7.5 Habits

This was a good introduction to self paced online learning for anyone who has had little or no experience in this arena. It was relatively short and to the point. We are considering creating short little tutorials along this vein in our library for information literacy training for students and public library users.

For me, I would say the easiest and most natural of these habits is the first one. I tend to have the goals and purposes of what I do firmly in mind. If anything, sometimes I wish I was a little less entrenched in that habit and could be the person who values the "journey" as much as the arrival at the destination. Probably habit 3 , then, is the most difficult for me. I have trouble viewing problems as challenges in such a positive light. I'll admit that "challenges" definitely provide life long learning but, I know that I can learn new things even if nothing goes wrong during my learning. However, I also think that most people in my age bracket do need to "lighten up" when it comes to working with technology. Habit 7.5 is what makes the difference between those of us who have reached a "certain age" and those in Gen Millenial. They are truly unafraid and actually relish the opportunity to constantly try new ways of doing digital things, while we older dogs tend to dread when the familiar website or browser or any electronic methodology changes. So, I guess that Habit 3 is the one for this boomer to work on, at least in the digital mode...I can't quite do the Pollyanna attitude the next time my tire goes flat!

Tales of an avatar

So, I had fun making my avatar, first on Kaneva which took forever to load on my work computer but wouldn't export, and then finally, at home on Yahoo. It sort of harkens back to the old days of playing with paper dolls. (If you are under 35, you might have to ask your mom or grandma about those) I have watched my sons, who are 18 (almost) and 21 spend a good deal of time creating video game avatars so the process was certainly not unfamiliar. I have also made what were supposed to be virtual models of myself on clothing retailers websites but I must confess to cheating and making them better looking than the reality might be. Virtual me on my blog is as accurate as the current choices let her be.
Kaneva is some sort of virtual life application which asked me if I wanted to go to a party or rave...odd that yahoo avatars is blocked from our users but this is not.

I'm converted to the Library Challenge

I started this blog for Minnesota's 23 Things on a Stick but since I'm not a Minnesotan, I've switched over to the SD Library Challenge. I was thinking vaguely of Dr. Suess as I worked on my way to completion of Thing 1; this blog. (As I recall, Thing 1 and Thing 2 were not altogether innocuous. There is really a certain darkness in the Cat in the Hat when you consider it in contemporary terms.)
I've never really had a blog before or even read too many of them but, having attended several library conferences that promoted the worlds of web 2.0 or social computing or whatever the current lingo calls it, I'm ready to take some new steps and learn some new tricks. (at least 10 or 11 of them if I understand this correctly. ) I'm the library director for a tribal college/university/public library on the Sicangu Reservation in the Rosebud area of south central South Dakota. Currently, our college MIS department blocks many social computing sites from student and public access based mostly, they say, on the issues of bandwidth availability and priority. I'm hoping that I can make some compelling arguments to sway the belief that such access is in actuality, relevant and even necessary for our users. Your comments in constructing this argument would be most welcome!
As we speak, I am working on my avatar. I am blocked from getting on Yahoo Avatars so I am trying some different sites to create mine. I'm currently loading Kaneva. Hopefully it will allow me to export the avatar I create.
I'm really looking forward to working on these Challenges. I have an old dog and while he may not have too many new tricks per se, he has managed to train us really well to continually sweeten his life!