Week 16: Web awards and Conclusion

www.eduplace.com/.../graphics/fireworks2.jpg

Congratulations!!

Throughout the course of this Learning 2.0 program we’ve explored just a small sampling of these Web 2.0 technologies that are empowering users with the ability to create and share content.

But given time there are so many more we could explore.

Although not a proper discovery exercise we would like participants to select any site from this list of Web 2.0 Awards nominees and explore it.

With so many to choose from, it might be handy to first select a category that interests you (like Books or Personal Organization) and then simply select a tool/site to explore.

Be careful to select a tool that is Free and that doesn't require a plug-in or download.

The majority of these are free, so this shouldn’t be a problem.

Discovery Exercise:

Select any site/tool from the list of Web 2.0 Awards nominees. (If you prefer to select from just the winners, here’s a link to the winners.) There is no need to create a post as you have come to the end of the program, but take a moment to explore and reflect on what is available.

1. Explore the site you selected.
   


2. What did you like or dislike about the tool? What were the site’s useful features? Could you see any applications for its use in a library setting?
   

If you are interested, here is a Web 2.0 tool Directory for you to explore- it is simply amazing what is out there, and evolving every second!

Week 15: Flow Charts

Who's crazy for flowcharts? I know I am. They can make concepts easy to grasp and solutions easy to find. When describing complex relationships or presenting a variety of choices and outcomes, they're wonderful at keeping important points from getting lost in translation.

Mind maps (an offshoot of the same idea) are similarly useful, though some think they work better for the creator than the reader. They're good at uncovering the relationships between multiple ideas and are not restricted to linear concepts like time and work flow.

So, here are some web-based tools that can be used for projects.

Gliffy (flowchart)

Bubbl.us (mind map)

Flowchart.com

mindmeister (mind map)

Discovery Exercise:

• Choose at least two of the above (one flowchart, one mind map) and set up an account.
• Note that flowchart.com will have you request an invitation which should arrive within the day (mine took 15 minutes).

• Explore the differences between mind maps and flowcharts, and consider using (or at least testing) one of these tools with a real project that you may have coming up.

Enjoy, and write a poston your blog with your thoughts on these or other similar tools.

Week 14: Newsletters in a pop!

To create great looking newsletters you no longer need a graphic artist's degree (or even access to MS Publisher templates). Thanks to LetterPop.com, newsletters are now a breeze pop!

LetterPop is a nifty free online website that lets you create great looking newsletters and announcements with a few clicks and drags of your mouse. The site itself is built upon an ajax platform that lets you freely drop and drag elements on the screen wherever you want and with over 90 templates (be sure to check out the multiple page layouts available with each template) there’s so much you can do.

Discovery Exercise:

1. Play around with LetterPop.com and mock up a newsletter or announcement of your own.
   
2. Comment on your blog and share your creation and discoveries with others.

PS: Here’s a LetterPop creation that was actually created by a group of participants.

Here's a link to one I created for some training.

What a neat way to say thanks and a useful tool to share with patrons. Try it yourself and see if you don't agree that creating great looking newsletters with this tool is a ... POP!

Week 13: E-Books and Audiobooks

For this thing, you will explore where you can get free ebooks and get an idea of the types of titles you can find here. Take a look around and locate a few titles of interest. Many school and public libraries have audiobook and ebook collections, so check what they have in their collections. Audiobooks are popular for ELL and Special Education students, as well as communters who enjoy a good story during a long ride. There are a number of commercial audiobook and ebook sources, and many of these companies have exhibits at library conferences.

Discovery Exercises:
1. Explore World EBook Fair' site for FREE downloads from the Gutenberg Project. Also just explore the site - there's much to check out.
2. Create a blog post about your findings.

Discovery Resources:

1. LibriVox, audiobook versions of copyright-free books from the Gutenberg Project. Read by volunteers. Started in August 2005 by Hugh McGuire. Check it out!
   
2. Check out this "Best Places to Get Free Books" site, too.

Week 12: YouTube

Listen to audio here

Youtube

Within the past year online video hosting sites have exploded allowing users to easily upload and share videos on the web. Among all the web 2.0 players in this area, YouTube is currently top dog serving up over 1 million video views a day and allowing users not only to upload their own video content easily, but also embed clips into their own sites easily.

