Written in the Sand

My little Seuss contribution to the Learning 2.0 Sandbox wiki has me wondering how Dr. Seuss would conceptualize the 23 Things. He did such a good job with the original 1 and 2, who zip through my mind every time I blog about our Things. I can imagine whole pages of creatures with neon hair flying, text-messaging as they go--they do seem to be the multi-tasking, or rather multi-playing, type!
I enjoyed browsing the lists of favorite things but wished that some writers had elaborated on why they made the choices they did. For example, trying to communicate the power of a song or a tune is hard, but just listing song titles and artists you like doesn't mean much to the reader unless he/she already has some knowledge of the music being discussed and has formed an opinion. You can't comment on what you don't know about, and much of the fun to be had in a wiki sandbox seems to be in the commentary.

Wiki World

I first came across the expression"wiki-wiki" in a book I read as a child concerning a family living in Hawaii. It never occurred to me to link this with the Internet wikis that are proliferating. They have some very useful library applications. I especially liked the idea of using a library's website for a community page wiki; it would become an online bulletin board that could be updated easily and often. The instructional wiki is one we're becoming familiar with, and Library 2.0 in 15 Minutes a Day from is a clearly organized example. The Booklovers Wiki of Princeton looked like fun, since we all like to talk about new books, don't we? Wikis seem to be able to stretch and expand to accommodate all kinds of information, opinions, and potential uses.

2.0 and Counting Icebergs

I was especially interested in Rick Anderson's thoughts on avoiding icebergs in the sea of technology. He voices concerns about practical matters libraries everywhere are facing, such as which print materials should be ordered or reordered in view of the available online options that may replace them. I agree with his view that making library technology more user-friendly will be better for patrons--I also appreciate his use of this older term rather than the retail-based "customers" moniker--than trying to teach each person coming in the door or dialing in or signing on how to use the technology we already have. Technoanxiety exists at many levels, in many degrees, and just as the process of filing taxes can turn some intelligent adults into quivering masses of ectoplasm 'round about April 15th, so can the thought of mastering yet another technological twist. Libraries exist to serve all of the public, not just the technically proficient.
The interactive nature of Web 2.0 is both a great strength and a potential weakness. In an environment where everyone is contributing and few are editing, we have to do our own fact-checking and the question of how to judge our sources becomes crucial. What is factual, what is theoretical, what is opinion or urban legend, what is simply playful? Mr. Anderson's point that libraries no longer have a monopoly on information leads me to ponder how our youngest computer users can be taught ways to evaluate what they see and use online.

Technorati

I never realized the blogosphere was so large or that it was growing so fast. And no, the explosion isn't entirely due to all of us engaged in 23 Things! "Learning 2.0" appeared in over 4000 blog posts when I searched this morning, but just under 300 blogs came up using this search term in Technorati's blog directory. Wonder what the totals will be a week from today?
I did find some surprises when comparing top favorited blogs to top blogs to top searches. The top ten faves were largely concerned with technology, but top searches also included the topics of diet and weight, proving that some human concerns never change. There was also a healthy dose of social networking and a not-so-healthy dose of pop culture (Britney Spears? C'mon, we can do better than that...) in evidence among the top searches, as well as interest in international news (the protests in Myanmar). The No. 1 favorited blog, BoingBoing.net, must be an enormous hit. Best Group Blog Award winner at the 2006 Bloggies? Can you imagine the ceremony? Maybe there's a Meez statuette out there akin to the golden Oscar.

Tag-- You're It!

I was surprised to see the variety of libraries which use del.icio.us. The ability to bookmark with such a tool could be very handy, since one of the main problems in research is remembering where you saw something you need to reference or review later. But tagging can also put you in touch with other computer users' bookmarks and provide a path to sites you might not have found otherwise. Noodling around in the tags brought me to FindSounds.com, which has a amazing library of sounds to call up online-- pretty useful if you're planning a program on birds (with various twitters and tweets), throwing a Halloween party (creaking door, evil laugh), or looking into the music of Australia (just what does a didgeridoo sound like?). Another search on the sounds tag brought me to audio files of famous speeches on the Free Information Society's website, www.freeinfosociety.com--potentially a good resource for students of 20th and 21st century politics.

Rollin' Along

I can see why Rollyo has become a recommended tool. Putting all your subject-related search engines in one place saves time and keystrokes, and I plan on using and adding to the music search roll I created (on www.rollyo.com, "explore" the category Folk music by bloodhound) after this course is completed. The rare books search roll we were invited to look at turned up some interesting results, but as in a brick-and-mortar store I discovered you still have to dig for what you want and modify your searches. Typing in just the names of several 19th century American authors one by one (Hawthorn, Longfellow, Thoreau) yielded nothing immediately. In a different search, the terms "first edition" brought up quite a lot of hits and paging through those directed me toward information on an early work by the Scandinavian author Ibsen. The usual pitfalls of making a search too general come into play as well: searching for "biography" or "algebra" using the PLCMC search roll yielded too much or the wrong kind of information. So Rollyo isn't perfect, but it's worth testing to see if it works for you.

Imagery

If it's true that we've become an increasingly image-driven society, then it's no surprise how many images can be conjured, er, generated online. Finding the right one to personalize your blog or voice your opinion or just get a laugh takes time, but it's fun to browse through the many options.
I most enjoyed Generator Blog (which pointed me toward the source for Dumbledore, imageGenerator.net)--and played with Meez without producing an avatar that was really "me" (such a closet to choose from, though!). Meez is like a grownups' version of paper dolls; whether you're creating a persona or something that more or less resembles what you look like, it can be very absorbing play.