Week #9 Thing #23

Well I've reach the end of the class! I can't believe it, it's been so much fun!

Looking back I think some of the best things that I learned in the class are sort of "pieces" of the applications. For example; embedding things in this blog just opened my mind to that idea. Now when I want to put something like a picture or Voicethread in my wiki or an email it doesn't seem daunting. Even if I'm not exactly sure how to do it, I have a general idea and if it doesn't work I know how to look for the code and try it that way or work toward the solution.

It also reinforced that we need to move forward as librarians to make sure our Media Centers are up to date technologically and that we teach in the best way. The only way to do this is honest evaluation and replacement of methods in which something better exists. This is not using the computer lab to teach keyboarding. It's using every aspect of the technology available to us to teach everything. As long as we keep up librarians aren't out of a job, they are the information source that they have always been.

I think that some of the earlier lessons were more "spoon-fed, no misunderstanding" lessons. Each little click gave you more information, so at the end you felt like there was no doubt you got it. This is really good, especially where non-techie people are concerned. The earlier lessons took that next step of training, the "show me" step more seriously than the latter lessons, which were more "look at this and blog about it." It was more of a disconnected experience. That's okay if the earlier stuff was the most important and latter stuff more secondary - but I don't really think that was the case. Don't get me wrong, still a valuable experience!

My brain is whirling to develop a better system for tracking the assignments for our facilitators. It doesn't help them now, but it seems with all of these Web 2.0 classes and all these fabulous applications that there has got to be a less time-consuming, note-taking way to track progress. (Or maybe that's the next Web 2.0 application to be developed!)

The best thing I go forward with is a list of ideas for training and in-services. Every year our management asks for ideas for professional development and now I have a shopping list of areas where I would like to delve deeper.


PS - Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait! I posted then remembered I wanted to add these thoughts... Let's call it Week #9 Thing #24:

1) Does anyone else feel Password, Application, User Name overload? Yikes, I tried for uniformity as I went, then sometimes the user name was too long, or the password needed numbers, or I had already signed up for it long ago before I knew I needed a uniform name. Google has always been for my personal stuff. So now all of a sudden when I go to log in I'm getting work and personal log in info depending on where I've been last. Or it tells me I'm already logged in and I need to change users. Or I go to an application and think "Wait, I've already joined this haven't I?"

2) How about how some applications open new windows while others move within the window? It never fails, either you look to find the place you were and you're freaked because it's disappeared and you have to relocate it, or you look down and somehow you have a zillion windows open, including multiple windows of the same application. And we wonder why the computer is so slow ...

Thanks for the class!