Do some searching around YouTube yourself and see what the site has to offer. You'll find everything from 1970s TV commercials and 60s music videos to library dominos and a video made by library school students for National Library Week. There's also the cult classic Conan the Librarian. CLA 2006 conference Library Cheer was fun, too. See also:

• Introducing the Book
• Library 2.0 Manifesto
• March of the Librarians
• A Vision of Students Today

...and my personal, and completely library unrelated, favourite, Johnny Depp as Capt Jack.

Of course, like any free site you’ll also find a lot stuff not worth watching too. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore and see for yourself what the site has too offer.

Discovery Exercise:

1. Explore YouTube & find a video worth adding as an entry in your blog.
2. Create a blog post about your experience. What did you like or dislike about the site and why did you choose the video that you did? Can you see any features or componets of the site that might be interesting if they were applied to library websites?

OPTIONAL: Try placing the video inside your blog using the copy and paste code for the for "Embeddable Player.” Note: you'll need to use Blogger's Edit HTML tab when pasting this code.

Discovery Resources:

Other popular video hosting sites:

• Yahoo Videos
• Google videos
• TeacherTube
• Jumpcut by Yahoo!Teachers
• Others - top video site list

NOTE: Videos, like music downloads, are bandwidth hogs. It is recommended that you complete this exercise during light Internet usage times.

Week 11: Podcasts

Listen to audio here

The word podcast is used to refer to a non-musical audio or video broadcast that is distributed over the Internet. What differentiates a podcast from regular streaming audio or video is that the delivery method for podcasts is often done automatically through RSS.

In 2005, "podcast" was named the "word of the year" by New Oxford American Dictionary and with the growth of podcasting over the last year and a half; it’s easy to see why. Podcasts take many forms, from short (like the ones used in this Learning 2.0 program) to much longer interviews or panel group discussions. There’s a podcast out there for just about every interest area and the best part about this technology is that you don’t have to have an iPod or a MP3 player to access them. Since podcasts use the MP3 file format, a popular compressed format for audio files, you really just need a PC (or portal device) with headphones or a speaker.

iTunes, the free downloadable application created by Apple is the directory finding service most associated with podcasts, but if you don’t have iTunes installed there are still plenty of options.

For this discovery exercise participants are asked to take a look at some popular podcast directory tools. Do some exploring on your own and locate a podcast that is of interest to you. Once found, you can easily pull the RSS feed into your blog reader (i.e., Bloglines or Google Reader) account as well, so that when new casts become available you’ll be automatically notified of their existence.

Discovery Exercises:

1. Take a look at one or two of the podcast directories listed and see if you can find a podcast that interests you. See if you can find some interesting library related podcasts here like book review podcasts or library news.

Add the RSS feed for a podcast to your blog reader account.

Create a blog post about your discovery process. Did you find anything useful here?

Discovery Resources:
· To find out more about podcasts start with Yahoo: What is a podcast tutorial
· There are many, many podcast directory and finding tools out there. Here are just three of the more popular ones that don’t, like iTunes, require a software download:

o Podcastalley.com
o Yahoo Podcasts
See also Educational Podcast Directory

Do you want to learn how to be a podcaster ? (Here are optional Resources for those who want to learn to create podcasts)
Yahoo: Publish a podcast
Odeo’s Studio – online recording studio.
Beginners guide to Podcasts & Creating Podcasts
How to podcast tutorial

Week 10: Rollyo

Do you have a group of websites that are your favorites? Or a set of online resources that are similar that you frequently use to answer homework or reference questions? Well Rollyo may be the tool for you. Rollyo allows you to create your own search tool for the just the websites you know and trust.

Take a look at some of these search rolls that have already been created:
Public Domain e-Books Search
Rare Book Library Search
Free Photos
Quick Quotes
Explore other rolls here.
Here’s searchroll created to search ten of the Reference sites listed in SJLibrary's WIReD.Try a search for broad term like "homework” or “history” to see results listed from multiple sites.

Discovery Exercise:

1. Explore Rollyo and create an account for yourself.


2. Create a search roll for any subject you like.


3. Create a post in your blog about your experience and link to your search roll. Can you see a potential use for tools like this?

OPTIONAL: Add your searchroll to your blog using the "Create a Searchbox" tool.
Select...Reference. Search The Web

Rollyo - You just never know when this little tool might come in handy.

Week 9: Wikis

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Wikis

A wiki is a collaborative website and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content. Wikipedia, the online open-community encyclopedia, is the largest and perhaps the most well known of these knowledge sharing tools, but with benefits that wikis provide the use and popularity of these tools is exploding.

