Fort Belmont at Jackson, Minnesota. Found photo on Flickr.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Jim Brandenburg
Jim Brandenburg in his gallery holding my book! 11-26-09
Originally uploaded by Marina Castillo-Knuti
Before working for the National Geographic, he was a photographer at the Worthington Daily Globe. My sister even took a photography class from him at Worthington Community College (now Minnesota West). He encouraged her to enter one of her photos in a National Kodak Contest (1973-74 school year) where it won an award. I enjoyed visiting the Brandenburg galleries at Ely and Luverne.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Voicethread (Without Voice!)
After using Voicethread in a session at the Library Technology Conference at Macalester last week, I decided to try it. Selecting photos from my Facebook account was very easy. I chose some Alaska ones from 2009, but did not add a voice with them. Maybe later I can do some more experimenting!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
DeWitt Wallace Library at Macalester - Session D
There's Another App for That! Going Beyond Google Apps with Free Online Media Tools - Scott Spicer, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
I changed my plans on the last session to attend on Wednesday. After listening to speakers and presenters, I wanted a chance to see the DeWitt Library at Macalester College, and had to time to explore a little before finding the classroom for Session D on the second floor. I was pleasantly surprised to find a room full of MAC computers where we would each have a chance to be creative. Scott Spicer showed us free online media tools to use. Thanks to the THINGS ON A STICK, I had already used Screentoaster and Animoto, the first two that we tried. I was happy to try voicethread and JayCut, and look forward to experimenting with them more.
A bonus from this session was sitting next to a public librarian from River Falls, WI. When I asked if she knew our relative, she said that she sees her each month at Garden Club, so I gave her a note for Ursula.
My day at Library Technology 2010 was great, and I enjoyed following the second day on Twitter at #LibTech2010. I can see why the conference grows each year. The 400 attending this year included some from Scotland and Canada as well as from all over the USA. It is good to re-connect with "library folks" as well as meet new ones. The conference was very well-organized and had a variety of sessions to attend.
Google Wave: Ripple or Tsunami? Session C
LeAnn Suchy, Metronet; Rudy Leon, University of Illinois Champaign - Urbana, & Rita Baladad, MINITEX.
I had not done anything with GOOGLE WAVE, so learned a lot from the Session C that I attended. Based on the attendance in the large auditorium, there were many others wanting to see WAVE, which is only about 6 months old. WAVE provides many tools in one place, but we were reminded what BETA means! The demonstration worked better than WAVE had when the presenters had been preparing earlier.
WAVES can be added and embedded in other web services, and new extensions can be built to work inside WAVES. GOOGLE'S view is that WAVE will eventually replace email. The public WAVE is for those who think that TWITTER is "old school." Although WAVE is still "very clunky", it was fun to see the demonstration and envision the future of WAVE. Terms used with WAVE are blips (chat function) and pings (responses). The first message typed becomes the title of the message. To add photos and documents, use the editing mode. GOOGLE can be searched within WAVE, and images and links can be embedded. Polls, maps and robots can be added. Collaborative editing works well in WAVE as well as event planning and virtual reference. Moravian College uses WAVE for virtual reference. The Seattle Times opened a public WAVE after the shooting of 2 police officers in a coffee shop. The Austin American Statesman users WAVE, a good process work tool.
FUTURE OF WAVE
While WAVE is a great idea, not all promised is available yet. There is potential, but Instant Messaging, ZOHO, FriendFeed, Google Docs, and Cloud-based word processing currently work better for synchronous communication. Although allowing you to meet new people, most social networking sites work better than WAVE. As a single-hosted document, WAVE challenges the definition of document being it is the document!
An advantage of WAVE over email is that it is better at bringing in someone new after the conversation starts. The presentation by Rudy, LeAnn and Rita made me want to continue to follow the development of WAVE.
I had not done anything with GOOGLE WAVE, so learned a lot from the Session C that I attended. Based on the attendance in the large auditorium, there were many others wanting to see WAVE, which is only about 6 months old. WAVE provides many tools in one place, but we were reminded what BETA means! The demonstration worked better than WAVE had when the presenters had been preparing earlier.
WAVES can be added and embedded in other web services, and new extensions can be built to work inside WAVES. GOOGLE'S view is that WAVE will eventually replace email. The public WAVE is for those who think that TWITTER is "old school." Although WAVE is still "very clunky", it was fun to see the demonstration and envision the future of WAVE. Terms used with WAVE are blips (chat function) and pings (responses). The first message typed becomes the title of the message. To add photos and documents, use the editing mode. GOOGLE can be searched within WAVE, and images and links can be embedded. Polls, maps and robots can be added. Collaborative editing works well in WAVE as well as event planning and virtual reference. Moravian College uses WAVE for virtual reference. The Seattle Times opened a public WAVE after the shooting of 2 police officers in a coffee shop. The Austin American Statesman users WAVE, a good process work tool.
