Just wanted to pass this along:

http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/programs/cpd/Second_Life.html

This course exceeded my expectations on every level, and I am so happy to have been a part of it. I have learned so much! Reflecting on the experience has made me realize just how much information I have absorbed over the past few weeks. I could go on and on, but it wouldn't be very structured, so here are my answers to the questions posed by the 5weeks creators:

Favorite Experiences:

• Webcasts (once I got all the technology glitches worked out on my old computer - easy solution was to just buy a new one!). I particularly enjoyed the webcast on flickr given by Steve and Michael - they were so much fun!
• Weekly online chats - I really got used to the dynamic of online chatting (which I had never done before) and learned what it takes to communicate effectively in that medium.
• Variety of sources of information - podcasts, online readings, screencasts - all were effective in their own ways and got me used to using them.
• Reading other peoples blogs and profiles and meeting such great people!
• Looking at the other 5weeks members Flickr photos

Technology most useful to me:

Well, I found out something pretty neat about Second Life today (and if you read my previous blog post about it, my perspective about it wasn't a glowing one). The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is using Second Life to reach out to its members and is having a pretty big impact. According to the Nonprofit Technology Network, "...members from far flung locations can come together to talk and collaborate in real time. Judging by the response so far, ISTE members have been hungry for this kind of community. In just a few short months the number of members visiting EduIsland has grown from 17 to 630, and weekly events are packed to capacity." For more information on how ISTE is maximising Second Life to reach its members, please check here: http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Membership/Member_Networking/ISTE_Second_Life.htm

I really liked the presentation from Czarnecki and Gullett on Second Life because it made me once again think of the vast number of applications I might be able to take advantage of.   Since I have my own Second Life avatar, I am somewhat familiar with cruising around in Second Life, and I like the idea of using it with my students.  My students as second career folks don't have a lot of time for this kind of stuff, but I think they need to be exposed to it in order to keep up with where many of their congregations are.  Plus, some of my doctoral students will have their own students some day soon who are going to be very aware of the technology.  So, the presentation really spoke to me about the potential for use and where all of this may take librarians some day.

well...i have enjoyed this week's play. after my intitial curmudgeonly reaction to libraries on Myspace, i started to think that it wasn't such a bad idea. the whole idea is to make libraries accessible, not distant storehouses of knowledge where it is too much work to type in a reference question or query a catalogue. the 'human connection' cannot be overrestimated.

 i've enjoyed flickr, and certainly see the benefits as a learning tool in my school environment..less sure of the library connection for me right now.

Well, I've read over our readings for week 4 and taken some time to explore MySpace, Flickr and Second Life. 

Flickr: I really like Flickr, though I wouldn't rely on it too heavily for personal photos. In my mind, nothing quite beats sitting down with a photo album with someone and reminiscing. I do however, see some applications for our organization as a whole...not yet for our library. We are engaged in a capital campaign for a new green building and the photos that we have are clogging up our website. It would be great to move them to Flickr, and I plan to do that shortly. My final thought on Flickr - check it out.

After digesting week 4's content and the previous weeks as well, I'm more and more excited about the use of wikis and less and less excited about using software like Second Life and MySpace. I think that the use of Second Life and MySpace by some libraries is great. Those libraries know their users and know that through the use of these tools they can connect with their users. Likewise, I know my library and my users and, as of yet, I don't think that the use of these tools would be worthwhile. Perhaps in the future, a MySpace account. Now, however, I'm going to focus on the tools that I feel can have an impact, most notably wikis.

I added a wiki page for Second Life Avatar names so we can recognize each other when we cross paths.

For  quite awhile now, I have wanted to move up to the middle school or high school level from elementary. One of my reasons is that I am and always have been a “media” person. I love teaching media literacy and Power Point and always wanted to teach kids video production but have never had the means or the time to do it. After taking this class, I want to move up even more since these sites having to do with social networking are much more doable at the higher levels. Yes, I know it is possible to have blogs, wikis, etc at the elementary level, just like it’s possible to teach video production, but it is just easier with more mature kids.  This week, I enjoyed learning about Flickr and as someone else mentioned, it’s fun. I’ll enjoy periodically checking out my groups and I plan to add some pictures of my school library and the local public library. (we have a really neat sculpture) Interesting what I learned about MySpace. It seems that now it’s not as cool as it once was since 40% of its users are old like me and just the fact that libraries have a presence on MySpace now makes it not as edgy. I understand that high school and university libraries decided that this would be a good way to reach their patrons, but in the process have they actually turned them away?  Wouldn’t this be kinda like a teenage girl thinking an outfit is really great until she sees her mother wearing it?  Anyway, if I move up to the high school level, I would look into MySpace as a way to reach the students but there is no way I can at the elementary. 

I had heard little about MMOG’s, and really was not interested in them. The first computer game I played was Pong.  And then I became an expert at Centipede. So these games were beyond me and I really didn’t expect to have anything to do with them until I saw a paragraph from my ISTE listserv:

Well, this week was one of those weeks where I had absolutely no free time and was expected to be in several different places at the same time. So I didn't get a chance to attend the Second Life webcast - instead I watched the archived version which, although I was sorry I missed it live, was nice because it gave me the chance to pause the dialog and replay sections over again when I needed to. I have to admit first off that I was never a video game player (they were not allowed in my house) and therefore have some kind of prejudice and a lack of understanding about computer games of any sort. So I was happy to learn quite a bit about what really is involved in the various types of MMOG's.