Week 4: RSS and Feedreaders

I finally know what an RSS feed is - I think. I liked the video from The Common Craft Show as it presented information on RSS feeds and readers in a format I could understand. I also found some useful videos on You Tube on using Google Reader and other readers.

After having played around with RSS feeds for an hour or two I think they are a useful way of easily accessing your favourite information in one place. I think you need to exercise some caution in what you subscribe to though, otherwise you can still waste an awful amount of time scrolling through stuff.

I decided to go with Google reader only because I already had an account with them. I found Google Reader fairly easy to use . I even managed to subscribe to the following feeds:

Herald Sun newspaper
HLA Blogs
Movie Reviews
Movies Coming Soon
Latest Recipes from Taste.com
Recent Australian Publications from Libraries Australia
Top Recipes from Taste.com

When viewing my feeds in Google Reader I found the list view better than the expanded view. I could quickly see what information was listed and there was much less scrolling which I preferred.

One difficulty I encountered was locating the link to the RSS feed on web pages I was interested in. In many cases it was located right at the bottom of the page amongst other links. I also had problems adding ALIA feeds to my reader. I got a error message when I tried to copy and paste the URL's from their RSS page into Google Reader. I'm not sure why this happened? Maybe you have to be signed into Alia to access these feeds?????

It's now time for another chocolate!...or two!!...or three!!!

Week 3: Library Thing

Hi Everyone

I've just spent the past hour adding some of my books to Library Thing. I think I got carried away with the thought of finally being able to organise my ever growing collection of books into some order. I've been buying books since my late teens and have never been able to throw anything away. As a result I have books everywhere - on shelves, in cupboards, even outside in the shed. While I love the thought of using Library Thing I think it will take me years to record all the books I own. Maybe by the time I'm 80???

Week 3: Image Generator

This is a mosaic I created using Flickr and the mosaic maker from Big Huge Labs. The photos were taken when my husband and I visited Europe for 3 weeks in 2007. I had never been overseas before (does visiting Tasmania count?) so this trip was very special. It was a wonderful way to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. I'm already making plans for our 30th!!

Oh... time for another chocolate!!

Week 2 - Using Flickr

View of Tower Bridge, London
Originally uploaded by JanGau2009

This is a picture I took of Tower Bridge on a recent holiday to Europe. My husband and I spent 3 days in London and I absolutely loved the place. London is such a beautiful city with so many places to see and things to do. It's also an easy city to navigate as the public transport system is so quick and efficient. I can't wait to go back again!

Register your Blog

Hi Everyone

My name is Janice and I've just rewarded myself with a yummy chocolate for having successfully created my first Blog!! I've bought myself a box of chocolates and I plan to have one each week as a reward for having learnt something new.

I'm a library technician and I work in a Health Library. I really enjoy my work and I am looking forward to playing around with Web 2. in this course. While I've never used Facebook or My Space I'm familiar with these sites because of my kids. My kids love these social networking sites and use them constantly to stay in touch with friends. They found it very funny when I told them I would be setting up a Facebook account. In their eyes I'm much too old to have any friends let alone be networking!!

I love the 'learning by doing' focus of this course. I now find that it is not enough to read about something new, I really have to play with it to learn how to use it. It reminds me of the way my kids play with a new computer game. They never read the instructions, they alway dive straight into the game. While I'm busy reading the instruction booklet they have set up characters, created cities and fought their first skirmish. They have lots of fun and learn far more about the game than I ever do.

I plan to follow their example and have fun.