Tuesday, July 28, 2009

mashing my brains

I am a babe at arms when it comes to the app that people call "mashups." I'll admit it. I know nothing. Nada. Zero. Zip. And you just might be another person who is also in the same boat as me. Welcome to the crew. Arg, we be web-pirates and we be sailing these high seas scouring for understanding. Arg, where be ye, understanding?!

Rule Number 1: Have Fun!
Never in a million flying monkey tails have I been more confused. But because I am explorer, a web 2.0 explorer to be exact, I will not give up. So here goes...mashups! Like any sane person, I googled mashups, and of course, was directed to Wikipedia for a finer definition of the word. Ironically enough, there are several definitions of mashups, two being:

  • Mashup (digital), a digital media file containing any or all of text, graphics, audio, video, and animation, which recombines and modifies existing digital works to create a derivative work.

  • Mashup (web application hybrid), a web application that combines data and/or functionality from more than one source

  • Going by a few links provided in Wikipedia, I decided to have a look at AlertMap, which to sum up is, a mashup of information that shows disasters around the world at a given time and place. I take a peek and am no less confused. Hence, my searching continues. I mosey around Wikipedia some more and discover the different mashup editors that are available. I figure I'll try Google Mashup Editor, but raise an eyebrow at the word "deprecated" that follows the link. I decide on Pipes Yahoo since I had a Yahoo account already.

    I'm in. I look around. I find a place that looks like the place where I begin experimentation, but have no idea how to use the tools. Luckily there is a video. Play. Okay, I have something of an idea of what I have to do...I think. I basically copy what the video does and voila! my very own mashup. End of the line. Time to write. Wow, that was boring. No fun whatsoever. Time to go back to the drawing boards.

    Rule Number 2: If at first you don't succeed...
    So I gave mashups a try, on my own power, but I wanted to see what the prof had to say about the matter. Decided it was time to walk the fire-trail. Become wise. Gain a different understanding. It was a short trail, but enlightenment was attained. I was introduced to Animoto, which seemed too good to be true! There's also Animoto Education, a section for teachers. Animoto discovered immediate success with teachers and decided to give these people added advantages to joining and using their site. I was rather impressed with Animoto. The steps laid down are easy to follow and the end product is great. However, you are limited to how long you can make the video.



    Rule Number 3: Explore
    So the web masters created Animoto and it was good. The multitude saw that it was good. All saw that it was good. But a small voice from nowhere said "got anything else?" There were gasps, and sharp intakes. The webmasters looked gravely at one another. One cracked a toothless grin and in a small, high silly voice said, "yes, there's VoiceThread, too!"

    After an exploration of Animoto and having just way too much fun with it, I wanted to see what else was out there. Enter VoiceThread. This app is even more simplistic than Animoto. This basic application can be thrown up onto the web and used as a way of sharing photos from the latest trip, latest artwork, digital storytelling or a visual suggestion board for ideas within a group.



    The only downside to both of these web apps is that they are not entirely free. The basic structure is free (how else are they going to hook you in?). However the upside is you can pay a minimal fee and everything is yours. If you are especially satisfied with the service than paying the money won't be such a bother. Or if you want to be nit-picky and creative you can just make a series of short 30 sec clips and somehow tie together. That's not only creative, that's being frugal as well.

    Rule Number 4: Let the People speak
    So these are great web applications. I think they're fantastic. But am I the only one? Apparently not. Joel Spolsky thinks it's an amazing app as well. What he points out is that this video you create on Animoto can be uploaded to five of the most popular online photo sharing sites (flickr, facebook, smugmug, picasa, and photobucket). In 2008, VoiceThread was listed as the 23rd most used web app out of a 100. I think the best thing about Top Tools For Learning, is that gives a plethora of comments from teachers using this web app. Check it out. You'll come away with a lot of ideas of how teachers are using this application in the classroom.

    Rule Number 5: Connect
    I'm exploring what Animoto and VoiceThread has to offer and a thought occurred to me as I was playing with these apps. Are there other people out there that want to connect using these apps? There are. Voicethread4Education is such a place to connect with other teachers who want to use Voicethread in their classrooms. Teachers have contributed to this wiki by adding their experiences of voicethreading. I like how Donna DesRoches calls it. Digital Storytelling. In her brief blog, Classroom Tech Tips, she briefly outlines a project where students created a storyboard with taking pictures and than presented those pictures in a story they created. This project was than uploaded onto Voice Thread so that other teachers and parents could leave comments.

    Rule Number 6: Check under rocks
    We've had a peek at Video Thread and Animoto, but are there any other photo sharing sites out there besides these two fine specimens? According to Seven Things You Should Know About VoiceThread, there are other apps such as Slide Show and Cooliris. I went to my trusty telescope (Google). I couldn't find anything specifically called "Slide Show" but I did find a web app called Slide. It also has a simplistic interface that one could navigate. I threw up my telescope again and went looking for Cooliris. What is this thing called "Coo-li-ris?" It appears that Cooliris is also another photosharing doo-dad, HOWEVEVER you have to install a plug-in. Pfff. A plug-in. Riiiiiight. How more handy can a plug-in get when you're trying to do some photo-sharing love from a computer that is not your own. Can we say foreseen complications?

    Rule Number 7: Check in the Stacks
    What could possibly be in the library that has to do with mashups. Well, not exactly in the stacks but some librarians are noticing mashups within academe. As Emily Welshe notes, "we call our mashups things like synergistic learning or symbiotic content." Books are starting to make their way into digitization and relegation and have been revitalized as students take advantage of the "abbreviated surrogates that basically do the trick." I think Welshe hits the nail on the head when she writes,

      "As students--highly acculturated to wikis, blogs, and RSS feeds--struggle to comprehend the notions of intellectual property and attribution, database vendors race to market postmodern Promethean portals that mash up and map out ideas on their behalf. We offer myriad variations on the Frankensteinian theme of blended identities and then wonder why our students can't effectively develop and situate their ideas in an academic context. We look for trace hints of humanity in their papers and yet fail to provide the conceptual foundation for research and information literacy that they so desperately need."

