by I just thought I better write something about rss, since that’s what’s up this week in our Learning2.0 program. What can I say about rss that hasn’t been already said? I’m hooked, that’s all I know. Once I discovered them (thanks Amanada!), I’ve been a mad subscriber to rss feeds. I likely have too many feeds now. I love that they keep me up-to-date about what’s happening in our field, technology, and the world. My bloglines account is always open; I probably should seek help. I’ve become very reliant on my feeds but I hope in a good way, as it helps me keep up with my professsion and my patrons. If you’ve just started using rss, watch out! It’s addictive!
Author: theweelibrarian
A Third Life?
I’ve often mentioned that Second Life will not necessarily be the end all and be all of virtual worlds, that something will likely replace it. What this next step will be, I’m not exactly sure. Second Life certainly has some problems to overcome at this point. The exciting thing about being part of Second Life at this point is that we can help shape what will happen next, whether it’s Second Life 2.0 or something else entirely. Check out this blog post from Infocult which surmises what the next step might be.
The Link
Well, here it is, the link to the presentation I gave a little while back on Learning and Second Life and Social Networks. It’s the slides and handouts so far, with video and podcast coming, if I recall correctly. Enjoy!
Musings on Facebook
As I think I mentioned, I recently gave a presentation on Learning in Facebook and Second Life (I’ll post the links as soon as they’re up). I thought I’d ramble a little on Facebook, but not on the academic/library side of things.
One of the things I really like about Second Life is the ability to collaborate and network with people you’d never dream of working with, either because of distance or time constraints or any other number of reasons. Recently though, I’ve found Facebook acting in a similar manner. I knew this was possible, but I hadn’t intended to use Facebook that way, just to hook up with people I presently know and look into applications for libraries. Well, I have had friends who I haven’t seen since grade 7 contact me, I’ve made new connections with librarians through groups I’ve joined. It’s been quite amazing really and I’m starting to see a whole new realm of potential for Facebook. It’s amazing the people I’m finding, or who are finding me, in Facebook. It isn’t an addiction … yet.
With our learning 2.0 initiative, I’m sure we will all be creating accounts soon. Many of us already have one, and in a strange yet distant way, I feel closer to them – I can see what they’re up to, if they’ve had a good or bad day, start conversations – either online or when I see them. This is one of those odd things about social software though – in some instances, the only contact is through an online medium, when in fact, they are in a nearby, if not the same building. This closeness with distance is a bit of a strange phenomenon and one I might look into more at some point.
I Survived!
Yes, I have survived 3 straight days of statistics! I think I deserve a badge of honour. The Winter Institute on Statistical Literacy for Librarians was actually quite good. The small size allowed for lots of conversation and connections. As I’ve often said, the informal discussion is often some of the most enlightening parts of any conference. I like to find out what others are up to and how they’re approaching similar problems. As it turns out, I knew more than I thought about statistics. Sometimes you just need to be reassured that you are indeed on the right track.
Now it’s time to start my first 2 week research leave. I’m quite excited about the chance to concentrate on research again – it’s been a while. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this leave will be devoted to some work on Second Life. I’ll let you know if anything comes out of it!
Let the Blogging Begin!
We are in week two of our Learning 2.0 and participants are being introduced to and creating their own blogs. People are really quite excited by this program and it will be interesting to read their blogs.
On another note, I’m frantically trying to put the final touches on a presentation I’m giving tomorrow – Learning in a New World: Social Networks and Second Life (I’ll link to the slides once they’re up). The presentation is for the McMaster Learning Commons Partners’ Learning on Learning Forum. It’s been interesting research and I’m hoping all goes well. Then, in an attempt to pretend to be a jet-setter, almost as soon as I’m done the presentation, I jump on a plane and head out to Edmonton for the Winter Institute on Statistical Literacy. More on that when I return!
Watch This!
I realize that a plethora of library blogs have mentioned this video on Web 2.0, but if you haven’t watched, make sure you do. We recently showed this video while demo-ing possible web 2.0 applications to pursue – it highlighted both YouTube and explained web 2.0 in a great way. I think it helped explain why we should be looking closely at web 2.0 applications. All in all, a great video.
All the Rage!
McMaster has been the talk of the town for a while – mostly because we have a new, exciting, innovative University Librarian, Jeff Trzeciak. We have lots of cool new positions (including a gaming librarian) and we’re doing lots of new things. He’s been very supportive of my exploration in Second Life. It seems we got some media attention for what we’ve been doing too! They even managed to take a picture of the McMaster Library space in Second Life while I was there (I had no idea they were taking a picture or that they were associated with the paper)! All in all – pretty cool.
Heads Up!
I just thought I’d warn you that you will see a lot of library 2.0 posts in the next while. This is not a bad thing. Starting Monday, the Emerging Technologies Group will be launching Learning2.0 at McMaster and will last for 12 weeks – each week a new library 2.0/web 2.0 technology will be introduced. Although I have played with many, if not all of these technologies, I’m quite excited by the program. In fact, many of the staff our excited – which is great! We even had Michael Stephens come and give a talk and start the excitement!
On a related note – I’ve finally gotten a hold of Jenny Levine’s Gaming and Libraries report! Can’t wait to read it. I’ve been doing a lot of research lately on virtual worlds and gaming and teaching and libraries and have a couple of talks coming up on the topic. I’ll post on that another day.
Digital Game-Based Learning and Information Literacy
I was particularly interested in this session, as I have been doing a lot of reading about gaming and learning in the last while. I will be doing a session on learning in virtual worlds and social networks and gaming has been a side to my research. The presenter is working on creating a game for her library and I’ll be interested to see how it goes.