Final Thing

I was about two-thirds of the way through this course before it started coming together for me. The most helpful tool was Askaway. Actually using a blog in real life helped me to understand the concept better than completing a lesson.

The biggest problem was time!!! I know other people in our branch started Learning 2.0, but had to quit because they didn't have the time to finish. I managed to finish, but some lessons I had to rush through.

The first three lessons on being a lifelong learner I didn't find helpful. I would have preferred more background on the whole idea of creating communities online to provide context for the lessons.

Thanks for providing this opportunity for the staff to learn something new. And thanks for setting up Askaway. That is a great communication tool.

audiobooks

It took me two tries, but I opened an account and looked at some titles. I found "the Spy who came in from the Cold", but no James Thurber. When I get my MP3 player, I will try downloading a few titles.

Podcasts

I'm listening to a Harry Potter Podcast as I write this. It's actually kind of fun listening to some twenty-somethings joke about the security surrounding the realease of the book. I couldn't find my bloglines account to pull this in as a RSS feed -- maybe I've been de-listed? I may come back and try again if I have time.

You Tube

I watched a bit of the Jon Stewart Show. My kids really like this site. My daughter showed me a clip called Kiwi that is very bittersweet.

You Tube

The YouTube site I'd been to before, so this was a little easier for me. I checked out Alec Baldwin's rant to his daughter, watched a clip from a Jon Stewart show and now I'm listening to Joshua Bell play violin, since I missed him when dressed like a street musician and played at a subway stop several weeks ago.

Web 2.0 Tools

This lesson invited us to explore one Web 2.0 site. I checked out facebook, although because I am not a college student, I couldn't do what I really wanted to do which was to read accounts from some students I know at Va. Tech about the tragedy yeasterday. The value of these new information sharing tools really becomes apparent in a situation like that -- it was incredible to me how fast students could connect with one another online to find out what was happening and who was okay.

Web Based Applications

I am creating a document using a web based application.  Hmmm, is there anyone wtih enough time to look at this and edit it, so we get a feel for why this is useful in the real world?  I can't think of anyone, the staff is pretty busy right now.  So I will fo ahead and save and see if I can get back to it later. 

 

Since I use Apple, I look forward to the day when people use this free software to share ideas, so I am not faced with attachments that are in Word that I can't open.  I wonder if the Web based applications are more vulnerable to viruses than applications sstored on my computer at home.  Logically, it seems like they would be.  Someone evil could pretend to be your boss and sneak in and edit all your work!  Still it would be nice to be able to use an application you don't use very often without paying full price for it.  My husband works for IBM and they are trying to develop Web based software you could use for a fee.