The End!

Congratulations!!!!

Well done to everyone involved, for your hard work and creativity.
To all of you who put in the heroic effort needed to finish this program by the end date- a huge round of applause! To those of you who started and did not manage to complete it, I hope you gained something from the program and we will be leaving it up for any who are interested in continuing it in their own time.

We are so impressed and inspired by your interest and enthusiasm, your willingness to help and comment on each other's blogs, and your willingness to put in the long hours, often in your own time. Apologies for any hiccups along the way- all in all we've had a blast and hope you have too.

Keep on exploring-
Best Wishes,
Leslie and Lynette

Week 9: Podcasts, Video and Downloadable Audio

image courtesy of www.westchesterlibraries.org


Last week!

Congratulations to those participants who have already completed the program! And to those who haven't finished (and some who haven't started!) don't worry, it's not too late...

This week we see what's available in podcasts, video and audiobooks.

Have fun!

...another picture of the prizes to whet the appetite...

Week 8- Online Applications and Tools

This week will see you exploring some online productivity applications such as Google Docs and Zoho Writer.

If you have ever left that essay draft, resume or application at home and needed to access it from work or school, you may find these online applications life saving! Accessible from any computer, these word processing tools have led to some saying that the end of Word is coming... What do you think?

Also check out the Web 2.0 Awards list and see what is available in the big Web 2.0 world!

Week 7: Wikis

Image courtesy of www.writingwiki.org


This week you will be asked to explore the world of Wikis and discover the ways in which they are being used in a library setting.

Planning a conference, workshop or educational program? Want to share book reviews, Reader's Advisory tools or bookclub discussions?
How about creating a Wiki for your library?

A Wiki is a collaborative website that allows anyone to add or edit page entries. It can be a very useful tool when planning projects with many contributors.

Some question the popularity of Wikis and their authority and accuracy, especially Wikipedia. What do you think?

Week 6

This week sees the Learning 2.0 Program exploring Tagging, Folksonomies and Technorati.



Is organisation in your life a problem? Are your Bookmarks becoming unmanageable? Do you find you have to trawl through huge numbers of blog posts to find ones that are relevant to your needs? Well, maybe the social bookmarking tool Del.icio.us and the search tool Technorati will be of some use. There are also some articles on Web 2.0 and the future of libraries which hopefully will be interesting and thought provoking.


Keep up the great work and keep on blogging!

Week 5- Play week!

We know that many of you are struggling with tasks and time constraints for this program, so you'll be pleased to hear that Week 5 is Play Week! This week's exercise asks you to spend time playing with online Image Generators which, although frivolous, are wonderful for party invitations, signage, motivational aids (like the one above), displays and presentations. Try your hand at creating something silly- you'll enjoy it!
Also we ask you to explore Library Thing which is a cataloguing program. You can catalogue your books at home and see the 'shelves' of other readers! We've actually just installed this at work so our catalogue presents search results with an added 'cloud' at the bottom of similar writers, genres etc. It's proving quite popular with patrons.
Finally there is Rollyo- a searching tool, which can be customised to fit within selected search parameters of your choice. This is great for school projects or personal hobbies.
We hope you have fun this week!
Cheers,
Leslie

Week 4: RSS & Newsreaders

And the blogs continue to roll in...now over 720 blogs have been created and registered! Well done!

This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Bloglines account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together.
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web. A newsreader collects your 'feeds' and channels them to a single account, making them much more manageable.

During this exercise you may decide to subscribe to your friends and colleagues blogs, or to sites that you check regularly ie. ALIA, The Age, Radio National, IMDb, Museums Victoria and so on. You can subscribe to any site which has a feed icon (see above) but remember to keep it simple- you don't want to overload yourself...






Remember to mark or label your blog posts in some way, to facilitate our tracking of your progress. At this stage we are sometimes having to make judgement calls on whether individual tasks have been completed and we don't want anyone to feel their hardwork is being ignored. Please contact us if you have any problems or questions.

Good Luck!

Image courtesy of www.ezprezzo.com

Week 3 Photos and Images

Prizes!




What a week!!!!!
Victorian Public library Staff enrolled over 500 blogs in the Learning 2.0 Program last week......
what an accomplishment!!!

(what a challenge for us frantically putting your blogs onto participants lists, updating tracking logs and setting up RSS feeds and commenting on your wonderful achievements ...
KEEP IT UP WE ARE ENJOYING IT)

This week activities look at the photosharing site Flickr. You will also get to play around with Flickr mashups and 3rd party sites . The image above has been generated on a 3rd party billboard site called Big Huge Labs.

To go to the Activities for this week, go to your library blog down the side of this page and click on the activities associated with Week 3 - Photos and Images

Some Hints for this week

Helping us track your progress
Please make sure when you adding a new post to your blog you label it clearly with what activity you are doing (ie : #5 flickr) so it is easier for us to track where you are up to.

Adding a photo to Flickr
If you would like to share some photos of your library or someone doing the Learning 2.0 program please feel free to upload them to the Vicpubliclibraries Flickr account (login and password emailed to you)
You can't however put a link from this site onto your blog.

