Thursday, February 10, 2011

Method 12

My favorite discovery was RSS and Podcasts. Those were the ones I was least familiar with and I think I will benefit a lot from them. And they are also entertaining and versatile (you can ether use them for business or pleasure!).
This program helped me to open up to what's new and to try to keep myself current when it comes to the web and the way we can use it to make our work easier.
It was great learning that social networks, blogs, podcasts can also be used as a learning and work experience, and not just for personal use.
Since I really likes the format of this discovery course and I learned a lot, I would definitely enrolled in another one if offered.
Thank you so much for this learning experience!

Method 11

I couldn't hear any podcasts in my work computer because we are not able to download any programs, but at home, i use iTunes and now that I learned about podcasts i subscribed to a few. I think it's great being able to automatically download them when there's a new one, and listen to them on your own time.
In itunes, I discovered there's a podcast for every taste: news, sports, comedy, music, arts, business, education, health... the list is endless! There's also "vidcasts" that include tv series, movie trailers, etc.
I specially liked that under the "education" section of the itunes store, I found a lot of language learning podcasts, so Isee how i could use them in my next trip, instead of a boring old translation diccionary.
I subscribed to a few alternative music podcasts and I was surprised to learn that they include several complete songs for free! I also downloaded some vidcasts of some tv series that i've been looking forward to watch but haven't been able to because the chanels that broadcast them are not included in my cable subscription, but i haven't been able to see them, so i am not sure if they are complete episodes or teasers.
I can see how podcasts would be useful in the library, especially because i work in a school, it would be neat to have the students listen to something related to the classes that they are enrolled in.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Method 10

First of all, I am NOT sick of the "Plain English" tutorials, I think they're fun! Love them!
I really like Wikipedia, I use it very often. I don't like not knowing about something, so whenever I have doubts about a subject I go to wikipedia and look for it.
Now, I really see how we could use a wiki instead of a long useless thread of emails, and the example that the "Plain English" tutorial showed us a perfectly good situation where a wiki would come in handy.
Also, I think it is a very interesting way to make your library a "Library 2.0" and I specially loved how the St. Joseph County Public Library system used theirs as a pathfinder. Very Interesting.

Method 9

Personally, I've been using Chats and IM since 1998 when I got my very own computer with Internet. I remember being so fascinated by it, that I used to stay up until 5:00am talking to my friends! My parents, of course, hated it. 
With the years, since it is not something new to me, I've become disinterested by it, but I can definitely see how libraries could benefit from it, specially if we are talking about a big library. I think it would be easier for the patrons to establish communication with the librarians because it is less intimidating and quicker.
However, I do not consider it a necessity in my library because it is very small.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Method 8

I am very familiar with social networking. I've been a facebook user since 2007, and I've used Twitter for almost a year.  I have A LOT of privacy concerns regarding social networking, and I think it's a bit creepy that we inform everyone where we are, what we are wearing, share our baby pictures, etc.  That is why personally, I only share as much (or little) as I want and to who I want.  I don't like to combine my personal life and my work, so I try to keep my personal social network accounts from it.
Now, I can definitely see how libraries can benefit from these networks. I think it would be a good idea to have a Library Twitter account to make quick announcements and that way stay close to patrons, specialy younger ones.

Method 7

This is the first time that I use delicious.com, or any social bookmarking tool. I was not familiar with that term, and now that I know about it I can see how it can make our life easier! It is VERY useful for patrons that don't own a computer, and I can see how I can benefit from it as well. I had a situation with my work computer, I've used 3 different computers so far, and everytime I changed to a different one, I would loose all of my favorites and bookmarks, and I now see that if I had been using this tool at the time, I wouldn't have had that problem, it would have saved me some time!
I am now a delicious.com happy user.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Method 6

I love youtube and use it a lot. What worries me about it is that innapropiate content may be available for young viewers, but it is up to the parents to monitor how their kids use the internet. Also, when one comes across one of these videos, we can "flag" it, for youtube to take down. Other than that, it can be very entertaining and even educational.
I chose this video because it's one of their all-time most-seen, and it makes me smile every time. Enjoy!