Friday, February 13, 2009
"Shiny toys, or useful tools?"
This is a great article by Walt Crawford (citesandinsights.info/v9i3a.pdf) . This gist is we are out of the shiny new toys phase for blogs and wikis in libraries. They are now tools and can be powerfully effective. He lists some very successful library blogs, its worth visiting some.
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The tech savvy and social software students like you and me are willing to use these "toys" as tools. I am concerned about the rest who may be afraid to touch these "toys" due to unfamiliarity.
ReplyDeleteTook a quick look at this article and was reminded of the thought that I've come across a couple of times this week. Whether the social software is easy, like blogs, or more complex, like wikis, the best way 'to learn' is 'to do'. 'Doing' is alot easier when you have a practical reason for the application. Once you factor that into the instructional design of teaching your software, I think the learning process is less intimidating, especially for the tech unsavy.
ReplyDeleteFarkas has great advice for easing others into the use of technology.
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