#23 Is this the end or just the beginning...

Wow! Congratulations!!

You’ve reached the 23rd thing.
Be sure to give yourself a pat on the back for completing the program.

There is just one more discovery activity for you to post to your blog

For your last and final exercise for this program please reflect on your learning journey and post a few thoughts.

Here are some questions to prompt you if you're drawing a blank ...

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

In closing, I want to thankyou you all for joining us on this learning 2.0 journey.

This ATO -23 Things Program has been based on the PLCMC Learning 2.0 program developed by Helene Blowers of the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County.
Many thanks to Helene Blowers for allowing us to use her program.
Learning 2.0 is licensed under Creative Commons

Week 9: Podcasts, video & downloadable audio.

Wow, ATO Learners, you are on the downhill slide now, Week 9 incorporates Things #20-#23!!
and your HOME!!!!!


This Week you get to discover Thing #20 YouTube.
This site could keep you occupied for quite some time, but for a bit of light entertainment in the Library Field why not check out the Gorilla Librarian


Podcasts:
The ABC Radio has a host of regular Podcasts.
774 ABC Melbourne invites you to put on your walking shoes, turn on your MP3 player and discover Melbourne’s secrets with the ABC Melbourne Podtours: Eat, Drink Melbourne, Death, Dirt & Disease and Showbiz, Sexy Spectacles and Sideshows.
Whether you are a visitor to the city or a born and bred local, you’ll be surprised at the stories you'll uncover in Melbourne’s hidden lanes and historical buildings.
Join Derek Guille, Jon Faine and Red Symons as they guide you through the sights, sounds and smells of Melbourne town with the free audio tours that you can download to your MP3 player.

Find 70+ Podcasting tools here:



Follow this link to the exercise for Thing#22 Net Library.

Thing 23!!!

Week 8 Online application tools

A reflection of the program so far......

Well..... it has taken 44 blogs for the first one to be named "The evil librarian" .
You can read what this librarian is doing on the ATO partcipants blog

Online image generators have been a great success with some great images being posted on peoples blogs.

The following two are just examples of what can be done through some imaginative interaction with web 2.0 tools

Not many people seem to be inspired by "Library Thing"...perhaps not many aspiring cataloguers among us, or maybe the cataloguers just want to keep their jobs

Anyway I hope you are having fun playing with these web 2.0 tools, and learning about new applications as you go.

Week 8 see us exploring the following two exercises:

#18 Online productivity (word processing, spreadsheets) tools.

For this exercise you will use Zoho as an example.

Follow this link to a podcast and discovery exercise # 18

I am using google docs (another example of an online productivity tool) to track your progress through these exercises

#19 Examples of Web 2.0 excellence

Follow this link to Discovery exercise #19 where you will be looking at some web 2.0 applications that are considered to be outstanding...and have either been nominated or won awards.
[There is no podcast fo this exercise]

Learning 2.0 ...discovering web 2.0 technoloiges through PLAY!

#23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning ...

Wow! Congratulations!!

You’ve reached the 23rd thing.
Be sure to give yourself a pat on the back for completing the program.

There is just one more discovery activity for you to post to your blog

For your last and final exercise for this program please reflect on your learning journey and post a few thoughts.

Here are some questions to prompt you if you're drawing a blank ...

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

In closing, I want to thankyou you all for joining us on this learning 2.0 journey.

This ATO -23 Things Program has been based on the PLCMC Learning 2.0 program developed by Helene Blowers of the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County.
Many thanks to Helene Blowers for allowing us to use her program.
Learning 2.0 is licensed under Creative Commons

#22 Audiobooks (or "The end is in sight ")

Podcasts:
The ABC Radio has a host of regular Podcasts.
774 ABC Melbourne invites you to put on your walking shoes, turn on your MP3 player and discover Melbourne’s secrets with the ABC Melbourne Podtours: Eat, Drink Melbourne, Death, Dirt & Disease and Showbiz, Sexy Spectacles and Sideshows.
Whether you are a visitor to the city or a born and bred local, you’ll be surprised at the stories you'll uncover in Melbourne’s hidden lanes and historical buildings.
Join Derek Guille, Jon Faine and Red Symons as they guide you through the sights, sounds and smells of Melbourne town with the free audio tours that you can download to your MP3 player.