    This is the issue that modern educators are just beginning to realize. I believe that in the here and now, librarians and teachers can only address this issue by learning these web applications ourselves, synthesize and create our own mashups where students will find a balance between technology, analysis and comprehension.

    Rule Number 8: Involve the Crew
    Sure all this is fun to learn, but there's more of this that meets the barnacle. It's about classroom involvement. As teachers and librarians we're the ones who have to be the balancer, the finger that holds the middle of the tied ribbon, the middle kid who sits in the center of the teeter-totter. You get the picture. We're the ones who have to make it all educational fun. And it is fun! One word I am being seen thrown around a lot is digital storytelling. It's a great idea, actually. And here's a link to other links for some more great digital storytelling ideas. As the author of The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling summed it up, "digital storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories." Since mashups like, Animoto and VideoThread are visual and audio, storytelling can definitely be explored. What other ways can mashups be explored in the classroom?

    Rule Number 8: Be Inspired
    So, we've sailed the seven seas, and we've found our treasure chest of gold. Photo-sharing gold to be exact. We've sweated tears of joy as we've yet discovered another wonderous treasure that we can toot around and explore with our students. Our swashbuckling days are not over, but have only just began.



    Sources: Welshe, Emily. "Mashups in the stacks". American Libraries. 39.11 (2008):37-37.

    Further Exploration: Panoramio and Housing Map

    Monday, July 27, 2009

    Wikis: a journey of a sandbox

    Wikis Defined
    The word, wiki, as you may or may not know is the Hawaiian word for "quick," and the concept of the word has definitely been embodied in the web application as we know it. Fast it is. But what is a wikis? What is Wiki defines it as "the simplest online database that could possibly work." Wiki is a piece of server software that gives users the freedom to create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. "Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly."

    A 2006 clip on the online growth and tech support of Wikepedia in the last 4 years (55 min.)

    In the Beginning
    So who first used wikis? According to 7 Things You Should Know About Wikis, scientists and engineers in the mid 1990s used wikis as dynamic knowledge bases. Wikis were considered to be "on the fly," and could be seen by everyone online and commented on by anyone as well. Faculty and staff in academia have also taken advantage of this instructional application by using wikis as repositories of their meeting notes. At the time of this writing, institutions were experimenting wikis as e-portfolios.

    What's Out There
    The greatest thing about wikis is that it is for everyone. You have Wikipedia, which has gained recognition as the people's encyclopedia, but that doesn't necessarily mean that that's the end of the road when it comes to wikis. There's a rather extensive wikis' list that wikipedia provides to show you the extent to which wikis have taken online community by storm. To name one wiki that is not on the list is PBWiki, which has changed names to PBWorks. The reason for the change in name is because several new functions have been added on that have redefined the site and as a result have gone beyond traditional wiki function. The change in name seemed appropriate to them, and it does make more sense to do so when the reason is presented.

    The Issues
    Wikipedia
    So are there any issues with wikis? Maybe not among them but perhaps with them there is. The big word that was thrown around back in the day was "credibility." I remember back to my undergraduate years when just about all my professors would raise their eyebrows in skeptical annoyance when any of their students even mentioned the word "Wikipedia." I remember one particular classmate, incessantly mentioning wikipedia (this one particular classmate had a habit of mentioning the new and latest web app). My professors weren't the only ones questioning the credibility of wikipedia. Stacy Schiff, a writer for the The New Yorker, also raises the question of whether Wikipedia will ever gain expertise. In her extensive article about everything wikipedia (from history to the finer detail of users), Know it All, talks about accuracy with a comparable note that for every 3 errors found in Britannica, 4 were found in Wikipedia. Schiff says the problem is provence. Most of the information that is provided in Wikipedia is not found in the stacks but from the Web, which she writes, "offers up everything from breaking news, spin, and gossip to proof that the moon landings never took place." Schiff goes into the greater detail about Wikipedia, but I want to pause for a moment and come back to the bigger picture. The image of Wikipedia has perhaps become the poster child for wikis back in 2006, and indirectly corrupted the view of wikis in the eyes of some professionals and academia, however, will this change? I think indirectly it might. Wikis, in of themselves, are gaining momentum in the professional world. Wikis, not Wikipedia. Big difference. Wikis serve whatever community size, be it big or small, and it is perhaps it is in size that the difference can be found.

    So, will Wikipedia ever clean up its act? Perhaps in the long run, when more professional voices start participating in the creation of content on the site, perhaps than there will be an eventual status of credibility.

    Wikis
    Using wikis is fine and good, but the thing is that eventually, people in their collaboration want to use an identifier and often times, Wikipedia comes to mind. Eric Oatman in his article, Make Way for Wikis, talks about wikis in the classroom and the good it serves students and teachers, yet he brings to light the pros and cons with wikis in that if wikis are to present in the school, proper sourcing is needed when establishing wikis. Librarians have noticed holes in the information presented on Wikipedia, and Oatman wants to raise awareness that teachers should perhaps use Wikipedia as an example of what not to do when writing and sourcing information. It is better to use Wikipedia in such a way since students will be accessing Wikipedia at home in their own time. It is better to make them aware of the quality of information they are accessing and allow them to get involved in the critiquing.

    Implications for Teaching and Learning
    But Wikipedia aside, what are the implications of the wiki in the education system? Numerous. Endless. Countless. Oatman recognizes that wikis are starting to become an consistent presence in the classroom. One example he mentions, Olde Columbine High School in Longmont, CO, used a wiki to teach writing. The teacher acknowledge that the improvement in students' writing was noticeable and credits it to students now having an audience to write to. The teacher wanted to empower the students by giving them the flexibility the explore themselves.

    Will Richardson in his book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classrooms, presents a chapter on wikis in the classroom. Richardson mentions that wikis work best when a teacher "loosens the reins a bit" and let the students be the manager of content on the site. It is in this sense that Richardson writes that the teacher needs to examine their role in the wiki process. By giving power into the students hands, the teacher also has to recognize that students will begin to teach themselves. By placing a right or wrong on the processing it could actually undermine the entire situation. But wikis are also good places for equality. It allows the students to be on equal footing with teachers since both parties are contributing to the overall success of a wiki. The use of the wiki in the classroom can be teacher/teacher focused, teacher/student or student/student focused. It really depends on the goal that the teacher wants to accomplish with each wiki project. Teachers might want to create online text for their curriculum where students and teacher can add to. Teachers might want to create online content for other teachers where one source might be lacking.

