For those who are interested in on line university forums; physics; MIT’s (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) approach to their iconic lecturers/professors, this is a piece from the New York Times, 19 December 2007.
I have a link to the paper and have put this on my blog as it is fascinating on a number of levels to all those who love the internet.
Education
University Lectures Are Going Global
By SARA RIMER
Published: December 19, 2007
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Walter H. G. Lewin, 71, a physics professor, has long had a cult following at M.I.T. And he has now emerged as an international Internet guru, thanks to the global classroom the institute created to spread knowledge through cyberspace.
His videotaped physics lectures, free online on the OpenCourseWare of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have won him devotees across the country and beyond who stuff his e-mail inbox with praise.
“Through your inspiring video lectures i have managed to see just how BEAUTIFUL Physics is, both astounding and simple,” a 17-year-old from India e-mailed recently.
“I walk with a new spring in my step and I look at life through physics-colored eyes,” wrote Steve Boigon, 62, a old florist from San Diego.
Professor Lewin delivers his lectures with the exuberant panache of Julia Child bringing French cooking to amateurs and the zany theatricality of You-Tube’s greatest hits. He is part of a new generation of academic stars who hold forth in cyberspace on their college Web sites and even, without charge, on iTunes U, which went up in May on Apple’s iTunes Store.
In his lectures at ocw.mit.edu, Professor Lewin beats a student with cat fur to demonstrate electrostatics. Wearing shorts, sandals with socks and a pith helmet, nerd safari garb, he shoots a stuffed monkey wearing bulletproof vest with a cannon loaded with a golf ball, to demonstrate the trajectories of objects in free fall.
He rides a fire extinguisher-propelled tricycle across his classroom to show how a rocket lifts off.
He was No. 1 on the most downloaded list at iTunes U for a while, but that line-up constantly evolves. The stars this week included Hubert Dreyfus, a philosophy professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Leonard Susskind, a professor of quantum mechanics at Stanford. Last week, Yale put some of its most popular undergraduate courses and professors online free. The list includes Controversies in Astrophysics with Charles Bailyn, Modern Poetry with Langdon Hammer and Introduction to the Old Testament with Christine Hayes.
M.I.T. recently expanded on the success of its on-line classes by opening a site aimed specifically at high school students and teachers.
Judging from his fan e-mail, Professor Lewin, who is among those featured on the new site, appeals to students of all ages. Some of his correspondents compare him to the late Richard Feynman, the free-spirited bongo-playing Nobel laureate who popularized physics through his books, lectures and television appearances.
With his halo of wiry grayish-brown hair, his tortoiseshell glasses and his intensity, Professor Lewin is the iconic brilliant scientist. But like Julia Child, he is at once larger than life and totally accessible.
“We have here the mother of all pendulums!” he declares, hoisting his 6-foot-2 170-pound self on a 30-pound steel ball attached to a pendulum hanging from the ceiling. He swings across the stage, holding himself nearly horizontal as his hair blows in the breeze he has created.
The point: that a period of a pendulum is independent of the mass — the steel ball, plus one professor — hanging from it.
“Physics works!” Professor Lewin shouts, as the classroom explodes in cheers.
“Hi, Prof. Lewin!!” a fan who identified himself as a 17-year-old from China wrote. “I love your inspiring lectures and I love MIT!!!”
A fan who said he was a physics teacher from Iraq gushed: “You are now my Scientific Father. In spite of the bad occupation and war against my lovely IRAQ, you made me love USA because you are there and MIT is there.”
Professor Lewin revels in his fan mail and in the idea that he is spreading the love of physics. “Teaching is my life,” he said.
The professor, who is from the Netherlands, said teaching required introductory physics to M.I.T. students made him realize “that what really counts is to make them love physics, to make them love science.”
He said he spent 25 hours preparing each new lecture, choreographing every detail and stripping out every extra sentence.
“Clarity is the word,” he said.
Fun also matters. In another lecture on pendulums, he stands back against the wall, holding the steel ball at the end of the pendulum just beneath his chin. He has just demonstrated how potential energy turns into kinetic energy by sending the ball flying across the stage, shattering a pane of glass he had bolted to the wall.
Now he will demonstrate the conservation of energy.
“I am such a strong believer in the conservation of energy that I am willing to risk my life for it,” he says. “If I am wrong, then this will be my last lecture.”
He closes his eyes, and releases the ball. It flies back and forth, stopping just short of his chin.
“Physics works!” Professor Lewin shouts. “And I’m still alive!”
Chasing rainbows hooked Mr. Boigon, the San Diego florist. He was vacationing in Hawaii when he noticed the rainbow outside his hotel every afternoon. Why were the colors always in the same order?
When he returned home, Mr. Boigon said in a telephone interview, he Googled rainbows. Within moments, he was whisked to M.I.T. Lecture Hall No. 26-10. Professor Lewin was in front of a couple hundred students.
“All of you have looked at rainbows,” he begins. “But very few of you have ever seen one. Seeing is different than looking. Today we are going to see a rainbow.”
For 50 minutes, he bounds across the stage, writing equations on the blackboard and rhapsodizing about the “amazing” and “beautiful” physics of rainbows. He explains how the colors always appear in the same order because of how light refracts and reflects in the water droplets.
For the finale, he creates a rainbow by shining a bright light into a glass sphere containing a single drop of water.
“There it is!” Professor Lewin cries.
“Your life will never be the same,” he tells his students. “Because of your knowledge, you will be able to see way more than just the beauty of the bows that everyone else can see.”
“Professor Lewin was correct,” Mr. Boigon wrote in an e-mail message to a reporter. “He made me SEE.. and it has changed my life for the better!!”
“I had never taken a course in physics, or calculus, or differential equations,” he wrote to Professor Lewin. “ Now I have done all that in order to be able to follow your lectures. I knew the name Isaac Newton, but nothing about Newtonian Mechanics. I had heard of the likes of Einstein, Galileo, Keppler, Bohr but didn’t have a clue on earth as to what they were all about.
“I walk down the street analyzing the force of a boy on skateboard or the recoil of a carpenter using a nail gun. Thank you with all my heart.”
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
This is what I think
Help me in my work?
No
How can the Library use the technologies to improve services?
How much money can we spend? I think that services available through web 2.0 can be offered and our public will be impressed, but how many staff can be allocated, how many computers and how much space in an incredibly tight timetable of events?
How can 23 things program be improved for future use?
I am tossing up whether to recommend that the program be repackaged to leave out some of the esoteric technologies which have a limited audience, within many library staff and probably will not help with our public profile one iota. While we all “had” to look at items of no or limited interest, such as igoogle pages, del.ic.ious, social bookmarking, myspace/ facebook, at least we have been made aware that this is information we can live without. On the other hand, we still had to invest our time into looking at them. The “one stop shop” or one size fits all has limitations, even if only these are assessed as leading to cynicism and a “ticking the box” mentality.
Continued blogging?
I shall keep blogging as I use the program for thinking out aloud and putting thoughts on paper.
The absolute best thing about 23 things is that I have learnt not to prejudge and to give “new” technology a go.
I am so impressed with my new skills and new reputation for being a geek. I can talk (to the innocent) authoritatively about using flickr to sort photos – the limitations and the benefits. I do so like that look of admiration at my knowledge.
No
How can the Library use the technologies to improve services?
How much money can we spend? I think that services available through web 2.0 can be offered and our public will be impressed, but how many staff can be allocated, how many computers and how much space in an incredibly tight timetable of events?
How can 23 things program be improved for future use?
I am tossing up whether to recommend that the program be repackaged to leave out some of the esoteric technologies which have a limited audience, within many library staff and probably will not help with our public profile one iota. While we all “had” to look at items of no or limited interest, such as igoogle pages, del.ic.ious, social bookmarking, myspace/ facebook, at least we have been made aware that this is information we can live without. On the other hand, we still had to invest our time into looking at them. The “one stop shop” or one size fits all has limitations, even if only these are assessed as leading to cynicism and a “ticking the box” mentality.
Continued blogging?
I shall keep blogging as I use the program for thinking out aloud and putting thoughts on paper.
The absolute best thing about 23 things is that I have learnt not to prejudge and to give “new” technology a go.