Some of the benefits that make the use of wikis so attractive are:

• Anyone (registered or unregistered, if unrestricted) can add, edit or delete content.
• Tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what been changed and by whom.
• Earlier versions of a page can be rolled back and viewed when needed.
• Users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content. In most cases simple syntax structure is used.
  

As the use of wikis has grown over the last few years, libraries all over the country have begun to use them to collaborate and share knowledge. Among their applications are pathfinder or subject guide wikis, book review wikis, ALA conference wikis and even library best practices wikis.

Discovery Exercise:
1. For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at some library wikis and blog about your findings.
Here are a few examples to get you started:

• SJCPL Subject Guides – a pathfinder wiki developed by the St. Joseph County Public Library system.
• Yarra Plenty Reader's Advisory wiki.
  
• Book Lovers Wiki - developed by the Princeton Public Library.
• Library Success: A best practices wiki
• CSLA Conference 2007 wiki – an example of a wiki created to support a specific event.
• The Albany County Public Library Staff wiki – an example of a wiki created for library staff to document procedures.
• Library Bloggers Wiki
• Yarra Plenty Training Wiki
  
• Sample school wiki
• Sample Literary Circle Wiki (10th Grade English)
• Sample AP World History Wiki
• http://teacherlibrarianwiki.pbwiki.com/
• Other library wiki examples such as library instruction.

2. Create a blog post about your findings. What did you find interesting? What types of applications within libraries and schools might work well with a wiki?

Discovery Resources:

Use these resources to learn more about wikis:

New Zealand Police Act Wiki

New Zealand Government Wiki

· Wiki, wiki, wiki - from the Core Compentency blog of the Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County.
· Wikis: A Beginner’s Look – an excellent short slide presentation that offers a short introduction and examples.
· What is a Wiki? – Library Success wiki presentation.
· Using Wikis to Create Online Communities – a good overview of what a wiki is and how it can be used in libraries.

Week 8: Social Bookmarking

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Social bookmarking

Tagging is an open and informal method of categorizing that allows users to associate keywords with online content (webpages, pictures & posts).

Unlike library subject cataloging, which follows a strict set of guidelines (i.e.Library of Congress subject headings), tagging is completely unstructured and freeform, allowing users to create connections between data anyway they want.

In the past few weeks, we’ve already explored a few sites – Flickr and LibraryThing to name two --that allow users to take advantage of tagging.

This week we want to also take a look at a popular social bookmarking site called Del.icio.us (keyed in as http://del.icio.us/)

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking manager which allows you to bookmark a web page and add tags to categorize your bookmarks.

Many users find that the real power of Del.icio.us is in the social network aspect, which allows you to see how other users have tagged similar links and also discover other websites that may be of interest to you.

You can think of it as peering into another users’ filing cabinet, but with this powerful bookmarking tool each user's filing cabinet helps to build an expansive knowledge network.

For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at Del.icio.us and learn about this popular bookmarking tool.

Discovery Resources:

• Us.ef.ul: A beginners guide to Del.icio.us

• Several Habits of wildly successful Del.icio.us users
  
  
• Social Bookmarking in Plain English: Another Commoncraft Youtube video which explains Del.icio.us in user friendly terms.
  

Discovery Exercise:

1. Create an account (I know, not another one!) and take a look around Del.icio.us
   
   
2. Explore the site options and try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users. Can you see the comments they added about this bookmark or the tags that they used to categorize this reference?
   

Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool.
Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance, or is it just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere?

Week 7: iGoogle

Listen to audio here

# 15 Remember the list of Google products and services from last week.
Imagine being able to access all of those products from the one website, using the one account. Well thanks to iGoogle you can.

Google offers the ability to create a personalized iGoogle page that gives you at-a-glance access to key information from Google and across the web. On this self-designed page, you can choose and organize content such as:

• Your latest Gmail messages
• Headlines from Google News and other top news sources
• Weather forecasts, stock quotes, and movie showtimes
• Bookmarks for quick access to your favorite sites from any computer
• Your own section with content you find from across the web
• Google Book Search

Discovery Resources

• Personalise iGoogle
• iGoogle Instructions and Tips
• iGoogle Problem Solving

Before completing any of the tasks below, please login to your google account using the email address and password setup in last week's task or when you created your blogspot blog.

iGoogle

1. Go to iGoogle and login if you have not logged in
2. Add the following gadgets (check out the discovery resources to show you how to do this):
   • Google Map Search gadget
   • Google Book Search gadget
   • One of the facebook gadgets
   • Google Docs and Spreadsheet gadget
3. Search for a library gadget and add this to your homepage

And finally...

