Monday, July 30, 2007

Week 9, Thing 21: Podcasts

I've never really used podcasts before, so this was interesting for me. Before I explored some of the directories (because I really didn't know what I wanted to look for), I went to the website of the radio station where my dad works, WRBS, because I knew there were archived podcasts from some of the morning shows. So, I listened to some of those to kind of understand how podcasts work and get the feel for them. I looked at all the directories, but the only one I really liked and found the most useful was Podcast Alley. There were a couple reasons. One, I found a link right away to the top 50 podcasts that were listened to the most. Two, I was able to look at podcasts by genre and that allowed me to more easily pick out one that I thought would be interesting to listen to. I clicked on the Sports and Recreation section and found one within the top 50 called "Cup Car Update." As you might guess, it's about NASCAR. :) I listened to it, liked it, and added it to my Bloglines account. I will definitely be coming back to Podcast Alley to find more because I like how it's set up and I find it really easy to use.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Week 9, Thing 20: YouTube

Finally, a tool that I've used before! YouTube is a lot of fun; unfortunately, you can waste a lot of time on there browsing videos. It's amazing how quickly it has exploded in popularity. People use it for so many different things. I personally like it for watching music videos and other stuff from my favorite bands. The video clip I chose for this post is Beckham meets Bush. That would be David Beckham meeting Reggie Bush of the Saints, not President Bush. There was a little blurb about it in the most recent Sports Illustrated, so I decided to check it out. I chose this video because 1) I'm nuts about sports and 2) Reggie is just so darn cute! Plus, this was probably the least-hyped Beckham thing of the whole week and I love it when two athletes who are stars in their respective sports are able to meet each other. It's neat how the whole place is empty except for them and a camera crew. I was very inept at attempting to post the video in my blog (couldn't quite figure that out), so just click on the link to watch it. There is also a 6 minute version that is fun to watch, especially the part where Becks has to help Reggie tie his cleats!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Week 8, Thing 19: Web 2.0 Awards sites

I selected travel as my category and clicked on a site called Real Travel. According to the Web 2.0 awards list, you can "Read users’ advice about their travel experiences and use RealTravel’s Free Trip Planner to map out your ideal vacation. You can also create blogs to share your trips with others." It sounded interesting and when I explored it, I found out what a great tool it was. This site is a fantastic way to find out about different travel destinations from real people who have been there and want to share their experiences. Searching by country and/or city is fun because you can then search for very specific things, such as things to do on a cruise to that place or where the best restaurants are in that city. There are also great travel photos to look at and blogs to read, as well as a section to find deals and compare prices. There are so many great resources just in this one site. It's great for any traveler!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Week 8, Thing 18: Online productivity tools

I was aware that Microsoft Office was not the "be all and end all" for creating spreadsheets, documents, and other such things. However, I didn't realize how simple it was to do all these things online with help from Google, Zoho, and other services. I tried out Google Docs for this exercise and I was very impressed. The layout when creating a document is similar to Word, but the toolbar is much less cluttered and easier to use. I just made one simple test document, but I was able to find everything I needed very quickly. It's also very easy to rename. I really like how this program allows you to save a file in many different formats depending on your needs. I can see this being useful as a backup of sorts and I think it's a great tool.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Week 7, Thing 17: Editing a wiki

It wasn't hard at all to add my blog to the list on Maryland Libraries Sandbox. I decided to edit the Favorite Vacation Spot page and wrote about the Outer Banks. Here is the link. I'm used to adding and editing things on my two blog pages, but it was kind of weird to be able to edit a whole page that had other peoples writing on it. Overall, my experience with using wikis was pretty good.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Week 7, Thing 16: Wikis

As I went through the discovery resources for this exercise and looked at some of the wikis that are used for library purposes, the most interesting thing to me was that the very thing that makes wikis so appealing and easy to use can also be harmful and cause problems. The fact that (unless it is restricted) anyone can edit and remove content from articles would have me wary about the credibility of a source like this. In my experience at Carroll Community College, teachers are hesitant to allow articles from sites like Wikipedia as a research source. However, I do like the idea of using wikis in collaborative group efforts. To have one place where people can post and edit progress on a project and share ideas is great, especially when those people may be spread apart geographically. Like all things technology related, wikis have a good side and a bad side.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Week 6, Thing 15: The future of libraries

