Karen's Thing 16

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4Ezw2EeMHHo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

How long have I worked at ACU libraries and have not noticed this youtube video. I actually work on intercampus loans and now I know what to tell the students when they ask me how do I go about ordering books from another campus. It actually educated me in my own job!!!!


<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Qz5GU-azgps" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Here is another youtube clip that is a good way of educating our students on Library searching.

I haven't used youtube much as I thought it was just a lot of homemade clips (Funniest Home Video style). How wrong I was. What a good educational tool for us to use to get our message across to the young ones.

Karen's Thing 15

I love slideshare. There is a lot of work that goes into these presentations and to make them available to all would prolong the life of someone's very hard work. What if you had missed a conference? You might be able to access the presentation on Slideshare!!!! What a bonus to be able to access such wealth of knowledge and information without the cost of attending conferences. It seems easy to upload your presentations, documents, videos etc. The instructions they give are fairly self explainatory.

Prezi is a fantastic collaborative tool  for presentations. I love the way that you can collaborate with others over timezones and the presentations are very innovative. The presentations end up to be a journey of information collaborated between people, that can lead to a journey of discovery. I am doing a unit, for the library course, that involves concept and mindmapping and this will come in handy for me.

Karen's Thing 14

I am a great fan of Skype. It is easy to use with very simple and clear instructions. I use Skype every night connecting to family. It is so refreshing to have a tool that doesn't cost a thing and I can virtually cancel my home phone (but not my mobile yet!!). I love the fact that it is the easiest way to keep in contact with relatives overseas and the cheapest. It has a great support system too, with lots of FAQ's.

I had a look at Cacoo, an online collaborative tool that allows you to create diagrams in real time. How fantastic would this be for meetings and you can even chat with collaborators while you are editing the diagrams. It makes you feel that you are all in one room together.I had a look at the pricing and it is free for the first 25 sheets and 1 shared folder. Up to 15 people can use the diagram for free and they have a reasonable price plan structure that allows for up to 100 users. All in all, I think this would be a great tools for library meetings!!!

Karen' Thing 13

I am not a fan of Facebook and I don't let my kids have a facebook account. I am concerned about the security and I must say the kids have never asked for one. It is a case of what they haven't had, they don't miss. A few colleagues have it to keep in touch with their friends and family and to share photos, but otherwise they say they wouldn't have one.
I have had a quick look at the privacy settings and  found that if you make a mistake picking which contact you would like to send to, then this could be a problem. The onus is on the user to get it right. For the uninitiated, one mistake could send the wrong thing to the wrong person.
I am sure the techno savvy students use it all the time, but I am not aware of it which makes me think that Facebook is just a part of their everyday life and is no big deal to them!!!!

Karen's Thing 12

Like information literacy, digital media literacy is a must for both students and staff to keep up with evolving technologies. There is a wonderful world opening up for everyone but they need to be educated on how to use this new technology. We can't assume that they know. Luckily we have programmes like 23 Things to help us. This is a new age where information is delivered to students via smartphones, tablets etc and then in turn can be shared amongst others. We have the opportunity to collect information at any time or at any place and at a rapidly increasing speed, giving students quality teaching and learning.

Karen's Thing 11

I just had a look at Instapaper. This I would use. I am impressed with the fonts (Dyslexic and FS Me). It is great that they are looking after people with disabilities. I am constantly reading half an article from magazines and newspapers due to time constraints. It would be good to go back and finish them in my own time.
I then went on to look at Remember The Milk. As I live an hour away from work and drop off two kids at school along the way, I am constantly thinking about lists. Lists of ingredients to get for dinner, lists of what child does what sport on which afternoon and lists of things I have to do at work. Lists, lists, lists going around my head all day!!!! I would love to just put my lists down and refer to them when need be.Now I have to make a list of what tools to add that I have discovered. Thanks Kate.

Karen's Thing 10

I am catching up fast!! After reading about social bookmarking, I went to the Delicious site and browsed. I found that Delicious has Bookmarks that allow you to access your Delicious account from your iphone. That would be handy and I found that it has an app called Dishpal where you can share recipes with friends.Best of all it is free!!Delicious also has blog postings and an app for Facebook.
I have had no previous experience with social bookmarking and may not find that I would use it in the near future. I do not have many favourite websites and the few that I do (eg. SMH and Courier Mail)  have RSS feeds. I hope that this doesn't make me look like I am a dinosaur when it comes to computer literacy. I am open to trying social bookmarking though and I will see if it will fit into my life.