library

Van Eck says that studies still have to be conducted as to the effectiveness of gaming for learning. Educators, librarians, and game developers will be more willing to spend resources on DGBL if there is strong concrete evidence that gaming is a strong learning medium. Even so, there is increasing attention being paid to gaming and virtual worlds in educational institutions and libraries. The readings were supportive of game-based learning.

The longer I take this course, the more I feel like an old geezer. As a Gen X-er, I always felt like I was pretty "hip" to new trends and scoffed at the notion that Gen-Y-ers or Milennials--or whatever the going term is today--were somehow more adept with technology than me. The further I study the tools in this course, the more I realize how "out of the loop" I really was, and how much this course will benefit me in trying to be a librarian with a fresh perspective on technology.

As Philip J. Hollenback wrote in Bloglines, Flickr, and del.icio.us make RSS delectable, RSS readers used to be primarily downloadable software. Users were stuck reading their RSS feeds on one computer unless they took time to sort through and "read" the same articles again.

OK, so this is at least the third course I've taken that has talked about RSS, though this is the most in-depth study of it that I have undertaken. All along, I've thought that here was something I could use to get all the information I needed sent to me on a regular basis, and I have been meaning to actually go ahead and do this at some point. But I would always let it slip my mind and then just figure that, well, IE 7 has SUCH a great favorites service that I do not need RSS feeds because I just go to every website that I like on a daily basis anyways.

This week's readings are significant for me because for my final project, I'll be creating a blog for my employer to use internally (and many of these articles and posts will serve as a great starting point for my research and needs assessment).