I'm sorry to report that I got almost no work done this week. Not from laziness, or from lack of trying, just because of life. My computer decided to crash last Saturday, which meant the whole weekend was shot, and then I had to work all day Monday, and Tuesday and Wednesday I was out of town at a special appointment. So now it's Thursday, my computer still isn't fixed (though it's in the shop, so maybe by next week...) and I'm so tired I just want to pass out.
Alas, life goes on. I did manage to read the Pomerantz article last week, which I found interesting. I really liked his idea that "Blogs act as organizers of data." I'm not big on blogging personally - I like to talk to people as closely as possible, either face to face or on the phone. The people who truly care about what's going on in my life aren't addicted to their computers, and I would probably call them with the news before they got the information.
But that's in my personal life. In a professional setting, I can see where blogging would be useful - having to research the answer to the same question over and over again would get really old, really fast. With a blog, be it shared among librarians or just a blog for yourself, would save you that research time and time again. And as you discovered more information, you could simply add it to your blog to make an even better answer for the next person. Using keywords would help even more, giving you a searchable way to sort of catalog your thoughts and information.
I think a blog would be something really nice to have in SL, if you're using SL as a reference environment. It gives people another reference option for when there isn't a librarian staffing the SL space. Some questions can be anticipated (time of year, special occasions, stuff in the news, etc) and the good librarian can have links in SL ready. But taking it one step further, really utilizing all the technology available to librarians today and creating a blog about these events, not just having a pathfinder, would really enhance the user's experience, especially if other people can add to the blog. Of course, this brings up a whole slew of problems, especially for such a high-profile agency as the public library - how to monitor the blog to ensure no one makes inappropriate comments, keeping people on topic, etc - so public libraries may not be able to open their blogs to the public for editing just yet. But even posting the librarian's search strategies, posting the full question and asking other librarians to post their suggestions on tough questions could really help the user.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Good points about SL
This week I finally got to start looking through the SL books I checked out from Goldstein a few weeks ago. October has been a crazy month in my real life, but things are finally starting to settle down so I can really get researching on this final project.
I've only gotten to flip through one book so far, which is the Official Guide, but many of the points made so far are pretty obvious: the only limit to your SL is you imagination, use common sense in SL, and you can change your avatar's appearance as often and as quickly as you like.
There were a few points that stood out in my mind, the first being a line from the introduction. "In Second Life, changes that would take millenia of groaning and straining in the real world can be completed within a few hours. If real life is all about evolution, Second Life is evolution squared" (Rymaszewski, 2007, p. ix). For a library, this is both a good and a bad thing, and definitely something I need to take into consideration in my project plan. The inherent flexibility of SL gives libraries a great deal of freedom from real world restraints, like cost, amount and shape of space available to them, and the ability to think of something, try it, and then either keep or discard it within a matter of minutes. The downside to the constant fluidity of SL is how difficult it is to get a grasp on, especially for librarians who have many other demands on their time - who has time to learn it all when there are patrons standing at the desk, waiting to be helped? To this end, I think that if the LCLCPL decided to enter SL, much of the work should be done by one librarian, to better distribute staff time.
The other thing that stuck out in my reading this week was the mention of role-playing in SL. I know we covered this in class, and how there are different areas dedicated to role-playing, but the Official Guide dedicates quite a few paragraphs to them, spread across the first 3 chapters. This is something that I want to think about in my plan - for some teens, they may want to use part of the LCLCPL's space for Role-Playing Games (RPGs) or even special events that involve role-playing, like book talks or something. The librarian could even have a special day, like on International Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept. 19) where he/she gets into a role for a day.
I think this book is really going to help me focus my plan, which is great - at this moment, I'm still a little overwhelmed with the project I've taken on, so anything that helps me focus my ideas is a good thing.
I've only gotten to flip through one book so far, which is the Official Guide, but many of the points made so far are pretty obvious: the only limit to your SL is you imagination, use common sense in SL, and you can change your avatar's appearance as often and as quickly as you like.
There were a few points that stood out in my mind, the first being a line from the introduction. "In Second Life, changes that would take millenia of groaning and straining in the real world can be completed within a few hours. If real life is all about evolution, Second Life is evolution squared" (Rymaszewski, 2007, p. ix). For a library, this is both a good and a bad thing, and definitely something I need to take into consideration in my project plan. The inherent flexibility of SL gives libraries a great deal of freedom from real world restraints, like cost, amount and shape of space available to them, and the ability to think of something, try it, and then either keep or discard it within a matter of minutes. The downside to the constant fluidity of SL is how difficult it is to get a grasp on, especially for librarians who have many other demands on their time - who has time to learn it all when there are patrons standing at the desk, waiting to be helped? To this end, I think that if the LCLCPL decided to enter SL, much of the work should be done by one librarian, to better distribute staff time.
