Play Week - Week #11-13

Listen to this podcast: Weeks 11-13


ARE YOU DONE????? Cool! Here is what you need to do....email me and let me know that you are finished. I will review your blog and contact you if there are any problems. I know that there won't be. We will ship your MP3 player on the following Tuesday. We only ship on Tuesday because we aren't FedEx, UPS or Special Services. :) We will bundle your location's players together and ship to your manager's attention. He/she can then distribute with a hearty hand shake and pat on the back for a job well done!

NEED HELP???? No problem. We have a discussion board available to you as a place to post your questions. Click the link to go to the board, browse the posts to see if your question topic is there, if not, click the new button to create a new post. Here is the link: Discussion Board (this could be a sneak preview into the next course, you never know!)

Note:

If you are prompted for a username and password, you will have to enter your Citrix username and password. The username will look like this:

username = ocls.info\tsimpson

password = your citrix password

Make sure that you include the ocls.info\ prefix before your username. If you are a Citrix users, you can access the board via the internet from within Citrix, and you will not be prompted to log in.

eXplore – Play time – search, explore, fiddle, find, fool around, visit or revisit anything that we have covered so far.



Share - Remember the technology training needs survey that I conducted a few months ago? Well, in a few weeks, I will send you the link and ask that you give it another go, so please, take a moment and complete the survey when it arrives.


Adventure – Have you finished your podcast yet? If not, now is the time to put that puppy to bed!

Podcasts and Audio - Week #10

Watch this Video: What is Podcasting (Disclaimer – a video of a podcast is an oxymoron. It just doesn’t make sense. Most searches that I did for podcast on the popular video sites returned examples that weren’t worth sharing. This one should at least make you smile. Close your eyes and it is a podcast, open your eyes and it is a video. Wow!!!)
Listen to this podcast: Week 10

Audio based content has a large chunk of the technology market share. Apple’s Ipod and Itunes are both credited with kick starting a sagging record industry and boosting the technology industry. If you live and breathe, you have probably noticed all kinds of people walking around with headphones or ear buds plugged into their heads. These folks are listening to a wide variety of audio content, from digital music to podcasts to audio books to satellite radio.

So what is a podcast? Podcasts, like other technology mediums, have their own search engines, Odeo and Yahoo Podcasts are examples. Click here and enter OCLS into the search window and listen to a podcast. Notice the subscribe button? Remember RSS? RSS can deliver your podcasts to your computer so when you plug in your MP3 player, they automatically synch with each other. You can create a free Yahoo account and subscribe to any of the podcasts in their catalog, or podcasts that you find else where. Here is a tutorial if you are interested and need help.

Our own podcasts are here: OCLS Podcasts. You can access all of the archives and download them directly to your PC. Here’s another interesting library related one, 5 minutes of library news headlines – LibVibe (click the OK button to run the Active X control.) The Denver Public Library also podcasts, click the direct download link to hear their podcast. NPR podcasts too and they offer quite a bit of content, take a look: NPR See if you can find the news from Lake Wobegon.

What are audio books? Audio books, or electronic books, or ebooks are all cousins of the books on tape generation. The main difference between books on tape and an audio book is that audio books can be down loaded from a vendor or provider via the Internet. Maybe we should call them “Books on the Web”? This week’s eXplorer activity is about audio books.


eXplore – Down load an audio book from our library catalog. Save it to your PC and enjoy. Need some help???? What???? You are all old pros at this technology stuff!!! Ok, here are some clues:

Browse for an audio book here: X Marks the Spot

The process for downloading a book is very similar to a brick and mortar library visit. Ok, so the pleasant smiling face of the check out person is missing, and you have to answer your own questions, besides that….

1. Browse and locate the title that interests you, click the title to see more info about the book.
2. To download, click “Create a new account” if you need to create a Netlibrary account. See below for more information. If you have an account, Click “A downloadable audio book through the World Wide Web”
3. Download the title by clicking the “Download this eAudiobook”.
4. Check out your title. See below for more info on CD quality Vs. Radio quality
5. Save your title to your computer or your personal drive space.
6. Listen and enjoy.

