In answering the final question: “Is there another topic that could have had its own additional week?”, I “cheated” a little and went over to the Learning 2.1 site.  Boy am I glad I did.  I am thrilled about LiveMocha!

Thank you all for all your hard work!  This was a great opportunity, and I am grateful to have learned so much and to have had so many new worlds opened up.

Cheers,

Kristen-Marie

I will say, though, that the time it has taken me to work through the program is quite a bit more than I expected it to be.  Do I remember an estimate that each lesson would take us about an hour?  In my case, most lessons took much longer than that.  Now, that could be because I am an obsessive who must follow and read every hypertexted link , but I think even if I hadn’t, I still would have surpassed an hour with most lessons.  I’m grateful I had the luxury of my part-time schedule to spend the time outside work completing the program.

I think the explanation of the term “Web 2.0″ found around Lesson 19 would have been better used right at the beginning.  It was here that I finally understood the origins of the term.

I have some tips for the future user:

1.  Open up the various links in the Library 2.0 blog in tabs within one browser; makes navigating back and forth *loads* easier.

2.  Lessons I found the most challenging/ least interesting to me, ones I had to “push through” a bit: in general, the lessons with a lot of versions of a technology to compare, more specifically: MySpace/ social networks, Technorati, custom search engines, eBooks (because I can’t use it on a Mac–disappointing)

3.  Lessons I found the most entertaining/ useful to me: in general,  the lessons where I found a direct application to my life, specifically: Flickr/ mashups, RSS/Bloglines, Online Productivity Software/ GoogleDocs, YouTube, Podcasts.  Generally, I found the lessons at the end of the program more engaging than those at the beginning.

4.  Generally I found I stagnated around the middle of the program, but once I worked past that, the remaining lessons went much more quickly.

The absolute worst feature: it doesn’t seem to work with Macs, boo!  From the Digital Library Help file:

“Why can’t I transfer OverDrive Audio Book titles directly to my iPod, or use these files on my Mac?

OverDrive Audio Book titles, provided by OverDrive, Inc., use DRM protection technology from Microsoft Corporation. Unfortunately the iPod and Mac do not currently support DRM-protected Windows Media Audio (WMA) files.

OverDrive, along with hundreds of online digital media providers, is hopeful that Apple and Microsoft can reach an agreement that would enable support for Microsoft-based DRM-protected materials on the iPod and Mac.”

Oh, I think I might have thought of a solution for this.  I can search for the podcasts I find in iTunes in Bloglines and subscribe to them as RSS feeds, then I can access them from any computer.  Too bad it’s double the work, but I do really like iTunes’ search features best, especially the “Listeners also subscribed to” section.

Good library-related/ literary or culture themed podcasts I found and added:  Agatha Christie Radio Mysteries, APM Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac, Art History in Just a Minute, The Classic Tales Podcast, PRI: Selected Shorts.

There is also an abundance of “learn Spanish” podcasts out there as well.

I went a little crazy with the downloading; I don’t think there are enough hours in my life to listen to all this great stuff!  But it does make great accompaniment on long trips and at the gym, so I guess it’s good to have too much to choose from!

The 2006 Senate Race video is a good reminder that we should always watch what we say, we really do never know who could be listening now.

I love the Algorithm march, hilarious, and really pretty cool! The Life Cereal commercial link did not work for me, however, said it was a private video.

The children chicken-dancing were adorable, but it did remind me that when I was teaching, there was a big hubbub about not putting children’s faces up on the Web. Perhaps that fear has subsided somewhat?

As a self-labeled “Grammar Cop,” one thing that does bother me about YouTube (and any web page, potentially), are the grammar errors. For example the summer reading program boasted that it’s “more fun than a barrel of monkees.” Somehow I suspect that they are referring to the animal, and not the 60′s rock/ pop band (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkees). But, I suppose errors are to be expected in a public forum, nobody’s perfect.

It was interesting to find out about Google Video, at a (albeit brief) glance it doesn’t seem to be as fleshed out as YouTube, so I wonder if Google will ever just switch over completely to YouTube and drop Google?

Below I’ll try to embed the video of my friends’ from Texas baby: (The process was different from, as not as clear as, the one from LiveJournal, so I hope it works!

Baby Play Time:

Way cool! I was reconnected with some of Sting’s music I haven’t heard in ages.

http://www.pandora.com/

Edit:  I later realized that if you put in a specific artist’s name, only the first song is by that artist, and subsequent songs will present artists with similar styles.  A neat way to discover new music which you’re likely to enjoy.

In Search Trends I compared Spanish and English and found out that in Miami, FL, more searches are done for than for English, which is really not that surprising, but the reverse was true in Spain.  Interesting.

I think the Google web page creator and Search by Location tools would also be quite useful.

To be fair to Zoho, I looked at both sites and it’s true that Zoho does have an outstanding variety of software and seems very user friendly, but I decided that I already have a Google account and I’ve found their interface very user-friendly, so I went with them. Also, I have a friend who works for them, so I figured I’d “shop local.”

I am fixin’ to transfer (please excuse the Texas slang) some spreadsheets I have on Excel over to Google Docs now.  I’ve been having trouble syncing them between two computers, so this may be a viable option. I’m off to try… [Edit: I transfered them-it was easy- and, so far so good!]

I almost forgot: I was a little confused by the “View RSS feed of document changes’ link.” I clicked on it and was brought to Bloglines, with a message that I’m already subscribed to that Blog, but I don’t see anything about GoogleDocs in my list.

Oh, and I did want to let you know that it seems that the Common Craft video is no longer available. The second time I tried it, it worked. A very clear presentation.

Another friend jokes on his podcast that Libraries are places people went to settle arguments before Google and Wikipedia.  (To research answers to questions.)

I am somewhat divided on the Library 2.0 issue.  I believe that libraries do need to change with the times and technological developments, but I would hate to see them lose their most basic traditional functions such as: a quiet place to go to read and study, a space for community meeting rooms, and children’s storytimes.

I did resonate with Rick Anderson’s points about the dangers of the “just in case collection” and the “come to us model of library service.” Well stated.

I have to say that when I read Dr. Wendy Schultz’ statistic about the SecondLife subscribers who spend more than 40 hours a week online, I found that scary.  I had the, albeit judgmental, reaction that maybe it would do them good to get away from their computer and maybe take a walk to the library!

I was most jazzed about the Public Domain e books search engine.

So far, I like Google better.   Their results web page came up *much* faster!  I think Rollyo’s site may have been down, because the results actually never came up.  Nobody’s perfect, though, because one google link was dead, too.

Here is the link to my Custom Search engine:

http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=017011581201519871512%3Amrlkeul0-w4

I decided to choose the option to search the whole web with my sites highlighted, since I’m sure there are many good sites out there that I don’t know about yet, and this could, in fact, help me find them.