Games Galore!

Okay, this is definitely a dangerous tool to learn about simply because of the addictive nature and wanting to play some of these fun games over and over and... Who has the time to use all of these wonderful Web 2.0 tools? However, it's good to know that there are some fun, free games out there when I get tired of playing Spider Solitaire at home (especially when the computer won't let me win). I think I'll introduce my youngest child to Yahoo Games to lure him away from the sometimes questionable Addicting Games offerings. That's provided I can pry my husband and both kids away from World of Warcraft. They've all gotten hooked in to this game. We do have our challenges of fair segments of computer time since we currently only have one computer for all 4 of us. Oh, how times have changed...anyone remember Dungeons and Dragons?

#18 Google Earth

I've used Google Earth before but I am impressed with the updates that have been made--especially the "flying" to other locations. It's a unique perspective of our world. It's interesting that the pictures of your home are clearer from a higher altitude than if you try to zoom in too far--it's still fun to look and try to determine when the picture was taken. I also like that people have been able to post real pictures, like of Mt. St. Helens. Since "staycation" is the new term for beating rising fuel costs, this is one way to explore new areas that you're not able to travel to--not exactly like the real thing. I also see good uses for teaching the kids about geography and a resource for school projects.

Avatar Me

This was a very fun assignment this week. I didn't really care for the avatars on the doppelme and tektek Web sites--thought they were too cartoonish. However, http://www.meez.com/ offered more realistic options and I had a lot of fun creating my Avatar HRGal (HRGirl was already taken). I don't currently live in Second Life and I created a login and started to create an avatar. I have to say that Second Life scares me a little bit--it just feels really personal to put yourself out there with tons of other people. Guess I'm just not ready to really live in Second Life. I also don't think I would spend the time in the Second Life world--I have too much to do in my First Life world. Anyway, I added my full-size avatar to my blog and here's the headshot.

#16 Online Applications

Assignment #16 was interesting in that I didn't actually realize that there were free online applications and tools that look very similar to MS Office products. I wish I had known about these when I was completing my degree online. We often had issues with version control when a 6-person team was spread all over the country and trying to add to the same document. Invariably, one person became the "editor" to put the pieces all together. I may even start using some of these features for other committees that I'm on--especially when people have different applications. It seems fairly simple and straightforward to instruct everyone to the same program to make viewing minutes and documents accessible to all.

Search Engines

I used the "big 3" search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Ask) to search on button mushroom recipes (they were in the fridge and on the menu for dinner and I couldn't think of anything else on the spur of the moment). My results were: Google, 129,000 sites in 0.15 seconds; Yahoo, 2.1 million in 0.39 seconds; Ask, 105,800 sites. All three sites pointed me to the Food Network and Michael's Best Button Mushroom recipe--which looked pretty good and I'll have to try it sometime. The sites also led me down the path of how to find and/or grow my own mushrooms. And I never knew you could purchase Mushroom Essence---hmmm, not sure I'll be going there. Ask.com offered several interesting alternatives to my search including the intriguing link "How Do Button Mushrooms Reproduce." I also checked out Dogpile, which seemed interesting and I might check it out occasionally. I think I'll probably stick with Google as a search engine and start using some of the search features better (the Berkeley paper was very enlightening and I did add it to my del.icio.us list).

Podcasting Made Simple?

So, I get what podcasting is (I think...) and I found a couple of feeds that I added to my bloglines for entertainment value. However, I was unable to locate other podcasts that I would actually want to have an active RSS for--whether for professional or personal use. Granted, this may be because I don't actually work in a library branch. I checked out Booktalks Quick and Simple and could see a use for Sno-Isle in this idea--it appeared to be a quick and easy way for one person to share book talk information with a large audience without being at a specific location at a specific time--good for both the library and the customer. I've never created created a podcast myself, but I just thought of another use and something we've already done--benefit open enrollment meetings in the form of a recorded webcast or podcast, if you will. The only drawback is that since podcasts aren't interactive, they can't completely replace in-person meetings or phone calls.

Assignment #13 Mash-up

Now I finally understand what a mash-up is and how to do one. Thank goodness for all those wonderful templates! Watching the little tutorial certainly helped figure this out--and I was able to impress my kids when I showed them the pictures I had created. My younger son is already planning how to put the dog's head on a different body.

This was a fun assignment and I'm sure we can come up with some unique and interesting uses for this skill!