Sunday, September 18, 2011

Prezi

I've just had a look at Prezi and remember being most impressed with it when I first saw it being used well over 12 months ago. I remember coming back to the library and trying to use it to create a presentation. However, as our's is not a school library - although I work with teachers and students from the school next door - and I didn't want what I intended to create to be in the public domain. Hence, I've never used it. I have now emailed the company to get permission to use the school version only to find that the person who manages these questions/requests is on maternity leave until mid January. I might just have to bite the bullet and do it all on line. after all.

Week 2

I've had a look at RSS feeds, googledocs and and googlegroups. Of all of these, I think googledocs could be quite useful to me mainly because I have started using a mac for when I'm away from home and when working with students from the adjacent school. That way I can put them on the internet and download from there to my home or work computer. It will also save me having to remember 1) to save my document to a usb 2) remember to actually bring the with me.
I really don't think I would use the RSS feeds - there is always too much else to do. Also, what I'm looking for is a facility whereby both students and I can upload material but I can limit the people who can 1) look at the material 2) change the material. I think a wiki will work best for me .....maybe?

Thursday, September 15, 2011

First post - yet again!

A few days ago I wrote a new post for this renewed effort to finish the course. I was so pleased with myself as I had inserted a picture. Then I decided to be smart and add a calendar to my blog ... and did! However, when I realized there was advertising on the calendar I decided to remove it and, of course, I managed somehow to remove my new post. So I'm going to give up on the extras. I'm just going to write.
One of the things that bothers me about blogs is that anything I write is in the public arena. Frankly, I don't think that my personal thoughts are so fascinating. I've talked with my colleagues about whether they think a blog is useful for our library and while we can come up with an idea or three, I wonder how many people would really look at it. Another issue I have is that there simply aren't enough hours in the day - if there were 48 I might be able to fit everything in. So its nearly 6.30pm, I'm still at work and finally getting started (although I'm thinking about the professional reading I should be doing instead of this). How do others fit it all into their day?
For me, creating wikis to use with students would seem to be a more useful activity.

Monday, March 7, 2011

First entry

Last year I undertook to do the How 2 of Web 2.0 course but, time constantly slipped away from me and here I am, trying to complete the course this time. My main purpose in this undertaking is to try to determine what aspects of Web 2.0 are most applicable to the out-of-school resource centre which I manage. Because of the nature of our library, I don't actually work with students and therefore feel that I am falling behind in terms of understanding what kinds of online tools they are using and how they are applying them to their learning and socialising. Indeed, I still own a mobile phone on which I can do little more than make and receive calls and text messages. I'm hoping this course will take me some way beyond that!