Congratulations! You've reached the last thing. Be sure to give yourself a pat on the back for completing the program. Before we sign off for the last time, I ask for one last post.
For your last and final exercise of this program please reflect on your learning journey and post a few thoughts. Here are some questions to prompt you if you're drawing a blank...
What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
What could we do differently to improve upon this program's format or concept?
If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again choose to participate?
Thank you all for participating and I hope you felt this experience was valuable for you. Maybe we'll see you again!
Throughout the course of this Learning 2.0 program we’ve explored just a small sampling of these new internet technologies and websites that are empowering users with the ability to create and share content. But given time there are so many more we could explore. There are hundreds if not thousands of Web 2.0 tools but only a handful emerging as market dominators. And although only time will tell which of these new collaborative, social networking and information tools will remain on top, one thing is for sure, they're not going to go away (at least anytime soon).
For this discovery exercise, participants are asked to select any site from this list of Web 2.0 Awards nominees and explore it. With so many to choose from, it might be handy to first select a category that interests you (like Books or Organization) and then simply select a tool/site to explore. Be careful to select a tool that is Free and that doesn't require a plug-in or download. The majority of these are free, so this shouldn’t be a problem.
Discovery Exercise:
Select any site/tool from the list of Web 2.0 Awards nominees. (If you prefer to select from just the winners, here’s a link to the short list.)
Explore the site you selected.
Create a post about your discovery. What did you like or dislike about the tool? What were the site’s useful features? Could you see any applications for its use in a library setting?
Web 2.0 – with so much to explore, just start with ONE. :)
The availability and use of online productivity web-based applications (think word processing and spreadsheets) has exploded in recent years and for good reasons! These powerful applications provide users with the ability to create and share documents over the internet without the need of installed desktop applications. Some experts speculate that this emerging trend may mean the death to Microsoft Office and other software-based productivity tools, while others think web-based applications have their place, but not in the office. But no matter which side of the office suite platform you side with, on this both sides seem to agree; web-based apps have their place.
One large benefit to web-based applications it that they eliminate the need to worry about different software versions or file types as you email documents or move from PC to PC. Another bonus is that they easily accommodate collaboration by allowing multiple users to edit the same file (with versioning) and provide users the ability to easily save and convert documents as multiple file types (including HTML and pdf). And, you can even use many of these tools, such as Zoho Writer and Google Docs to author and publish posts to your blog. It’s this type of integration with other web 2.0 tools that also makes web-based apps so appealing.
For this discovery exercise, participants are asked to take a look at a web-based word processing tool, create a simple document and then document your discoveries in your blog.
With Zoho and web-based applications, the possibilities are endless.
Discovery Resources:
Explore the different web-based applications including:
1. Create a free account for yourself in Zoho or google docs. 2. Explore the site and create a few test documents. 3. Try out the features and create a blog post about your discoveries.
Are you a book lover? Do you wish you could conveniently keep track of what you've read? Are you constantly searching for new things to read? Then online book communities may be just the thing for you.
Developed for book lovers these tools not only allow you to easily create an online catalog of your own, they also connect you to other readers' who've created libraries and perhaps share similar reading tastes. You can connect not only with individual readers but join groups as well. Many of these services have librarian groups too! One aspect that makes these communities useful is that they allow you rate and review the books you add. In addition, you can maintain lists of books that you want to read, not just a list of what you've already read.
There are other sites not only for book lovers but for those who are writers or aspiring writers. Take Authonomy for instance. This is a site that exists not only for book lovers but also to discover new, talented writers.
Many of you are likely familiar with the concept of bookmarking webpages in your web browser so that you can revisit them later. While it's convenient to keep a record of a page that you'd like to visit again, we often find ourselves away from the computer where we've saved those web pages. It would be even better if we could take our bookmarks with us; so wherever we happen to be using the internet, we could access them. This week we're going to be exploring social bookmarking tools that allow us to do just that. Del.icio.us is one of the most well known social bookmarking tools, although there are others out there including:
Tagging is an open and informal method of categorizing that allows users to associate keywords with online content (webpages, pictures & posts). Unlike library subject cataloging, which follows a strict set of guidelines (i.e.Library of Congress subject headings), tagging is completely unstructured and freeform, allowing users to create connections between data anyway they want.
In the past few weeks, we’ve already explored a few sites that allow users to take advantage of tagging and in week 3 many even used a common tag (JPL) to create an association between photos that we individually uploaded. This week we want to also take a popular social bookmarking site called Del.icio.us (typed in as http://del.icio.us/).
Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking manager which allows you to bookmark a web page and add tags to categorize your bookmarks.
Many users find that the real power of Del.icio.us is in the social network aspect, which allows you to see how other users have tagged similar links and also discover other websites that may be of interest to you. You can think of it as peering into another users’ filing cabinet, but with this powerful bookmarking tool each user's filing cabinet helps to build an expansive knowledge network.
For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at Del.icio.us and learn about this popular bookmarking tool.
Discovery Resources:
Discovery Exercise:
1. Take a look around Del.icio.us using the JPL account. 2. Explore the site options and try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users. Can you see the comments they added about this bookmark or the tags that they used to categorize this reference? 3. Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool. Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance? Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere?
OPTIONAL: If you’re up to the challenge, create a Del.icio.us account for yourself and discover how this useful bookmarking tool can replace your traditional browser bookmark list.
The word podcast is used to refer to a non-musical audio or video broadcast that is distributed over the Internet. What differentiates a podcast from regular streaming audio or video is that the delivery method for podcasts is often done automatically through RSS.
In 2005, "podcast" was named the "word of the year" by New Oxford American Dictionary and with the growth of podcasting since then, it's easy to see why.
Podcasts take many forms, from short 1-10 minutes commentaries (like the ones used in this Learning 2.0 program) to much longer in person interviews or panel group discussions. There’s a podcast out there for just about every interest area and the best part about this technology is that you don’t have to have an iPod or a MP3 player to access them. Since podcasts use the MP3 file format, a popular compressed format for audio files, you really just need a PC (or portal device) with headphones or a speaker.
iTunes, the free downloadable application created by Apple is the directory finding service most associated with podcasts, but if you don’t have iTunes installed there are still plenty of options.
For this discovery exercise participants are asked to take a look at some popular podcast directory tools. Do some exploring on your own and locate a podcast that is of interest to you. Once found, you can easily pull the RSS feed into your Google Reader account as well, so that when new casts become available you’ll be automatically notified of their existence.
Discovery Resources:
* There are many, many podcast directories and finding tools out there. Here are just a few of the more popular ones that, unlike iTunes, don't require a software download:
1. Take a look at one or two of the podcast directories listed or search iTunes and see if you can find a podcast that interests you. See if you can find some library related podcasts like book review podcasts or library news. 2. Add the RSS feed for a podcast to your Google Reader account 3. Create a blog post about your discovery process. Did you find anything useful here?
You’ve heard of RSS? You’ve seen those small funny tags on websites? You’ve heard co-workers and acquaintances swear by it, but still have no idea what RSS is. Well don’t worry, you're not alone. In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionalizing the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web.
Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit every day. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for just the text you want to read, doesn’t it? Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually. Would that be valuable to you? Well, it’s available now through a newsreader and RSS.
This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Google Reader account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together.
1. Follow the resources above to learn more about RSS and newsreaders. 2. Create a free Google Reader account for yourself and subscribe to at least 10 newsfeeds to your reader. 3. Create a post in your blog about this exercise.
PS: Once you tackle this discovery exercise, you've tackled the most difficult one. :)
