Challenge #2 - Digital projector and Laptop presentation- Due December 19

For those of you who attended the November Branch Managers meeting and had a chance to practice, this should be a fairly straightforward challenge.

This is what you have to do:

1. You will get a digital projector and laptop to work together. Branches with meeting rooms should have their own digital projector, otherwise send a workorder to Technology about borrowing one.

2. Then you’ll give a presentation to someone or some group using the projector and laptop.

3. You’ll blog about the experience on your own blog.

4. A member of your audience emails the challenge account at Gmail about the presentation and the use of the digital projector.

The presentation can be two minutes showing off our website or whatever you like. It can be longer and a serious training or presentation if that fits your branch goals and schedule. The content or length of the presentation doesn’t matter for this challenge. What matters is that you can set up the projector/laptop combo, use it, and pack it up again ready for the next use.

If you're having problems with setting up your digital projector, give the manual a try. You can find most manuals with a Google search. The manual for the Dell 2400MP that John demonstrated at the branch manager's meeting can be found at http://www.projectorcentral.com/pdf/projector_manual_3288.pdf or give John a call at his extension x5406.

General Digital Projector Hints

• Test the laptop, projector and remote combination together ahead of time.
• Bring extra batteries to fit the remote.
• Bring an extra extension cord.
• Bring a portable screen if possible.
• To block the light don’t use a book - use the remote to blank the screen or a tall metal bookend placed six inches from the projector.
• Turn the laptop on early so any updates via wireless will install before your presentation or temporarily turn the automatic update option off.
• Turn off your laptop screensaver or set screensaver to none through the control panel.

Your blog post needs to be posted on your blog by December 19. December 19 is also the deadline for your audience member to email me at the challenge email address. To prevent spam, the challenge email address is listed on the right hand side of the blog in a graphic called "Challenge Contact"

There will be no new blog challenge in December but there will be a new one announced in mid January. In the post, "Intro to the Challenge" there is a list of some of the things the January challenge could be. If you have any idea of what the next challenge should be either from that list or something completely different, email the Challenge Gmail account.

ListenNJ - downloading to an IPod or MP3

If you want to download from ListenNJ at the library,

you must use a PC Plus computer!!

ListenNJ was one of the first but it won't be the last of the subscription services offered by OCL to our customers that allow downloading of audiovisual material. A new service with animated picture books and audiobooks for children will be premiering soon. Downloadable music and feature film services are under consideration as well. Now it is the time to get comfortable with downloading files and transferring (syncing) the files to portable devices.

Rather than repeat all the details and instructions from the ListenNJ activity on the original OCL Web Challenge, this is the link to the post on the OCL Web Challenge blog.
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For the Branch Managers Challenge, you must do everything asked in the original discovery exercise plus actually transferring an audiobook to an IPod or MP3 device. There are 14 MP3 players available through the challenge for your use if you don't have one.
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If you are the sort of learner who doesn't like to read instructions and would rather just figure it out on your own, please don't try that with ListenNJ. They have a well designed Getting Started Guide, a Guided Tour, FAQ's and all sorts of help and troubleshooting hints. Investing a little time in reading the instructions, will save you much frustration and time later.

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Finally, blog about your experience.

Borrowed MP3 players are due back to the Coordinator at the next Branch Managers meeting, November 14, 2008 in TR. The blog post about ListenNJ is also due by then.
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and because so many participants in the original Web Challenge had problems because they didn't pay attention to this instruction, forgive me for repeating:
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If you want to download from ListenNJ at the library,

you must use a PC Plus computer!!

Steps Two & Three - starting your blog on Blogger and emailing the info

There are many blogging services available but for the OCL Branch Manager Challenge, you must have a blog created using Blogger. This is easy to do with your Gmail account. You will be using your Gmail account and password to sign in and create your blog.
Creating a blog using Blogger takes just three steps:

1. Create an account
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2. Name your blog
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3. Select your template.

Once you’ve created your blog site, here are some important things to know:

To add posts about your progress in the challenge:

You'll will go to http://www.blogger.com/ to log in and enter your posts.

To view your blog: Your blog address is http://(xxxx).blogspot.com/,

(xxxx)=the unique name you entered in Step 2.

Be sure to also write down your blog address (and email the address information to your work Outlook as a backup!).

For more step by step instructions, try

Blogger's Quick Tutorial

Finally, email your Gmail address and the address of your blog to the challenge's email. To avoid spam that address will not be posted on this blog. The address was given out at the October Branch Managers meeting and will be emailed to every Branch Manager directly.

Getting Started - Step One Gmail

Before you can really start with the challenge, there are three steps:

1. Signing up for a Gmail account.

2. Creating a Blog on Blogger

3. Emailing the challenge's Gmail account with your Gmail Address and your blog's address.
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To do step one:

Visit http://www.gmail.com/ and click on Sign Up for Gmail. The instructions are easy to follow.

Don't forget to remember your new Gmail address and password. One tip: If you email the address and password to your work address from your Gmail account, you'll have the information in your Outlook mailbox if you forget the information later.

Technology for Branch Managers: Awareness, Performance, Teaching

Ocean County Library Branch Managers Challenge

Goal:

All branch managers will progress from awareness of certain technological features and tasks, to performance of those features and tasks and finally to the level of competency sufficient to teach other staff and customers how to use the technologies.

Some of the proposed topics for this training include:

Digital camera

Wi-fi
Digital projector/laptop/DVD

PC Plus
Scanners

MS Office suite
Flash drives

Wikis

Blogs
Shortcuts for popular programs

Computer 101: terminology and basic file management

ListenNJ
Google: beyond the basics

Google docs
High Priority Databases

QandANJ

Activities:

At least once a month, a learning goal will be set on the blog, OCLmanages.blogspot.com. Depending on what is being taught, some months there will be self motivated learning, reading and practice while other months there will be a training given as part of the Branch Managers meeting or small group trainings. This is an opportunity to suit the training to the lesson and experimentation in how to train each technology is part of the effort. Chat and instant messaging could easily become part of the mix.
Instructors will primarily come from TR Adult -Informations Services and the Technology Department but aren’t necessarily limited to those sources.

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Duration:
The challenge begins October 10, 2008. The duration is indefinite. As new technologies develop and as expectations arise among customers and staff, this will be an ongoing effort.

Tracking:
Progress will be recorded on a Google docs spreadsheet shared with the Assistant Director, Chief Librarian for Branch Services, and the Supervising Librarians of Branch Services.

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Program manager: Coordinator of Information Services