Thing #15 - Perspectives on Web 2.0 and Library 2.0

I found the writings about the future function and "look" of libraries very thought provoking. I have to admit that I really hadn't spent any time thinking about how the Web has changed the function of the library. I thought the one perspective about how people will collect librarians and rate their avatars was interesting - it will certainly take an entirely different set of skills to navigate libraries of the future.

I also attempted to use one of the article's bibliographies and found that several of the references used in the article(from 2006)were no longer available. It made me think about how sources will be used in the future, and how short-lived they may be. Will this potentially cause a domino effect of research bibliographies? Hmmmm?

Thing #14 - Technorati

This website serves an incredibly valuable purpose by organizing blogs in numerous ways. It makes it very easy to find a blog for a particular topic or subject matter, no matter how you want to look for it - blogs, tags, or using the blog directory. (I did find it very interesting that Education was not one of the categories in the Blog Directory!)
I'm still not terribly clear on how I would tag something that I find through Technorati, even though I tried it and got kind of confused by having to then log on to Delicious. I sort of got lost in the changing of the softwares. However, I think that if I start out fresh one day and play with it, I will get the hang of it.

Thing #13 - Tagging and Delicious

I had a difficult time getting my head wrapped around this whole concept. I think if the Common Craft video had come at the very beginning, I might have gotten more out of the descriptions in the first section of this Thing. I've got a grasp of the concept but the software part of the whole thing is still a bit confusing to me. I'm not very adept at having numerous toolbars and icons that take me places that change the way I find things. Perhaps I need a face-to-face with someone who really understands the software part of things.

Thing # 12 - Creating Community through Commenting

I felt that the most important points discussed in all of the blogs on making comments were to make the points relevant to the ongoing conversation and to choose your words wisely. It is so easy to misinterpret words by themselves when we don't have voice inflections, gestures, facial expressions, and body language to complement the word choices. Misunderstandings and miscommunications could be rampant. I agree with one of the sites' authors who said that he/she is sure to get in between commentators who seem to be getting out of line with each other. This author noted that he/she felt that this helped other people feel safe to make comments.

I checked out a couple of blogs on Eventing, which is an equestrian sport. I have always loved horses and used to ride quite a bit. If I were a young girl (and could afford this sport), I would love to participate in the show jumping, cross country courses, and dressage events that make up Eventing.

So that is why I chose these blogs: http://useventing.com/blog/?p=3060 and http://useventing.com/competitions.php?id=1986

Thing #11 - Library Thing

Library Thing is a wonderful place to keep track of my book club books, and find new books to read. I found a couple of historical fiction groups that caught my eye, and will serve as a good place to begin searching for that genre. I've set up the Library Thing blog up as one of my RSS feeds. It took me a minute or two to remember how to do it, but I did!!!

Thing #10 - Image Generators

This heart is from Image Chef. Really fun to play with the words and color scheme.

I've also got a new folder on my desktop full of images, mostly from Comic Strip Generator, that will be fun to use as writing prompts with my students.

I am also so excited to have my avatar finally up! Thanks for the encouragement and helpful suggestions.

Thing #9 - Library-related Blogs/ News feeds

I am feeling completely overwhelmed by all of the information out on the web, and the variety of ways in which it is presented! I'm sure this gives a big hint as to my age-range, but it is exhausting to me to try and process all of this.
On the other hand, it is phenomenal to have all of this information at our fingertips, and I can certainly appreciate the value of that. My hope is that I can remember how to get back to Library2Play so that I can get back to the incredible websites. I know, I know - add them to Favorites and my Google Reader! Right now, I'm too overwhelmed to be able to even do that.
I really enjoyed reading the postings on the Cool Cat Teacher blog and I checked out a couple of really great postings by the Edublog award nominees for 2008. I also really enjoyed the Superglu site. I can see that pictures can really make a difference in the postings.
I found the Syndic8 and the Technorati sites a bit overwhelming for me, but I promise to go back and try them on a day when I haven't been looking at so many different things.