Finale

It's probably difficult to pick up on how transforming this course has been for me as I seem to have spent rather a lot of time whining. As I said earlier, one difficulty that was immensely challenging to me and I believe for all non-tech people,  is not fully knowing what the norm is. Many times I would be almost crying with frustration and my husband would say something along the lines of "oh, yeah, well you have to do this now - sometimes that just happens" Glitches that were immediately apparent to him were completely outside my scope of knowledge. And really, there is no other way to get that base other than time and experience - I see that as I begin to recognize "glitches." But it can be very demoralizing at times. 

However, on to the good news. I feel that this has dramatically altered my confidence and ease with the Web. At the most basic level I feel like I'm not having to cover for my stupidity any more and beyond that I'm totally loving the many fun things I've discovered for personal use (Flickr, Youtube, Facebook, creating a second blog etc.) and beyond THAT I'm excited to think about how I can use this further at the Library. I really did feel enormously proud to pull off the Flickr thing with my teen group. In creating it I was also very aware of hitting walls and making myself push through and the thrill (or maybe relief) of succeeding on my own. I know that this was not rocket science but it really was completely out of my knowledge and comfort zone short months ago and now it's not! I found again and again that if I could just push through to the mastery of the "Thing" I generally absolutely loved whatever it was. (Sometimes to an alarming degree!)

The course seems like a framework. But it's a framework where formerly there was none! I'm grateful to know of the many portals where I can continue checking out stuff - and filling in that framework more solidly. 

It's a wonderful course and I'm so glad to have taken it. Thanks for bringing it to Vermont!

 

WEEK 11

So...podcasts. Like everything else Web 2, my family has been way ahead of me. My husband is an avid listener - subscribing to bicycling, Mac and (of all boring things) fish (as in aquarium) podcasts.  Hmmmm so there's one beauty of podcasts right there. Not having to listen to what   fascinates one person and bores the bejesus out of another. Als0, my son has a podcast with his twentysomething friends in San Francisco and though I've listened to his music (through my husband) I now have a connection - through my i-tunes - to listen to the entire show.

 It was interesting to check out the way other libraries are using podcasts, although some - like children's picture books - puzzle me. Plus, with all the copyright restrictions, seems sort of cumbersome. But - it's early days for me yet so I feel like there are many uses that are possibly (hopefully) incubating. And that I can continue to explore through all these portals. There are many subjects that I want to pursue -  the power of knowing how to access is great!

WEEK 11

It's been a blast touring around Youtube - guilt-free "with permission." I love how it's so easy to post to Facebook - and how my selections are so ME. (Laura Nyro - my teen love. Bill Bailey - Chaucer "Pubbe" joke - perfect, Moxie Fruvous - but not the book one) I've chosen to send to Facebook rather than join Youtube at this point - but that will probably change the more I watch.

 Youtube is addictive (DUH.) And social - beyond the comments and send share. As in - "you've got to see what I just saw on Youtube" - the most wide array of people have said that to me! Very very fun.

Week 10 - Last post for 10

So much to explore on the best of web 2 - it could take years! It's great to have this bookmarked! Had fun satisfying the oh so nosy me with zillow and love craigslist and love love youtube. Found some very odd things on the clone youtube and amazed by google maps - need lots more time to check everything out. My fave of all time is still flickr  - which takes me to the "applying web 2 at your library" bit. I AM SO PROUD OF THIS! I just created a Flickr group for my teen group (nhclteengroup) and at the last group I gave them our 3 digital cameras and told them to take ten portraits of each other. (There are 8 teens) They then had to choose a favorite, put on iphoto and then upload to Flickr. I KNEW WHAT TO DO! I can't even tell you how empowering this was - and the teens loved it! Two days later a couple of them came in to the Library to upload more pictures and decided to post pictures of books and do book reviews! They were on fire with it - it will be so exciting to see where they take it. Very cool.

Week 10

My document went through and was processed by Mary on Googledocs. I signed up for Zoho and had some fun playing around with some of their options but I'm still working on sending the final product out. I was really interested in the idea of the Slideshow, which I need to explore more (wouldn't accept my sign in and I cannot figure out why). It takes a lot of time for me to work through the in and outs of learning these applications - and it's still sometimes overwhelming and frustrating but I continue to be excited about the possibilities of these new "things."