Week 24 The dark side of the web

I am glad to see that this topic was included, because there is a dark and insidious side to the internet. There is unfortunately an abundance of malware, phishing, Trojans and worms just waiting to destroy your hardwork and even your livelihoods.

As the Mum of a Marvel devotee, I often have the words of Uncle Ben (Peter Parkers uncle) from Spiderman echoing in my head, saying ‘with great power comes great responsibility.’

This quote rings true, as we apply this to the internet and our duty of care to our library patrons.

Be vigilant and careful as the internet does have a dark side, but also remember it can bring wonder and amazement to your life.

As this is the final post attached to Learning 2.1 … thanks for reading.

Week 23 Mashups revisited

The topic Mashups Revisited filled me with great expectation and trepidation, as last year my inaugural experience with mashups went quite well; and this year was just as exciting.

Exploring the Mashup Australia entrants from last year, it was refreshing to see their use in everyday situations, compared to some of the crazy and creative mashups presented by local staff.

Thank you to NSW State Library for including Mashups once again.

Week 22 Instant communication

Instant communication is the reactive result of demand from our Y and younger generation, but has found a place in the hearts of many including the Grey Nomads.
IM (aka Instant Messaging), Skype and Twitter certainly have many benefits. When IM was originally just typing I wondered about the lack of human expression and infliction that the written word in this environment would deliver – allowing for miscommunication, etc, but with the advent of video and audio option hopefully the human essence of interaction can be preserved.

I must admit to being a Skype fan. With family overseas and many of our younger patrons at the library utilising Skype it seems to be a sagacious and cost effective method to communicate with people across the globe.

Instant messaging in the library could be a priceless tool to advise of activities, discussions and to generate feedback on what the public need.

Week 21 More with Google docs

Google Docs was my all-time favourite discovery from Learning 2.0 last year; I must have told so many colleagues, family and friends that I’m surprised the serve didn’t crash, so you can imagine my delight at seeing Google Docs included in Learning 2.1.

Unfortunately very few people can simply work from the one device and not all are online, so what I find most useful is the ability to work offline.

Perusing the 100 Tips for Google Docs section is very well set out and while many of the first 40+ tips are probably common knowledge for any computer savvy/desktop publishing geek, I think that it was clever and showed true commitment from Google to include this information for all levels of computer expertise.

Week 20 Event management

Doodle delivers much more than the name implies. As part of the Event Management unit in Learning 2.1 I have discovered a new favourite tool, that is so user friendly there should be no excuses why people don’t utilise it more !!!

What I loved about Doodle is that by simply clicking a few buttons and adding data, you (almost) instantly have a poll to generate via email for any gathering you can imagine.

Just when you think this application can’t get any better, you are sent email updates on who has accepted your invite. How absolutely brilliant !!!

Week 19 Productivity - doing more with rss

Through Learning 2.0, I first discovered the amazing world of RSS feeds; this knowledge has been improved due to Learning 2.1. Again the opportunity to have information dropped at your doorstep, but the problem comes with the 21 century issue of information overload. Therefore the greatest advent for me has been to utilise FeedSifter so that I can filter my feeds.
The other issue I have is with the numerous sites and applications in use; I don’t have time to daily check the blogs I subscribe to, or Facebook, or Twitter, etc, so having my RSS feed sent directly to my inbox has been a gift from the Time Saving Gods and as any time deprived Mum knows … Time is the most precious component of Life.

Week 18: Learning 2.1 – Slideshows, Screencasting and Digital Story Telling

Another amazing site to join, but the repetition of completing your personal details becomes annoying in the end. Wouldn’t it be great if through Google you could create your website and then just tick a few boxes to join the various sites that interest the user. Each site I have joined holds great interest, so you certainly do not begrudge the chance to utilize their site … just the paperwork to become a member.
With that said, I am now also a member of SlideShare. I was a bit disappointed that the site requires your slide show to be already for upload, as opposed to having the chance to upload photos and create the slide show directly on the website. Therefore, I will have to put these pics into eg: Powerpoint, etc and then upload. I’ll also embed links into my blog page (Manilla Mayhem) and Twitter.