Thing #13 Google Apps

Can't...fight it...any...longer. Google is just making it impossible to ignore their innovation, wealth of tools, and their business model. I've been slow to jump on the Google-wagon. I remember when they were just that little, itty-bitty, privately held search engine company in 1998...yawn. Yeah, one among the many others... so what? Now, as I watch them consume smaller Internet companies and grow to the largest Internet presence ever... well, my first thought is: why didn't I jump all over that IPO?...daytrade it...then sell it at $747 per share (yes, this is a GoogleFinance link). Well...if I had, I wouldn't be writing this blog post for a professional development class!

I remember the days when the only Operating System that came on the home computer was DOS -- everything you did was from a command prompt and you had to build everything yourself. How proud I was to write my first program, a home budget, more than 30 years ago (on my 32k memory computer). It only took me 3 days and all it really did was balance my checkbook and keep track of balances. All on that ugly green screen with the little blinking cursor.

I was thrilled when Microsoft came along with Windows 1.0. THRILLED! Yes, the MS-machine has made me very happy over the years -- I was happy to fork over the cost of MS Office, FrontPage, Excel, Publisher, Powerpoint (before they were a part of Office) -- productivity and ease-of-use ruled all decisions. But wait...what do you mean I can do all of that, plus tons more, without any cost at all. You jest!

All I need, now, is a high-speed Internet connection (that's like oxygen now, isn't it...a basic staple of existence?), open sourceware, and I can access every productivity, creativity, entertainment, business, and leisure tool I can imagine. Thank you Google and all the Opensource developers. My only complaint was that everything in GoogleDocs was online -- you couldn't work on your documents offline. Oh wait -- you can now work on GoogleDocs offline!

I will begin learning to use, share, and create with these new tools -- the advantage being...well, ease of use, functionality, flexibility, collaborative features, and portability. Huh, I have come full circle. And, I have to admit -- they have some really cool applications (and more springing up every day). As far as using GoogleDocs in education? The uses are limitless, only depending on the knowledge and creativity of teachers and staff to use, model, and teach using these great tools.

Thing #12 -- Open Source Applications

We are probably just at the beginning of a major shift to open source applications. The costs, expertise, and availability of programs and applications has really limited the use by the masses. Open source will create a community of creators across the board. Developers, end-users, and those who deploy all working to make an application accessible and highly usable is exciting. This de-centralization of creation will open up to many contributors working collaboratively to create a great application. Bottom line? Open source is the epitome of community -- the creators and the end-users.

Are we ready, in public schools, to really embrace open source applications? Probably not. We are moving closer, however. We are using Moodle, a great open source application, but to really make the jump to other programs is probably a ways down the road. Many of the applications are still in beta and still have a lot of bugs and problems to work out. Schools currently have licenses that are still viable and installed -- why would you throw all those out? Perhaps the school, as an end-use partner, is not really ready to take on the time and effort of debugging. Our tech people are just trying to make everything work seamlessly as it is, much less take on the task of debugging software and setting up work-arounds just to save the cost of a piece of software. Most of the smaller open source applications do not have a help desk or a customer service department -- so the task of fixing the glitches falls on the tech people and end-users. But...I do see that open source is the direction we are moving towards. Everyday, applications are refined, improved, and become mainstream applications in the public. Public awareness is probably one of the first hurdles to overcome.

To knock down the walls of proprietary and expensive software applications can only benefit everyone. The community of new users, and the talents and information they have to offer, will serve to be priceless in a world of user-created content. However, this does bring up another set of questions: with open code, is there more chance of vandalism or hacking the code? ...and what about attribution to other's work where it is necessary. I can see how those lines could be blurred or misused.

Closer to home -- how valuable is it that a student can download OpenOffice at home, at no cost, to do homework, create documents, and create presentations that can be shared with MS Office machines at school, at work, and with others? How valuable is Google Apps for students to not have to worry about portability, compatibility, and collaboration issues? That is how open source is valuable to us now. Productivity is not limited to those who can afford expensive applications and systems.

Thing #11 Wikis

I have not used wikis a lot, but I can see so many applications for their use in the library: class collaboration projects (with a built-in participation history!), staff collaborations, district collaboration, and more. I think it would be an extremely valuable project for a research project in a class -- students, knowing their work would be "published" online, would really take ownership of their research, writing, and giving credit for materials used. Participation can be documented throught the history feature of the wiki space. Perhaps this could replace individual research papers -- at the same time increasing collaborative planning, editing, and publication.

