Reflecting on the Experience of Blogging

Four Months in a Nutshell

For four months, I have been blogging, about two topics primarily, Virtual Reference services and DyKnow Vision, but also about educational technologies in general. When I began my blog, I was not a frequent reader of blogs, nor had I had a blog of my own. Having blogged for four months now, I have developed an enthusiasm and appreciation for the genre. Looking back at my posts, I realize that I have really compiled a lot of good resources, and that I will refer back to these resources in the future. Blogging is great as a historical tracker and online journal; it is a tool that allows educators and librarians to build upon their technological skills and knowledge and to share ideas and resources with others.

Highlights

On October 8, 2006, I posted a blog entry entitled Book Exchange Sites. Shortly after, I received a private e-mail from a person outside of the class interested in sharing more book exchange sites (he had trouble with the comment function in Blogger). So, on October 18, 2006, I supplemented my book exchange sites with a new entry, More Book Exchange Sites.

After posting on DyKnow Vision, I was contacted via private e-mail by the originator of the software, Dave Berque, whose research project developed into the commercially available product. He is a computer scientist at DePauw University, and he has had great success with the software. It was great to have this online connection, and my University will likely be viewing a demo of the software based on this connection.

The Future of Sherry Buchanan's Blog
I have been considering the questions, What did I learn? and What can I do to improve my blogging? In the future, Sherry Buchanan's Blog will change. I have decided to look more closely into a Blog that will be specific to Digital Libraries to collect the resources that I know into one site. Digital Libraries are scattered and hidden in the Special Collections of libraries around the world. I have asked many fellow librarians if they know of a site that compiles Digital Libraries, and no one has responded in the affirmative. I would like to develop a Blog along the lines of Emily Chang's eHub, but focusing on Digital Libraries. In addition to this nonprofit model, I would also like to develop a Blog for my jewelry-making interests, in a more commercial vein. I have several friends who are artists, and this may be a venue that would encourage me to work on this creative endeavor.

As a librarian (and an educator), I see that there is a lot of potential to this genre. I must say that there is potential for this Blog assignment to be taken as just that, an assignment, and I think I have seen some shallow posts and what I would call pseudo-information sharing in this sometimes "forced" environment. However, I think this genre opens new possibilities and the assignment is worthwhile. Thanks for reading.

British Library's Simulations

There are some extraordinary themed tours available from the British Library's Collect Britain site:

http://www.collectbritain.com/tours/

Check out the Lost Gardens tour; it includes "Illustrations from manuscripts and early printed books dig into the story of gardening. Diarist, John Evelyn's extensive notes and meticulous plans recreate his influential 17th-century garden at Sayes Court in Deptford - now a high-rise housing estate."

Also, there are "name that herb" games and other interactive pages - very well done!

Exploratorium Simulations

There are some really great simulations available from the San Francisco Exploratorium -- it's a science museum out here on the west coast. Here is a link to the web site:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/explore/index.html

Some of the games are more tactile, such as the "create your own rain stick activity," linked here:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/frogs/rain_stick/index.html

I recall from my schooling that hands-on activities really made ideas sink in. For example, we studied marsupials and then drew them, and we studied Beatrix Potter and then we made ceramic figurines and painted them. Simulations can always offer instructions for more tactile activities, not just virtual worlds. . .

Library of Congress Activities and Simulations

Folks may want to peruse the Library of Congress site; there is a page of resources for teachers:

Resources for Teachers

There is also a learning page:

Learning Page

and within that page, there is a "games" area:

Activities

Second Life

Wow, a friend of mine told me about this web site, and she was actually suggesting it as a meeting place for conference planning. This is really quite amazing; it's called "second life," so you can meet in a second life ;-) Check it out if you have time:

http://secondlife.com/

At this point, it lacks VOIP, but if you have webinar-ware then you can use a voice function.

In this simulation, you can choose your own avatar (bodily manifestation), which is becoming the "in thing"!

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

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?

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. . .

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?

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!