Monday, October 6, 2008

7 1/2 habits - survival style - Thang No. 2

I'd have to say the easiest habit for me is creating my own learning toolbox. I'm a fan of public transit, so I often take my tools with me on the road (books, wifi devices, mp3, sketchpad) and occassionally they open up a mobile conversation. Sometimes I take those tools off the beaten path. The hardest habit would be learning with the end in mind - although I have personal learning goals, sometimes the online tools change (or our impressions of them) in the midst of our learning.

What's relevant today is not always tomorrow, so we have to examine the "end in mind" with that toolbox. What we really need is a leatherman tool with lots of unfoldy options or maybe just one simple survival tool (like a pocket knife) that can shape multiple things. As you can tell, I'm approaching this from a camping/hiking philosophy as well. What's the library 2.0 equivalent of a leatherman or pocket knife? What tools do you want in your backpack and what can be left behind? Not sure, but I hope to find out from 23 things.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

What an excellent question. Perhaps we'll pose it at the end of the 23 things: What tools will stay in your toolbox?

Little Red-Haired Girl said...

The 2.0 tool I can't live w/o is definitely Goodreads. I'm completely dependent. Which brings me to a question - how did you manage to get the widget onto your blog. I can't make it work!

Julia said...

The goodreads widget can be added by doing this...

Logging into goodreads and going into "edit my profile"

On the right side is tools - widgets

Pick flash widget - and customize your widget if desired (books currently read, read, whatever)

Copy the html for the widget.

Go into blogger - customize - Edit layout

Click on add a gadget and pick "Html Java script"

Paste the goodreads code below. You don't have to pick a title.

I think this is one of the 23 things coming up is Goodreads - so you'll enjoy that week as well.

Enjoy! Julia

Little Red-Haired Girl said...

Great thankks! I got it up, but it doesn't quite fit. I figured out how to rearrange page elements, but not how to give myself more space along the side there. Is that fixable, do you know, or is that just a feature of the template I chose?

Julia said...

I think it's the template you chose, but next time your at Central we can log in and take a look. Maybe there's a work around...

Unknown said...

If you edit the widget, in the code/gibberish, you'll see "Height" and "Width", you can adjust the numbers there if it's only a small amount you need.

I just checked yours out though, and it looks great.

Julia said...

Thanks Didi!

Leigh said...

I'm trying to add Goodreads, but it won't allow me to log in. I got into Goodreads via Facebook, could that be the reason? Do I need (OMG!)yet another log in for goodreads?

Thanks!

Julia said...

Leigh - I think you do need to get your widget from Goodreads directly to add it to the blog.

When you created your Facebook Goodreads, did it ask you to login to Goodreads directly to link to Facebook? Mine did. You want to go to www.goodreads.com, login into your account there, and follow the goodreads widget instructions on this comment string. Hope that helps!