I have recently been involved in an online incident with some of my younger family members. They are girls and up to all sorts of things, online and not.
What happened was, embarrasing for those involved, apparently, but amusingly educational for myself.
I had two of my nieces visit me. I have, of course, been following their myspace sites for a while. Something they have been absolutely clueless about. After all, it's "their space". Isn't it?
Over dinner one night, I happened to mention that I had been to their sites. They both went right pale and explained to me that it wasn't "their myspace" - it was a friend who did it for them, "they" hardly went online, you see!
This they proclaimed without blinking - oblivious to the fact how often I had encouraged them to go do something else than serial instant messaging with their friends.
It's the same scenario - but years ago you would proclaim that these weren't your cigarettes, you were only keeping them for your troubled friend!
As a result of this, rather amusing, episode - both have now gone on to change their privacy settings - and only "friends" are allowed to see what their are up to online.
I wonder if I should now try and have them add me as a friend? For educational purposes only, of course - after all, that's what semi-middle-aged nieces are here for: being a pain in the..., isn't it?
But is it "their space" or can I, or rather should I, even bother intruding upon "their space" online?
I think not - my work is done for now. It made them think. It seems.
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
Monday, 13 August 2007
Library 2.0 and beyond
For research and personal interest purposes I have bought (and recently received) a new book on the subject of Library 2.0 called "Library 2.0 and Beyond". I will also be trying very hard to get my hands on Phil Bradley's book on the same topic.
I am also waiting for University of Brighton's, Jon Dron's book - which is the only one of the three you can actually have a flick through on Amazon.
Ironic isn't it. For books on 2.0 - some publishers (or perhaps the author had something to do with it?) are clearly more on the ball than others.
You can access links to Phil Bradley's blogs and read the blurb on Google Books (if you have a gmail account) but I can't find anything 2.0-ish on Nancy Courtney's "Library 2.0 and Beyond" though.
It's a complex world and all that but it's still a bit...
I am also waiting for University of Brighton's, Jon Dron's book - which is the only one of the three you can actually have a flick through on Amazon.
Ironic isn't it. For books on 2.0 - some publishers (or perhaps the author had something to do with it?) are clearly more on the ball than others.
You can access links to Phil Bradley's blogs and read the blurb on Google Books (if you have a gmail account) but I can't find anything 2.0-ish on Nancy Courtney's "Library 2.0 and Beyond" though.
It's a complex world and all that but it's still a bit...
A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto
Added to Youtube.com in November, 2006.
A manifesto by Laura Cohen, 2006.
Video slideshow mash up by Soren Johannessen, Copenhagen
A manifesto by Laura Cohen, 2006.
Video slideshow mash up by Soren Johannessen, Copenhagen
Friday, 10 August 2007
Time, technology, control
Several themes, well three, are emerging in my research. Listening to people, themes of:
- Time (in terms of making use of, being allocated by management or lack of...)
- Technology (in terms of knowledge of, ideas of, use of,...)
- Control (in terms of access and content, policy making...)
...keep cropping up.
They may not be surprising themes but they are, of course, interesting.
Thomas and McDonald state that there is definite rift or disconnect between library services and users. A rift that I'm inclined to nod to in terms of how it identifies with my own themes emerging. Directly or indirectly.
They may not be surprising themes but they are, of course, interesting.
Thomas and McDonald state that there is definite rift or disconnect between library services and users. A rift that I'm inclined to nod to in terms of how it identifies with my own themes emerging. Directly or indirectly.
Monday, 6 August 2007
Library resources and e-learning...or not!
This is just in:
"Just exactly what do non-librarians think of the myriad library databases they can access courtesy of their local library. Not much apparently. Well, they certainly don’t think of the library’s resources as learning tools."
Click on linked paragraph to keep on reading - very interesting stuff.
"Just exactly what do non-librarians think of the myriad library databases they can access courtesy of their local library. Not much apparently. Well, they certainly don’t think of the library’s resources as learning tools."
Click on linked paragraph to keep on reading - very interesting stuff.
Saturday, 4 August 2007
Blogging students
In my research so far I have heard how teachers that have incorporated blogs into their courses often anticipate the blogs to be taken off by students without any prior participation of the lecturer's behalf. Lecturers in this way set up the blog and tell students to go blog. According to my participants the blogs, for this reason they suggest, never really take off.
