How Delicious saves me from myself

I have been using Delicious for several years. It has been a been so helpful for me because I am a very serendipitous learner. In other words, I am easily distracted when I am searching for one thing and I see something else that looks interesting. Delicious saves me from myself. I can wander off for a moment when I see something interesting, bookmark it for looking at later, and get back to the original task at hand. Having the bookmarking tools right in my Firefox browser really makes this easy.
I have not really used Delicious for social networking though, just for my own personal convenience. So for 23things this week, I decided to experiment with that part of it. I also had never created a bundle, and that looked very useful. And, I figured it would be a good excuse to do some weeding of my bookmarks.
A couple hours later, here’s what I had accomplished. I had deleted several broken links and links to things I was no longer interested in or events that were past (like Blues Weekend 2007). I had created some tag bundles, putting together under one bundle: cataloging, librarycataloging, digital_cataloging, dewey, dewey_decimal_quiz, and cataloging_cultural_objects. I had also socialized by looking at other people’s Delicious accounts who had tagged some of the same sites as me. I found quite a few useful things to distract me, including a new Firefox add-on, a new blog to add to my Google Reader, and a new recipe for sweet potato fries!

People watching with a RSS reader

One of my favorite things to do is people watch. I have discovered how to do this even online. In my Google reader, I have subscriptions for several library blogs: librarian.net, LibrarianInBlack, Librarians with Class, Libraries Matter, and many more; I follow library websites so I can see what other libraries are up to; I subscribe to several reader’s advisory blogs; I follow some friends and family’s personal blogs; some online magazines; and so on…
But I also make sure I read at least one blog by someone I don’t know at all, who lives a life that I would never probably encounter anywhere else. Like the nature photographer in Utah, who writes a travel blog and posts amazing nature pictures from places she travels; like the lesbian Episcopal priest in upper New York (mother and grandmother to 17 foster children and grandchildren) who wrote about her feelings during the church schism over Gene Robinson’s ordination; and the New York University student who wrote about her New York Puerto Rican family and neighborhood before she went off and joined the Peace Corp. Blogs are a great way to spend some time walking in someone else’s shoes. And they are a great way to people watch.

Playing catch-up – Flickr vs. Photobucket

Another snowy weekend so I think I will try to get caught up with my 23things lessons. I’m going to write a cautionary tale and lament about the first time I used flickr. At the time, I had an email account with sbcglobal, so when I signed up for a flickr account I used that email address. Over the course of time, I changed internet service providers and no longer had access to the sbcglobal account. I didn’t use my flickr account for awhile, and when I tried to go back in (I think it was after 6 months) I discovered that my account was de-activated for nonuse. In order to get it activated again, I had to click a verification in the email they were sending me. Guess where they sent the email? To my sbcglobal account, which I no longer had access to! I was out of luck. Fortunately, I had saved copies of the most of the pictures other places so I didn’t lose too many. I started using photobucket then, and I like it pretty well. It allows you to edit the pictures after you upload them. You can crop them, lighten them, etc. It doesn’t work nearly as well as iPhoto, but its free and convenient.
For this 23 things lesson, I created a new flickr account using a yahoo email that I seldom use. I uploaded pictures from places I have visited in the last couple of years. It was pretty easy to link to my wordpress blog using the flickr widget.

Online Meetings

To explore this week’s 23things, I’m attending Educon 2.2 hosted by the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. It is an education conference that is “both a conversation and a conference.” I am attending using the software Elluminate. It’s nice that I’m participating in a conference going on live in Philadelphia, yet I’m sitting in front of my computer at home. One downside is that my dog sees that the sun is shining outside and I’m not leaving for work, so why am I not taking him for a walk?

The first session I’m attending is Tinkering Towards Technology Fluency. It’s about a program that allows students to discover technology on their own. The video screen is very difficult to see and there’s a lot of static in the audio.

Snippets of the conversation: Nothing turns out as planned… success is in the doing …everyone doesn’t do the same thing …as long as they make progress and they are showing they are learning …move from curriculum learning …what you need to learn when you are ready to learn it … see yourself as Iron Chef – here’s the ingredients and tools, now go to it … stop the thinking of “delivering” learning …learning happens when students are given agency …students may be learning something that is unknown to the teacher … not learning about science, but acting as a scientist .. how to implement in a block learning …

Interesting discussion, but as far as the technology goes, it was not a great experience. Online meeting and conferences are in their infancy. I think we have to be patient. I just have to think of how things have changed in the last few years, and how much more they are going to change in the next few years. I think online learning is one area that will get much, much better.

Facebook and online communities

Just about a year ago, my daughter was in Costa Rica doing a research project for college. A 7.0 earthquake hit the area where she was staying. Even before I heard the news of the earthquake, she had posted to her Facebook page that she was okay. That saved me and all of her other family and friends a lot of worry! I keep up with both my kids, nieces and nephews, new friends and old friends on Facebook. It’s a fun place to share pictures and just tidbits of random thoughts, kind of like casual conversation. One of my goals for this year is to use Atchison Library’s Facebook page to connect with the community in a casual conversation way.
A couple of years ago, I joined a Ning group for Colorado birdwatchers because I was planning a trip there and wanted to connect with some fellow birders and maybe join up with a tour. Ning is a platform that allows people with similar interests to form their own social networking group. For this week’s 23 Things activity, I decided to see what other Ning groups have formed for birdwatchers.
Birdspace is a “Social Network for Birders, Bird Watchers and Bird Photographers” so I decided to join that. There are lots of beautiful photos, and a recommendation for the book Fifty Places to Go Birding Before You Die: Birding Experts Share The World’s Greatest Destinations. I’m going to definitely check that one out. Yay, road trips!
Webjunction has an online community, too. I am going to friend some of you there. Funny, isn’t it, that “friend” is now a verb? So is “unfriend” – which was named the word of the year for 2009 by the New Oxford American Dictionary. I guess that’s fitting for an unfriendly kind of year.

Starting a new adventure!

I am really looking forward to the next couple of months sharing and learning with the great library folks across Kansas and…..?? I know there are some other states represented. I would love to hear from you…please comment on my blog and let me know where you are from.

Also, just cuz there is a warm spot in my heart for all K-Placers…how many of us are there doing the 23 Things Kansas?