Wikis are community spaces that allow anyone (depending on the wikis settings) to edit the websites content. This allows for one of wikis biggest drawcards, the ability for a site to be updated and maintained almost exclusively by its user's. Anyone with a Hobby loves talking with others about it. Wikis allow you to share information about things with other and create pages that can be constantly be updated and maintained.
The ability to maintain pages is good for things like tutorials. For instance if I had created a tutorial for how to use RSS feeds with Google Reader and Google changed a piece of its service so the tutorial was no longer correct I or another of the wikis users could correct this error. Not only this if a strong community is developed then it will start to develop its on material for the wiki independant of the creator.
All of this can be seen with wikipedia, most of the sites content is created, maintaned and edited. People create content for the things they are interested in, then someone else may edit the page to correct any inaccuracies and finally the community will work to keep the page up to date. The best wikis are ones with a strong community of people who are dedicated to it and willing to spend some time adding to and maintaing it.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Flickr and Delicious
Flickr is a handy tool for sharing photos. It includes many social tools that most other photo upload sites do not. It has good functinality with many of the other social media websites like facebook, twitter and blogger. This allows for relatively easy ability to link photos between accounts.
Delicious is a excellent tool for everyone especially those like teachers and librarians who often end up using multiple different computers in different areas. It allows you to have a consistent and accessible anywhere list of sites, as well as being able to search for other sites people have bookmarked on the site.
With Tag bundles you are also able to create tags groups for specific areas allowing for organisation of tags into groups. For instance you can create a tag bundle for Libraries that includes tags for library, web2, conservation, and books. This would allow you to choose to view only thebookmarks that have these tags. Allowing for better management of these bookmarks. Also a tag can be used in multiple bundles so you can have a bookmark in multiple bundles.
Delicious is a excellent tool for everyone especially those like teachers and librarians who often end up using multiple different computers in different areas. It allows you to have a consistent and accessible anywhere list of sites, as well as being able to search for other sites people have bookmarked on the site.
With Tag bundles you are also able to create tags groups for specific areas allowing for organisation of tags into groups. For instance you can create a tag bundle for Libraries that includes tags for library, web2, conservation, and books. This would allow you to choose to view only thebookmarks that have these tags. Allowing for better management of these bookmarks. Also a tag can be used in multiple bundles so you can have a bookmark in multiple bundles.
Huonville Primary School Book Week 2010
Here is a picture of the book week display from my work placement last year at Huonville Primary School Library. It was a very well done display by Maxine Hindell.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Gamification
Gamification
Gamifying Education
Gamification is the concept of using the ideas behind games and applying them to other things in life like work and school. The above videos are from a series of Vodcast's (video podcasts) are about video game development, the theory behind it and how to make it better. These three videos are the only ones that really have anything to do with education and teaching , however they cover some interesting concepts about how to make work a bit more like play.
Hopefully you'll enjoy them and to anyone with an interest in games try out the series it's quite informative and well done.
Gamifying Education
Gamification is the concept of using the ideas behind games and applying them to other things in life like work and school. The above videos are from a series of Vodcast's (video podcasts) are about video game development, the theory behind it and how to make it better. These three videos are the only ones that really have anything to do with education and teaching , however they cover some interesting concepts about how to make work a bit more like play.
Hopefully you'll enjoy them and to anyone with an interest in games try out the series it's quite informative and well done.
RSS feeds and Optimizing Time
I have been using RSS feeds for several years now and thanks to them what would take me more than 2 hours will take me at most half an hour. RSS feeds allow you to view the headlines and updates to various websites from one location. This means that there is no waiting for various pages to load. Another advantage comes from the irregularly updated site, using RSS feeds you will imediately know when a site is updated without having to constantly visit to checkup on it.
It is also very useful for sites that have lots of updates. You can avoid all the posts that you aren't interested in and you won't be as likely to miss an article you want to read thats buried underneath all the others.
Libraries could use RSS feeds to stay on top of information but also to provide information to clients. The more ways clients can access information on our libraries the more they will access. You can even have multiple RSS feeds for differents areas of interest, one for fiction and one for non-fiction.
In a world of information overload RSS feeds allow for collation and filtering of that information in one place. They are probably the best way to stay connected and sort through information.
It is also very useful for sites that have lots of updates. You can avoid all the posts that you aren't interested in and you won't be as likely to miss an article you want to read thats buried underneath all the others.
Libraries could use RSS feeds to stay on top of information but also to provide information to clients. The more ways clients can access information on our libraries the more they will access. You can even have multiple RSS feeds for differents areas of interest, one for fiction and one for non-fiction.
In a world of information overload RSS feeds allow for collation and filtering of that information in one place. They are probably the best way to stay connected and sort through information.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
The Unquiet Librarian
Here's my blog for Wednesdays class.
Annotated Citation
Hamilton, B. J. (2011, 06 28). Retrieved 07 02, 2011, from The Unquiet Librarian: http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/
This is a blog by the media specialist/Teacher-Librarian Creekview High School in Canton, Georgia. She also blogs for ALA Learning (American Library Association Learning) and GLMA (Georgia Library Media Association). The blog has recently posted some presentations from the ALA conference that happened a few days ago. While a lot of the information is for libraries there is also quite a bit on Teaching as well.
Annotated Citation
Hamilton, B. J. (2011, 06 28). Retrieved 07 02, 2011, from The Unquiet Librarian: http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/
This is a blog by the media specialist/Teacher-Librarian Creekview High School in Canton, Georgia. She also blogs for ALA Learning (American Library Association Learning) and GLMA (Georgia Library Media Association). The blog has recently posted some presentations from the ALA conference that happened a few days ago. While a lot of the information is for libraries there is also quite a bit on Teaching as well.
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