Week 3, Thing #5 Continued

So, since I made a comment concerning my frustration over looking for info about posting Flickr photos to our blogs yesterday, I thought I should also be proactive in providing that information directly to others. Here is the URL for that specific Flickr page:

"Help / FAQ / Blogging
How do I post photos to my blog?"
http://www.flickr.com/help/blogging
Of course, I found the page through my own trial and error, ultimately ending up in the FAQ's area where this informaton is found.

This morning, in rereading the 23 Things pages on the School Library Learning 2.0 web site, I found a direct link to the above page in "Discovery Exercise a." in which a link, Flickr's blogging tool, is noted. Here is the link to the School Library Learning page that addresses "Thing #5 (Week 3)":
http://schoollibrarylearning2.blogspot.com/2007/02/5-week-3-explore-flickr-and-learn-about.html

Tuesday Morning, June 19:

I've explored libraries and librarians through Flickr. I've just finished playing with Picasa. There is so much to see, so much to discover that time gets away far too quickly. I never cease to be amazed by the amount and variety of new web tools, information, innovations and users (of all ages) who connect on the internet as a matter of course. Just think back to our earlier educational and social experiences in contrast to today's "norms." We are truly living a cultural and societal phenomenon!

I need to investigate both Flickr and Picasa in more depth in order to come to some conclusions about how their formats and usabiltity features compare to one another. Picasa, Google-based, and Flickr, being Yahoo-based, what makes one a preferred tool over the other?

I need to move on to mash-ups, 3rd party sites, etc. Week 4, Thing #6 loom just ahead.

Week 3, Thing #5

Yoga Girl
Originally uploaded by pixieclipx

Explore Flickr:
"Yoga Girl" Poster

I had been exploring Flickr's web site late into the evening (Saturday night), searching not only for photos and images, but also for the process by which photos and images can be added to our blogs. Being new to this site, I found myself repeating several steps as I tried to find the information pertaining to that process.

My primary commentary is this: The most obvious and direct information on Flickr's main pages relates to uploading one's own photos and images, tagging and becoming part of a group(s). Ultimately, as a result of examining the FAQ's and other, somewhat more obscure links, I came upon a page that explained how to use an image from Flickr in another location, such as a blog. Ultimately, the user will be directed to a Google page (assuming Blogger is the blog source) from which the user will then grant access to Flickr for posting images to the selected blog(s).

So, I was mildly frustrated for a few minutes. If any of you think I missed something obvious on a main Flickr page that clearly provides the posting info I was searching for, please let me know in a comment to my blog. if this proves to be the case, I will then be "mildly" embarrassed, but better informed, nonetheless!

Finally, I decided to post "Yoga Girl" because I am a yoga girl, too. Interesting, the things we will learn about one another as we delve into the world of Web 2.0!

Additional Flickr "things" will be coming next.

Week 2, Thing #4

Registration was completed last week. Being an out-of-state participant (not from California and not a member of CSLA), it was gratifying to receive a confirmation post expressing interest in what my group of media specialists is doing on our own to participate in School Library Learning 2.0. We plan to partner off, providing one another feedback on this journey of self-discovery via our blogs. At times, we will post to the whole group. It's just the beginning, so it will be interesting to see how we progress over the summer.

Week 2, Thing #3

Creating the blog and avatar was fun. Since I had created a personal blog prior to this one (for reflections on work and life; a venting resource, if you will), setting up my SummerLearner 2.0 blog was not a brand-new experience. However, creating my avatar was a first for me. I found myself wishing I had even more choices from which to choose the "look" I wanted for my 21st Century Librarian!

Week 1, Thing #2

7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Learners

1. Begin with the end in mind.
2. Accept responsibility for your own learning. *EASIEST*
3. View problems as challenges. *HARDEST*
4. Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner.
5. Create your own learning toolbox.
6. Use technology to your advantage.
7. Teach/mentor others.

7 1/2. Play!

Since childhood, learning is what I've always done best. And that is simply because I have always felt excited by learning new concepts, and then rewarded by using them and expressing myself through them. In fact, as a child, I remember having read something about the number of wrinkles in the brain being indicators of a person's intelligence. I latched on to that notion. From then on, every time I learned something new, I would imagine a new wrinkle forming in my brain. So, if an individual naturally loves to learn, I suspect that taking responsibility for one's own learning is a kind of intrinsic and intuitive response.

"View problems as challenges" would have to be the most difficult habit for me. While I believe that I am frequently able to view intellectual, learning-based problems as challenges, it requires more conscious effort for me to feel positive and confident toward those other "life" problems that involve interacting with a variety of people and personalities. I am definitely more a "concept-driven" person than a "socially-driven" person.

Week 1, Thing #1

I've spent some time reading about and exploring the School Library Learning 2.0 blog. The broad overview presents a self-directed course that provides the learner with sequential steps for exploring Web 2.0 technologies. Being self-directed, it also provides wonderful opportunities for creative self-discovery as a result of its design and emphasis on personal reflection and group commentaries.

As librarians and information specialists in this day and time, mastering current Web 2.0 technologies will certainly lead us to the next generation of emerging technologies once they appear on the horizon. We are, in fact, the perfect role models for lifelong learning because acquiring and dispensing knowledge and information is what we do. And we have fun doing it, too!

Thing #2 will be posted soon.