Thing 18

I chose not to download multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source as we are having a computer freeze up issue - it happens at random - and did not want to add anything else. I looked at Google Docs. I did not know that Google had so many functions to offer. I thought it was great. It almost does all the work itself where you do not have to. It makes it easy to share whatever medium you are working on, grab documents from the internet etc. I am glad to know about this tool that can be accessed from anywhere.

Thing 17

Rollyo is going to be a very useful tool. I can categorize my sites of interest, health care, spiritual, or whatever, and search only the sites I choose to look through. Getting up to 25 of your preferred links in one spot and searching only those will help cut down on a lot of dead ends and accidentally getting into a bad site. For some reason I had trouble trying to get the tag up. Will need to keep working on that. I can also see where if you were working collaboratively, everyone could be looking at the same site selection which would help keep things focused. Will web wonders every cease :).

Thing 16 - To Wiki or not to Wiki, that is the question

First, I would like to say that I now know what Wikipedia is and means. I found this link useful: http://plcmccore.blogspot.com/2006/04/wiki-wiki-wiki.html. I agreed with the pros and cons of utilizing Wiki, that the subjectivity of the folks sharing could skew what is trying to be accomplished. I do see it's usefulness though, particular for school nurses. It would definitely be useful in collaboration, problem solving and idea exploration and generally keeping us connected in a productive way. I would suggest to groups that do use it that perhaps an assigned facilitator and moderator would be beneficial the way it is in team settings. May help keep everyone on track. I would not see this necessary for all Wiki situations but perhaps some might find a little added structure beneficial. Just an idea.

Thing 15 - Library 2.0

I have to admit I was getting a little lost in all the toggling back and forth. While I understand the concept - utilizing an on-line library search to connect to whatever it is you are searching for, I have to admit I am still quite green at doing this. Reading the Five Perspectives was informative but I still do not quite know how to use the tool to make it meaningful and easy for me. I figure I have missed something along the way in the 23 things or others are just more computer literate than I. I will trudge on and revisit other activities to enhance what I think I am learning. Stay tuned for an updated post.

http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/6.htm - Article - "A temporary place in time," by Dr. Wendy Schultz. Again, as I mentioned in a prior blog, the possibilities seem endless. A "Wi-Fi" library - whoa! The thing that is so mind boggling to me ((but not so mindboggling to people being brought up in the tech world), is that all this is reality now and not some distant future space-age dream. I am challenged immensely to explore and utilize it.

http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/5.htm - Article - "To better bibliographic services," by John Riemer. Introduced me to NCSU libraries http://www2.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/?Nty=1&N=0&Ntt=medical+breakthrough&Ntk=Keyword. The site is phenomenal. Will definitely be coming back to this one.

Thing 14

Technorati / techneurotic - one thing is certain - there seems to be a deluge of people who live to blog. There was so much information there. Still learning how to digest it all. There are lots of people who apparently know a whole lot more about this computer thing than me - that is why I am in the Library2play game, isn't it? I can't wait to get all the way through the course so I can go back and lollygag around the various sites and tools I am learning about. Putting it all together will be quite an accomplishment for me. I can see how I can use it for professional as well as personal use and it is very, very exciting. It will be nice to be able to pull up info/links at a quick click to enhance my own knowledge and impart knowledge to students.

Thing 13

Tags and del.icio.us.com. What a wonderful tool. I have often been frustrated because I find sites at home related to my professional interests - nursing - and/or work and can never seem to connect the two without writing things down that then get lost or misplaced many times before I get the opportunity to explore further. I experimented with the tag system this morning and it literally was as easy as 1-2-3. How exciting.

Things 12

Moving in and out of the blog sites/web sites has been a good exercise. Sometimes you can get lost in a blog when there are other links within the blog that lead you elsewhere and then that site has links, et cetera, et cetera. I was amused by how much time was spent on "blog etiquette." All very good points and reminders but when one goes back to the basics, for example, I consider myself Christian and of Christian principal, one realizes that if we really practiced what we preached (so to speak) there would be little need for all these rules and reminders as this would all be ingrained. Moving beyond that little point, I am really enjoying the limitlessness (if that is a word) of the possibilities. I can see that I will be spending a lot of time coming back to the 23 things to fine tune all the learning going on. I have not been blogging other than here as I would like to choose a couple sites of interest and still figuring the whole process out.