Book Report

Summary: The book is 'The Dragon and the Unicorn' written and illustrated by Lynne Cherry. 'tis a children's book and the story focuses a lot on the beauty of the land until the humans with their king start cutting down the trees and destroying the landscape. The king's daughter tries to save the birds' nests by placing them in trees deeper in the forest. The story goes with the dragon saving the unicorn from the king's knights and the creatures in the forest working together. They eventually lure the king's daughter into the forest, where they have gone into hiding, for it to work its magic on her and hopefully help them. In the forest she learns many things from Valerio, the dragon, and Allegra, the unicorn. Naturally, her father misses her and sends his knights to search for her. Eventually he is the one who enters the forest and, although fearful, continues his search until she comes to him. From there she introduces him to the forest and her newfound friends. His decree was the happy ending for the story. It is a wonderful introductory story for young children on ecology and world preservation.


Review:

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Ha, Ha, Ha, I did it!!!! I created the Friendly Cave Lady with the bone in her hand for a weapon just in case she needs it for protection. From what she would need protection is a matter of conjecture, but who knows where she could go with that friendly smile. I created some others that I might send here or elsewhere (like my e-mail) if I can figure out how to transport them.

Conclusion....Yes, Yes, Yes....

It has been a good ride on this learning journey and I have enjoyed it even though some of it was stressful at times. My favorite discoveries was the "flickr" and the "YouTube." Finding the site where I was able to visit my hometown and Japan was great.

How has the program assisted or affected my learning goals? It has given me new doors with which to explore if I am ever able to obtain a computer of my own. That should say it sufficiently for that question.

Any take-aways or or unexpected outcomes that surprised me? Yes to all especially the surprises. I, like many my age and some younger, have not been subjected to some of this knowledge and resources (like the Wikipedia) because the introduction has not been there. You provided it and it has been great. Computer literacy has not been a problem for me since I started learning in 1988. I finished college at the ripe age of 56 as a nontraditional student and loved it. That should say something for old age learning.

I am not sure what you could do differently to improve upon the program's format or concept. I did have trouble moving things around and had considered sending an e-mail to one of the educators to help me, but I muddled through it and didn't have to. Maybe later down the road I could think of something other than the problems I had. The exercises, I felt, were good and helpful. I did click on everything that would take me to a site to gain information. Some helped me and some I got lost in. If I got lost, I just got out of there and kept traveling down the road until I found or could make some sense of the area I was motivating.

YES I would definitely choose to participate in another program if I would be allowed to do it here at our library. Thank you for your interest, time, and dedication....... Dessie Martin

WIKI?

I found the presentation by Meredith Gorran Farkas from Norwich University quite interesting. Clicking on this address is the beginning of her presentation: http://meredith.wolfwater.com/cil06/. The number 10 in the presentation gave the steps in starting up a wiki of your own. It seems to be quite simple and could give a new and refreshing light in the communication forum. http://meredith.wolfwater.com/cil06/#10

What did I find interesting. EVERYTHING!!! I love, adore, worship, and honor COMMUNICATION. I feel it is the basis of relationships and that spreads all over the world. I really liked the Indiana St. Joseph County Public Library's Subject Guides. It lists everything most people visiting a library would be searching for. And the Wyoming author's wiki shows a wiki for authors which in turn shows there must be a host of Wyoming authors. Course, other states could pick up the tab for their winning personages if they wanted.

The applications within libraries might work well with a wiki if the library had a specific area set up for patrons to go to get the information in which they were interested. Then again that might encompass having to education some or many of them in what is in a "wiki" and how to access what they wanted. Then you have many older persons who are not computer literate and that would present a problem--possibly. With the younger generation, I don't think we would have a whole lot of worries.

Tagging, Folksonomies, and Social Bookmarking MAZE

Geeze, one would never realize just how many descriptions for "Tagging" are in the Wiktionary. Quite interesting though when you browse through them with all their sections and TAGS! I went to the "Us.ef.ul: A beginners guide to Del.icio.us" and got lost in the thing. I did like several sections in the "Del.icio.us" site though. I did open an account and now I have to go back and see if I am there since I am not even sure if I am. Whoohoo!!!!! *****Went back, was not in, re-entered, now I am in the site, put several sites into the "Del.icio.us" site. Now I am hoping to get the library site put in and I should be done with this site. *****Did that. Now I can feel I successfully added some sites to go in and "Muddle Through!"