    But wikis don't have to end in the classroom. They are also found in libraries. Chad F. Boeninger writes a chapter in Library 2.0 and Beyond and talks about wikis as research guides. When libraries do not have specialized web-authoring software or HTML coding skills, wikis serve in place nicely. Another problem arises often times with library websites is that the need to update information often takes time. A web manager is the intermediary to the web content, and this can cause a serious lag in how often information gets update especially if a library is constantly making changes. With wiki format, the librarian can make the changes themselves.

    Boeninger talks about three best practices for library wikis. The first being to question "whether or not a wiki is really needed." Is a wiki going to really serve the needs of the library? Is a library using a wiki because its the "cool" thing to do. Secondly, if there is a need for a wiki, its good to shop around to see how other wikis work. What are some of the ideas out there for library wikis? How are they organized? What is the structure like? Thirdly, investigation of software. What software is out there? Which software would be easy to navigate and publish content on? One must also take into consideration that self-hosted wikis require some knowledge of MySQL and PHP and some experience in web administration would be a good thing as well. Having one's own wiki does allow for more flexibility in structure and look but you have to take into consideration the other side of the coin such as resources and finances in establishing and maintaining an in-house wiki.



    Sources: Richardson, Will. "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, And Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms." Thousand Oaks; Corwin Press; 2009.
    Courtney, Nancy. "Library 2.0 and Beyond." Wesport, Connecticut; Libraries Unlimited, 2007.

    MediaWiki: a personal experience

    My experience with wikis has not been in choosing the software, creating the account, selecting the account settings and than instructing students to create usernames and passwords. Rather as a LIS student, I have been on the receiving end of the wiki experience with creation of content rather than structure.

    The Setup
    The Wiki project in LIS 506 was the final project for the class. After weeks of learning about the various areas of information technology, the goal of the wiki project was to demonstrate that new found knowledge. We were given 3-4 weeks to get into groups, choose a topic and begin and finish the project. Each group consisted of three students. We were not assigned to groups but given the option to form our own groups. The topic had to be related to information technology in the library science field. We chose topics by searching through the Wikipedia database to find any library information technology that had little or no information on the subject. After some searching, my group decided on the topic of e-resource management systmes (ERMS), which was not mentioned in Wikipedia at the time.

    The Software
    The software that our professor decided to use was MediaWiki. The definition given by Wikimatrix, MediaWiki is a software used by Wikipedia and is a software that supports large and small sites. Our professor wanted us to get a feel for how Wikipedia functions work by using this particular software. We were not connected to Wikipedia, but by using the software, she created a website that had the wikipedia feel to it. If I could, I would post the url to the blog here, however the assignment that was done for this class is not for public viewing. To get an idea of the structure and extent that my classmates and I did our project, Library success is a great example to check out instead. Other than that, I will be going through my project with screenshots and explaining how most of the components of the wiki works.

    Class Mainpage
    This page served as the class mainpage. Each group was represented by a link to their topic. This page was represented in the left hand corner menu by a link called Main Page. If I needed to go to go and comment or edit another group's topic, I would click on Main Page to come back to the list of topics.


    ERMS Mainpage: Content
    The main page served as a compilation of the major topics that would be discussed in ERMS. Similar to the Main Page, the ERMS mainpage also has links to ERMS related topics, but contains far more information. Rather than just links, each subtopic has a paragraph briefly explaining what each topic entails and for further exploration, a link to more content.


    ERMS Mainpage: Structure
    As you become familiar with wikis, there is content and than there is structure. For each page of the article there is a structural outline that allows you to publish, edit, manage and leave comments about content you've created. Looking at the screenshot above you will see in the picture, six tabs that can be found at the top of the article. They are: article, discussion, edit, history, move, and watch. We will be discussing the first four tabs since these were the only tabs that my classmates and I used consistently during the making of the project.

    Article
    The subtopic that I will use as an example will be History and Development of ERMS under the Driving Forces of Development on the main ERMS page. The article tab is perhaps the most important page since it is the first page that users will find when searching for their topic. For those who have no need to edit the article, this page is the only page that users will need access to.


    Discussion
    This second tab is the behind the scenes part of the article tab. Although it is behind the scenes, anyone can still have a look and see what is being written here. The discussion tab is the place where online conversations between the various editors is posted. Any comments or talk that needs to take place all happens here. If someone has a reason as to why they deleted certain information in the article, it will be found here. If one editor added another wikipedia stub (an short article in need of expansion) to the article it can be found here. This is a good place to explore ideas as well. It's an online discussion board. Depending how detailed the content is in the article, the discussion board can be full of discussion, or minimal at best. As for the example shown below, not much was being discussed since this subtopic was mostly written by one person.


    Edit
    The edit tab can be a little confusing. Depending on which tab you are on, the edit tab will lead you in a few different directions. If I am on the article tab (figure 1), the edit tab will lead me to content within the article. If I am on the discussion tab (figure 2), the edit tab will lead me to content within the discussion. This may sound fine in writing, but in action, its a different story. When you see the picture, you will notice there is no clear definition that says "edit article" or "edit discussion." I didn't even think about this or discover this until I was doing this assignment. A slight difference that can be found is a little tab that has a "+" sign beside the edit tab for the discussion tab. Whatever the case, edit area contains a box called the sandbox. It is here that the drafts for whatever section you are in, takes place. The buttons above the sandbox may be familiar to some people since they are similar in appearance to some blog tabs that are found above their sandboxes. This is the place you draft your conversations or content of the article.

    figure 1

    figure 2
    History
    The history tab is basically an area that contains all the time-stamp information about the article, discussion or any other of the tabs. It is here that information about the time, date and editor is kept. This is also the area that people can come to to revert back to a previous version of the article. If someone has vandalized the article by deleting everything and leaving an crude message behind, it can be easily fixed, by clicking on a previous time-stamped date. Wonder what that random addition information is besides the time, date and editor is? This is a summary. This can only be found under the edit tab. Below the sandbox are several radio buttons, and a small text area that says "summary." This is where you put the addition information. This sample that is provided is from the edit (talk) tab and not the article tab.


