Sherry Buchanan's Blog

A Blog about Virtual Reference and Dyknow Vision

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Location: Portland, Oregon, United States

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Google Book Search, WorldCat and OttoBib - buILder How-To . . .

Here is a link to a buILder (the IL is capital for Information Literacy) lesson that I created to show folks how to use Google Book Search, Open WorldCat and a nifty citation tool to compile references. If you are in a distance program, you may want to use this to find sources in a hurry. (This is one of several techniques.)

buILder link

Enjoy

Internet Filtering Woes

Folks may want to check out the Center for the Safe and Responsible Internet Use.

The organization posts many online publications, including one that examines 6 major filtering software packages, and how those filters can exclude important health information.

Here's a link to a very informative Kaiser publication examining that issue:

http://csriu.org/onlinedocs/pdf/whodefinesevil.pdf

Cyberbullying Book

Folks may want to check out this title:

Cyberbullying and cyberthreats : responding to the challenge of online social cruelty, threats, and distress

by Nancy E Willard

* OCLC: 66915674

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Google Jockeying

Have you heard of it?

Check out an article in Educause:

7 Things You Should Know About Google Jockeying

Is there a place for this educational technology?

pushing technology

I wonder how many people allow themselves time to implement new technologies. I try to spend an hour per week, at a minimum, learning and/or implementing new technologies. Others?

Friday, November 10, 2006

DyKnow Kudos

DyKnow Vision is on its way to success, predictors say.

Technology & Learning Magazine Awards Dyknow Vision “2005 Award of Excellence”

DyKnow gets the nod from Microsoft as One of 10 Independent Software Vendors (ISV) to Participate in UMPC Early Adopter Program

Webinars or Online Interactive Learning Sessions

Many organizations are moving toward online instruction, including the Special Libraries Association. I attended a couple of online sessions as part of the Special Library Association Virtual Learning Series, and I wanted to give kudos for this format of instruction, specifically when in the context of librarianship. These were the sessions that I attended:

o Initiatives for Change: Digital Access, Sharing & Intellectual Property

o Open Access: Implications and Cost Models

Both sessions were run very profesionally and offered times when questions would be addressed, and the audience was also surveyed and those results were shared real time. I envision that in the future we will be able to attend more of these sessions, allowing access to professionals at a more reasonable price. . .

Saturday, November 04, 2006

What to buy?

I've been considering purchasing a tablet PC, and the Toshiba seems like a great one, but then I was chatting with a friend about the virtues of gmail, and thinking more about the operating system (OS). I understand that Apple offers a g-mail like function for archiving e-mail, and I've also seen some nice built-in functionality with blog-feeds on the Mac. So, I'm wondering if there's anyone out there in Cyberland who might have a recommendation for a tablet and an OS. Has anyone used the new dual-OS? I have always used Windows, so I am leery to drop it entirely. Also, I'd like to know more about pen technology. I've been considering Dyknow Vision, and I plan to get a demo at my University (in the next couple of months, after we've implemented Central Search ~ a Serials Solutions product that will allow users to search up to 100 databases at one time). In the mean time, has anyone else resolved this conundrum? Perhaps the systems are too much in flux to buy now. Thoughts?

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Dyknowmite ~ the creator makes contact . . .

I was so excited to receive an e-mail from the originator of Dyknow Vision -- Dave Berque, whose research project developed into the commercially available product. Dave ~ thanks for e-mailing me!

Dave is a savvy fellow who has written an article that discusses how his course evaluations and the scores of students in his computer science courses have improved with Dyknow. That's great news! Here is Dave's contact information:

Dave Berque
Chair and Professor of Computer Science
DePauw University

http://people.depauw.edu/dberque

Cheers!