I am so impressed with my new skills and new reputation for being a geek. I can talk (to the innocent) authoritatively about using flickr to sort photos – the limitations and the benefits. I do so like that look of admiration at my knowledge.
Second Life where you do not go to "get a life"
I confess I have been cynical before I undertook a few of the 23 things tasks. I have since posted some items about how I have been surprised at the excellence of many of the programs. My willingness to overcome suspicion has led me to be more open, but not to atavars…
I read the wiki entries and scoffed at several items:
"• Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another.
• The stated goal of Linden Lab is to create a world like the Metaverse described by Stephenson, a user-defined world in which people can interact, play, do business, and otherwise communicate.[6] Second Life's virtual currency is the Linden Dollar (Linden, or L$) and is exchangeable for real world currencies in a marketplace consisting of residents, Linden Lab and real life companies.
• Second Life also offers the opportunity for artists to go beyond verisimilitude, to create spaces and explore ideas that don't exist or are actually unknowable and unverifiable in the real life, such the depiction of Purgatory as a train station in which souls await reincarnation in Thursday's Fictions in Second Life
• The modeling tools from Second Life allow the artists also to create new forms of art, that in many ways are not possible in real life due to physical constraints or high associated costs.. [29]"
*********************************************
This is make believe and it is NOT REAL and it has to be done over the internet, sitting at a computer. What about real exercise or interaction with people, the ones who you see everyday? I watched the Murdoch University SL introduction. It reminded me of an introduction to activities at kindergarten for new parents and the children get to wear wings.
I understand the possibilities for learning as distinct from mere escaping. I accept that for all time, people have removed themselves to other places to escape dealing with humans, as in hermits. To escape for my generation, we went to the movies then came home and read. The rest of the time we played hopscotch, travelled the lanes looking for fruit trees overhanging, to pick/pinch apricots or almonds. We even went to imaginary land via Monopoly. Some of the above descriptions in Wiki reminded me of playing Monopoly - buying real estate with fake money, which we fought over and even stole from our successful competitor’s pile, sister usually.
The real difference for me is the interaction on SL is without a human face, though the human mind is very obvious.
Then I watched the introduction to Ohio University’s SL: .video
I am impressed with Ohio University’s use of SL as another platform for learning. I tried to look at the gallery of artworks, but could not locate the exhibits. I think they are real ones. Some of Ohio’ s games are designed by MIT and are used to encourage group learning and the study of difficult science concepts:
"• The VITAL Lab at Ohio University is working on enabling tools and technologies to help instructors and students be more effective in 3-D online learning environments. Our initial successes include the now publicly accessible Ohio University Second Life campus and a number of learning aids for college, high school, and middle school students. We look forward to expanding our portfolio of learning tools to cover more classes for more students.
• Ohio University educators are holding classes in the virtual world. Katherine Milton, director of the College of Fine Arts' Aesthetic Technologies Lab, teaches an experimental media class that meets once a week in the real world and once a week in Second Life. Mostly new to this virtual world, the seniors and graduate students are examining it as a both a venue for performance and art, and as a platform for creative expression.
• Milton says the goal is not to recreate our "offline" environment, but to find ways to create dynamic content and experiences that reach beyond it. "Second Life has elements of the physical world as reference points, but the real opportunity is in creating viscerally evocative and emotionally immersive works, experiences and environments specific to this platform," Milton said.
• OUWB created its island to give users of its online graduate degree programs and certificate programs another way to access learning content. The group is also researching how virtual worlds can be more effectively used to create engaging learning experiences.
As part of a $1.7 million National Science Foundation grant, Russ College graduate students are working with area middle school science teachers to design interactive video games that will help children grasp hard-to-learn science concepts. "
************************************************************
So Ohio University has showed me the glories of SL and I did not see a wing, though I did see people flying
I read the wiki entries and scoffed at several items:
"• Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another.
• The stated goal of Linden Lab is to create a world like the Metaverse described by Stephenson, a user-defined world in which people can interact, play, do business, and otherwise communicate.[6] Second Life's virtual currency is the Linden Dollar (Linden, or L$) and is exchangeable for real world currencies in a marketplace consisting of residents, Linden Lab and real life companies.
• Second Life also offers the opportunity for artists to go beyond verisimilitude, to create spaces and explore ideas that don't exist or are actually unknowable and unverifiable in the real life, such the depiction of Purgatory as a train station in which souls await reincarnation in Thursday's Fictions in Second Life
• The modeling tools from Second Life allow the artists also to create new forms of art, that in many ways are not possible in real life due to physical constraints or high associated costs.. [29]"
*********************************************
This is make believe and it is NOT REAL and it has to be done over the internet, sitting at a computer. What about real exercise or interaction with people, the ones who you see everyday? I watched the Murdoch University SL introduction. It reminded me of an introduction to activities at kindergarten for new parents and the children get to wear wings.
I understand the possibilities for learning as distinct from mere escaping. I accept that for all time, people have removed themselves to other places to escape dealing with humans, as in hermits. To escape for my generation, we went to the movies then came home and read. The rest of the time we played hopscotch, travelled the lanes looking for fruit trees overhanging, to pick/pinch apricots or almonds. We even went to imaginary land via Monopoly. Some of the above descriptions in Wiki reminded me of playing Monopoly - buying real estate with fake money, which we fought over and even stole from our successful competitor’s pile, sister usually.
The real difference for me is the interaction on SL is without a human face, though the human mind is very obvious.
Then I watched the introduction to Ohio University’s SL: .video
I am impressed with Ohio University’s use of SL as another platform for learning. I tried to look at the gallery of artworks, but could not locate the exhibits. I think they are real ones. Some of Ohio’ s games are designed by MIT and are used to encourage group learning and the study of difficult science concepts:
"• The VITAL Lab at Ohio University is working on enabling tools and technologies to help instructors and students be more effective in 3-D online learning environments. Our initial successes include the now publicly accessible Ohio University Second Life campus and a number of learning aids for college, high school, and middle school students. We look forward to expanding our portfolio of learning tools to cover more classes for more students.
• Ohio University educators are holding classes in the virtual world. Katherine Milton, director of the College of Fine Arts' Aesthetic Technologies Lab, teaches an experimental media class that meets once a week in the real world and once a week in Second Life. Mostly new to this virtual world, the seniors and graduate students are examining it as a both a venue for performance and art, and as a platform for creative expression.
• Milton says the goal is not to recreate our "offline" environment, but to find ways to create dynamic content and experiences that reach beyond it. "Second Life has elements of the physical world as reference points, but the real opportunity is in creating viscerally evocative and emotionally immersive works, experiences and environments specific to this platform," Milton said.
• OUWB created its island to give users of its online graduate degree programs and certificate programs another way to access learning content. The group is also researching how virtual worlds can be more effectively used to create engaging learning experiences.
As part of a $1.7 million National Science Foundation grant, Russ College graduate students are working with area middle school science teachers to design interactive video games that will help children grasp hard-to-learn science concepts. "
************************************************************
So Ohio University has showed me the glories of SL and I did not see a wing, though I did see people flying
Sunday, December 9, 2007
I tried cheezburger, following Tom's prompt
walk?
I practised links - learnt from Shaun.
I shall try again without the peripheral bit to post the cheezburgered photo
I practised links - learnt from Shaun.
I shall try again without the peripheral bit to post the cheezburgered photo
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Shaun showed me how
reading
I thought only the real cognoscente/dab hand/master knew how to put in live links. But Sean showed me how and now I can do it.
Yes
I thought only the real cognoscente/dab hand/master knew how to put in live links. But Sean showed me how and now I can do it.
Yes
Monday, December 3, 2007
To my family and friends I am a tech geek but I am a fraud
From a google alert - blog By M Farkas | November 9, 2007
“Pennvibes"---Abstact from a DLF conference
"Pennvibes is a framework for content delivery and organization inspired by Netvibes, iGoogle, and Pageflakes. It is being developed at the Penn Libraries using AJAX, XML and Java technologies with the goal of creating a web presence that is drastically more responsive and flexible to the needs of our patrons. We also hope that Pennvibes provides an extensible delivery platform for arbitrary digital library content. When we go live (end of 2007), Pennvibes will enable our Librarians to build new reference pages in a few minutes, complete with custom-tailored (and proxied) lists of resources built from PennTags, integrated search tools (e.g., a Pubmed widget), RSS feeds, editable Webnotes, rotating image widgets, and a “My Library Account” widget that integrates items checked out, fines, and document delivery requests for the patron."
