This past Monday night I was thrilled to be invited to speak to Pratt’s Beta Phi Mu Theta chapter about Web 2.0. While only a few participants had heard of Web 2.0 before the session, everyone was very open-minded and extremely quick to catch on. We went through an hour-long whirlwind of 2.0 applications and concepts in an interactive tour which I really enjoyed. Although it went fast, the students have the wiki and the account passwords to practice and play around with later. I really like the idea of teaching from wikis, not only because of the “eat your own dogfood” principle, but because students then walk away with a resource from which they can continue to learn. Thanks to everyone who came and participated, and thanks to the Theta chapter for having me.

I don’t usually list news items, but I just couldn’t resist this one. I have mentioned sites such as Rollyo before, websites where users can go to create custom search engines without any technical expertise. I think that librarians and information professionals are the perfect filters for Internet searching, and with tools such as this they can recommend online resources in a searchable format. Rollyo is holding the “Great Searchroll Roll-off”, in which the winner will be awarded a video iPod, and an “extreme sense of well-being”. The contest runs between Nov. 9-16. What’s involved? You can check out all the details here. And if you’re interested, you can check out my latest creation here. Get rolling!