    Conclusion
    I am still a student when it comes to learning this information. The difference this time round is that I am on the teacher/librarian side of the information learning process. Rather than creating the content this time, I am learning how to create the structure and make the settings within an account. I realize that teachers and librarians will tinker with different wiki software for their own comfort sake, but I have a suggestion to make when it comes to using wiki software for the first time. Being a student and exploring the wiki process was fairly painless due to the fact that our professor chose a format that all of us students were already familiar with. I've used wikipedia countless of times, and although I haven't done any editing on any articles, yet I am familiar with the structure. This familiarity carried over onto the project. Perhaps starting with MediaWiki when creating a wiki for students might be a good idea if students are already familiar with the Wikipedia format. Just a thought.

    Wednesday, July 22, 2009

    A Virtual/Digital Library Review

    You're exploration of web apps has been an awarding/challenging experience. You've puttered around, become familiar, and think you have everything finally under control in this apps learning process. Than the Internet throws you another curve ball. Enter virtual/digital libraries.

    Changing Times
    I know how you feel. My initial confusion when I first was introduced to virtual/digital libraries was quite apparent. Where to start? Where to look? How to evaluate for quality and accountability? In the library profession, these are everyday questions when exploring virtual libraries. Librarians, in pursuit of the issue, have discovered that there is more that meets the eye when it comes to online libraries. You may not know this, but librarians are constantly challenging the idea of what a library is in these modern times.

    The Traditional Library
    The traditional concept of a library is that it is contained by four walls. This view probably came about when the possibility to digitize everything within library resources started becoming a reality. Another idea that started being discussed was that the usefulness of the physical library fading into oblivion. Yet in the here and now, librarians are starting to argue the importance of the physical library space. One point of view that Alan Barney argues in his article, The Impact of Technology on Library Space Requirements is that more space is required as "digitization is beginning to replace microforms, audio/visual resources are evolving into multimedia/hypermedia formats, and computer equipment is pervasive throughout the modern academic library." Rather than arguing that technology will do away with the physical space of the library, he simply points out that it will only redefine that physical space.

    Glenn Remelts in his article,Where Research Will Happen: The Traditional Library, considers that the traditional four-wall library may disappear in the public, special and school sector but is convinced that academic schools will never do away with their libraries just for the simple fact that libraries provide a physical haven for researchers. He acknowledges that digital libraries are becoming a part of everyday life and that together, both traditional and digital libraries will grow and coexist.

    Or let's ponder on Maija Berndtson's review of the conference held by the Helsinki Library with their theme A Space for the Future- Library Buildings in the 21st Century, where other libraries were invited to share their own experiences in reinventing the library space. 10 different European countries were toured with an involvement of 170 participants from 30 different countries. Berndtson's states that the conference "confirmed our belief that the physical library, library space, will remain by the side of the virtual library." She goes on to write that the challenge that is presented now is to change the image of traditional libraries as well as utilize the space to meet the needs of the customers (patrons, users).

    The Digital Library
    Digital or Virtual? Does it really matter which word takes president over this online resource? By Wikipedia standards, when users types in "virtual library" they are automatically directed to digital library instead. The basis of the digital library is with the advance of technology in the world today. Information is either switched to the latest formats or new information is simply stored in the current formats. Lori Bell, Tom Peters, and Kitty Pope write in their chapter, "Library 2.0 and Virtual Worlds = Innovation + Exploration," write that "customer service trends in libraries show that more and more self-services are desired by library users, from self-check out machines to more services on the web, such as virtual reference, and collections, such as ebooks and audio books."

    The Library (Digital) Environment: After 10 Years explores past and present development of the digital library. What is interesting to note is that 10 years ago, the goal of digital libraries was connecting with the web. Today, it is more than a matter of connecting but exploring the communicating applications that are available and using them to connect to a bigger audience. For further exploration of digital libraries go to: Library Issues: Digital Libraries.

    The Hybrid Library
    Now you're really lost. A hybrid what? Wikipedia best describes the hybrid library as a term librarians use to describe libraries that have a mix of the print library resources as well as electronic library resources. But Realizing the Hybrid Library towards its full potential of bringing together electronic and print resources and blending them to create a harmonious service is the goal of the hybrid library. Hybrid library also goes by "gateway library," and shares similiar concept of the hybrid library in that one medium of information does not replace the other. Although the goal of the hybrid library is to create a seamless coexistence between print and electronic, this is easier said than done. Such issues that need to be dealt with in the continuos pursuit of balance is digital divide, interoperability and collection management, to name a few.

    A little byte of History
    Roy Tennant in his article, Of Real and Digital Libraries opens the article with a brief history of the digital library. He writes, “without real libraries, digital ones are nothing but a bunch of bits”. He realizes this thought as a reoccurring theme in the library profession, yet pauses to reflect that libraries went digital when in the early 1990s the computer science community shifted eyes their way. Digital libraries were but babes in arms during this time, but apparently the U.S. government concluded that this library area was worth sinking millions of dollars of research into. With a swerving Sauron eye swiftness, “computer science researchers also suddenly become interested in digital library issues”.

    But to these computer geeks, all library information lingo was a “pile of content” and when placed together created a library unto itself. The library community was not sure where this outside interest would take them but “humored the researchers” and soon “unexpected” results were showing up. Stepping forward onto this platform were graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who, although did not create a digital library, created Google, a web application that made finding much easier to the Internet user.

    Library 2.0 and Second Life
    I remember when I first heard of Second Life. I was new to the library profession, in my first term of my LIS program and just about every class I was in mentioned Second Life. You may or may not have heard of it, but by some standards it is a rather significant matter in the Web 2.0 sphere. Bell, Peters and Pope's definition of Second Life is "a virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents, who often are called "avatars." In this world people through their avatars can explore this virtual world. There is much to discover. People can buy land, a home or business. There's even money, called Linden currancy. So where does the library aspect come in?