Our audio books are supplied by Netlibrary, in order to check an audio book out; you will need to create an account. This is a freebee, just have your library card and pin handy. Once you create the account, check out is a quick click of the button and the book will start to download automatically.

CD quality Vs radio quality – what is the difference? Here is an important point to remember, if you are going to download your audio book to a MP3 player, it HAS to be the CD quality version. HAS to be, won’t work if it isn’t. Trust me on this.

Share - Create a blog entry in response to this question: How are you going to use your MP3 player?

Adventure – create your own podcast, tag it OCLS and share it on one of the search sites that we have explored. Once it is posted, email the URL to me and I will post it on the blog for others to enjoy. Before you create your first podcast, read this article about copyright information. This is a moderate to hard challenge, depending on your knowledge of recording. If you need help, try these links: About: Radio or How To Podcast

Digital Music - Week #9

Watch this Video: Library Musical

Listen to this podcast: Week 9

Music is universal, it exists in every culture on earth, past and present. Before we could write, we had music, before we had books, we had music. I can tell you that I wrote this entire course on a steady diet of Jazz. Creativity for me has always ebbed and flowed. A good Jazz grove blocks out the phones and other office distractions and helps me write. But, before we get to the good stuff, let’s look at the rules of sharing music.

What is copyright? And why do we need to be concerned with it? Digital music is a very convenient format. We can copy it from a CD and play it on our computer, and then synchronize our computer's music library with our MP3 player and unplug from the PC and go for a walk. What if we need a little background music for a presentation or some other thing that we are creating – can I use a Yanni tune for that? Well, if you know Yanni and he says it’s OK, have at it! If you don’t know him, then you might want to look at the laws and guidelines concerning copyright before you do anything. Disclaimer: this is an awareness session only. None of us are lawyers, nor do we play one on TV. If you have a question, take it to your supervisor and get some help before you act, waiting until after the fact is waiting too long.

Copyright Laws This is a pretty good article that describes several different scenarios and how they are impacted by the law.

Copyright for Librarians – click the "Guidelines" menu on the left hand side to expand the content list. Explore the areas that interest you.

Copyright use in Education – music use in the classroom. Many of you may come in contact with students that are creating presentations for class reports. Here are some guidelines for what is acceptable in the classroom.

So what is DRM? And how does DRM affect me? DRM is a tool that record companies use to help prevent their music from illegally being copied. Many consumers are protesting DRM because of how it limits the ablility to move legally purchased music from device to device. Apple and Itunes are central in the DRM debate. Here is a Steve Jobs/Apple article on DRM. Here is a Cnet article about record companies killing DRM. Why don’t we support iTunes here at OCLS? DRM is an issue, but the main reason is that our audio book vendors don’t support iTunes. We do post our podcasts on iTunes, so if you are an iTunes user, you can subscribe to our feed.

Let’s shift gears and look at some music applications. My favorite is Liveplasma. Why? Because I am a visual learner (remember learning styles or did you forget already?) and because I love music. Liveplasma is visual like Grokker, but its purpose is to link similar artists together so you can explore and expand your horizons. Take a look: Liveplasma In the search box, enter the name of your favorite musical artist and click the Artist/Band button. A disclaimer, not all musical artists are in the database, I couldn’t find Janis Joplin for example. So what is the value of all of this? Not too long ago, I was browsing my favorite music site looking for some new Blues music. I came across this guy Joe Bonamassa that I had never heard of. A quick trip to Liveplasma, and I can see that Bonamasa is close to many artists that I already enjoy, so there is a high probability that I would enjoy his music too, and I did. Remember when you used to look at the artwork on the album cover to help you make your purchase decisions? Now we have websites that can help you decide. Cool or not? Either way, now you have a tool to help patrons before they check out CDs!

eXplore – explore LastFM , Musicstrands and Upto11, which are all social music sites. I have had problems getting some of the features in LastFM to work, but give it a try, it may work for you.
Also explore Liveplasma, find some new music for yourself. Here is another visual music search engine to try: Music Map. Compare your results.


Here is some music from our own OCLS family, Emily Wallace. Take a look and a listen!

