Week 5: Play Week (Image Generators, Rollyo, and LibraryThing

Can you believe it? Week 5 already. This week are playing with Image Generators, Rollyo and LibraryThing. Let me start off with LibraryThing, I have just started adding my books and I don't see the attraction. Maybe I will change my mind after I have added a few more books.

The image generators are fun, here are a couple of images I created:
I used the fortune cookie generator to create my own fortune cookie.

I used LunaPic to alter a digital photo. I can see libraries using image generators to create images for signs or displays.

I create a search roll in Rollyo on the topic of plagiarism that is located on the side of the blog. I can see libraries (especially public) using this to create search rolls for online dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.

Week 4 - Bloglines and RSS Feeds

Week four was all about Bloglines and RSS Feeds. We had everyone sign up for Bloglines and subscribe to at least two RSS Feeds. I have been using Bloglines for several years and I subscribe to 123 feeds. Many of them are library related, a few fun blogs, comic strips and blogs from this class as well as blogs from the online course I am taking. The best part of using Bloglines is that the feeds are there, ready and waiting for me to read them. I don't have to worry about missing anything.

I see great potential for RSS Feeds in Libraries, they could be used for new books, changes on subject area pages as well as what's happening in the library.

Next week: del.icio.us, tagging and Technorati

Week 3 Wrap UP

We finished week 3 and I hope everyone had fun, I know I did. There weren't too many problems last week, at least nothing major. At the end of the week when week 3 ended the discussion thread disappeared, I fixed that the next morning. It didn't disappear until after the week was ended so it really didn't affect any one's meeting the deadline. We have started releasing the material a little earlier in response to requests by several people.

Playing with Flickr

I was trying out some of the Flickr applications and liked PictoBrowser Builder the best. I had found a different one that looked promising, but unfortunately I don't understand French. I will use Flickr for photos for now (but I will continue to save my photos elsewhere too). And I definitely won't put pictures of my young nephews up, unless I make them private and even then I am not sure if I will. I might put them, make them private for a short period of time and then delete them after my family has had a chance to look and download/print the photos they want.

Here is my slide show using PictoBrowser:





Here is the link if you want to try it yourself:

http://www.db798.com/work/

In order to start creating your slide show, click on the word pictobrowser which is located in the bottom right corner off the slide show.

Week 2 - Blogging

Week 2 has officially been wrapped up and all the blogs look fantastic. There were a few small glitches, such as I forgot to fill in the calendar for that week. No one knew when the posts were due which caused some confusion; I checked the calendar to make sure I didn't do the same thing for Week 3. I did, so I added it right then and there. Sarah and I noticed that the checklist seemed confusing so we are trying a new format, we'll see if it works. There were also problems with the adding the links in WebCT, so I did a quick tutorial using Captivate and that seemed to help.

Next week we will be exploring Flickr and how it might be used by libraries. I am hoping that some will share their photos.

Week One Wrap Up

Week One was an interesting week, there were technical issues (I would type a message only to have it disappear the minute I hit save) and some confusion over start dates and posting. Things worked as the week progressed, people got more comfortable with posting and we explained why some people had started post before the official start date (they were excited and eager to start).

We (Sarah and I) also realized that we needed to take a fresh look at next weeks lesson. We will be constantly tweaking things and making changes as the course continues (this is a learning experience for us as well as everyone else in the course). We will be learning what works and what doesn't, so please have patience.