Rollyo and Online Image Generators

This is probably my last post, unless I come across any other 2.0 tools that I think that I should share.

I am struggling with the whole Rollyo concept. It seems like an extension of delicious, where you can keep all the internet sites that you want to go back to. But in this case you roll all the related sites up into a search engine and it will search all those sites for you (once you have something to search on). What happens if a new trusted site is added to the Web and you miss searching it because you do not go to the Web any more because you have all the sites that you call reliable in one place?

When I created a searchroll, it had suggested sites that you could include the first being Wikipedia - I would not call this site reliable or trusted!

Since I was not understanding Rollyo (even though I read the 'about Rollyo' and checked out the Buzz) I thought that I would move on to online image generators, hoping they would bring some fun back into play week.

I went in through the Yarra Plenty Library - 23 Things program and looked at The Generator Blog (I could not get Letter James to work) and FD Toys. I created my own 3D cover , but could not manage to get it on to my blog, only the link. More practice required!
This stuff seemed fairly pointless, with six assignments hanging over my head, but did not require any understanding to be able to do it.

Have a look at these and tell me what you think:

Looney MP name - may be useful this election

Butterfly animation

FlickrPoet

Exobotics

LibraryThing or Shelfari

This week is 'play week' and what a way to end my journey through some of the 23 things that I could have chosen to do.

I joined LibraryThing because that was part of this activity. Once again this was a fairly easy process, name, password, email - although I did have to change my password from the one that I use for all my TAFE logins because it would not let me use symbols. I also had a laugh at the "to verify your humanity" question - do they have many non humans trying to join their network?
I tried to add some books. My first question was why do my book cover look nothing like theirs? Not to worry, I did discover in edit books that you were able to pick the cover that matched the one that you were looking at. To continue, I kept having to go back to the search field and put the authors name in over and over which seemed to take a very long time when you have as many Dick Francis books as I have. I then discovered that I could put the ISBN numbers which made my search much quicker.

Lisa on her blog (Week 5 play week) said that she preferred Shelfari, so I thought that I would try it too. I loved the way that it actually displays my books on a book shelf! All you need to do is go to http://www.shelfari.com/. To create yourself all you need is a name, email and password. I skipped finding my friends so that I could just get started. To search you can use the book title, author or ISBN. Once you find your book you can show other editions to get other covers, and find one to match yours!

Downside: Shelfari seemed to take a long time to load the other edition covers so that I could pick the one that matched mine. I thought that it was the computer that I was using, so I tried again at work the next day, with the same result, I was timed out before I could select the cover that I wanted. Never the less I have managed to get 13 books on my shelf.

The second best thing about Shelfari is that when I logged back in on my home computer I did not have to log in again, the computer remembered who I was. Unlike LibraryThing where I have had to created myself three times! The first time I used DiDee2010 as my name, but I could not get in using it the second time I wanted to go there, so I created myself again as DiDee10, but this did not work the third time I tried to log on so I became dimckinnon! I have tried again tonight to log on to LibraryThing and DiDee10 has 21 books. So it would seem that I have had better luck loading my book covers into LibraryThing.

I liked the way that Shelfari asked for more details on consecutive screens when you were adding a book, such as when did you buy it and what did it cost. If LibraryThing wanted these details I did not bother to scroll down the screen to find them. The other problem I had in the beginning with LibraryThing was that it shows other covers for the book on the right hand side so it not hard to try and click on them to select your cover rather than clicking on change cover on the left side and going to the covers at the bottom of the page. Shelfari also has suggested tags for you to select from to make tagging easier.

My frustration with trying to log on to LibraryThing is probably equalled by my frustration of selecting the right cover and getting it to load in Shelfari.

I am now off to learn about Rollyo and online image generators. I will keep you posted.

RSS problem

Forget my last post - problem solved!
A big thank you to Leticia for pointing me in the right direction.
Down the side of her blog she has 'Just a few of my Links'. She has now solved my problem of having all the links to the places that I want to go, in one place, on my blog.
Therefore I now have my Shelfari books displayed at the end of my blog.
I have also added Librarything, Delicious and Bloglines as links to my blog. So now I only have to come here to be able to access everything. This means that I should be able to remember to check my RSS feeds more regularly.
Brilliant idea. Thank you for showing me how its done.
I am really enjoying being able to learn from what others are doing on their blogs!

Help RSS

Hi fellow 2.0 students,
HELP!!!!!!!!!!
Can some on tell me where I am going wrong?
I see a few of you have posted on RSS feeds, which is what I am struggling with this weekend.
Can you put the link to your RRS feeds on your blog or is it another site like delicious that you just go to to find all the things that you have book marked in one place.
I thought I saw some where that you could put the icon for your RSS feeds on your website but I don't have one of those, so can you link it to your blog?
If any one knows can you please let me know........
I will be forever grateful.

Information Literacy

Such a huge area to explore, where should I start...................

