Thinking

Thinking about sites for students

noreply@blogger.com (Blue) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 16:14:00 +0000

I looked at three sites: Backpack, Digication, and Notecentric. Of the three Backpack struck me as the most useful. Perhaps because it had the best "tour". Backpack strikes me as a very flexible and user-friendly organizational tool. Notecentric also appears to have a lot of potential for sharing information among students. It is a Facebook application, but that shouldn't be a limiting factor, since Facebook is free and practically every student I know already has an account anyway. Digication was a bit more confusing. There was no tour of the site, and no obvious explanation of it's usefulness. How do people find out about these sites and know what to do with them? It's a mystery to me. I'm glad the krl2pt0 site will be staying up--I'm sure I'll come back to it in the future to find some of these sites, or just for a refresher.

twittering thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Blue) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:37:00 +0000

Twittering thoughts: looks like e-mail with ADD!
Did a lot of following followers to their followers to their followers....stumbled across restaurant impressions/movie suggestions/dog food dilemmas/Barack Obama/and lots of people goofing off at work.
Saw a couple sites that could be actually useful: a research library posting their new journals, etc. and Barack Obama (or his people) posting his appearance schedule.
Can't imagine why I'd want to spend time on this. Better to go outside and live life!

Facebook Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Blue) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:28:00 +0000

Interesting article about libraries in social networking software. She made a comment:

I wonder if they have a false sense of security. And if all that is true, how would they feel about librarians building presence in MySpace and Facebook or even posting comments on their profiles.

This is the reason I have not created a Facebook site. I feel like I might be invading my children's private communications with their friends. Like listening in on a second phone line. I have been shown the pictures of their underage friends at drunken parties and feel sure that parental lurking would not be welcomed by all. Perhaps I am merely enabling their false sense of security?

I did not realize that photos or notes could be tagged with a name and show up on another person's profile. So a less cautious friend could post indiscreet material that shows up on your website! Could be trouble.

Libraries, certainly, may not have the same stifling effect as a parent, being considerably more impersonal, but it needs to be considered. I do like the idea of links or portals to the library from Facebook, etc.

Wiki2 Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Blue) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 05:37:00 +0000

Wow! That was easy! (Where's an EASY button when you want one?)

I added a page called "Local Organizations" to the Poulsbo homepage on the wiki. Then I linked to the URLs of several organizations in the Poulsbo area.

This is certainly something that the public could participate in by adding information about or links to their own organizations.

Fun!

Wiki1 Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Blue) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:19:00 +0000

I noticed, while looking at the Stevens County Library's Wiki, that their most popular pages were the booklists. They had lists for Manga and for Washington Murder Mysteries. And virtually all of the most recent changes/additions were for the Manga reviews. What a great idea! I think booklists with patron reviews for lots of different subjects could be a big hit...Easy Reader books, books for boys, books for Spanish learners, etc.... something everybody could contribute to any time they read a book!

YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (Blue) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:03:00 +0000

I have watched a few YouTube clips in the past, most Yahoo featured clips, but I've never searched for clips before. This could be dangerous! There is the potential to waste a lot of time just watching video clips. The potential impact of YouTube is tremendous in so many areas--politics, social justice, learning, not to mention family connections and humor!

LibraryThing

noreply@blogger.com (Blue) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 04:13:00 +0000

I opened a LibraryThing account a while ago when I first heard about it. I think it has the potential to be a great resource--especially for my husband who likes to catalog his large personal library. (But I think he actually prefers the old paper card method.) It's fun to be able to read the reviews of books I have read. I even submitted one review of my own. A great tool with lots of potential uses--another blogger mentioned using it as a way to keep track of books read. I may try doing that as my New Year's resolution!

RSS update

noreply@blogger.com (Blue) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 03:42:00 +0000

I created an RSS feed for Kitsap's Department of Emergency Management "Tip of the Month". using Page2RSS. Sadly, as the date on the website is updated daily, I got a daily webfeed with only that vital information. I've discontinued that link!

Thoughts on flickr

noreply@blogger.com (Blue) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:48:00 +0000

I have mixed feelings about putting pictures on the web that are open for public viewing. Perhaps I'm not really clear on the various security options. I did open an account--which unfortunately required getting a yahoo e-mail account. I now have 5 e-mail accounts and rarely get my password right on the first try! I did put pictures into an album--easily done--and sent an invitation for a friend to view. The friend is also doing krl2pt0, so should have an account. I'd hesitate to use this for all my picture sharing as I am not pleased about having to open an account to have access. Other photo sharing websites such as Shutterfly or Kodak Easyshare don't require any information to view.

RSS feeds

noreply@blogger.com (Blue) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 15:33:00 +0000

Well, now that I've figured out what RSS feeds are, and why I should care--I think they're pretty cool! I especially appreciate e-mail about Page2RSS which allows me to create an RSS feed when the site does not offer one. I use it to get the comic strip 9 Chickweed Lane delivered to me every day! So much easier than having to go look for it myself! I have also used it to link to Kitsap's Department of Emergency Management "Tip of the Month".
Having fun!

More thoughts about tagging

noreply@blogger.com (Blue) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 03:38:00 +0000

In "The Several Habits of Wildly Successful del.icio.us" I read:

After tracking a few things for a while, you’ll start to wonder where a particular user gets all their interesting bookmarks. Maybe they’re connected, or maybe they’re just copying someone else who is connected. Either way, you can check out other users’ inboxes by just replacing their USERNAME in this url:http://del.icio.us/inbox/USERNAME. By exploring through a few layers of who is watching who, you’ll start to come up with your own list of people to stalk–just add them to your inbox!

Does anybody else think it's really creepy that your tags can be stalked this way?

Thoughts on tagging

noreply@blogger.com (Blue) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 02:16:00 +0000

Tagging is fun!! We'll see if it actually is an easier way to store websites than bookmarks (which I use a lot).... I think the del.icio.us buttons are great--less cumbersome than the bookmarks for sure. The question is whether tags will be easier than files for locating a website, once I have dozens (or hundreds!) collected. Right now I'm just tagging and saving all the websites I visit regularly.

I must say I'm very impressed with KRL2pt0. It is amazingly well-organized and very effective at providing the desired experiences. I plan to invite my husband and daughter to "lurk" and learn along with me. I was quite proud to be able to explain "tagging" to my daughter--and I promised to explain RSS once I figure it out myself!

Stay tuned!

Thinking about 20 Reasons

noreply@blogger.com (Blue) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 22:00:00 +0000

I enjoyed looking at these reasons for learning new technologies. It helps to overcome the inertia I feel when they don't seem immediately useful. But then, I resisted getting the Internet and e-mail in the 90's and have since become a believer! I don't enjoy feeling like a dinosaur--which is why I'm participating in KRL2.0 in the first place. Not to mention the benefits of mental exercise and building new connections in the ol' brain. I relate most to "Reason #6: experimenting gains skills"--just becoming familiar with the terminology of emerging technologies is sure to be helpful eventually. I think about "click", "username", "window", "cursor", "google", etc.--words that were quite foreign before becoming acquainted with personal computers. I expect there is a whole new vocabulary I'll be conversant in by next February. I still can't imagine feeling a need for many of these new technologies--but ask me again in a decade!

Indecisive

noreply@blogger.com (Blue) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 04:54:00 +0000

I have learned that indecisive people like myself can change the URL for their blog if they decide they don't like their first choice!