Text messaging is a waste of time and money. If you're using it, you're probably not paying attention to things you're supposed to be paying attention to. Are you using it during your math class? During a convention session or lecture? While you're talking to someone else? While you're driving? During a library meeting? Nope, it's not for me. Just pick up the phone.
3a--watched the video clip. Text messaging takes too long. A phone call is quicker.
3b--read the article--no wonder we have to make room on the airways for cell phones.
3c--did not text message anyone cuz it costs me money and it's stupid. Very handy if a person can't hear to use a phone however so not a total waste I guess. (She admits grudgingly).
Web conferencing seems like it could be very useful. Lots of people use it now to work out of their homes. My daughter-in-law web conferences all the time through her job and is able to work at home. Webinars are handy, especially in Minnesota where snow storms can cause cancellations of meetings and training sessions. I give web conferencing a thumbs up. There are so many of them now, I don't know where to start! That guy talking about OPAL also mentioned the high cost of gasoline, which makes web conferencing very attractive as well. I would rather have a live booktalk but I can see a booktalk presented via web conferencing as well--kind of like Book TV or whatever that show is called.
4a--read it. Boring to read but it's useful information.
4b--Hmmm. Well I tried to listen to an archived Webinar about NetLibrary and it came on but then I got someone from Minitex asking me how they could direct my call. I'll try to watch the OPAL thing tomorrow. I was happy to see that there were previously recorded sessions but then it didn't work. Because even with a webinar or online OPAL conference, you can't always watch it when they offer it.
I'm going to watch part of the Lewis and Clark conference on OPAL today at 2:00. I am really curious to see if it will work. I remember teleconferences at school--there were almost always "technical difficulties"--no sound, no video, inablility to connect, etc. So I hope to be pleasantly surprised.
Ok I am watching the OPAL lecture right now WHILE I am blogging about it!!!!!! AND watching "Men In Black" (I'm not really watching Men in Black but the tv is on and I could be if I wanted to.) The lecture is about the 1905 World's Fair in Portland Oregon. I can hear that there is an audience and there are two of us signed on through the Internet--a guy from Missouri and me, from Minnesota. I was going to just watch a little bit to see how it works, but now I feel like I sure watch the whole thing since they know that I'm here! That's how real it is. Very handy as I'm sure you can find a conference on just about anything you want. And the web moderators kind of type commercials as I'm watching--promoting future lectures.
It looks like I could actually push a microphone button to ask a question out loud if I had a question to ask but I'm not going to do it.
Anyway, I give this 2.0 application a two thumbs up.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
#7 Communication Tools 1, 2a, 2b, 2c
I have four email accounts--2 at work--city and SELCO and 2 personal accounts--hotmail and yahoo. That's four different usernames and passwords. People are always telling me that I should use the same username and password. I'm telling you it's not possible as they all have different requirements or the username and password is already in use. So that is one problem with email accounts. I also have two IM accounts--AOL and MSN--but I only use one. I belong to 3 Social Networking sites--MySpace, Facebook, and Ning--three more usernames and passwords. I think I will get rid of Ning soon.
I like to access my work email from home if I'm not working that day, so that I can get rid of SPAM, Junk mail, and info from work that I only need to read and not answer or save. (Like what the day's circulation was--read and delete). By the time I get to work, I don't have to waste time sorting through the junk. Also, reading work email ahead of time helps me understand it better by the time I get to work. I don't feel pressured to understand it and respond instantly at home. But since I've read it once at home, it's less stressful for me to do something about it when I get to work. Does that make sense to anyone? For instance, if I go on vacation for a week, I will quickly go through my work email everyday. When I get back to work I feel like I know what's going on (more or less) and don't feel like I'm out of the loop. (Well, of course there are some things that don't make sense until I get back to work, but not many.) One of my co-workers thinks I shouldn't read my email when I'm off, but I am much more relaxed if I do.
