Thing 23: A Finish to a Great Project

I can't believe all these weeks have passed and I am finished with the Nebraska Learns project. Before I started this project, I had heard of terms like Flickr, Twitter, Podcasts, etc., but thought this was for the young "techies" and not
anything I would be able to learn. I decided to try this course and I'm very
grateful that I did. Now, I not only know what these terms mean, but I can
actually figure it out. I think I have surprised my three teenage sons. Tools
like RSS Feeds will help me read book reviews. I can introduce my blog to the students which will help them understand more about the library. The use of
tagging can help our library be more organized when we do searches. The wiki
tool has been fun, especially when reading all the additions and changes to the
entry I took part in. This has been a very good learning experience for me and
I would like to take part in similar projects.

Ann

Podcasts A Plenty

I have always heard the word podcast but did not know
what it was. I feel a little smarter now that I have
researched various podcasts. I mostly looked up library
and teen book reviews. I feel this could give me insight
into books that teens and teachers are reading and what
their likes and dislikes are. I added the podcast,The
Great Read Radio Show, to my Bloglines account. I look
forward to listening to this podcast.

Ann

YouTube Favorite

I enjoyed searching on YouTube, especially when I found my favorite video clip from
last year's American Idol. The song, costumes, and background are very inspirational.
I think YouTube could have a place in a library. The library could film some video clips about library rules and procedures and make them humorous and interesting. There could also be video clips about different books. YouTube has many good video clips, but as in every situation, there are some bad ones that might need to be monitored, especially when children are present.

Ann

Linkscape

In looking over the sites and tools on the award list, I decided to research Linkscape. Linkscape
is a free tool that searches different URL addresses one at a time or 4 or 5 at a time to compare them for trustworthiness. Linkscape ranks these addresses according to:

mozRank-raw link popularity of a URL or domain based on analysis of the links pointing to it.
mozTrust-Estimation of how trustworthy a URL or domain is in the eyes of the search engines
based on the quality and quantity of trusted links pointing to it.
Full Lists of Links-Detailed lists of URLs linking to a particular page or domain, ordered by their
relative importance.
Anchor Text-Complete lists of anchor text used by the links to a particular URL or domain, including distribution of terms and relative popularity.
Domain Juice-An estimation of the total "link juice" or mozRank from all the URLs on a domain.

This tool helps in finding a trustworthy web site which is important to everyone. When a library or other business purchases books and other items or when research materials are needed, we
want to know that we can trust the product value or the truthfulness of what we are reading on the website. I compared two websites that sell supplies and observed their rankings. This can help me know which seller is more trustworthy. Of course there could be flaws in every tool,
but I thought the idea of the rankings in Linkscape could be an added measure of safety.

There were added reports that could be printed about these URL sites but I'm sure this would
have cost a fee.

Alternative to MS Word

I did not know about the online word processing tools. I was so glad to find out that this is possible. If I created a document at work and wanted to work on it at home, it wouldn't be possible unless I saved it to a flash drive. If I would use a tool like GoogleDocs, I could just access it on the web.

I found that the setup of GoogleDocs was very similar to MS Word and even had html or PDF options. I will definitely be using this in the future and I will inform the students about it.

Ann

PBwiki

I enjoyed going on the Nebraska Learns 2.0 wiki and learning what
other people posted as their favorites, such as books, vacations, etc.
I posted a favorite recipe blog, and then added The Miracle Girls as
my favorite book and Mount Rushmore as my favorite vacation spot.
It will be interesting to check back and see what other people wrote.

Ann

Easy Presentations

I was really impressed with slideshare. Searching presentations was easy as there are several ways to do this. Sometimes when you need this information, you feel helpless and don't know
where to start. Slideshow gives you many options, from downloading a presentation to embedding one in a different presentation. Searching also can give you great ideas to create one
yourself.

Ann