And now the time has come.......

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

I loved playing with Flickr - I am glad however that I had the opportunity to explore all of the exercises.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

I love to learn - it keeps you young! There is so much happening with technology that I was starting to feel so left behind. But not now. I might not know all about the discoveries we made but I have a "working knowledge now".

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

Yes, I really thought that I must be missing something. Everyone was talking about Flickr, RSS feeds, Blogs, etc. I thought - I must be so out dated. I really need to find out what I'm missing. Turns out - I'm not missing all that much. I enjoy life - and I really don't want or need to be in front of a computer for as long as it would take to blog - listen - play etc. with all that is out there.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

I would have been helped by more user friendly directions on some of the exercises. I wondered around and finally would find my way - or ask. Maybe if the "teacher" could try it with "new eyes" right before the lesson was sent to the students - to be sure it was easy to follow.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?

You bet. For all the ups and downs - I had a great time. I think I might keep up the blog -it could be a good way to vent........

TTYL

Overdrive

Working in the Popular department - we give information to the public about overdrive more often then others. I have had an account so that I can be sure how things work - to be able to talk customers through it.

I have not tried to use it to download - so I am looking forward to it. I have recently gotten back into books on cd and tape so I can't wait to try my hand at downloading to an MP3.

Podcasting - in a pickle!

That was awful - I tried and tried to find things - many different things.....Clive Cussler, Tim Curry, Public Library - I must have been doing something wrong.

Finally I just went with their top picks. I found a podcast about "Handymen". I love DIYS things - so I figured this would be a good fit. I subscribed to the feed. Now if only I can remember to go back and check my bloglines account from time to time!!

I don't really see that this is something I will be using ..... but at least now I know what they are.

Thanks.

YouTube

Wow.......more then I can ever hope to see on everything - anything and nothing.

Some good - like I found one that is going to show me how to "cast off" on my knitting project. I have been "remanufactoring the factory reccomended specifications" on finishing off knitting projects. It got the job done but I knew it wasn't right. But this time it is a large project and I really needed to know how to do it right.

I didn't however pick that as my "video" to try to place in my blog........I will just say---
"Don't Judge a Book by it's Cover"................

G.ho.st

I choose G.ho.st.

Don't ask me why. But the name just popped out at me.

It is under the "Online Desktop /OS" ranked #2.

At first I didn't like it at all. First, websense blocked "organizational e-mail" then my computer FROZE and would do nothing. So I had to turn it off - wait and re-boot.

Now, I am not usually a patient person so I don't know why I gave it a second shot. Unless maybe it was because I thought the next thing I try might be WORSE.

But when my computer came back up I logged back in and looked around - this time not trying to get into the "email" part of it. The more I looked around the better I liked it. The desktop has Zoho right there for you. There is a spread sheet - web browser. It's great.

If our customers would set up a "virtual computer" account - then they will not need discs to save there documents to......imagine no more cries at closing that all their hard work will just be gone..........

I can see using this.....not having to be sure to get the correct software when buying a new computer......it has what you would need.

Yep - I say this is a keeper!!

Zoho

Well my first attempt went well.

Very easy - it's the "Batter up" blog.

I can see using this and sharing this knowledge with many friends and family.

Second attempt I got a little frustrated.

It's the "Not so fast" blog.

I tried to go to the planner - but it was taking so long to come up I just gave up.


But over all - I love this one.

Not so Fast

August 11, 2008

I brought this up as a new document - but then tried to delete it.....could not seem to find a delete button. So what happens if you decide you don't want it anymore? Maybe there will be that option one I save it?

- I will find out.

Tried to go to some of the other options - Planner - etc. but it was taking a long time....so didn't go there. Maybe later.

I have no patience today.

Batter Up

August 11, 2008

First try.

Seems to be ok - does spell check work all by its self or is there a button to push? Seems there is a button to push ---- and unlike word documents where you right click this one wants you to left click to get the suggested spellings.

- must think more on this.

This would be even better for the school projects where everyone can not get together at the same time....must remember to share this info with the children.

Always the Mom.

Sandbox - Fun?

The directions were confusing - buttons didn't say what the directions said till you "moused over" them. Could have been better.

Wiki's have their place - and I can see their use - they are just not for me.

I'll just be waiting to see what we learn next week.

Wikis - too fast?

Something else I have wondered what they were.

In one of the blogs - I found a reference to "working on a project". This made the light bulb go off over my head! This would be great for those "team projects" at work or school when everyone can not get together at the same time. Each person could work when it suited them - making changes - adding - deleting....

But - my problem I am finding is I am a control freak. The thought of anyone making changes - and then the public believing what is there just spells danger to me. I did notice that many of the wikis had messages on them "due to vandals you must now register or log in or....." so there must be more freaks like me out there.

Library 2.0 and Web 2.0 --oy!

Reading the perspective "Away from Icebergs" I felt energised. Like the start of a new journey.

I remember "in the day" going to the library and writing notes - this was before copy machines. Libraries were quiet and the Librarians were scary people.

The possibilities in Library 2.0 are wonderful - trusted information.

I feel bad when people "trust" all information they get off the internet. Trying to get some people to understand that anyone can put anything up and that just because you find it does not make it true can be a very trying experience.

Technorati - and.....

Ok - so I played with this......where is the part where I can search in blog posts, tags and in the blog directory? I only found the one search window at the top. Maybe I was looking to hard?

I really do not know about people that have all of these places to blog, bookmark, tag, upload, download.......do they have a life beyond the computer? Does this really help with quality of life?

I got too frustrated that the computer is soo slow that I just hit cancel - I mean never mind I don't think I really need it that I have to wait and wait.......

Patience is a virtue........it's just not one of mine!

Del.icio.us why?

So I took a 2 week break and started fresh today.

It started with the link for the video stating "Sorry the video is no longer available" and the other video taking "forever" to load......so I just dove right in and played around.

I have always wondered about Del.icio.us and now I know - well some!

I looked around and checked out the tags and bookmarks and I just don't see that I will use this very much. I can see showing this to my children and I think it would be a big help to them during their studies. But it's just not for me.

Call me old fashioned but when I find something I just love I just bookmark it or send the link in an email to myself. I can see where if you were "jumping" from computer to computer a Del.icio.us account would be helpful to have "all the bookmarks" available.

So - "Thanks for the memories" but it's not for me.