One thing I don't like about email is when patrons email me to ask a question. It hasn't been happening very often--maybe once a week so far. The trouble is that I don't always recognize a patron's email subject so I think it is SPAM. I don't open any email if I think it's SPAM so I imagine that sometimes I miss a patron's email. The Spammers are very tricky and make me think I know who they are when I don't, and the patrons don't often enter a meaningful subject in their subject line so I delete them. I try to save time, as mentioned in the "tips" by deleting anything I think is junk without opening it.
Also, patrons sometimes email for simple things like renewals or title requests but they don't send enough information, so that's a problem and wastes time trying to track them down when I would rather they just call.
Email is also a rather brusque way to communicate, and there are sometimes misunderstandings and people get their feelings hurt. Sometimes that is a very real problem.
Overall though I like email. I like that I can sort things into subject folders. But I still have too many "saved" emails--because you never know when you'll need to read them again.
I only use instant messaging to communicate with my family members in other states. I have a webcam on my home computers and can visit with my kids and grandkids. Anything else I have to say to people at work can be done by email, phone or in person. That is fast enough! Also, we don't allow instant messaging or chat at work because it supposedly takes up too much bandwidth or something . But I do use it all the time at home. My son is in Japan and we can't phone, so it's a wonderful communication device. My grandkids can't really use a phone yet, so it's nice for that too when combined with the web cam.
I like to access my work email from home if I'm not working that day, so that I can get rid of SPAM, Junk mail, and info from work that I only need to read and not answer or save. (Like what the day's circulation was--read and delete). By the time I get to work, I don't have to waste time sorting through the junk. Also, reading work email ahead of time helps me understand it better by the time I get to work. I don't feel pressured to understand it and respond instantly at home. But since I've read it once at home, it's less stressful for me to do something about it when I get to work. Does that make sense to anyone? For instance, if I go on vacation for a week, I will quickly go through my work email everyday. When I get back to work I feel like I know what's going on (more or less) and don't feel like I'm out of the loop. (Well, of course there are some things that don't make sense until I get back to work, but not many.) One of my co-workers thinks I shouldn't read my email when I'm off, but I am much more relaxed if I do.
One thing I don't like about email is when patrons email me to ask a question. It hasn't been happening very often--maybe once a week so far. The trouble is that I don't always recognize a patron's email subject so I think it is SPAM. I don't open any email if I think it's SPAM so I imagine that sometimes I miss a patron's email. The Spammers are very tricky and make me think I know who they are when I don't, and the patrons don't often enter a meaningful subject in their subject line so I delete them. I try to save time, as mentioned in the "tips" by deleting anything I think is junk without opening it.
Also, patrons sometimes email for simple things like renewals or title requests but they don't send enough information, so that's a problem and wastes time trying to track them down when I would rather they just call.
Email is also a rather brusque way to communicate, and there are sometimes misunderstandings and people get their feelings hurt. Sometimes that is a very real problem.
Overall though I like email. I like that I can sort things into subject folders. But I still have too many "saved" emails--because you never know when you'll need to read them again.
I only use instant messaging to communicate with my family members in other states. I have a webcam on my home computers and can visit with my kids and grandkids. Anything else I have to say to people at work can be done by email, phone or in person. That is fast enough! Also, we don't allow instant messaging or chat at work because it supposedly takes up too much bandwidth or something . But I do use it all the time at home. My son is in Japan and we can't phone, so it's a wonderful communication device. My grandkids can't really use a phone yet, so it's nice for that too when combined with the web cam.
Slideshow--flickr, tags, etc.
Don't know where this fits in, but I just added my library's Flickr photos as a slide show on my blog.
I discovered something cool while trying to do that--I noticed that I could have added a slideshow from Picasa Web Albums, which is where my daughter-in-law posts all of her pictures. I bet if I knew the correct tag, and if she had posted any to the public, I would have been able to run across some of her photos. So I think I'm starting to understand tags, although I don't know how to tag anything.
Later--I've decided to go back and tag all of my postings, now that I know how to do it
I set up a Flickr account and posted some photos on it. I also tagged one of my library photos under "23thingsonastick" but when I searched that tag later I didn't see it with all of the other crazy photos. Oh well. Guess I already wrote about this previously. I'm done goofing around with the Flickr "thing." I've got photos everywhere--I've looked at a ton of photos--I'm really not all that excited about making my photos public but I did make some private on Flickr as well as on three of my social networking sites. That's enough. On to other "things".
