WWW — What a Wonderful World
Introduction
This course aimed to provide an overview of the main types of Web 2.0 applications, and to give practical examples for their professional or personal use. The course is run by JISC and this was the second time it has been run for SHINE members. The day was very informal and we were given plenty of time on computers to try things out for ourselves. There were also two knowledgeable trainers from JISC on hand to answer questions.
Main topics
The main topics covered were:
Blogs – we used a blog set up by JISC for the training day, posting information and comments and seeing how the various features worked. We also searched the content of blogs on Google (http://blogsearch.google.co.uk/).
Wikis – probably the best-known example of a wiki is Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org), the free collaboratively written encyclopaedia, maintained by volunteers throughout the world. Working on our own wiki was surprisingly simple – each of us was given a topic and produced a page of information (I got Glasgow restaurants and cafes) which we populated with text, video, audio and links uploaded from the internet.
Social bookmarking – this allows users to store portable collections of links, photographs etc centrally on remote servers, so they can be accessed from any internet-connected PC. We compiled our own lists on Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/), which is owned by Yahoo, but there are many similar sites to try.
There were several more general presentations and discussions which covered, among other things, RSS, podcasting, social networking and widgets (basically anything that can be embedded within a webpage, such as pictures, animation, videos, calendars etc etc). We used some of these features while building our wiki pages.
In the library with Web 2.0
We spoke about using blogs for promoting library services, and social bookmarking to produce lists of references, which could be updated more quickly than conventional reading lists. Some of the people attending reported problems with IT at their workplace, such as slow computers or network firewalls, which, unfortunately, will limit the use they can make of these resources.
Good stuff?
The small group allowed for a lot of interaction, and there was a strong emphasis on practical sessions with much of the day given over to work on the PCs. Everything we looked at is freely available on the internet. Coffee breaks and lunch were included, and handouts with further information and links were available to take away.
SHINE members in any health sector (especially those with little or no knowledge of Web 2.0) could benefit from this course, which shows how Web 2.0 technologies might facilitate work practices and provision of services. It also shows you how you can get more out of the internet in general. The whole day was relaxed and a lot of fun, and I felt that I learned a lot about Web 2.0 – just in time for the arrival of Web 3.0.
Further information
More information from the training day can be found at this JISC site: http://web2-learning.wikispaces.com/. If you would like to go on this course then contact a member of the SHINE CPD group.
Catriona Denoon, Library Services Manager
Marie Henderson Library
catriona.denoon@gartnavel.glacomen.scot.nhs.uk