Final Task - Summary

The most important thing I learned from this project is how easy it is to share information with people not only locally but globally. The tools utilized in this tutorial are easy to use and allow users to customize and manipulate their information to create a personalized display. You're only limited by how much information you want to share.

The most challenging aspect for me would probably have to be getting everything to look just right. It takes some trial and error and just using the different tools to figure some things out. Fortunately, the help sections cover much of the basic questions and a little googling usually covers anything else.

PVLD can use these tools and to provide an extra level of interaction with with its community. Any technology that makes it easier to share information benefits all.

I thought the “self-directed” learning model was very effective. I think it encourages staff to be resourceful and learn how to find answers on their own. It definitely is a useful way of encouraging staff development.

Task 10 - Explore MySpace.com

My myspace page,

www.myspace.com/pvldguy

Myspace can be a fun way to interact with friends or even random interesting people who share similar interests. Users should be careful with how much personal information they make available though.

I'm trying to finish this up at the last moment so my friend invite hasn't gone through yet :(

Task 9 - Explore Online Office Tools

Here is what I wrote in my Google Document...

Google Docs & Spreadsheets can be an excellent tool for Library patrons to use. Patrons can use the internet terminals to write documents for school/work etc. without the need for removable media to save the documents. Additionally, patrons can save and edit their work from any computer with internet access.

Task 8 - Explore YouTube.com

Jim Mora's famous playoff rant

(You may or may not be able to watch the embedded video here depending on what computer you're using to access this page)

I always post this on my fantasy football message board during playoff time.

Youtube has really blown up in the last few years. It's a great innovative medium for people from all over the world to share any and all aspects of life.

Youtube username: pvldguy

Task 7 - Explore Wikipedia

Added a blurb to the PVLD wiki entry linking to the library's Calender.

I've been using wikipedia for a long time it seems. It's great that many people can collaborate on entries and keep them up to date. This is can be a downside as well since anyone can make an edit. The wikipedia team as well as those who take pride in the information posted do a great job fixing most errors though.

Wikipedia username: pvldguy

Task 6 - Instant Messaging

[17:16] socalc76: this message will self destruct in....
[17:16] *** Auto-response from PVLD2007: Conratulations! You have successfully sent an Instant Message. Please copy and paste this text into your blog.

The buddy list allows you to see which contacts are online/offline and why (depending on what IM service you use.

Task 5 - Explore Flickr

This cheeky little guy is a Kea, the world's only alpine parrot. They like to get into trouble.

Here's a link to my Flickr page. I quickly threw up a couple pics from my New Zealand trip.

Task 4 - Take A Digital Photo

Here's a photo from my 2004 trip to New Zealand. Check out the amazing green color of this thermal pool near Rotorua.

Task 3 - RSS

Here are some RSS feeds and links I added to Bloglines
These in no way represent all the sites that suck my precious free time away:
Anandtech (for the tech forums)
[H]ardOCP (again, for the forums)
Boing Boing (for the crazy news)
Digg (for everything basically)

Bloglines seems easy enough to setup. Firefox has a built in RSS feature using what are known as Live Bookmarks. Check here for a tutorial on setting it up. I only see references to Firefox 1.5 and up so I'll assume it works for 2.0 as well if you've made the leap.

Task 1 & 2

Well, here we are. Finally created a blog after setting up another free webmail account to go with the 30,000 others I've made and forgotten. I chose gmail again as it's my favorite of the free webmail services allowing the most functionality and tweaking IMO. In the past you could only sign up for gmail if you received an invitation. It appears that this is no longer necessary. There is now a direct link Sign up for Gmail on the homepage.

Let's see, why am I participating in PVLD's Learning 2.0 project? First of all, I think it's a great idea for all the staff to discover some of the great online technologies available to us. The more we know about what's going on in this "world" the more capable we are to meet the needs of the public. The online world is constantly evolving and it can be quite intimidating to jump in amongst all the tech savvy 14 and 15 year olds who are at the forefront of this evolution with their myspace pages, youtube videos and juvenile script kiddie attacks ;)
Completing these tasks can only help us to be a part of this great online world.

By the way, the "CS" in my name refers to one of the best online first person shooters ever created. I'll let you figure out exactly what it is. Google is your friend.

Lastly, the picture above is from the legendary finale of this years NFC Wild Card game between the Dallas Cowboys (boo!) and the Seattle Seahawks.

Where's my Wii???