A New Beginning

The Library 2.0 (Learning 2.0) Project has provided the opportunity for some of the best training I have ever experienced. This multi-media and multi-faceted program, centering around blogging, produced tangible results for participants. I enjoyed that it was structured, yet allowed for self-direction and self-management.
At the outset of this journey, I completed a learning contract outlining my goals, as well as providing a list of required toolbox items and potential obstacles. My four main goals -- create a blog, learn more about podcasts, create a flickr account and learn more about YouTube -- have been achieved. Like most new learning tasks, the curriculum was enlightening, informative, interesting, dazzling, frustrating and above all, rewarding.
I have to admit that I found all of the "discoveries" worthwhile and beneficial. From the beginning step of identifying goals, to the strengthening of learning habits (all 7 1/2 of them), this journey allowed us to learn and use new written, auditory, visual and digital technologies. I enjoyed connecting and sharing with others, especially all of my library and literacy colleagues, while we together investigated new web sites, played and had fun.
I like "tagging" with others, generating web documents through on-line applications and tuning in to YouTube. (Rather than watching television in the future, we will be watching YouTube on our computers, I predict.) YouTube is jumping into the mainstream media milieu with giants like CNN by hosting events such as the Democratic leaderhip debate last month between Obama and Clinton. I am looking forward to listening to podcasts and eaudiobooks on my new USB MP 3 player.
I will carry this knowledge forward in both my work and non-work roles. I believe what we have learned together will definitely help with streamlining learning plans, demonstrations and promoting learner creativity through blogging. Administratively, we can work together on specific projects such as policies and procedures and program evaluation.
I have taken my new knowledge to help a hockey blog for the team I am coaching this season in Collingwood. If you would like, you may visit it at http://www.collingwoodblackhawks.blogspot.com/. It is a work in progress.

Finally, I believe that the format, content and timelines involved in this project were just right. Sufficient time was available once assignments were completed for us to pursue our interests individually.
The web is changing everything around us. We can either embrace it, or be left behind. There is a reason why some believe the internet (and the computer) is the most revolutionary discovery since the dawn of fire. I can't take credit for that declaration because I read it at some point.
Thank you to the staff, board and fellow staff members of the Owen Sound North Grey Union Public Library (and Learning Centres) for helping to make this a memorable time in my life.

Net Library and ebooks

I now know what I am going to do with my new MP3 player. Listen to audiobooks!! I can almost hear the cd-quality sound in my ears as I am writing this post. NetLibrary -- special thanks to the OSNGUPL -- is easy to use and peruse. I liked that the available eaudiobooks were clearly listed in subjects, from bios to young adult fiction, and everything in between. Browsing is easy and the books included pertinent information for the viewer. The list of available titles is only going to get longer and longer.

I chose to download Andrew W. Saul's "Doctor Yourself: Natural Healing that Works". I am looking forward to hearing about his philosophy on health and well-being. I liked that I could listen to a preview of the book before downloading.

It didn't take too long to download the book onto my computer, but I wouldn't want to download via dial-up. Now, where's that MP 3 player?

Fishing with Podcasting

I have always been interested in podcasts. Podcasts provide an avenue for people to produce and host "radio" shows to a world-wide audience. The vastness of the subject matter (carefully lined up in categories and available to search) is truly outstanding. Out of three search engines for podcasts, my favourite was "Yahoo Podcasts" because it was easier to use and clearly designed. However, my concern with the podcasts is that were just too many of them!!! It takes a lot of time, I found, to find precisely what you're looking for. A lot of time is spent surfing through titles, whose content could be suspect in terms of accuracy, etc.
I did a few searches that came up empty. However, a search for English as a Second Language resulted in finding this web site, http://www.eslpod.com/website/index.php. I added it to my bloglines and will keep checking in on new learning materials to be used with my ESL learners.
I also tried recording through OdeoStudio and found it easy to use and record, and if I look into it some more, I will upload a soundclip on my blog. At least I will try to do this.

I can't believe we're almost at the end of nine weeks of our new learning journey!

You Tube Rocks!

