Thing 23! Yahoo!

Well, I made it. There was a point when I thought I never would, but here I am. Thank goodness I'm not afraid to ask for directions along the way when I travel through new territory.

When I started out I set a goal of becoming more comfortable with emerging technologies. I feel I've accomplished that goal somewhat. What I'm still a bit uncomfortable with is this style of learning. I can be very independent and self-responsible, but I really enjoy learning from a living, breathing teacher instead of a machine. I made it through the maze, but this still isn's my preferred learning modality.

I think the thing I enjoyed the most was playing with creating my own radio station on Pandora. The things I'm most likely to use again are the skills related to blogs and wikis. I feel sure I'll be called upon to participate in them in my work as an LA, perhaps on a team or in another learning opportunity.

Stuck in OverDrive

I hit a snag with this thing when I found out that CCPL computers are not authorized to download from Overdrive or NetLibrary. I was also a little frustrated by the tutorial on the Overdrive website. The first direction tells you to go to the homepage of "my digital library" and shows a web page with that title. I assumed this was the name of a website and spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out how to get to it.

Luckily a co-worker took pity on me and explained that I should go to CCPL's website, click on the EBooks link, and then I saw the Overdrive link referred to in the tutorial. All of that just to find out that I couldn't get access to it after all.

I spent some time looking through the catalog on Project Gutenburg. Most of the authors and/or titles that I searched for are not included. It seems to be mostly classics or scholarly works. I was surprised for example that "To Kill a Mockingbird" wasn't included.

At this point I feel a little dubious about how useful this tool would be for me personally or professionally.

podcasting 2.0

OK, here goes another try. I tried to paste the URL for a RSS feed I located on podcast.net onto my blog. It didn't show up as an active link. I was able to link it to my bloglines account though and that worked just fine.

podcasting

http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/index.xml

Baby Hummingbirds Part II

Posting a video - take two! Let's see if it works this time.

I found another beautiful video - this one made by an ametuer. It shows the activity of two babies with their mother.

Crossing my fingers...

Another lesson

Well, I just learned that you don't know if a video will work on your blog until after you post it there. I guess I'll go fishing for another one and hope it works better.

Attenborough - Hummingbirds

Amazing! Beautiful! What outrageously gorgeous creatures these hummers are...not to mention folks like Jesse who provide for them. I chose this video because of my fascination with hummers. Every spring I look forward to the first sighting at the feeder outside my diningroom window. I enjoy watching them all summer and plant my flower boxes especially for them. I'm always a little wistful when they take off in early September.

Opening Pandora's Box

Now this thing is fun!

For thing #19 I explored Pandora, the winner in the music category. I created two personalized radio stations for myself. They represent two of the many genres of music that I enjoy listening to and I think I'll enjoy having them on when I'm working on the computer.

Unlike regular radio stations, I can comment on the songs that play and eliminate them from the playlist if I don't like them. Wouldn't it be fun to have that power in my car?...or over the muzak in the grocery store?

Very cool!

5 Little Children

 

 

 

Five Little Children

Original poem by Kelley Gordon

 

Five little children from all around the world –

Come and meet these happy boys and girls! (Hold up 5 fingers & wiggle them)

 

First comes Rosa, a pretty senorita.

In Spanish you can say, “¡Hola!” (OH-lah) when you greet her. (Wave with hand palm up, curving fingers toward self)

 

Hassan lives in Turkey where it’s hot and dry.

Wave and say, “Merhaba,” (MER-hah-bah) when he walks by.

 

Amari is from India, a land of many faces.

With her hands she says, “Namaste,” (nah-mah-STAY)with gentle graces. (Press palms together in front of chest  with fingers pointing upward & bow)

 

Little Flower is a maiden of the Cherokee lands.

She says, “Osiyo,” (oh-see-YOH) as she waves her hands. (Wave hello and smile)

 

Chen lives in China far across the sea.

He bows and says, “Kneehow,” to you and me. (Overlap arms in front of chest with fingers touching elbows & bow)

Playing in the sandbox...

I spent some time exploring this a few days ago, in between puppet show performances. I created a new entry about one of my favorite vacation destinations. I ran out of time as the next performance was ready to begin. I saved the entry, but when I logged in today I wasn't able to find it. Sigh. I wonder if there's an easy way to recover it.

Oh well, I did master posting my blog address on the list and turning it into a link. Tah Dah!

Aloha, Wiki!

One fun fact I learned as I purused the resources is that Wiki means quick in Hawaiian. I tried to do this exercise with lots of Aloha spirit.

I first learned and experimented with a Wiki during my LATI journey last fall. I kept wishing there had been a Wiki tutorial available to me then. It seemed there was an assumption that it was so user friendly, anyone could just log on and get started. It wasn't that easy for me at the time. I did a lot of stumbling and bumbling around before I got any results at all. I never did really understand how to correctly add photographs to the postings. I accidentally added a gigantic photo to a page and then couldn't figure out how to remove it. Embarrassing!

I see the value in having a virtual meeting place for collaborative projects. Folks can check in on their own schedule and toss in their ideas. It's flexible and easy to access. My caution is that as we all begin using these tools, we don't take it for granted that this comes easily to everyone or that everyone already knows how to use them.

Library 2.0 Discussions

I read through most of the postings here and feel that I have a little better sense of the big picture now. It seems to distill down to the basic idea that the library of the future will be a fluid, constantly evolving organism. Change will be constant, rapid and responsive. Input will flow in all directions, not just from librarians - patrons from all walks of life will be able to suggest and make changes.

