Second life

It's Christmas Eve and I am about to enjoy my "second life" outside work. I was able to download and explore Second Life. It's obvious that I hadn't played many computer games because my "avator" received many bumps and bruises. I imagine that there is a generation who have grown up manipulating keypads etc and a growing number of people in their late 40's - 50's and older embracing this medium. I understand that it is being embraced and used in TAFE eg. Business Services and Women's Studies in the North and it could be adapted by Library Studies to train students.
I would use the application in my working life and have no desire or aspiration to use outside of this use.

Second life

Hi from Georgina Allardyce (alias Jeannie Sirona) I have had a brief visit to the help island in second life and will return to another location tomorrow and visit a library. I have no experience with computer screens and blundered and bumped my way around the screen. I wish that some of the avatars could take me by the hand and lead me to the library or take me for a swim. Ki told me that she is unable to leave Help Island and that I needed to get a swim script to be able to swim. The sea looked very inviting. I asked Ki to take me to the library and she took me to the freebie shop. Will explore tomorrow and visit a library.

Yammer

Because we are spread wide and far in TAFE Yammer is useful for communicating with colleagues. I was invited to join Yammer a few months ago by a 23 Things participant. It is useful to keep an eye on and I found the post from Trisha McLatchie re the Gordon TAFE study skills link. I would like to be able to turn off the "your colleagues have posted and we haven't heard from you"! Big brother and sister at work.

Yammer and Twitter

I did wonder why people would use Twitter since it only allows 140 characters. That changed after I read that a group surgeons were performing ground breaking surgery techinque and they twittered through out the operation to colleagues. Hospitals are keeping relatives informed of patients progress via twitter. And what can we do? We can twitter the new edition textbooks and for publicity.

Library thing

This could be useful if students want to save their books so they can refer to the bibliographic information for referencing purposes. I will send the "Library thing" link to the ELICOS lecturers because the students have to keep a reading log and they could do this online and write a review and share it with their classmates.

Online Communities

I am making this post via my iGoogle page which is finally working. I have two iGoogle pages, one freezes my computer and this page which has a link to Google reader and Google docs and one to my blog. I am much happier when I can multi task from one website. However there is a warning voice stating, "you're putting all your eggs into the one basket" . I have a monogomous relationship with Google! I do have a facebook page which is connected to my gmail account and I cannot link it to this iGoogle page which uses my work email login. The world has many religions and spiritual practices to suit the myriad of cultures and belief systems. So too does the online world of network communitites. I was invited along to a dolphin cruise on the Port River and was asked several times have you been on the "pink sofa"?I listened to women having conversations about their chat sessions via the pink sofa. It seems that there is space for the 18 year olds to chat, the fity plus and a forum for all to contribute. It struck me that it is very similar to "blended learning" eg the Harvey Norman room (TAFE SA South) where the marketing students engage with a face to face lecturer and participate in online games and second life as part of their learning. The pink sofa women talk online and follow this up with face to face social activites.
In answer to the question, can you think of ways in which the social- or fun-oriented applications of a site like Facebook can be adapted for our professional purposes? Perhaps we can investigate these building blocks that were on the DFEEST innovation website. I will post the link in another blog, once again I am having trouble logging into to this website!

Facebook

I created a facebook page several months ago after my mother told me that an old school friend had rang her asking for my telephone number because we all turn 50 this year. It is certainly is a popular networking tool for all age groups, from proud grandparents holding their grandchildren to high school students hanging out.
I was able to link to Metamarc. Some students may be more inclined to try out the databases etc if they can connect via Facebook because they can search and chat at the same time.
Any library marketing campaign needs to resemble an octupus's (maybe octupi) tentacles reaching out via a variety of channels eg. facebook, twitter updates, library displays, webpage presence. podcasts and videocasts. I know that I am getting more tech savvy because when I listen to a podcast on my computer I want to see a picture of the screen. However if I am listening to my walkman CD player there is no need for a picture! Facebook has both text and visual and I believe you can add movies and sound files.

Library thing

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Jsirona
The English Language lecturers could ask their students to go onto "Library thing" and write a review of one the books they have read. I like the Gallery feature. I know what Sarah Waters looks like.

RSS feed podcast

http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd

'Encounter invites you to connect intellectually, emotionally and intuitively across a broad spectrum of topics. The program regularly reflects on the religious experience of multicultural Australia, giving access to voices and experiences that are not often heard in the mainstream media.' The series producer is Florence Spurling.

http://www.abc.net.au/services/podcasting/subject_Religion.htm

Podcasting

At this moment 'Warm up the brain' by Amantha Imber is the most listened to 'podcast on the DFEEST Innovative website. Warming up the brain only takes 2 minutes and is achieved by solving a "Fat chance" impossible problem, for example curing cancer in one week or global warming by this evening. Impossible problems are hard to solve and are accompanied by a tough time frame. How does it work? The brain shifts from logical mode into creative solution mode. At the beginnin of a staff meeting or planning day the chair or manager can pose a problem(or problems if we divide into groups) which are not related to work and spend 2 minutes coming up with 5 solutions.

My intention was to have a link to the podcast, however this is not to be!

