Welcome to the Campus Library Learning 2.0 blog!

We'll be using this space to explore the use of newish technologies in support of teaching and learning. At the end of this you may not feel like an expert on all of these technologies, but we hope that you have a better sense of their possible applications on our campus, and that you feel more confident exploring other new technologies as they emerge. Our goal is to create a culture in which learning new technologies is supported, and exploration is collaborative.

As with other Learning 2.0 projects the key here is to play and not worry about whether or not you make a mistake. Mistakes are encouraged! You can use the technologies listed below to create materials that will be of immediate benefit to our campus, or just try them out for other professional/personal interests. This project is all about experimenting - nothing will be graded - you can work at your own pace, and bring to the group any insights, observations, and questions. In other words, feel free to be creative!

Each module will have links to the technology, a relevant reading or two, and a couple of reflective questions and/or exercises. We'll meet weekly to share.

Module 1. Blogs (blogger.com)

Recommended Readings:

• From Educause: 7 things you should know about... blogs

  http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7006.pdf

Step One: Create your blog on blogger.com - Note: if you already have your own blog feel free to skip to Step Two.

Creating a blog using Blogger takes just three steps:

1. Create an account

2. Name your blog

3. Select your template

Once you’ve created your blog there are a couple of important things to know:

1. To add posts: The maintenance interface that you will use to add posts, edit or change the step-up your blog is accessed online at http://www.blogger.com Be sure to write down your login and password.

2. To view your blog: Your blog address is http://(xxxx).blogspot.com, (xxxx)=the unique identifier you entered in Step 2. Be sure to also write down your blog address.

3. In blogger.com the default for all new blogs is public ("anybody can view the blog"). If you prefer your blog to be private be sure to invite all of us to your blog (Settings=>Permissions).

Step Two: Send us your blog url as a comment to this post (find the "comment" link next to my name at the bottom of this post). I'll add links to individual blogs on our participants page. Your blog will serve as your own space to post answers to the reflective questions and any other thoughts you may have as you move through our Learning 2.0 modules.

Step Three: OK -- Now, it’s your turn... Discovery Exercise:

Add a post or two to your blog. Note: Use one of your posts to talk about your experience using any of the technologies in our list of Learning 2.0 modules, or what you'd like to learn more about. Play around with the 'Layout' of your blog and see what kind of functionality this technology really has. Have fun! This doesn't have to be about library stuff, though that's fine too!

More about our online communication:

1. Please feel free to comment on each other's blogs.

2. Your postings and comments need not be limited to the reflective questions.

3. Please also feel free to add additional 'comments' about your experiences to this blog posting.

More Resources (optional/as needed)

Blogger’s Quick Tutorial

* Use of Blogger is only a recommendation. If there is another blog hosting site that you are more comfortable with, please feel free to use it.