Ride the wave Google and beyond

On Monday 19 October 2009 I attended "Teacher's @ the Ipswich Library 2" this was a follow on from last years Web 2.0 experience. This one was designed to show off some of the new and upcoming tools available to use.

1. We started with a look at the new 'show options' tab in Google, here you are able to refine your search down to just videos, reviews, blogs or forums. You can also specify a date range of when the internet article was made available. Two of the new features that look very helpful are the timeline and the wonder wheel. The Timeline will allow you to specify hits that have come from a specific timeframe, while the Wonder wheel looks rather like a mind map and allows you to refine your search by giving you subsets of your original search and continues to do this as you click through.


2. We had a quick look at the Australian Newspaper site which contains historical Australian newspapers from 1803 - 1954 and is searchable.


3. Next we were shown Big tent this is an online space for managing groups, it includes forums, event postings, email notifications, photo and file sharing and is a free communication tool.


4. Twitter was reviewed and we were given examples of how following certain things can be an advantage (apparently Jamie Oliver has a good Twitter site).


5. Google Wave isn't available yet but it looks great. Here you can combined email, photos, collaborative document editing, forums, language translation, play games and replay games, discussions and documents changes. It is set to make email old hat.


6. We had a quick run through Google books, Google docs, Google sites with Google sites of particular interest as it is a quick and easy way to get a webpage up and running.


7. We also looked at two Bibliography creator, Worldcats build a bibliography and ScotchBib both will do Harvard referencing style.


8. Yourtutor can be used by any member of the Ipswich Council Library to obtain help with maths, science, english, research and study skills. FREE LIVE online tutoring is available Monday through Friday from 4pm – 8pm.

This was well worth a look and I will definitely be attending version 3 next year if offered!

Librarian 2.0 research

I recently took part in this Library and Information Science Education 2.0 project which is being run by QUT, by providing feedback during a teleconference between librarians from all over Australia. The project is being funded to determine what skills and knowledge are required by a librarian 2.0 in order to effectively provide library 2.0.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of it, and I recommend adding the feeds to the posts and comments to your reader.

Videolinq

Videolinq Inservice 18-19 March 2009 - Christine Ruzic

Besides the normal operational issues a lot of the discuss centred around:
Desktop video – staff & students
More streamlined bookings
Workplace collaboration solutions
Unified communications solutions

1. New bridge installed

Network structure has greater functionality and visibility. Can operate 80+ sites simultaneously, but will need increased bandwidth. Now able to connect in home/personal computers to V/C network. More sites joining network each year.
Currently operating 58 rooms, 11 mobile, 1 auditorium, 16 desktops.

New screen layout (with presenter, participants and presentation available in inserts) Can predetermine when booking. Default will be for inserts of participants. Different configurations depending on number of connections. Admin and Educ bookings will have different screen layouts.

2. New online booking system being investigated. BNIT have written specification. May be part of new tender

3. All TBIT library technicians to complete Site Coordinator training. It may also be necessary for Security Guards to undertake Site Coordinator training for after hours V/C delivery if Bundamba library is closed.

4. Planned PD Day June 25 – whole of state; dial into selected conferences 4hr Educ am / 4hr Admin pm

5. Economic downturn has resulted in an increase in videoconferencing demand world wide – “flight freezes” by businesses and “carbon footprint” pressures.

6. Many, many examples given of innovative v/c delivery, particularly using NextG wireless. SQIT is delivery a Cert II / III Meat Process course between Beenleigh and Rockhampton sites. Auditorium v/c set-up has been installed at Townsville, also planned for Mt Gravatt to allow greater staff participations at forums, PD, etc. Videolinq will provide short term support for innovative practices. Multi campus delivery of Nursing.

7. PC video conferencing MOVI2 is now available. Pilot being undertaken by Beauty teacher at CQIT. Teacher located in TAFE, students at home, work, etc. One off cost. Can allow (eg)150 concurrent users, dependent on licence. Students must be registered. Still some policy and procedures rules to be refined before extensive use. Software can be duplicated and distributed many times– internet download. Can be used for point2point (corporate clients) or multiple users. Won’t work on dial up, needs at least ADSL. For conferences can book through v/c bridge.
Challenges:
a. Teacher delivery training
b. User training – support materials on my.TAFE
c. Students given camera for free for pilot, to use at home
d. Live recording of sessions– need to be re-recorded / reformatted / CD (hard copy) evidence
e. Doesn’t automatically disconnect – reduces no. of active users

8. Teleconferencing phones now available – about $3000. Suitable for staff meetings between remote staff.

NB. Videolinq will pay 50% of equipment replacement costs.

