It's over already?

It's hard to believe that Betty Blogger Summer School is drawing to a close, as I feel like it's just begun!

Here are my responses to some follow-up questions that have been posed:

1. After taking the Betty Blogger summer school, on a scale of 1-10 (1 being "web 2.huh?" and 10 being "web 2.guru"), how would you rate your knowledge of Web 2.0 and its applications?

When the course began, I rated myself as a 8. I think now I can proudly boast being a 9.5.


2. Did the Betty Blogger summer school meet your expectations?

Indeed, it did.

3. What was most challenging part of Betty Blogger? Why?

The rapidly changing face of Web 2.0 applications made some assignments a bit difficult, as the applications themselves had changed since the course material was prepared.

4. How successful did you find the “self-directed” learning model?

I did not have any problems with the "self-directed" manner of working through the course. It was helpful to have the weekly e-mails from the Library Lady.

5. If we ran this program again, would you recommend us to a friend?

For sure! Thank you!

Library Thing

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Bibliovik/yourlibrary

I think Library Thing is great! It is a simple and effective way for people to catalogue personal collections of books. I would like to use Library Thing more often. I would use it frequently if I had a bit more time available in my days.

Google Reader

For our Google Reader assignment, I subscribed to a blog by a librarian called Miss Information, and to a bundle of feeds provided by Google about e-books. I found Google Reader easy to navigate and I really like it so I believe I will continue to use it.

What to Bring to the WikiPicnic?

Learning about Wikis, and we each had to add to a wiki a dish we would bring to a picnic. I will bring fresh, in-season, corn on the cob. I have used wikis before for group collaboration, and they are a very handy tool for such purposes. I haven't yet encountered a reason to use a wiki for personal reasons, but perhaps that day will come!

Summer tastes good!

My Recipe

Pretty Picture

For Task #5 we checked out photo sharing and Picasa Web Albums. We were to chose a photo, and you can check out the pretty picture I picked:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q=scotland&psc=G&filter=1#5420033955174066306


The tags associated with this photo are HDR, highlands, loch, Loch Awe, scenery, Scotland, Scottish.

I think Picasa provides a convenient way to share photos. It was a bit unusual, however, to be browsing public photos and see pictures of someone's wedding, or "Patti and Bob in Scotland." I do not think Picasa is a service that I would use personally, but if I did, I don't think I would share my photos publicly.

To Tweet or not to Tweet?

Our assignment this week for Betty Blogger Summer School has students deciding whether or not to sign up for a Twitter account. I am opting to not sign up. I understand Twitter and the appeal, but I am already involved with social networking through my personal Facebook account. I usually log into Facebook every day, and if I had a Twitter account it would just mean more time spent on the Internet and really, I do have other things I need to do! :)

My son has recently started Tweeting (does that make him a Twitter-er?). Perhaps it is just due to his young age, but I can't help but view Twitter as a bit of a time-waster, with people Tweeting frequently about trivial things.

I think that social networking does pose an extreme risk to privacy, and that users have to be aware of how much personal information they are making accessible and take precaution to engage an appropriate level of security measures.

Tagging Makes Me Hungry

Websites bookmarked in Diigo:

Halton Community Services Database - http://search.hipinfo.info/
a great source of community information in the Halton Region.
Tags: communityinformation

Taste of Home - http://www.tasteofhome.com/
a place to find lots of yummy recipes!
Tags: cooking, recipes

Chowhound - http://chowhound.chow.com/boards/23
a discussion board for conversation about restaurants and cooking.
Tags: food

Exploring the Diigo application was interesting, but I don't think I will use it outside of Betty Blogger summer school. While I use several different devices for accessing the internet, I tend to either remember website addresses or can readily find the URLs, so Diigo isn't really an application I would go to on a regular basis.

Ruff Assignment

No, not a rough assignment. A ruff assignment, because for our task of exploring You Tube, I chose to share a video of Dexter's Ruff Life!



I use You Tube occasionally, though mostly for entertainment purposes, and as such, it's usually enjoyable and sometimes rather interesting, to say the least! I think streaming has become popular because society is becoming accustomed to the immediacy of information afforded by our electronic devices, and visual information is no different. I will continue to use You Tube. Like the video linked to for demonstrating how to embed a video, I find that You Tube is often being used now for the sharing of educational or how-to information.

Web 2.0 and Me

This is the blog that I have made to show Library Lady what I can do! I find many Web 2.0 applications quite familiar and recognizable, but there are a lot with which I have not had hands-on experience. I would rate my knowledge of Web 2.0 in general at about an 8. I understand what most applications are and could probably figure my way around them, but I lack practical experience with them.

Now after reading Library Lady's blog on blogging, I really want to go get a burger!