You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March, 2007.
Ok, I’m not hiding something but it feels like I might have been hiding. It’s been a while, but I have been very busy. Not a lot to share today. I’m gearing up to do a virtual reference pilot in Second Life. It should be interesting. As much potential as there may be in SL, until our students our there, we are only helping the SL community (which isn’t a bad thing, but if you’re under staffed, one needs to consider priorities). I recently gave a lecture on learning (my first time guest lecturing - lots of fun) to a first year multimedia class, some of the students seemed interested. It would be interesting to know if any come visit our space on account of that class.
Have you checked out Scribd? It looks interesting. All the web 2.0 social software for your documents. I’m not sure I want people tagging and commenting on my work just yet. I’ve been using Google Docs for collaboration recently and I think I’ll stick with that for now.
And in case you haven’t heard already, the title of this post is courtesy of Stephen Colbert.
Calling all Canadian librarians! I’m interested in seeing what types of grants Canadian librarians have applied for (and hopefully received). Please share your knowledge! Thanks!
Well, this might seem like a little gloating, but our new Learning Commons just received an award from the students here. It received the McMaster Student Union’s Rudy Heinzl Award for Excellence, which recognizes an outstanding one year achievement which improves teh lives of McMaster Students. See what others have to say here and here.
Jim Milles has set up a ning group for Second Life Librarians. Check it out and join!
I must admit I like the idea of being able to set up thematic social networks. I’m also part of the library 2.0 ning group, which you should check out if you haven’t yet. It’s grown like wild fire!
The next section of learning 2.0 is tagging and folksonomies. I’ve been a fan of Flickr and del.icio.us for a long time now and I think that there is a lot of power in tagging and folksonomies. To the shagrin of many librarians, I can’t wait to be able to add tagging to our catalogue. I think it will help students find what they need in a new, easier way and am always excited to see it being added to more and more library catalogues.
I’ve placed a number of my better pictures on Flickr already (you can link over to them from my blog, if you haven’t noticed). I’ve used del.icio.us for research a number of times - I’ve found a number of items that I might have missed otherwise thanks to others tags.
It was hard to limit my flickr photo to just one, but I thought this one was great! I’m a sucker for trees and fog (must be because I’m from N.S.).
I’m trying to catch up on my learning 2.0 exercises. Wikis are the first up to bat. I’ve played around with wikis before and I’m still trying to figure out my exact position on them. I’ve set one up for the CLA presentation I’m doing in May since the panel is scattered around the country. I set up a PBwiki but it hasn’t had a lot of use. This may be due to the fact that when I set it up, you had to know basic html to edit the page - I’m glad to see this has changed and it should convince more people to try to use a wiki. I’ve also recently worked on a project using Google Docs, which allows collaboration, and I’ve had a more positive response to using that than the wikis. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
I must admit though, the ability to use social software such as a wiki to collaborate on projects has made life much easier!
A big congrats to Amanda Etches-Johnson, McMaster’s newest Library Journal’s Mover and Shaker! She is a celebrity in the library 2.0 world and recently became our User Experience Librarian. Amanda is a colleague of mine (right across from my desk in fact) and it has always amazed and inspired me how much she contributes to librarianship. This accolade is well deserved Amanda - congrats! Keep up the great work!
As a classicist, I am required to say Happy Ides of March! May you not be required to look over your shoulder. Sentio aliquos in togatos contra mei conspirare (apologies for typos, my latin is rusty to say the least).
For any who might not know, March 15th, the Ides of March, is the day Caesar was assassinated. Et tu, blog reader?
I attended a great SirsiDynix Institute on Gaming in Libraries by Jenny Levine. I finally received her book on the same topic and can’t wait to devour it. If you get a chance to hear her talk on the topic, I highly recommend it (it’s also archived at the SirsiDynix Institute and her blog).
One of the things she said really made sense to me. I’m sure others have heard this already, but I think this was the first time I had.
We can’t be the bosses, we need to be the strategy guide.
Bosses are the final monsters that need to be defeated to get to the next level to a gamer. we can’t be the one’s blocking their path. By being a strategy guide (what ever gamer uses to help them through the hardest parts), we can help them through their challenges. It’s a great metaphor for anyone in reference services. Let’s all aim to be that strategy guide!
Well, it’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been busy with company and projects keep popping up. I hope to report more on the projects a little later.
I had a neat experience in Second Life the other day. I was attending a real world contest that was being simultaneously broadcast in SL. Unfortunately, I had to leave it for a moment but when I returned, I discovered that while the conference was proceeding, a second discussion on open access had arisen among those present (including some who were both at the rl conference and the sl environment). Active learning and discussion were taking place in sl rather than the conference! It was a really neat experience and highlighted some interesting potential for sl. Whether everyone could handle the two discussions at the same time is an entirely different question.
Well, I am behind in my learning 2.0 activities and hope to catch up over the weekend, so I may have more to share on that front later.
Here’s the new SLURL for the McMaster Library building on Cybrary City in Second Life! Feel free to check it out. Please let me know if there are any problems with the SLURL.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cybrary%20City/31/186/42/
Yes, I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again, Second Life is the beginning. But the beginning of what? A new 3D social network? A new 3D internet? A new virtual world? A new way of teaching, learning, or collaborating? The beginning of web 3.0? All of these? Well, there have been some interesting posts on Web3D and why they think it’s the next step. Check out Vicki Davis’ post on Cool Cat Teacher (scroll down to the entry The Frontier of Education: Web3D) and a response at Sean’s Emerging… Definitely food for thought.
I think the important point is that our students are comfortable in this type of environment and that 3D environments will help allow students to collaborate, explore and learn in ways that are more appropriate to them.
Again, this has probably already made the rounds but it is another good video, called Shift Happens. Check it out. It compliments the Web 2.0 video I mentioned earlier.
Just a heads up - the Mac building in Second Life is on the move. In a move that reflects my own moving habits, we’ve just moved down the street. I’ll have the new SLURL posted as soon as the building is back on the ground (it’s hovering in the air right now). Sorry for any inconvience.
I just thought I better write something about rss, since that’s what’s up this week in our Learning2.0 program. What can I say about rss that hasn’t been already said? I’m hooked, that’s all I know. Once I discovered them (thanks Amanada!), I’ve been a mad subscriber to rss feeds. I likely have too many feeds now. I love that they keep me up-to-date about what’s happening in our field, technology, and the world. My bloglines account is always open; I probably should seek help. I’ve become very reliant on my feeds but I hope in a good way, as it helps me keep up with my professsion and my patrons. If you’ve just started using rss, watch out! It’s addictive!
I’ve often mentioned that Second Life will not necessarily be the end all and be all of virtual worlds, that something will likely replace it. What this next step will be, I’m not exactly sure. Second Life certainly has some problems to overcome at this point. The exciting thing about being part of Second Life at this point is that we can help shape what will happen next, whether it’s Second Life 2.0 or something else entirely. Check out this blog post from Infocult which surmises what the next step might be.