Downloadable eAudiobooks are becoming more popular in library situations.
Subscription services such as Netlibrary and Overdrive enable libraries to purchase audio files, so library members can download them onto their mp3 players.
The beauty of this is that after the loan period expires, the audio file is deleted from the mp3player.
Wow...NO OVERDUES OR LIBRARY FINES !

The Net Library Link from the '23 Things' Blog is unavailable, please use this Fantastic alternative.

For this discovery exercise, you merely need to familiarize yourself a bit with the structure of the World EBook fair site (a free siteDownloadable eAudiobooks site)

Take a look around and locate a few titles of interest.

Discovery Resource:

• World EBook Fair - Gutenberg's Audio eBook Collection

Discovery Exercise:

Click on the eAudiobooks link and explore some of the titles

These are FREE downloads here from the Gutenberg Project.
If you have Real Player or Windows Media Player installed you can listen right there or download to an MP3 device

Interesting links can also be found at the

• World EBook Fair site


• Historical Childrens EbookseMovies


• Other collections

Create a blog post about your findings.

Week 7 : Wikis

A wiki is a collaborative website and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content.
Wikipedia, the online open-community encyclopedia, is the largest and perhaps the most well known of these knowledge sharing tools.
With the benefits that wikis provide the use and popularity of these tools is exploding.

Some of the benefits that make wikis so attractive are:

• Anyone (registered or unregistered, if unrestricted) can add, edit or delete content.
• Tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what been changed and by whom.
• Earlier versions of a page can be viewed and reinstated when needed.
• And users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content. In most cases simple syntax structure is used.

This week you will complete 2 activities:

#16 So what’s in a wiki?

Listen to this podcast [1:49]-->powered by ODEO

Link here to the discovery exercise #16 about wikis and discover some innovative ways that libraries are using them.

#17 Playing around with PBWiki

Listen to this podcast [1:53]-->powered by ODEO

Link here to exercise #17 - Add an entry to the Learning 2.0 SandBox wiki.

Don't forget to write your thoughts on wikis in your blog

Week 6 : Tagging, Folksonomies & Technorati

I hope you enjoyed playing around with online image generators last week.
This week you will discover Tagging, Folksonomies & Technorati

#13 Tagging and del.icio.us
Listen to the pocast and exercises about tagging and discover a Del.icio.us (a social bookmaking site)

Tagging - is an open and informal method of categorizing that allows users to associate keywords with online content (webpages, pictures & posts).
Unlike library cataloging, tagging is completely unstructured and freeform, allowing users to create connections between data anyway they want.

Del.icio.us - is a social bookmarking manager which allows you to bookmark a web page and add tags to categorize your bookmarks.


#14 Technorati

Listen to the podcast and explore Technorati and learn how tags work with blog posts.

This week's exercises include watching an Otter Group video, but the link to their blog indicates that the blog is out of action.
Another alternative to this video is a short presentation found at the following site
http://www.ottergroup.com/blog/_archives/2006/10/9/2401289.html


#15 Web 2.0 and the future of libraries

Read a few perspectives on Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the future of libraries and blog your thoughts.

Remember....the 23 things is all about learning through PLAY!!!!
Enjoy....

Week 5 PLAY WEEK!

The Door is open and so many of YOU have ventured through, Congratulations on the GREAT work so far!

Week 5 consists of 3 Exercises:

1. Online Image Generators.
Find an image to PLAY with from the HUGE 'Generator Blog'
Save the image to your computer and Click on the 'add image' icon in your post to Blogger.

2. Library Thing may uncover your 'hidden cataloguer'. Developed for Booklovers, this online tool not only allows you to easily create an online catalog of your own it also connects you to other people who have similar libraries and reading tastes.

3. Rollyo allows you to create your own search tool for the websites you know and trust. Check out the examples.

Get going with an RSS Reader

This week will take you to information about RSS feeds and feed readers.

Listen to the Podcast #8 Make life "really simple" with RSS & a newsreader



RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web
Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit every day. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the pages for just the text you want to read.
An RSS feed allows you to visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually.



