Na na na na...hey hey hey...Goodbye!

Goodbye Learning 2.0! Overall I think this has been a good experience. I tried out a few things I'd always meant to (e.g. Flickr), learned how things I'd seen on the web were created (e.g. image generators), and was exposed to things I'd never heard of (e.g. Rollyo; LibraryThing). Overall a good experience, and I appreciate the opportunity to explore new resources on work time.

Now for a little constructive criticism. I think some more explicit directions would be helpful, especially for staff who have never added links, etc., or are less comfortable with the web. Also, the blog posts became tedious. How many times could I basically say the same thing? I'm not sure how else you would track it, but perhaps fewer posts (maybe one per week as opposed to one per Thing) would be friendlier.

Again thanks for the opportunity!

This is Julie, signing out.

NetLibrary

Where's my MP3 player when I need it? I saw many titles on NetLibrary that I'd like to download, mostly in the Mystery & Suspense category. I'm disappointed there's only 1 title in the Government and Politics category, though.

Podcasts

Found my favorite radio show, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Love this news program. Hate that WFAE has changed when it's on so I can't always listen. But now I can.

YouTube

Having already searched YouTube many times, this Thing was no big deal. Neither was choosing which video to share. This trailer is for a movie created in Studio i. The story and storyboard for this film were created by a former coworker, Heather, and me. The filming and editing was done by one of the teen interns, Glenn. The movie, The Peeps Take Over The World Starting with The Loft at ImaginOn is almost finished. BTW, the evil laughter at the end? All me! Enjoy!!

Web 2.0 Tools

So I checked out the list of nominees for the Web 2.0 winners, and decided that Etsy looked the most interesting. It's a site where you can buy or sell handmade items. I should say that I'm not really a shopaholic, but I do like to see what people have made -- they're usually more unique than the cookie cutter stuff you get at the mall. It's searchable (which does my library-lovin' heart good) and easy to navigate. I particularly liked the squiggle necklace. I tried to upload the picture, but Blogger gave me problems. So go to Etsy and look at it.

Web-based Applications

Not having to BUY software? Love it! Not having to worry about having the "right" software? Love it! Being able to go to any computer and access the files I've saved? Love it! I think my opinion on this aspect of Web 2.0 applications is obvious. ZohoWriter was just the first I'll explore. I'm off!

My First Wiki Post

I did it and it was very simple. Adding my blog to the Favorited Blogs was easy -- I so love copy and paste! Then I added one of my favorite restaurants, too. Here's another shout out for Portofino's on Eastway! After this I will have no more Wiki fear!

Wikis

A website that can be edited by anyone (ala Wikipedia) or restricted to a select few with the password? Hmmm...

While it's pretty cool that a site could be edited by anybody, it also poses some obvious problems. Let's just call it the Colbert effect (Were they endangered Asian Elephants? Anyone who watches the Colbert Report remember?). Anybody can change any info at any time.

One thing I did notice, though, was how simple and easy they were to view. I can see how keeping a wiki clean and simple would make it easier to edit for contributors who aren't as tech-savvy. After I for the next "Thing" and I'll have a better idea about it.

Library 2.0

I've read a few of the perspectives on Library 2.0. Seems to me that creating a self-sufficient use, and "user-centric" services through the use of technology is what Library 2.0 is all about. Embracing emerging technologies, but not, as one writer said, buying "technology for the sake of technology." The challenge will be in keeping up with the changes -- making "good, yet fast decisions." Is PLCMC up to the challenge?

What-norati?

Searching Technorati is easy and simple. As instructed in this "Thing" I searched for Learning 2.0 in blog posts. With quotes there were 1365 posts, without quotes there were 28,115. Not too surprising, Learning is a pretty common word. Searching Learning 2.0 in blog directory yielded 14 posts.

What did I discover about this site? That I'm not too sure I'd use it. I already have a few blogs I keep up with. I don't know that I want to add too many more to the group. However, I can see people wanting to search for certain subjects. And if I wanted thoughts and opinions out there for the world I'd certainly tag my blog posts accordingly.

It's Del.icio.us

I took a gander at Del.icio.us today. I can see the benefits of having portable bookmarks. By clicking on "saved by ### other people" I could see the comments by other people in English, Spanish, Japanaese, Chinese, and more -- pretty cool.

Rollyo

I'm on a Learning 2.0 roll (bad pun intended) and decided to roll my own search engine. Using rollyo.com was easy, choosing my subject was hard. That is until I realized what I'd really like to be able to search for is ideas and inspiration for my addiction...I mean hobby, scrapbooking. So there you have it -- my very own search engine. I tested it out and was very pleasantly surprised to find that I could find all kinds of things (quotes, poems, page layouts) on the sites I frequent without having to go to each of them individually. It reminds of Bloglines in that it should save me some time.

So here it is in all it's glory:

Select...ScrapbookingSearch The Web

Give it a go and let me know what you think!

Ain't No Thing

Today I finished setting up my LibraryThing account. I added some books to it, but need to look through it further. I like the ability to "exclude author" when looking at similar books, although the feature seemed to take forever to load.

One thing I haven't figured out is how to look for 2 different tags at the same time, like Young Adult and Historical Fiction. That would be really helpful, I think. I'm sure there's a way. I'll just keep messing around with it until I figure it out, I guess.

Now to figure out how to add it to my blog without screwing it up. Every time I try I end up with a veritable mess of a page. Wish me luck! But if I don't figure it out soon, I'll ask a coworker for help.

Image Generators

Before this exercise in Learning 2.0 I never knew what an image generator was (although I'd seen them many times), that there were so many different kinds (you know you want to write like a Babylonian), or that I had already used one (discover your ninja name at Ninja Burger).

Here are just a few of my favorites...

Ninja Text generator

Rat Name generator -- in case you were wondering, my rat name is Tawdry Rat.

Zombie Text generator

Zombie Letters from e-zombie.com

I might have gone just little bit overboard this week. As you can see, I definitly don't have a problem with play.

That's all for now...

(My name is courtesy of the Dynamic Sign generator.)

Bloglines

Just thought I'd share something that I got in my bloglines feed -- there's that Learning 2.0 coming in handy again. I love that we can get all kinds of different things through the bloglines feed -- comics, word of the day, news. It's great to just go to one place each day, not 14!