I have heard of You Tube for some time, but did not understand its vast scope of available videos from around the world. It is truly amazing! There are available videos on everything under the sun. I spent way too long on watching videos and moving around the site. I barely brushed the surface.

It enables everyday people to produce videos at the grassroots level. I believe it is revolutionizing what we watch and how we watch television. I liked everything about this site. If there is one minor complaint, though, it is that there are almost too many videos to go through.

I found a video of U2's "One", featuring Mary J. Blige. I hope you like it, I know I did. I chose this one because it is a new version of my favourite song. I was going to choose "Shift Happens" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljbI-363A2Q), but I am thinking Tim may have promoted it already.

:

Google Docs & Spreadsheets

• Compose
• Share
• Publish

A V E R Y U S E F U L W E B T O O L

Lulu Dot Com

There aren't enough hours in the day to adequately cover all of the winners recommended by the judges. They are all well-deserving of the honours and cover a wide variety of creative tools and specialties.

That being said, the site which intrigued me the most at first glance was http://www.lulu.com/.

"Lulu gives you the power to publish and sell books, e-books, calendars and more," states the site's promotional material. "Lulu is free, fast and easy. Lulu is a marketplace for creators of content..."

It allows the user to upload his, or her writings, then to design, assemble and sell their books to the world.

Lulu's electronic publishing technology is amazing. It is easy to follow and understand. In our Literacy world, I believe that Lulu could provide unique opportunities for us to publish our learners' life stories and their creative writing.

I am going to investigate this site further to determine specific methods for learner creative writing.

Zoho versus Google

This is fascinating!

Once again, the new web is full of surprises.

I will be posting two documents, one from Zoho and one from Google docs.

I liked the templates available in Zoho, but found it frustrating when I attempted to paste copies of images or clip art into my document. Zoho has an easy method for publishing to your blog and gives the user an option to post the document as a draft.

Google docs was more user-friendly in terms of copying and pasting clip art and images.

Coaching Quotes

Coaching Quotes from Bruce Brown
Created in Zoho Writer
http://www.zoho.com/

"The only rule I ever had in 30 years of coaching was this: `Don't let your teammates down.' That means on the court, off the court, on weekends and in the classroom."

"The only guarantee about every sports season is that it isn't going to be perfect. There are always going to be issues with some relationships on the team and playing time."

"I think what most young people need to walk through life confidently is at least one person inside their family who loves them unconditionally and one person outside their family who loves them or believes in them unconditionally ... For a lot of people, that person is a teacher or a coach."

"There are appropriate and inappropriate subjects that a parent can discuss with a coach. Appropriate ones are mental and physical treatment of the child, ways to help the child improve and the child's behavior. Inappropriate ones are playing time, strategy and other team members."

"If a coach doesn't confront any behaviors that are not acceptable to him, he is sending a message of acceptance."

"If a kid enters your program with the wrong behaviors, wrong perceptions, and wrong actions, that's because other people didn't do their job. If the kid exits your program still with the wrong behaviors, wrong perceptions and wrong actions, then coach, it's on your shoulders."

"I call some talented but uncommitted athletes `selective participants.' They normally are your most talented kids, but along the way coaches have let them think, `I deserve special treatment.' They choose when they are going to listen and when they tune out. They are absorbed with their own performance. They are energy-sappers and they are team killers ... I don't have many `nevers' in my life but there is one: `You'll never see a great team where the most talented players aren't the best workers.' It's as simple as that."

"There are two kinds of mistakes and coaches need to differentiate between them. There are mistakes made carelessly with a lack of attention, and there are mistakes made with full effort and full concentration. Full-effort, full-attention mistakes shouldn't be penalized."

"As a coach, I found that whatever I rewarded, I got. When I was coaching basketball, I would give my players one point on their game grades if they stopped a dribble and three points if they forced the opponent to stop dribbling and turn his back to the basket."

"Anything you can do to improve the character of your individual athletes or team gives you a better chance for success in every way including the scoreboard."

"Never forget that a student doesn't have to be good at a sport to get good out of participating in the sport."