Check out the following youtube video about working at Google.

4. Create a post in your blog page about this exercise. Don’t know what to write about? Think about these questions: Do you like iGoogle? What improvements would you suggest to Google? Would you like to work at Google?

Week 6: Google Tools

Listen to audio here

Online Applications

If you haven't heard of Google by now, I'm not sure what planet you have been living on, but it definitely hasn't been Earth. Everyone knows about the famous Google search engine, but did you know there is a complete suite of Google products that are available for the everyday user? These products include gmail (an online email application), google docs and spreadsheets, google maps, google calendar and google talk just to name a few. In the past few years Google has also bought out successful web companies such as youtube and picasa to add to their suite of products. Check out the full list of Google products and services.

In the last few years, there have been many reports that Google has become the new microsoft. Even if this is the case, Google is offering web based applications at a minimal cost to the user (usually only exposure to some advertisements) and the new generation is utilising these applications more and more everyday. This week's task will introduce you to some Google applications including Google Maps, Google Docs and Spreadsheets and Google Book Search. Next week you will be able to join these applications together on your new google homepage.

Google Docs

One major benefit to web-based applications is that they eliminate the need to worry about different software versions or file types as you email documents or move from PC to PC. Another bonus is that they easily accommodate collaboration by allowing multiple users to edit the same file (with versioning) and provide users the ability to easily save and convert documents as multiple file types (including HTML and pdf). And, you can even use many of these tools, such as Zoho Writer and Google Docs (Formerly known as Writely) to author and publish posts to your blog.

It’s this type of integration with other Web 2.0 tools that also makes web-based apps so appealing. For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at a web-based word processing tool called Google Docs, create a simple document and then post about your discoveries in your blog.

Discovery Exercise:Before completing any of the tasks below, please create a google account. If you are using blogspot for your blog, you already have a google account. Please use this for all google tasks.

1. Create a free account for yourself in Google Docs
2. Explore the site and create a test document or two.
3. Try out Google Docs features and create a blog post about your discoveries.

* Note: You can also explore Zoho Writer

Discovery Resources:
A short list of web-based productivity applications – Note: This list was authored in ZohoWriter and exported as HTML.

Google Maps

Discovery Resources

• Tour of Google Maps – the official tour of Google Maps
• Information on Google

1. Take a tour of Google Maps.
2. Go to Google Maps Australia and find the following:
   • your place of work
   • your home
   • hotels in Brunswick (remember there are many places in the world named Brunswick so you may need to put the state or country in the search field too).
3. Find directions from your home to your work.
4. Finally, create a post in your blog telling the world about google maps. What did you think of google maps?

Google Book Search

• About Google Book Search

Your tasks

1. Read about Google Book Search (see link above)
2. Go to Google Book Search
3. Search for your favourite book.
4. Create a post in your blog about this Google Book Search. Don't know what to blog about? Think about these questions: Is Google the new Microsoft? How can your library use Google book search?

Week 5: Get Social -My Space and Facebook

Listen to audio here

I'm sure you have heard of MySpace, and not necessarily in a positive light. Recently, MySpace has appeared in the news for all the wrong reasons.

MySpace is an organised space that allows you to personalise your interests and activities on the Web. You can browse, search, invite friends to connect and interact, share film reviews, make comments, post mail and blog entries, view videos, post classified ads and much more. It has also gone mobile.

MySpace is an incredibly popular communication tool amongst teenagers, and libraries have begun using MySpace to market to their teenaged patrons. Despite controversy over the issue, the use of creating Library spaces in MySpace is really taking off. Read through the Discovery Resources links below to get an idea of what different libraries are doing in MySpace and what librarians are saying about MySpace!

MySpace is busier than Google, with reports showing that it gets between two and three times Google's daily traffic. Over 150,000 new MySpace accounts are created daily, so its capacity to each a wide audience is mind-boggling.

Discovery Resources

• A list of libraries using MySpace
• How libraries are using MySpace
• Sunrise MySpace tips

Tasks

In your blog, answer the following questions:

1. View several library MySpace pages (Yarra Plenty has a Youth Space) and examine their content. How are they using MySpace?
2. List the useful headings on these pages that you feel would be of benefit to your own Library MySpace.