The other thing that stuck out in my reading this week was the mention of role-playing in SL. I know we covered this in class, and how there are different areas dedicated to role-playing, but the Official Guide dedicates quite a few paragraphs to them, spread across the first 3 chapters. This is something that I want to think about in my plan - for some teens, they may want to use part of the LCLCPL's space for Role-Playing Games (RPGs) or even special events that involve role-playing, like book talks or something. The librarian could even have a special day, like on International Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept. 19) where he/she gets into a role for a day.
I think this book is really going to help me focus my plan, which is great - at this moment, I'm still a little overwhelmed with the project I've taken on, so anything that helps me focus my ideas is a good thing.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Classroom in Second Life - The Future
This week's reading assignment was about communication conventions in a class chat, which got me thinking about our class time in SL. We brought up the point in class last night that the person who types the fastest tends to rule the chat, which is a problem for those who can't type very well. Using SL for class instruction, seeing the avatars in SL, may help to get around this problem, as anyone in the class can see when anyone else in the class is typing and have more patience as the typer gets their message out. Elluminate has tried to do this, with the chat bubble next to everyone's name in the session - it lights up yellow when someone it typing something. But this can be due to a small pet accessing the keyboard, or someone accidentally hitting a key, and once someone has put something in the text box, the bubble remains lit up until it is cleared - meaning that the bubble could be lit up and the student not even know it.
In SL, this problem isn't an issue. Whenever the person stops typing at the computer, the avatar also stops typing. While it would still be unknown if the person is hunting for the next keystroke or if they have thought twice about what they wanted to say, at least the rest of the class wouldn't be sitting around waiting for the person to share what they were typing.
The article this week mentioned "students may find it easier to orient themselves when surrounded by familiar, albeit virtual, structures like classrooms, libraries, cafes and faculty offices" (Murphy & Collins, 1997, para. 18). It is true - the first time a student is in a virtual classroom, be it a simple chat or multi-media "room", that student is bewildered and unsettled. I well remember my first chat - it was in a simple Blackboard Java chat, and I was so afraid that I wouldn't be able to keep up. Everyone else had been in a virtual class before, so they knew all the rules, and I was bewildered when people started saying "!" with no explanation. Now in my 4th semester, I am an old pro at virtual classrooms.
Second Life could easily help alleviate the stress of learning how a virtual classroom works for any student. Having the avatars sitting in any space the instructor decides to provide, being able to tell when the professor is getting ready to continue the lecture, being able to raise your hand when you have a question or comment, rather than having the learn the chat shorthand, would all be beneficial to any student, especially the student new to virtual classrooms.
Even though there are issues with the software and students' computing ability, I think seeing classrooms in SL isn't too far off, especially at an institution such as Florida State University. There is already a team in place to recreate the Shores building in SL - it would be very simple to create classrooms within the SL Shores building and have the students sit there with their avatars. The immediacy of synchronous chat combined with the visual presence of a classroom and other students would make for a very successful class indeed.
In SL, this problem isn't an issue. Whenever the person stops typing at the computer, the avatar also stops typing. While it would still be unknown if the person is hunting for the next keystroke or if they have thought twice about what they wanted to say, at least the rest of the class wouldn't be sitting around waiting for the person to share what they were typing.
The article this week mentioned "students may find it easier to orient themselves when surrounded by familiar, albeit virtual, structures like classrooms, libraries, cafes and faculty offices" (Murphy & Collins, 1997, para. 18). It is true - the first time a student is in a virtual classroom, be it a simple chat or multi-media "room", that student is bewildered and unsettled. I well remember my first chat - it was in a simple Blackboard Java chat, and I was so afraid that I wouldn't be able to keep up. Everyone else had been in a virtual class before, so they knew all the rules, and I was bewildered when people started saying "!" with no explanation. Now in my 4th semester, I am an old pro at virtual classrooms.
Second Life could easily help alleviate the stress of learning how a virtual classroom works for any student. Having the avatars sitting in any space the instructor decides to provide, being able to tell when the professor is getting ready to continue the lecture, being able to raise your hand when you have a question or comment, rather than having the learn the chat shorthand, would all be beneficial to any student, especially the student new to virtual classrooms.
Even though there are issues with the software and students' computing ability, I think seeing classrooms in SL isn't too far off, especially at an institution such as Florida State University. There is already a team in place to recreate the Shores building in SL - it would be very simple to create classrooms within the SL Shores building and have the students sit there with their avatars. The immediacy of synchronous chat combined with the visual presence of a classroom and other students would make for a very successful class indeed.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Finally - I know my Final Project!