Wikis - 2

Does Charles Schulz count as an author? I think so...

I love the Sandbox format for this exercise. However, as Dale noted, it is difficult to know who posted each entry without a signature or identifier. This (the Sandbox) is just another avenue for allowing us to get to know each other a little better. I posted entries into most of the categories, including Favourite Books, Authors, Movies, Songs, Animals, Places and Foods, plus I added a couple of new categories and would be interested in learning about our colleagues' favourite web sites and blogs. I would also like to see what other categories could be added for our input.
I am currently on vacation, but I am thoroughly enjoying this technological adventure.
Take care everyone!

Wikis

I always wondered where the name "Wiki" came from, and now I know. As a former editor, having my writings being vulnerable to slicing and dicing by other people is a bit un-nerving. On the other hand, if accuracy and information can be improved upon, then these collaborative efforts are worth the exercise.
Our adult learning centres could use wikis to share lesson plans, build web spaces, plan conferences or meetings, and to outline our best practices. (A lot of these ideas originated from the library wikis.)
I just read Sheri's blog entry and I agree wholeheartedly with her that we could have a Wiki Demonstration Site shared among our sites.
Really, the possibilities are endless with Wikis.

Learning 2.0

What does it mean to me?
If you had asked me several weeks ago, I would have given you a blank stare. Today, Learning 2.0 has opened new worlds of learning and networking. It's the "live" web versus the old-fashioned web. As noted by Wikipedia, it is putting all of our heads together to build upon an old system and make it new day after day, hour after hour, minute after minute.
Young people are adapting more quickly -- generally speaking -- to the new web tools than those of us who are older. Did anyone see the 60 Minutes episode about the One Laptop Per Child project? Millions of inexpensive laptop computers -- with sunlight-readable displays, built-in wireless networking and a pull cord for recharging by hand -- are being given to children in countries around the world, including Africa. The computers feature "an open-source interface designed to be intuitive for children". Amazing!!
Now, our challenge is to use our computers, to use our new-found knowledge and to get our heads together to come up with new methods for helping our students reach their goals related to computers and technology.

Technorati

Technorati assists in getting people to notice our blogs, but it is also a powerful search tool for tags, blog posts, blogs, photos and video.
A Learning 2.0 search brought forward 27,269 blog posts and 519 blogs. Technorati really zeroed in on the blogs and the information is relevant and interesting. I am still attempting to get my head around tags and tagging. It seems to be easier to tag in del.icio.us than in Technorati.
I have also claimed my blog and created a watchlist (hockey coaching, health and fitness). The updates are swift and again, relevant.
I hope I have the correct code for Technorati stuff below.
[OSNGUPL]
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De-light-ful

Del.icio.us is an intriguing internet tool with huge potential to ease and track bookmarking. In a researcher's toolbox, this program would be invaluable. The new web, not the "old-fashioned" one, is exciting. Del.icio.us adds an entire new dimension to searching and bookmarking. Although I had some of its search results in my favourites already, after doing a new search del.icio.us found intriguing new information previously undetected. (For example, a "hockey coaching" search resulted in a story from Wired magazine on Gretzky's amazing peripheral vision and how it can be taught to athletes.)
I have added del.icio.us to my computer toolbars at home and at work. I am wondering, though, how I can get the del.icio.us logo on my MSN explorer. (It is visible on Internet Explorer.)

Today's Moon

CURRENT MOON

moon info

My Rollyo

I think I have Rollyo figured out. And yes, I can see this program having huge benefits to search your personal, often-visited web sites for specific searches. I started, of course, with a "hockey" searchroll, and then continued on with some work-related sites, i.e, English as a Second Language. This search engine will be designed to find designated information, or materials, available on my favourite ESL web sites. This search engine will be a valuable tool to find new learning resources on sites we often visit -- all at the same time -- customized for our use. Search results are very specific and there is minimal advertized sites to chop through in order to get to the good stuff. I look forward to hearing what my colleagues think about this new search engine.

