Cranston PFE: Technology Knowledge & Skills: Outcomes

4a.
      Part of my decision to create an online portfolio came from the want to display a fraction of the things I learned at Cranston Central.  While I was assisting many classes I was already familiar with, I found myself assisting ones that I knew nothing about.  Blogger is something I have been using for some time, but Tackk is new to me.  As I can show in my journals, Lisa taught it to me in my first few weeks of class.  My use for it is far different than the use of the patrons in that class, but this was something I discovered as a student who uses Microsoft Word- every person has a curiosity about technology but they also have varying needs of the software. 

Another instance of communication technologies would be social media.  At Cranston, I assisted Corrie by making Facebook class handouts.  After two months of being at Cranston Central, I was included in on meetings concerning the teens.  It began as a meeting about which gaming console was best- Xbox & Kinect or the Wii- and how best to get teens the multiplayer gaming the asked for.  It was also to be about what to do with the teen room, which we decided would be more of a gaming center than a lounge.  What the meeting turned into was a search to bring Minecraft to the teens.  After our initial meeting, I set out to figure out how LAN works, what server would be needed, could it be wireless, and how many copies of the game we would need to purchase.  Unlike all of the free software classes we teach, Minecraft requires a purchase.  Rather than tell my supervisor we need several, I waited and attended a teen program at the Auburn branch and gathered information from teens who had been playing successfully.  As it turns out, we only needed to purchase one copy of the game in order for the teens to login on a single player option.  But, to play the multiplayer options that they asked for, we would have to purchase a few more (as well as create a sever) because the game would start kicking people off for trying to be the same person. 

4b. During my time at Cranston, my supervisor taught me how to image, or ghost, computers.  This means that we took a working laptop that was running slow and, using an external hard drive and images from OSL, restored the computer so that it worked like new.  However, in doing this, you lose all your computer preferences.  My notes for the day we did this go as follows:

It is important to point out that we also changed the Google Chrome, Modzilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer options.  At home, it can be convenient for your computer to save your passwords, browsing history, and prompt you for a reset when your browser crashes.  On public-use computers, this is exactly the opposite.  To protect our patrons, we had to manually go into each of these browsers, each in a different fashion, and take away these saving issues.  While the laptops do not use Envisionware, they do use DeepFreeze which means that the changes we made will stick and our patrons do not have to worry about what they do one their computers. 


When I was hired for this PFE, one of the first things I was asked was “What classes do you feel we should offer?”  Not knowing the community, I went with programs I was using in my personal time that I really knew.  I suggested we add a class on Spotify- see notes on class- and I would teach it.  I also said that Facebook was still a relevant addition, which they planned to teach already, because many people still do not use it.  If there was enough time, I would have added Pinterest because, not only are there good pictures, but you could create a board for DIY housework, arts & crafts for a library teen department, and so much more. 
As for other new technology, my supervisor taught me as much as she could and I have great notes as a result.  In my first week, I was learning Deep Freeze, Envisionware, and shortly after Drupil.