Share - Where do stand on the digital rights management debate? Should media be offered with unrestricted rights or pay per use rights? Metallica or Napster? Ipod or Etunes? Create a blog entry to tell us how you feel.

Adventure – Many of you have discovered the joy of widgets for your blogs. Here are two sites that you can use to find more widgets. Springwidgets and Yourminis.
Tell us what you added in your blog post. This is an advanced activity.

Sharing Information - Week #8

Watch this video: People that use Flickr, go to Hawaii (Maybe you'll get an invite for next year’s meet up!!)

Listen to this podcast: Week 8 (yes, I know this is week #8, sometimes things change)

Let’s start this week off with a field trip to Flickr. Flickr is a website that allows users to upload digital pics from their computer and share them with just their friends or the whole entire planet. Users can “tag” an image with key words that describe the picture. This allows people to search Flickr for pictures that interest them by entering tag words into the search window. What a great way for the whole world to see just how cute your kids really are!!!

Once you open Flickr, either log in (because you already have an account) or click the red Sign Up button and create your own free account. Once you are in, type OCLS into the search box at the top of the screen and take a look at the pics that have been tagged with OCLS. See if you can find my pictures. See if you can find my account profile.

OK, you have looked for some work stuff; now let’s look for some fun stuff. I imagine you could search for Disney, but how about searching for the tag skateboards instead? There are 85,000 pictures of skateboards, 45000 of skateboards +pool, but only 12 of skateboards +pool +Dogtown. You just might want to see the pics of Tony Alva still carving the pool in his mid 40s. Talk about stoked!! Ok, so skateboards aren’t your thing, go see what you can find.

Creative Commons
Now that you have had a chance to browse for a few moments, think about how you would feel if someone took your photo and made a poster out of it and sold it. Not too happy I would guess, and rightfully so. To help protect the artist’s rights, Creative Commons was created to provide artists the ability to put work out into cyber space but still have control of how their work is consumed by the public. Here is more info about Creative Commons from Wikipedia.org

Examples of websites that use Creative Commons to protect their work:

Public Library of Science – scroll to the very bottom of the page and click the "Creative Commons Attribution License" link to see how they use CC.

Flickr – look at this photo that I took. If you look to the right of the pic, under Additional Information, you will see two small icons and the link “some rights reserved”. Click the link to see how I used Creative Commons to both protect and share my work.

Learn 2.0 - the original version of Learn 2.0 was created by the Public Library of Charlotte/Mecklenburg County. They licensed the course so that we, and as you saw last week, a whole bunch of other libraries, could use it. By agreeing to their licenses terms in Creative Commons, we also agree to allow others to use this content. You can see our license here

eXplore – Take some digital pictures of your location, department or co-workers. With your managers approval, upload the pics to your Flickr account, tag with "101Central" (OCLS has been used) and share. Make sure the pictures are public, or we won’t be able to see them. This can be a group activity, so an entire branch or department can upload images. Please respect the privacy of our patrons - no pics of kids or adult faces.

Share – Post a blog entry that discusses this course. Think about on-line learning – do you like it? Why or why not? Without mentioning names, have you offered to help anyone? Has someone helped you? How? Are you part of a team working on this together? How is that working out? Did you reach out to another location? Realize that this is all part of a larger program called Life.exe. In Life.exe, we all have to work together, and when we do, we all benefit. Sort of Hippy logic, I know, but it is something I believe in. (what did you expect from someone that thinks Tony Alva is cool?)

Adventure – Create a Protopage, tag it with OCLS, save and share it. This is a moderate challenge.

Fun Stuff - Week #7

Watch this Video: Otronicon
Listen to this podcast: Week 7

All right, I think it is time we took a look at the lighter side of Web 2.0. Have some fun this week!

Trainco – Did you make the New Year’s resolution? You know the one about loosing a few pounds? I think you look great, but if you feel you need too……take a look at Trainco for some help.

Dogster and Catster – Are you a fan of Man’s best friend or more of a feline affection ado? Ying or yang, here is one for the pet lovers. Sorry, I haven't found a site for reptiles or amphibians, but I am sure that you can!

Blufr – Think of Trivia Pursuit only a little different.

Chugged – The website for beer lovers.

