World's Smallest Horse

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/podcasts/ac360/site/2010/04/24/cooper.podcast.friday.cnn.html

I like the diversity of choices available from You Tube. I found a plethora of ecclectic film clips. However, I didn't see much organization or order to the site. I think this video of the tiny horse could be used to introduce a book about horses, such as Gabriel's Horse. In addition to students seeing the podcast in the library, by putting it on a library webpage a student could share the film footage with his/her family.

Awards List

Okay, I selected Mashable--the Social Media Guide--as the site of my exploration. I learned that European travelers stranded during the recent volcanic eruptions used Twitter and Twitter keywords to funnel information to one another. Apparently, since travelers were getting little--if any information from the European airlines, they took matters into their own hands. Using their Twitter accounts and the keyword "#ashcloud," they used sources outside the airlines to find out about the volcano's behavior, cancelled flights, available hotels, and rescheduled flights. It caught on to the point that the European air carriers eventually started using Twitter to get info to their clients.

Technology's children are really remaking the rules today!

ZOHO Writer

Although it appears that this entity was created with businesses in mind, I found it very easy to set up an account, make new folders, create documents that can easily be revised, and just generally start using Zoho. Being able to share documents online and collaborate in real time could be useful when getting input from teachers about what books to order. Every teacher on a particular grade level could send in additional titles or remove titles. The list could then be shared with administrators. The other advantage of Zoho is not having to buy or download additional programs since it is web-based.

Cult of digital narcissism?? amateurism and WIKI's

I like the way Web 2.0 can be used to encourage patron feedback and participation. Here I would love to set a WIKI, where students could post their reviews of books, or have discussions about books. Likewise, they could suggest new books to purchase for the library.

In the future, I can see myself planning lessons with teachers via a WIKI page.

Libraries as "convocations of people"

The Web 2.0 movement seems chiefly to be about meshing the services we offer with the daily patterns of our users. One writer issued a call for libraries to become increasingly "user-centric." I like that term; I think that it is far easier to sit and blog about how things ought to be than to actually change one's way of doing things, to figure how to implement new practices without creating chaos and with minimal stress to the patron. Michael Stephens made a good point about librarians needing to be trendspotters, who search out new information and new technologies and anticipate how these will impact users. It is implied that trendspotting librarians would go one step further and generate plans for dealing with changes long before they actually arrive.

Deliciously Del.icio.us

This site took me to the redesigned version of You Tube, just released today by the Google folks. It does look different to me. It's a lot less cluttered than I remember and easier to browse and search through. Though much of its content will be blocked by district filters, You Tube does have some items that could actually enrich school curriculum and would certainly pique the interest of our students.

My Take on Technorati

'Became intrigued with Technorati today. I went onto this site and watched a recorded interview with Dean Takahashi, a 20 year veteran reporter of the Silicon Valley scene. He shared his views on what lies just ahead in the path of technology--he discussed "crowd sourcing" (????), user-generated content-driven electronic games, and how social networking is being married to video gaming. When he spoke of Club Penguin, a company which the Disney folks just bought for $355 million dollars, he GOT MY ATTENTION. When he went on to cronicle how companies are currently making real money selling "virtual clothing" for Second Life avatars, he held my attention.