You Tube Surfing

I went to the web 2.0 players and found that there are 62 video sites. Wow!!! I browsed through several and found a couple worth surfing through like blinkx and zippy. But by far, YouTube is definitely the best especially with the education site. I found the one on ED in '08: The State of America's Schools especially interesting and I am inserting it for viewing.




Zippy was actually the first one I visited where I found some funny videos, especially the one about Peter the Skateboard Dog which I am inserting for my visitors to enjoy.
The one that was listed as a Very Funny Video: Keep laughing! in the same site had a slight morbid sense of humor. I see nothing funny about any kind of bird attacking people, especially children. Blinkx would be my second choice for surfing for a varied interest base. I went in the site, typed Nicolas Cage's name in and was able to bring up some videos on him. He is one actor who could never hurt my eyes watching him.

The varied sites do cater to a broad range of interests and mentalities. I think I have written enough about my experience as well as posted a couple videos worth adding which were informative as well as entertaining. I feel humor helps with education as well as adding pleasure and we all need laughter in our lives. What I like and dislike about the site would range to quite educational to offensive. One would have to be quite discerning (especially if children are involved) as to which sites would be viable and worth visiting. Some would be a entertaining and others would be a waste of time. CNN.com in the blinkx was quite informative even though you might have to deal with some of the advertisements. I went also went into the "1970s TV commercials," "library dominos," and "Magnum, A.L." and found nothing I was interested in persuing. I did like the "Crazy Library Lady" site. The "Library Ninja" was entertaining, but the "Angry Librarian" as well as several of the others was more than entertaining. One could relate to issues that all of us in the library, school, and working sector deal with.

Creating, adding and applying videos to library websites would, could, and can add to library communication in a visual mein. It could help with communication issues and we could see instead of just read the different ideas and processes from libraries statewide, nationwide, and possibly worldwide.

Hello to PODCASTS

The podcast "word of the year" was interesting as were the rest of the words listed. News to me. I did not know until I went into this that there was such a creation. Then I went into the three directories listed. The Podcastalley.com was interesting. I listened to one that told how to make a facial mask with avocado, milk, and yogurt. Looked pretty good. Looked at some of the other titles. Some looked interesting and a couple looked like something "Strange Appetites" (according to my ideology) would enjoy. Got out of it and went into the other two and found they were not worth the time to "diddle" with. Went back to the Podcastalley.com, found a couple interesting ones in the Education site. I liked the one on learning Spanish and added it to my Bloglines account. Found another on humor, added it, then discovered it WAS NOT something that I really wanted to damage my hearing with and DELETED IT!

How would it be useful for my patrons or me? For my patrons, it could help with quite a number of things education and entertainment wise according to their searching needs or wants. Since it is a listening site with a wide range of interests, it would be good for those who are audile learners. For myself, it would be good entertainment as well as learning but I would have to take good notes as I am a more visual learner who needs the hands on accompaniment.

As far as learning how to be a podcaster, that would have to be something for the future if there were ever something I would be interested in sharing with the world out there. It is good to know there is the resource available for viewing and learning.

PLAY TIME!!!!!

I went to The Generator Blog, surfed the thing and finally found one I liked in the Jedi Name Generator (http://www.xach.com/misc/jedi.html) and got myself a Jedi Name which is Marde Camag. Quite interesting in how the name is created. Then I went into the Library Thing and joined and my address is listed here: http://www.librarything.com/profile/ . It should be quite interesting if I get any replies. I may have to go back in and revise some of my information. I did use the generated name I got from the Jedi Name Generator. For a viewing of some of my favorite books and those I have in my collection, please view the books under the heading "Library Thing BOOKS!"

More Flickr

I cruised around in "mappr.com" (http://flickr.com/map) and found some interesting pictures. I went to Japan and Magnolia, Arkansas (Magnolia AR) which are two places in which I have an interest. I had gone to Toyo University in Tokyo in 1995 and wanted to see if there were any pictures that were familiar. A couple of the library pictures looked familiar, but I think they did some renovations and remodeling there because most of the college was oval and arced. Magnolia was interesting with the SAU (Southern Arkansas University) Rehab pictures by Farther Along. Someone else had a beautiful picture of the Columbia County Jail as well as a picture of the old Post Office and a couple pictures of the County Courthouse which had a corner view of a magnolia tree. There used to be magnolia trees surrounding the courthouse square. A bit of nostalgia there. I also got myself a flickr account and sent a message to the one who took the picture of the courthouse.