The debate goes on as everyone considers the wide reaching ramifications of this new paradigm. Some express caution that "change for change sake" isn't the way to go. New technologies must meet a real need and operate easily and effectively. Some feel uneasy that "nonprofessionals" will have an active role in determining how the library will look, feel, sound, work, evolve.....

Very interesting!

Technorati

I tried the different types of searches using "Learning 2.0" and found these differences: number of hits ranged from 171 to 31,671; format of hits. Also tried "Quick View" tab and found it indexed other types of references including photos and videos.

I watched part of 2 top videos - patton and Potter Puppet Pals. My main comment is that even with high speed internet, there's an annoying lag in the stream of the videos. Sigh. Patton speaking on the war on terror was clever, I guess, and well done. But didn't really interest me. I got a good laugh out of the simple puppets doing their rap dance. How peculiar.

I checked out the top searches and chose the link to Harry Potter. I watched a little of the trailer, but again was annoyed by the delay and quit before it finished.

Del.icio.us

OK, I guess I can see the value of being able to access my favorites from any computer. But I'm a little dubious that my bookmarks would be that interesting to anyone else or that they would find my stream of consciousness tags meaningful. I don't really see myself using this tool, at least not for now.

Rollyo

I created a search tool called "emergent literacy." I added sites about emergent literacy and some that provide resources to promote it. I could see adding more sites like the latter and using it to search for ideas for programs. It would be time consuming to locate and include all of my favorites, but it might be useful to find info from them without a lot of other hits included.

Books on my must read soon list:

Playing Around

Text Generator - Wild Text - Counters - YourGen.com

Feeding Frenzy

I subscribed to a couple of library relevant feeds, including the NY Times Book Review. Through it I found a review of a 2007 picture book that may be a candidate for Great Books. I've requested it through my system to review and may recommend it to the Committee.

I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry

Has anyone out there seen it? If so, what do you think? Is is a "great book?"

I also found a feed to an early childhood education site that may be helpful, but I'm off to a puppet show and don't have time to explore it now.

Kelley

I'm so sari!

RSS???

OK, so I didn't get too frustrated trying to figure this one out - switching from screen 1 to 2 to 3. One more chance to say, "Thank you Universerse for another opportunity to practice patience."

So I finally set up an account, went through the tutorial, and then choose some feeds that are of interest to me personally. How's this for a combination: foodnetwork.com, NY Times (pages on movies, music, book reviews), and 2 NPR program feeds (Morning Edition & All Things Considered).

I may even have a chance to check it out once in a while.

Kelley

More fun with my friend Flickr

Well, thanks to a colleague in my department I found another route to access the "mashups" and 3rd party sites. After doodling around for awhile I created a quick trading card just to see how it works. Interesting, but not as fun as the ones I made in LATI using scrapbooking techniques and materials. Call me old fashioned, but I like working with paper, scissors and glue more than digital media. It's a more satisfactory, sensual experience.

This way sure is quicker and less messy though!

Kelley

Near and dear ones

I brought a few photos from home of those near and dear to me. The first one was taken on Mother's Day '07. Our family has a tradition of going to a lavish brunch at a nearby restaurant. Pictured from left to right are June (my brother-in-law), Alli (my youngest daughter), me, Jenette (my Mom), Terry (my big sister), and Kim (our baby sister). My husband Don is taking the photo.

Here are my two little sweethearts, Stellaluna and Isabella, napping on their beanbag chair. At the time of this photo they were about 10 weeks old. Two rough collie sisters, Stella & Bella are now 4 months old and growing like weeds. They are so much work, but in return they have brought a tremendous amount of joy and affection into our household. I'm really enjoying the challenge of training them and I'm grateful for all of the walking they've forced me to do.

OK, now tell me they're not adorable!

My Pal Flickr

I spent some time this afternoon exploring the Flickr website. I had done this last fall as part of my LATI journey. I found photos from some of my favorite vacation spots - Rehobeth, DE & Skyline Drive in VA and postd them here.

The mountain view is from the peak of Old Rag near my sister & brother-in-law's gorgeous vacation home. I love visiting them there and spend long, lazy days surrounded by mountains on one side and orchards all around.

The other two shots are from the beach in Rehobeth. I just returned from spending five glorious days there, camped out right next to a jetty like this one.

Oh vacation!

Learning Contract

Last Friday I completed the tutorial and set up my learning contract. I set a somewhat general goal of becoming more comfortable with emerging technologies. Ok, I admit it, I'm one of those people who entered the 21st century pretty reluctantly and is still dragging my feet. I'd much rather sit and talk with someone face to face than connect electronically. I know, that's just not always feasible in today's fast paced world. I'm trying to get over it and catch up with the speeding freight train before it runs me over.

I'm hoping that I will become more comfortable as I go through this learning process, adding to what I recently learned in LATI. Maybe I'll also be a little more enthusiastic about how these gadgets and gizmos can compliment my work.

Off to the races...

Kelley

Getting my mojo working

Well, it's week 4 and I'm just starting the week 2 assignments. Sigh. At least I feel like I'm beginning to have a better sense of what this is all about. This will be another opportunity to expand my understanding of emerging technologies and become more comfortable with some of them. It's hard to see how I will use this with Outreach patrons, but hopefully that will become clearer. There may be more applications in my collaboration with other staff. If nothing else, I'll be able to keep up with my daughters a little more.

I'll do my best not to get the boggin' blues...

Kelley