Exe. #23: the End and the Beginning

Due to Fay, I have so much free time to complete the training at home. I really enjoyed the training. I am learning every day with every exercise. I have my own blog, my own Bloglines RSS feed and my own Zoho Writer online. I feel I am getting closer to the new technology and its application. I will definitely take another training of this kind in the future. I hope it will come soon. Thanks to JPL 2.0.

Exe. #22: Audiobooks

I don't like the audio tutorial of Overdrive. It takes time to download and it has no interaction function. Overdrive should make a new audio tutorial of small size. Podcast should be a better choice.

I tried Overdrive when it was just introduced in JPL. I like it personally and checked out two books (50 Favorite Nursery Rhymes and Arrow to the Sun)so far and plan to check more in the future with my new MP3. It is very convenient since I can download the document into any portable players. I really hope more customers can use the service.

Exe. # 21 Podcast

Although I know podcast is widely used for online education, I got a big surprise to see how podcast is so popular in every field now.

I wanted to find lots of documents to teach me to learn some foreign languages. I tried most of the podcast directories except iTune and all of them are user friendly. It is very easy to search and navigate. And it is very easy to listen to the podcast without downloading and save the document in my computer, but I guess if I want to download and save the documents, I have to create an account and download some software. I subscribed to CoffeeBreaker Spanish. I can find it in all the podcast searching directories except iTune. I like Podnova most. It doesn't require you to download any software if you just want to listen online. And it is very easy to subscribe the feed.

Exe. #20: YouTube

Although I know the existence of YouTube for a long time, I began to love it only after I found so many nursery rhymes videos from it. If you type in "nursery rhymes", you will get about 3690 results and 2 channels. I use it a lot now when I am trying to learn new nursery rhyme songs for my mother goose time. In YouTube I can also find arts and crafts videos to help me to prepare library programs for children. I used YouTube to learn to make pipe cleaner flowers, to make origami cranes.

Here is a video of Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater from YouTube. Enjoy it.

Exe. #19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

At last I am here with exercise #19. I don't like to explore so many tools because there is no way for me to remember them and no way for me to use them from time to time. But I did try the No. 1 for Games and Entertainment zango at http://www.zango.com/. I got no luck at all. Even I avoided downloading and chose a game with Play. It will ask you to download again and there is no way for me to download the software following the direction closely. The website is completely useless to me with my computer. And I should also worry about the security of the downloaded games.

I also tried Food No. 1 site imcooked at http://www.imcooked.com/. It is more user friendly and I can navigate and search without being a member. I like it. But with all the videos, we need fast Internet connection.

I spent more time on Books. For example, Lulu is a self publishing website. It is so unique to have a website to publish and sell your own books.

Exe. # 18 Zoho Writer

Beijing Olympics

2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony

I tried to edit the image. The property of the image doesn't allow me to edit the width and length.

But I am still very happy to have a free word software online waiting for me all the time.

Exe. #17 Playing around with PBWiki

I love this exercise. It is easy and fun. I added my favorite restaurant and my favorite movie and put my blog in the favorite blog. I colored my blog link and hope there are more visitors to my blog. I have a good time.

Exe. # 16: So what's in a wiki?

I love wikipedia and use it all the time. You can always get the first hand information from it. For example, it has more information on the city I was born and lived in China, Harbin. It has more useful information on the education system in USA , which you can not easily find in the U.S. Department of Education website. I know it is not authentic since everyone can be the contributors and editors. But it will definitely give you a good start.

I believe wiki's application in libraries lies in its wide involvement. With the open editability, each one can be a contributor and get involved. But I have doubt on getting the community involved just with wiki. It is just a tool, a medium.

Exe. #15: Library 2.0

It is so refreshing to read all these articles about our current and future of librarianship. I am a believer that the key element of library science is cataloging. Only with better cataloging system, can we ensure better and user-centric service, and can ensure library to survive. So an open WorldCat with user-friendly interface is a necessity. It will solve the user education problem. With a better cataloging system, there is no need to educate our users.

Another key element of library science is collection. There is no way for us to go completely digital. But we are facing to decide which will go digital and which will go printing.

As to user service, I believe we have already focus our service around users. Users will keep challenge us to provide more service to help them find the information as fast and convenience as possible.

Exe. #14 Technorati

Question 1: Take a look at Technorati and try doing a keyword search for “Learning 2.0” in Blog posts, in tags and in the Blog Directory. Are the results different?

Answer:
Search / 8,483 results for Learning 2.0
Search / 892 posts tagged Learning 2.0

The No. 1 blog by fans is Boing boing and No. 1 search is Total drama island and No. 1 blog by authority is Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post.

I did surf about the website, but I don't plan to post my blog for the public definitely for my safety. It seems to keep a spyware in my blog.

Exe. #13 Social Bookmarking Delicious

I like the Social Bookmarking in Plain English from Common Craft video. It is really helpful to me. As far as I am concerned now, the two advantages are Internet storage and social sharing. I wonder whether it will be of great value in research. How can you make sure that the information provided is authentic? I surfed about the website and find some very good website under the tags paper cutting and origami. I did not get an account for me because it requires so much information. I will wait and see. But I definitely put www.delicious.com in my favorites.