    Two librarians, Lori Bell and Kitty Pope, seeing possibilities, began a library venture into Second Life. Along the way, library volunteers joined the team, and the search was on to see if residents in the Second Life wanted or needed a library. The challenges that presented the team as they went about building their Second Life library was the difference between real time and virtual time. Learning how to use their avatars with sufficient grace while they navigated this virtual world also proved a challenge. Since Second Life librarians were also neebies to this environment, they couldn't really give much information on the culture within Second Life.

    A Review
    World Digital Library is a must see. A digital library based out of several institutions and supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, contains maps, manuscripts, books, photos, and paintings. I believe the list goes on, but exploration of the site is quite an adventure. The homepage is set out like a map, and so subjects are categorized by continents. Once clicking on a continent, you begin exploring. If you click on a book, you are taken to a page that contains a photograph of the cover, and a brief history of the book on the right hand side. Click on the picture and the book is opened to you for exploration. Zoom in or move about by clicking on a page. I could literally spend hours running around the site.

    IDRC Digital Library is an open access repository of research results and documents generated by IDRC-funded projects, IDRC funding recipients, and IDRC staff. This repository is free and is a good place for research on international issues.

    The National Science Digital Library is another great website to explore. User friendly, easy to navigate, and lots of great science based information. Everything from simple to complex science can be found.

    International Digital Children's Library is a kid's book-loving paradise. The goal of this website is to reach children around the world, wherever they are or wherever they go. You can search by words or search by bookcover. You can search by color and/or language. You limit search by age. When you get to the book, you can enlarge the text or the picture. The possibilities on this site are astounding. Read A Duck in the Gun as a sample. Membership is free.

    Last Thoughts
    So is the way of the future virtually all digital? Everybody has an option on the matter, but it really comes down to each individual library and library staff. There is a recognition to be connected globally as new technology creates a even acuter awareness of the larger audience at hand. As for myself, I am not entirely sure where I stand in the matter until I am in the classroom teaching or at the reference desk helping, but as for yourself, where do you stand?



    Sources: Courtney, Nancy. "Library 2.0 and Beyond." Wesport, Connecticut; Libraries Unlimited, 2007.

    Sunday, July 19, 2009

    You said what?

    Podcasts. You heard me. It's all about putting your voice out there. Speak and be heard. Say anything and everything but for goodness sake, connect! No longer are we being creative by written word and visual effects, but the Internet has brought about a new creative form of personal presence and that's podcasting.

    Podcasting Defined
    Some articles about web apps never grow old. Since new users are being introduced to the web everyday, issues both new and old continue to be ageless. Back in 2005, CBC's exploration of the new fangle web app is captured in a brief synopsis of how podcasting is contributing and changing the Internet. Noticeable changes that we can now see today is the ability to control when, where and how we listen to broadcastings. In times past, people would miss their favorite radio show for whatever reason and no means were provided to compensate, yet with podcasting now, people can upload missed episodes.

    Spoken History
    Podcasting has something of a particular history. Podcasting was never a stand-alone web application but rode on the backs of weblogs and RSS feeds. If you go to Jason Van Orden's podcast tutorial, he writes a comprehensive history of podcasting. A signature app, podcasting has its roots in audio blogging. Individuals wanting to be creative in their personal space uploaded MP3 recordings of their views and reflections. Along the way, key players like Dave Winer and Adam Curry, began to lay down the footprints that others would shortly follow in pursuit of perfecting this app. But who had the honor of coining such a term? While writing an article for the The Guardian, the word was put forth by Ben Hammersley. The rest, we can say, is history.

    Past Podcasting
    My podcasting expertise has been something of a hit and miss experience. In the first year of my Library and Information Science (LIS) program, all students were required to take LIS 506 which consists of the basic web apps, podcasting among them. Did I learn anything? I would like to think I did, but as I go about doing this assignment, I am beginning to have my doubts. I learned podcasting from scratch. We had to create the code in a plain text platform (Edit Text for macs, Notepad for Windows). For learning through that method, we had excellent lab samples that guided us through each step. But things learned will rust if not put to use which applies entirely to my situation. In the beginning, it was exciting and fun leavng another piece of me in my personal online space.

    Present Podcasting
    Tutorials are helpful. When I was trying to make heads and tails of where to begin with podcasting, I typed "creating podcasts" into the Google search engine and found a tutorial by Corey Deitz. Two basic ways of creating a podcast were presented, and after a few attempts at creating a code, I decided to change gears and explore what online services have to offer in publishing podcasts. On the third page of the website, a list of podcasting services were presented and clicking on the first link, I was transferred to ClickCaster. With easy to follow directions (though I didn't understand what I was doing at the time), I created a channel, A Slice of Knowledge, and proceeded to upload the tester podcast I created in Audacity. Sometimes playing with a new app can be frustrating if you have a slow Internet connection.

    a brief podcast on my podcasting experience


    What's out there
    Looking for a podcasting service to suit your needs can take time or can simply be a luck of the draw, as was in my case. Everyone does come to podcasting in their own time, so finding a service that is easy to interact with and pleasing to the eyes is a natural requirement when finally settling. For myself, relying on the links that were provided in the tutorial, I clicked on the first service and continued with my exploration of podcasting through ClickCaster. The interface and the smooth transition from registration to creating a channel and uploading mp3 file was noticeable. But it wasn't until the uploading process starting lagging and impatience kicking in that I decided to have a quick peek at the other links provided in the tutorial.

    BlogMatrix was confusing at best. The interface is ubber plain and navigation all over the place. There was no clear place for registration although a button to sign in was evident. I just couldn't get over the fact that the interface was so incredibly plain Jane. Sometimes that's a good thing, but in the case of this site, it did nothing to lure me into further discovery.

    Liberated Syndication's was on the other end of the spectrum. From no words to many words, Liberated Syndication was definitely an improvement and the podcasts offered for hearing were free. The lengthly introduction can confuse people. For anyone with a slow connection, LibSyn quickly connects.