Part of the responses to the blog:
"1. Michael Winkler Says:
November 13th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Thanks for the interest and kind words. PennVibes really is an exercise in how to deliver tools and content as widgets, individually addressable and configurable. The framework we demonstrated exists as a platform for delivery to the Penn community.”
**********************************************************
I looked at the blog above today, provided by my RSS google alerts. I cannot make head nor tail about what this PennVibes is about. The question I asked myself is do I care?
Then I thought about the fact that all this is swirling about me in reference desks here and everywhere. Or is it? I ask myself. What if I wanted a stint at being a Reference librarian and the interviewer asked me details about friendster, rotating image widgets, Pubmed widget? Would I have had to learn about them? Do all the reference librarians out there know these tools intimately? Has the librarian moved into “tech geek” territory that much?
A short few years ago (4) I worked in the chancellery and called on the reference librarians for help in research. Their response and packages of documents were entirely recognizable to me as a former research librarian. Would I now get a “new reference page in a few minutes, complete with custom-tailored (and proxied) lists of resources built from PennTags, integrated search tools”?
Is web 2.0 revolutionary and therefore every librarian in the world is revolutionized through widgets?
“Pennvibes"---Abstact from a DLF conference
"Pennvibes is a framework for content delivery and organization inspired by Netvibes, iGoogle, and Pageflakes. It is being developed at the Penn Libraries using AJAX, XML and Java technologies with the goal of creating a web presence that is drastically more responsive and flexible to the needs of our patrons. We also hope that Pennvibes provides an extensible delivery platform for arbitrary digital library content. When we go live (end of 2007), Pennvibes will enable our Librarians to build new reference pages in a few minutes, complete with custom-tailored (and proxied) lists of resources built from PennTags, integrated search tools (e.g., a Pubmed widget), RSS feeds, editable Webnotes, rotating image widgets, and a “My Library Account” widget that integrates items checked out, fines, and document delivery requests for the patron."
Part of the responses to the blog:
"1. Michael Winkler Says:
November 13th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Thanks for the interest and kind words. PennVibes really is an exercise in how to deliver tools and content as widgets, individually addressable and configurable. The framework we demonstrated exists as a platform for delivery to the Penn community.”
**********************************************************
I looked at the blog above today, provided by my RSS google alerts. I cannot make head nor tail about what this PennVibes is about. The question I asked myself is do I care?
Then I thought about the fact that all this is swirling about me in reference desks here and everywhere. Or is it? I ask myself. What if I wanted a stint at being a Reference librarian and the interviewer asked me details about friendster, rotating image widgets, Pubmed widget? Would I have had to learn about them? Do all the reference librarians out there know these tools intimately? Has the librarian moved into “tech geek” territory that much?
A short few years ago (4) I worked in the chancellery and called on the reference librarians for help in research. Their response and packages of documents were entirely recognizable to me as a former research librarian. Would I now get a “new reference page in a few minutes, complete with custom-tailored (and proxied) lists of resources built from PennTags, integrated search tools”?
Is web 2.0 revolutionary and therefore every librarian in the world is revolutionized through widgets?
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Those warnings again: you will go deaf
I put ABC Radio national podcasts into my reader. The exercise led to me philosophising about the past, google searches and the truth...out there somewhere.
My first "fed" podcast was about Ipods and warnings about hearing loss and a solution.
"Researchers at the University of Florida who did audio testing on middle and high-school students found that about 17 percent had some degree of hearing loss. Most of the loss was in higher pitches, which are usually the first ranges of sound to go from loud music-player settings.
With these facts in mind, a company Mad Cat Interactive recently began selling AirDrives earphones, which are designed to protect against hearing loss with a unique design that exceeds the federal OSHA standards for all-day listening.
The earphones rest on the outside of the ears, letting other sounds in and protecting the eardrum against high-pressure, high-decibel sound produced by typical earbuds that sit in the ear canal. AirDrives ($99.99) and AirDrives for Kids ($69.99) keep the sound to 80 decibels, even with an iPod or other music player volume set at 100 percent, the maker says. " Nov 30 2007: ABC News: podcast
**********************************
When I was little I was told I would go deaf listening to the wireless so much; blind for reading by torch light and get sick if I let the cat in bed with me.
I survived intact.
In my time as Parent of teenagers, I warned the children about walkmans - and the danger of hearing loss. This kind of information flooded opinion pieces on the radio and in newspapers and was mulled over at dinner parties and mothers' chats:
"In the 1980s, audiologists began cautioning lovers of loud music about hearing loss that could potentially result from use of their Walkman or portable compact disc (CD) players when those devices were on the cutting edge of music listening. “We’re seeing the kind of hearing loss in younger people typically found in aging adults. Unfortunately, the earbuds preferred by music listeners are even more likely to cause hearing loss than the muff-type earphones that were associated with the older devices,” (from a google search)
*****************************
What is scientific, what is old hat, and how long before warnings are borne out and who is there to connect them, if ever? Will my son warn his daughter (now one) about going deaf if she listens to her music through whatever device is created in 2017-20?
If the walkman warnings are being borne out, there would be an epidemic of 30+ adults throughout the world with hearing problems and the ipod would have been created by these same 30 year olds with special hearing devices to protect the ear.
I was not taken notice of by the children. After all, I predicted that rap would not last and that Whitney Houston would outlast Madonna.
My first "fed" podcast was about Ipods and warnings about hearing loss and a solution.
"Researchers at the University of Florida who did audio testing on middle and high-school students found that about 17 percent had some degree of hearing loss. Most of the loss was in higher pitches, which are usually the first ranges of sound to go from loud music-player settings.
With these facts in mind, a company Mad Cat Interactive recently began selling AirDrives earphones, which are designed to protect against hearing loss with a unique design that exceeds the federal OSHA standards for all-day listening.
The earphones rest on the outside of the ears, letting other sounds in and protecting the eardrum against high-pressure, high-decibel sound produced by typical earbuds that sit in the ear canal. AirDrives ($99.99) and AirDrives for Kids ($69.99) keep the sound to 80 decibels, even with an iPod or other music player volume set at 100 percent, the maker says. " Nov 30 2007: ABC News: podcast
**********************************
When I was little I was told I would go deaf listening to the wireless so much; blind for reading by torch light and get sick if I let the cat in bed with me.
I survived intact.
In my time as Parent of teenagers, I warned the children about walkmans - and the danger of hearing loss. This kind of information flooded opinion pieces on the radio and in newspapers and was mulled over at dinner parties and mothers' chats:
"In the 1980s, audiologists began cautioning lovers of loud music about hearing loss that could potentially result from use of their Walkman or portable compact disc (CD) players when those devices were on the cutting edge of music listening. “We’re seeing the kind of hearing loss in younger people typically found in aging adults. Unfortunately, the earbuds preferred by music listeners are even more likely to cause hearing loss than the muff-type earphones that were associated with the older devices,” (from a google search)
*****************************
What is scientific, what is old hat, and how long before warnings are borne out and who is there to connect them, if ever? Will my son warn his daughter (now one) about going deaf if she listens to her music through whatever device is created in 2017-20?
If the walkman warnings are being borne out, there would be an epidemic of 30+ adults throughout the world with hearing problems and the ipod would have been created by these same 30 year olds with special hearing devices to protect the ear.
I was not taken notice of by the children. After all, I predicted that rap would not last and that Whitney Houston would outlast Madonna.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Itunes - Test 1 - F
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
I followed the bouncing ball, got lost and then Carol came to the rescue
I was nearly there. I installed firefox, macro media, changed pixels. The instuctions were clearcut.
Then came time to post Morticia in Wiki pets.
I tried and tried. I was here late last night and got Morticia's file ready for loading. In fact I loaded two files, but not in the pets section. I have no idea where they are.
