#23 It’s Only the Beginning...

• What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

Given the fact that most of the exercises involve the use of tools that have no real application to my particular job, the discoveries that I have most enjoyed are those which have been found to enhance my personal life. As I am a great reader and collector of books, Library Thing has become a favorite of mine. I have also enjoyed learning about podcasts, and have subscribed to several in order to pursue my interests in books and music, although I have not found much time to use them (I would rather spend it reading.)
By contrast, the news/blog feeds, the social networking sites, the on-line book marking tools, although I’ve tried them out, have not fit themselves into my daily routine. This is also true of YouTube, with which I was already familiar. I enjoy browsing for interesting clips on rare occasions, but usually this activity is not given priority for my limited time. I have pretty much honed my usage of the internet down to several key sites (a couple of news outlets, a couple of blogs, a couple of reference tools) each of which I visit every morning, and which I may refer to, as needed, during the course of a day. I find that these sites continue to satisfy my needs and desires, despite all innovations.

• How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

As I’ve state in my blog, the impetus to mount a blog of my own, at which site I can express myself about what I read and what my reading causes me to think about, has been the greatest help to my lifelong learning goals. First, the blog prompts me to write on an almost daily basis. Secondly, because it provides an outlet for me to express my thoughts about what I’ve found most valuable in my reading, it has helped to ensure that I read carefully and critically, so as to have a true learning experience, and not just an entertaining one. As my blog has solicited a few comments from people who visit some of the other blogs that I visit, I have received some valuable feedback from the outside world. I have also been able to incorporate the Zoho reader into my blog project as a means of self-publishing some of my writings, and this has been very satisfying.

• Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

As I was a new hire on came “on-line” after Learning 2.0 was already under way, I really didn’t think, at the outset, that I would bother to play catch-up, and then continue through all the exercises. I was pleasantly surprised to find that even though many of the tools did not have much application to either my job, or my personal life, I enjoyed doing them and learning about them, nonetheless. It is always good to keep up with the times and be aware of what is going on around you, even if you aren’t a current participant. Becoming aware of what’s going on with Facebook and MySpace, for instance, has given me some insight into what my daughters are up to during all those hours they spend on their computers.

• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

I found it difficult to attend any of the sessions that accompanied the computer exercises, since I routinely spend much of my day away from Alden, the only thing that would have helped me on one or two occasions, was more prompt feed-back on questions I e-mailed in when I found myself stumped trying to make something in one of the exercises work for me.

• If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate? Or would you be interested in helping to post to a learning blog similar to this one?

To answer the first part of the question, I guess that I would need to know more about what a hypothetical discovery program would be covering to say for sure. But, lacking that knowledge, based only on this experience, I’d say “yes.” As to the second part, I don’t think that I really possess enough technical expertise in any area to be of much help

#22 Social Networking

As I noted in my 8/2/07 post, I had already bookmarked FaceBook with the intention of checking into further in the future. Today, I watched “Social Networking in Plain English”, which provides a very brief overview of the concept of the networking on the internet. It reminded me of a thing I’ve read about in connection with Information Theory called the Game of Life.
I next read the Newsweek article, “The Facebook Challenge” and watched the video clip “Facebook Grows Up.” Then I took the Facebook Tour. None of these experiences enticed me to want to become a participant.
Finally, I investigated the MySpace homepage. I was able to easily find the sites of both of my daughters, and from there all of their friends. TMI, that’s all I can say: TMI.
Friendster was boring by comparison with either of the other two.
I can see how a library group on one of these sites could be valuable as a way to communicate with other librarians concerning conference planning, solutions to problems encountered on the job, shared interests within the field, innovative ideas for projects, and job searches. At this point, of course, it ceases to be “social” networking, or, at the very least, that aspect of it is diluted by its professional uses.
Both Facebook and MySpace seem to be dominated by the posting of photographs. That is something in which I’ve had little interest. Nor do I have any impetus to share my favorite pop songs with the world.
My preference in meeting people has always been to lay back and observe them for awhile, before deciding if I want to establish a relationship. I would not like putting myself out there where I can be approached first by people I don’t know. The idea of posting my profile on-line is not at all appealing to me.
I have a blog now, so I can put my ideas out there, without exposing my personal business to anybody and everybody’s idle curiosity.

#20 (cont.): How Many Found this Classic Library Clip?

#21: Podcasts

After looking around a bit, I decided to try a feed into my bloglines account from three sites: "Radio Derb" which features droll commentary by my one and only conservative buddy, John Derbyshire; NPR Books; and another NPR feed featuring profiles of jazz musicians. Politics, books, and music: that about covers my range of interests. If I find that I actually access these feeds (about which I'm sceptical), I'll think about adding some more in the future.

#21: Here's Some Audio Worth a Listen

Dylan Thomas has long been one of my favorite poets, and this is one of my favorite poems.

#20: YouTube

I've already been visting YouTube for several months. People have also been sending me YouTube clips via e-mail for quite some time. And I've been visiting other blogs where clips are regularly posted. I created an account on YouTube, using my google sign-in, and found the Bob Dylan video posted below, which was something that was useful as an adjunct to a series of posts I'd put up on my other blog.
YouTube is great. It's amazing how easy it is to post a clip. I'm glad that Learning 2.0 finally prompted me to find out how to do it.

The most obvious use of clips in the library setting, it would seem to me, would be for short instructional tools to show individuals how to find, or use, things like on-line catalogs and research materials--clips similar to the ones included in this lesson.

#7 Redux: Well, isn't this special!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070804/ap_on_hi_te/social_networking_vulnerabilities

#19 (cont.)

I have already described my enthusiasm for one of the Web 2.0 winners, Library Thing. And I am using zoho writer, which I think is another medalist (?). I have also previously bookmarked Biblio.com after browsing through the list of winners in the "books" category.
Today I thought I'd take another quick look at some of the other winners.
I had noticed that a blogger whose site I sometimes visit offers a link to reddit.com, so I took a look at that one. In checking out the "what's hot" category on that site, I was directed to a security camera video clip of the awful bridge collapse in Minneapolis. (I am still waiting to hear from a friend who lives there and could well be a daily user of that bridge.) I hadn't seen that clip on TV, although it was apparently aired on CNN, which I often flip through in my nightly viewing. Finding this kind of thing is of interest, so I registered at, and bookmarked, the site. I don't really care too much about most of the "fun" features it offers, such as being able to vote on items viewed, in order, I guess, to create a ranking. But I will look into it further as time goes on to see how it might be used to better advantage.
I also bookmarked Facebook. Everybody seems to have one. Certainly my daughters have one. I just want to check it out for that reason. For my personal purposes, the blog seems like the most satisfying way to go.
I can see a person getting totally lost in feeds of interesting "stuff" from all these different sites. This is not good for OCD types; not at all. The world is already moving too fast; and we are already bombarded with an excessive amount of information, much of which is merely titillating. As I've said before, I need my recliner and a good book in my limited free time.
To the extent that uses can be found on the job for some of these tools--and I can see how they would be very helpful to people with certain kinds of jobs (and to students, as well)--I welcome their development. But as a form of entertaining time-killer, I see dangers in them.

#18: A New Feature

On the sidebar, a new feature of my blog can be observed: "Writings". I investigated zohowriter and the similar google feature, and decided to use zoho to publish a (very) short and (hopefully) humorous story that I've had laying around for awhile.
I haven't had occasion to use this tool for composition yet, but I can see how it could come in handy, from time-to-time.
I also signed up for the google tool, since I already had an account any way. If, over time, one proves to be more useful--or user-friendly--than the other, I can always switch.