Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Week 9 : Wrap Up

Welcome to the last installment of the WCPL Learning 2.0 program. In this week's Thing, we want to hear your thoughts about Web 2.0.

#13 What have we learned and where can we go?

If you didn't have a chance to complete every week, don't worry! This blog will remain available so that you can go back to the Things you missed. And if you're using Bloglines or some other RSS reader to follow WCPL Learning 2.0, don't unsubscribe now! There may be future updates here.

If you would like to continue your exploration of Web 2.0, you might want to take a look at and maybe even subscribe to Charlotte's Learning 2.1 blog. They're now up to 53 Things! Rather than a structured, week-by-week program, they now periodically post web 2.0 sites of interest. Recent entries have included: LitLovers, Libraries and the social web, and Mini-blogging.

Thanks so much for participating in Learning 2.0! We encourage you to continue your quest for lifelong learning!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Week 8: Wikis

Thanks for checking in for another installment of Learning 2.0 - you're almost to the end! This week we're going to take a look at wikis. You may be familiar with Wikipedia already, but do you really know what a wiki is? After this week you will!

#12 Discover wikis

Next week we'll wrap things up here at Learning 2.0.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Week 7: Video and Podcasts

Welcome back to Learning 2.0. This week we're going to look at two different technologies: video sharing and podcasts. Many of you may already be familiar with YouTube and it's vast collection of videos; if not, you're about to learn! "Podcast" is more likely to be an unfamiliar term, but it's definitely an important one to learn about because WCPL already offers podcasts for patrons!

This week there are two things to do. We hope you enjoy them!

#10 Discover video sharing with YouTube

#11 Learn about podcasts


Check back next week for one more technology: wikis. The week after that we'll be wrapping up Learning 2.0.


Thanks to Kathleen @ ERL for providing the video sharing content.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Week 6 : Tagging/Social Bookmarking

Thanks for coming back for another installment of Learning 2.0. This week we take up another Web 2.0 topic : tagging and social bookmarking. In the past few weeks, we’ve already explored a few sites – Flickr and LibraryThing to name two --that allow users to take advantage of tagging. This week we'll focus on del.icio.us, a social bookmarking manager which allows you to keep track of your bookmarks online and add tags to categorize the bookmarks. Many users find that the real attraction of del.icio.us is the social network aspect, which allows you to see how others have tagged similar links and also discover other websites that may be of interest to you.

#9 Discover tagging and social bookmarking with del.icio.us

Join us again next week when we will learn about video sharing with YouTube.

Thanks to Nathan @ CAM for contributing this week's Learning 2.0 content.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Week 5 : Play Week

Congratulations! You've made it to Week 5 of Learning 2.0. Hopefully you've learned a lot and have had fun doing it. This week is a "Play Week." You'll have a chance to play around with some fun web tools and toys. This is also a chance to catch up on the previous weeks of Learning 2.0 if you need a bit more time.

#8 Explore Some Fun Web Tools & Toys

Check back next week when we'll explore tagging and social bookmarking, something we already had a taste of when we looked at Flickr in Week 4.



Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Week 4 : Photos and Images

This week at WCPL Learning 2.0 we're going to take a look at photos and images, focusing on the many things you can do with these two online tools: Flickr and Picnik.

Let's get to it!

#7 Explore Flickr and Picnik


Next week we'll have a "play week" where you have a chance to take a look at some interesting Web 2.0 sites, just for fun, and have a chance to catch up on the previous weeks of Learning 2.0.

Thanks to Jason @ CAM for his contributions to this week's Learning 2.0 content.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Week 3 : RSS & Newsreaders

Thanks for tuning in for the latest installment of Learning 2.0. It was great to see so many folks adding their comments to Thing #4 last week. Hopefully everyone enjoyed learning about blogs and reading what folks throughout WCPL had to say about them.

This week we're going to look at RSS and newsreaders. RSS makes it easier to keep up with frequently updated websites such as blogs and news sites, among others. From the comments last week, it sounds like some of you blog followers out there have already embraced RSS!

Are you ready? Let's discover RSS!

#5. Make life "really simple" with RSS & a newsreader

#6. Find some interesting feeds

Coming up next week we'll look at photos and images, including sites like flickr.com.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Week 2 : Blogs

Hello, and welcome back to Learning 2.0! This week we will take a look at our first Web 2.0 technology : blogs. As mentioned in week 1, WCPL already has two blogs available for patrons: our teen blog and the Wake Reads Together blog.

If blogs are new to you, this section is meant to get you up-to-speed. I am going to assume that you know nothing about blogs. This may or may not be the case, but it will make my job simpler. So please, if all this stuff is old hat to you, just be patient. Soon you will be old hat, though: reading blogs, commenting, maybe even creating your own blogs!

In fact, you are reading a blog right now! Look at you! And away we go…

#3 Discover what blogs are.

#4 Explore some blogs and post your first comments! Maybe even create your own blog...

Hopefully now you're feeling pretty comfortable with blogs. Did you remember to post a comment for Thing #4 so we'll know you completed this section?

Next week we'll take a look at RSS and newsreaders. Think that sounds like geekspeak? Don't worry, these are cool tools which will help you keep track of all the great blogs you found this week.

Thanks to Kathleen @ ERL for contributing this week's Learning 2.o content and a belated thanks to Druie @ NOR for her contributions to week 1.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Week 1 : Welcome!

You have arrived at Wake County Public Libraries’ Learning 2.0 blog. We’re glad you’re here!

Over the next several weeks we will be exploring the exciting world of Web 2.0 technologies. Web 2.0 is all about information created by its users - users who share it, change it, and use it to connect with others. Each week there will be a few Web 2.0 'Things' for you to discover and explore.

Let's get started! Here are the Things for this week:
  1. Read about this program to learn what it is and why we're doing it.

  2. Discover a few pointers from lifelong learners and learn how to nurture your own learning process.
That's it for week one. Check back next week when we'll dive right in and begin learning about blogs. For a sneak peek, take a look at WCPL's own teen blog and Wake Reads Together blog.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Only one more week until it's here...



While you wait, check out this Web 2.0 Award winner:



Monday, January 7, 2008

Coming soon!


Find out what Web 2.0 is all about!


Web 2.0 is all about information created by its users, who share it, change it, and use it to connect with others. Beginning January 22 check back here to learn how you can participate in this rapidly growing virtual community both at work and at home.