Get the recipe at AllGirlsTalk.com
I’ve noticed a trend in my experience of responding to certain CPD23 Things; out of the two or three technological tools usually mentioned in a given “Thing”, I have only used one of them. Thing Eighteen bucks the trend; I have never used any such technologies. My other concern on this subject is that the idea of recording my voice brings back the full horror of having to do so for French and Italian classes at school, and then having to listen to it in front of the entire class. Every time, I immediately wanted to sign up for elocution lessons. Is it now time to confront my fears (and possibly get those elocution lessons)?
Maria’s suggestion in the official Thing Eighteen post that screen capture functionality could be a useful tool in over the phone tech support sessions with the parentals. Back at the family seat, the PC is definitely needing some work, if not to be completely replaced. As a result, we spend a lot of time on the phone talking our parents through a rich variety of error messages, connectivity issues, and browser questions. I am tempted to try using Jing to give them some manuals that are immediately accessible when we are not. Professionally, I want to try using Jing to enhance our user education programme; I can’t try it today, as my teeny laptop doesn’t have a microphone; this is becoming a pressing issue. I want to be able to use Skype, and now screen capture/podcasting software, but lack the tools. On the plus side, I’m now off to a good start with my letter to Santa.
While I subscribe to a lot of podcasts, primarily summaries of radio shows, I have never made one. Again, it’s a lot to do with paranoia about the sound of my voice. On the other hand, maybe my accent is not so bad – studies do suggest that Scottish accents are most pleasing on the ear. Most of them, yes, but definitely not all, in my opinion! Perhaps the tasks related to this blogpost will let me get some feedback on where in the spectrum my own accent falls. This isn’t pure vanity – this time, anyway! – as our students come from several different countries and we need to be sure that they understand what we are saying to them. I’ve always worked hard in my user education presentations to be clear of accent and precise of language, but certainly there is room for improvement. Presentation being one issue, what of content? Most immediately, we could create a guided navigation of the Library, including an explanation of the in-house classification system. We could take our cue from audio guides to museum exhibitions, and include visual keys around the Library to cue up particular parts of the presentation. It is in my plans to update and enhance the user education sections of our Library website, and again this Thing will help me in that task. This is what CPD23 means to me; it gives me ideas that will improve the quality of service provided by my Library, and will similarly help me in my own research.
[...] will be very useful re: such user education schemes, as well as in my librarian role in general. Thing 18 was a great introduction to the use of screen capture tools and podcasts, which I plan to trial in [...]