Assistive Technology

I spent time this week working on my school newsletter on Assistive Technologies. I learned a lot about the various tools and resources available for users and institutions. I think the coolest thing I found was the Awesome Talking Library. (http://www.awesomelibrary.org/Awesome_Talking_Library.html) Although I haven't downloaded and played with the web browser myself I think that this is a great tool for both public and SLMS librarians.
As described on their website the Awesome Talking Library: "Awesome Talkster combines a browser, directory, search engine, and a text-to-voice technology. This allows you to select online text and have it read to you." This resource can help individuals with impaired vision, young children learning to read, or even individuals learning a new language. And best of all - it's FREE to download and only $10 for a CD-ROM. As for prices of other assistive technologies I was shocked at how expensive they could be. It could cost thousands of dollars for one piece of equipment!

Week 2

This week we began to use our discussion board. Most of my previous experience with discussion boards has been on the UB Learns page. I used to really dislike using that discussion board but now I have experience with this board I have to reconsider.

I found it really difficult to respond to specific individual's posts because my response would be added on to the end of the discussion thread. And because I thought I was going to be leaving responses after individual posts I made multiple entries. This did not work out because I ended up making multiple responses at the end of the thread.

This week was definitely a learning experience with the discussion board on the course website and hopefully I will find it a smooth experience this week.

Looking Back on the First Week

This is my second/third online class. I am currently taking two online class (with International Publishing being the other class). I will admit that this class seemed a little overwhelming at first. Last week I started in a new department at work as well as four new classes so my brain was full of new information.

As for this class I really like the layout of the WetPaint site. I like that the information is broken up into weeks and filed in a list. It allows me to easily see what I need to do for that week.

During the past week I started a bunch of activities that I haven't done before, just as set up a Diigo account. Additionally I haven't used a blog recently. I RSS-feed a bunch of blogs that relate to my interests but I haven't personally written one since my undergrad years. During that time I blogged on MySpace, but now I only use Facebook and I don't like their blog feature. It will be interesting to use one again.

I did have a few difficulties in setting up iTunes subscription to the podcasts. I use iTunes frequently but have rarely used the podcast feature. It took me two or three tries in order to subscribe to the correct page so that the podcast would download. I tried listening to the podcast directly from the site but also had difficulties. For whatever reason, the podcast would stop after a few minutes and would start from the beginning. It would not allow me to try to find where I left off and I would have to begin again. It was rather frustrating when it happened again. However, now that I have the kinks from the iTunes subscription ironed out I have had no problems.

Although I am not a SLMS student I'm really looking forward to this class. The technology and information that we are going to be learning and using will be great experience for my future.