I just watched the introduction video for the Master Class in New Librarianship MOOC and it surprised me and raised a lot of questions in me that I hope will be answered in the lectures and discussions.
The professor reminded us that the concept of a library was created in a time when information was a very scarce commodity - now we have the opposite situation in that information is everywhere, and often freely available. So the function of librarys and librarians has to change. The course is going to outline how. I'm looking forward to it.
#update# Apparently the course is a pilot and only has spaces for 400, and over 1000 people registered their interest. I wasn't one of the first 400 so I won't be doing the course : ( oh well, plenty more to choose from!
Showing posts with label mooc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mooc. Show all posts
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
17. Mapping MOOC completed!
I loved doing this Google mapping MOOC. It was frustrating at times, but I learnt a lot. The final project was to create a custom map using many of the techniques learnt over the course. My result is below, also viewable here. It's pretty basic, but the important thing for me was learning the techniques, and this project helped me with that.
The third unit of the course was the most interesting for me. We learnt how to create a custom map and share it, how to add layers that you can turn on and off and how to customise the appearance of the pins. Perhaps the most interesting thing though was how to import data sets in CSV format and add them to a custom map. Our practice project was to find a data set of world heritage sites for our country and import the data so that a map with all those points would be automatically generated.
I had a look around to see if I could find any library-related data sets in CSV format to play with, but didn't have any luck with it. But now that I have the skills, I'm going to keep making custom maps and thinking of different ways to use them. I hope more open data geographical sets in CSV format become available in the future! Please comment if you have ideas of where to find them.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Google - a love hate relationship
One of my Tweeps recently replied to a comment I made about searching for images that are not restricted by copyright:
Librarians are not in competition with Google - we use Google as much if not more than the average person! There are some great points here from The Wikiman. I like how he says "all we can do is help people use it better". For universities, Google is a great complement to their subscribed databases and book holdings. BUT it is no substitute for them.
This interesting article, published by The Association of College and Research Libraries has some awesome ideas about running courses in how students (who we know use Google for research) can use Google more effectively. I'd love to teach one of these courses at my college as part of an information literacy program.
Google is also starting to get in to the MOOC market. A post on their research blog describes how they have created an open source learning platform called course builder that allows anyone with something to teach to create a course. They have developed their own course called Mapping with Google to promote the features of their course builder (and their new look Google Maps). I've signed up for the course (hm... overextending myself?) - here's a preview. It also fits in nicely with this week's 23 mobile things topic - maps.
@stokesrenee You can also search Google images by CC licence (advanced search screen, usage rights at bottom) #anz23mthingsSo I learned something new about Google. I'm always learning new things about Google, and I'm always damn impressed. I don't necessarily want to be though. I know Google is a company whose customers are advertisers (not searchers!) and whose business is the collection of data (big data!), supplied for free by searchers. That means we searchers are Google's product. Google is selling us to advertisers and making a giant pile of money out of us. But who can do without Google these days? They supply such a good search product, so I will continue to supply them with my data.
— mel (@melchivers) May 19, 2013
Librarians are not in competition with Google - we use Google as much if not more than the average person! There are some great points here from The Wikiman. I like how he says "all we can do is help people use it better". For universities, Google is a great complement to their subscribed databases and book holdings. BUT it is no substitute for them.
This interesting article, published by The Association of College and Research Libraries has some awesome ideas about running courses in how students (who we know use Google for research) can use Google more effectively. I'd love to teach one of these courses at my college as part of an information literacy program.
Google is also starting to get in to the MOOC market. A post on their research blog describes how they have created an open source learning platform called course builder that allows anyone with something to teach to create a course. They have developed their own course called Mapping with Google to promote the features of their course builder (and their new look Google Maps). I've signed up for the course (hm... overextending myself?) - here's a preview. It also fits in nicely with this week's 23 mobile things topic - maps.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Disruptive Technologies
I was sent a link to this talk by Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt (I mean the talk was by him, not that I was sent the link by him...) on the topic of disruptive technologies. He made some good points. He said that when it comes to new technologies there are so many of them that you really need to look at them with some kind of filter. I guess many people choose to find out about technologies based on how interested they are in them, but he said that there were just too many of these! So instead he suggested focusing on the ones that are likely to have a big impact - to be game-changers.
Interestingly the first example he gave of these game-changer technologies was digital technology in biology. In one of my previous posts I mentioned medical uses of the iPhone and the advances in this area really blow me away. I've also mentioned that I work in an academic / health library for a college whose focus is natural medicine (think naturopathy, acupuncture, remedial and musculo-skeletal therapy, nutrition). What part is technology playing in these fields? It's sure to be a bigger part in the future than we think!
On the topic of education, Schmidt thinks there is nothing more important. He pointed out that there's a great race taking place all around us, between humans and automation. Low-wage workers are losing their jobs to machines and what's the solution? Better education so that people can be paid for work with their minds, something a computer can not do. Machines are taking over automatic processes everywhere we look - Schmidt also gives the exampe of a Google product called Now which runs on your smart device and learns your habits, and can predict your needs. It knows your route to work and can alert you to traffic jams on that route at your travelling time! Computers are getting more intelligent, but the very human ability of judgement is needed and always will be.
Still on the topic of education, I signed up to do my first Coursera course back in March and the topic was disruptive technologies. I'm sad to say I stopped participating after a few weeks, not because the course was bad, it was actually fascinating. I just ran out of speed. After seeing one of my tweeps post her certificate of accomplishment yesterday on Twitter, I feel fired up to tackle another one.
There's a library MOOC starting in September. I'm going to do it, and I'm going to finish it (self pep-talk). It's all about emerging trends in library world and keeping up with them! Join me?
Interestingly the first example he gave of these game-changer technologies was digital technology in biology. In one of my previous posts I mentioned medical uses of the iPhone and the advances in this area really blow me away. I've also mentioned that I work in an academic / health library for a college whose focus is natural medicine (think naturopathy, acupuncture, remedial and musculo-skeletal therapy, nutrition). What part is technology playing in these fields? It's sure to be a bigger part in the future than we think!
On the topic of education, Schmidt thinks there is nothing more important. He pointed out that there's a great race taking place all around us, between humans and automation. Low-wage workers are losing their jobs to machines and what's the solution? Better education so that people can be paid for work with their minds, something a computer can not do. Machines are taking over automatic processes everywhere we look - Schmidt also gives the exampe of a Google product called Now which runs on your smart device and learns your habits, and can predict your needs. It knows your route to work and can alert you to traffic jams on that route at your travelling time! Computers are getting more intelligent, but the very human ability of judgement is needed and always will be.
Still on the topic of education, I signed up to do my first Coursera course back in March and the topic was disruptive technologies. I'm sad to say I stopped participating after a few weeks, not because the course was bad, it was actually fascinating. I just ran out of speed. After seeing one of my tweeps post her certificate of accomplishment yesterday on Twitter, I feel fired up to tackle another one.
There's a library MOOC starting in September. I'm going to do it, and I'm going to finish it (self pep-talk). It's all about emerging trends in library world and keeping up with them! Join me?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)