This morning, I relooked at instructions and tried again - edit button - press; look at other entries; copy code, but I did not know how to do a straight line
rather than / . I do not know how important this is but when I "loaded" and looked at the pets page, just the words I wrote were there. I felt a fool, but knowing Carol and Jo's pets are on the page, I asked Carol for help. A few clicks, experiment, paste the straight line and remove / , change the area for the post and HEY, HEY presto, there is Morticia on the Pets page.
Thank you Carol, the solution finder.
Igoogle tasks were .....pondered but did not inspire
Task 14 was looked at and considered; I did mooch about about a bit, but left spreadsheets and Google docs to those who could benefit from their undoubted merits.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
I have learnt how to post videos
I posted about this ukelele player in October but did not know how to include the clip. Here it is.
The player is Jake Shimabukuro and the clip was taken at NY's Central Park where Jake is a busker of renown. This clip has had over 40,000 hits on You Tube.
The player is Jake Shimabukuro and the clip was taken at NY's Central Park where Jake is a busker of renown. This clip has had over 40,000 hits on You Tube.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Zorba the Greek Yolgnu style: gorgeous
I saw this video on the ABC 7:30 report and wanted to share it. It has taken me over an hour to work out how to embed the video as I clicked until my fingers were tired. I understand there are over 40,000 hits on this clip through You Tube.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Henny Pennyism or new snake oil merchants
I have been ruminating of late about the theme of the web 2.0 ers who believe the programs - Google docs, flickr, podcasts and wiki sharing, etc.and etc. - are the saviour of mankind and everyone, but everyone, should know about the riches therein. They must know, they can be taught how, it is the future.
I have a sense of deja vu. I recall in the dim past, the mid 1990s, that everyone would have to have a computer or be left waay behind; $millions must be spent on the latest information superhighway or the institution will be shunned; all customers will HAVE to use the internet or be unable to bank, and the most perfect illustrations of hyperbole and/or spin, there will be no more libraries with books and there will be paperless offices.
While it is acknowledged that institutions like ours have invested heavily in IT infrastructure, it is in the latter years, post 2000 that the investments have been worth it. In the earlier years, the money spent may as well have been made into wedding confetti as that infrastucture then, that would save the institution from irrelevance, has been mothballed. If you think I am kidding, look at the mission statements and planning and budget documents of institutions, private or public, major or minor, in 1995-2000 ish.
Everywhere there were conversations about the end of the world in 2000 and PEOPLE STOCKED UP ON FOOD (non perishable).
The plethora of courses, exhortations and fundamentalist type hype for the essentiality of the new internet society, is making me suspicious. I love new things, I just think they are a wonderful addition to the old things.
I love web 2.0 and I shall be eternally grateful that I was encouraged/ required to do the 23 Things program. I have learnt to do magic and I am happy to practise my new tricks forever and unlike most magicians, pass my tricks on to anyone who stands still long enough to listen to me. But most of all,I have found in a few short weeks, that the future is the safe hands of our young colleagues. Blogging has reinforced, if I ever needed it, that the young are witty, wise, funny, passionate, ironic and just as all wise people before them, do not fall for spin.
I have a sense of deja vu. I recall in the dim past, the mid 1990s, that everyone would have to have a computer or be left waay behind; $millions must be spent on the latest information superhighway or the institution will be shunned; all customers will HAVE to use the internet or be unable to bank, and the most perfect illustrations of hyperbole and/or spin, there will be no more libraries with books and there will be paperless offices.
While it is acknowledged that institutions like ours have invested heavily in IT infrastructure, it is in the latter years, post 2000 that the investments have been worth it. In the earlier years, the money spent may as well have been made into wedding confetti as that infrastucture then, that would save the institution from irrelevance, has been mothballed. If you think I am kidding, look at the mission statements and planning and budget documents of institutions, private or public, major or minor, in 1995-2000 ish.
Everywhere there were conversations about the end of the world in 2000 and PEOPLE STOCKED UP ON FOOD (non perishable).
The plethora of courses, exhortations and fundamentalist type hype for the essentiality of the new internet society, is making me suspicious. I love new things, I just think they are a wonderful addition to the old things.
I love web 2.0 and I shall be eternally grateful that I was encouraged/ required to do the 23 Things program. I have learnt to do magic and I am happy to practise my new tricks forever and unlike most magicians, pass my tricks on to anyone who stands still long enough to listen to me. But most of all,I have found in a few short weeks, that the future is the safe hands of our young colleagues. Blogging has reinforced, if I ever needed it, that the young are witty, wise, funny, passionate, ironic and just as all wise people before them, do not fall for spin.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Why do they think it is new?
I started to read an item on the Library and web 2.0. I have come across a plethora of items about this, some scathing, some over excited, and a few, very funny (a la AL). I say yes and no and that is ok or that is rubbish. Indeed I have been quite stimulated by the dialogue, especially as I am in the middle of THE program!
Going back to the learned article, I have copied a few things here, from the recommended article, which I shall comment on:
This makes the work of forward-thinking instruction librarians challenging, but not impossible. These librarians can, among other things:
Make students aware of the emergence of social scholarship. Teach students about Authority 3.0 - or whatever you want to call it. Alert them to the expanding world of scholarly communication.
In conjuction with this, abandon of the notion that there is a clear distinction between traditional peer-reviewed authority and authority derived from social scholarship. To put this another way, introduce the notion that there are emerging metrics of authority that can be derived from social scholarship.
Use social tools (blogs, wikis, forums, social bookmarking, etc.) as part of the research process in their courses.
Assign readings from authoritative blogs in the research areas students are asked to explore.
Practice social scholarship, and show these activities as examples of what's on the horizon.
Incorporate this new material in tutorials on their library's Web site.
Why would librarians do this?
I quote from the Swinburne Education Specification 1971 - "A student is seeking knowledge, confidence, independence and power from his (sic) education. He wants to interpret every phase of his education as playing a part in achieving this. He wants to know now, not in five or ten years time, the relevance of this or that to his purpose; not the purpose of the teacher, but HIS purpose.
Against this background, the College will experiment with various learning situations, including the traditional lectures, tutorials, seminars, practical classes, etc. together with the newer methods, including programmed learning, closed circuit TV, films and film loops and many others."
Since students sat at the feet of Socrates (or was it Plato?) learners learn to use the tools which will please the teachers and even prep students know that. An essay citing wiki as the source or the Ohio mother of two, would probably be marked with a low score.
Going back to the learned article, I have copied a few things here, from the recommended article, which I shall comment on:
This makes the work of forward-thinking instruction librarians challenging, but not impossible. These librarians can, among other things:
Make students aware of the emergence of social scholarship. Teach students about Authority 3.0 - or whatever you want to call it. Alert them to the expanding world of scholarly communication.
In conjuction with this, abandon of the notion that there is a clear distinction between traditional peer-reviewed authority and authority derived from social scholarship. To put this another way, introduce the notion that there are emerging metrics of authority that can be derived from social scholarship.
Use social tools (blogs, wikis, forums, social bookmarking, etc.) as part of the research process in their courses.
Assign readings from authoritative blogs in the research areas students are asked to explore.
Practice social scholarship, and show these activities as examples of what's on the horizon.
Incorporate this new material in tutorials on their library's Web site.
Why would librarians do this?
I quote from the Swinburne Education Specification 1971 - "A student is seeking knowledge, confidence, independence and power from his (sic) education. He wants to interpret every phase of his education as playing a part in achieving this. He wants to know now, not in five or ten years time, the relevance of this or that to his purpose; not the purpose of the teacher, but HIS purpose.
Against this background, the College will experiment with various learning situations, including the traditional lectures, tutorials, seminars, practical classes, etc. together with the newer methods, including programmed learning, closed circuit TV, films and film loops and many others."
Since students sat at the feet of Socrates (or was it Plato?) learners learn to use the tools which will please the teachers and even prep students know that. An essay citing wiki as the source or the Ohio mother of two, would probably be marked with a low score.