On a similar note, my participants furthermore say that blogs within education only seem to materialise if students get marks or are assessed in how well or much they participate in the creation of the blog
This seems to be supported by research already done on blogging in education. Williams and Jacobs report on how two university blogs were highly successful, even though they report that students were not given any direction in how to use the blog other than logging in and to write on their subject matter for the course they were taking. Participation was optional but students were told that for considerable participation in the blog they would receive five marks included in their assessment for the course.
So, maybe the Williams and Jacobs study is a sign of the times that still seems to linger - that students simply need to be directed toward a blogging facility and the blog would take off. However, as noted above, the reason for the success of the aforementioned blogs seems to be that students participated for marks - not simply because they wanted to.
Educational blogging seems, in this way, to clash with the original concept of blogging - at least to some of my participants - the concept behind the blog being that people participate because they want to.
Some of my participants are furthermore critical towards this idea of forced blogging. Where students are directed to blog on a particular subject under the specific conditions of academic assessment.
There are also the classic issues of control of content and access, the idea of privacy and last but certainly not least the feeling many of my participants described as that of "being watched", i.e. that students see what you are writing and vice versa, lecturers and librarians see what students are writing. Many generally seem to have reservations about the idea in that way.
These are interesting issues, especially when academics do generally seem to want to be part of web or library 2.0. I wonder if any of this might lie at the heart of why universities and libraries find it difficult to engage with blogging in the first place.
On a similar note, my participants furthermore say that blogs within education only seem to materialise if students get marks or are assessed in how well or much they participate in the creation of the blog
This seems to be supported by research already done on blogging in education. Williams and Jacobs report on how two university blogs were highly successful, even though they report that students were not given any direction in how to use the blog other than logging in and to write on their subject matter for the course they were taking. Participation was optional but students were told that for considerable participation in the blog they would receive five marks included in their assessment for the course.
So, maybe the Williams and Jacobs study is a sign of the times that still seems to linger - that students simply need to be directed toward a blogging facility and the blog would take off. However, as noted above, the reason for the success of the aforementioned blogs seems to be that students participated for marks - not simply because they wanted to.
Educational blogging seems, in this way, to clash with the original concept of blogging - at least to some of my participants - the concept behind the blog being that people participate because they want to.
Some of my participants are furthermore critical towards this idea of forced blogging. Where students are directed to blog on a particular subject under the specific conditions of academic assessment.
There are also the classic issues of control of content and access, the idea of privacy and last but certainly not least the feeling many of my participants described as that of "being watched", i.e. that students see what you are writing and vice versa, lecturers and librarians see what students are writing. Many generally seem to have reservations about the idea in that way.
These are interesting issues, especially when academics do generally seem to want to be part of web or library 2.0. I wonder if any of this might lie at the heart of why universities and libraries find it difficult to engage with blogging in the first place.
Friday, 3 August 2007
Security on the web
The BBC's technology section has an article on wi-fi security today. Apparently hackers can now easily pick up wi-fi users cookies, containing our webmail logins and social networking sites logins and access them to their amusements...or for whatever reasons they find that necessary.
A quote from the newsbit goes: "This gives attackers access to mail messages or the page someone maintains on sites such as MySpace or Facebook."
This was made public at an online security conference, or rather hackers meet-up, in Vegas recently. The author of the hacking tool is a professional hacker/online security expert who will make the tool available for download from his company's site from hereon.
This is interesting. I suppose this is done as a way of trying to prompt and speed up relevant problem fixing at each and every website involved. It makes you wonder though how many other real hacking tools are out there in need of fixing measures by website owners.
Doing my research, the issues of control of content as well as access keep, not surprisingly, cropping up. There are so many issues that libraries feel they need to take into account in order to be able to participate fully on the web - and rather than those issues being resolved, more seem to be adding on.
A quote from the newsbit goes: "This gives attackers access to mail messages or the page someone maintains on sites such as MySpace or Facebook."
This was made public at an online security conference, or rather hackers meet-up, in Vegas recently. The author of the hacking tool is a professional hacker/online security expert who will make the tool available for download from his company's site from hereon.
This is interesting. I suppose this is done as a way of trying to prompt and speed up relevant problem fixing at each and every website involved. It makes you wonder though how many other real hacking tools are out there in need of fixing measures by website owners.
Doing my research, the issues of control of content as well as access keep, not surprisingly, cropping up. There are so many issues that libraries feel they need to take into account in order to be able to participate fully on the web - and rather than those issues being resolved, more seem to be adding on.
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