I discovered something cool while trying to do that--I noticed that I could have added a slideshow from Picasa Web Albums, which is where my daughter-in-law posts all of her pictures. I bet if I knew the correct tag, and if she had posted any to the public, I would have been able to run across some of her photos. So I think I'm starting to understand tags, although I don't know how to tag anything.
Later--I've decided to go back and tag all of my postings, now that I know how to do it
I set up a Flickr account and posted some photos on it. I also tagged one of my library photos under "23thingsonastick" but when I searched that tag later I didn't see it with all of the other crazy photos. Oh well. Guess I already wrote about this previously. I'm done goofing around with the Flickr "thing." I've got photos everywhere--I've looked at a ton of photos--I'm really not all that excited about making my photos public but I did make some private on Flickr as well as on three of my social networking sites. That's enough. On to other "things".
#4 Explore Flickr and #5 More Fun with Flickr
Ok so that last thing was an example of a Flickr Mashup I think. It's a combination of using Flickr images with another application. In this case, it's a spelling application. I spelled: "LibrariesRus" and it brought back photos from Flickr that spelled out what I spelled through photographs containing those letters. The interesting thing about it is that each time you click on one of the letters, the application brings back a different photo with that letter on it, so you can keep changing it.
I still don't know what it means to "tag" something. Ok I do now. I've searched tags "23thingsonastick" and "library cats". I tagged one of my flickr photos as 23thingsonastick but I can't pull it up when I search it, nor can I add the photo to my blog via flickr, although I did add it earlier by just browsing the photo from my computer. So, while interesting to find different photos on flickr and neat to post them onto a flickr account, I guess I can't seem to master the transfer to my blog.
I still don't know what it means to "tag" something. Ok I do now. I've searched tags "23thingsonastick" and "library cats". I tagged one of my flickr photos as 23thingsonastick but I can't pull it up when I search it, nor can I add the photo to my blog via flickr, although I did add it earlier by just browsing the photo from my computer. So, while interesting to find different photos on flickr and neat to post them onto a flickr account, I guess I can't seem to master the transfer to my blog.
#4 Explore Flickr
Our library actually uses Flickr to post photos that we take during programs and such. We all take the photos and our Director posts them to our Flickr account. It's nice because the public can see what we do even if they can't get to the program and it's good advertising so that maybe they'll be encouraged to come to the next program.
This photo actually is a cruise ship library (Carnival Freedom), not our public library, but hey, I was just trying out the Blogging tool bar and this is what happened.
I just signed up for a Flickr account on Monday, Feb. 4, 2008
#6 Online Image Generators
Well, now I'm to the point of just skipping around and completing "things" out of order, so I hope I eventually get them all. I used Image Chef to make a license plate for my library. I'm not very creative but hey, I can always go back and change it someday.
Sometimes I have a web page up and I'm reading it or working on it and then I open another window and another, but at some point one of the windows disappears and it is invariably the one I want to work on or look at next. So then I work on the page that's left. For instance I have all of these pages bookmarked thinking that I can click back and forth between 23 Things on a Stick, and my Blog, and Image Chef, and my Yahoo account, but the next time I look, I've lost one of them. So that is frustrating for me. I don't exactly know how I got to Thing #6 because I was actually studying #4 about Flickr--oh wait, I get it--4, 5 and 6 are all sort of related. Nevermind.
Sometimes I have a web page up and I'm reading it or working on it and then I open another window and another, but at some point one of the windows disappears and it is invariably the one I want to work on or look at next. So then I work on the page that's left. For instance I have all of these pages bookmarked thinking that I can click back and forth between 23 Things on a Stick, and my Blog, and Image Chef, and my Yahoo account, but the next time I look, I've lost one of them. So that is frustrating for me. I don't exactly know how I got to Thing #6 because I was actually studying #4 about Flickr--oh wait, I get it--4, 5 and 6 are all sort of related. Nevermind.
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