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking web site that connects people with others. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.

Originally, the membership was restricted to students of Harvard University but since 2006 it has been open to all email addresses. Users can select to join one or more participating networks, such as a school, place of employment, or geographic region.

In June 2007, Facebook was ranked in the top 10–20 web sites and was the number one site for photos in the United States, ahead of public sites such as Flickr, with over 8.5 million photos uploaded daily. It is also the seventh most visited site in the United States. Time magazine reported in its 3 September 2007 issue that Facebook's fastest growing demographic consists of people 35 years or over.

The name, Facebook, refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of the campus community that US colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff.

Discovery Resources

NB: Please note that Facebook has only been released to the "general public" recently. Although some of the following resources state that facebook is only available to students registered at certain colleges, this statement is no longer correct.

• Nasa's Facebook
  
• 7 things you should know about Facebook
• Prediction: Facebook will be the largest social network in the world
• Facebook's plan to hook up the world

Tasks

1. Go to Facebook and register. Check out this tutorial for assistance on how to join.
2. Edit your Profile
3. Search for a person you know or work with. See if you can find them and add them as your friend.

Added resources:

Another social networking site of interest is Ning. I find it personally more engaging and informative for professional development uses. Why not visit the site and search for 'Librarians'. You'll be surprised how many varied groups are out there!

Week 4: RSS Feeds and feedreaders

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You’ve heard of RSS? You’ve seen those small funny tags on websites? You’ve heard co-workers and acquaintances swear by it, but still have no idea what RSS is? Well don’t worry, according to a this survey you’re still in the majority, but this is changing rapidly. In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionalizing the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web. Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit everyday. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for just the text you want to read, doesn’t it? Read more about RSS here or see this video at BlipTV.

Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually. Would that be valuable to you? Well, it’s available now through a newsreader and RSS. This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and what free tools you can use to do this.

Discovery Exercise:

1. Follow these discovery exercises to set up your own, personalized RSS feed reader. Learn about the difference between RSS feed readers, Bloglines, and Google Reader.
2. Create a free "RSS aggregator" account from either Bloglines or Google Reader and subscribe to at least 5 newsfeeds to your reader. [BLOGLINES. Here are the steps for creating an account in BLOGLINES. See Using Bloglines Tutorial steps 1-3 for instructions. See also a short video on YouTube on how to add feeds ; GOOGLE READER. You may prefer to set up an RSS aggregator in Google Reader. Tutorials include: Google Reader Tour, video tutorial#1 or #2.]
3. Create a post in your blog about this exercise. Don’t know what to blog about? Think about these questions: What do you like about RSS and newsreaders? How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life? How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology? Optional: If you're up to the challenge, you can provide the URL address to your public bloglines account (find where to find this below)

Newsfeeds to add to your reader:

• The Public Libraries Learning 2.0 Blog
  
  
• Read alert - the SLV blog about youth literature
  
  
• SLV RSS feeds available to their website
  
  
• Recent Australian publications - through Libraries Australia
  
  
• ALIA website
  
  
• Library Bytes
  
  
• Unshelved - Library cartoon feed
  

Discovery Resources:

• CNET Video: RSS – Feel the Need for Feeds (3:32) – a good over view of what RSS is and the benefits to users.
• Feed Me: A gentle introduction to Internet feeds - a good tutorial from Palinet, a library cooperative
• What is RSS? Video by Common Craft. See other similar videos.
• How to Make your RSS Feeds Pop! Check your local newspaper and discover if they have an RSS feed you can subscribe to.
• Additional Bloglines news feed subcription information
  
• Post about usefulnesss of Google Gears

Week 3: Play Week- Online Image Generators and LibraryThing

Listen to audio here

Online Image generators

Generators? No, I’m not talking about those gas powered back-up things. The generators I’m talking about are websites that allow you to easily manipulate images.

For this discovery exercise, we want you to have even more fun than you're already having! Find a few fun image or text generators to play around with and write a post in your blog about one of your favorites and the display the result. Often adding the image you mocked up to your blog is as simple as copying and pasting code that the page provides. If not, you may just need to right click on the image and then save it to your hard drive before using Blogger’s image button to add it to your post. If you’re having difficulty getting your image added to a post in your blog, ask a colleague for help.

