EXPLORATIONS

# 23 : Week 9 : August 26, 2007

2007-08-26T14:43:00.000-07:00

SUMMARY
Thoughts about Maryland Libraries Learning 2.0 Program
This program was a great idea for educating staff about the emerging technologies available on the internet and how it could be helpful in everyday life and at work.
In any business, it is important to connect the dots by pinpointing and taking action on emerging patterns of external change. This program has certainly exposed us to some of the latest technologies and tools availble on the internet.
What better way to learn about the new trends in various fields than exploring the vast global resources on the internet.
This is the logic behind my Blog title "EXPLORATIONS".
My thanks to the course directors who have designed the content and style of this imaginative and interesting course to keep us abreast of the emerging technologies.
This is the end of my Blog - but only a beginning of my Explorations.

# 22 : Week 9 : August 26, 2007

2007-08-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

NetLibrary

Saw the site "NetLibrary" with a collection of more than 140,000 eBooks. Saw "New eAudiobook Collections", eBook Subject sets and "Forthcoming eContent".
Saw the presentation on Digital Media Guided Tour, the site of "Project Gutenberg", Presentation on "Introduction to NetLibraryt" and site of World eBook Fair.

# 21 : Week 9 : August 26, 2007

2007-08-26T10:59:00.000-07:00

Search Tools for locating Podcasts
Saw the YouTube Video on "Ask a Ninja - What is podcasting" and the tutirial on "How to podcast".
Podcast is a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player, e.g. "NPR's All Things Cosidered."
Tried various search tools for locating podcasts including "podcast.net", podcastalley.com" and "Yahoo podcasts".
Saw one podcast "Unabellavista: How to Tour Italy".
Saw the tutorial on "How to podcast".

# 20 : Week 9 : August 23, 2007

2007-08-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

Podcast, Video & Downloadable Audio.
YouTube
Listened to the podcast on online video hosting devices and YouTube.
Did not realise earlier that besides YouTube there are 61 other online video hosting sites.
Seeing and listening to a number of videos on line was absorbing and a lot of fun.
This has opened up another area of entertainment.
Facility for search made this site really useful for providing information in addition to fun. A search on 'cooking fish' opened up long list including a video "Cooking with Dave - Fish and Chips". It was fun, though I have'nt tried this yet.

# 19 : Week 8 : August 23, 2007

2007-08-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

Sites from the Web 2.0 Awards List
Explored a number of sites from SEOmoz's Web 2.0 Awards List for various categories.
It was interesting to learn about such a vast area of applications of Web 2.0 like Business, Professional Networking, Events and Health etc. Some of these can be used to great advantage as and when the need arises. The extent of various possibilities was knowledge in itself.
In the category of "Content Aggregation and Management" the 1st place winner "WUFOO" can be useful for making Contact Forms, Mailing Lists, Workshop Registration, Event Calender, Address Book and Customer Management etc.

# 18 : Week 8 : August 20, 2007

2007-08-20T17:06:00.000-07:00

Online Productivity tools.
Learnt about the availability of online productivity web-based applications for word processing and spreadsheet. It is interesting to learn about the facilities for creating and sharing documents over the internet.
Also learnt about Zoho Writer and Google docs.

# 17 : Week 7 : August 20, 2007

2007-08-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

Sandbox Wiki
Read reviews and comments made on various popular sites of Maryland Libraries Sandbox Wiki.
Took a tour of the pb Wiki (Peanut Butter Wiki). This was a well presented informative presentation. Learnt about various features of pb Wiki including pb Wiki Video gallery.

# 17 : Week 7 : August 16, 2007

2007-08-16T16:56:00.000-07:00

Learning 2.0 Sandbox wiki
Played around with the Sandbox and explored various sites.
Also took a PB Wiki Tour and Video collections on PBWiki Video Gallery.
Will revert for more fun later.

# 16 : Week 7 ; August 16, 2007

2007-08-16T15:54:00.000-07:00

Wikis

Learnt about Wikis that allows people to collaboratively develop a website with no knowledge of HTML or any markup language and the new ways that libraries are using them. I was intrigued by the word ' Wiki ! ' until I saw the the presentation 'Wikis: A Beginner's Look" which mentioned that 'Wiki means quick' in Hawaiian and explained its features.

Saw the presentation on "What is a Wiki" and "Using Wikis to create online communities" and an excerpt on "Wiki, Wiki, Wiki" from PLCMC.