They are available for all members (or anyone if unrestricted) 24/7 -- but, not necessary all of us at once as we discovered last week. The key is to save early and save often to ensure your work is not lost should anyone edit on top of you. Also, to be aware that others could be editing at the same moment is important.

A wiki can be a perpetual document so members can add, edit, and expand into the future. I think that our Media Clerks job manual wiki will be a very helpful document for us to collaboratively build upon for ideas, "how-to's", and an excellent documentation of our job.

Thing #10 Working with Photos

I have always been an avid picture-taker. When I met up with image editing software, it was a match made in heaven! I use photos and photo mashups in almost everything I do: personal documents and projects and in library projects.

Some of my favorite applications are on personal websites and the library website. The READ posters available for the ALA Store division have been a lot of fun. The kids like them, staff likes them, and they are fun to produce. ...a real marketing asset for the library.

I have so many photos to label, organize, and edit...this class has been a good rekindling of motivation to get started on on my photos projects at home.

This knowledge is indispensable in the library when working with staff and students. To be able to assist, or direct them to suitable software alternatives, is a time saver and they are very helpful tools to disseminate.

Thing #9 Technology

Oh...where to begin. I really have several "favorites" -- I will hold off on a couple until we cover them in our class.

I think the one thing that I am most thankful for, technology-wise, is wireless capabilities. To not be tethered to my desk, house, or even city -- to have connectivity in my back yard, hotels, in the park, in the airport, or at a conference is priceless...the benefits go on and on. All you need is an access point. The benefit is not only in Internet access with my laptop, but all kinds of Bluetooth capabilites -- my cellphone, headset phone, Zune, etc.

Also high on my list is Open Source software...but, that is a new "Thing" altogether!

Thing #8 Library Thing

This has been a fun and useful site. I do use it a lot, in the library, for researching books for reviews, suggestions, and tags. And, as we are looking at Library Thing as a "social networking" tool, I probably use Amazon.com more than anything. It has developed into a wonderful networking site. I actively participate in the review and comments sections for all the books. One of my favorite reads, A Thousand Splendid Suns, had an incredible comments thread going, last summer, on the book and political/social issues in Afghanistan. One gentleman, from Afghanistan, was quite articulate, knowledgeable, and sharing in describing certain sections of the book and what it was like to LIVE through those events. People from several countries, and opinions, were discussing the book and related issues. Wow, how can you beat that kind of review?

We didn't really have time, in class, to explore the world of reading-related, read/write web sites such as Amazon. User-generated content is a key element of Amazon -- user discussion threads, comments, guest reviewers, and the ability for users to upload video reviews.

I may use Library Thing more, personally, when I have more time to devote to reading and actively cataloging my personal library. It is not something I will use exclusively though. Nothing beats spending some contemplative, exploratory time perusing the shelves in a great bookstore. Huh, time is an issue for that one, too. ...and money. It seems, that no matter what my budgetary constraints are going into a bookstore (physical or virtual), they are always obliterated when I leave with shiny, new literary treasures.

Thing #7 Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us has been one of my favorite "cool tools" for a long time. I save so many websites, blog posts, and information sources for use in...well, everywhere. My procedure for transporting my "Favorites", from my browser, was to upload/download the file to my flashdrive and carry it back and forth to work, when I travel, and to use on multiple computers at home. Not a bad method, but time consuming.

Thank goodness we are moving to the age of less hard drive capacity dependence, and towards storage on the web. Of course, I've been around long enough to NEVER depend on a hard drive, disk, network server, or web-based server to store my precious and/or important data. I always back everything up, regardless of the promises of data storage integrity.

Del.icio.us has been a godsend. Learning to tag and catergorize has been the key to management of my links. But, links do "die" and/or change, as well. I do want to have active, useful links. I have found a great post, Absolutely del.icio.us Tools Collection, with lists of official and 3rd party del.icio.us tools for everything: archiving, backing up, cleaning and verifying links, and tools for using del.icio.us on blogs, websites, and other collaborative platforms.

As far as uses in the library...well, there are so many. The first, and most obvious, use is to build a resource of curriculum subject links for students to use in research. Time is probably the only issue -- time to search for useful links to populate a useful database (to make it valuable enough to discourage "googling") and time to update/maintain. Another use -- teach kids to use it to store their resources for projects, papers, and research. What a great "file cabinet" for all their links -- and, it is something that is portable (school, home, public library, etc.) for them as well.