Below are the transcripts for podcasts made available as a part of the Learning 2.0 @ EKU Libraries program

Lesson 2

Podcast script: Are you excited about Learning 2.0? Learning 2.0 is a way for EKU Libraries faculty and staff to teach themselves about web 2.0 technologies. In today's lesson, you will watch a video created by Michael Wensch, an anthropologist at Kansas State University. The video is meant to convey the fluidity and vast promise of the collaborative web. I hope you enjoy it. Thia has been Cindi Trainor for EKU Library Learning 2.0.

Lesson 3

Are you ready to jump into web 2.0? Now that you've learned a bit about what Web 2.0 is all about, it's time for you to get your feet wet. Today's lesson will guide you through creating a blog using blogger.com, then you will register your blog via email so that the Learning 2.0 planning team can track your progress. After you complete today's tasks, you will have finished your first week in Learning 2.0. Congratulations, and see you next week! This has been Cindi Trainor for EKU Library Learning 2.0.

Lesson 4

Social networking sites are environments that offer connections between users based on shared interests, backgrounds, and other associations.  Examples of these sites are MySpace, Friendster, Classmates.com, Facebook, and Flickr, among others.    In most cases, to participate in one of these sites, a user must set up a profile, which usually begins with creating a screen name and password.  The user can then add more details about him or herself, include favorite music, photos, interests and hobbies.  Or, you can keep your profile very simple.  What makes these sites popular is the connections that grow between users.  You increase your connections by approaching other users and inviting them to become your “friend” or adding them as a “contact.”  When you add a new person as a contact, you see their list of friends, and you can then extend your network even further by inviting their friends or contacts to be your friend, too.  (As illustrated in the YouTube video linked to this learning activity)  You can also see what groups, applications and other interests your friends and contacts are participating in.  This can give you ideas on how to extend your involvement in the environment.  The more you extend yourself in the site, the more connections you will make. 

Bottom line is that while many of these tools may be fads, people want to find ways to reach out and connect with others more than just physically.  With these social networking tools, they can now connect with people virtually.  Social networking environments allow people to share photos, chat with friends, to identify with others who share similar interests, and to find a place to belong.

Lesson 5

According to their website, Facebook is a “social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.”  Many people have heard of Facebook, but wonder how it is different from the very popular social network, MySpace?  I think the main difference seems to be age of audience.  MySpace seems to attract a younger audience than Facebook.  Another major visible difference is advertisements.  Facebook is not completely devoid of ads; they just don’t seem to be as “in your face” as those in MySpace.  From the opening page, MySpace is very ad-heavy and if you are not familiar with the site, you can get lost trying to navigate through all the flashy, colorful advertisements just to get to the fields to sign in with your username and password.

To put the popularity of Facebook into perspective, according to Mark Zuckerburg, the founder of Facebook, there are at least 24 million active users on Facebook.  “Active” means that they sign in at least once in 30 days.  Facebook adds 100,000 new users per day.  The growth rate in this social network platform is primarily from ages 25 and up, though it seems to be drawing more and more attention from younger students as it grows in popularity.  Another interesting statistic that I heard from Michael Porter’s Facebook Developer’s Platform presentation is that 50% of Facebook users log in every day.  To compare, only 15% of MySpace users log in every day.  That seems pretty amazing…they must be doing something to attract such a large portion of their population back to them each day. 

Our users are obviously engaging with each other in social networks.  I think libraries can certainly learn from social networking sites like Facebook.  We might begin by giving the library a presence in Facebook, if for no other reason than giving patrons the sense that our library is made up of individuals who are people just like them who have similar interests.  It’s nice to know that while we tout our web 2.0 tools, there are still humans behind those technologies we promote. 

Lesson 8

Do you get way too much e-mail?  Do you have a hard time keeping up with news, blogs, and all the great photos your friends and family are putting on their Flickr pages?  This is Nicole Montgomery, from the Justice & Safety Library here at EKU Libraries, and this week I get to share with you a great way to help you keep up with all that information. 

You’ve probably heard the term RSS tossed about recently, haven’t you?  Have you seen those funny orange symbols on websites and wondered what they were?  Well, RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication, is basically a way for new content from your favorite websites to be delivered directly to you.    The best part of RSS feeds is that instead of filling up your e-mail inbox or wasting time checking all those websites to see if there is something new, RSS will help you gather only the new stuff and let you deal with it on your time.

The discovery links will go into a little more detail about the technical side of RSS, but, for me, that’s a good starting summary.  Check out the discovery sites linked to this lesson to learn more about RSS feeds.  These links can explain this great addition to the Web much better than I ever could!

The best way to make the most of RSS feeds is to set up an account with a feed reader, also sometimes called an aggregator.  In fact, for me, there is no point for most people to even learn about RSS feeds unless you learn about the feed readers, too.  The two most popular FREE, web-based readers are probably Google Reader and Bloglines.  This week you will be setting up an account in either Bloglines or Google Reader.

Here’s how it works.  The aggregator, or reader, does ALL THE WORK by checking each of your subscriptions to see which sites have added new content.  When a site has added new content, the reader will grab it and bring it to you.  When you log in to your reader, the bold type will help you easily spot the new stuff.

Be sure to review the discovery links about both the Bloglines and Google Reader aggregators.  Each tutorial is a little different and one may be better suited for you and how you learn best.  This is also a great way to figure out which feed reader you would like to set up an account in.   Personally, I started out with a Bloglines account and have only just recently started using Google Reader.

This week’s exercises may take you a little longer than 15 minutes.  But, for many of us, RSS feeds is one of the most difficult Web 2.0 technologies to understand.  I strongly encourage you to post comments to the Learning 2.0 blog, ask me, and ask each other questions.  When you finish with this week, you definitely owe yourself a treat for learning about one of the most important, behind-the-scenes Web 2.0 technologies!

Lesson 9

Hi, it’s Nicole again.  I hope everyone enjoyed learning about RSS feeds.  Now that you have your Bloglines or Google Reader account and have subscribed to a few feeds we will be building on that knowledge and learning how to find more feeds. 

There are several feed search engines out there to help you find other RSS feeds that fit your personal and professional interests.  The discovery links in this lesson are going to introduce you to the most popular sites for finding feeds.

In addition, both Bloglines and Google Reader have search features to help you find other feeds.  Try out this feature in your reader.  If you need help, don’t forget to post comments to the Learning 2.0 blog, to send questions directly to me, or to ask your co-workers.

Finally, there are a few library-related blogs out there that have a large number of readers.  I’ve provided links to some of these in the blog.  Check them out!  Whether or not you agree or disagree with what the blogger is saying or sharing, if it inspires a strong reaction in you I encourage you to subscribe to the feed.  Many of these blogs will link to and talk about other library-related blogs that you might enjoy as well.