First we look at Podcasts. My task is to familiarise myself with some Podcast search tools, then link to one.
The search tools were straightforward enough. I didn't have time to really assess any particular podcast, but I'm a horror fan, so I picked a random horror themed podcast that I found on podcast directory. And here it is!
My next task is to consider ebooks, and look at the Auckland City Libraries netlibrary, and open a free account. I did so easily enough, although I think the layout of the ACL netlibrary is a little cluttered; it took a little while for me to figure exactly what I was joining up to. But now 'Schopenhauer 2010' is an official elibrary member.
Ebooks in general are useful for quickly getting your hands on textbooks and so on. For example, this Yale course on the philosophy of death that I'm doing has Tolstoy's 'Death of Ivan Ilych' as a set text; it's nice to be able to easily read it through my net account.
However I still love the physical aspects of books. Etexts are useful but if I want to read for pleasure I'll stick to paper, thanks.
Finally, I'm tasked with reflecting on my learning process for this course.
I definitely enjoyed this 2.0 learning experience. I think 'learning by doing' is both fun and effective. I'm slightly over the course deadline by one day - hey, I blame library school - but I probably shouldn't have written so much in my posts! Oh well, I'm opinionated. Hope I still get a memory stick. Regardless, I look forward to the next learning program which is I believe is a more advanced version of the 2.0 exercises I've done here. Thanks for reading.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Week Nine - Part One
This is the final week of the Web 2.0 course, and hopefully, I'll get it all done before the March 29 deadline.
The first task is straightforward enough. Explore YouTube, find a video to link to, and blog about the site.
There's probably not a lot left to say about YouTube, that epic, copyright-busting, top dog of the Web, as it's a regular favourite of journalists already; who seem to alternate between bemoaning it as an idiotic waste of time dominated by self aggrandising attention seekers, and extolling it in those '10 top YouTube videos for this month!' articles.
I think it offers an intriguing glimpse into human nature. The things people are willing to share, and the things people are willing to watch, reveal some human desires and frailties quite clearly. I don't mean so much the content of what's shared and watched, but rather the motivations behind the sharing, and watching, in the first place.
Anyhoo, here's the philosopher Alain De Botton talking about Schopenhauer's views on romance. Like many YouTube clips, this is very likely still in copyright, so the link may not last forever.
The first task is straightforward enough. Explore YouTube, find a video to link to, and blog about the site.
There's probably not a lot left to say about YouTube, that epic, copyright-busting, top dog of the Web, as it's a regular favourite of journalists already; who seem to alternate between bemoaning it as an idiotic waste of time dominated by self aggrandising attention seekers, and extolling it in those '10 top YouTube videos for this month!' articles.
I think it offers an intriguing glimpse into human nature. The things people are willing to share, and the things people are willing to watch, reveal some human desires and frailties quite clearly. I don't mean so much the content of what's shared and watched, but rather the motivations behind the sharing, and watching, in the first place.
Anyhoo, here's the philosopher Alain De Botton talking about Schopenhauer's views on romance. Like many YouTube clips, this is very likely still in copyright, so the link may not last forever.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Week Eight Part Two
This next task was both easy and enjoyable. It was simply to select one site from the Web 2.0 Award Winners, explore it, and blog about my findings.
Although there are many interesting sites to choose from, I was instantly drawn to Biblio.com, compelled by my terrible desire to buy books over the Internet; well, not terrible in the sense of being sick or bad, but rather in the sense of being very strong and causing me to spend too much money.
Biblio seems to be a slicker version of older sites such as ABEbooks and alibris. I don't see, though, that it has a great deal more functionality than those sites - which are already well established and used by booksellers and book buyers all over the world. Nor do I think the selection is more comprehensive, as rare book dealers usually advertise their wares on every site they can; thus the same dealer will list the same book on various different sites.
However Biblio does have 'browserbility'. Using the top menus on the page it's possible to browse books in various categories, which is nice, yet dangerous, for a cash-strapped bibliophile like myself.
Although there are many interesting sites to choose from, I was instantly drawn to Biblio.com, compelled by my terrible desire to buy books over the Internet; well, not terrible in the sense of being sick or bad, but rather in the sense of being very strong and causing me to spend too much money.
Biblio seems to be a slicker version of older sites such as ABEbooks and alibris. I don't see, though, that it has a great deal more functionality than those sites - which are already well established and used by booksellers and book buyers all over the world. Nor do I think the selection is more comprehensive, as rare book dealers usually advertise their wares on every site they can; thus the same dealer will list the same book on various different sites.
However Biblio does have 'browserbility'. Using the top menus on the page it's possible to browse books in various categories, which is nice, yet dangerous, for a cash-strapped bibliophile like myself.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Week Eight Part One
This week it's all about online productivity tools. Personally I'm more of a fan of online unproductivity but that's just me.
It seems to be that the Microsoft Office package of applications is clumsy, annoying and even, yes, patronizing to the average user; for example, the animated dancing paper clip that offers generic, hopeless, instructions. And on principle I'm for anything that prises Microsoft's giant fingers away from the throat of 90% of personal computer users. Thus Google Docs - in essence a free online version of Microsoft's popular Office software - strikes me as a good thing.