    MyRssCreator, was information overload at first glance. It seemed to be a combination of LibSyn and BlogMatrix. Very simple interface but you have to wade through all the information before you discover whether the services were free or not. Something tells me that they would benefit from Jakob Nielson's Top Ten Principles of Usability.

    ClickCaster was my first pick, and after repeatedly returning to the site to understand more of the infrastructure, I am convinced that it was the right pick. The easy to navigatetabs, clear instructions of where to go and what to do, and just the overall aesthetics was another reason I decided to stay with ClickCaster.

    Whose Using It
    This is the interesting part of the blog where we start investing whose who in podcasting. Just who uses podcasting? We have quite a wide variety to pick out of from the bottomless basket of podcasting. You could type in "who AND podcasting" and get a rather interesting list or "directories AND podcasting" will yield a plethora result as well. If you want art, there's art podcasting. If you want science, there's science podcasting. If you want graffiti, there's graffiti podcastings. Religious groups, political groups, civil right groups - the list is endless. It is fascinating to see people, who already have a voice, learn to channel that voice through a different medium.

    What do Schools have to say?
    So, where is the voice of the School in all this? Who and how are teachers and/or students taking advantage of this web app? What creative borders are being pushed or learning creativeness imbued into podcasting? Is there an actual recipe for speaking? Don't be shy about speaking, Will Richardson writes, add in those "uhms" and "ahs" (111). It makes the whole process more real and comes back to the foundation of what podcasting is really about - everyday people speaking out, wanting to be heard.

    So let's see what's out there for podcasting explorers. K12 Handhelds gives a relevant review on podcasting in schools as well as practical application in the classroom and connecting to those outside the classroom. Need help with brainstorming ideas for podcasting in the classroom? Teachers brainstorming podcasting ideas might help with those creative juices. For students, kidspeak would be a great example of exclusive student voice. Another podcast of note is Kids Explain Podcasting, which as the title suggests, kids being the informers of this web app rather than the teachers. For a child-safe place to browse for inspiration for the classroom podbean might be a good place to start.

    What do Libraries have to say?
    Libraries are hot on the podcasting trail as well. Academic and public libraries are definitely using this app to connect with their patrons to better serve their information needs. So you're scratching your head and wondering how? Well as Chris Kretz writes in Library 2.0 and Beyond, there's a lot to consider. One possibility that we all can easily imagine is booktalks (37), where books are the focus of discussion. Podcasts that focus on the highlights of displays and exhibits are another way to the pique interest of people who haven't yet made it to these events. Personalized librarian podcasts found within blogs are great for professional information about the comings and goings within libraries or personal information in the form of stories, issues or concerns are always good for laughs and contemplation(38). There is also library news, where podcasts serve as mini news clips to the user population (40). These are great examples, but you want to see what libraries have explored this diverse app. Library Success gives a listing of successful podcasts set up by libraries across the country. Have a peek. Take a look.

    What say you?
    Perhaps this time round, my podcasting skills won't rust. Having now seen what is out there, hearing and experience the multitude of voices, and having a momentary flash of "we are the borg" voice stuck in my head, I'll be more inclined to explore and add to that community of voices. Perhaps I will speak out more often. Are you ready to speak out as well?



    Sources: Richardson, Will. "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, And Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms." Thousand Oaks; Corwin Press; 2009.
    Courtney, Nancy. "Library 2.0 and Beyond." Wesport, Connecticut; Libraries Unlimited, 2007.

    Wednesday, July 15, 2009

    Word of the Day

    Folksonomy. You read right. You're new to the world of social bookmarking and perhaps the first word you stumble upon is folksonomy or in other words, the collaborative creation and management of tags in the pursuit of annotating and categorizing information. Simply put: bagging and tagging in a community sort of way.

    Personal Exploration
    So, before social bookmarking took hold, how did you save your favorite sites? I remember the good old days of copying and pasting links into Word document. Than someone introduced me to Yahoo!bookmark. Yes, it was a pleasant surprise and my days of copying/pasting to Word Document were over. I do admit I got a little carried away. I had four yahoo accounts and used every one of their bookmarks and molded and fashioned them after my likeness. The first account was a jambalaya of websites since this was my first voyage into the foray. The second account became a bookmarking area for all things pertaining to academics. The third account became the oasis for my webcomics and artsy-fartsy moments. Lastly, the fourth account was for all of my anime music, pictures and download information (yes, I was once an otaku).

    What's Out There
    There is a wealth of social bookmarking sites out there. Delicious and Diigo were recommended for exploration, but for a little variety I decided to explore Digg as well. I wanted to see where each site stood in ranking and typed "social bookmarking sites" in Google to get a bigger picture of these applications. From the website, ebiz, I was able to see continually updated statistics of each app. Diggs stood at the top whereas Delicious and Diigo followed shortly after. Ultimately, I wanted to see which app would give me a seamless ride on the social bookmarking express.

    First Impressions
    Diigo felt like a friend I could take from site to site with me. Although I could import my browser bookmarks into Diigo, the feature that was immediately introduced was Diigo's own bookmark below the browser bookmark. Delicious appears to be similar in nature although rather than a bar appearing right under the browser bookmark a separate window is opened to bookmark the chosen site. Digg, well, Digg seems to be another story all together. Once I got past registration, I became completely lost and couldn't make heads or tails of the website. The definitions Diigo and Delicious use to navigate their users throughout their apps were nowhere to be found on Digg. Anyone out there come to the same conclusion?

    What's the point?
    Social bookmarking seems to be the current web trend. For those beginning a serious surf of the Internet, bookmarking is a question of "why"? For those who are a regular or native on the Internet, it's a question of "why not"? Daniel Nations brief synopsis of social bookmarking, talks of the value of social bookmarking compared to the old trends of copy-and-paste-into-word-document-bookmarking and if one wanted to really think about it, a different way of searching. He also mentions the difference between social bookmarking and social news (apparently Digg falls under social news). For those of you who are new to the term as I am, will discover that this term within social bookmarking refers to bookmarking related to news with breaking headlines and blogs that discuss those topics.

