NING!!

I decided to explore a social networking site that I've never used before.  Through personal use and Web 2.0 training programs I've explored (and thoroughly become addicted to) Myspace, Facebook, wikis, blogging, Bloglines, YouTube, Flickr.  I even had a brief stint where I came home everyday from work and wasted away hours on Second Life.  I had to stop that!

I heard about Ning while reading YA author Maureen Johnson's blog and she mentioned that she set up a social networking site on this Ning.com called YA for Obama.  That's when I saw how cool and useful the idea for Ning was.

As part of this communication project, I created I site on Ning for USF SLIS students: www.usfslis.ning.com  

Please join and add to it!

I'm also working on a site for my sister's dance team at UF.  They found the Ning platform to be much easier to update and communicate with than their UF website and Facebook: www.extremedancecompany.ning.com

I enjoyed developing a site on Ning - it has a super easy, customizable format.

But its popularity hasn't totally caught on yet.  Not to mention, the site has a lot of technical difficulties and shuts down.  This is why this project took me so long.

But I believe that it has a lot of potential, especially for libraries and educators!

Let your voice be heard!

This project was my absolute favorite. I’m addicted to podcasts. Since I drive a lot I’m always downloading podcasts from NPR, stories, new music, podcasts about my fave shows (like Battlestar Galactica … I admit, totally nerdy). Little did I know how easy it is to make a podcast – and it's fun!

Fortunately, I have a Mac and it has GarageBand on it. This program is awesome. Macs are intuitive and I found GarageBand to be totally user friendly. I will admit that I was nervous at first, but after Prof. Austin reviewed what we would be doing I had more confidence.

My computer has a built-in microphone so recording was a piece of cake. I decided to read a short fable. But I realized it’s important to practice what you’re saying a few times so not to flub it up. Once it’s recorded, it’s just adding on extras to you get what you want. I was able to record an intro and add that in before the fable, add some music, and customize the timing. Like most projects in this class, you have your basic idea and then you tailor your project as much as you want.

Actually, the most difficult part of podcasting was reformatting the wav file into a MP3. That took some research and trial & error! Then figuring out how to post it on my website was an interesting process also. But, after some time it all came together. I knew I had to be patient learning all of this!

This project only took a few hours to complete and now that I’m more comfortable with the software and process -- I am confident that I could produce a podcast more quickly. Actually, when I was driving home from class all these ideas were running through my head of what I could use podcasting for! I can’t believe I never realized this before! I especially believe that teens would get a kick out of making podcasts.

Even better – I would like to learn how to vodcast next! I was an avid fan of vodcasters/ vloggers John & Hank Green Brotherhood 2.0 and now they host Nerdfighters - they have a hysterical vodcast program.