Bottletalk – If beer lovers can have their own site, so can wine lovers.

The Puzzle Player – Here is a place to do the Sunday crossword puzzle without the hassle of that newspaper thing getting black ink all over everything. What, more of a Sudduko fan? Well, you can find it here as well.


eXplore – Play with the applications!!! Create accounts and have fun!



Share – Create a blog entry and tell us what you liked. Did you do the Adventure quest? What did you find?


Adventure – Research your favorite hobby. Is there a Web 2.0 application for you out there? Need a refresher on just what qualifies as a Web 2.0 app? Check out the glossary. This is a bunny hill challenge.

Library Thing - Week #6

Watch this video: Why I Love the Libary
Listen to this podcast: Week 6

In the Web 2.0 world, social networking** refers to a website that allows users to create their own profile and share information about themselves with the web community. People gather at specific sites, or are drawn to specific sites for many different reasons. Some, like Myspace, started as a place for indie musicians to gather and post info about their music and gigs. As we saw, seemingly, the whole world took notice and decided to join the fray. Believe it or not, there are social networking sites for book lovers and library lovers, and in this week’s activities, we will explore some of them.

Another Web 2.0 trend is the blending technologies together to create new tools or applications. This process is called a mashup. An example of a mashup might be the blending of a real estate multiple listing service (MLS) with Google Maps. The result is a searchable listing of houses that are displayed, interactively, on a map. Check it out here: http://www.propsmart.com/ Enter your zip code to see houses for sale in your neighborhood . Click the smiling face to see the house info. Open a specific house and click the satellite button to see the house from space. Zoom in or out by clicking the + and – buttons.

Here are three more mashups to explore:

Learn 2.0 Map of the World - here is a Google map that lists all of the libraries in the world that are doing a version of Learn 2.0. Use the plus and minus icons to zoom in and out. Did you find us?

MotorMapUSA - maybe you have always dreamed of owning that red convertible sports car, well, choose your dream car from the list and click how far you willing to travel and see who is selling your future baby.

Wikimapia – part user editable wiki, part Google Map. This mashup lets you identify specific places on earth. Why? Hmmm….good question.



eXplore – Explore library apps: Library Thing; Book Mooch; Elf; Guru Library; Shelfari; What Should I Read Next?



Share – Share your favorite library technology in your blog. It could be something here at OCLS or something you have seen at another library. If you are having trouble, write about your favorite Web 2.0 library application. Link and share any cool applications not mentioned here. If you did the Adventure exercise, how might this info be helpful?



Adventure – Explore Del.icio.us and PopUrls





**Note: The social networking link above contains a very technical description of social networking. Please explore at a depth for which you are comfortable.

Play Week - Week #5

Listen to this podcast: Week 5

Watch this video: Tuesday Morning Rush – Here is the description: “Cambridge economists rush for library books on the last day of Easter Term 2002/003” How does this compare to your Tuesday morning rush?


This is an official exploration week. As such, I won’t introduce any new material so you can get a little play time with the things that we have covered. If you are a late joiner or if life has jumped in the way of your learning, this is a catch up week. Go!


eXplore – Play time – search, explore, fiddle, find, fool around, visit or revisit anything that we have covered so far.


Share – Verbally share your experiences with someone at your location.


Adventure – Can’t get enough? Ok! Create a Meez avatar and insert it into your blog. This is a moderately challenging task, Disclaimer: I have created an avatar, but I haven’t got it into my blog yet.

Web 2.0 Defined - Week #4

Watch this video: Web2.0 Double click the right arrow to start.
(link shamelessly borrowed from the Orange Slices Blog.)
Listen to this podcast: Week 4

What is Web 2.0? Think of the Hippy movement of the 1960’s, but in a digital age. Remember the song, “I’d like to teach the world to sing” …..” Now add “And share and collaborate, and create, ….in perfect harmony”. In its’ first creation, the web mainly took existing information and moved it to the Internet. Yes, you could look up movie show times and high school friends and search for books on Amazon or buy that favorite childhood toy on Ebay. Most of that stuff you could do without the web. Remember newspapers and classified ads? The magic of Web 2.0 is the power of individuals to create and share – globally! Time Magazine summed it up best in the article: Your Web, Your Way

Time came back in late December and named You, the Person of the Year:

“But look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see another story, one that isn't about conflict or great men. It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes. “

How did those kids sell their video website for 1.65 Billion Dollars? Meet the “kids” and read their story in Time Magazine article: YouTube Gurus . (this is a looong article, read until you are full, but not painfully full!) You have to wonder – “Why didn’t I think of that”?

