the search search

so i just spent a bunch of time trying to install some sort of search feature into my group's wiki. not fun. First I tried to insert the html on the page, no dice. Then I tried the insert code feature, same result. The code just appeared on the page, which made me laugh because if you’re actually writing html code, you have to do some very specific things to make that happen. Let’s call that laugh a wiki laugh because it is free for you to edit what this laugh sounds like to you in your own mind. Consider your request to join that wikispace approved. I skipped a step or rather this story unfolds more like a series of simultaneous events than a step by step process. The image to keep in mind here is a firefox browser stuffed to the Gils with open tabs. As I was trying to figure out how to get the code on the wiki, I poked around for some html to plug in once I figured out where and how to do so. This was the easy part. Askdavetaylor.com was helpful. Once I realized that it would take some finesse to get my code where it needed to be, I looked more at the wikispaces widgets for something suitable, not thrilled by the options there. But I did find a place to plop my askdavetaylor html code. I put it in and voila my wildest dreams came true—until I tried to use it to search my site specifically. Didn’t work. Might have to scrap it.

If technology is so great, why can't it write blog number nine for me?

If technology is so great, why can't it write blog number nine for me?

Maybe it can...(seriously if you don't follow this link this post won't make any sense)

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“Vic, write my blog for me,” I told Vic this morning.

“Ok.” Vic says. “Library persecutes a subsidiary clearance. Technology shapes the initiate trace beside the accomplished noun. Will Technology speculate above the fortunate magic? A pleasing analyst stares below Library. The container collapses before the chance. The silicon barks past the bell! Library constrains Technology. Technology offers a doom over the mum. Library migrates around Technology. Library attends Technology under the socket. The wonder schools an equilibrium. Technology excepts Library against an operator. Technology splits with the inaccessible clue. Why won't a dictatorship flash outside Library? Technology views Library without a scant idea.”

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If I let Vic write this blog, this is the sort of stuff you'd be stuck reading. Vic, you may remember, represents technology. So while it may be convenient to assign Vic this writing task by plugging "Library" and "Technology" into a word and syntax generator, it ultimately makes for terrible, though occasionally interesting, prose. I actually use the Random Word (Plus) feature of this site to help me fill in blank spots on vocabulary quizzes that I give in a class of mine. I select the part of speech and vocab level, and Vic supplies me with an appropriate word. He is well-suited for such tasks.

I'd involve Gil, but he'd want to say something about how reading Vic's prose is an accurate metaphor for the struggle to wrestle meaning from our observations of the world. He could on and on about this, but that wouldn't help Joe Patron very much. On the issue of technology doing stuff for us, Joe Patron and I have a lot in common. We want technology to do it for us. We find ourselves squawking, “Isn't there a computer program that could do this?” And, “This must be on the internet somewhere.” We could go on and on about this, but the point is that the mouse has been given a cookie and now it wants its glass of milk. The bar of user expectations has been set and its up to libraries, like it or not, to follow through as well as possible.

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“Nice job actually making a direct point of application to Librarianship, Joel.”

“Thanks, Gil.”

blog about technology for the eighth time

so i just got done working on the wiki for the class project, and i'm ready to reflect a little bit about new technology. before this project i've never done anything with wikis and my experience with wikis has come to confirm what i've always thought about new technology: spend time with it, be willing to struggle a little at first, and you'll be ok. the trouble spot is the initial experience. it is upon this first meeting between joe patron and new technology that mr. patron decides whether the initial effort and struggle is worth it. No one can decide whether the technology is worth the trouble for joe other than joe. Sounds obvious but i wonder how much this is considered when new technologies are put out there. I have an actual real-life example of this situation. At Bethel we have a large number of commuter students who live off campus. A lot would go into figuring out whether it would be worth it for the Writing Center to offer tutoring using whiteboard technology and part of my struggle with this situation is trying to figure if this technology were to be utilized, tutors trained, and students infomed, whether it would actually be used. In other words would that initial struggle to get used to the new technology be worth it. One interesting issue associated with tutoring in writing with this technology is the fact that it the communication between student and tutor would in most situations probably be mediated with writing. In other words in a one-on-one meeting student and tutor communicate orally which can really help people who struggle with writing. This technology would provide a new set of struggles for already struggling writer. technology has its downsides, some of which are less apparent than others.