So I finally managed to pin Mary down this week about my final project! She L-O-V-E-S the idea of an outline, since I told her there would be no way I could create her space in 7 short weeks. So I will be doing the outline for her - what to put and why, how to create it, special features she should have, etc. It's sort of half business plan/half project outline. I'm going to try to make it as complete as possible, including staff training time and what basics they should all know, steps the library needs to take to implement SL, and even promotion of the LCLCPL island - if none of the patrons know about the island, they won't be visiting it and it will be a failure. Mary also told me that the head of the entire LCPL system, Helen, wants to see a presentation of my project - I told her this was perfect, as I had to do a presentation for the class anyway. She was really excited that I was up for it - the presentation will be given to Helen, Mary, the rest of the youth services staff, and anyone else who is interested. Makes me a bit nervous!
I also convinced Mary to focus on SL, rather than Teen SL. She said that she hopes if SL is successful, they could maybe explore the TSL options, but that's at least 5 years away. This takes a lot of pressure off me, as I was afraid she would really be insistent on sticking to TSL.
Today I checked out both of the SL books Goldstein has, and I plan to spend the next few weeks looking through them. While the class sessions in SL were very helpful, I know there's tons of stuff we didn't get to cover.
The discussion last night was helpful. I honestly didn't think it would be, but my classmates had some good sources, including the SL wiki. I had totally forgotten about that, so it was nice to be able to share sources. Of course, now that I'm all excited about my final project again, it's time to put it on hold to finish my short wiki paper! :P
I also convinced Mary to focus on SL, rather than Teen SL. She said that she hopes if SL is successful, they could maybe explore the TSL options, but that's at least 5 years away. This takes a lot of pressure off me, as I was afraid she would really be insistent on sticking to TSL.
Today I checked out both of the SL books Goldstein has, and I plan to spend the next few weeks looking through them. While the class sessions in SL were very helpful, I know there's tons of stuff we didn't get to cover.
The discussion last night was helpful. I honestly didn't think it would be, but my classmates had some good sources, including the SL wiki. I had totally forgotten about that, so it was nice to be able to share sources. Of course, now that I'm all excited about my final project again, it's time to put it on hold to finish my short wiki paper! :P
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Short Wiki Paper Ruminations
So I'm really not sure what to write about for my Short Wiki Paper. Which is not a great thing, as it is coming up due in less than 2 weeks. I was thinking of doing something with Facebook, because I really like Facebook and I think it is more "implementable" than many other Web 2.0 technologies - the user can personalize their profile but not too much. In MySpace, users can change backgrounds, fonts, songs, colors, whatever they can think of, which means that one person's page may only take a few seconds to load, but someone else's page may take up to a minute.
But then I realized that I was thinking of Facebook as a personal tool. I like faster loads because my time is very precious, even if it means the profile is more bare than the user would like. But teens love personalization, and they don't care if it take a long time to load - if it looks cool, they'll like it. But I don't want to do a paper on MySpace, so I guess I'll throw that idea out.
Since my final project is looking more and more like it is going to have something to do with SL, perhaps it would be good to start doing some research on it now. But I think the point of this paper is to explore something different from your final project, so I guess I should throw this idea out too.
Now I'm thinking that perhaps I can do something related to my home library. My library at home in Virginia is the Central Rappahannock Regional Library, and they are part of the QuestionPoint cooperative. Here's the blurb from the page:
This sounds a lot like Florida's Ask A Librarian, and is clearly a virtual reference environment. I think this would be great, as I don't think anyone else will be doing this topic. I'm going to run it by Dr.. Mon before I start my research, but I think it's a good, original idea.
But then I realized that I was thinking of Facebook as a personal tool. I like faster loads because my time is very precious, even if it means the profile is more bare than the user would like. But teens love personalization, and they don't care if it take a long time to load - if it looks cool, they'll like it. But I don't want to do a paper on MySpace, so I guess I'll throw that idea out.
Since my final project is looking more and more like it is going to have something to do with SL, perhaps it would be good to start doing some research on it now. But I think the point of this paper is to explore something different from your final project, so I guess I should throw this idea out too.
Now I'm thinking that perhaps I can do something related to my home library. My library at home in Virginia is the Central Rappahannock Regional Library, and they are part of the QuestionPoint cooperative. Here's the blurb from the page:
QuestionPoint Ask a Librarian is a live online interactive reference service, available to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This chat service combines the speed and convenience of the Internet with the information savvy of professional reference librarians.
When you connect, the librarian online may not be from your local library and will not have access to your personal library account information. The librarian may be from any one of over 500 public libraries in this national 24/7 reference cooperative.
The Central Rappahannock Regional Library is a member of the nationwide QuestionPoint cooperative. We provide coverage when our libraries are open. During busy periods and off-hours the service is supported by other librarians working throughout the country from their own libraries. This national support allows us to have librarians available whenever you need information.This sounds a lot like Florida's Ask A Librarian, and is clearly a virtual reference environment. I think this would be great, as I don't think anyone else will be doing this topic. I'm going to run it by Dr.. Mon before I start my research, but I think it's a good, original idea.
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