Videoblogs: did you catch the statistic in Time's Your Web, Your Way article that Video Ninja has more viewers than the Comedy Channel's The Daily Show? (Click the OK button if you are prompted to run an active X control. Plug your earphones in and turn your sense of humor up to 11. The corn factor is high, but there is a message and it is pretty good)
How about LonelyGirl15? Have you read about her? LonelyGirl is the brain child of two college students that hired an actor to play LonelyGirl. She is a fictitious character with a Youtube account. Did you catch that - she is a character, ala James Bond, that has a Youtube account. They have created an interactive web based video show that encourages the audience to email characters and help develop the show’s scripts. Do you think the big three networks are ready to have you and I help write the next script for any of the new fall programs? Where would Magnum PI be right now if we could have only helped him figure out who Robin Masters really was? This potential for interactivity is so cool! (scroll down to article: SXSW: Lonelygirl15 is alive and well) Can you see the future where actors are CGI based special effects that are interactive with the "audience"? Does the term audience even apply anymore? Here is an interesting article from MSNBC on 5/9. Why do you think less people are watching TV? Web 2.0? TV Viewers are Vanishing

Web 2.0 isn’t just about video; it encompasses all things digital; music, art, poetry and the written word. Web 2.0 blends you the user and you the content generator with technology that opens up the world. Where do you think Jim Morrison would have gone with Web 2.0? What about Kurt Cobain?


eXplore –Visit Myspace and search for OCLS. Visit Youtube and search for OCLS. Check out the videos. Go to SEOmoz and browse through the categories and award winners – explore at least three of the award winning websites.

Share – Blog about your experience with Web 2.0 applications. If you are stuck, think about the application that you liked best and tell us why. Did you share the program with anyone? Were you surprised to find an OCLS presence on Myspace or Youtube? What did you think of the Web 2.0 video? (note: I have watched it at least 10 times and I am still finding new meanings. It is a very powerful piece of art.)

Adventure – Create a ToEat entry for a restaurant near your branch. Unfortunately, you won't be able to tag it with OCLS, but you could write a SHORT review and mention OCLS somehow. Be creative!

Finding Information - Week #3

Watch these Videos – Episode 2 Episode 3
Listen to this podcast: Week 3

Learning Styles - Just as each of us are unique individuals, we also have unique ways in which we prefer to receive information. Scientists call these preferences our learning styles. Have you ever thought about how you like to learn? Some (like me) are visual learners. We like to learn from reading or watching something. Other folks are auditory learners. They learn best by listening, or hearing. Do you know someone that can play a song after hearing it a few times? Another learning style is tactile - involving the hands. These are the folks that like to grab a hold of their learning (bad pun, I couldn't resist!!) Tactile learners use their hands to help them learn. Many Tactile learners make great mechanics. The last group is the kinesthetic learners. One of my daughters has a preference for kinesthetic styled learning. She is constantly on the move; she wants to learn by doing something or being physically involved in the learning process. Think about your learning style as we look at some technology.

RSS - Real Simple Syndication. You may have heard the term before, but did you know what the letters stood for? RSS is a powerful tool that can help bring information to you. Take a look at Alan November's article on RSS.

Wikis – Wikis are much like blogs except that all visitors have the ability to add, edit or delete information. Seems sort of weird doesn’t it? The goal is to use a wiki to create a collaborative piece of knowledge. If all of mankind is separated by 6 degrees, well then, all of man’s knowledge is only 6 separations away. Not so silly is it? Take a look at Wikipedia and search for your own piece of profound wisdom.

