I thought the program was very well designed and structured to give a valuable and comprehensive overview of Web 2.0 applications. The program was informative and insightful while maintaining fun and humourous aspects. I am currently finishing a Grad. Dip. in Info. Management and Systems at Monash University and this short course has enhanced my understanding of Web 2.0 and other concepts. I think this course is a significant and useful Professional Development activity for Librarians and Teachers.

The ‘World EBook Fair site’ demonstrates that it is possible to own your own library with the opportunity to download up to one million ebook files. The main source is ‘Project Gutenberg’ that provides over one million electronic books and intends digitizing more. Twenty-five thousand of these books are in the public domain and available for free. There are also many other sites providing free access to download ebooks. LibriVox provides free audiobooks that are in the public domain provided by ‘Project Gutenberg’, these can be accessed in mp3 or podcast format.

‘Second Life’ is now responsible for many trends in education. Universities, Colleges, and Schools, or any other type of learning platform can own, rent or lease an island or other form of virtual space as a venue for educational purposes. For instance, the ‘Second Life Educators Wiki’ is a temporary free plot of land to use for a classroom via any Campus. Many campuses and organisations own virtual land space at ‘Second Life’ for educational purposes. Many libraries are using ‘Second Life’ to provide a facility for patrons to try out new technology, to interact, to explore different locations, and for other general experimentation.

The podcast is a very useful way to transmit audio and video broadcasts, particularly in its potential for teaching and learning. I am a distance student, studying at the moment, and I subscibe on a regular basis to podcasts of lectures, and I rely on podcasts as an essential tool for learning. I explored TeacherTube’ and found it difficult to find a video worth adding from this particular site. I was struggling to find any good content at this site. This is not to say all YouTube videos are not worth adding or useful. I found the ‘Conan the Librarian’ and ‘March of the Librarians’ amusing, but ‘Medieval IT Help Desk’ was the most amusing of them all. The ‘Library 2.0 Manifesto’ is very hip and sets the benchmark for future information managers. All these websites would be appropriate and interesting if they were applied to library websites.

The wiki is a great platform where people can share ideas with each other. I like the sense that the wiki is available to anyone willing to add, or edit, and contribute to a given topic. The wiki is an interesting way to interact and communicate ideas on a given topic. Within libraries and school, the use of the wiki can facilitate any application involving the transmission of information or social interaction. Wikis encourage the use of active participation and collaboration.
Well, I explored ‘Rollyo’ and created an account for myself. I also created a ‘searchroll’ called ‘bossanova’ that linked to a website on that topic, and added the searchroll to my blog. The ‘Rollyo’ functioned in much the same way as ‘Del.icio.us’, in the sense that it is a tool for the organisation of URLs referring to specific websites. I found the ready-made searchrolls really useful. For example: Public Domain Book Search, Rare Book Library Search, Free Photos, and Quick Quotes.

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