Making, Monitoring Connections

I have just completed this module about making and monitoring all the stuff you are interested in on line.
The first part was looking at what you wanted to keep up to date with and how much time you have to do it in. I have found that the things that are being talked about and my own experiences do not really tally up. The information given assumes that you spend almost your whole working day sat by a monitor. Realistically I would have half an hour a day, at work, using the computer and most of this is just keeping up with emails. I probably spend about another half an hour a day at home on the computer but not regularly everyday. Whilst I think I have already changed how I spend my time on the PC at home realistically I still have very little time to keep up-to-date and will just have to do the best I can.
I loved using delicious and think I will use this to help me keep my bookmarks in check as I am very bad at using these at the moment.
Despite the fact that my time is limited, I do think I will use my time more productively now and try to keep up-to-date especially with the programmes installed on the free internet PCs.

Head in the Clouds

So here I am in Google docs writing an up-date for my blog. I was very excited by this cloud computing unit as I realised I was a cloud computer user without even knowing it! I have been using Google Docs and the calender for some timebut didn't realise I was in the clouds!! All quite straight forward so far.

I have also looked at Librarything before but never been motivated to join up so now I have. It is a great place to be and look and discuss books but as with so many of these things, time...

I've just tried to cut and paste a Word doc into Google Docs and it was easy to do but the images didn't come across and there were a number of formating issues. I would have shared it with others in the group but I don't know who really wants my Storytime songs.

Wikis

I have just done the Wikis module. I found some of the library related wikis very interesting especially the Library Success wiki. There appeared to be a lot of interesting entries on there and I will go back to it at a later stage. However, with all the wikis there is a reliance on it being up to date and dynamic and I was surprised at how old some of the entries were and how little comment there was. I wonder how many of these are set up and then forgotten about?

My experiences of trying to put a page on the sand box was very frustrating and I am now not surprised by the lack on contributions to wikis if it is this hard to add something. However it was easier to add to the exisiting pages.

It all begs the question - are more heads really better than one?

Productivity 1

What a mission this module turned out to be. We don't have free Internet here at Linwood yet and so I was unable to make a start on this. The lovely ladies here at Linwood cleared the timetable so I was able to go to South to have a go at this on Monday morning .
When I got there LAMS wasn't working and I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing so it was a complete waste of time. I was not feeling entirely positive about things at this point...(mild understatement).
I ended up loading the relevant programs at home so I could complete it there and e-mail it all off to Glenn and at least I spent an hour or so looking at all the free Internet stuff at South so am aware how it all looks.
On a more positive note I was surprised at how easy OpenOffice was to use and how much it looked like the older versions of Microsoft Office. I have the new Office loaded at home and it has caused a few complaints from the kids becasue it doesn't look like the old one and the one they have at school and I guess this would be a solution for people who don't like change!
Here's hoping for a better week this week.

New Zealand GLAM

No, not my dress sense! GLAM is galleries, libraries, archives and museums. Some great places to look provided here by CCL learn. Shows the benefit of concentration bringing things together in one package for the user.
The NZ Museums site was a great way to find a particular museum either by topic or place and I loved the NZ Live site for finding all kinds of events.
However, as with all these things, relying for their strength in numbers using it, there were omissions from the NZ Live site so obviously not everyone involved in this area is on board with it. Also, as a fairly regular concert goer, I have never been aware of this site, mainly getting info from theatres etc. As with all these things you need to be aware that it is there.
Similarly, with the museum site, I could see it had all kinds of potential for images and collection info to be added, but with many museums being run by volunteers, unless someone makes the effort to add the info, it looses its strength.
I think the main thing I have learned from this section of the course is that there is a lot of Web 2 use out there but it is not always easy to find or stumble upon, it's there if you look for it and that takes effort and determination.

New Zealand Business/Education/Community

I have been looking at use of Web 2 on New Zealand education sites and there appears to be a greater up-take than the Local Authority users. However, the use is often several layers deep and is hard to find from just a quick look at their websites. There are lots of blogs and social networking going on but this appears to be at a departmental level and not often representative of the organisation as a whole. Big use of RSS feeds on University of Auckland site. Hard to gauge how well use as a lot of the groups etc. are password protected.

Local Government Web 2

I have been looking at the use of Web 2 by local government and on the whole there hasn't been a huge up take by the councils I looked at. There doesn't appear to be many places using the Web 2 tools to encourage participation, mainly just by e-mail. There is a Mayor's Blog on the Southland District Council web site where there is a forum for comments - but none posted!
Lots of places using RSS feeds though. It obviously takes time and commitment to get forums etc up and running.

National Library's Images

As part of the NZ 2.0 unit I ahve been looking at NZ e-Government programmes. The National Library have been putting images on Flickr as a way of sharing these images. Projects like this restore my faith in Web 2.0. Prior to Flickr etc. these images would have been seen by very few but now are there for all to see and use.
As an aside, I have had cooliris loaded at home for sometime and after the initial excitement was unable to see the point. However, looking at images from Flickr using this was really easy and felt better somehow than just using Flickr - try it.

Bad Week

Well...it's Sunday night at 9.30pm and I am half way through my first of two topics for this weeks CCL Learn. Having been really ill on Monday and Tuesday and then working extra hours Wed - Sat, it hasn't left me much time to do this course in.
The Social Networking Unit - what can say? This just isn't for me. What have I learned? I have joined up on Facebook and discovered that the people I spent most of my school years trying to avoid, are still there on Facebook being equally obnoxious. If I was interested in how much they earned, how many children they have or how exciting their lives are I guess I would have got in touch before now.
Sorry this sounds a bit grumpy. I'm sure many people find this kind of site useful, maybe I will have more joy with the groups sites.

Houses & Libary on Writtle Green

Houses & Libary on Writtle Green, originally uploaded by KEITH......

So we had to choose a photo to blog about. I found this picture of the very first library I ever visited. It is in my birth place of Writtle which is in Essex and I was actually born in a house opposite the library. The falt we lived in was above a shop. At the time it was a seed shop but I think it is a lot more up-market now, may be a deli.
I used to have a ballet lesson every Tuesday evening and afterward I would visit the library with my mum and sisters. I think we were allowed to take three books and had three little pink tickets because we were children, adults had buff coloured ones.
It was always a great place to visit even though the librarians were of the strict shushing kind and I think it is what led to my love of books today. Great to see it's still there.

RSS Feeds

Not a great start to this weeks learning. My daughter had a music exam on Wednesday - stress! The next day I woke up feeling really ill with a cold and head ache and so my planned two hours of study just didn't happen. Back to it today, at home, so far with no hiccups. I have my hot lemon to one side and a huge pile of tissues to the other - nice image.
Any way I have worked my way through the RSS feeds section. I was already using some feeds - mainly from the CCLibrary and the BBC but found some others in the process. I liked the "Creating Readers" blog from the National Library and the Books Blog at the UK Guardian. Have added these to my feeds but would love to hear any others favourites. For those that enjoyed Andy Griffiths on Wednesday, he has a blog with an RSS feed. I note that he didn't mention his trip to Christchurch!
Well I really appreciated the time to look around a bit further at the types of blogs and RSS feeds out there. Now onto Podcasts...

Blogging for Beginners

Have come into the library on a Saturday morning to try to finish off this unit. I don't think I have an interesting enough life to post a regular blog but this doesn't seem to stop many others! I think I would be more interested in following some really good blogs but I don't know where to start. Do any of the group have any recommendations?

First Blog

Sitting in a busy office surrounded by other staff all having a loud conversation is not the most conducive place to learn alout blogging. Perhaps I will try to find a quieter place for my next learning session!