Training.gov.au the new NTIS

On Friday 27 February I went to a session explaining how the new training.gov.au was going to work and how it was a vast improvement to NTIS (this wouldn't be hard). These are the important part that I believe we should all be aware of:

September 2009 is the expected implementation date

this new site will replace both NTIS and training.com.au

NTIS to run for 2 months after launch

new training packages should be available much faster as they will be developed inside this system

Training packages will be fully searchable and downloadable if required

there will be three different websites for individuals, employers and RTO

Queensland is one of the states that will pull data directly from this website to display

Nobody should need training to use this system, except back end users

August 2009 any new training packages will only be put on NTIS as PDF as an interim measure

superseded packages will still be available, not necessarily fully searchable though

RTO site is yourRTO.gov.au, this has reports available

you can sign up for notification of changes

ability to just enter units and find relevant qualifications

search RTO and see what they have in scope

mapping info will show previous names of units/competencies

States will have a back end login to edit and enter data

user-friendly preferred terms will be associated with Training Packages, eg. Sparky

there is a newsletter you can subscribe to called TGA express

Individual site is yourtraining.gov.au

downside RTO are listed for courses even if they are only in scope

list of occupations in demand will be included

Employer site is trainyourpeople.gov.au

QTIS lists Queensland specific information http://tsx.dtir.qld.gov.au/cgi-bin/dycgi03.exe/inetsite/app/qtis/qtis.stm (not related to training.gov.au just useful info)

Getting things done

I wanted to share some of the key points I have (so far) gotten out of reading "Getting things done" by David Allen (copy soon to be available in the library).

1. React to problems like water - when drops (big or small) hit you, acknowledge the ripples (problems) then let them dissipate around you as you deal with them.


2. Our minds can only handle around 7 things at once (give or take 2). If you are trying to remember more than this you will become stressed.


3. Aspects of self-management (aim for Master & Commander - mmm, Russell Crowe):
   
   
   


4. Two models for organising your "stuff":
   * Mastering Workflow:
   - Collect (1 - 6 hours)
   - Process (clarify)
   - Organise (prioritise)
   - Review
   - Do
   * Horizons of focus:
   - 50,000 feet - your purpose and principles
   - 40,000 feet - your vision
   - 30,000 feet - your goals and objectives
   - 20,000 feet - your areas of focus/responsibility
   - 10,000 feet - your current projects
   - ground/runway - your next actions (START HERE)


5. Work / Life Balance is a myth - it is all just "doing"

Puts things a little into perspective.

Zoho blog

I am looking at Zoho.  What a marvellous invention this is.  It is Microsoft Office with added functionality and it's free, share it with a group who can edit and upload.

When I was looking at buying a computer and discussing options with friends, as you do, one of my friends is a Mac user and wouldn't even let me talk PC to him.  I wasn't keen on the options of Office use on Mac (even though I've heard it's better now, even some older office versions aren't compatible with new ones)

Needing a work/home compatibility was paramount so I settled on a PC, which I am not unhappy about, but talk to any Mac user and they will never walk the PC path again.  So this program would definitely be a fantastic option to Microsoft office. 

 

My first document created with Google docs. I chose not to use zoho because the appeal of signing up for yet another account (with password and login) isn’t appealing. At last count I had over 34 different passwords and logins. Well above the number any one can easily remember and use. As a result I struggle to find acceptable ways to remember and maintain them. The two most common methods folks use to cope include writing the passwords/logins down and synchronising as many as possible with each other. There are problems with both approaches. Writing down a password/login rather defeats the purpose, synchronising passwords ensures if one password is broken a number of systems are vulnerable. Passwords that are easy to remember are also often easy to break with any of the hacking tools that use language dictionaries as a base. It’s a difficult dilemma that ensures we waste time (about an hour and a half each month) of productive work time to maintain and inevitably the systems we use have a "forgotten your password?" option that by its nature reduces the security of our systems.

The end result is that I have a Google account and a yahoo account and tend to prefer systems that let me use these (or any other of my pre-existing accounts) over those that don’t.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Copyright Kitchen Workshop

On Monday 13 August, Anne Moodie and myself attended the Copyright Kitchen workshop. This was a whole day event that provided a useful overview of copyright issues. It included information about the history of copyright, recent amendments to the Copyright Act and the implications of copyright legislation in the digital environment. We specifically looked at the 'Copyright Kitchen' and the links provided on this site. This online resource can be used by staff and students to find answers to their questions. However, at the moment it is more oriented towards copyright concerns of staff who work in information agencies. This site was developed by several people including the presenter of this workshop, Vanessa Tuckfield. It is constantly being updated and is kept relevant by participation from users. If you can't find an answer to your question in the Kitchen, a simple email to Vanessa will not only get you your answer, but will also add it to the list of questions and answers available for others to use.

There is an extensive list of resource links on copyright including one that was specifically looked at in this workshop http://del.icio.us/CopyrightNews. This is a delicious site that is regularly updated by Vanessa and includes recent copyright information from newspapers, journals etc.

