Another Happy Ending

What an accomplishment to complete my 20 things!
The most entertaining discovery was Pandora, and the most practical was Google Documents.
This process made me realize how much has changed in just a couple of years. I have to keep investigating new technologies, or there is a danger of falling way behind.
One thing I would want to do differently next time is to have more time to spend on each item and to have the experiences incorporated into our real work. For example, I think all of us should have been using IM for three weeks and working on a project with online shared documents for three weeks.
Yes, I would love to participate in all discovery programs now and happily ever after.

Gaming and the Reluctant Gamer

While I love the idea of gaming, I cannot find one that I enjoy. Today I realized for sure that I do not care for Sudoku after playing it online for a while. Many people in my family play it, but I just don't see the attraction. It will take a lot of testing to figure out what kind of games I might like to play, but frankly, that kind of time is not available to me right now. If libraries could think of training that can be formatted as a game, that would be a cool concept.
I'm excited that we provide gaming opportunities in the library for the teens and younger patrons. In my own home my son and I have hosted many a LAN party in the past for his friends. I think online games are great cooperative endeavors, and I love that the library is encouraging socializing and exercise with its DDR and other games available during Gaming nights. Way to go! (I just realized I do like DDR, I do:)

Google Earth

Zooming around the earth via Google Earth is almost as fun as riding "Soaring over California" in California Adventure! I visited Maui and Japan, two of my favorite places. It is really amazing. I was surprised that the pictures are more recent than I had expected. This is quite the resource, and I'm looking forward to using it more.

Avatar

So this is my first Avatar ever. What a lot of fun! I have never entered the realm of Second Life, and frankly, it might be too tempting. It reminds me of the game "Better Than Life" from Red Dwarf. If you've seen that TV episode, then you know the dangers of such virtual realities. I do know people who spend a lot of time in such domains. It will be interesting to see what becomes of them. I will wait a while longer before I enter that portal in case I do not want to come out again.

Online Applications and Tools

Zoho is far more complicated than Google Docs, but it looks like alot of fun to work with. I'm going to try Zoho with a project I'll work on from the office and at home.
Then I'll give Google Docs a try with other people I am working with on a long-term project. They are going to want something simple to use, and I think Google Docs would be very streamlined.
This idea of online tools might end up being very practical. I cannot wait to find out.

Search Engines

I admit that when I use a search engine, I usually choose Google first. Before Google became the first choice of search engines at a library where I used to work, I employed Dogpile all the time for my searches. Now I cannot believe how clunky it seems. It did produced a lot of results on my test topic, "Great Britain budget travel for women," but I could not find a total number of hits displayed.
Using Mamma, I had only 34 results, but they seemed more relevant.
The last search engine I tried was Rollyo, which had just a few relevant results. My only big surprise was that Rollyo placed advertising in the middle of the results list randomly. I found that extremely annoying.

Podcast

I listened to SIL’s podcast of Owl Babies, and I found it instructional to hear another person reading a book expressively. Whoever read it did a great job! Using Learn Out Loud, I listened to Children’s Book Radio, which in 2006 was supposed to be the only podcast devoted entirely to Children’s books. It simply suggested a children’s book title and gave information in why one should read it to children. The book was Roxaboxen, and although I’ve read it, I’ll check it out again. On the wiki, there were links that didn’t work. Finding a library-related podcast took a bit of time. I discovered Booktalks Quick and Simple from the site http://www.nancykeane.com/booktalks/. This booktalk by Nancy Keane about Elephant Run by Roland Smith. This piqued my interest, and I may read the book.

I consider podcasting a useful tool for SIL. I think patrons would like to hear booktalks and presentations by speakers. I have not created a podcast, but I have listened to them before.