I have published my assessment blog so the class can look at it if they want. The title is Ynys Fawr as that the is the name of the local barony.
I will probably keep working on it as I am hoping to get it good enough for use by the local SCA group. For now I have had enough of staring at the computer screen and pouring through books. I am looking forward to being able to read for pleasure not work.
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Thursday, 22 November 2012
Web 2.0 and Library 2.0
The Web 2.0 report that I found was written by Tim O'Reilly a web2.0 pioneer. While originally the world wide web was about people getting information from servers and companies selling programs. Web 2.0 is about providing a service to people and giving people services that they want want to use. This involves using technology and programs smarter by providing lots of little improvements to a website often and giving the users a chance to have input on the change rather than making large changes in one go. As users have input on improvements those that are useful will be kept while defective or useless changes are quickly abandoned.
Another major part of the Web 2.0 application is that there is user input into the actual content of the site. For example wikipedia entries can be created and edited by users while librarything allows users to create a catalogue of their own book and DVD collections by using information that has been provided by other users. Users adding and modifying content of web based services means that the more people use them and enter information the more useful the website and the application associated with it becomes.
The dynamic nature of websites and the ability of RSS feed subscriptions to push new content to the user mean that blogs, podcasts and other content from websites of interest will be automatically forwarded to the subscriber when it is updated making it easier to access.
The wikipedia article on Library 2.0 describes how libraries need to move to a more client centred and interactive method of delivering services. These include the ability to remotely access the public catalogue and providing the library staff with feedback on which services they like and how to improve them. An example of the interactivity of the LINC Tasmania services is the ability to post reviews of books for others to see and to leave suggestions for books that the LINC should acquire. It would be interesting to see how this idea would be implemented in a school library where the resources may be somewhat limited and the client needs quite varied. For example how to make access to the school's catalogue easy for young users and how much say in the school's inventory to give to the teachers, students and parents.
Another major part of the Web 2.0 application is that there is user input into the actual content of the site. For example wikipedia entries can be created and edited by users while librarything allows users to create a catalogue of their own book and DVD collections by using information that has been provided by other users. Users adding and modifying content of web based services means that the more people use them and enter information the more useful the website and the application associated with it becomes.
The dynamic nature of websites and the ability of RSS feed subscriptions to push new content to the user mean that blogs, podcasts and other content from websites of interest will be automatically forwarded to the subscriber when it is updated making it easier to access.
The wikipedia article on Library 2.0 describes how libraries need to move to a more client centred and interactive method of delivering services. These include the ability to remotely access the public catalogue and providing the library staff with feedback on which services they like and how to improve them. An example of the interactivity of the LINC Tasmania services is the ability to post reviews of books for others to see and to leave suggestions for books that the LINC should acquire. It would be interesting to see how this idea would be implemented in a school library where the resources may be somewhat limited and the client needs quite varied. For example how to make access to the school's catalogue easy for young users and how much say in the school's inventory to give to the teachers, students and parents.
Friday, 9 November 2012
invisible web
After looking around the different search and indexing sites accessible through the article on the invisible web by Robert Lackie, I have decided that it is not that great if looking for information on history as when I tried to search for information on the hundred years war and the war of the roses there was only one directory that was useful which was about.com. Out of the databases the Megaportal site had some potentially interesting articles.
This resource looked like it could be quite useful to those looking for information on science and biology more specifically as it includes Pubmed and Animalsearch in the database section. There are several other sites that are intended to provide information in specific subject areas so in general this site could be useful for searching most subjects.
This resource looked like it could be quite useful to those looking for information on science and biology more specifically as it includes Pubmed and Animalsearch in the database section. There are several other sites that are intended to provide information in specific subject areas so in general this site could be useful for searching most subjects.
podcasting review
While I was looking for podcasts for the class on the SCA and the middle ages, I discovered that one of the websites that I had selected to follow in google reader on the middle ages contained a podcast archive and a seperate RSS feed for the podcasts.
some of the topics covered by the poscast include the anarchy, the peasant revolt and mad monarchs of medieval Europe. There is also a number of episodes that look at literature and television series such as Game of Thrones.
These podcasts sound like they were well researched and they are read out well so it is clear what the speaker is saying.
Podcasting could be a useful method for delivering class content especially lectures to distance education students. It would be interesting to combine a podcast with a powerpoint presentation with automatic slide progression as a means of creating mini lessons on a subject.
some of the topics covered by the poscast include the anarchy, the peasant revolt and mad monarchs of medieval Europe. There is also a number of episodes that look at literature and television series such as Game of Thrones.
These podcasts sound like they were well researched and they are read out well so it is clear what the speaker is saying.
Podcasting could be a useful method for delivering class content especially lectures to distance education students. It would be interesting to combine a podcast with a powerpoint presentation with automatic slide progression as a means of creating mini lessons on a subject.
Thursday, 8 November 2012
SCA heavy fighting
Here is an example of a SCA heavy fighting melee scenario. This is the sort of thing that the members of the local group go to the mainland to take part in but on a much bigger scale. The scenarios done down here involve about a dozen people to a hundred or so on the mainland not the hundreds involved in this pitched battle. If you look carefully you will see several uniformed fighting units. There are also several spots where there are calls of HOLD which is the signal to stop everthing because there could be danger about.
