There goes my childhood

I was eating a packet of raisins the other day and said to the people I was with "do you know how to make a whistle out of the box" - neither did - but another friend came up and she did. So we both tried...

Calamity! The redesigned box doesn't allow any airflow!!! No whistle...

I miss the whistle...

A story to touch your heart

Sports is often used as a metaphor to life. You know, you can't go too wrong if you keep your head still, and centred over your body... but, sometimes, it teaches you about life. Fair play. Team-mateship. Sharing. Goal setting... I could go on.
But this story transcends all the pat analogies you can make. Playing fair with fouls - read it. Watch it.

The final (license to play) post

As requested - my thoughts on the journey (yes, I've done the survey, too)...
Of the tools explored, would any of them be of use to my customers?
Not really. I use other sources for book recommendations - I like Library booklists - most of the time, I'm looking for thematic material...
Animation - nope. Don't have computers with enough time for customers to play with any of the tools.
Family tree - don't get any granny-hunters in my area.
Social sites - nope...

For my work?...
As above re lit sites... social & family tree...
Animation - in my non-library working lives, maybe... but not goanimate or animoto...

For me, personally?...
Family tree might be fun
Animation - see above
Others - see above.

Of the programme overall... the sites were ok, but their irrelevance to my working life made it a bit pointless. I know the social sites - Digg, etc - are designed to filter your internet experience - but there's just too many hoops to go through to make them useful for me. Too many sites / log ons / passwords to remember.
I had enough time to complete the programme - but I also did parts at home. Some of my colleagues are struggling to finish. There's just not enough unrostered / free time in their working lives to complete the tasks. The situation isn't helped by the slowness of some of the sites - and the many steps you have to go through to complete the task. Yes, goanimate was fun - but if you really wanted to explore / play / exploit it - you needed a solid 2 hours time. And hardly any of us get that at work.
There's the embedding on the blog - an issue for some, too...

In my other working lives, it's a struggle to build a sense of community in a virtual world. Getting computer-literate people to use google docs, for example, is almost impossible. Getting them to visit a blog with info relevant for their jobs - nearly impossible. Sometimes - getting them to read emails is impossible... I think we're all just tech'd out. If you're a techie-inclined person (like I sorta am) then all well and good - but I'm reaching my limit, too. I don't want to spend any more time than I need on a computer. I'm happy visiting the sites I know about, discovering the occasional new one - but I like finding them myself, or having them recommended by a real friend - not some virtual one who thinks it might know what I like.

It was a nice diversion for me, and a chance to win stuff (assuming I haven't scuppered my chances by being honest...) - but I'd rather see our training time and budget spent on things that have a relevant to most staff's day-to-day working lives.

And now, I'm off to help a colleague try to complete the programme themselves...

Stumbling around

Off I set on my discovery - exploring bookmarking sites.
Did the typical librarian/Libran/anal-retentive/control-freak thing and played all the introduction thingies for each site... Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon & Newsvine...
I didn't dig Digg, Reddit was too simple for me, Newsvine was too newsy (& US-biased), so I subscribed to StumbleUpon... and stumbled upon an issue... to get the true value & experience of my subscription, I need to download the toolbar. Can't download & install at work - and I hardly stumble upon anything while I home, just use my favourites... I already have a google toolbar, and an internet security toolbar - any more and I'll only have toolbars, and no screen...Iin conclusion, none of these was right for me - so I haven't gone much farther. So my discovery is... I'm not using these sites.

Animated thinking...

As requested, my thoughts on week 4 of the programme...

For quick and flashy - but with hardly any info - animoto will work. But you need patience - and a good connection speed. To use to the greatest purpose, you'd need to join. 30 seconds is almost nothing.

For fun & silliness, but slow, too - goanimate will work - and you can add info, and change the speed of the slides, so people can read things

For different fun - and speed - and info - and, actually, ease of use, range of music and styles - onetruemedia.

That's it - my thoughts on this part.

When would I use it? You never know - a couple of these might end up being used for promotional purposes for AnyQuestions/UiaNgaPatai.