library tech head

As a result of Learning 2.0 and a lot of odd behaviour by IE lately, I’ve pretty much switched to Firefox, but I found a few of its behaviours annoying, since they weren’t what I was used to with IE.

For example:

• CTRL-N opens a new window, but it doesn’t clone your current window
• a newly-opened tab is blank by default, instead of opening to your home page

After searching fruitlessly through Tools… Options for solutions, I finally went to Firefox online help and after a few false starts ended up at the immensely useful MozillaZine Forums.

After a quick search, I found and downloaded a Firefox extension to solve each problem:

• Clone Window – “Clones the current tab’s address and history into a new window when the New Window command is used”
• New Tab Homepage – “loads your homepage when you open a new tab”

Cool!

Thanks to Stephen’s Lighthouse for pointing out this hilarious video of “Corporate Comedian” Don McMillan using PowerPoint to illustrate how NOT to use PowerPoint.

(Man. Woman. Dog. Birth. Death. Infinity. They were all so nice, I couldn’t pick just one.)

What were your favorite technologies, tools or activities?

• That’s a tough one — what wasn’t my favourite? Online tools, Facebook, blogging — I liked it all!

Has Learning 2.0 @ Mac helped you get comfortable with emerging technologies? How?

• made me take the time to do some things I just hadn’t taken the time for, like install & use FireFox & create an account on Facebook
• showed me a better way to do some things I was already doing, like del.icio.us vs. Furl
• introduced me to some things I’d never even heard of, but now know I’ll use a lot, like the AutoCopy browser add-on, online tools like sign generators and photo editors, and some of the other online tools that I haven’t yet checked out, but will go back to the Learning 2.0 blog list & try

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this programme that surprised you?

• how quickly I got sucked into Facebook; all it took was finding a few friends & relatives & getting a few people inviting me into groups & writing on my wall, and I was a goner. As my cousin’s son, a student at StFX said on my wall when I friended him, “Game Over! And so your addiction begins! Mwahahahah!” And since I’m already sort of addicted to 2nd Life, I’m going to have to make an extra effort get to the gym so all my muscles don’t completely atrophy sitting at my computer all day & half the night…

• start it in May when people aren’t as busy & have 1 activity per month until the following May, with a monthly deadline for each one “
• we didn’t really take that much advantage of our groups or group leaders, so maybe set something up in LearnLink or WebCT? Not sure though; people could have commented in the blog, but not that many did & I was one who didn’t; maybe a more “secure” environment like one of the course management software tools, or some other kind of bulletin-board-like thing — like the Facebook group even! — would encourage group participation and discussion more
• other than that, it’s been great, and I really wouldn’t change much

(And this is what we really want to know!) If the Emerging Technologies Group offered another discovery programme like this in the future, would you chose to participate?

• without hestitation; just tell me when, and I’m there!

OK, I’ve finally been dragged, kicking and screaming, into the world of FireFox. The first thing I did was to import all my settings, bookmarks, cookies, etc. from IE, using the instructions on Introduction to Mozilla Firefox, part 1 (installation) – OSA . So easy!

Next, I tried to make my bookmarks look like I want them to look: folders grouped at the top, individual pages grouped at the bottom. Not so easy; the Bookmarks edit window popped up under my open window; didn’t notice it was there; clicked a few times & it looked like nothing was happening. Finally found it, but couldn’t get the folders at the top and the individual pages at the bottom automatically. Did it by hand. 

Now where’s my Links toolbar? Oh, it’s called “Bookmarks Toolbar”. Edit… drag all “Links” into ”Bookmarks Toolbar”. Presto! There they are. I have to put them back in the order I want, though, and no nice icons. Oh, OK, when I visit each page for the 1st time, the icon is harvested and appears in the toolbar when available. Nice.

I already had some bookmarklets in IE, one for Furl & one for a dictionary lookup. They didn’t work when imported into FireFox, so I deleted them, reinstalled the dictionary & added del.icio.us. So far so good. Now for something I haven’t used before. Chose AutoCopy & tried it. That is really nice! Any time I can eliminate unneccessary keystrokes, or especially, mouseclicks, I’m happy! Also installed URLFixer & tried it out. Nice! It corrected google.rom to www.google.ca

Also installed GreaseMonkey but I guess I’ll have to learn how to use it later! (Oh, Amanda just told me that on its own it doesn’t do much; you have to install the things that work with it, of which there are many, to actually use it; later for that!).

Neat that you only have to restart FireFox and not the whole computer to install these; and when you restart, it seems to remember what windows you had open where. Spooky.

I’ve been using the Google Toolbar in IE for ages, and couldn’t live without it. I love the “search this site only”, backwards links, and PageRank especially.

I’ve been Devi Daviau on Second Life since March 21/07 and have really loved it. The interaction on Orientation Island with people from around the world was great, and having to collect gold stars for each tutorial completed made it seem like a game. Oddly enough, walking in to the library from the parking lot this morning, I saw a flowering shrub and found myself thinking “that looks a lot like the flowering shrubs outside the McMaster Library in Second Life”!

In a way I’m sorry now that the goal-oriented, game aspect of it is over, because it reminded me of Myst, one of my favourite CD-ROM games. I prefer adventure to warfare, and don’t yet know of an immersive online multi-player game (or MMORPG) that focuses more on adventure and social interaction and less on fighting, but still has the complexity and cinematic qualities of World of Warcraft. A lot of the places I go in 2nd Life right now are currently pretty empty, though beautiful, like the hot springs pool on B-Dazzled Island, or the waterfall at U. of Hawaii on EduIsland.

Gaming and virtual worlds are of interest to libraries (other than because that’s where a lot of our user are) because they offer such rich potential as teaching tools. The most fun I ever had learning something online was when I got my first PC at home, in the 90’s. It came with a full-featured interactive tutorial on Windows, with sections on mousing, navigation, file management, system maintenance, etc. I found it so absorbing I used to get up early on Saturday mornings just to get another section of the tutorial under my belt before breakfast!

I’m already on 1 social network, Macinsiders, as part of the Library Lounge (or Library Corner — they don’t seem to have settled on the name yet) pilot project, but not much has happened there yet. I did manage to upload my photo there, though.

Just took way too long to edit my Facebook picture. Snipshot was a great tool for that.

Update: I’ve now only been on Facebook for 1 day, and already have half a dozen friends and 3 groups. I can see how addictive it could get.