Discovery Exercise:
1. Play around with some image generators and find one that you like.
2. Post the result of your discovery process in your blog.
Note: Be sure to include a link to the image generator itself, so other participants can discover it too. Take some time and have fun with this exercise. And remember to be tasteful too!
* Images created with FD Toys, Comic Strip Generator, Image Chef.

Discovery Resources:
.The Generator Blog FD Flickr Toys
.Also try searching for online generators, text generators or image generators such as Comic Strip Generator, Image Chef.

Check out LibraryThing

• Are you a booklover or cataloger at heart?
  Do you enjoy finding lost and forgotten gems on the shelf to read?
  Then LibraryThing may be just the tool for you. Developed for booklovers, this online tool not only allows you to easily create an online catalog of your own, it also connects you to other people who have similar libraries and reading tastes. Add a book to your catalog by just entering the title (it’s so easy that you don’t even need to know MARC format) or connect with other users through your similar reading tastes. There are lots of ways to use LibraryThing. You can even view your books on a virtual shelf, add a widget to display titles that are in your catalog (see sidebar for sample), or install a LT Search box on your blog.
  
  Not just for personal collections, libraries have started using LibraryThing as well. “Small libraries are using LibraryThing to catalog their collections. Libraries are using the LibraryThing widget on their web pages to recomend books and list new titles.” (via http://wlaweb.blogspot.com/). Being a non-commercial site makes LibraryThing a good option for libraries. According to their website, LibraryThing "is exploring relationships with libraries, to offer non-commercially motivated recommendations and other social data."
  
  So why not join the ranks and create your own library online. With over 95,000 registered users (LibraryThing also has group forum for librarians) and 6.7 million books cataloged, you’re bound to discover something new.
  
  Discovery Exercise:
  1. Take a look around LibraryThing and create an account.
  2. Add a least 5 books to your library.
  3. Blog about your findings and be sure to link to your LibraryThing catalog. How popular were your books? Did you find any discussions about your favorites?
  
  Discovery Resources:
  · About LibraryThing
  · Library Thing tour
  · LibraryThing blog (updates & news)
  · Thingology blog (“LibraryThing's ideas blog, on the philosophy and methods of tags, libraries and suchnot.”)
  How libraries are using LibraryThing
  
  Some Libraries using LibraryThing:
  Yarra Plenty Regional Library
  (enter a search term, choose an item and click on the detail button on the left hand side and then check out the LibraryThing tag cloud at the bottom of the page)
  
  Washington State Library (RSS feed also on their blog; Note - They chose to use Wordpress as their preferred blogging software).

Week 2: Flickr and Photo sharing

Listen to audio here

Photo sharing websites have been around since the 90s, but
it took a small startup site called Flickr to catapult the idea
of “sharing” into a full blown online community.

Within the past couple of years, Flickr has become the fastest growing
photo sharing site on the web and is known as one of the first websites to use keyword “tags” to create associations and connections between photos and users of the site.

For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a good look at Flickr and discover what this site has to offer. Find out how tags work, what groups are, and all the neat things that people and other libraries (list also here) are using Flickr for.

Discovery Resources:

• Flickr Learn More tour (6 steps)

• Mediamazine Flickr Tutorials



• Flickr: Popular tags
  Interesting- Last 7 days



• Flickr Services (3rd party applications & mashups)
  and let’s not forget to look at some other libraries on Flickr.

• A great project, thought provoking. 2017 Vision of Libraries
  

Discovery Exercise:

In this discovery exercise, you have two options…

1. Take a good look around Flickr and discover an interesting image that you want to blog about. Be sure to include either a link to the image or, if you create a Flickr account, you can use Flickr's blogging tool to add the image in your post.
   
   

1. To upload a photo, first save your photo to your computer (or USB).

1. Go to the flickr website at http://www.flickr.com/


2. Sign in.


3. Click on upload photos.


4. Click on browse and locate where you have saved your photo (you can upload more than one photo at once).


5. You can add tags describing your photo at the bottom of the page.


6. Click upload to complete the process.

Something else to look at:

You might also like to take a look at the National Library Picture Australia website

1. Click on the flickr icon on the front page and you will be led to a display of images the National Library have used from flickr.
   This is part of the National Library's vision of building a comprehensive pictorial record of Australian history. You may also like to view the media release from the National Library about this collaborative project.
2. Other photosharing and photography websites include http://www.snap.com/, http://www.fotolia.com/, http://www.slide.com/, and www.dumpr.net.
   

