Week 4 : Thing # 8 RSS & Newsreaders

I explored all the links in Thing #8 : RSS & Newsreaders. This was a very complicated task : way beyond my interest and capabilities. I can see why RSS is very useful for business , information brokers,academia, and news addicts. To me, it is just another way for the Internet to bombard me with more information and noise that keeps me tied to a monitor screen and ultimately eats up my precious time. I am not interested in spending more life time than I have to on the Internet, and I do not feel a need to stay on top of every little tidbit of news and blog trivia that is generated every day. I did set up a bloglines account at :

http://www.bloglines.com/public/trackers

I have one feed coming into that account. I will now move on to Thing #9.

Thing #7 : Technology

I am part of the Baby Boom generation, so I have experienced the sweeping changes technology has made in my life since the late 1940's. As a child I watched my favorite program ("Howdy Doody") on a 12 inch television in black and white. Our telephone had a dial and we were on a "party line". We had a special ring : 2 short consecutive rings. We had to listen carefully to those rings, because there were 4 other families on our line, and each one had their own signature ring . Yes, those were the days when we spent most of our free time outdoors. Indoors we played board games, read books and created fun using our imagination. I am so thankful that I grew up during an era when technology was not as intrusive as it is today. Life was quieter. We had time to think . Our eyes were free to look at the natural world. Our eyes and attentions were not focused on a monitor screen or a cell phone display. Our ears heard the sounds of the real world and we were not plugged into an iPod or MP3 player.

Technology has insidiously wormed its way into all of our lives. I am not saying this is a bad thing. There are certainly beneficial aspects to this age of the Internet. I think the 2 best things about the Internet are Email and Search Engines. Email allows me to stay in touch with the important people in my life. It provides me with instant communication. Best of all, I can send photos or documents without the hassle of dealing with the post office. I love this. Search Engines have provided me with an opportunity to to retrieve information ( not always reliable ) on just about any topic I may be curious about. Best of all, I can do my searching in the comfort of my home. Clearly, there are many other benefits I could list : Mapquest, online shopping, online banking, online business conferencing : concepts I could not have imagined as I grew up during the1950's and 1960's.


I also see the dark side of the Internet , and I have concerns about the sociological effects of this technology. Compulsive Internet surfing can become addictive. Chat rooms, role play gaming,online gambling, even eBay can become activities that take enormous amounts of time from our real life. How much time are we spending on the Internet ? Is the Internet becoming an alternate reality that we prefer to live in ? Are we experiencing our social contacts online with no real social presence ? How much of our private information are we revealing as we chat, shop and blog online ? How much of our lives are we living in cyberspace ? These are my concerns.

Thing # 6 : Flickr

Flickr Color Fields


Flickr Color Fields is a fun program to play with. I have always been fascinated by color, and so I spent way too much time looking at this. I could probably use this program to decorate my blog or do all sorts of creative artsy things.


Mappr

If you travel a lot and want to share your travels with others online you could create a geographic / photographic display of your travels with this tool.

Montager

This was fascinating : computer generated art using photographs. Once again an art/designer activity. Very clever. I tried several tags to see what kind of mosaic was created. I would use Montager to create a mosaic of best children's picture books for 2006 using photographs from the book covers. Now, that would be a great use for this tool.

As far as the Librarian Trading Cards and the Magazine Covers, well, it would be fun to have teens create their own trading card or magazine cover. I can see this working for a lot of YA programs.

Thank you for introducing me to these online "toys". I would never have discovered them on my own. But now, I need to get outside and take a good long walk, breathe some fresh air, otherwise I will find myself sitting here for hours playing with this stuff... Can't let that happen !!

Week 3 : Thing #5

paris_06_ 116,
originally uploaded by flash23.

"Cafe Cat"

I explored flickr and here is the photo and trading card I posted. It took me a lot of time to do this. I can only do this at home. I just don't have time for this at work. Flickr is fun, but how can I use it at work ? I suppose if you are creating publicity for a library website Flickr is useful. I enjoyed viewing the ways other libraries are using Flickr. It appears that it is used mostly to highlight programs libraries have presented.

Flickr

Week 3

I can't keep track of the weeks here, but I know that this is the next thing that I have to do.

I just went to flickr and after many tries I got this. Now I need to see if I can actually get the photo onto my blog.

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Week 2

Lifelong Learning Habits :

"View problems as challenges "

As I have matured in my profession, I have learned to view problems as challenges. Early on in my career I did tend to panic or see a problem as a roadblock, but now, after encountering many problems throughout the years, I do not mind taking on a problem, analyzing it , and exploring creative solutions . To me, a " problem" is a puzzle to be solved. Today, I do not mind taking on a challenge.

"Use technology to your advantage"

I am still not comfortable with technology . I use it at work. I use it for communication ( although I still prefer to sit down with a good pen and paper for letter writing ), however, I find a lot of technology not intuitive and frustrating. I suppose I need to work on this. I will strive to use technology to my advantage at work ; however, I will not be lured into the addictive , often non productive aspects of technology ( spending hours of precious life time on the Internet ). There is a wonderful, real, natural life to be lived away from the virtual life of cyberspace.

Week 1

I am uncomfortable with "posting" anything about myself on a blog. I am not a "look at me ! look at me !" person and find no need to disclose anything about myself on the Internet. I am doing this exercise to learn about blogs. Blog has been created. On to the next task.