The End

This was truly an amazing journey and I would take the plunge again if another discovery program like this was offered. And I was surprised that my husband wanted to know all about what I was learning, even though he's a big techogeek and was probably just humoring me. To close, in the words of Ferris, "It's over... go home".

My Learning 2.0 Experience

Thing 29... such a relief! I have learned so much over the last several weeks... things I would never have known were out there, so I wish to thank those responsible for creating, offering, updating, and tracking this massive learning experience. I especially enjoyed learning about Flickr, and it was great fun to find a video of my son's band playing a club on YouTube, but neither of these were very useful to my work. The down side, to me, is that so much of this takes time... time I do not have. And while many things can be very useful in my work, such as Rollyo, others are just time-hogs and escapism, like MySpace. Another disappointment was that so many of the links and resources didn't work, either because they were blocked or no longer functional or no one was home at the VBPL IM site. This creates frustration: I take the time from my duties as a staff member to complete these voluntary exercises, I listen to the podcast, read the resources and set out to complete the exercises and BAM! I hit a brick wall. Would I do it again... Yes. But am I so glad it's coming to an end... YES!

Rollyo

Select Search Engine...librarybuzzbuzzbuzzVeganYummiesSearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

So here's my Roll... a quick and easy way to search for vegan recipes on sites I know and visit often. Some of the Learning 2.0 exercises have made me think, "Who has time for this???" This one is useful, makes searching more efficient, and has applications in both my work and personal life. YAY!!!

LibraryThing

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/dbarrow

So here's my library from LibraryThing... a mix of recent titles that have been of particular interest to me. I enjoyed LibraryThing. There were SO MANY groups and lists and discussions. Seems like a great community of book lovers sharing useful information, similar tastes, and open discussion on all sorts of topics relating to those in the book world.

Generate This...

This was too much fun!!! I tried out lots of generators: name generators (all very silly!), poetry generators, poster generators, etc. I still don't understand who has the time for all this 'cuz I surely don't, but it's still tons of fun. Here's where I found the highway sign generator...
http://atom.smasher.org/highway

Podcasts and Video

Again, I was unsuccessful lots of times before hitting a few that worked... and worked well. I was intrigued by the Denver Public Library site, which seemed to offer children's stories on podcast. This is a GREAT idea, but I couldn't test it out; Websense said NO! How sad for me! I was in the mood for some cookies and a good story! Finally I visited John Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries. WOW! I really enjoyed the podcast hosted by Andi Bartlestein on Ask A Librarian. This conversation with a librarian from Eisenhower Library detailed for the listener how students, faculty and staff can work with the librarians to find desired information. The speakers detailed the Information Desk, the Librarian's office, the concept of different librarians for different departments, and how to get help from a librarian online and over the phone. This is a really beneficial use of library podcasts!

Locating Podcasts

How frustrating! I was unhappy with the idea of leaving my desk to go to a public computer to visit Podcast.net or Podcastalley.com... the Library 2.0 process is time-consuming enough without having to venture to a different space to do the work. Sssoooooo... I went to Yahoo Podcasts and after several starts and stops and long, winding trails that led nowhere, I found several podcasts on gardening. One of particular interest, and the one that I added the RSS feed to my GoogleReader account, was the BBC's Farming Today. This was fascinating! My daughter will ONLY view and listen to BBC News, NEVER does she partake of American newscasts, because she feels that the news from BBC is more complete, impartial, and, well, interesting. After sampling the podcasts of Farming Today, I agree with her! Podcasts are great for alot of reasons, but I am, as always, old-fashioned. I still read the paper, the real, made from pulp, inky and smelly paper. Many of my friends and co-workers get their news from the internet, through alerts, feeds and podcasts. It's great that we live in a time when each can choose his/her own method of delivery for information.