Here I go again
del.icio.us / searchdel.icio.us / searchdel.icio.us / searchdel.icio.us / search
I was getting very frustrated as I entered del.icio.us. I mentioned in the previous post that I am now a bit over it. One more entry, one more password, one more account and what is the point? I am dutiful however and joined D ... I followed the excellent instructions from the team and typed in a topic AND NOT ONE SOUL HAD USED IT. It was about fitness as a predictor of health, so I was surprised.
I then followed my tried and true penchant and entered a couple of favourite authors and there were plenty of fellow travellers out there, writing reviews and, in some cases, blathering on. I did note a long article by Louis De Bernieres himself, about Greece, and why he wrote Captain Corelli's Mandolin. That is worth a revisit and no, I did not bookmark it or mark it a favourite or join a fan club. I just noted it and will find my way back, my way.
I have pondered a little about whether the 23 Things program is too long or too concentrated or too repetitive. I wonder if the initial half dozen or so principal tasks are enough for the new learner to get a grip on the quite amazing possibilities in web 2.0, and the next dozen are for the really, really keen. I am guessing that the program's drivers believe that the whole 23 Things is to be completed as a batch, a bit like the full dose of antibiotics, for the program to work and be understood. But I sense that there could be two stages- and the designers could conceivably create the portions to fit the needs.
This may be better than one size fits all.
I was getting very frustrated as I entered del.icio.us. I mentioned in the previous post that I am now a bit over it. One more entry, one more password, one more account and what is the point? I am dutiful however and joined D ... I followed the excellent instructions from the team and typed in a topic AND NOT ONE SOUL HAD USED IT. It was about fitness as a predictor of health, so I was surprised.
I then followed my tried and true penchant and entered a couple of favourite authors and there were plenty of fellow travellers out there, writing reviews and, in some cases, blathering on. I did note a long article by Louis De Bernieres himself, about Greece, and why he wrote Captain Corelli's Mandolin. That is worth a revisit and no, I did not bookmark it or mark it a favourite or join a fan club. I just noted it and will find my way back, my way.
I have pondered a little about whether the 23 Things program is too long or too concentrated or too repetitive. I wonder if the initial half dozen or so principal tasks are enough for the new learner to get a grip on the quite amazing possibilities in web 2.0, and the next dozen are for the really, really keen. I am guessing that the program's drivers believe that the whole 23 Things is to be completed as a batch, a bit like the full dose of antibiotics, for the program to work and be understood. But I sense that there could be two stages- and the designers could conceivably create the portions to fit the needs.
This may be better than one size fits all.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Hit the wall
I may have reached that point - IGoogle does not interest me.
As a new learner, I have discovered marvellous and wondrous new knowledge through the 23 things program. Nothing sticks for me if it does not resonate as a need, fundamentally.
Now I am at the stage where I do not want to IGoogle anything, I can do what I need to do without another whizz bang program.
I was at a shop today with a colleague buying a farewell gift for another colleague, and my shopping friend looked longingly at a new gadget to poach eggs and another to core apples. I diverted him saying that the gadgets will sit in a cupboard forever - stick to the tried and true methods/gadgets you use already. That is how I feel about IGoogle. My cupboard is full.
For some reason I have not peeked ahead at the new (23) tricks to learn. I wonder if I shall feel a similar ennui about them. Maybe, out there, there will be a new gadget/google product which is going to get me in.
Meanwhile, I love librarything, Google alert and especially blogging and I admire my colleague bloggers. It is a long time since I have been so stimulated to think beyond my usual boundaries, which were at the absolute edge of knowledge retrieval, or so I thought.
As a new learner, I have discovered marvellous and wondrous new knowledge through the 23 things program. Nothing sticks for me if it does not resonate as a need, fundamentally.
Now I am at the stage where I do not want to IGoogle anything, I can do what I need to do without another whizz bang program.
I was at a shop today with a colleague buying a farewell gift for another colleague, and my shopping friend looked longingly at a new gadget to poach eggs and another to core apples. I diverted him saying that the gadgets will sit in a cupboard forever - stick to the tried and true methods/gadgets you use already. That is how I feel about IGoogle. My cupboard is full.
For some reason I have not peeked ahead at the new (23) tricks to learn. I wonder if I shall feel a similar ennui about them. Maybe, out there, there will be a new gadget/google product which is going to get me in.
Meanwhile, I love librarything, Google alert and especially blogging and I admire my colleague bloggers. It is a long time since I have been so stimulated to think beyond my usual boundaries, which were at the absolute edge of knowledge retrieval, or so I thought.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Delighted and Amazed (again)
Today, in an exceptionally desultory manner I looked at the Google book site. I did the task as a required exercise but, hey presto, I found a book that is an icon of our family life as well as a talisman. It represents the essence of our childhood. Growing up in a family of 5 children we received books as gifts every birthday and Christmas. The selection of each book for each child was left to our Aunt Monnie who was an expert and a professional in literature and education. That did not mean we were not allowed to read "Schoolfriend" or "Phantom" comics and we read Enid B with pleasure.
Back to Google books: I am so excited to discover information about this talisman book, which I had never thought to track down in the usual Google search way. I also retrieved information on "Ernest and Celestine", a series of children's books I adored and read to my children in the 70s. This series is now out of print. While other classics of the time - "Dogger", "Corduroy", "John Brown Rose and the Midnight Cat" are still available in bookshops, "Ernest and Celestine" has disappeared. Through Google books I have found where I can buy copies of the Ernest and Celestine books through Amazon, etc.
By the by, Aunty Monnie selected those books for my children and if she was still alive, I, along with my brother and sisters, would ask her to select books for our grand children.(She was 92 when she died and still able to play scrabble in Latin.)
I called my previous dog Celestine as I loved the character so much.
I have created a very esoteric group through an earlier 23 Things task called "people who call cats after places/owners, and dogs after literature". My dog names have been Siegfried Sassoon, Maddie after "Martha Quest" by Doris Lessing, Celestine as noted above, and Morticia (who was named by the breeders who used TV series for the litter). I chose two of my dog's pups names- Malvolio and Viola. My cats - 2 in 30 years - were Rankine from the owner and Chandler from the owner.I could be calling my new cat Burwood if I get one from the RSPCA.
I say Hey ho and hurrah to 23 Things
Back to Google books: I am so excited to discover information about this talisman book, which I had never thought to track down in the usual Google search way. I also retrieved information on "Ernest and Celestine", a series of children's books I adored and read to my children in the 70s. This series is now out of print. While other classics of the time - "Dogger", "Corduroy", "John Brown Rose and the Midnight Cat" are still available in bookshops, "Ernest and Celestine" has disappeared. Through Google books I have found where I can buy copies of the Ernest and Celestine books through Amazon, etc.
By the by, Aunty Monnie selected those books for my children and if she was still alive, I, along with my brother and sisters, would ask her to select books for our grand children.(She was 92 when she died and still able to play scrabble in Latin.)
I called my previous dog Celestine as I loved the character so much.
I have created a very esoteric group through an earlier 23 Things task called "people who call cats after places/owners, and dogs after literature". My dog names have been Siegfried Sassoon, Maddie after "Martha Quest" by Doris Lessing, Celestine as noted above, and Morticia (who was named by the breeders who used TV series for the litter). I chose two of my dog's pups names- Malvolio and Viola. My cats - 2 in 30 years - were Rankine from the owner and Chandler from the owner.I could be calling my new cat Burwood if I get one from the RSPCA.
I say Hey ho and hurrah to 23 Things
Monday, October 29, 2007
Amazing and very, very spooky
How easy is this to explore google maps? The program shows how WE ARE WATCHED, sooo comprehensively.
I started very simply with my address, my friend's address, then the way to my friend, then the satellite image of home. After that I was away, getting satellite images of a friend's home in West Palm Beach in Florida. I looked up the address of the library where my namesake in Halifax is doing the 23 things program.
I am simply overwhelmed and amazed at Google. As I reflected, I thought about the John Le Carre et al, books I read in the late 60s, early 70s and the spy/thriller films I have watched over the last 20 years. I took for granted the spying tools but now I see even I could do some spying a la Bourne Identity.
4 seconds max, and I am somewhere obscure in the world, another 2-3 seconds and I am looking at the actual residence: no need for myriad yellow stickers on pages of the street directories to mark the way to a place in an unknown suburb. Just a click, print and I have the journey mapped for me, here or in Siberia or West Palm Beach Florida.
