I did it and I’m glad I’m done it. Developed a handful of new vices (oops, I meant skills) and have a lot to ponder for the future. Have a lot of technical skills to learn now, and will implement at least two new things I learned into my curriculum this year.

Do people propose doing a podcast because it is less complicated than creating a video? Every podcast I’ve heard so far would be improved by video footage. I heard one little boy describing how to draw his own face in generally anatomically correct proportions. This just seems silly to me, except for the stuff which is only music.

 As someone who hates to be read to (the words come too slowly), I fail to see the value of Composting – Making Soil Improver from Rubbish. This exists somewhere as a written document. However, I can see a great use here for blind people, aural learners, and anyone with a lot of driving time on his/her hands who wants to learn stuff while commuting. It’s just not for me! Anyway, how is a blind person supposed to identify the link on his/her computer? There must be a technology invented for this already….

I now get it. Blogs allow everyone to publish their writing. And Youtube allows everyone to be a filmmaker.

After amusing myself with a lot of trash, I searched “Burma” and got Jim Carrey advocating and then watched a response video to his speech. The upside is that both were compelling and short. The downside is that there is no way of checking for accuracy without doing a lot of extra research. The response video had a big typo in the opening credits, although the content of the video was great. I will use Youtube with discretion. Well, that’s not news!!

This post out of order since things 21 and 20 were blocked here at school. So now did Audio books and Ebooks. Very useful – have passed on some info to Special Ed and English teachers. Don’t own an iPOD and can’t stand to be read to – the words don’t come fast enough, and would rather listen to the radio in the car and hate having things in my ears.  But still useful stuff.

This is a test. Written on Zoho as an exercise.

OK, so I think I have a lurker. Funny, I didn’t figure anyone was even reading this blog anyway. I hope you are not a heckler, if not a fan.

Yep. I sure was surprised to find that someone had posted a handful of titles about Luddism for my perusal on my Library Thing account. ha ha! Big Brother, that sure was a good joke on me!

Well, I always said if you have to have a heckler, at least let it be a heckler with a sense of humor.

Yo, Lurker, if you are all that interested, the password is <green>.

I think a buffet approach is in order here.  This week is “sandbox” in the wiki – not much different than last week’s.  I looked at some areas we had already covered and checked out some curriculum ideas. I think I need the whole picture before I start to implement anything.  Looking forward to getting to thing #23!

Wikis. I think they are not easy to navigate, and much prefer a blog format. More control with a blog. So far I am not too convinced that wikis are going to be useful for me, but I could see a possible function at some time for a class project. Will keep an eye on this method of delivery.

Library Thing. I love it. I realize this post is out of order, but I got into Library Thing early on and frittered away a lot of time this weekend putting in some of my books (a lot of manual cataloging, as I have some weird stuff). It just appeals to the librarian in me, and also someday when I have time it would be fun to participate in some of the groups. Although I am contemplating wiping all traces of myself off of the web when I retire. Will they live on in some shadow form, or some web archive?? I hope not. On the other hand, you can’t play if you don’t stay in the game, and I’ll finally have some time to play then.

Technorati. A useful tool for finding things in blogs. I tested it out by trying a search on something I blogged about. I used advanced search and four terms from my last post. Nada. This is an indexing question: How often does Technorati troll for new posts? Keyword should have worked, but didn’t. Do I need to claim my blog in order for Technorati to search for it? I didn’t think so. Try again next week and see…

Why won’t Google do the same thing? It will but it will also bring up any random websites. So I searched using the Google Blog searcher and bingo! So far Technorati is losing to Google.

I’ve often joked about being a Luddite, but now have to stop, being at risk for losing all professional credibility. And yet… and yet…

The assignment is to read up on Web 2.0 and Library 2.0. Social computing. There it is in a nutshell. I often used to wonder how Big Brother will accomplish his mission, and now see how easy we have made it.  We’ve handed it over, lock, stock, and barrel. Our thoughts, our loved ones, our human loved ones, our libraries, our perversions (did I say that?), our recipes family trees our friends families connections buying habits reading habits possessions tag clouds etc etc

As librarians, we fight to the end to preserve the individual’s right to privacy. Of course, as you will be quick to point out, the decision is ours, what we choose to share or not share publicly, and my right to privacy is not annulled by my participation in this massive outbreak of what I can only describe as unbridled exhibitionism. And am I participating? Oh yeah. So, do we value our right to privacy more than privacy itself?

As for the rest of it, yes I will bring the stuff to the users and speak in their languages and in their arenas. Yes to all the new web tools. Yes to social networking. Yes yes yes to all of it. And if I continue to call myself a Luddite I will have to shut my mouth and retire to my goat farm.

Think I’ll go play some Bach now.