Select...ESL sitesSearch The Web

Generators that Work

Okay, I have used a couple of generators for this "play" activity. At the bottom is a cursive font version of my first name generated at yourgen.com. The photo at right (me!) was developed through`Instant Sketch (http://www.dumpr.net/sketch.php). I was amazed at how easy and how vast these generators are. The Generator Blog features a multitude of neat and useful tools to customize blogs, web sites, etc., or to create unique features to share with friends and colleagues. I had no idea that these "generators" were available on the internet. Incredible! Not only are we able to play with the ones featured on the left, but there is a lengthy list available on the right-hand side of the blog of other previously posted generators too numerous to take the time to play with.

My LibraryThing

This is also really neat! Given that we are all involved in literacy and literary endeavours, a Library connection seems not only appropriate, but necessary. I love the virtual bookshelf and being able to post my mini-library on my blog. LibraryThing is a massive global book club in which anyone may join to discuss their mutual likes and dislikes as well as their "future reads". Book reviews are readily available from "critics" who are not necessarily under the threat of censorship or heavy editing. I will be posting my books that I have read through this site and will be further investigating its applications for my personal and professional use.

News Feeds and Search Tools

Hey, this is really cool!!! Tonight, I was focusing upon Activity 9, jumping into the various news feeds and blogs by using the Bloglines Search Tool, Feedster, Topix, Syndic8 and Technorati. I have tried them all, but couldn't decide on a preferable tool. They all have their strengths.
Through Bloglines, for example, I searched "adult literacy" and discovered two pertinent blogs. I am now a subscriber to both. One of the blogs has been set up as a homework page for adult learners in British Columbia. In the near future, we will be able to set up similar "feeds" for our students -- and for literacy practitioners in the OSNGUPL system -- to access. The other adult literacy blog is also from BC, posted by a fellow literacy practitioner.
Feedster casts a large web of feeds, blogs and podcasts. It could definitely use an "Education" channel in addition to Entertainment, Technology, et al. The search results are timely and there is a useful search tutorial under the help menu.
I found Topix to be unique in that it lists "local" news if you input your community into the title bar. News from the local media is fed into this site automatically. Some of this news, however, is really out of date. Overall, I liked Topix's layout and found it to be user-friendly.
Syndic8 couldn't match Feedster's search results, but I liked the way in which each feed, or blog, was presented with details on the web link, url, etc. There is also a useful description included for each found feed.
Technorati is a blog searcher with many fine features. One of these features is the ability to claim your blog by registering it with Technorati. (With promises from the search engine to increase your blog's profile.)
I look forward to further investigating the various search tools available for use on the internet. I found this activity to be extremely valuable.

Really Simple.... A few words about RSS

I wouldn't say Really Simple Syndication. How about, MSS (Mildly Simple), or FSS (Fairly Simple)? Honestly, reading about RSS and then adding feeds to the Bloglines site was pretty straightforward, or PSS. I seem to keep racking up the number of my personal feeds through this method. I also installed RSS software on both home and work computers and immediately connected to the CBC TV news feed. Oh, and the sports feed as well. Interestingly, a "doorbell" sound occurs when the CBC has fresh news on the wire. Very neat.

I like RSS and newsreaders because they are constantly being updated and refreshed for subscribers. Why go to numerous web sites when there's nothing new on any of them? Why go to someone's blog if he, or she, hasn't added a new post for a while?

For both our work and personal lives, RSS is a time-saver. We are able to instantly access pertinent sites related to the field of adult literacy without flipping through pages and pages of outdated materials. For hobbyists, RSS allows a direct connection to items of specific interest from many sources at the same time.

I fully intend on exploring the feeding frenzy available on the world wide web.

Bloglines

Visual Technology

Flickr, Flickrsldr, mashups .... words that I didn't even know existed until we started this unique learning program. Now, those words that aren't even in a mainstream dictionary are part of my regular vocabulary. Wow! This is a watershed time to be involved in education and to have the internet at our fingertips. There are oceans of programs and mountains of images bouncing through cyberspace waiting to be explored. I look forward to helping our adult learners navigate these waters. (A number of my learners are already internet savvy -- they have their Facebook accounts, and of course, their MSN identities.)