I want to think about about how google can do this. It gives me a headache. I have read the story of the creation of google a few times. I can almost discern the logic the two "lads" used to work out how to create the search engine. Less than ten years later the search engine has all the places in the world tagged, and can show the way to a milk bar in Izmir (formerly Smyrna) in Turkey.
I often consult an atlas when I read, to show me the location of the book's setting. This was essential for my latest book - Louis de Berniere's "Birds without wings". With my new-found experience of google maps, I can hone in on all the places where the characters lived, or fought famine or their big and small wars and look at the spaces and travel routes used by them when travelling for business or more often, on forced marches to oblivion.
I have already lauded the google maps program to friends who have children and grandchildren in the US and UK. 23 things has expanded my knowledge, again.
I started very simply with my address, my friend's address, then the way to my friend, then the satellite image of home. After that I was away, getting satellite images of a friend's home in West Palm Beach in Florida. I looked up the address of the library where my namesake in Halifax is doing the 23 things program.
I am simply overwhelmed and amazed at Google. As I reflected, I thought about the John Le Carre et al, books I read in the late 60s, early 70s and the spy/thriller films I have watched over the last 20 years. I took for granted the spying tools but now I see even I could do some spying a la Bourne Identity.
4 seconds max, and I am somewhere obscure in the world, another 2-3 seconds and I am looking at the actual residence: no need for myriad yellow stickers on pages of the street directories to mark the way to a place in an unknown suburb. Just a click, print and I have the journey mapped for me, here or in Siberia or West Palm Beach Florida.
I want to think about about how google can do this. It gives me a headache. I have read the story of the creation of google a few times. I can almost discern the logic the two "lads" used to work out how to create the search engine. Less than ten years later the search engine has all the places in the world tagged, and can show the way to a milk bar in Izmir (formerly Smyrna) in Turkey.
I often consult an atlas when I read, to show me the location of the book's setting. This was essential for my latest book - Louis de Berniere's "Birds without wings". With my new-found experience of google maps, I can hone in on all the places where the characters lived, or fought famine or their big and small wars and look at the spaces and travel routes used by them when travelling for business or more often, on forced marches to oblivion.
I have already lauded the google maps program to friends who have children and grandchildren in the US and UK. 23 things has expanded my knowledge, again.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Because
Because I learnt how to use RSS I have found a treasure trove of interesting and stimulating information through the sites and Blogs I have feeds for (or is it to?).
I have read items on finding treasure/information randomly. There are bloggers who believe that "randomness" could be under threat because of the ever increasing sophistication of research engines finding answers and information too efficiently. I read about this in an erudite article on the technological library. My new RSS-initiated, randomly-gained knowledge, is valuable enough for me to now follow some pertinent threads as well as prompting me to think differently about my own research methods.
I have been alerted to some oddball items as I set up an alert to annoyed librarian, but not to the site. So when Google finds news about annoyed and librarian I am sent a message. I have discovered a site that is for librarians who say f... and yes there are over a thousand members.
I have to navigate very intricate paths to refind some of the links, over hill and down dale, but if I am persisitent I can retrace my steps. Otherwise, if I think I may lose some article or an extraordinarily odd blog, I copy it and store somewhere safe. I do not know how to feed it to myself and I do not need to know.
I have found a namesake in Nova Scotia undertaking the 23 Things program and shall follow her blog with interest. Her links are very informative.
I ask myself what I would do without my new sources of information and I shrug my shoulders and say I could live without it. This is not to say I am not loving the new treasures unfolded
because of 23 Things.
I have read items on finding treasure/information randomly. There are bloggers who believe that "randomness" could be under threat because of the ever increasing sophistication of research engines finding answers and information too efficiently. I read about this in an erudite article on the technological library. My new RSS-initiated, randomly-gained knowledge, is valuable enough for me to now follow some pertinent threads as well as prompting me to think differently about my own research methods.
I have been alerted to some oddball items as I set up an alert to annoyed librarian, but not to the site. So when Google finds news about annoyed and librarian I am sent a message. I have discovered a site that is for librarians who say f... and yes there are over a thousand members.
I have to navigate very intricate paths to refind some of the links, over hill and down dale, but if I am persisitent I can retrace my steps. Otherwise, if I think I may lose some article or an extraordinarily odd blog, I copy it and store somewhere safe. I do not know how to feed it to myself and I do not need to know.
I have found a namesake in Nova Scotia undertaking the 23 Things program and shall follow her blog with interest. Her links are very informative.
I ask myself what I would do without my new sources of information and I shrug my shoulders and say I could live without it. This is not to say I am not loving the new treasures unfolded
because of 23 Things.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Austral Pride - ode to our 85 year old stove
THE AUSTRAL PRIDE
I love my stove more than I love my pearls, TV, furniture, in fact nearly every object I own. Most of our things are replaceable, but my stove is not.
Here is a stove that has been cooking family roasts, cakes, casseroles- for over 80 years of Christmas, Easter, summer holidays, winter chill, spring bounce and autumn glow. There are knobs to turn on and off: finite tweaks can get the temperature to highest heat for fast boiling to a tiny flame to cook soup all day. The fingers do the controls: there is no automatic switch. The back of the hand gauges the oven temperature (ask your grandma).
I love the fact that in 1927 a mother cooked a roast for her family and, 80 years later and thousands of roasts later, in 2007 my husband cooks a roast for his family. When the Swinburne cookery classes were being conducted in 1922, the stoves used would have looked much like this, but not as decorative.
This lovely piece of history works and connects us to our forbears, in a "throw away" time. A good spirit is felt by all who come to visit, especially tradespeople who sigh to see such wonderful craftsmanship and manufacture.
My stove is going to be in my will along with my pearls.
Progress when I did something else?
For task 7, I did not want to simpsonise myself though I looked at the program. I created a ribbon of achievement, I am blues singer "Sleepy Baby Hawkins" (generated based on my name) , and I have used the generator site to create several logos which I blogged about.
See: http://gallery.webfetti.com/webfetti/favorites.jhtml
See: http://gallery.webfetti.com/webfetti/favorites.jhtml
I love the internet
I listen to ABC FM when I drive. Today on my way to work, I heard a recommendation for a busker in NY's Central Park, who it appears is taking the world by storm through YouTube. The busker is a ukulele player, not my favourite instrument. The player is Jake Shimabukuro. While driving I memorised the spelling to find the video on YouTube as I was intrigued by the recommendation from this classical station.
I got the spelling wrong but nevertheless, Google corrected this and up came over 50,000 entries for Jake. Here is one of them:
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:5pp31q_6LDgJ:galleyslaves.blogspot.com/2006/07/paganini-of-ukelele.html+%22Jake+Shimabukuro%22+%2B+youtube&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4
If I knew how to insert the video clip I would do this but this expertise is not mine...yet.
In previous times when I heard recommendations like this I would have gone to a record shop and tracked the player down and bought the record/CD/DVD. That sequence tells its own story - I still talk about records, but have only recently stopped talking about the wireless (radio) and radiogram (CD player).
Today I typed three words and pressed a button.
I got the spelling wrong but nevertheless, Google corrected this and up came over 50,000 entries for Jake. Here is one of them:
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:5pp31q_6LDgJ:galleyslaves.blogspot.com/2006/07/paganini-of-ukelele.html+%22Jake+Shimabukuro%22+%2B+youtube&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4
If I knew how to insert the video clip I would do this but this expertise is not mine...yet.
In previous times when I heard recommendations like this I would have gone to a record shop and tracked the player down and bought the record/CD/DVD. That sequence tells its own story - I still talk about records, but have only recently stopped talking about the wireless (radio) and radiogram (CD player).
Today I typed three words and pressed a button.
I am in: but not to play
I am in under an assumed name with a birthdate that will put me into Facebook's elderly membership list. The steps in are just brilliantly easy and lead to success which is instant and pure magic.
I have put two photographs in an album and the images are so good they look three dimensional.
Apart from that, I am too busy with my favourite blogs, so I shall not look for friends or join groups in Facebook.
I have put two photographs in an album and the images are so good they look three dimensional.