You can find the Copyright Kitchen by following this link. Alternatively it is available as one of the links on the Bremer Library Website at: http://www.bremer.tafe.qld.gov.au/library_and_resources/links_searching/searching/online.html

Salary Packaging

Ramila Chandra and Maureen Keller attended a seminar on Wednesday 14/8/07 on Salary Packaging. This was a short half hour session where attendees registered their interest in Salary Packaging areas of interest. Information was later emailed to the attendees. The session was run by Remuneration Services.

FOLIOZ - Designing and Delivering Information Skills Training Courses (InfoSkills)

Sharing my experience from FOLIOZ Infoskills online interactive training course ...
I participated in the FOLIOZ course on ‘Designing and Delivering Information Skills Training Courses’ (InfoSkills) from March to May 2007 and was among fifty librarians in Australia contributing to this eight week course comissioned by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and delivered by a team based at the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), University of Sheffield in the UK.

About Infoskills
Infoskills is an online interactive course delivered by email and Web pages. The aim of the course was to equip participants with the knowledge and skills to design and deliver successful information skills training courses. It was a wonderful opportunity to interact with a wide cross section of information professionals and share our learning experience through Web 2.0 technologies.

The course was delivered through a number of tried and tested techniques including brief e-mail interactions (with the facilitator and assigned buddies) and was supplemented by quizzes and web-based materials (generally about one or two briefings per week) and readings. The Infoskills course was supported by a website which is available at http://foliozinfoskills.pbwiki.com/. The site provided access to key materials, resources and communication tools.

All our learning was captured in a portfolio that we had to complete on a weekly basis and was assessed at the end of the course. There was a major assignment and a number of brief tasks and exercises during the entire training course.

The Infoskills archive has the outline of the entire course and hosts all of the briefings and exercises which are disseminated during the course.

The course covered everything from: what information skills training is, to training needs analysis, to designing, delivering, promoting, evaluating and benchmarking information skills training courses.

What you will find useful if you are designing and delivering information skills courses ...

• How to develop your course aims, objectives and learning outcomes
• Training methods and techniques
  
• Evaluation methods
• Bibliography and guided readings
• Course summary

Information Skills Training Courses Gallery contains training courses categorised by their topic that were created by the InfoSkills participants as part of their individual assignment. These courses will give you lots of hints, ideas and examples when you are designing your own course.
Or you could customise the existing one to suit your training need.

During the course I interacted with course facilitators, buddies, completed quizzes, read briefings, and listened to a guest lectures to name a few... in between completing my daily tasks and keeping on track with the project. And doing it online was a useful skill to acquire.

Hope all the links will work and you will find this resource useful.

Web Accessibility workshop

Some highlights from the workshop
The workshop was full of information on web accessibility issues, concepts and guidelines and how people with disabilities use the web with some scenarios and demonstrations of assistive technologies. We also saw how screenreaders read websites and what design features to consider for websites. There was also a lot of technical information regarding the guidelines and checkpoints that go with WAI and W3C for webpages. Some webpages were evaluated for accessibility.

Web accessibility means access to the Web by everyone, regardless of disability. Web accessibility includes:

• Web sites and applications - that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate and interact with;
• Web browsers and media players - that it can be used effectively by people with disabilities, and that work well with assistive technologies that some people with disabilities use to access the Web.
• Web authoring tools, and evolving technologies - that support production of accessible Web content and web sites and that can be used effectively by people with disabilities.

The underlying concept of Web Accessibility - Tim Berners-Lee (W3C Director and WWW founder)

"One web for anyone, anywhere, on anything"

Who benefits from Accessible Design?

People with disabilities, plus:

• people using PDAs, web phones etc
• people with poor communication infrastructure
• people with old equipment
• Older people and casual users
• people working in restricted access environments
• people with temporary impairments
• people coping with environmental distractions
• people with poor literacy

Web Accessibility Initiative is explained further through a series of powerpoints that explores what W3C is doing to address these issues and examples of design requirements for people with different kinds of disabilities is also presented.

Through Web Accessibility Initiatives (WAI) accessibility guidelines for Web sites, browsers, and authoring tools have been developed which are widely regarded as international standards for Web accessibility. WAI develops strategies, resources and support materials to help understand and implement Web accessibility such as tools and techniques that make webpages more accessible to people with disabilities.

Australian Web Accessibility Guidelines and Policies that covers all sectors of government, industry and education are available from Vision Australia and you will find other useful accessibility resources at their website.

You will also find a number of useful references presented at the workshop that addressed some of these issues:

• scenarios of people with disabilities using accessibility features of Web sites and Web-based applications
• general requirements for web access by people with physical, visual, hearing and cognitive or neurological disabilities
• some types of assistive or adapative technologies used by people with disabilities when accessing the web

Given the Web's increasing integration in all aspects of society and education, access to the web is vital for all users of all ages and for people with disabilities. It is a very important issue for libraries to be aware of as we serve a wide range of users with diverse information needs and an understanding of design and usability considerations for the increasingly varied age groups and lifestyles of computer and internet appliance users that use our facilities, will go a long way towards our service provision.

First post

Using this blog PD information will be shared with the team.