Wiki - Hawaiin for "Quick"!

Wiki is an online collaboration tool that is interactive, dynamic and updated quickly. People can contribute ideas as part of a group, generating ideas together and consolidating them. It becomes a shared production or group project.
The benefit for Public Libraries is that by their very nature Wiki's are a community resource offering an inclusive environment, as does the Library itself. They could be useful for debates, team projects, sharing resources, research collections, book reviews, Bookclubs, community projects and so on.
When discussing Wiki it is almost necessary to mention Wikipedia - the largest and greatest encyclopedia ever compiled. Mind you, the Wikipedia is not error free - but then nor is the Encylopedia Britannica. In fact, in 1964, a physicist called Dr Harvey Einbinder read the Britannica from cover to cover and found enough mistakes to fill a 390-page book, The Myth of the Britannica. Nonetheless, thanks in part to Wikipedia, the satisfaction of curiosity has never been so easy to fulfil.
In this Information Age (or should that be the Age of Information Overload?) it would be reasonable to quote Thomas Edison - "We don't know a millionth of one per cent about anything". And it is no wonder when you consider that back in 1987 it was calculated that a year's worth of daily editions of The New York Times contained more information than a man or woman in the 17th century was likely to encounter in an entire lifetime. And this was long before Google, Wikipedia, Facebook and YouTube.

How to Tell if You're Spending
Too Much Time on the Computer...

Add a Refrigerator, and You'll
Never Have to Leave Your Desk!

Advances in computer technology

RSS - Real simple!

Adding 5 RSS feeds was surprisingly straightforward. I like keeping up-to-date with current affairs and what's in the news and thus chose to subscribe to ABC News and PerthNow. The story of the twin girls from Victoria being shot in the head really saddened me and I am very curious to see how it unfolds. There is a lot of mystery surrounding how they were shot and by whom. As a mother of twin girls myself, my heart goes out to their parents who are on their way to Colorado.

I read the columns by Susan Maushart, Danny Katz and Mia Freedman in the weekend papers every week and thus subcribed to Susan Maushart (Google) and Femail (Mia Freedman's blog). Interestingly, Maushart,  Katz and Freedman all wrote about technology in their columns this week. Maushart was dreaming of days gone by when we did not have PIN numbers (or usernames or WEP codes or account IDs). Today she has passwords for online banking, health insurance, library membership,eBay, PayPal, iTunes and a collection of online stores. Katz wrote a humorous column that described a new disease he calls "Technus". Technus is where you become so reliant on technology that if it stops working part of you stops working too. Symptoms include feeling feverish and getting sympathy pains for your computer! Mia Freedman wrote about the difficulty parents have getting their children off Facebook. Freedman refers to the "time-suck" aspect of social media (one of my big concerns) and questions why everything has to be so "public". (i.e. "Welcome to Facebook, the fishbowl of life.")

I also subscribed to the YPS Librarians Blog which is one I keep up-to-date with for all things associated with being a children's librarian, such as storytime sessions, CBW, recommended reading, WAYRBA, Better Beginnings, resources, reading lists, early literacy, etc.
And of course Cockburn Libraries was an essential addition as a loyal, devoted Cockburn Libraries Librarian!

"Laughter is the best tech support"

Technological advancement or health hazard?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kellycardona/2660171964/

(Where to for Gen Z?)

Technology is continually advancing at a rapid pace.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shin_arkhangel/3862648258/

(Eneabba is situated approximately 280km north of Perth on the Brand Highway)


When I was teaching at Eneabba PS (which is 20 years ago now!) there was one computer for the whole school, shared by staff and students (7 teaching staff and approximately 140 students). Teaching staff were required to use the computer to do the student's reports and so I used the computer twice! I recall having it in my classroom for the students to use on only one occasion. These students are now 27 and 28 years old, and part of Generation Y (Also known as the "Net Generation"). Gen Y is marked by an increased use and familiarity with communications, media and digital technologies.






The guy that used to clean the computer keyboards for the City of Cockburn was telling me that before he started up his business cleaning keyboards he had worked in IT. However, he decided that it was just too difficult to keep up with the advances in technology and therefore resigned from his IT position. He claimed that if he continued trying to stay up-to-date with all of the new developments he would never have any time to spend with his children. Which poses the question, 'Is technology reducing quality family time?'

West Australian writer Susan Maushart  (Maushart lives in Fremantle with her three teenage children) documents her family's six month "self-imposed exile from the Information Age" in her book The Winter of our Disconnect. Susan found that having less to communicate with, resulted in her family communicating more. Scrabble anyone?

According to research posted on the 1st of this month ("How switching off can help you be more creative - and productive" by Louise Maher [666 ABC Canberra Drive Presenter]), more than 25% of our working day is wasted thanks to computers, laptops and mobile phones (which were supposed to make us more efficient and productive). According to US media and technology writer William Powers "the tool that giveth also taketh away". Powers recommends "deliberate periods of digital disconnection".





Are these advancements in technology good or evil?/healthy or hazardous?

Consider:
* Online predators
* Cyber bullying
* Computer viruses
* Online hackers
* Your waistline (after sitting for too long in front of a computer)
* Eye strain (from staring too long at a computer screen)
* Radiation exposure
* Computer waste and its impact on the environment


http://www.flickr.com/photos/irisheyes/2700064985/




http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&w=all&q=e-books&m=text

Perhaps, like cigarette packaging, computers should come with a health warning, e.g. "Prolonged computer use can be harmful to your well being".

First post!

                                                                 "It's a trap!"

The name of this blog is for the very simple reason that it is "miraculous" that I have an online blog at all. I have always done my best to avoid technology and am only doing this as my hand has been forced - thanks to Learning 2.0 Basics training!
I do not have a Facebook account nor have I ever twittered! Further to this, I have only ever sent two, that's right two mobile phone text messages in my life! (thus far anyway!) This is because (as depicted in the above picture) a great deal of time can be easily "wasted" whilst Facebooking, twittering and googling, etc. As a busy parent of young twins my time is a precious commodity and does not extend to online social networking. (Not yet, anyway!) There are people who, wrongly or rightly, believe that Twitter is for twits!
However, I do believe that technology is unavoidable in our modern world and it will be interesting to discover what all the fuss is about!

PS The Technologically Challenged Just in case you think YOU are TC (technologically challenged), there'sstill hope:1. Compaq is considering changing the command "Press Any Key" to "Press Return Key" because of the flood of calls asking where the "Any" key is!