Apart from that, I am too busy with my favourite blogs, so I shall not look for friends or join groups in Facebook.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Trepidation: entering Facebook
I have tried three times to join Facebook and each time I lose momentum as I think of myself in the Groucho Marks way -
I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT ME AS A MEMBER.
When I think I shall disguise my name and hide my email address, as Tom says I can, I feel concern that the name I choose may belong to a wanted person and I shall be stopped at airports. I know, how foolish and oh scaredy cat me.
I am not ready to join Facebook .... yet.
I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT ME AS A MEMBER.
When I think I shall disguise my name and hide my email address, as Tom says I can, I feel concern that the name I choose may belong to a wanted person and I shall be stopped at airports. I know, how foolish and oh scaredy cat me.
I am not ready to join Facebook .... yet.
Others' blogs: Task 4
I go a few steps out there and then come back to assess if I am following the correct path and sign posts -(for) the 23 Things program. Very typically for me, I often throw the rule book out as I loathe convention and adherence to formality.
However, to complete task four, I can report I have many favourite blogs, some of which I have included in my feed reader.
I enjoy reading the blogs of political writers in the newspapers. I agree wholeheartedly with Dana's comment that we should educate ourselves by reading other people's views. This is very much the case for me, especially when I am in total disagreement. How can we believe in what we do, without knowing how deeply we believe? I really love seeing views parallel to mine in news blogs, principally because they are usually much better argued than the opposite point of view (to mine).
My reading constantly reinforces this. I am reading a book* set in the beginning of last century at the time of the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the WW1, from the "other side's" view point. Gallipoli is covered from the Ottoman point of view- featuring Attaturk, the founder of modern Turkey. I would recommend everyone should read about battles from the "enemy's" side. The same goes for any deep disagreement: learn about the other side and hone your own arguments better. Or better still, you may even change your mind!
Back to reading other blogs and commenting, I do this regularly and have picked up marvellous insights.
"Birds without Wings" by Louis De Bernieres: http://www.librarything.com/work/2375/book/21930564
However, to complete task four, I can report I have many favourite blogs, some of which I have included in my feed reader.
I enjoy reading the blogs of political writers in the newspapers. I agree wholeheartedly with Dana's comment that we should educate ourselves by reading other people's views. This is very much the case for me, especially when I am in total disagreement. How can we believe in what we do, without knowing how deeply we believe? I really love seeing views parallel to mine in news blogs, principally because they are usually much better argued than the opposite point of view (to mine).
My reading constantly reinforces this. I am reading a book* set in the beginning of last century at the time of the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the WW1, from the "other side's" view point. Gallipoli is covered from the Ottoman point of view- featuring Attaturk, the founder of modern Turkey. I would recommend everyone should read about battles from the "enemy's" side. The same goes for any deep disagreement: learn about the other side and hone your own arguments better. Or better still, you may even change your mind!
Back to reading other blogs and commenting, I do this regularly and have picked up marvellous insights.
"Birds without Wings" by Louis De Bernieres: http://www.librarything.com/work/2375/book/21930564
Thursday, October 11, 2007
I think I am getting it
I am thrilled, to use an odd word for me, to have (a) created a blog which I blog on; (b) thought about my photographs coming alive for me and others- through flickr; (c) LibraryThing has got me thinking that I might share my thoughts on reading, which is a solitary past time, with "complete strangers"; (d) my mind has expanded, and not because, for an internet sceptic, I have achieved a list of technical feats.
I have been musing about an almost explosion of thoughts lately on the profession of being in a library, in my case, working with the past and history. I have already been totally enthralled with how technology has brought archives to a new sphere of influence and to a whole brand new audience. But today, I read a bit about Web 2.0 -
I have been musing about an almost explosion of thoughts lately on the profession of being in a library, in my case, working with the past and history. I have already been totally enthralled with how technology has brought archives to a new sphere of influence and to a whole brand new audience. But today, I read a bit about Web 2.0 -
I got this because I learnt RSS and put the Libodyssey blog as a feed. This extract is from an early Libodyssey post. As I did not wish to explore technical matters other than do my tasks, I ignored this item until today.
....................... "Stephen Fry (actor, author and broadcaster) describes Web 2.0 as "an idea in people’s heads rather than a reality. It’s actually an idea that the reciprocity between the user and the provider is what’s emphasized. In other words, genuine interactivity if you like, simply because people can upload as well as download"[6]. The phrase "Web 2.0" can also refer to the transition of websites from isolated information silos to interlinked computing platforms that act like software to the user. Web 2.0 also includes a social element where users generate and distribute content, often with freedom to share and re-use...............
The little description above explains why I am so enjoying the new mode of internet competency. The internet for me was an inert, useful tool, necessary for and in my world. Since I can hardly understand how Marconi got his telegraph working in Vancouver a century ago, let alone the fax, radio, television, I have taken for granted the mysteries of the internet, as I did the phone and the wireless, etc. and just worked with the tools. With Web 2.0 I am interacting rather than using. This has unlocked for me the reason for my joie de vie about the 23 Things program. It is not simply because I have learnt mysterious techniques. It is because I am using them to communicate (intellectual) thoughts and ideas I would only have discussed in social circumstances, that is person to person. With new skills I can do new things with old (but valuable) information and think new thoughts about it all.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Feeds and weeds
I feel like a gardener who has just thrown a few seeds over a patch. I am vaguely aware of the nature of the seeds I have just sown - RSS - but I do not know what to expect.
With intelligent encouragement from my colleagues, I have asked to be fed.
I pressed the buttons for feed reader and asked for items once a day - Annoyed L and news once a week from Infodoodads. Both are cribs off Dana.
I shall await my feeds and may be I shall get as enthusiastic about the RSS achievement as I am about all the other tasks. I have mentioned before how I am concerned (just a tiny bit) at my lack of knowledge about the technical side of my button pressing. The instructions to try new wizardry are brilliantly simple, well so far, and except for RSS which I had to try several times. But, if I am bombarded somewhere with results/weeds from my feeds that I do not want, I shall just pull them up at the press of a button: simple gardening and no fear of overgrown patches.
I have begun to do a bit more with my LibraryThing. I have started to take a peek at some of the reviews of the books in my library. I have got over my annoyance at the way the user has to re enter data constantly to include 20 or more books by an author, in my case John Le Carre, and the fact that the cataloguing of my authors puts John Le Carre under C and De Bernieres under B. I think I shall be very interested in reviews of books that I have read which are not particularly well known, such as "When she was good" by Philip Roth. This lets me see, in a way, a mirror of myself. I think this may be an internet (psychological) phenomenon which is well known to internet virtuosos.
With intelligent encouragement from my colleagues, I have asked to be fed.
I pressed the buttons for feed reader and asked for items once a day - Annoyed L and news once a week from Infodoodads. Both are cribs off Dana.
I shall await my feeds and may be I shall get as enthusiastic about the RSS achievement as I am about all the other tasks. I have mentioned before how I am concerned (just a tiny bit) at my lack of knowledge about the technical side of my button pressing. The instructions to try new wizardry are brilliantly simple, well so far, and except for RSS which I had to try several times. But, if I am bombarded somewhere with results/weeds from my feeds that I do not want, I shall just pull them up at the press of a button: simple gardening and no fear of overgrown patches.
I have begun to do a bit more with my LibraryThing. I have started to take a peek at some of the reviews of the books in my library. I have got over my annoyance at the way the user has to re enter data constantly to include 20 or more books by an author, in my case John Le Carre, and the fact that the cataloguing of my authors puts John Le Carre under C and De Bernieres under B. I think I shall be very interested in reviews of books that I have read which are not particularly well known, such as "When she was good" by Philip Roth. This lets me see, in a way, a mirror of myself. I think this may be an internet (psychological) phenomenon which is well known to internet virtuosos.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
History and well-behaved women
I read a review on the weekend about a book on well-behaved women .*
The background about the author and the theme of the book were read with interest - I have always loved book reviews as well as reading books. The most intriguing and revealing line in the review for me is "Still, as Ulrich notes again and again, history is'nt simply what happened in the past; it is what later generations choose to remember." **
I have spent many months this year researching our archives for relevant documents/primary sources for the Swinburne Historian, Dr Peter Love. An almost astonishing element to our history, of a Technical School, was the emphasis, from the very beginning, on training and education, for vocational/career purposes for girls and women. Peter has referred to this legagy of George and Ethel Swinburne several times in our first centenary history publication, due for release very soon - early November.