Saw the website on "Wikipedia". Among other articles, the featureed article on "Rail transport in India" was a very informative item. Wikipedia is like a continuously updated World Encyclopedia covering a vast variety of subjects and categories. It was interesting exploring different subjects and knowledge. The Technology portal was another source of information on new technologies.
Also saw the website on MERLIN (Maryland's essential resource for library information system.

# 15 : Week 6 : August 16, 2007

2007-08-16T15:28:00.000-07:00

Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the future of libraries
Learnt about the concept of Library 2.0 innovation enabling the participation users in sharing ideas through writing, rating, and commenting about library collections.
It was interesting to read various perspectives on Library 2.0 and the future of Libraries.

Library 2.0 can be helpful to users as a starategy guide to find information, gather knowledge and create content. However, users can play only a limited part in this direction; the system should be finally decided by professional librarians according to the mission and goals of the institution keeping in mind the views and suggestions of the users. This is another technological development for continuous improvement in our services.

# 14 : Week 6 : August 12, 2007

2007-08-12T15:23:00.000-07:00

Technorati
Explored sit http://www.technorati.com/ for photos, videos, blogs and music search.
This corse is becoming more fun than study. Could see photographs of various places that were not available on other websites.
Added a picture of Towson from this site on this blog

# 13 : Week 6 : August 12, 2007

2007-08-12T15:03:00.000-07:00

Tagging and Del.icio.us
Learnt about Tagging - an open method of of categorizing to associate keywords with webpages, pictures and posts.
Explored Del.icio.us social bookmarking site at http://del.icio.us/ to see how others have tagged their links.

# 12 : Week 5 : August 11, 2007

2007-08-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

ROLLYO
Learned about creating your own Searchroll

# 11 : Week 5 : August 10, 2007

2007-08-11T15:00:00.000-07:00

Studied LibraryThing and added a short list of some favorite books.

# 10 : Week 5 : August 7, 2007

2007-08-07T16:47:00.000-07:00

Payed around with online "Image Generator" and designed a Free Video Ticket for BCPL.
Posted this image to my blog.

# 9 : Week 4 : August 7, 2007

2007-08-07T07:18:00.000-07:00

MERLIN
Expkored MERLIM and some useful library related blogs and news feeds, Gaming, Avtars, and Virtual Worlds.
Also learned about various search tools and saw "Technorati" tutorial and site on Feed Icons.

# 8 : Week 4 : August 6, 2007

2007-08-06T16:53:00.000-07:00

Listened to the podcast on RSS (Really Simpke Syndication) and a New Reader for delivering updated information over the web.
Learned how to set up a blogline account.
Studied Blogline tutorial and saw the YouTube Video on "Adding RSS Bloglines".
Saw Blogs on "Library Journal News", "PLA Blog", "OCLC Blog" and "PLCMC's Readers Club RSS Feed"
Readers Club RSS Feed Blog was well laid out and a good example of application of RSS for Library use.

# 7 : Week 3 : August 6, 2007

2007-08-05T16:04:00.000-07:00

Technology related Items
It is getting very hard to keep up with the new innovations in technology and latest developments. New today, obsolete tomorrow. We have to be selective about what works for us and what we really need.
I was fascinated by the new game Nintendo WII and the new iphones.

# 6 : Week 3 : August 4, 2007

2007-08-04T18:01:00.000-07:00

Learned about Flickr Services, mashups, mappr, montagr, uploading and organizing photos.
Added a pcture of a goldfish to this blog.

# 5 : Week 3 : July 20, 2007

2007-08-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

Learned about the Flickr image hosting site and image search using tags.
I have been using Google and Yahoo Image search to explore various images.

# 2 : Week 1 : July 20, 2007

2007-08-02T10:31:00.000-07:00

Played the online tutorial for "7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong learners".
I was motivated by this interesting and novel tutorial to continue pursuit of new skills and knowledge.
I find the suggestion of 'creating your own learning toolbox and use of technology' to be very useful. I find use of books and webpages as a storehouse of knowledge on a great variety of subjects.

# 3, 4 : Week 2: July 9, 2007

2007-07-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

Created a new Blog titled 'Explorations' and registered it.

# 1 : Week 1: July 7, 2007

2007-07-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

Read article on "Maryland Libraries Learning 2.0" program and the List of 23 Things that we can do on the web to expand our knowledge of the Internet and Web 2.0.

Studied details given under 'About' including Blogger, Flickr, Odeo, YouTube, PB Wiki and Bloglines.

Visited some participant links and enjoyed their musings.

Week 1: July 1.2007

2007-07-14T15:59:00.000-07:00

Registered for the course and learned details about the course "Maryland Libraries Learning 2.0"