Online productivity.

This is another indication to me that the desktops and laptops of the future will simply not need the physical capacity to store programs and applications that will reside elsewhere. A safe environment that allows access to shared documents and tools while making collaborative scholrship or creativity easy to accomplish is there right now. It will only get better as time goes by. Tony told me about the concept of "cloud computing." Interesting stuff, check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

Tagging and Bookmarking

Easy and fun. Also, this is an area where it is very evident that Web 2.0 is an exercise for the "whole class." Everybody gets a little input as to what their take is on the particular website. With the tags that I've looked at, most people are on "the same page," however, there is certainly a lot of creative interpretations that I would not have necessarily come up with on my own.

Social Networks

I've been following these vicariously through my family for many years. Both of my kids as well as all of my nephews and their girlfriends have pages on MySpace and Facebook. And yes, I've seen some pretty interesting things that I would not have posted if I were them. But on the other hand, this appears to be a huge, live, up-to-date yearbook that is constantly keeping them all in touch intantaneously. Weddings, new babies, career moves, who is stationed in what part of the world in the armed services are all drawing these folks closer together. As I said, playing fair and being respectful of one another is the key. Once the etiquette is established and followed, it is a wonderful way to keep in touch.

Gaming

It shouldn't surprise anyone that gaming is a logical steppingtone for learning. We tried to foster learning in our children through fun activities from Uncle Wiggly to Old Maid. As babies, colors, shapes, sizes, sequencing, decision making and a host of other skills were learned and honed through games. You might not agree with the concepts of Resident Evil IV or Halo, but they are very, very popular and quite lucrative. Like we used to say in the old days, we don't care what you read, just read.



Just some examples from most popular rentals:

Top-10 Wii
Resident Evil 5 M
Killzone 2 M
The Godfather II M
Street Fighter IV T
Call of Duty: World at War M
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe T
Wanted: Weapons of Fate M
Little Big Planet E
WWE Legends of WrestleMania T
HAWX T
Mario Kart Wii E
Super Smash Bros Brawl T
Monsters vs. Aliens E 10
Mario Party 8 E
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games E
Super Mario Galaxy E
Sonic and the Black Knight E 10
Deca Sports E
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed T
Wii Music E

Top-10 Xbox
Resident Evil 5 M
The Godfather II M
Halo Wars T
Wanted: Weapons of Fate M
Major League Baseball 2K9 E
Fallout 3 M
Wheelman T
Call of Duty: World at War M
Gears of War 2 M
Left 4 Dead M
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat T
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas 2nd edition M
Madden NFL 08 E
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith T
Star Wars Battlefront II T
Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition T
Call of Duty 3 T
Thrillville E 10
Need for Speed Carbon E 10
Black M

Wikis

Wikis are not new to me since I have been using the phenomenal Henrico County Public library Wikis since their inception. In comparing our site with others, I'd say that we he have a lot to be proud of, namely our expert staff and our "cutting edge" technology.

Photosharing

Well, I have so many new accounts that I must make myself a list of passwords. Gmail, Yahoo, Delicious, Word Press, Blogspot, Flickr etc. I have managed over 100 personal (mostly family) pictures, and have played with the cool tools available. Each site has its own special features that attempts to outdo the competition. Lost of fun!

Podcasts

Well, it seems easy enough to find anything and everything when you are looking for specifics. I found some very interesting podcasts from http://coffeegeek.com They are linked below and you can click on them to see what I mean.

Caffespresso

By the way, or should I say BTW, since this blog has coffee as part of the title, I want to say that I found a new coffee shop called Caffespresso. The owner, Claudio Ragazzi, is from Italy and serves a variety of sandwiches, bakes some delightful breads, pastries and cookies and of course offers a selection of tea and coffee based drinks. (Gelati is supplied by DeLuca) He teaches a class in Mediterranean Geography at VCU for fun and tells me that a couple colleagues of his will be teaching Spanish and Italian there soon on Wednesday evenings. Ciao!

Twitter

Read a lot about and followed a lot of the news-related twitters. Just enough to peak one's interest. It's like the "sound bite" concept, just en(this would be just about where the 140 character limit would be)ough to grab your interest and go form there.

Rss Feeds

This RSS concept is appropriately named, especially for those of us who need "simple" in our lives. I tried some very specialized feeds which are easy to keep up with and conversely, some general ones on professional matters or "newsy" items. These are overwhelming, especially if you are a bit compulsive and feel compelled to at least read the titles of each story. Best (for me) to try to stay focused!

Week 2

This week's excercise is something that I've put off for quite some time. Seems like there is really nothing too hard about it, but procrastination is a very strong force! I've observed the blog phenomenon, social networking etc. through the window, but have finally opened it and have one leg through. Oops, too late, I am on the inside now.
I have taken the vitual leap of faith so that the entire world, well at least the Henrico Library world, can see a tiny part of my world.