I couldn't help but read all 5 perspectives on Library 2.0 from the OCLC. It was very interesting and provacative reading. Technology is definitely advancing quickly and libraries must keep up in order to stay relevant. Reading these articles reminded me of the book "Who Moved My Cheese?" by Spencer Johnson. Change is hard and many people like to stay right where they are. I know, because I am one of those people! However, you must change ("move with the cheese") in order to keep up with the times. I liked reading all the different ideas people had for Library 2.0 even though some of them seemed really far out there to me. It will be very interesting to see what libraries look like just 10 years from now.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Week 6, Thing 14: Discover Technorati

I had already explored Technorati quite a bit and blogged about it in Thing 9 because I found it to be one of the best search tools for finding blogs. When I used it to do the keyword search for "Learning 2.0" a lot of the results that came back weren't relevant. However, I did find some blogs from other 2.0 users in different states that I wouldn't have found otherwise. I enjoyed looking at the Popular page on Technorati's site. The top searches weren't as interesting to me as the list of blogs that people had favorited. Not surprisingly, that list was similar to the top blogs list. I clicked on one blog called Engadget. It's a blog about all kinds of new technology. Some of the top tags that Technorati used to define Engadget included home entertainment, breaking news, microsoft, cellphones, and portable audio. I enjoyed looking through the various posts and found two very interesting ones that caught my attention: One is about Gateway's new laptops and another talks about lightning and iPods. This is why I like Technorati. It helps you find topic-specific blogs that would be hard to track down otherwise. Tags definitely help!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Week 6, Thing 13: Tagging and Discover Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us was a very interesting website. I explored it a little bit and tried typing in different keywork tags to see what came up. I liked the fact that you can find articles and websites that other people have found helpful and have gone through the trouble of posting it for everyone else to find. I think Del.icio.us would be very helpful as a research tool and I'm definitely going to keep it in mind when I need to look things up for future school projects. I wouldn't need to wade through all the search results that Google comes up with when this tool allows me to use keyword tags to find things exactly related to what I'm looking for.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Week 5, Thing 12: Rollyo

Once again, Rollyo is another thing I've never heard of. Hmm... and I thought I was computer-savvy, too. :) It was a little difficult for me at first because I wasn't sure what kind of search engine to create. But, since I love NASCAR, I thought I would just make one that would search all the main sites I go to for NASCAR news. I called it "Going In Circles." Here is the link:

http://rollyo.com/nascargirl24_48/going_in_circles/

My main search engine is Google. It's the one I use all the time because it's convenient and it has good results. However, a personalized search engine by Rollyo is very useful because you can search for a specific subject and get more concentrated results. Not sure how often I'll use it, but it's neat to have.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Week 5, Thing 11: LibraryThing

I absolutely loved LibraryThing! I never knew there was such a website. Believe me, I will be cataloging books long after this 23 Things project is over. For some reason, it is very entertaining to share what you love with other people and find out that they like similar things. My catalog is very small right now, but I think that it will take me no time at all to fill it up! This is definitely one of the most fun "things" I have done so far. Please feel free to take a peek inside my library (more additions will be coming soon!):

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/NASCARgirl24_48

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Week 5, Thing 10: Online image generators






I certainly had a lot of fun playing around with all the image generators! My favorite was FD Toys by Flickr. There were so many different tools and toys to use and of course, I couldn't choose just one. I made three different things: a stamp, a billboard, and a movie poster. I think they look really neat and I had a good time putting them together. Here they are for you to see.


















Sunday, July 1, 2007

Week 4, Thing 9: Explore MERLIN/Other search tools

I tried out all the search tools provided for this week's thing. The one I liked the best and found simplest to use was Technorati. I liked it because it was specifically for finding blogs. I don't have a problem finding news feeds and other things like that, but sometimes I find it really difficult to find new blogs on topics that interest me. Technorati makes it easy and generally provides good results. I don't think I would use a lot of these search tools on a regular basis, simply because I don't need them. Sometimes it can just be a little too much information! However, I am glad I found Technorati and I think it will be helpful (and fun!) to me in the future.