Thursday, May 24, 2007

The MP3 Player


I was asked what the make of the MP3 layer is that staff will receive if they complete Learn 2.0. The reason for the question was out of curiosity to see if it works with Net Library for free downloadable books through the library. I printed out their “tested players”.
Thanks


Another great question!! The MP3 player for the Completer's Prize is a Sansa c-240. This is the same model that I showed when I visited the branches and depts. I have tested it with our audio books and had no problem downloading and listening to a book. The info below is from the Sansa web site.




    1GB of memory plays back over 16 hours of MP3 (32 hours of WMA) music (over 240 MP3/480 WMA songs)
    Supports Microsoft PlaysForSure Downloads and Subscription
    Up to 19 hours continuous playback using one AAA Battery* (included) * Based on standard playback, 128 Kb MP3 files
    Support for MP3, WMA, and DRM WMA and Audible file formats
    FM tuner (20 preset stations)
    Voice recording w/built-in microphone
    Choose to play your favorite track repeatedly, in random sequence, or play all the songs continuously
    Hi-speed USB 2.0 connects to almost any computer for hi-speed music transfer (backwards compatible to USB 1.1 ports)
    Comes with sleek carrying case and armband to protect your player and keep your hands free
    Indigo backlit LCD provides ID3 Tag information (v.1 and 2)

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

FAQs - Week 2 - Blogs

Where do blogs go? Do they just stay on the internet forever? Can you delete a blog? Are there gobs of computers being filled up with blogs? You can not only bring a blog into the world, but you can help it out or transfer it to the next!! Inside your Dashboard, you will see a link that says something to the effect "Delete This Blog". That will do it. Are there gobs of computers being filled up with blogs? Yes.

I still don’t understand how to find blogs. I went to Technorati but wasn’t sure what I was looking at. I noticed the drop down menu. I assume searching a blog post is searching what everyone has written. Technorati will search the Internet for blogs that contain your search words. If you enter "library" for example, Technorati will return 54,000+ blogs that have that word in them. You can narrow your results down by adding words to your original search word. For example, "library +technology" dropped the results to 42,000+ returns. Much better!! To further narrow the search, I used the drop down lists located just below the search bar. From right to left, I first filtered the results to only those in English, then added the "with A Lot of Authority" filter and then finally choose "Blogs About Libraries". These three filters narrowed my results down to 74. So I went from 54,000+ returns to 74, that is manageable.

I want to know how to search for blogs quickly. Be very specific in your search terms. Think about what might all of our Learn 2.0 blogs have in common and try it. (I haven't)

What is a tag? A tag is a descriptor used to help people search your blog, or photo or posting.

I can see the beauty of having a blog like Southwest’s. It is essentially like a webpage but easier to add info to. I didn’t see that anyone had commented to most of the postings. The comments to the Teen blog made little sense. So I can see how creating a blog to get info out works but I don’t see a back and forth with comments and why wouldn’t you use email which is less public? Most teens do not make sense, I agree! haha!! You can blog for both personal and professional reasons. In the professional realm, the ability to add comments is a form of collaboration. Feedback has the potential to change your perspective, broaden your view or provide detail that helps someone better understand or get the job done. Public or private? I guess that depends on the person and the topic.

This all seems too public to me. I never kept a diary and I certainly wouldn’t keep a public one. I’m afraid I’m not 20 and into sharing myself with the world – reading others’ blog/diaries is creepy. I can see maybe using this (on a personal basis) if one were on a trip and logging it and then letting friends and relatives know the blog site – that would be easier than sending postcards, although I’m not sure it is easier than sending an email. Good points. For the purposes of the course, you can blog on course related topics. In every Share activity, I will provide a few ideas related to what we covered that week. You can use these as discussion items for your blog posts. You don't have to answer every question, but you can, you can also use them to spring board into other thought arenas.

I would like to know how to import pictures etc. Maybe it tells how to do that when you sign up/create the blog but I haven’t done that yet. When you are creating a new blog post, there is an Add Image icon. Click the Add Image icon and follow the prompts to locate the pictures on your computer and upload them to your blog . Once they are in your blog you can move them to where you would like them. You can also find more specific directions in Post Photos in your Blogger Dashboard.


If we wanted to look at some of the blogs created for this assignment how would one go about finding them? I will post a list of participant blogs on the right side of the course page. Right now there are 30+ blogs listed.

I Thoroughly enjoyed New Technology and 7.5 Habits. I hope you don’t mind but I would like to share them with...... They are perfect for reminding tutors what it’s like to learn something new and to remind them to have the students set goals. The short answer is yes, you can use them, but there are limitations and requirements. All of the course materials are copyrighted through Creative Commons. You can visit the About page to see the use information.