Google docs, map, Igoogle etc

Google books can certainly be used for educational purposes - it offers Full view of many books that may be now sadly hard to find in school and public libraries. Google books as well as publising and selling books through its sponsers is now and will increasingly become an archive perhaps. I've used Google books before and like it a lot. Its great to preview books and read books that I can't find in the library. However I'm not keen on reading online. I'll always prefer reading a book ie being able to turn the pages, the feel of the paper and being able to read in bed comfortably - I don't like the idea of bringing my laptop to bed

I saw my house and who has and who hasn't a swimming pool in my area. So enlightening! But really Google maps is great for directions.

I've had a go at Google docs and i was wondering about the security issues - for example if one puts photos, CVs ect.
Anyway i downloaded some documents and that was easy but navigating between all these different google products seems difficult even though i'm trying to always use the same password.

Week 22 and 23 Audiobooks and ebooks

People use ebooks because they are there. They think they are convenient. But...

Not all books are available as e-books.
Books look nice on shelves and on coffee tables.
Books are great to give as presents.
Ebooks encourage skim reading rather than concentration.
Readers have to be recharged - a book never.
Readers can be easily damaged if dropped or thrown against a wall- a book not so.
Picture books will lose their magic. Reading an ebook to a child at bedtime is tantamount to child abuse.
As with computer glitches so there can be glitches with your reader just when you are about to get to a really good bit.
After a day of staring at a screen I do not want to stare at another screen in order to read a book
Hardware and software changes quickly so you have to buy a new reader.
From a sensual experience - the feel of paper, the sound of turning pages, the care and love taken in placing your bookmark at where you are up to ebooks turn reading into a cold, mechanical, robotic experience.

Week 11 Online videos

I had a look at videos that related to teaching and or libraries. The video Pay attention ( ironically just a lot of text to read with pretentious music in the background) sounded too much like an advertisement. It went on about richness, Before Google (BG) how witty; using technology to engage students, no sorry, digital learners. It equated the reading that is done online with reading a book; to my mind there is nothing more engaging than reading a novel but searching online is hit and miss; a lot of time is wasted; its so easy to be distracted by false leads and advertising. I can see the potential use of podcasts. The Fraction Rap was entertaining and it really seems that today's teachers have to be more entertaining than ever in order to engage.

Other videos talked about transforming the classroom where facts and right answers rule to a community approach in which digital learners learn in all environments. I don't really think school is or has been about facts and right answers. And learning outside the school has always taken place. If learners don't get the basics first - how to read, write and think critically no amount of gadgets will help them to improve their skills.

week 9 - wikis and rollyo

I've often used Wikipedia and found it to be useful. Many people complain about it because it can be inaccurate and out of date but that is true of any information.
Rollyo is handy - I created a searchroll at
http://rollyo.com/profile.html
for helping my students.
Here at the library we could use it to create searchrolls for popular topics that clients asks about such as Festivals, Aboriginal culture, Rainforests, Sustainability etc.

Week 10 Podcasts

These are great - I had heard of many of these but since I've always preferred to read I never checked them out. But there is so much good stuff to listen to. We seem to moving away from the printed word - that's an understatement! The Ken Robinson presentation was interesting - he is a voice of reason especially in regard to ADHD and the production line model of education which desperately needs to change.

Delicious not so yummy

I went to Delicious, opened an account and added a few of my bookmarks. So now I can access them from any computer.

All I need now is to get connected at home because really i must be an anti-social, luddite at heart, to persist in not being connected at home; to persist in not needing all this information at my fingertips 24/7.

Google reader just a tool

I think google reader is fine for people who spend a lot of time on the net. I added some of my favourite sites on there and my blog. I don't know how much i would use it - not being connected at home and not feeling in any way underprivileged for not being so, i won't be using it much. For work it could be useful to add the sites we used frequently such as SCIS and ABC sales but it doesn't take much time to get onto those sites using bookmarks and the latter sends us updates anyway.

Courage to resist - Free Bradley Manning

I really don't like Facebook. I went back to it and reactivated my account - I refuse to use my real name. And in the description I wrote, for what its worth -

Free Bradley Manning - go to Courage to Resist [courage@riseup.net]. Facebook? What's the big deal? New opiate of the masses. I'm just researching. See what you guys are doing. Being paid to study what the cowardly new world of social networking is about. I'll stick with emails, books, tv and films. Oh and occasionally talking to people too. Why make some Californian geeks and multinationals richer? Why put up with the irrelevant and incongruous?

Because it feels like an assault - all the the tacky ads; the tackier self promotion; the suggested friends - just because they happen to be 'friends' of people i happen to have emailed in the last few years; its all form and very little or pathetic content. No thank you - can't wait to deactivate myself again. My space - what is it apart from advertising? I went to the YPRL youth space's stream and found very little of interest. I went to library hack and couldn't find any entries in their mish mash whatever.

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Not really my library thing

I returned to Library thing and added some more books. An interesting site that i could spend a lot of time on but essentially its rather lonely and i prefer my book group. I could email someone from Library thing but i just wouldn't make the first move. I don't know the etiquette and then again what's the point of emailing someone in the US or Finland - I'm well over my penfriend days and I've got cousins all over the world I rarely email. Thanks to social networks its easier to make lots of connections and have a multitude of online relationships. I tried to get into Flickr but it was blocked by the education department.
Regarding the N generation ad it entreats us to join the conversation; it tells us we can't beat them, we may as well join them and it promises us it will be fun.

Revenge of the nerds

Kicking and screaming

This week i learned how to delete my previous blog but then decide against doing it. I set up a gmail account and had a look at Virtual worlds. I looked at a video made by a librarian at the Uni of WA. Despite choosing to put wings on her avatar (of course her avatar is a much younger, slimmer version of herself, are there any female avatars over 30? what do feminists say about this? - all is vanity - but fairy wings?) her introduction was interesting and looked at the aims and objectives of it all and what constitutes 'work' in second life, as opposed to gaming I assume. Its an ever changing experimental interface. She talked about it being a new literacy; one that involves learning how to fly, teleport, chat and change appearance, such as stick wings on your back.

First Blog - again

I've learned how to start a new blog - last week I tried to get rid of my old one and wasn't able to and got quite frustrated. It seems once its out there it stays out there and I'm not talking about the truth. Do social media sites deliberately make it easier to get in than to get out? I suspect so because they operate like businesses. Anyway i will now try to delete my other blog - it irks me that its out there.