The owner of this video is SyrLogan but there is no specified licence for the video so while it is a great example of heavy fighting in a war scenario, I would be unwilling to use it in my assessment blog.
Friday, 2 November 2012
Delicious review
The ability to store a personalised set of bookmarks on a website and then utilise them on any computer would be useful to be able to do especially if the person had to do research or use web based programs on a number of different computers such as in a school or a public library. The ability to see what websites have been bookmarked and tagged by other people make the process much easier for new users.
This website is very difficult and frustrating to sign up to due to the illegibility of the code that needs to be entered as the antibot security measure. I would not have bothered to keep trying to sign up after the sixth failed attempt if we did not have to sign up as part of the class. Once this problem was eventually solved the effort seamed like it was some what worth it.
This tool would have great potential for teachers and researchers who could use it to quickly access websites that are relevant to the subject that they were working on at the time and to gather online resources for later use. For example a teacher would use a website containing information on Australian animals while a website that allows genetic sequences to be compared would be useful to a researcher tracking changes in a bacterial gene. The potential of this tool would be maximised if it was utilised by an organisation where the individual users were encouraged to share links that they thought would be useful to others in the organisation as it would allow for collective internet research to be done increasing efficiency by reducing the duplication of effort. It is the ability to share links and the associated tags with other users and the opportunities that provides that makes delicious such a useful tool not just the ability to access the bookmarked websites easily from any computer.
This website is very difficult and frustrating to sign up to due to the illegibility of the code that needs to be entered as the antibot security measure. I would not have bothered to keep trying to sign up after the sixth failed attempt if we did not have to sign up as part of the class. Once this problem was eventually solved the effort seamed like it was some what worth it.
This tool would have great potential for teachers and researchers who could use it to quickly access websites that are relevant to the subject that they were working on at the time and to gather online resources for later use. For example a teacher would use a website containing information on Australian animals while a website that allows genetic sequences to be compared would be useful to a researcher tracking changes in a bacterial gene. The potential of this tool would be maximised if it was utilised by an organisation where the individual users were encouraged to share links that they thought would be useful to others in the organisation as it would allow for collective internet research to be done increasing efficiency by reducing the duplication of effort. It is the ability to share links and the associated tags with other users and the opportunities that provides that makes delicious such a useful tool not just the ability to access the bookmarked websites easily from any computer.
RSS feed review
I found that the RSS feeds associated with the class blogs make it much easier to see what the others in the class are finding for their blogs and choosing to write about. The other RSS feeds that I found for my topic are generally good and potentially useful.
Of the feeds that I found for my topic, one features posts about news stories and notices related to events involving the middle ages, recreationist groups including the SCA, shows or movies set in the middle ages and other notices that people interested in the middle ages would want to know. for example there several posts on the search for the body of Richard III and on The Game of Thrones.
Another is a review site for books covering the middle ages so could be a useful source for finding books to examine for my topic and include in the blog itself. Each entry includes the title of the book, the name of the reviewer plus their contact email, all information needed to cite the item, recommended price and ISBN for each format and a link to the review itself. It is worth noting that the books reviewed in this feed are aimed at scholarly audiences.
The next feed is a compliation of various mesages from different notice and message board that the author found and compiled into single documents based on the subject of the post. So there is one entry that includes information on peasant clothing and where to find additional information on this subject. There are also articles that have been written and sent to the website specifically for inclusion in the information database.
This technology could be used in my professional life to gather information on up coming releases of books and video for the target audience of the library that I end up working in. It could also allow for quicker research on popular topics. If I ended up working in a school library then I could encourage the teachers to use it to stay up to date on certain topics and see what other teachers around the world are doing with their classes. In my personal life I could use this technology to do research on the middle ages for the SCA.
Libraries could use RSS feeds to research topics, communicate with each other via blogs and notice boards and share ideas for displays. By subscribing to RSS feeds from publishers or distributors, libraries could get the latest information on books set to be released in the near future.
Of the feeds that I found for my topic, one features posts about news stories and notices related to events involving the middle ages, recreationist groups including the SCA, shows or movies set in the middle ages and other notices that people interested in the middle ages would want to know. for example there several posts on the search for the body of Richard III and on The Game of Thrones.
Another is a review site for books covering the middle ages so could be a useful source for finding books to examine for my topic and include in the blog itself. Each entry includes the title of the book, the name of the reviewer plus their contact email, all information needed to cite the item, recommended price and ISBN for each format and a link to the review itself. It is worth noting that the books reviewed in this feed are aimed at scholarly audiences.
The next feed is a compliation of various mesages from different notice and message board that the author found and compiled into single documents based on the subject of the post. So there is one entry that includes information on peasant clothing and where to find additional information on this subject. There are also articles that have been written and sent to the website specifically for inclusion in the information database.
This technology could be used in my professional life to gather information on up coming releases of books and video for the target audience of the library that I end up working in. It could also allow for quicker research on popular topics. If I ended up working in a school library then I could encourage the teachers to use it to stay up to date on certain topics and see what other teachers around the world are doing with their classes. In my personal life I could use this technology to do research on the middle ages for the SCA.
Libraries could use RSS feeds to research topics, communicate with each other via blogs and notice boards and share ideas for displays. By subscribing to RSS feeds from publishers or distributors, libraries could get the latest information on books set to be released in the near future.
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