    Uses within the Library
    So what's the verdict for social bookmarking in libraries? Yes, seems to be the unanimous vote. One could even say that its a librarian's paradise. The ability to find sites through tagging but to also involve library users in the process, would be in my mind, a stupendous matter! As Melissa L. Rethlefsen points out, bookmarking seems to be the comfortable go-between medium for users and librarians (Library Journal, 9/15/2007). Within library circles, Google has always been a debatable subject of practicality or an inept source of information. To use or not use Google has been a heated topic but with bookmarking, librarians can now point to the right road for the information journey. Social bookmarking for libraries is about providing reliable sources but allows flexibility and control both in the hands of the user and librarian.

    This seems to be the case for public libraries but what about academic libraries? Steven B mentions that some university library's are taking advantage of what social bookmarking has to offer on their campuses. By creating their own social bookmarking program, they are giving power into the hands of the students to select sites that are relevant to their studies and to share that information to fellow classmates as well as other students. Steven mentions the next step to tagging would be tagging library content in the OPAC.

    So what is the plus side of folksonomy within the library? Better location of sources. Ellyssa Kroski explains that "hierarchical taxonomies are designed for finding specific resources whereas folksonomies are predisposed to discovering unknown and unexpected resources" (Library 2.0 and Beyond 95). Unlike the Library of Congress classification scheme which takes years for information to be updated, folksonomy allows for constant update since users are involved with the process.

    Uses within the School
    So what's the news with schools? Are they tagging along? Have they adopted a social bookmarking buddy? Share More! Wiki is a great place to get stories of teachers venturing into the social bookmarking foray. Some teachers share success stories where they have created social bookmarking account and are actively using it, whereas other stories tell of contemplating using the app or just beginning the venture into the unknown.

    The Bad and The Ugly
    I found that Wikipedia gave a well-rounded view of the sunny and darker side of social bookmarking. One downside to social bookmarking is that there is no set standard. Capitalization, misspelling, slang or singular/plural is not defined. It's great, it's free, but watch out for spammers! Some people have started using social bookmarking as a means of better accessing their website in a Google search. Spammers have caught on to this and bookmarked web pages numerous times and/or use popular tagging for for higher hits thus creating problems for developers and forcing them to readjust their system.

    A Return to the Self
    I haven't fully delved into the bones of Delicious or Diigo yet, but I know I will be frequenting the site more often. Having been in MLIS program, I am always finding myself sharing links with fellow classmates. What better way to share than social bookmarking? If I'm going to share I mind as well save myself the energy of running to my personal computer and pulling up links from my web browser and instead turn to an app that frees up my memory. Have you gotten a social bookmarking buddy today?


    Sources: Courtney, Nancy. "Library 2.0 and Beyond." Wesport, Connecticut; Libraries Unlimited, 2007.

    Monday, July 13, 2009

    YouTube + Classroom = Unresolved

    The more involved you become with the internet, the easier it is to navigate. The deeper you wade into the seemingly murky data waters, the more you begin to see patterns throughout the entire structure. At least that's the theory.

    I've disturbed the waters enough to know where to go and what to do. So when I began traversing through the topic of videosharing on the Internet, I turned to YouTube. I created an account several years ago in order to bookmark the videos that I found funny, fascinating or fantastic. Although, I was a partial member of the YouTube community, I was never a participator only a viewer. Being in an online web application class changed that.

    Uploading a video on YouTube is as easy as buttering toast. Right at the top of the page near the account information is a small fat yellow box with the words "upload" inscribed on it. Clicking on it I followed the instructions and soon found myself watching the video via YouTube rather than Quick Time.


    This video is of a recent trip to Utica and Union Lake, California. It serves as an example of how easy it is to upload a video.

    However, to get a fuller experience of video sharing, I decided to explore Teacher Tube as well. I also found the process rather straightforward; however, there was much more information to fill in when uploading a video. Unlike YouTube, TeacherTube asks permission to rate the video, which I found interesting to note since one blogger, cool cat teacher, mentions that YouTube will rate TV shows but doesn't bother with a rating system for the rest of its content. TeacherTube reviews uploaded videos before allowing them to be viewed by the general public. The staff behind the scenes are wanting to provide accessible videos to schools without ruffling the feathers of some parents.

    So you're a teacher and you've discovered the wonderful world of YouTube. You've discovered another teaching tool that involves the student/teacher relationship of cooperative discovery of the ever-expanding world of knowledge. You see this as an opportunity, a plethora of creativity, a new gadget that will revolutionize classroom teaching. You see YouTube and you see potential. Your school or district thinks otherwise.

    Surprisingly, Will Richardson does not step onto the topic of YouTube. He does address the advantages of live streaming and it is here that the same principles of live streaming can be applied to YouTube. He writes about how live streaming can host school and musical plays, class presentations for parents to watch and student daily news to name a few (124). It could perhaps be explained that Richardson does not write about YouTube because of the current controversy behind this particular web application. All the web applications that Richardson explores in his book are apps that can be easily controlled by the teacher or school. YouTube is a contained chaos at best.

    In the debate of Schools verses YouTube, educators are continuously speaking out concerning the matter. The topic itself, whether to have YouTube in the class or not, appears to have no resolution in sight. The first issue, parental concern over student access is perhaps at the top of the list. As Anna Adam commented in Christ Lehmann's Getting YouTube in the Classroom, parents insist children shouldn't have access to YouTube at school but are still able to access it in their own home environment. Rather contradictory, but teachers have to work with this road block. Some schools are allowing YouTube into their classrooms but with restrictions set in place. Other schools do not have such a luxury. But some teachers are taking detours in the meanwhile.

    Enter converting format. Anna Adam in her own article, "YouTube comes to the classroom" talks about how to convert a video from YouTube into another format. She mentions iSquint and VisualHub as two possible ripping tools, but since the publishing of her article, these two applications have been discontinued. TubeSock at the time of her writing was $23 but is now $15.

