Itunes - Test 1 - F

http://ia310102.us.archive.org/0/items/BHTM1999-06-26/BHTM1999-06

I am trying to insert a Nina Simone tune.

Fail

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.