How do these topics connect? As an alternative to just googling information, you can search information or have information come to you in formats that cater to your preferred learning style. Try the following activities to see.


eXplorers - Go to Bloglines and create a free account. Once your account is created, add at least 5 RSS feeds to your account. Make sure that one of them is from OCLS. (Hint: Mary Anne Hodel has a monthly blog as well as the Southwest Branch, Orange Slices and Techno Teens Live) Need help? Review Alan November’s article on RSS, he takes you through the process step by step.
Two more tasks - search Grokker for the topic of your choice. Once your results are displayed, click the Map View tab. (visual learners will rejoice!)

Share - In your blog, create an entry that reflects on what you searched for and what you found. If you are stuck, you can use these questions to help start you out: Did Grokker’s grouping of search results help you? What sites did you select for your RSS reader? What is your learning style preference? Is Learn 2.0 working with or against your learning preference? Remember to take a moment and share your thoughts and comments on someone else’s blog.

Adventures - (remember this is an OPTIONAL activity) Follow the tutorial on Yahoo Pipes and create a Pipe and share it. This is a difficult challenge and may take an additional 20-30 minutes of time.

Introduction to Blogs- Week #2

Watch this video – Episode 1
Listen to this podcast: Week 2

What is a blog? Here is a great definition taken from the Southwest branch’s Blog. I love their definition and I am a subscriber to their blog. Examples of other blogs at OCLS include: Library Leader, Orange Slices, the Southwest Library and Techno Teens Live

Why would or should you blog? Blogging can be used to share information about any topic or any thing. Some folks post in a style very similar to a personal diary, others post for business reasons. Campaign managers will surely use blogging as a method to get the “word” out for the upcoming presidential elections. Regardless of the reason, our patrons are blogging and they may come to you for help.

What should I know about blogs? Blogging is a great way to share insight and information, but you have to be careful. Blogging has been cited as the source of information used to make admission decisions to various colleges and universities. The potential students posted information that painted them in an unflattering light. Or they posted the actual pictures that showed them in the unflattering light!!!! Either way, the point is, people are reading your stuff. Last year, I found that one of our students was posting too much personal information on her Myspace account. In a school of over 2000 students, it took me 3 days to identify her, without using the yearbook or any other source of student information. She was shocked that we were reading HER myspace account. Maybe she forgot that it was on the INTERNET!! Once you post your thoughts and ideas to the Internet, they are no longer private; the entire world can read it. Here is another example from the recent news. Be a smart blogger!


eXplore – Create your own blog and introduce yourself. Tell us as much as you feel comfortable with. You can be anonymous, but don’t be afraid to be real. If you are working with a group or team, every member of the team has to do this activity in order to be considered a course participant.

To get started, we first need to create a Google Account. To create your account, click the Google link below and enter your work email address. Create a password (use a familiar password)and make sure that you enter the green security text in to the text window. When you are done, click the I Accept, Create My Account button. Google is going to send you an email to verify your account. Open the email when you receive it and click the verify link - a Thank You window will appear. Your log in user name to access your blog will be your work email address. Now we are ready to create our blogs! (note: this process changed recently and is relatively new)

Google Link

Now, Let’s go to Blogspot and create your blog in 3 Easy Steps. Three. Easy. Steps. Remember you must register the your blog so I can keep track of your progress. The registration link is below.

1. Click the orange arrow and create an account. It’s free.
2. Create a name for your blog. This can be a silly name, an anonymous name or your own name. Whatever you want to do.
3. Create a background template for your blog. This is very similar to choosing the look of a Powerpoint presentation.

Now that we are done with the three easy steps, click the orange arrow and start posting. If you need some starter ideas, check the Share area below. When you are done, click the orange Publish button. Tada!!! You are now a blogger!

One more step, and this is an important one. Once you have completed your first post, you need to send me the blog address. This is how you are going to register for the course and it is how I will keep track of who is participating. It is the only way I will know who to send the MP3 player to, especially if you choose to blog anonymously! To register your blog, copy your blog URL (for example http://xyz.blogspot.com), click the link below, enter your name and paste your blog URL in the provided space. Hit Submit and you will come right back here.

Blog Registration

Disclaimer, Warning, Danger, Legal Notice, etc: if you skip this step, I will not honor your claim for an MP3 player later.



