RSS feeds. All I could think of when I heard the term was the novel titled Feed by M. T. Anderson. The characters in the book are all hooked up to the Feed. Everything comes to them by plugging the internet of the future directly into their brains. The novel is a commentary on the mind-numbing, individuality-stealing consequences of today's teen society becoming so dependent on the internet and TV. Hopefully RSS feeds won't be that bad!
RSS feeds seem to be a good way of dealing with the explosion of information on the Web, if one keeps a rein on how many feeds one subscribes to. As one article described it, it's a little like creating your own newspaper to read. What topics do you want to know about. What's being written about them. I have a brother-in-law who sends me emails of cute or funny pet pictures every once in a while. I always figured he must have too much time on his hands that he searches the web for such things. Now I'm wondering if he is on top of such topics because he subscribes to a feed that caters to that interest.
Setting up my RSS feeds took very little time. Now, when I check I can easily read a good joke every day, see what a trusted colleague has written recently, and see the latest job postings in the library world.
There were many pages where the RSS icon was readily apparent, but there were also pages where it was just tiny words at the bottom of the page. I used Google Reader and it was very easy to find feeds from the search it provided.
I can see this tool being extremely useful to teachers trying to stay abreast of news in their subject area in the education arena. I can only imagine the hours it saves graduate students on research. Now I just have to remember to check it often enough so I am not inundated.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Thing 2 - Perspectives on Library 2.0
I've already felt the frustration of lacking a connection to many of the teens in my high school library. I'm a book lover, but they could care less about reading a book. At the least they peruse magazines. For research, they grab the bibliographic information from a book without ever reading a page. For them, Google is all you need to research a topic. It seems like I'm swimming against the current in trying to get them to use databases and "old-fashioned" books. Maybe I am a dinosaur.
I've seen libraries already using some of these exciting tools, whether to make themselves relevant, or simply as a applicable way to achieve a time-honored function. Virtual reference is one good example I can think of. When I first read about it, I recognized its usefulness, but could not see it within my high school culture, because of a lack of personnel and time. Public libraries or a college setting seem more likely to be able to handle it. Web 2.0 may offer all kinds of "toys," but librarians need to take an honest look at those "toys." Some may be a better way to deliver services they always have, but some may not be feasible either.
Schools in general are lagging in policies for allowing library 2.0 tools to be used. Our internet acceptable use policy prohibits any two-way communication tools for students. Being afraid of controlling such communication, we block it altogether. I've seen some discussion on the topic in professional journals and on list-servs. Many feel we are doing students and ourselves a disservice to totally block social networking sites and IM. We ignore the reality of the lifestyles students lead and how they are getting their information. School library media specialists will have to be at the forefront in leading change in this arena. The trust issue brought up in "The Ongoing Web Revolution" resonates with me. It is at the heart of schools' reluctance to allow such uses of the Web.
I applaud the multitypes for this 23 things on a stick program to help us all take the first step in experiencing some of these tools. It will be up to us to decide which ones make sense to use in our settings. It's all exiting, challenging, and terribly frightening.
I've seen libraries already using some of these exciting tools, whether to make themselves relevant, or simply as a applicable way to achieve a time-honored function. Virtual reference is one good example I can think of. When I first read about it, I recognized its usefulness, but could not see it within my high school culture, because of a lack of personnel and time. Public libraries or a college setting seem more likely to be able to handle it. Web 2.0 may offer all kinds of "toys," but librarians need to take an honest look at those "toys." Some may be a better way to deliver services they always have, but some may not be feasible either.
Schools in general are lagging in policies for allowing library 2.0 tools to be used. Our internet acceptable use policy prohibits any two-way communication tools for students. Being afraid of controlling such communication, we block it altogether. I've seen some discussion on the topic in professional journals and on list-servs. Many feel we are doing students and ourselves a disservice to totally block social networking sites and IM. We ignore the reality of the lifestyles students lead and how they are getting their information. School library media specialists will have to be at the forefront in leading change in this arena. The trust issue brought up in "The Ongoing Web Revolution" resonates with me. It is at the heart of schools' reluctance to allow such uses of the Web.
I applaud the multitypes for this 23 things on a stick program to help us all take the first step in experiencing some of these tools. It will be up to us to decide which ones make sense to use in our settings. It's all exiting, challenging, and terribly frightening.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Thing 1 - Set up your blog
No wonder there are so many people using blogs. It is definitely easy to start one. I wonder how easy it is to keep up with posting to one. I would venture to say it depends on your blog's purpose.
The avatar was a new experience for me. I noticed the prompt on Yahoo to create an avatar some time ago but never took the time to investigate what it was. Thanks to this program, I found it rather fun. It felt like playing paper dolls when I was little. I don't think I will spend much time changing it, though. There are too many things in life that are more important than appearance. The directions given for exporting were clear and easy to follow. It went without a hitch.
The avatar was a new experience for me. I noticed the prompt on Yahoo to create an avatar some time ago but never took the time to investigate what it was. Thanks to this program, I found it rather fun. It felt like playing paper dolls when I was little. I don't think I will spend much time changing it, though. There are too many things in life that are more important than appearance. The directions given for exporting were clear and easy to follow. It went without a hitch.
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