Week 11 & 12

Week 11 & 12 Podcasts & videos
I personally easily absorb information when I listen or see. I like the idea of using of podcasts & video clips used in conjunction with written online subject guides for library instruction.

It's good to see that database providers such as Jstor are producing video clips. However, in-house generated video clips & podcasts can be targeted to specific assignments or subject areas. We could then target specific online resources available at our library. The downside is that the production of these clips can consume alot of time especially at the writing & editing stage. Its also important to keep a watch on any database interface changes & to make sure that any instructional videos/podcast are using the current interface & to know when any interface changes are imminent (as MW discovered!)

Week 11 and 12

Video clips
I found this weird video recommending using the online music reference "The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians".

Library blog?

The library could try creating a general library news blog.

Having special blogs for subject areas which feed into relevant Blackboard units would be interesting but it may be very time consuming generating specialist news & keeping track of incoming comments or requests. If we decide to do this we'd have to re-look at work-load priorities.

Whatever we decide, I think that our blog would need to be interesting, informative & very relevant to what they are studying/teaching/researching. Would we need to do a writing course? There's nothing more boring than a boring blog!

Week 8: Second Life

Well I viewed the video. I'd previously watched someone playing Second Life & watched her moving her avatar around & I'm afraid Second Life didn't grab me like blogging, utube & flickr. Although I admit to enjoying the odd solitaire game, I found Second Life tedious. The running around/flying & visiting "virtual" buildings, seeing a "virtual couple" carry on etc. quite uninteresting. I might have reacted differently if I had an real goal or aim when visiting Second Life. Usefulness for libraries - you could run some virtual information literacy or virtual tutorials out to second life. Due to its speed or re-activeness, I think Second Life would appeal more to the older "gamer" and students in their late teens or early twenties may find the pace a little slow.

Week 6 & 7 Flickr

I had a great time playing with Flickr & have added some photos. I was also able to "mashup" the photo with the road leading into the distance with a map of its location. Click on the "map" link.

I've also had some fun adding bits & pieces & feeds to the blog layout

Week 5 - Wikis

I had a tour through the recommended wikis & have come to the conclusion that they could have the following uses:
- quick version of a library homepage or perhaps library faculty homepage (e.g. SJCPL - however I found their discussion page strange)
- communication about good/useful books/resources for subject/unit areas (BookLovers Wiki)
- internal staff communication
e.g. library wide diary of staff movements (rosters, who's on leave etc)
e.g. library wide diary of meetings (easy to lose track when venues/times keep changing)
-FAQs for reference desk, loans desk- procedures manual
- staff discussions/collaboration/organizing (Library2.0 on the loose: unconference) this may cut down on the circuitous emails!

Blackboard wiki
Although I didn't try to edit the wiki, the process looks simple.

bloglines & rss

I've resuscitated my bloglines account which I started a while ago but set aside because of lack of time - it's another in-box I need to check. The problem is that there's so much interesting stuff out there, so easy to subscribe, but do I have the time to go through them all?? I've decided to weed out the ones which don't look as interesting or the ones which I tend to mostly ignore.

AmazingLearningLog

Hi all - Week2 of our learning curve! I like to think that by the end of semester, everything will fall into place like a pack of dominoes! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwihz7iZlx0