Share – The eXplore activity takes care of sharing for this week. Don’t know what to write in your blog? Think about these topics: How was the process of creating your blog? Scary? Frustrating? Easy? Can you see a use for blogs inside the Library? How about blogging for a patron audience? Comments are the fuel that blogs run on. Feel free to comment on your colleagues blogs.


Adventure – visit Technorati and search out other library related blogs. Share your discoveries in your own blog. Remember, this is an optional activity.

Welcome to OCLS Learn 2.0 - Week #1

Watch this video: New Technology (plug in your headphones or speakers)
Listen to this podcast: Week 1

This course is all about SELF:

Sharing and Collaborating

Exploration

Lifelong Learning and

Fun in the workplace

Sharing and Collaborating - Sharing and collaborating are a large, LARGE component of this course. Why? Because none of us work alone. I am sitting here at my desk typing this, but Jim Elder is working on the graphics, Emily Wallace is looking for interesting weblinks, Rashal McElderry is our podcaster, and Chris Zabriskie is the person that makes the A/V magic happen. We have all collaborated to make this project happen. Technology is the key to opening up our collaboration circles. By broadening the circle, we can tap into more talent and skill, which makes work easier and the end results better. Without the team that helped with this project, you would have been reading this in a very flat, plain, boring email message. Please feel free to connect with someone at your location and work through this course together. Form a team, a study group, a lunch group, however it works for you is great!

Exploration - Trying new things is what makes life exciting. Don’t be afraid to try any part of this course, even if it doesn’t work. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Trying is the important part. Remember how you learned to ride a bike? Remember how many times you fell? You were determined and committed and you kept trying!! That’s what we need here.

Fun – Our work is serious by its nature, having fun at work should be a mandatory requirement, like taking a lunch break. In an article titled “Humor and Fun in the Workplace” (weblink to article source) Mary Rau-Foster mentions Southwest Airlines:

“SouthWest Airlines has departed from the typical approach to passenger service and has been rewarded for it. The flight attendants were named number one among the flight attendants of all the airlines.” “…In addition, they are encouraged to use humor in their customer service — which the passengers seem to appreciate (this one in particular.) Does the playfulness of the attendants impact their credibility with the passengers? Apparently not, as evidenced by the laughter and positive comments that follows some humorous remarks by the attendants.”

If you have ever flown SWA, you know that they are a “different” airline. In a recent flight from Buffalo to Orlando, I was asked to sing the Mickey Mouse theme song for first-to-board privileges. I honestly didn’t know all of the words, but the gate guy rehearsed with me and I pulled it off. Lucky for me, Simon wasn’t in the crowd! Should you have patrons sing out their Dewey decimal requests? I don’t know what is right for you, but I know that if our patrons see us enjoying our work, they will be drawn to us, and more likely to visit.

Lifelong Learning (yes I know, when spelling “SELF” the “F” should be after “L” but it doesn’t flow as well that way here) Lifelong learning means that the dog is never too old to learn new tricks. I hope that all of you are ready to learn a few new tricks. Exploration, experience and learning are all parts of lifelong learning and growth. Think of yourself as a knowledge pirate, exploring new worlds and seas, only without the plundering and killing part.

This course will be taught asynchronously, meaning that I will present learning information on a regular interval and you can stop by and use the materials when you like. This type of learning gives you the power to learn when it is best for you. As we all know, life has a great way of changing our best plans. Asynchronous learning gives you flexibility to deal with the issues and learn when you want. Remember the Burger King commercial – “Have it your way”?? You have the power to learn anytime you want. Can you feel the power??!!


eXplore – 7.5 Habits activity – View the presentation and create your own learning goals. (a direct link to download the learning contract is on the link list on the upper right side of this page)


Share – Take a moment and post a comment to this blog about your experience with blogging, even if this is your first time. You can also share your expectations for this course. To leave a comment, click the word “comments” at the bottom of this page. When you click, a text box will open; enter your comments into the box. In the Choose Your Identity field, feel free to be anonymous or click the other button and use your own name. You don’t need to create a Google/Blogger account at this time. When you are finished, click the “Publish Your Comment” button and you are done.


Adventure –We will have our first Adventure activity next week.