I like Wikis. I think they are easy to use and practical. I had some experience with PBwikis in one of my courses. I remember having to put a library budget on the wiki. We used a table copied from word. The formatting was tricky but I think that just for basic word processing a wiki is a sufficient tool.
I looked through the websites and can I just say, is Meredith Farkas everywhere? She created the Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki. I have read her name numerous times since I started this LS program. She is definitely a mover and shaker in the library technology world. Anyway, I really liked the her wiki and added it to my Google Reader. I also need to look through the list of library blogs available on Library Bloggers Wiki. The list is extensive! In the TeacherLibrarian Wiki I read about a librarian that offers a Books ala Carte services. That is an idea I will tuck away and hopefully use someday.
I can see that one of the most obvious uses for a wiki in a library would be for book discussion and reviews. As far as the classroom, I would setup one like the Westwood Schools teacher, Vicki Davis has (one of the samples posted in week #7). Her wiki is not just for special projects that are here today and gone tomorrow. She definitely has a lot going on in her wiki and makes it an active part of her classroom. It has won many awards.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
WEEK 6 - THING #15
I found an example of a modification of this program. Below is a link to a Power Point presentation created by Allen County Public Library located in Fort Wayne, IN. The presentation shows how they modified the 23 things to make it their own. Also shown is how they pitched it to the board and how it was implemented. Very interesting!
http://www.iolug.org/programs/2007-2008_01_Fall/IOLUG.2007Fall.Robinson.Learning2.0.pdf
Would you believe a friend of mine admitted to me she doesn’t use the library because it intimidates her? That said, I think that Library 2.0, among other things, needs to be about making patrons see that the library is there for them and not some information warehouse that they don’t, or are not permitted to have the key to. The latest technology should be implemented only if it improves the patrons experience in the library, not to make it more confusing. Michael Stephens wrote in The OCLC Newsletter, that librarians need to be careful of technolust. He also mentioned that it is important that the library be transparent. Including the patrons in new projects and getting their feedback would be a good start. So that is what Library 2.0 means to me, a library with a logical balance between user-centered and technology-friendly atmosphere.
http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/3.htm
http://www.iolug.org/programs/2007-2008_01_Fall/IOLUG.2007Fall.Robinson.Learning2.0.pdf
Would you believe a friend of mine admitted to me she doesn’t use the library because it intimidates her? That said, I think that Library 2.0, among other things, needs to be about making patrons see that the library is there for them and not some information warehouse that they don’t, or are not permitted to have the key to. The latest technology should be implemented only if it improves the patrons experience in the library, not to make it more confusing. Michael Stephens wrote in The OCLC Newsletter, that librarians need to be careful of technolust. He also mentioned that it is important that the library be transparent. Including the patrons in new projects and getting their feedback would be a good start. So that is what Library 2.0 means to me, a library with a logical balance between user-centered and technology-friendly atmosphere.
http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/3.htm
Sunday, October 11, 2009
WEEK 6 - THING #14
When I first opened Technorati, it looked like a difficult site to navigate through. Thing 14 instructions said to check out popular blogs, searches and tags. If they didn't have the link right there, I don't think I would have been able to find it in their website. Looking past that, there is quite a lot of info on this site. I did search "School Library Learning 2.0" and "Classroom Learning 2.0" and found many blogs and blog posts relating to these topics. However, when I searched tags I got no hits for either of them. I really enjoyed searching the popular blogs. Boing Boing was really interesting. I can't believe that they have editors, senior editors and whatnot. Is this a business for them? If not, when do they find the time to keep up with all the latest info that is available there?
I guess I didn't really understand the concept of tagging until I read chapter 8 in Nancy Courtney's book. The advantages that I find to be most important regarding tagging is inclusiveness, currency and low cost. With inclusiveness, people can find those rare allusive topics that controled vocabulary may not allow. For example, if you practice shamanism, thereare many buzz words that only shamans would know. Currency is important too. It takes minutes to update and create tags. It takes a lot longer to update "a large taxonomy". Low cost seems to be the biggest advantage for obvious reasons. Some disadvantages are the lack of hierarchy and gaming which is like spamming. There are no relationships in tagging. With gaming, anyone can just make many many tags for any content. This is a serious tax on the tagging system.
Tagging for personal reasons may not be a good idea for me. At work, I file a lot of information and I find that what I file stuff under depends on the mood I am in. I am a very inconsistent person for which tagging probably wouldn't be helpful.
I guess I didn't really understand the concept of tagging until I read chapter 8 in Nancy Courtney's book. The advantages that I find to be most important regarding tagging is inclusiveness, currency and low cost. With inclusiveness, people can find those rare allusive topics that controled vocabulary may not allow. For example, if you practice shamanism, thereare many buzz words that only shamans would know. Currency is important too. It takes minutes to update and create tags. It takes a lot longer to update "a large taxonomy". Low cost seems to be the biggest advantage for obvious reasons. Some disadvantages are the lack of hierarchy and gaming which is like spamming. There are no relationships in tagging. With gaming, anyone can just make many many tags for any content. This is a serious tax on the tagging system.
Tagging for personal reasons may not be a good idea for me. At work, I file a lot of information and I find that what I file stuff under depends on the mood I am in. I am a very inconsistent person for which tagging probably wouldn't be helpful.
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