I know this is GREAT, but...

1.

Thud! Ouch! Thud! Ouch! Thud! Ouch!

These are the sweet sounds of my skull meeting my desk. For the first time in this course I found some cyber resistance, it would appear that the computers are now developing feelings and are sick of being told what to do by me! "What are you doing Hal?" This also marks first time I looked at or even heard of Social Bookmarking. So I come into this completely fresh, completely blind, completely.......LOST! So as usual I begin by looking at the beginning of the phenomenon, shockingly wikipedia marks the beginning of shared bookmarks back to April 1996. Light years ago in the computer time line. The sites from that era are all at the tar pits now, but 10 years later in an article from Webology titled; Library 2.0: Web 2.0 and its Implications for Librairies would state the incredible upside of Social Networks to librairies and education. Such a large gap from the beginning until that article was printed, it would seem that the concept took some time to fine tune.

After reading a couple of articles and Will Richardson's book two social bookmarking sites jumped out at me Delicious and Furl. Delicious began in 2003 and started the term "social bookmarking" and more importantly pioneered tagging. Tagging is a major component to this tool. The user is attaching key words to the site being saved, the computer is not categorizing it. Teaching Today had an article on social bookmarking where this is mentioned. " The advantage in using social bookmarking is the human collaboration involved in the searching framework." As opposed to the computer robot programs of say Google search which is based on popularity and not neccessarily the content.

Signing up for Delicious was extremely easy, navigating and searching the site was not as smooth, perhaps I did type in enough key words to narrow my searches. My main issue was trying to get the tool bar downloaded and set up on my computers. This was excruciating, of course my desktop at work and my laptop at home are both not mine, so the security settings may have been my down fall. Without the toolbar the ease of the site lost its magic.

Furl, well let me tell you of this great adventure. Richardson goes on and on about the wonderfulness of Furl in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. So away I go to discover them all, but alas Tom can't find it anywhere? Eventually a fellow classmate informs me that Diigo purchased Furl. This never came up in any of my searches, crummy robot searches! So to Diigo I go, again painless initiation and the potential of this site is GLORIOUS, but again Hal has decided no tool bar for Tom. Another classmate (thank goodness for collabortation, no wonder these user generated tools work!) has guided me to an option which should rectify my grief.

2.

Of the 3 tools we've explored thus far, photosharing, videosharing, and social bookmarking I find the latter to be my favourite. I know I loved the first two as they were fun personally, and I knew somewhat of what they were prior to this course. Social bookmarking has enormous potential for me personally, even with my issues in setting up. Right now I'm working towards my Master's, I'm taking two courses, and constantly trying to keep on top of things in my profession, as well as my personal interests. The tools offered with Diigo are outstanding. Highlighting text, placing post its, saving the actual page(s) and not just the URL are just some of the beneficial options offered. These along with the tagging, sharing, and ability to access Diigo from any computer make it the full meal deal.

3.

Obviously this tool is excellent in an educational forum. In the Webology article they discuss the theory of Library 2.0 and four essential elements: 1. user-centered, 2. multi-media, 3. socially rich, and 4. communally innovative. Social bookmarking embraces all of these attributes. Teaching Today  goes one step further and states that using this tool in the classroom will; improve classroom management, enhance collaboration between students/students, and students/teachers, and finally improve students ability to gather links to important current and historical events.

Even with the few frustrations and unknowns I came across with this assignment, I find this tool to be the most useful yet for myself both personally and professionally. I will definitely work out the kinks with Diigo and continue to explore and use it in the future. I've added a little video I made when I was struggling with this assignment, a distraction to stave off the impending madness, "all work and no play, make...." well you know the rest.

Notes:

Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. The social web: Learning together, (pg. 89-100).

http://trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/199325

http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/social-bookmarking

http://thejournal.com/Articles/2008/05/21/Social-Networking-Learning-Theory-in-Action.aspx?Page=3

https://www.library.ualberta.ca/ezp/ezkrb.cgi?url=http://www.webology.ir/2006/v3n2/a25.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking

Me, Myself, and YouTube

1. There is an ancient belief in many cultures that photographs steal part of your soul. I personally hate having my picture taken, so I often will quote this belief. If a picture steals part of your soul, what does a video clip do? This is the question that kept popping into my head as I researched, joined, played with, and uploaded to YouTube.
For these blogs I always enjoy looking at the history of these technologies. The founders of YouTube were three young men working out of a garage in San Mateo, California. Depending on which article you read, the initial idea behind YouTube was an online dating site with videos attached, or it started because two of three founders were disgusted with how long it took them to share videos. Either way a year or so later they sold the company to Google for over a billion dollars, not too shabby.
Davies and Merchant mention fifteen different video sharing sites, they also mention that there are over 50 listed in Wikipedia, and at www.lifehacker.com they have listed the five best video sharing sites. So why is YouTube so popular? Part of the reason could be that it is great for general use, and for everyday joes/josies, which is the majority of us out there. Other sites can be more specific (ie. production of web shows), some have more restrictions (ie. must be original content, smaller GB's allowed), and many people have just not heard of (ie. Bliptv, and Viddler). YouTube is globally known and has proven itself considering it has been on top for five years.
I knew nothing of YouTube, besides the few clips that have been emailed to me over the last couple of years. I had never entered the site on my own. I signed up for a YouTube account very easily, found a user name, Mrtgb6, gave a couple of simple descriptors and boom there I was. Organizing my YouTube site has been somewhat of a hassle, it isn't as smooth as the rest of the process thus far, the finished product when you see my site from the outside is nice, but when you are signed in as the user it is a bit confusing, that could just be me and my inabilities! Now I started feeling some fear and anxiety, not because of the site but because I knew that eventually I would put myself on there as part of my learning experience. Unlike a lot of the clips I've observed over the week, I am not an egomaniac who has a false perception of my greatness, and that others will want, no need to hear and see me!!! (sorry that may have been a bit sarcastic) One question or concern I kept coming back to was security and potential legal concerns. I was very leary on what I could do, or what I may come across in my searches. Davies and Merchant mention how it is the "community" who dictate what is appropriate. This is somewhat concerning considering in the world of the web 100,000 people or even more could have viewed the inappropriate material before it is taken down. In the ABA Journal from February of 2009 there was a lawsuit involving a YouTube patron and a major music company around the issue of fair use. I won't go into detail, but it is an interesting article.
(http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/copyright_in_the_age_of_youtube ) So with my fear and anxiety put aside I dove in, feet first of course, I still don't know how deep it is!

2. At first I thought I could just say "ditto" to my flickr blog, just replace photo with video clip. I figured that would not go over well, I do feel that they are similar in many aspects and applications. I loved looking up video clips of topics that are of interest to me. There is a plethora of material out there, and to be honest most are quite good. I came across one clip this week that had a warning that it could be offensive to some people. I didn't view the clip, I figured if it could be offensive I won't watch it. The point is I had the choice of whether to view or not, so that warning served it's purpose. Personally from my lens as myself and learning YouTube is great, from my role of parent I'm not sold yet. I'm more hesitant and guarded around its use when I look at it as Dad, I would need more then a week of searching key terms in order to child test this site. The community aspect of YouTube is quite evident, as it was with flickr. You can join YouTube under different accounts, Sid Yadav mentions this in an article from 2006. There is a directors account, a comedian account, a musician account, etc. These specific accounts allow more freedom of length, editting, and so on of your "channel". I didn't grasp the channel concept at first, until I watched one of the trailfire clips which explained it. Then it seemed really obvious and I was a little bit embarrassed.
So now it was time to upload some shows onto my channel, my very first ever attempt, well was very lame, but I did it! I put my face and voice on the internet. There was some extremely nervous moments over the uploading of that clip, not just because I was in it, more about what was in the background? Was there anything in that clip that a.) I didn't want in it?, or b.) that someone else didn't want in it? So now that fear had passed I went one step further to help complete the graying of my scalp and put a clip of my kids on my channel. In flickr we tried to start a theme of emotion shown in photos, so I recruited my daughters to demonstrate emotions in a video clip. It was fun, nerve racking putting them "out there" to the world, but fun. My five year old may become a star some day with her acting ability. ( http://www.youtube.com/user/Mrtgb6 )

3. Again I thought I could almost mimic the flickr post here as well, don't worry I won't. Sonography is a digital medium these days, all the images are digital as well as all the video clips.(no more vhs tapes) During certain exams we will store clips. In obstetrics, venous/carotid, and mostly echocardiographic exams.(ultrasound of the heart) So it would be beneficial as an instructor to put up clips for the students to go and view and discuss what is happening, and again this could work for the profession as well throught he national society. To go one step further, you could gather several clips of similar pathologies or views and group them together as a study tool. This aspect is very exciting to me, so after a lecture, or module, or lab I could direct the students to a channel that I have set up as an extra study guide, if they wish. Then I could put a couple of questions on the exam to reward those who went that extra mile. I am definitely going to look into this further when I have some more time....looks like 2012 should be open.
Overall I enjoyed my time with YouTube, of couse more time is needed to fully grasp all of its potential. Only downsides are the security adn legal issues that could arise. YouTube was easy to start up, it just wasn't easy for me to put "I" in YouTube.

Notes:
1. Webb, P. YouTube and Librairies: It could be a beautiful relationship. http://trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/295598

2. Fitzpatrick, J. Lifehacker - five best video-sharing sits. http://lifehacker.com/5343601/fivebestvideo+sharing-sites.

3. The origin of youtube - http://www.worldhistorysite.com/youtube/html

4. Yadav, S. YouTube - The complete profile. http://www.rev2.org/2006/10/02/youtube-the-complete-profile

5. Seidenberg, S. Copyright in the age of youtube. http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/copyright_in_the_age_of_youtube/

6. Davies, J & Merchant, G. Web 2.0 for schools. 2009.