Learning new things through the world wide web isn't without its mild frustrations. Flickrsldr took a number of attempts to get it right. Or to get it operating satisfactorily. I would have preferred a slideshow with smaller images but each time I altered the embedded code it (the slideshow) disappeared. I would also like to have more pics to add to the sidneycrosby tag. I think I have one additional digital photo I could add to my blog slideshow. And to prove that I am trying to branch out and away from hockey on my blog, I did try to embed the code for a "sunset" slideshow from photos from Flickr. It didn't work.

But, I will keep trying. These minor problems I now consider as learning challenges -- Habit #3 -- and good things happen when we are learning.

Flickrsldr

My Experience With Flickr

IMG_0496, originally uploaded by canadianliteracyguy.

You're right, I have a hockey obsession. Flickr helped me feed it. If I can relate something back to hockey (our national game), then that's a good thing. I was amazed at the number of photos of hockey on Flickr, not only ice hockey, but field hockey as well. So many creative photos and ideas from the imaginary minds of countless "shooters". The digital age is indeed incredible. Since embarking on this learning journey through 2.0, I have been telling my close friends about Flickr and its endless possibilities. By the way, I took these photos during the pre-game warm-up in Buffalo. Pittsburgh -- and Sidney -- were in town to play the Sabres. My son and I watched in awe, with our noses pressed against the glass, during the pre-game skate. The Penguins won the game much to the dismay of hometown fans filling HSBC arena.

It's Week Two!

Well, it's week two of this exciting new Library 2 initiative. As you can probably see, this is actually my third post on the "Ourworld" blog. I jumped the gun early on and set up this "blog", then for my second entry I responded to the week one assignment concerning the 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners. I outlined my strongest of the seven-plus habits and also indicated the one that needs some fine tuning. I apologize for making you tread through the various posts.
I am very new to the "blogging" scene and prior to learning about it through this project felt is was sort of an online diary. But it's much more than that. I think of it as my own personal "newspaper", where I can publish stories, photos, captions, etc., etc. As a former journalist, I fully understand the excitement of having your own words, thoughts and photos being read (and hopefully appreciated) by others. You have the right to agree, or disagree with anything that is being written by the author. Your comments are certainly welcome. We are all writers, editors and publishers.
I hope everyone is enjoying this experience. I know I certainly am. I can't help but look to the weeks ahead to see what's in store in the wired world of online learning. It beats watching summer re-runs on television. We are learning new skills that will help us in our personal and professional lives.

My Thoughts on the Habits of Successful Lifelong Learning

Picking out two distinctive but opposite features among the 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners is, in itself, challenging and thought-provoking. Which habit comes easiest? Which one is the hardest? Let me start with the hardest category. Here, I would have to say Habit 3 – Viewing Problems as Challenges – is sometimes difficult to master if I have hit a roadblock in a new learning experience. It seems too easy to dismiss this habit as a cliché, but it is not. We are always learning despite negative and/or positive experiences. I just must keep reminding myself. When I am frustrated, though, it is hard to be self-aware that I am learning, too. In most cases, what we have learned in a difficult situation will never be forgotten.

Habit 7, Teaching and Mentoring Others, is something I believe comes naturally for me. We are always learning, even from a teacher’s perspective. In my current role as a Literacy Instructor, it would be difficult to excel in this job if teaching others was a weak characteristic. As teachers and coaches, we are able to witness and document tangible results of connecting learning to learners’ personal goals. Integral to this habit are motivation and goal setting. We must work diligently to motivate and believe in people. Establishing a learning goal(s) is a vital part in teaching and mentoring. This promotes ongoing improvement, which is the foundation of lifelong learning.

Welcome to My Very First Blog!

Well, here goes.
This is an exciting opportunity for all of us involved in the 2.0 Library project. It's a great way to engage in new learning while tapping into the wired world.
I am looking forward to viewing and reading other blogs from people involved in the Owen Sound Library's initiative.