#23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning...

The Learning 2.0 program has been a great opportunity for me to learn more about and play with a heap of different things, some of which I'd heard of but never actually used before. In the past, my approach to computers was often to only learn new things on a need to know basis but I think this has encouraged me to be a bit more adventurous and explore just for the sake of exploring. I also want to try and keep in touch with new things as they emerge so I've subscribe to a few technology type blogs through bloglines in the hope of keeping up with at least some new things in this rapidly changing area. The only problem is that there is just so much good stuff out there and it is quite time consuming to play around with it and there are so many other things I also want to make more time for such as cooking and reading for starters.

There are just so many possibilities for how we could use various Web 2.0 technologies to make our website and other library services more interactive and user friendly. I think one of the challenges is to keep up with the pace of change and try to embrace these things as they emerge.

I think I will using many of the things I've learned on a regular basis long after this program has finished for work, study and play. I've been using bloglines regularly since signing up. I think I'll also keep using delicious to keep track of my favourite websites. I want to add more books to my librarything library soon. Until I purchase wordprocessing etc programs (because I have to work through the Microsoft stable for a particular uni subject next year) for my new computer I will probably use zoho or google docs if the need arises. I'm sure I'll also use some of the other things too but those are the ones that come to mind immediately.

#22 Audiobooks

I explored some of the titles available on the world ebook fair site. I listened to bits a couple of Edgar Allan Poe works and Edith Wharton's "The Age of Innocence"- I picked these as they were things I had studied in Literature at school. The Poe poem and short story made good listening as they were read by human voices whereas the "The Age of Innocence" was read by a computer voice, which I found really annoying to listen to. I think it is great that there are audio books that you can download for free but the vast majority on the site are read by computer voices, which I would not want to listen to even if they are free.

Talking books are pretty popular in our library with a range of customers. I think the addition of talking books that library members can download onto their MP3 player for a loan period would be a valuable addition to this collection. They might appeal to people who don't currently find talking books convenient, such as commuters who catch public transport and would like to listen to something other than music on their MP3 player.

#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

I had a quick look at the three recommended podcast directories. I wanted to find some kind of podcast about or by the author Haruki Murakami and only the yahoo directory returned any results. I had a listen to a couple provided by Naxos Audiobooks. The one for his book the Wind-up Bird Chronicle included a bit of a blurb and review of the book, followed by a bit of the audio book. I like the idea of being able to listen to a bit of an audio book in podcast form before deciding whether to buy it (or more likely borrow it from the library).

When I have more time I'd like to look for some library related podcasts but I really want to finish this learning 2.0 program before I go on holidays tomorrow so that will have to wait. Recently I was looking at the RMIT library website and discovered that they have a range of podcasts about the services they provide. I think we currently have one podcast on our website, the audio from an author event that we hosted. I think there is definitely room for expansion. As well as including other events in podcast form we could have some instructional type podcasts, such as a brief into to our online resources. We could also have a brief podcast about our services, policies and procedures for people who join online to listen to before they sign-up.

I had a look at the ABC website and they have a lot of podcasts available from various radio programs. I also had a look at RRR's website and subscribed (through my bloglines account) to a podcast of one of their Sunday morning programs that I like listening to but often miss because I'm busy or forget about it at the time.

#20 You too can YouTube

I had a bit of a look around YouTube but I think we have some bandwidth issues as the videos stop and start every few seconds, which makes it a bit frustrating. I had a browse through some of the top rated videos but none really appealed to me. I watched bits of a few tagged with 'library'. I'm not sure how much I'll use YouTube just for fun- you have to spend a while trawling through results to find the good things. One thing I may consult it for in the future is knitting instructions. In my winter knitting phase this year I needed to learn a particular increase and I just couldn't get the hang of it from the various diagrams I found in books and online. I looked at a couple of videos and YouTube and they seem much easier to follow (but still not as good as having someone actually show you what do). I'm going to try and embed one of the ones I watched. I wanted to add written instructions with diagrams for comparison with the video but I couldn't get any of the images from the various sites I found to copy across into the post. There are quite a few examples out there- such as this or this.

#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

I'm going to try and post this directly from Google docs. I had a look at a few of the Web 2.0 award winners (many of which we've played with in this program). One that I've been using a lot lately is Google maps. I love the look of these maps- so much nicer than the Whereis maps. I like that you can choose street map, satellite map or a hybrid of the two. So far I've been happy with the directions I've received using the directions search. A couple of things that would make these lovely maps even better would be a nice bright colour for bike paths and a specialised directions search for cycle routes (possibly with options for on-road, bike path and combination routes).

#18 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops

I've signed up for Zoho Writer and I am going to attempt to publish this post directly from it.

I like the idea of web based applications like word processors and spreadsheets. They could definitely have a place in our library service. Our internet computers do not have access to Microsoft Office or disk/usb drives, which in the past has prevented customers from creating and saving word or excel files on these computers. Zoho and google docs would allow them to create and save similar types of documents using these web based applications.

The ability to share documents could be very useful for group assignments next year when I am studying. In the past group assignments have involved a lot of copying and pasting and sending files via email. It could be much easier to create one document that can be shared with and edited by all group members.

I wanted to insert a photo into my document but it was taking ages so I decided to leave that for another day.

#17 Playing around with PBWiki

I added my blog to the favourite blogs part of the Learning 2.0 favourites wiki. I also added a post about my favourite book to that part of the wiki. It was good to actually practice using a wiki. Although it seemed pretty easy to use I must have done something wrong as the hyperlink to my blog still has the square brackets showing (but I noticed I wasn't the only one). It really did seem to be a case of type and click. The favourite books page did seem to demonstrate one of the potential downsides of wikis. It is a jumble of text. There is no consistent formatting for entries. I know we're just playing but I guess it demonstrates what could happen if you let everyone contribute with no moderation of the content (even if that is just tidying up formatting).