Thing 21 - More Social Networking
So ... I joined Ning (my badge is below ... proof?) but I really balked at joining anything else. It seems like such a waste of cyberspace as I probably will never, ever visit the site again. I could see checking my Ning page now and again, but seriously, with what time??? (a running theme in this blog ...) I now check FB too often every day as it is. Do I need to spend more time with this? Again, I can totally see the merit ... especially in narrowing down the focus of your online contacts and social interactions. But I did look through the Wikipedia list of online social network sites and found ... NONE that interested me (well, maybe LibraryThing ...) at least not enough to want to go and create yet another login and password. Wow. I am a serious whiner here ... maybe I need more coffee? Or less? Anyway, two steps to go, baby!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thing 20 : FB
Ahh yes ... we finallly come to the true time-hog of all time, Facebook. Well, do you hear that giant sucking noise? Yes, that is my soul being sucked into the online "friend" tool known as Facebook. Every since joining I've found myself checking it once, twice, three times a day, almost always adding to my list of "friends". However I know to keep myself in check. Probably my most fun reconnect is with peers from library school. They keep me on my toes. I must confess, I've been reticent to join any groups (although I know this is in the "thing") because I just don't want to get inundated with comments and mini-postings from all over the place. Trying to keep it simple, right? As for MySpace, I see the merit in this but I just don't like it as well as Facebook -- too much clutter, too many distractions on the page, just too much. However, I have used MySpace on occasion as a selector of music cds to find local bands, listen to sound clips, and just check out stuff in general. The teen librarian at my workplace also has created a teen space on MySpace. But I guess my main complaint about MySpace are the somewhat groddy ads that pop-up (from Match.com to "Pimp my Profile" and photos of Victoria Beckham ... yeah, I'm sure they're clean ...) Score? Facebook : 9, MySpace : 3.
Ahh yes ... we finallly come to the true time-hog of all time, Facebook. Well, do you hear that giant sucking noise? Yes, that is my soul being sucked into the online "friend" tool known as Facebook. Every since joining I've found myself checking it once, twice, three times a day, almost always adding to my list of "friends". However I know to keep myself in check. Probably my most fun reconnect is with peers from library school. They keep me on my toes. I must confess, I've been reticent to join any groups (although I know this is in the "thing") because I just don't want to get inundated with comments and mini-postings from all over the place. Trying to keep it simple, right? As for MySpace, I see the merit in this but I just don't like it as well as Facebook -- too much clutter, too many distractions on the page, just too much. However, I have used MySpace on occasion as a selector of music cds to find local bands, listen to sound clips, and just check out stuff in general. The teen librarian at my workplace also has created a teen space on MySpace. But I guess my main complaint about MySpace are the somewhat groddy ads that pop-up (from Match.com to "Pimp my Profile" and photos of Victoria Beckham ... yeah, I'm sure they're clean ...) Score? Facebook : 9, MySpace : 3.
Thing 19 - the PodCaster
And here's another thing I've done extensively ... love my IPod, I got it for music but also for Podcasts. I think the Podcast is probably one of the best uses of technology across the board. The entertainment value is super-high and the educational value is limitless. What more is there to say? Apple is genius! (and this coming from a PC user ... just don't have the moolah for a Mac).
THING 18 - YouTube
Not much to say about this. I've used YouTube extensively at work, both for reference (it was YouTube that finally taught me the proper way to "do" the song Baby Shark) and for fun. I think YouTube is a fabulous tool, albeit something of a space hog in cyberspace. Patrons use it ALL THE TIME so it's fairly necessary to at least have some inkling of what it's about. I could see it useful for libraries for just the above situation -- there are some pieces of information that are purely visual (and aural) where actually looking at them is the only way to explain.
Not much to say about this. I've used YouTube extensively at work, both for reference (it was YouTube that finally taught me the proper way to "do" the song Baby Shark) and for fun. I think YouTube is a fabulous tool, albeit something of a space hog in cyberspace. Patrons use it ALL THE TIME so it's fairly necessary to at least have some inkling of what it's about. I could see it useful for libraries for just the above situation -- there are some pieces of information that are purely visual (and aural) where actually looking at them is the only way to explain.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Thing 17 - ELM
Use this pretty much every day when I work on the reference desk. Especially NetLibrary, which I've helped folks out with a lot. So, not sure what to say here. ELM is a vital part of Minnesota library service -- can't imagine how we could help out some folks like we do.
Only one minor thing to report : I like EBSCO better than ProQuest. I just don't feel that ProQuest is all that user friendly -- I've helped patrons on both, and even sometimes I get confused when using ProQuest. I prefer EBSCO. Just a minor report ...
Use this pretty much every day when I work on the reference desk. Especially NetLibrary, which I've helped folks out with a lot. So, not sure what to say here. ELM is a vital part of Minnesota library service -- can't imagine how we could help out some folks like we do.
Only one minor thing to report : I like EBSCO better than ProQuest. I just don't feel that ProQuest is all that user friendly -- I've helped patrons on both, and even sometimes I get confused when using ProQuest. I prefer EBSCO. Just a minor report ...
Thing 16 - Homework Help
Well, I kinda wish I had some of this when I was a student ... it was nice to see the layout of how an assignment should progress. I also liked the handy links to external research sites (U of MN's Assignment Calculator) and that everything was right there at your fingertips.
On the other hand (oh yes, there's always this), how does this teach students to be able to achieve time management on their own? If your computer is always telling you where you should be in the process, that could also be sort of annoying ("No, I'm not done gathering materials and no, I don't want to make an outline today! Leave me alone!").
However, if students can link to their (academic) library for help with the project, I think it could potentially be a powerful tool ... although it does tend to spoon feed you everything.
Done.
Well, I kinda wish I had some of this when I was a student ... it was nice to see the layout of how an assignment should progress. I also liked the handy links to external research sites (U of MN's Assignment Calculator) and that everything was right there at your fingertips.
On the other hand (oh yes, there's always this), how does this teach students to be able to achieve time management on their own? If your computer is always telling you where you should be in the process, that could also be sort of annoying ("No, I'm not done gathering materials and no, I don't want to make an outline today! Leave me alone!").
However, if students can link to their (academic) library for help with the project, I think it could potentially be a powerful tool ... although it does tend to spoon feed you everything.
Done.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
