11th and 12th Week

During these two weeks, I developed a five week course on Moodle, and we discussed social networking and Second Life's affects on libraries.

Course Management System
The development of the course in Moodle was a difficult challenge at times, but for the most part, I have always designed my own curriculum and course maps. So, this was nothing new as far as the development procedures, but the process of putting them in Moodle was the challenge. I still have not found an easy method for placing math symbols and equations on Moodle. The words and numbers will show up, but the operators are all missing. I plan to learn this part of the process over the summer. It requires some converting in the HTML editor on Moodle.

The timing of this assignment fits in good with my own classes. We will be going over the principles of quadratics, FOIL, and factoring when we return from spring break, and I also have students going on vacations and a Disney band trip during these lessons. This Moodle course will allow them to not miss any of their lessons or assignments. I helped them create their passwords and usernames before they left, and we went through the elements of the course in case they had any questions. I am anxious to see how they perform in comparison with the rest of the class on the final exam which will cover these concepts.

Social Networking and Second Life
The main tool discussed concerning social networking was LibraryThing. This is like the Facebook social networking site, but this one revolves around books. It’s kind of like a large book club. The readers post their interests and comments on their page to allow others to view them. If the person reviewing has the same interests, then a social connection is developed. Libraries have developed their own pages on LibraryThing, and they provide tags so that viewers can get a quick reference concerning what the resource is about. Patrons can then find other books pertaining to their interests by clicking on the associated tag.

Second Life has been researched as a library resource since 2006. The main stakeholder in the investigation of its applications has been the Alliance Virtual Library. They have been the driving force behind this virtual world's application in the library. Patrons can check out digital copies of a number of books just like the printed copies within the confines of a traditional library. There is also a virtual reference available to patrons which is manned by volunteers throughout the country. With the growth of the virtual environment, it will be interesting to see if man power will keep up with demand.


Don Bates