Web 2.0 - Week 10 - Tagging/Social Bookmarking

Tags and social bookmarks are something that I have noticed when on a webpage and have occasionally used. The most common tags that I have used are ones that are found on book websites like Borders.com or Barnesand Noble.com. When I look up an item it is sometimes interesting to see what other books come up under the listed tags. For example, I looked up The Poionwood Bible (a novel I highly recommend!) on amazon.com. Some of the tags that were listed under this item included South Africa and Mission League, two large topics within the novel. There were other smaller topics as well, such as mangwansi beans and green mamba. These terms play a small part in the novel, yet are part of South African culture within the area in which this novel takes place. The tags can help you find similar items you may enjoy and can also give you ideas about reading topics that you hadn't thought of yourself. This can be helpful to reference and children/YA librarians because the tags can assist them in finding things for patrons that enjoyed a specific item. Tags like this can also be found in the beginning of books on the copyright pages to help with catagorizing.

Web 2.0 - Week 9 - Social Networking

Social networking is something that I have experience with, unlike a lot of the other Web 2.0 tools. I have accounts on both MySpace and Facebook, though primarily use Facebook. I must say though, it took me awhile to jump onto the facebook wagon. I do not feel the need to be in touch with others 24/7. I do not even have a cell phone!! Probably one of the only people out there that don't. My husband and I do have trac phones that we keep in the car for emergencies and quick calls if we have a question for somebody. They do come in handy .... Anyway, I digress.

Once I joined Facebook, I was amazed at how much fun it was connecting with people that I haven't seen or heard from in years. It is interesting (and kinda nosey as well) to see what is going on with people you knew in high school and/or college. It's also a quick way to drop multiple people a line without having to go into your email account and email them all separately. Within the library system, this could come in handy to join in various discussions with other librarians from anywhere in the world. You can find people on there that you didn't even know existed . . .

Web 2.0 - Week 8 - Your Choice/Gaming

This week's topic was a funny one. I was confused. They want us to play games and get paid for it?? I felt a little guilty. I didn't actually play any because I have played tons of online games before. I love addictinggames.com. They have any type of game you can imagine. And some you can't too! :) Sometimes when I'm bored it's nice to do something that doesn't take a lot of brain power. . .

Speaking of brain power, the articles posted on the training site about gaming and learning were interesting. Of course something can be learned from any game you play. They even have websites that incorporate learning and education for children, such as pbs.org. Those games are wonderful because they make learning basic things, such as reading and math, fun. If played in a controlled environment with limits on time play, I think the games make wonderful accesories to education. As a child gets older, the games become more complex and more adult-themed. As long as teenagers don't spend too much time playing games, it is a nice outlet from traditional learning and it also forces teens into a different way of thinking or seeing things to figure something out.

As far as socialization within internet gaming, I don't buy into that too much. It's a type of socialization, I suppose, but I guess I am a traditionalist and always assumed that socialization involved face-to-face contact. The type of socialization one gets through gaming does allow interaction and a sort of identity within a group of players, but it is much easier to type something to someone than to say it in person. Board games allow one to think outside of the box and also interact in person. Online gaming is not like the real world, it's a fantasy world.