#23 Summarize your thoughts

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
My favorite exercise was Flickr. I had not heard of Flickr and I really enjoyed the exercise and discovery of all the things you can do with Flickr toys, such as creating trading cards. I passed this discovery on to my granddaughter’s soccer team.

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
It made me more confident in my own abilities and eager to discover new technology. I plan on going back to look at some of the sites from the Web 2.0 awards list to explore further.

3. Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I was familiar with some of the sites like YouTube, but this program opened up so many more avenues for exploring the internet and tools like Zoho Writer. It was also fun learning how to create an Avatar.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
Nothing. I thought the program was very well organized and I liked the fact that I could do it at my own pace.

5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?
Yes, I would like to participate if another program is offered.

6. How would you describe your learning experience in a few words or a few sentences, so we can share our successes and promote this program?
I am really glad that this program was offered to us. I had times that I was frustrated trying to complete an exercise but with being persistent and with help especially from Debbie Ruth I was able to complete all the exercises. Thank you, Deb. I feel that this program was very worthwhile and I had fun along the way. I certainly know a lot more now than I did when I started. It has opened up a new world which I plan to continue exploring and learning even more.

Week 9 #22 Downloadable audiobooks

I went through the Overdrive Digital Media guided tour and Introduction to NetLibrary. I had heard of Overdrive and NetLibrary but was not familiar with Project Gutenberg. I went to that site and looked at the top 100 ebooks downloaded yesterday. I set up a NetLibary account. I searched browse by subject and looked at the different subjects and what was available. I found a few titles that I may be interested in downloading at a later time.

Week 9 #21 Podcasts

I was not that familiar with podcasts. I had heard people talking about them but until this exercise I hadn't searched for one. I went to Yahoo podcasts and I found NPR: Story of the day. I searched Podcast.net and Podcastalley.com and Yahoo podcasts. I liked Yahoo podcasts the best. I added the NPR: story of the day to my bloglines and I also found a podcast on US soccer. I searched also for book reviews NPR books has 947 subscribers. I also found Frommers.com podcast that gives travel information.

Week 9 #20 YouTube

I looked at YouTube. I have seen videos on YouTube before. I searched for a few things like Country Line dancing and I found 2 videos done by one of the DJ's that we dance with. I saw one cute video of a little girl in Elementary school talking about her library. I also searched for soccer. I went to the game when DC United played the LA Galaxy with David Beckham, I thought I would look for Beckham videos. Here is a video of David Beckham scoring a goal with his famous bend it like Beckham shot. I also found I Love Lucy clips. I enjoyed going back and seeing clips from some of the classic I Love Lucy shows.



I can see how the Library could use YouTube to promote Library programs and services.

Week 8 #19 Web 2.0 awards

I went to the Web 2.0 awards list and I spent a great deal of time just looking at the sites. I think I will go back and look at some that seemed very interesting. The one that I picked to write about on my blog is http://upcoming.yahoo.com/. It is a site that you can search for new events to attend in your area and around the country. Join groups and find out what people who share your interests are attending. I searched for libraries in Maryland and it brought up Worcester County Public Library events. You could use this to search on areas that you visit to see what events are going on. I searched on find events -libraries and where-United States. There were events listed from all over the country.

Week 7# 18 Zoho Writer

I created an account in Zoho writer. I like the fact that you can access it from anywhere and I also liked that it allows multiple users to work on a document simultaneously and share documents. I looked at the templates that are available. You can do basically the same thing that you can in Microsoft Word. I tried using different fonts, colors, bold and underline. I also found that the same control keys for bold, underline etc. work in Zoho as they do in word. One feature that I liked was that you can publish your document to your blog. I created my blog entry in zoho writer and then published it to my blog.

I thought I would add a smiley just for fun.

I also created a Google docs account. I am somewhat familiar with Google docs as I have worked with the Great Books spreadsheet on Google docs.

Week 7 #17 Sandbox wiki

I added an entry of one of my favorite things to do to the Maryland Libraries Sandbox. It was easy creating my page, but then I was confused a little on how to add it and to add my blog. Thanks, Deb for helping me.

here is my link: http://marylandlibrariessandbox.pbwiki.com/country+dancing