Still, there's the possibility that one day, as the Microsoft moster reluctantly releases it's stranglehold on business productivity tools, the Google monster will eagerly step up and wrap its meaty hands around the same poor throat. I wish I could pretend to myself that the Google monster is less malicious; but underneath that faux air of techno-cool it's all about making money. A monster in a zany costume is still a monster.
My task this week is to join Google Docs and link to a doc from my blog. So here we are:
On to part two!
It seems to be that the Microsoft Office package of applications is clumsy, annoying and even, yes, patronizing to the average user; for example, the animated dancing paper clip that offers generic, hopeless, instructions. And on principle I'm for anything that prises Microsoft's giant fingers away from the throat of 90% of personal computer users. Thus Google Docs - in essence a free online version of Microsoft's popular Office software - strikes me as a good thing.
Still, there's the possibility that one day, as the Microsoft moster reluctantly releases it's stranglehold on business productivity tools, the Google monster will eagerly step up and wrap its meaty hands around the same poor throat. I wish I could pretend to myself that the Google monster is less malicious; but underneath that faux air of techno-cool it's all about making money. A monster in a zany costume is still a monster.
My task this week is to join Google Docs and link to a doc from my blog. So here we are:
On to part two!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Week Seven Part Two
It was easy to add my blog to the favourites folder of the ACL wiki. A simple case of edit n'save.
Which means... I've caught up! I'm up to week eight like everybody else!
YESSSS!
"If the teaching of experience bears fruit in us, we soon give up the pursuit of pleasure and happiness, and think much more about making ourselves secure against the attacks of pain and suffering. We see that the best the world has to offer is an existence free from pain - a quiet, tolerable life; and we confine our claims to this, as to something we can more surely hope to achieve."
-Schopenhauer.
Which means... I've caught up! I'm up to week eight like everybody else!
YESSSS!
"If the teaching of experience bears fruit in us, we soon give up the pursuit of pleasure and happiness, and think much more about making ourselves secure against the attacks of pain and suffering. We see that the best the world has to offer is an existence free from pain - a quiet, tolerable life; and we confine our claims to this, as to something we can more surely hope to achieve."
-Schopenhauer.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Week Seven - Part One
I'm almost all caught up! Let's see... today's Tuesday. If I can get this posted within a couple of days I'll be up to Week Eight, along with everybody else.
This week's task is to learn about 'wikis' and how libraries are using them.
I'm no stranger to the concept of a wiki; when I'm investigating some topic I often use Wikipedia as an introduction to it. Of course, it's important to do so in a cautious way, bearing in mind that any given contributor may have some ideological axe to grind. But usually I find Wikipedia to be a quick and useful summary of the basic facts around a subject.
Looking through the wikis suggested in the discovery exercise was interesting. What struck me is that an important fundamental of successful wiki construction is to have a clear idea about what the wiki is actually about and to set clear boundaries on what will be presented. By this I mean the wiki should have an obvious focus on a topic or set of topics. The easily expandable nature of wikis can be a drawback when a particular wiki gets too sprawling, or there seems little logical connection between entries.
For an example let's use the St Joseph County Public Library's Wiki. Now, although individual entries may be well written, I struggled to see what the overall coherent purpose of this wiki is. If it's about 'local information and educational, cultural and community resources' as is stated, why are subjects such as 'pets', 'travel' and 'history-related mysteries' presented? Slowly it dawned on me that the mysteries are set in, or near, the County's geographic area; but there seems nothing particularly locally relevant about the information under 'pets' and so forth.
Despite this minor criticism there's still many things that work about the Joseph County blog, and one can see how it's useful to group a broad range of library resources together under a subject.
I thought the library success blog was well done; I could easily imagine using it to research best practice.
This week's task is to learn about 'wikis' and how libraries are using them.
I'm no stranger to the concept of a wiki; when I'm investigating some topic I often use Wikipedia as an introduction to it. Of course, it's important to do so in a cautious way, bearing in mind that any given contributor may have some ideological axe to grind. But usually I find Wikipedia to be a quick and useful summary of the basic facts around a subject.
Looking through the wikis suggested in the discovery exercise was interesting. What struck me is that an important fundamental of successful wiki construction is to have a clear idea about what the wiki is actually about and to set clear boundaries on what will be presented. By this I mean the wiki should have an obvious focus on a topic or set of topics. The easily expandable nature of wikis can be a drawback when a particular wiki gets too sprawling, or there seems little logical connection between entries.
For an example let's use the St Joseph County Public Library's Wiki. Now, although individual entries may be well written, I struggled to see what the overall coherent purpose of this wiki is. If it's about 'local information and educational, cultural and community resources' as is stated, why are subjects such as 'pets', 'travel' and 'history-related mysteries' presented? Slowly it dawned on me that the mysteries are set in, or near, the County's geographic area; but there seems nothing particularly locally relevant about the information under 'pets' and so forth.
Despite this minor criticism there's still many things that work about the Joseph County blog, and one can see how it's useful to group a broad range of library resources together under a subject.
I thought the library success blog was well done; I could easily imagine using it to research best practice.
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