The best way to learn about RSS Feeds and Feed Readers is to actually start using one!

Listen to #9 the podcast about setting up a feed reader and locating feeds




Using an RSS Reader like Bloglines allows you to store all your Feeds in one spot and browse at your leisure. You get to see how many feeds have arrived and decide when you will read them.You may decide to allow the feeds to accumulate and read a Blog (or website) feed when they reach a certain amount.



You can start your Bloglines Account (its FREE) with 1 or 2 feeds and then build from there. Obviously the more feeds you have, the more 'new' content will arrive.

Reading Feeds regularly keeps you in the loop and by gleaning information from others, it saves you 'reinventing the wheel' again!



A lot of professional reading is now available via an RSS feed and well as information about database and eJournal updates.

Week 3 Photos & Images

Now the FUN begins!

A New world is about to open up to you?

This week 'Things #5-6' will take you to the land of Flickr, the fastest growing photo sharing site on the web.

Listen to the Podcast then choose Discovery exercises a...or... b. Post your thoughts to your Blog, maybe even upload a picture to Flickr?


The link to Thing #7 "Create a Blog Post about anything technology related" is UNAVAILABLE on the PLCMC Blog ............So...........
You may like to Blog about a technology that you have just started using eg. A digital camera, iPod, Blackberry, or have you just mastered the TV G-Code?

For those of you wanting a bit of challenge check out the Web 2.0 Awards for new Online Technologies.

Think about 'Creating Content' as you Blog, try for at least 100-150 words to address each of the "23 Things".

Looking for inspiration? Check out what others have done:

PLCMC Participants Blog.
Yarra Plenty Library Participants Blog.

Going great Team ATO! New bloggers are registering every day!

Week 2 Setting up your Blog

Now the active participation starts!
Are YOU ready to get stuck into 'Thing #3 ?


Two simple things to do:

1. Set up your Blog and create your first Post.
   
2. Send and email to both Angela and Vanessa with the details of your blog. Make sure you include both your blog name and your blog's URL.
   

Follow the Week 2 instructions on the
'PLCMC Learning 2.0 Blog'
A podcast will get you started.

A couple of useful Tips!

• You can use any email address to set up a Blog in Blogger. It is not necessary to set up a Gmail account to create a Blog.

• Write down the details from your 'Create Account' or print out this page. Help for remembering your login and password.

• When registering your Blog: Cut and paste the url (address) into the email you are sending to Angela and Vanessa.
  
• As you address each 'Thing' please make this the title of your post. eg. #5 Flickr
  

As you progress through the PLCMC Learning 2.0 Program it will be evident that certain things do not apply to our ATO Online Learning so please refer back to this Blog.

Once you have registered your Blog it will be listed on the ATO Participants Blog, a good place to gain inspiration and support each other via the comments section in the individual blogs.

Have fun and don't forget to PLAY!!

Week 1 - Introduction to Lifelong Learning

1 Discovery has never been so much fun ...
Learning 2.0 is an online learning program to learn more about emerging technologies on the web that are changing the way people, society and libraries access information and communicate with each other.
Over the course of the next twelve weeks, this website will highlight “23Things” with Discovery Exercises to help you become familiar with blogging, RSS news feeds, tagging, wikis, podcasting, online applications, and video and image hosting sites.

To familiarize yourself with this project, be sure to read the
About the ATO Learning 23 things progam and also
our FAQ page.

These FAQs should answer most of your questions about this program. And if you don't see your question answered just add it as a comment at the bottom of the page so we can address it.

Now listen to the podcast about the program

Listen to this podcast [1:53]-->

2 Lifelong Learning

The Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners provides you with a refresher on what it means to be a lifelong learner.
Habit 1 – Begin with the end in mind
Habit 2 – Accept responsibility for your own learning
Habit 3 – View problems as challenges
Habit 4 – Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
Habit 5 – Create your own learning toolbox
Habit 6 – Use technology to your advantage
Habit 7 – Teach and mentor others
Habit 7 ½ – PLAY!Have fun! It's never too late to become a lifelong learner.