FUTURE OF WAVE
While WAVE is a great idea, not all promised is available yet. There is potential, but Instant Messaging, ZOHO, FriendFeed, Google Docs, and Cloud-based word processing currently work better for synchronous communication. Although allowing you to meet new people, most social networking sites work better than WAVE. As a single-hosted document, WAVE challenges the definition of document being it is the document!
An advantage of WAVE over email is that it is better at bringing in someone new after the conversation starts. The presentation by Rudy, LeAnn and Rita made me want to continue to follow the development of WAVE.
Lunch Tech Talk by Michael Porter, "You, the Online Version"
After the Twitter session, it was appropriate to follow lunch with a session by Michael Porter, You, The Online Version, 101. He shared his Flickr photos (has 3,700 images), and said that all of his social networking sites are in his delicious feed. There are lots of factors to consider for one's social online self, and sometimes it is difficult to draw the line, To be the face of the library on a social tool, Porter stressed to:
Be Yourself
Be Authentic
Be Polite
Be Kind
Be Nice
DONT'S
Don't register with random strange user names
Don't register with individual emails if representing an institution
Don't have outdated profile information
Don't be slow to reply to users
Don't be too institutional in tone
Don't be selective in friending people
SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMIZATION
Increase your linkability - make tweets short enough to re-tweet
Add buttons
Re-use content in multiple venues
Make tagging and bookmarking easy
Reward inbound links
Thank people for being "friends of the library"
Help content travel
Encourage the mashup
Stand out in a good way
Porter stressed that social tools will be around for a long time even as they take different forms. Facebook is a dynamic example as settings and formats change every few months. Porter stressed to be creative and expressive, and have fun. With 1,100 friends, he has many to follow each day. He stressed that it takes staff time to follow Twitter. When it becomes a priority, something else needs to give. He is more public with his online self than I am, but that goes with his role. I am now following him on Twitter.
Twitter - One Tweet at A Time - Session B
One Tweet at a Time: developing critical thinking, library connections & information skills with Twitter. Rudy Leon, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The presenter has only been at her current location for 1.5 years, and is most proud of the work that she has done with Twitter. Because Twitter is open and multi-directional, your circle can be expanded and your networking challenged, Leon said. As a libarian at one of the largest university libraries in the country, Leon works with her graduate students to update Twitter. There are now over 700 followers. Leon recommended to start small and grow. A participant pointed out that most Twitter users are in their 30's and 40's. Some of the graduate students who do the updates, do not use Twitter outside of their work activity.
I liked the "Pride and Joy" of Leon's student tweets - This Day in History. Students do the research and have the tweets ready ahead of when they are displayed. There is also one tweet each day on services. A challenge has been getting students to talk back to build a two-way conversation. Twitter is right on the homepage with 5 tweets showing. A link shortener, cli.gs, has been helpful for assessment data. The experience at the University of Illinois was that on a big campus, it is not easy to find what is going on.
Benefits since using Twitter have been an increased community presence, especially with the local newspaper. Rudy Leon also said that the development folks "love them." The addition of Twitter has been a growing voice on campus, but the library has not yet been able to investigate the critical thinking impact.
After being on Twitter for over a year, I enjoyed Rudy Leon's presentation. At our two-year school, I think that our students use Facebook much more even though Twitter is on the college homepage. If we were to use Twitter on our library page, I could see using This Day in History, and linking to other topics like the University of Illinois does. Because tweeting is a component of graduate school, the time to do it is not a major part of the work of librarians.
The presenter has only been at her current location for 1.5 years, and is most proud of the work that she has done with Twitter. Because Twitter is open and multi-directional, your circle can be expanded and your networking challenged, Leon said. As a libarian at one of the largest university libraries in the country, Leon works with her graduate students to update Twitter. There are now over 700 followers. Leon recommended to start small and grow. A participant pointed out that most Twitter users are in their 30's and 40's. Some of the graduate students who do the updates, do not use Twitter outside of their work activity.
I liked the "Pride and Joy" of Leon's student tweets - This Day in History. Students do the research and have the tweets ready ahead of when they are displayed. There is also one tweet each day on services. A challenge has been getting students to talk back to build a two-way conversation. Twitter is right on the homepage with 5 tweets showing. A link shortener, cli.gs, has been helpful for assessment data. The experience at the University of Illinois was that on a big campus, it is not easy to find what is going on.
Benefits since using Twitter have been an increased community presence, especially with the local newspaper. Rudy Leon also said that the development folks "love them." The addition of Twitter has been a growing voice on campus, but the library has not yet been able to investigate the critical thinking impact.
After being on Twitter for over a year, I enjoyed Rudy Leon's presentation. At our two-year school, I think that our students use Facebook much more even though Twitter is on the college homepage. If we were to use Twitter on our library page, I could see using This Day in History, and linking to other topics like the University of Illinois does. Because tweeting is a component of graduate school, the time to do it is not a major part of the work of librarians.
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