Sunday, September 20, 2009

Thing 4 - 2nd Try

Alright, so I'm only on blog post #2 and have already experienced a technological hiccup. I started a post and thought I saved a draft of it, had to close out of my internet window and shut down my computer (because other websites I was looking at were giving me difficulty). I then returned to this blog and couldn't find my draft. Thoughts anyone? Anyhou, here we go again.

So Thing #4 should be registering this blog with PLCMC Central but instead I'm exploring Twitter (as the professor of the class I have the opportunity to go on this journey as a part of suggested we do). And I welcome the chance to become familiar with Twitter. It's one of those things that has been on my technology radar for awhile, but being a Facebook junkie, I just haven't gotten around to it since in my mind Twitter and Facebook (and MySpace for that matter) are the same thing manifested differently - ways for people to be connected to each other.

So Twitter seems easy enough on the surface..... create an account, tell people what you're up to, find people to follow you and people to follow (so you're connected), and voila - you're twittering. But like so many other technological things, there are so many things beyond the basics. For instance, I located a friend (and fellow librarian) that I knew was on Twitter. And some of her tweets have the pound sign (#) before a word, which causes that word to be hyperlinked..... It must be a search term, but I don't understand how that term relates to her posts.....

I guess this makes me realize that technology that is second nature to me (such as e-mail) could be something completely new to a patron. Thus, I need to be understanding of varying degrees of technology literate-ness and not "talk down" to those that aren't tech saavy. Because I'm sure there are those that are reading this blog post and going - duh Morgan, you can retrieve your post drafts right here.

4 things down, 19 to go!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Things 1, 2 and 3

23 Things...... that seems like alot. But I'm up for the journey. There's so much to know about technology, and often it's essential to be knowledgeable in order to serve library patrons better. So I'm hoping to learn a lot through this adventure and pass that information onto others.

So, Thing #1 - Figure out what I'm getting myself into (ie learn what 23 Things is all about). And the answer is lots of different technologies. I could cheat and look ahead and see exactly what each Thing is (what technology), but where would the fun be in that? 1 Thing down, 22 to go.

Thing #2 - 7 1/2 habits of lifelong learners. What do people who continually learn (that really do learn something new everyday) have in common? Well at least 7 1/2 things apparently. Those habits are: Begin with the end in mind, Accept responsibility for your own learning, View problems as challenges, Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner, Create your own learning toolbox, Use technology to your advantage, Teach/mentor others, and Play. Personally, the easiest of these for me is to accept responsibility. I'm not a person that expects people to do things for me or one who blames things on other people. If I set my mind to do something, I'M going to do it. The hardest though, is the playing part. I'm a work-a-holic, and rarely take time for myself to just explore and have some fun even though I can definitely see how playing is a part of learning. Anyhou, 2 Things down 21 to go.


Thing #3 - Set up a blog and post - check that off the list (though I could maybe add more to my profile....not now though)! 3 Things down, 20 to go.

Untill next week....