Final Finally Finished!!!!

Well, I have to say that the last 12 hours of my graduate school career were pretty darn stressful. I tried troubleshooting for hours, but was unable to get either Jing or Audacity to work in order to make a screencast or a podcast of my final presentation.

I finally realized I wasn't going to be able to get either to work and started thinking about an alternative method of presentation. So, rather than screencasting my presentation, I ended up doing it via Voicethread.

Here are the other elements of my project:
Staff Wiki
Staff Blog
Staff Ning

They say you usually learn more from your failures than your successes, and the experience I had with trying to get my presentation recorded last night and today really showed me how true that is! I want to thank Steve again publicly for introducing us to so many different technologies and applications this semester. We all now have so many different tools in our social software "bag of tricks" and never know when we might need to use one of them.

I really enjoyed working with all of you this semester too and hope everyone enjoys the much deserved time off!

Social Software Class

I also want to thank Steve for having developed this class for SCILS. I feel that the knowledge and experience I gained from it will be invaluable to me in my career and think all the material covered was important. I also think the order of the topics presented flowed nicely.

If anything could be added, I would have liked to have learned a little more about/gotten to use Skype. (I know now we at least know about it, but I like having my hand held when trying new things.)

I also think that while using the different applications (like Twitter and Blogger) each week for our posts was important in helping us develop familiarity with them, I don't think class discussions ever got as deep and involved as they did in the other online courses I've taken which used the threaded discussions in eCollege. I'm not suggesting adding eCollege discussions to each week's class assignments (that would just push the workload way over the edge!) I'm just pointing out the observation of my experience. In past courses, I was always sure to read what everyone had written already before I posted anything (just as one would hear everything that was said in order in a F2F class), but I found myself usually posting my own blog entries here before reading everyone else's. I think the threaded discussions in eCollege also encourage people to comment more on their classmates' comments and explore different topics and tangents each week. I missed many of the comments people had made on my comments (until I realized I should check the "email notification" option in blogger's comment section...but, even then, I didn't always check my class-made emails on a very regular basis, so still became aware of new comments sometimes weeks afterwards.) While GoogleReader and Bloglines made it very convenient to read everyone's blog posts each week, their not showing comments made to each post was a major drawback. (I initially tried clicking on everyone's blog post to read the comments made to it, but that ended up becoming very time consuming.) I'm sure aggregators will improve over time and perhaps, this will one day be a feature they will have. If this were the case, blogging each week would be more like like a real "class discussion" and less like individual weekly presentations.

But, overall, I really loved the class and enjoyed "meeting" and working with everyone. I love the idea of meeting up again virtually somewhere too after the semester.

Alcohol, sugar and caffeine aren't all that good for us either, but still serve a purpose in our lives

What's "bad" and what's "good" are really subjective and personal designations. I think librarians have traditionally always refrained from passing judgement on different works and allowing their own personal opinions influence the titles they acquire and recommend. Johnson's book reminds us how we have to extend this position beyond books now and to other forms of media and information. Whether or not we think a particular movie, show, game, etc., is "bad" or "good", each has some inherent value (and Johnson makes the strongest case I have ever heard/read as to how worthwhile and complex that value actually is.) I once had a customer come up to me in the library and ask me to make a young girl get off a library computer because she was "only" playing a video game on it while she herself had "real work" to do. I told her I couldn't do that using the old "equal access" policy, but a part of me wishes I could relive the scene and throw a line about how video games contribute to people's cognitive development into my denial of her request.

Libraries are already including DVD's and video games in their collections and I'm sure this is a trend that will continue and expand. Understanding the value of different types of media will aid librarians in their collection development decisions.

As far as educators go, I think they should be more aware of the educational value of movies, tv shows and games. (Someone earlier blogged about making them read Johnson's book, which I totally agree with.) My 5th grade son told me their school librarian made a statement to them that computers should be used for research and not video games (and also proudly added as an aside that she never played a video game in her life. I was astounded, and asked him how old she was. He answered, "Older than you," which, in his mind, is REALLY old!) Dismissing any of the media our children use and enjoy without understanding it is very counterproductive and widens the gap between us. I was never a huge video game player myself (things got a little too complicated for me after the Atari system) but these past two weeks' class materials and Johnson's book really helped open my mind to their inherent value. Educators must realize this too, and should work on making learning scenarios more engaging for students, the way games are.

Jenesea Swansong hated Second Life until she discovered ALA Island!