Information Literacy is defined as the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand. (National Forum on Information Literacy, n.d.,para 1.)

The problem at hand - to post a blog on information literacy by the sixteenth of June. I definitely need some information, but there is so much information available to me. Before technology made it easy to store and share information on line, my search may have been limited to books, journals and newspapers. I know that I can locate websites, articles and blogs on information literacy by typing those two words into a search engine. I think that my current problem is how to evaluate the information that I have found. Is up to date? Is the source relevant and reliable?

I found a skill set of ten, by the University of Sydney (2010, para 2), that every information literate person should have. I feel that I am stuck at point three: "Access the needed information efficiently". I have spent hours looking on the Web, for sites to use as sources for this assignment and it has been very frustrating. I have seen, somewhere, a diagram that I would like to insert to help show my understanding of this topic but do you think that I can find it again? I thought that I had written down all the addresses of the sites that I had visited but I cannot find that diagram.

Any way it was the last point, on their list, that really resonated with me. "Recognise information literacy as a prerequisite for lifelong learning". (The University of Sydney, 2010, para 2) This means in order to be able to achieve my career change I must understand that learning for this course is not the end of my learning. I need to become a lifelong learner. I cannot just do this unit and think that I do not need to keep using these tools. I must not be overwhelmed, but continue to try. I cannot ignore the Web, with it's huge store of information, so I must try to understand it. Until I become information literate I can not help others on their journey to achieve the same. So the next time I get frustrated because I cannot find what I want, I need to remember that this is a learning process.

That old saying that "you are never too old" springs to mind. I must try to keep that front of my mind with anything involving technology - I must be willing to learn.

References
National Forum on Information Literacy. (n.d.). What is Information Literacy? Retrieved 14/6/10 from http://www.infolit.org/

The University of Sydney. (2010). Information Literacy Policy Statement Retrieved 14/6/10 from http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/skills/infolitpolicy.html

My experience with Flickr

I have made a start on the week 3 activity from the 23 things list, Photos & Images.

I have explored Flickr by uploading some of my photos to their site, which I have now connected to my blog! This was not hard (which should not have suprised me) but like creating this blog I now have a Flickr account and a Yahoo ID.

I suppose that these things (creating a blog and Flickr) have had to be fairly straight forward so that new users do not get frustrated, decide that its all too hard and give up.

Uploading the photos was easy, just follow the steps. I did not edit them at the time (although the option to do so was there). I named them, added a description and put them in a set. It took less than an hour from creating my account to feeling very accomplished in having 9 photos on my site.

I have now gone back in a second time and edited those photos that needed it. This process seemed to be fairly slow in loading each of the selected photos, considering that I was only cropping and changing the contrast on some. Although to be fair it may have been the time of day, the fact that it was the weekend or just my computer. (I would be interested to hear from any one else who had this problem/or did not.) I have not used any other photo software before so this may just be how long it takes.

When I returned to Flickr I was at a loss to how to edit my photos. Luckly just double clicking on the photo brings up the edit function (as well as a few others that I did not go into). Editing is through Picnik (I love these names) but Flickr has been set up to walk you through that connection as well.

I have a photo stream DiDee2010 and a set of photos "All creatures great and small" to which I have to add, since I have included neither the guinea pigs or the rabbits at this stage.

I was concerned about including photos that could identify me, my family or where I live, so using photos of our animals was best for me. There were privacy settings but I thought that if I did not pick the broadest settings that none of you would be able to see them.

I still have to have some fun with Flickr mashups (6) so I will let you know how that goes (once I work out what they are).

Enjoy my journey so far.

Lack of Resources

OK so now that it is the weekend I thought that I would be able to really get my teeth into some of these 23 things. The only problem is that there is one less computer at home than there are people, so who misses out until 10pm, mum! Is there such a place that you can go, like a 24 hour fitness centre or laundry mat and just use their computers and Internet? Although at this time of night is it all I can do to stay awake, I dont have the energy to go back out.
That is the good thing about books or papers or magazines - they are truly portable and I could be doing my assignment sitting in on the train, but I need this darn computer.

No time

I last stated that I thought blogging was very anti social, but I think that in the last week I have decided that being anti social is not all bad.
I have spent 2 useless days at a "conference" to learn 2 small facts that could have been conveyed much more efficiently using some other medium that would not have required me to leave my office.
This is why we have emails, web sites and other technology!
I admit that meeting people that you deal with over the phone is great to put a face to a name (because they are never what you imagine), but that's the social side of it, rather than the work aspect

Yesterday's 23 things

Yesterday I was feeling overwhelmed. All these things that I "need"? to learn about what is on line that todays kids seemed to have embraced as a way of life. Are they not learning the skills to interact face to face with real people? If they come across something that they don't like, do they just turn the computer off? Can they negotiate solutions to problems that involve others? Do they still care/understand about real peoples feelings and how careless words to faceless people can still harm.