite photo

Over the past few days I have been shamelessly stealing images to include in a powerpoint presentation I have been putting together for an upcoming Genealogy expo I will be attending.

Above is an image of the Port of Echuca I found which I particularly like.

As this is my first powerpoint presentation and I have uploaded the images I am using to Flickr (and even managed to put them into sets, etc.) so I don't lost them or clog up the Shire hard drive, I feel I have been learning a bit this week.

Cheers

Week #3 - Finding photos on Flickr

OK, that was fun. I could spend days browsing through some of the fantastic photographs on Flickr. Here is one I particularly liked (hope this uploads correctly).

Cheers

Football despair

Oh dear. Don't speak to me today. Collingwood lost last night - am sunk in the depths of despair. By 5 POINTS!!! My sister (feral that she is) rang last night after the game in tears - come on R-M, there is always next year.
Hope to upload some photos soon - actually managed to set up my Flickr account quite easily - now just have to take some photos.
Cheers

Week #2 - 7.5 Habits of Lifelong Learners

As requested in Week 1 of Learning 2.0, some thoughts on the 7.5 habits of lifelong learning

Habit 1 - Begin with the end in mind
The end you began with may not quite be the end you end with, but clear goals are important.

Habit 2 - Accept responsibility for your own learning
After all, no one else can learn for you.

Habit 3 - View problems as challenges
Some challenges are just a bit more..... well, challenging!

Habit 4 - Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
Somehow, I don't really see confidence as a learner has ever been a problem for me. Stubbornness, yes. Ability to go wandering off-topic, yes. Ability to provide FAR more information than was ever required, yes. Confidence...hmmmm

Habit 5 - Create your own learning toolbox
I like this idea! Skills, technology, time, all part of my toolbox.

Habit 6 - Use technology to your advantage
Technology is a WOOOOOONDERFUL thing WHEN IT IS WORKING PROPERLY.......

Habit 7 - Teach and mentor others
YES, a great way of getting something clear in your own mind is to explain it to someone else. During my High School years, this was generally Mum, usually when she was in the middle of cooking dinner...."Hey mum, listen to this....." My poor mother.

Habit 7.5 - PLAY
Like habit 4, I don't think this has ever been a problem for me...

Cheers
More thoughts soon

Whoo-hoo!!!!! It worked!! I LOVE technology. New toys for me!! (thoroughly overexcited here, out of all proportion with achievement really....) So this is my first blog, thanks to Learning 2.0 - this should be great fun!
Cheers all