To upload a photo to your blog:
1. Save the photo you want to upload to your computer (either by a right mouse click for the image or click on the file and save as from the menu bar)

2. Log into your blog and go to a new post.

3.Click on the Add image icon along the top of the post editing page.
This will open a window where you can browse your computer for the image you have saved

4. Click on upload image and it should appear on your blog.

5. After you have uploaded the image to your blog you will be able to move it around the page.

6. Click publish post to make the post live on your blog.

Getting help
Don't forget you can email us any time if you need help
learning@yprl.vic.gov.au

Week 2- Blogging!

So, now begins the fun bit! The second week's activity link has been posted and we expect all of you who haven't made a blog, to jump in feet first and give it a try : ) It's pretty easy when you get the hang of it, and we promise that you will all get better and more confident as time goes by.

Scroll down the righthand side of this page until you find your library service. Click on this link and it will take you to your library's main blog. It might be a good idea to write down these addresses or bookmark them for future use.

Once you've gotten to your library page, click on the heading of each week, or the underlined link, to take you to the activities page. There, you will need to follow the steps to complete the week's 'thing'.

On the side of the pages you will find some other links, a 'Site of the week' link that will have a new interesting website to explore each week, and also your library 'Participants' Blogs' page, where you can find a list of the blogs already created by staff at your library. Here you can click on each one, to see what your colleagues have been up to. There are not many listed as yet, since it is still early in the program, but keep tuned to this area, as it is a good place to be inspired and entertained!

For those of you who have already registered blogs, if you do not see your blog listed on your library 'Participants Blogs' page, you will need to check the URL you sent to us via the registration, as we have not been able to list some of the blogs due to incorrect addresses. Remember, you are registering the blog that YOU have created, not your library blog page, and your address should read:

http://insert name of blog here.blogspot.com

If your blog is not listed, work your way through Week 2's activity and you should be able to create and register your blog successfully. Please feel free to contact us for help at any time at
learning@yprl.vic.gov.au


Due to popular demand we have decided to activate three week's 'things' in advance so that people can work ahead if they should want. These links should be up and active early next week. Please remember to label each week's post as #5 or #6 etc...so we can keep track of your progress. You can also view your progress on the 'Staff tracking Log', the link of which can be found down the side of your library blog.

Week 1 - Let's begin!

Welcome to the Victorian Public Libraries Learning 2.0 Program.
Well, we’ve had an overwhelming response to the program so far and have reached our goal of 1000 registrants!
Congratulations to all of you who have chosen to participate in this wonderful program and who are on your way to developing an understanding of the Web 2.0 tools readily available in today’s society.

The first week’s activity link is now available and we hope you enjoy your Learning 2.0 journey.
To begin click on your library blog at the side of this page.

You will need to go to Week 1 (you don't need to register, as this was done last week).

Week one is simply a podcast on lifeling learning. It will give you some "food for thought".

If you should need any help, feel free to contact us on

learning@yprl.vic.gov.au

Good luck!

Welcome to the Public Libraries Learning 2.0 Program

We invite Victorian public libraries to participate in the Learning 2.0 skills development program.
Learning 2.0 is an online training program that is being run as part of the Statewide Public Library Development Projects.

There is room for 1,000 participants from across Victoria’s public libraries and it would be a great achievement to include every Victorian public library service in the program

THE PROGRAM
Learning 2.0 is an online, self paced learning program designed to help you discover web 2.0 technologies freely available on the internet.

The program was developed by Helene Blowers from the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. She has licensed the program under Creative Commons and it is now used by libraries around the world.

Each topic consists of:
A podcast outline
Discovery resources and instructions
A choice of activities to complete.

Information about Learning 2.0 is set out on your library service’s blog featuring the 23 topics or ‘things’ for you to complete.

EQUIPMENT NEEDED

Computer with Internet access
Sound card to listen to pod casts
Headphones if you plan to complete the program in a public area.

And most importantly…A sense of adventure to learn and PLAY!



STARTING THE PROGRAM


Click on the link to your library service.
Your library’s blog links to:
Learning 2.0 program
A link to register your participation (Week one of the program)
Online blog registration (available from Week 2 of the program)
Frequently Asked Questions about the program
Blog of participants from your library service
Tracking log monitoring your progress and that of your colleagues as you work through the program.

As you progress through each week of the program the links on your library blog will become active. This means you cannot go ahead of the program, but if you are unable to complete your weekly activity; it will remain live so you can catch up.

Registration begins: Wednesday 29 August 2007
Program begins: Monday 10 September 2007
Program ends: Monday 3 December 2007

PRIZES

Everyone participating in the program during the above dates is in the running to WIN fantastic weekly prizes including:

Digital Cameras, iPods, Memory Sticks and more…

A weekly prize will also be awarded to the participant with the most innovative idea or suggestion for that week’s activities*.
The name of the week’s winner will appear on this blog and on the Viclink list.

Everyone who completes the program will be in the running for a MAJOR prize.

All who complete the program will receive a Certificate of Achievement.
If you want to do the program outside these dates you can, but you will not be eligible to win prizes.