Instead you can explore the website http://www.innovationacademy.com.au > Tools and tips and listen to all the other podcasts available.
I will purchase a copy of Amantha's book called "The Creativity Formula: 50 Scientifically proven ways to boost creativity in work and life".

Microsoft Podcast: Sharing PowerPoint 2007 Slide Content

Microsoft Podcast: Sharing PowerPoint 2007 Slide Content

Image generator

http://oneletterwords.com/daisies/

I remember sitting on Dunstable Downs in England and making daisy bands and plucking off the petals one by one, she loves me, she loves me not, she loves me!!!!

The marketing committee can experiement with these image generators, an innovative way to present staff images.

Shift happens did you know 4.0?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8
The link to this video is via the Australian Learning Framework website. The video will "inform you about the brave new world of social media and newfound communication technology.
And we will be doing it soon! Is'nt it fantastic that soon we will SMS our overdues, reservations etc.
Before we know it we will be issuing mobile phones complete with internet, ebook reader, to students!

Water lilies

Water lilies, originally uploaded by Diwa.Jeannie.

Shaykamuni Buddha

Shaykamuni Buddha, originally uploaded by Diwa.Jeannie.

iGoogle - is growing on me

As an avid Google fan I had high expectations of iGoogle. I applaud the concept of having one webpage to bring all my google tools together It is fantastic to be able to access gmail, blogger, google docs and google reader from the one page. Google reader is not working properly at the moment. I can only access my gardening feeds. This could be a hint that I need to buy a lottery ticket so I can spend all my time my working in the garden and post pictures of myself to Flickr, and send a gardening with Jeannie video to youtube! I clicked on the "about this gadget" and read that several people are experiencing problems with Google reader gadget.
Does anyone know how to add Groupwise email to igoogle?
I imagine that students would love iGoogle, they can bring all their favourite social networking sites together. The University of Sussex has created an "igoogle gadget" for their library catalogue. You click on the gadget and you are prompted for your igoogle login and uni sussex library gadget appears on your igoolge page, I can now search the University of Sussex library! We could create one for spydus. Liaision Librarians could share their iGoogle pages with their program groups.

Delicious

Dear All
I have added a Youtube video to the Learn Network delicious tags. It's a comical video produced by University of Sydney library called Search Smarter Search Faster. I recommend that you watch it. I used it with a group of Advanced Diploma tourism students during an online database session. I will go to youtube and see if I can link from youtube to this blog. I found that was a useful feature of Flickr.
PS The post blog dates must be in US format because I can assure you I was not at the computer last Sunday evening!

very dominant Flickr photo and question re searching Flickr

Next time I will choose a smaller template!. I searched Flickr for compost heaps and found some photos of compost heaps. I found it frustrating that when I clicked on the photo of the heap it didn't take me directly to the compost heap. One person had over 600 photos and I clicked on the first 10 or so and gave up. Does anyone know how you can go directly to a photo?

Joey

050, originally uploaded by Diwa.Jeannie.

This mother and Joey visited our campsite at Nitmulik along with numerous birds.

Flickr

Flickr is excellent if you want to share holiday photographs with friends and family. I created a Flickr account earlier this year to that Diwa's niece could see the kangaroo and joey that visted us in out campsite. This blog is linked to Flickr and I will check to see if I have successfully loaded a picture of a joey.

Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/diwajeannie/3514596895/


This is a picture of our car and camper trailer at Rainbow Valley in the Northern Territory. It has taken me about 30 minutes to figure out how to get this photo onto the blog. Having said that it took a lot longer to drive to Rainbow Valley where we were fortunate to watch the sunset setting over the rock formations

Wikis

It's interesting to see what fellow LEARNERs enjoy reading eating and watching! I have created a "Fish" customer service wiki so that we can share our training experiences and brainstorm ideas. Will keep you posted of the progress and will give you the address when I have added some more content.

Two Twitter accounts

Tried to create another Twitter account so that I could search for myself (and make my ego feel better) and still could not find ME!

Twitter

Exploring Twitter's potential to see if I can show it to the ELS skilled migrants. I am missing out on that little thrill I get when I see my name on the Internet. I cannot find myself on Twitter. The help file states that there has been problems loading profiles. I will create an 'alias' and see how I go.

frustrated blogger

I seem to have two blogs which take turns in manifesting! I viewed my last post and noticed that it appeared on a blog with only one entry! No wonder Helen J sent an email asking me to blog my progress.
It's these little frustrations that detract from my overall experience with 23 things.

23 things belated progress report

Trish and I looked at the recipes on the Heart Foundation webpage together at our desks using See and Share. It took perservence to set Movi up, because there was some problems with my speakers. Two phone calls and a visit from ICT and the speaker still didn't work. Fortunately Chris unplugged my speakers and plugged the head phones into the back of the computer and I was embraced with the sound of Barbara's voice!

I am ready to create a Wiki and will invite the staff who attended the online database training to make comments.

Welcome to Jeannie's blog

Good morning bloggers
This is my first blog and I thought I would include a picture of the sacred pink lotus lily. During my travels in Kakadu I was fortunate to see the lily shrouded in the early morning mist arising from Yellow Waters.