Discovery Exercise:

Follow this link
for a podcast about the Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong and your first discovery exercise

Next Up in week 2: Creating your blog so you can begin tracking your journey

FAQs for the 23 Things program

What about Privacy?
There is none! Everyone can read your Blog, this is the nature of Blogs in general.

Suggestions:
You can remain anonymous by choosing a Generic Name for the Blog and hide your user profile if you wish.

Keep in mind the type of Posts you make and use discretion in mentioning names/places etc.Copyright issues and intellectual content also apply to Blogs.

How do I Register?
Use the online registration form down the side bar of this blog.
There is also a Blog registration. CUT and PASTE your URL into your blog registration form.

How does this online learning program work?
This is a self-discovery program which encourages staff to take control of their own learning and to utilize their lifelong learning skills through exploration and PLAY.
There will be no classes or workshops offered to support this program. Instead, staff are encouraged to work together and share with each other their discoveries, techniques and "how to's" both in person and through their blogs.

Is this Program open to All LIS Staff?
Yes the Program is open to All LIS Staff regardless of position or status (full or part time).

How long do I have to complete this program?
The program begins on Monday 14th May and ends on Monday 6th August.
We have extended the length to allow for LIS staff who are taking leave during this period.

Will there be any training classes offered to show staff how to do this?
No, this is a self-directed learning program. If you feel you need assistance with an exercise, you are encouraged to be resourceful and to find another staff member who can help. Reading other staff members blogs can help, too.

Can I work ahead through the list of items on my own?
Yes, of course. You are encouraged to self-direct your discovery process, especially by working ahead on your own!!

Net Library Alternative.
The Net Library subscription is unavailable to us .......As an alternative we would like you to look at World EBook Library's 'World EBook Fair' site. There are FREE downloads here from the Gutenberg Project. If you have Real Player or Windows Media Player installed you can listen right there or download to an MP3 device.
Interesting links can also be found at the World EBook Fair site Historical Childrens EbookseMovies and other collections

What if I need help - who can I call?
Since this program is self-directed and is being completed by many LIS staff throughout the organisation simultaneously, you are encouraged to work with colleagues along your discovery journey. However if your need assistance you can also contact Angela on Ext: x51953, or email angela.alexakos@ato.gov.au

If you have a question not covered in these FAQs; please post your comments on this page and will will endeavour to address it for you.

Good luck!!

About the ATO Learning 23 things program

This blog has been set up to chart your progress in the 'Learning 23 things' program.

The model being used for your program is: 'Learning 2.0, 23 Things' which was developed by Helene Blowers of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County.
It has been made available for all to share under a Creative Commons Licence.

The Program was developed to encourage staff to explore new technologies in a fun and flexible way.

Emerging technologies on the web are changing the way people access and share information. This online fun course will introduce you to the world of Web 2.0, also called the 'Participatory Web'........so why not participate???

Lessons are made up of short podcasts which you can listen to on the library standalone PCs using your personal headphones. These can be attached to the extension lead which is inserted into the headphones port on the computer's CPU. If you are unsure about how to utilise this equipment, speak to the senior librarian at your site or contact either Angela or Vanessa.

Each lesson provides you with a choice of 2 Discovery Exercises (one simple and one with a bit of a challenge). It's your choice as you work your way through each thing at your own pace.

All the tools you will need are online and there is nothing extra to download. The only tool you need is 'enthusiasm'.

The PLCMC Learning Blog sets out the '23 Things' out over a 9 Week period.

Follow the weekly posts on this Blog which align with the PLCMC's '23 Things' Blog. Look for the "Blog Archive" on the right hand side of this screen and commence from the first entry at the bottom of the list. You can return here as you progress through the weekly exercises.

At week 2 your exercise will be to make your own blog. Send an email to both Vanessa and Angela so that your blog can be registered on the ATO Participants List blog.

Your blog will act as your learning journal thoughout the program. You will be recording all your learning activities on your blog.

One of the exercises on the '23 Things Blog' refers to Net Library which is no longer available, see the Alternative to Net Library Link.

Please head up each Blog post with the 'Thing' you are addressing eg. Thing #5 Flickr.

Feel free to comment and add your own tips, hints and discoveries to this Blog.

If you need assistance with anything on the program please contact either Angela or Vanessa.


Have fun!