Sorry, I Only Speak English

Matt is blogging about our Italy vacation adventures last week over at his blog so I won't duplicate efforts.

Matt is hard at work in Geneva, Switzerland this week and next week. I'm here this week with him getting to eat dinner at some of his favorite places and trying to do the tourist thing solo.

Yesterday, I took it easy, slept late, read, met Matt for lunch, etc. Today, however, I ventured out. Went to lunch on my own and then caught local bus 29 to downtown Geneva. I was going to try to catch a bus to do a 2 hour city tour but couldn't find the depot location. Still a good afternoon, though, and I got my Geneva and bus legs. Managed to catch the bus back and wind up where I wanted. Hurrah! I plan to head downtown again on Wednesday and Thursday and explore old town one day and see all of the international organizations the next.

But I had to share what happened today.

Crossing the street, I catch a gentleman in his 40s (I'm guessing) looking at me. He walks up to me and starts speaking Russian. Yep, Russian. In Geneva, Switzerland where most everyone speaks French. So, of course, I say, "Sorry, I speak English." Then he starts speaking English and explains that he is currently studying Russian and, looking at me, he thought I was Russian. Don't know how many of you out there know this, but my Dad's father was 100% Russian - my great-grandparents immigrated from Stebnik near the Carpathian Mountains in the 1800's.

Okay, so the interaction only gets more bizarre from there. After a few moments of pleasantries, he asks me if he can talk to me about the Lord. And proceeds to witness to me for a good 15 minutes. Really. Seriously. And I listened. I didn't feel threatened or anything. I think he just decided when he woke up this morning he was going to witness to at least one person. And I just happened to be the person he picked, probably because he thought I was Russian.

Anyway, anybody else just find it bizarre and ironic that I travel thousands of miles from Kentucky which is in the heart of the Bible belt to be witnessed to about the Lord in Geneva, Switzerland?!

Learning 2.0: Mashup Editors

Okay, seriously, people have way too much time on their hands. Give me a call; you can help me clean my house!

One of the first things we learned about with this lesson is how "creative" types have come up with lots of different ways to find photos on Flickr thanks to mashups. Over at 11 Craziest Ways to Browse Flickr Photos we learned about tools that will let you search for photos on Flickr using song lyrics, RSS, and lots of other crazy ways. The one cool one looked to be the one that let you search by color, which I bet could be useful for someone looking to match colors for a website, etc.

Next, I'm suppose to actually try to create a mashup of my own. Hmm, yikes. I'm going to have to think about this. Stay tuned.....

Update: I surrender! I can not think of a mash-up to create. Seriously.

Learning 2.0: Mashups

One of most interesting, and confusing, web 2.0 tools we learned about was mashups. Mashups are basically taking one tool and combining it with another to create a whole new product..

There are several sites out there that list many mashups. In exploring those sites, I came across one that interested me immediately: Access Denied Map. What this map does is highlight websites that have been banned or blocked and where this happened. It was fascinating to see what sites are being blogged (Blogger and other blogging sites were very common) and where they are being blocked.

I definitely see the potential of mashups in education. The possibility of combining Google Maps and Flickr for an exploration of mountain top removal; LibraryThing and Blogger; the possibilities are endless!

Learning 2.0: Podcasts

Wow, there are a lot of different podcasts out there! More than enough for any type of interest or profession.

I looked at two podcast directories to try to find some podcasts of interest to me: Podcast.net and Podcastalley.com. I definitely liked Podcastalley more as it at least seemed easier to search to me and had more library-related topics.

I did locate a podcast which I have been hearing about for a while called Uncontrolled Vocabulary. Lots of different librarians, from both public and academic libraries, participate in a conversation about libraries and library issues. What could be better than that?!

Midland? Hmmm....

My friend over at It's Not Easy Being a George took an accent quiz. So I had to take it too. Here's what it said about me:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
The Inland North
The South
The Northeast
Philadelphia
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Try it:

http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have

Learning 2.0: Lost in YouTube

I did it again. I'm lost in YouTube. I go and look at this, then this, then this, and before I know it, it's been an hour.

I decided I'd try searching Berea College on YouTube to see what, if anything, is there. Wow. Tons of stuff. And let me just say that "these kids today" must have more money then we did when we went there. There's no way I could have been able to afford a video camera or even a digital camera when I went there. And they're complaining about $30 paychecks. When we went there ..... But I digress.

On the first page of hits, I discovered some clever videos produced by the College's PR office. Like this one:




But then, I discover so much more. Video from the Library's student Christmas party (ah, I remember it well). And then, a video of two girls talking about "You Know You Go to Berea When..." It's funny how still very similar a lot of these are. These same girls also appear to have a series on YouTube they call "10 Random Questions."

YouTube is definitely a site for fun. But I think the opportunities of use by academic institutions, faculty, and libraries is enormous. It's a great place to go to find video to use in the classroom, to link to websites, etc. But it absolutely a great place to SHARE your original videos, lectures, presentations, etc.

Learning 2.0: Processing Words on the Web

I see it in my job every day. A student has written a paper in Works, or Word 97, or Word 2007 and then comes to library to print it off. Only the machine they are on does not have the program that they originally wrote their paper in. Sometimes, we can help them if it's a Word 97 vs. 2007 issue. But, if it's Works, out oh.

What's the solution. Well, a solution might be using a web-based tool like Google Documents or Zoho Writer. These tools have many (but not all) of the great features that software like Microsoft Word have.

But these tools have some advantages over the more traditional tools. For example, some colleagues and I are working on a presentation together. Not only am I physically located in a different building than my colleagues, but we are also having a difficult (well, impossible) time getting together because of all of our crazy schedules. Our solution was Google Presentations which will let us work COLLABORATIVELY together.

Another benefit of Google Docs and Zoho are that you can create a document there and then publish it on the web or in your blog. No need to get into HTML and even to use a web editing software.

One thing I have discovered is that some of these 2.0 tools don't have some of the nice features of the more traditional tools. For instance, with Google Presentations, there is no "notes" feature which can be so helpful when working on a presentation.

I think these 2.0 tools have great promise for collaborative work. Faculty, staff, and students working on projects or academic assignments could all benefit from using some of these tools.