Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Where to go from here

This has been a challenge worth working with. However, like most things that are worthwhile there is a price to pay. I found time management the most challenging aspect of the training. Only because I was so much in favor of this opportunity already laid out before me to explore and learn did I invest a lot of my own time to complete - no complaints -I wanted to do it.
My favorite discoveries were: Flickr,RSS feeds,del.icio.us,wikis,podcasts and Youtube.
My life long learning goals have been reinforced.
My take away message is to use in some daily routine the new technologies until they are second nature to me
Yes, I would choose to participate in another discovery program
This growth requires choices all along the way to completion. Unless you are willing to take charge of the task and make those choices the task will be too great to enjoy.

audiobooks

I explored Project Gutenberg because I had already explored Overdrive and Netlibrary during my LATI training. I am interested in the "free' aspect of Project Gutenberg. The background info and mission statements provided a good idea of the site. I used the Online Book Catalog, then proceeded to foreign language choices. This may be a valuable access for patrons. I chose a translation of Chess and Checkers:Way to Mastership by Edw. Lasker. The plain text book was intro duced in English and Polish and then continued in Polish. This was an eye opener!

podcasts

Using the directory podcast.net, I searched twice for library related sites: with "library" I chose Johnson County Library from Overland Park, Kansas. Their Writer's Place Poetry Reading Series looks great. Unfortunately, the podcast took too long to load. I'll try it again. Also under " library", I chose Hennepin County Teen Links and listened to " Movie review of King Kong". The intimacy created by hearing someone's voice, akin to talk radio is very appealing. My second search was " kids book reviews" I chose and added to my Bloglines with an RSS feed the podcast "Book Voyages" . I listened to #17 and enjoyed a quiet " teacher voiced" podcast which included info on using the podcast, contacting the Book Voyages staff by email and phone, contests with prizes,news from the net on Patricia Polaco,reviews of Jean Craighead George's books on care of your dog and care of your cat, review of Giddyup Cowgirl and an invitation to email comments, a student book review of Matilda by Roald Dahl. Most useful to me is the potential for appealing, brief book reviews for the child patron and his / her family.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

youtube

I have been searching for a source for easy beginner guitar lessons that I can use at my own pace. I even have a tape from two years ago that I haven't unwrapped. Lo and behold! You tube! I found many possible videos to try. I "linked " the one I liked best so far to del.icio.us and will enjoy it later tonight. I chose beginner guitar chords. It seems the musician has other beginner guitar lessons too. The video can be stopped and started again - perfect! Now I just need to put those light gauge strings on the guitar. This site may offer other instructional videos of interest to library patrons. I'll take a look at it with reference questions that may relate to instruction.

arcaplay

The variety of games on the site is good. I tried the sudoku and fast food swap. Now that I know how to move from screen to screen on my computer , I'll enjoy having a game going "in the background". However, the timed ones like fast food swap need more practice. In the library, patrons often ask for game sites, so I'll try it on a public pc and test run it.

Agenda 10/17/07

Agenda Item


Contact
Task / Completion Date




zoho.com

This array of services look promising. I read just the other day about these and the stiff competition they're giving Microsoft. I'll continue to explore the spreadsheet and the word processor. I created a draft version of an agenda for our dept meeting and emailed a read / write version to myself at work. I "published" that too but don't see it as a post to my blog. One more interesting detail