PS: A quick word about photo posting etiquette - When posting identifiable photos of other people (especially minors) is it advisable to get the person's permission before posting their photo in a publicly accessible place like Flickr.
Never upload pictures that weren't taken by you (unless you have the photographer's consent) and always give credit when you include photos taken by someone else in your blog.

Week 1 About the program and Setting up your blog (Tasks 1-4)

Please check out the links below and read a little about the original program.

• Stephen Abrams on 23 things.
  
• About the program- Helen Blowers' site.
  
• Finding time to learn about emerging technologies
• Self-reliance

If you have time, do try and watch this short video on the evolution of information, created by the Kansas State University Ethnography Department. Very interesting...

Why blog?

Listen to audio here

People blog because they want to share with others. They may share their opinions, rants on particular topics, or news from a holiday. They may even have a professional blog where they share views on their industry, or they may have a blog all about their pet. When you're blogging, you can adopt any persona you like. Some people have written from a cat's perspective.

Many companies have an 'official' blog, where they release news about the company and views about the industry. Some blogs are highly successful due to the personality of the blog's author. Some blogs have multiple authors. Blogs can be used very effectively for educational purposes: a shared project by students can be created and showcased on a blog; teachers can post notes, lectures, FAQs and various resources on a central blog for their students.

This program is based upon blog entries and during its course, you'll need to write a blog post about each 'thing' you complete. That will let the administrators track your progress. You should also think about the audience for your blog: can anyone read your blog - will you show it to your family, your friends, or will you just keep it to yourself? Will you want to continue blogging after you've finished?

Have a look at the links at the end of this post for ideas on what to blog about, and why people blog.

Activity
Create a Blog.

Now that you’ve done some exploring around this website and understand how this program will work, it’s time to setup your own personal blog. I would also like you to write your very first post on your blog. You may want to introduce yourself, or your persona, or explain what the blog is for. Simply go to your blog and click 'New Post'.

Remember, your blog is where you will be recording your thoughts, discoveries and exercises for the Learning 2.0 program.

For this exercise 'Setting up your blog' we are using Blogger*, a popular free online blog hosting service that is extremely easy to use. However, there are other bogging sites such as Myspace, Livejournal, Facebook, Immortalspace and Wordpress.
*Please feel free to explore these alternatives but for this program we will keep it uniform with all participants using Blogger.

Creating a blog using Blogger takes just three steps:


1. Go to the Blogger home page. Set up an email account if you don't already have one: you can use any existing email account you wish, your personal or staff one, or you can set up a Yahoo, or Gmail account.

2. Name your blog (view screenshot)

3. Select your template. (view screenshot)

Once you’ve created your blog here are two important things to know:

• The maintenance interface that you will use to add posts, edit or change the set-up of your blog is accessed online at http://www.blogger.com/
  Make sure you write down your login and password.
  


• To view your blog:
  Your blog address is http://(xxxx).blogspot.com, (xxxx=is the unique identifier/name you entered in Step 2, i.e http://maryslearning.blogspot.com).
  Be sure to also write down your blog address.

A couple of useful Tips!

• It is not necessary to set up a Gmail account to create a Blog.
  (you can use your staff email)
  

Write down the details from your 'Create Account' or print out this page.


This may help you to remember your login and password.

Register your Blog

• When registering your Blog:
  Cut and paste the url (address), of the blog YOU have created (this can be found in the address bar on the page from which you are viewing your blog),into an email and send it to us at learning@yprl.vic.gov.au
  


• As you address each exercise please make this the title of your post. eg. #2 Register your Blog
  


• For more information -there is an excellent tutorial about creating a blog

Once you have registered your Blog it will be listed on your library's Learning 2.0 Participants Blog.
The participants blog is a good place to gain inspiration and support each other via the comments section in the individual blogs.

A great site of general interest is Blogger's Help page, with handy tips for new members.

Important: Bookmark your blog!

Save your blog to your bookmarks or favourites folder so you can return to it quickly later. You'll need to add an entry to it for each 23 Things task you complete.

Resources

• Blogger.com Official Site
• WordPress.com Official Site
• Australian Government Consultation Blog
  
• How to write a famous blog
• How to write a popular blog
• Should bloggers unionize? Better question: Why do you blog?