Lovely Views in Flickr

In the flickr 4a lesson I found three pictures I liked. The first one was from a library in Ireland that had as part of their flooring tiles that resembled a honeycomb. It was a Rachel Joynt design titled 'Arc Hive' created to reflect the gathering and storing instinct of bees which is a parallel of librarians and library collections. I sent an e-mail to the library in Ireland telling them about the class we are taking and thanked them for the beautiful picture and the information. I received a "Thank You" in return from the Duty Librarian, Justin Furlong, which was nice. Their address is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dublincitypubliclibraries/399634758/sizes/m/in/pool-13655129@NOO/ collected two other photos of unicorns which are a passion of mine and have printed two. The image of the unicorn titled "Unicorns ROCK!" was /http://www.flickr.com/photos/14468828@NO2/2113353817, BUT I think the person who had the pictures must have taken them off since I loaded them. The picture of the unicorn standing in the pool was taken off a website and its address is: http://unicorns.com/images/products/unicorn-fall.jpg. Anyway, they are special and beautiful.













Then I found a beautiful butterfly and its link is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rich66/437997685/. It is a Blue Morpho Butterfly and if you like butterflies, I would encourage you to visit the site. There are a lot more beauties there to peruse.

Really Simple (stuff) Syndication

I had to have some help with this thing! I kept getting lost on how to add the feeds. Thanks to my help (Cathy, Sharon, and Annie) extensively. It looks like something that will be useful later on when I can do this on my own because the feeds (I feel) will eventually help me with research as well as knowledge and information on a useful and entertaining level.

3/15/08 I came back to this to finish some of my thoughts on this part of the Challenge. Boy, was that a mouthful when someone named it the "Challenge!"

I think the Bloglines account for school and/or libraries can use this so there will not be all the advertisements getting in the way of the knowledge base that we wish to impart to our young. We are bombarded with so much advertisement that, at times, it gets irritating when you are trying to research or find some information. I already mentioned in the first paragraph one thing I felt would be good for my personal life. I am not sure how it would help me in my work at this point but I do think it is a good tool to use to get news and information which can focus on basically one's interests. I do like the part about the newsfeeds having several options you can choose from like 'summaries' or 'complete entries' on your interests. The 'public' or 'private access' is also good if you prefer your interests to stay personal or share with others. As far as our library using this type of resource, it might be something we could possibly use sometime when we are planning different programs. That is just a thought I am throwing out. If someone has any ideas in this area, I would love to get a response or responses.

My First Post

NOTHING HAS BEEN EASY WITH THIS THING!!!!! It has been confusing from getting a new e-mail with yahoo which is out in never-never land and I don't know how to get rid of the thing. Another one was created with gmail which seems to be working for the present time. SO, I can not say at this time what has been easiest or hardest for now.

3/5/08 It has been a while since I started "This Thing!" And I have learned a lot but not everything I want to know. It has been difficult to move the pictures I wanted around and still is. I had trouble getting my comments to wrap around the pictures as well as the links. One link seems to want to duplicate itself and I am not sure why???? I am sure when I comment again within this post, there will be more difficulties down the road, but we are supposed to be "learners" I guess even at my age. Oh well!!!!

3/15/08 I'm back to update my easiest and hardest of the "7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners." To date the easiest has been, like most of my co-workers, to 'Play.' The hardest has three running neck to neck in the race and they are: Habit 1: Begin with the end in mind (I have no idea where the end would be), Habit 5: Create your own learning toolbox (I feel I am so scatterbrained that the toolbox would be a jumbled up mass or mess if I even figured out what to put in the thing), and Habit 6: Use technology to your advantage (This technology may be easy for the younger generation, but I, as many others of the older generation, tend to get lost in the maze and sometimes have to get someone with a little expertise to lead me to where I want to go and back to where I started. Does this make any sense???)

The list of obstacles I face on learning range from procrastination (a biggie for me) to complete reluctance to tackle a problem until I can get a reasonable amount of energy and drive to deal with it. How to overcome those two obstacles usually involves taking (or making) a step to stop the procrastination. The complete reluctance usually involves uncertainty in the area of information and how to deal with it. Most of the time, one can overcome that obstacle if one can find someone who is or would be willing to help with the difficulty (whatever that may be). And that involves a lot more than just learning!