* Well behaved women seldom make history, by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Knopf
** See review by M Dirda in Australian Financial Review, Friday 5 October 2007.)
The background about the author and the theme of the book were read with interest - I have always loved book reviews as well as reading books. The most intriguing and revealing line in the review for me is "Still, as Ulrich notes again and again, history is'nt simply what happened in the past; it is what later generations choose to remember." **
I have spent many months this year researching our archives for relevant documents/primary sources for the Swinburne Historian, Dr Peter Love. An almost astonishing element to our history, of a Technical School, was the emphasis, from the very beginning, on training and education, for vocational/career purposes for girls and women. Peter has referred to this legagy of George and Ethel Swinburne several times in our first centenary history publication, due for release very soon - early November.
* Well behaved women seldom make history, by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Knopf
** See review by M Dirda in Australian Financial Review, Friday 5 October 2007.)
Thursday, October 4, 2007
New esoteric group
Here is my new group in my new account:
http://groups.google.com/group/siegfriedchandler?hl=en
http://groups.google.com/group/siegfriedchandler?hl=en
I love creating logos and I have explored a bit further in my task for week 5, even though I expressed my scepticism in the post before.
Week 5 task ???
I tried for a bit to see how the week 5 task can reveal itself as useful. Each online feeder service did not appeal to me. I realise I am completing a task within the 23 Things program and shall press any number of buttons to achieve this goal, but I think I am experiencing a familiar feeling of knowing nothing (of this technical world) and not wanting to find out. I have created a new account, though I am not sure I shall use it.
Metaphorically speaking, I am in a new car, idly pressing buttons and one of them may open the sunroof, the boot, set off the car alarm which I have no idea how to fix. But one of them could propel me out of my seat or destroy the engine because I pressed self destruct. Now this is of course fanciful. But I have had some anxious moments pressing all the buttons for these new programs even though I know that Swinburne keeps me on trainer wheels and I cannot crash the server.
On the other hand the previous tasks have led me to new knowledge and skill and I have begun to enjoy the possibilities.
I can create (free) logos. Invitations and greetings can now have a special ELECTRONIC flair which will dazzle my circle of family and friends.
I am already planning a whole new focus for my photographs, including the ones in fusty albums from the turn of the century. I shall scan them with a Hewlett Packard scanner, recommended by a professional blogger on my flickr site. I shall include a selection in PictureAustralia Ourtown
I am happy with this blog, which has given me an opportunity to think aloud. I have to do this thinking, sensibly, as I use my name. This concentrates the mind and allows me to distill my thoughts rather than shooting off, which I have a propensity for.
I have found one of Dana's favourite blogs - Annoyed L extremely amusing. It makes me laugh and think: a perfect combination and well worth this blogging business.
Metaphorically speaking, I am in a new car, idly pressing buttons and one of them may open the sunroof, the boot, set off the car alarm which I have no idea how to fix. But one of them could propel me out of my seat or destroy the engine because I pressed self destruct. Now this is of course fanciful. But I have had some anxious moments pressing all the buttons for these new programs even though I know that Swinburne keeps me on trainer wheels and I cannot crash the server.
On the other hand the previous tasks have led me to new knowledge and skill and I have begun to enjoy the possibilities.
I can create (free) logos. Invitations and greetings can now have a special ELECTRONIC flair which will dazzle my circle of family and friends.
I am already planning a whole new focus for my photographs, including the ones in fusty albums from the turn of the century. I shall scan them with a Hewlett Packard scanner, recommended by a professional blogger on my flickr site. I shall include a selection in PictureAustralia Ourtown
I am happy with this blog, which has given me an opportunity to think aloud. I have to do this thinking, sensibly, as I use my name. This concentrates the mind and allows me to distill my thoughts rather than shooting off, which I have a propensity for.
I have found one of Dana's favourite blogs - Annoyed L extremely amusing. It makes me laugh and think: a perfect combination and well worth this blogging business.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Two Tasks in one
Thank you to Chris who encouraged me to enter LibaryThing.
Since I read so much I did not want to enter a new world of books.
I have created my Library: http://www.librarything.com/profile/sara11 It will be interesting for me to see if my curiosity gets me to peep at some of the fans of the books I have selected initially.
Hang of creating a logo
A blogger wondered where my previous attempts at logo making (playing) were going. I went back to the site and created this on the free logo section.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Playing
I fiddled with my logo image. I used a Russian font and a bark background: Russian because I am reading about the Russian Revolution and bark because I love trees. I did not realise that the text for bevel would be in Russian script? It is, however, familiar to me as I struggle through the myriad Russian names and places in my Russian reading.
Solo
Tom guided me in adding my first image to the blog. I did this on my own.
Tom is an excellent teacher.
Tom is an excellent teacher.
Could be anywhere: it is in Mornington
Photograph taken by my son for his business website. I love the universality of the image yet it has an intimacy.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Flickr group
I joined a flickr group today. I joined a new group - mine. I kept it private but if anyone wants to look - http://www.flickr.com/groups/526028@N23/discuss/72157602128696908/.
The 23 Things instructions were good, but I decided to really branch out and create my own online group, rather than join an existing one - too many choices. I do not like huge "shopping centres" for any acquisitions.
The 23 Things instructions were good, but I decided to really branch out and create my own online group, rather than join an existing one - too many choices. I do not like huge "shopping centres" for any acquisitions.
Flickr: success
I created the flickr account on Friday and tried to write about the task in my blog. My entry (ies) did not appear, despite pressing buttons to publish, save, etc. Getting the rhythm of blogging versus our regular communication programs at Swinburne, with all the built in protections Swinburne provides for us, will be a goal for me.
I liken reaching these achievements to climbing a steep mountain and not being out of breath at the top.
I also recognise that I am a rank amateur in this new world of the 23 things - using these almost Dr Who/out of this world (for me) programs to enter spaces I have never been. I also have a certain joie-de-vie knowing that my 1%, miniscule knowledge is about 99% more knowledge than my family and friends have. I shall endeavour not to become a geeky bore and raise the topics of blogging and using flickr at every opportunity - to show off.
I liken reaching these achievements to climbing a steep mountain and not being out of breath at the top.
I also recognise that I am a rank amateur in this new world of the 23 things - using these almost Dr Who/out of this world (for me) programs to enter spaces I have never been. I also have a certain joie-de-vie knowing that my 1%, miniscule knowledge is about 99% more knowledge than my family and friends have. I shall endeavour not to become a geeky bore and raise the topics of blogging and using flickr at every opportunity - to show off.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
Changes, but nothing new...
When I let my former colleagues at the State Library of South Australia know I had created a blog they were incredulous at the 21st century me. But then, I did use microfiche for researching queries in the mid 1960s, so I am really just adapting and using new tools of communication.
I cook on a gas stove that is 75 years old. I still use a 35 year old washing machine. My friends have appliances that ring them up when the dinner is ready ( well sort of) and these very modern appliances with 25+ electronic features seem to break down regularly to be replaced every few years.
I can see that blogging is another form of communication. There are people who throw all the old ways out and blog brilliantly but fail to continue with the "older"ways, keeping only to the brand new: they are the ones in the dark ages.
I cook on a gas stove that is 75 years old. I still use a 35 year old washing machine. My friends have appliances that ring them up when the dinner is ready ( well sort of) and these very modern appliances with 25+ electronic features seem to break down regularly to be replaced every few years.
I can see that blogging is another form of communication. There are people who throw all the old ways out and blog brilliantly but fail to continue with the "older"ways, keeping only to the brand new: they are the ones in the dark ages.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Favourite saying
The shadow of an orchid cast by the moon is even more beautiful than the orchid itself
Monday, September 10, 2007
SPJ
I almost shall clap for myself at this blog. I am very enthusiastic about this new learning
which 23 Things allows me.
which 23 Things allows me.
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