    Teachers may have to contend for some time with using or not using YouTube. However, TeacherTube has managed to take the place of YouTube to some extent in classrooms and schools. Teachers can now present appropriate videos to the class that have been reviewed and approved by the staff of TeacherTube.

    Perhaps by the time the next generation comes round to teaching in the classroom, the issue of YouTubing will be a ghost of issues' past. In the mean time, teachers will one way or another find ways of utilizing videos from the Internet to illustrate classroom experiences. Stay tuned for next time as I view through my web window those little handy apps called social bookmarking.

    Thursday, July 9, 2009

    Can you believe it? We're standing in the middle of a dead tree!


    Inspiration is often is quick-time. Everybody has their method of coming to inspiration differently. Whether it be anything from raiding Google for thoughts, emailing a friend, venting to the Significant Other, inspiration comes from many different pools. For myself, it's climbing a mountain. I've gotten this funny idea in my head that one must climb a mountain to gain wisdom or for some great matter or thing to happen. Climbing to Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park was my pool of inspiration.

    Inspired, I turned to Flickr after shortly arriving home. I've explored Flickr through one friend's phenomenal photos. Other times I've explored Flickr through Google in my attempts to locate a picture with a specific theme. Flickr, indirectly, was always there for me. It was only natural that I turned to Flickr to explore the pictures I took of my hike up to Vernal Falls as well as other explorations of the park. So, I began with setting up an account. To my great discovery, Flickr is now through Yahoo. How convenient (yes, of course I have a yahoo address)! Dashing off the address and moving on was easy, but I was a little deterred when I was informed through the page that I had to tinker with my cookies before accessing the rest of Flickr. Cookies?! Yes, we all know that "cookies" aren't those sugary goods that we all love to munch on, but instead are often referred to in this day and age as something all together technical.

    Some of the key words were confusing on the cookie page, but with some quick guess-work the previous cookies were deleted and I moved forth in my exploration of developing my personal web-space. The uploading of pictures was easily found, and I began and finished uploading my little treasures.

    Now for explorations! I probably would not have taken advantage of the various functions available if it were not for dear Will Richardson's own exploration of Flickr. He points specifically to Flickr Magazine Cover and Flickr Color Picker to name a few but I think his reference to The Great Flickr Tools Collection is a great place to start with Flickr fiddling in general. For neebies like me, I would recommend checking out the photoshop-styled options in Flickr Service. Many of the applications in Flickr Service are third party applications. In other words, those who use Flickr like it and donate their skills to enhancing the user experience. Now that's called community!

    Flickr is a great photo-sharing site, but it isn't the only one. Some people may want to tie all of their online experience together in a neat package. One such application that accomplishes this is Google. There is gmail, Google reader and than there is Picasa Web Albums. Getting started with Picasa is something of a walk in the park. The initial structure that is found through the Google account is simple and easy to navigate. Photos used in profile pictures from Blogger are stored in the Picasa Web Album. For those wanting to work offline and later upload there is Picasa 3 (mac). Flickr is fabulous, yet it does come with an eventual price tag. Users are limited to how much they can upload onto their accounts. One must wave away this limitation with dollar signs. Picasa, on the other hand is free and it connects throughout all Google applications. That counts as a fat check mark in my web exploration book.

    But to theorize, photo-sharing websites are dime a dozen. What makes it uniquely you is the personal exploration and discovery of whether photo-sharing website A or B meets your requirements. Does it allow for flexibility? Are the functions accessible? Will there be limitations that will stunt your creative juices? Some people don't think about such matters until it comes to recommending to family, friends or co-workers. Others are more aware. There are lists of photo-sharing websites for those wanting to explore their options. For those with less time on their hands, reviews are a great place to start. For those in professional areas, such as teachers, photo-sharing through the Internet is a great opportunity to teach and be taught. Since many students are already utilizing such websites as Flickr, Photobucket, or Webshots to name a few, some teachers are having to catch up with their students in this field of interest. But how can teachers challenge students already in the know-how of this web application? Critical thinking is perhaps the key. Teachers can begin a class session with asking students to go and explore the pros and cons of various photo-sharing websites or which sites they would share with friends or family. The possibilities for classroom involvement with photo-sharing websites is endless.

    Creating a personal space for myself on the web is ever expanding, and photo-sharing is definitely one avenue of deep web diving. Stay tuned for next time as I view through my submarine telescope the thrilling possibilities of Youtube.

    Sunday, July 5, 2009

    An inauguration of self

    Salutations. This blog was created for the sole purpose of recording my explorations of Web 2.0 in leu of my EDES 501 class. Concerning the self, I am in the midst of completing the MLIS program at the University of Alberta. During the regular school year, I live in Edmonton however at the moment, I live somewhere in central Alberta. While taking summer classes, I have been keeping busy with random part-time jobs, pottery projects, and maintaining my garden.

    I came to serious blogging three years ago and was introduced to Blogger through a friend. I had tried blogging through LiveJournal, but found myself losing interest shortly after creating an account. I've stayed with Blogger due to the ease in which I can create a blog and easily access information that has aided my blogging experience. The latest self-exploration of Blogger has been HTML coding in the templates. Since taking several classes where XHTML and CSS have been heavily used, I've applied this new found knowledge in such areas of the web as my blog template. Creating this blog was straightforward. The only challenge that presented itself was fiddling with the coding in the template to get the look I wanted.

    Although I have blogged for sometime, that does not necessarily mean I know everything. For those who are interested in knowing about blogs and what is offered within the infrastructure, I would recommend an article by idealware. A simple, yet complete review concerning the ins and outs of blogging and blog tools. Idealware posses a list of questions to ask when looking for a suitable blog tool, reviews seven blog tools (Blogger, LiveJournal, Typepad, Moveable Type, WordPress, ExpressionEngine, TextPattern) and makes easy-to-read recommendations at the end of the article. Just by reading this article I am considering a blog crawl to see the sunny and puddly sides of these different blog tools. Tempting. Very tempting.

    But blogging is only the tip of this web-based iceberg. Tune in next time as I delve a little deeper into these techie waters to contemplate and divulge on photo sharing sites.