Gabrielle made the comment that perhaps "the third time's the charm" and that was also my experience in exploring Second Life this week. The first couple of times I went there, I felt like Alice right after falling down the rabbit hole: lost, confused and wondering what everyone I met was smoking. I wonder if it had anything to do with my "visiting" at night? (Maybe that's when all the loonies come out?) Like Amy mentioned too, I felt kind of silly in my little pink polka dot dress amidst all the leather, animal parts and other get-ups the people I encountered were in. My "home" was set in Wengen in a ski lodge (I thought I had chosen to visit and set my "home" there, but after reading GC's post, I wonder if that's a default?) I played some kind of game there with everyone (where we grabbed these things that were falling out of the sky for money, but I don't think I did very well, since my bank account is still empty!) I also got myself teleported to Information Island and walked around a bit, but didn't see much to do and was too shy to walk up and talk to anyone.

The next night, I went to a "library" that seemed to be somewhere in Asia (I couldn't read any of the signs.) Seeing that I could visit different countries, I tried to go to Italy but was denied access. I then, after noticing it advertised somewhere, went to Candy Cane Lane (which I found out once I was there was in Hong Kong Island.) It was pretty, but a little spooky because it was empty. So, I tried to go back "home" again thinking it might be better than the night before, but it was still one big freak-show. So I teleported myself back to Info Island and sat on someone's chair (hoping he wouldn't mind) before logging off.

Today, however, I found ALA Island and had a much better in-world experience! I didn't meet anyone there, but upon entering, was greeted with a welcome message and found helpful signs and explanations everywhere I went. It is very well organized (every round table and sub-organization has its own little "information booth") and there are directional signs and different events at every turn. (It's definitely a "place" created by librarians!)

I found a big, comfy couch to chill out on and was able to make a READ poster of my Avatar reading the free book I acquired there (step by step directions on how to do this are right there if anyone else wants to check it out/try it.)




So, while Second Life isn't as intriguing a place as I had originally expected it to be, ALA Island helped me see the potential it has.

Anyone up for a quick game of Scrabble?

Talk about pressure (trying to play a game like Scrabble while videoing/talking about it!)!

Here is a brief look at playing Scrabble online through pogo.com

Click Here to View

Screencasting advice

This is a bit difficult for me to write about screencasting "best practices" as I feel that I'm still trying to get comfortable with the whole practice myself. (I still find that it's much harder than it looks!) To someone just starting out, I would remind them of that fact. I would also encourage them to really research and make sure they invest in the best microphone/headset that they can. (I've been having a lot of trouble with mine over the past few weeks.)

I would also recommend writing out an outline and practicing the presentation at least a couple of times. (I found the more I had to re-record because of mistakes and technical difficulties, the more natural sounding I became.)

I would recommend not allowing your kids or spouse to be on the same floor where you are recording because they'll either a)make too much noise, b)inadvertently walk in and say something that will mess your whole recording up, or c) eavesdrop and then later make fun of you.

I'd also say that less is definitely more (and shorter is better for the most part.) Refraining from cursing, no matter how frustrated and aggravated you might get, is also a good habit to adopt because, in a pinch, a screencast with a couple minor mistakes might work, but one where you totally lost it won't.

Which game console to get?

If I were in charge of selecting a game system for our library, I would start my research by seeing what other libraries similar to ours are using and would ask their librarians why they selected the system they did, how are they using the system, what's the response from their customers and would they have chosen something different if they could make their purchase decision over again. I would also consult various library blogs to get a feel for which system generally seems to work best (and would consider contacting those blogging librarians who are expert "gamers" if I had specific questions.) Most importantly, I would ask our customers themselves if they would come to library sponsored gaming events and, if so, which game console would THEY prefer?

As far as criteria to consider after doing this background research, I would primarily focus on which system would get the most use (among all patrons, which would include children through senior citizens in a public library setting.) Secondly, I would (be forced to) consider cost.

Based on these things, I would currently choose the Wii system. Based upon what I've read and heard from other librarians: the PS3 is currently too expensive (for both the system and the games; the PS2 is more affordable (but probably lacks the "wow" factor the wii and xbox360 have); and, the xbox360, while affordable, good for multi-playing games and great graphics, is more limited in game selection for children and many senior citizens. The Wii seems to have that Goldilockish-"just right"-fit for public libraries trying to acquire a system that will appeal to most of its customers.

As new games and gaming systems are continually being developed (and things like price, selection and users' wants and needs change,) librarians will constantly have to reassess their gaming offerings.