Thing 23 - We've made it!

I have really enjoyed this program especially in the later half of it as I was able to time manage much better and get everything I needed to get done in my normal day to day duties as well as my "thing" for the week.

The things I enjoyed most of all were

• thing 14 which was collaboration tools 
• thing 16 youtube 
• thing 17 Create content and content curation. 
• I also really enjoyed looking at google glass & Augmented reality (AR).

23 things has encouraged me to explore the way I learn, to time manage better and it and has broadened my knowledge of online learning in a postivie way.

One thing I would do differently is take the time to connect with others doing the program that were not located on my campus, I only discussed things with my colleague here at Strahtfield and while that was very helpful I missed an opportunity to network!


Thanks to Kate for your motivation and your time to answer any questions I asked

Thing 22 - Networking

This week we looked at Personal Learning Network.

I looked at LinkedIn and saw staff I knew from the library on it, I liked the ACU profile. LinkedIn has less information than other social networking sites which is a plus for me. I can see it would be a great tool to build an online professional profile that features your experience and skills.

I also like the job searching aspect of it and the opportunity to connect with others in a professional setting.

My  PLN is not something I have given a lot of thought to up to this point, which is something that I would like to change, I have always been a stay in the background type of person but I think in this competitive society we are currently in I will need to put myself out there more and starting with something like LinkedIn is a good idea.
 

Thing 21 – Mobile, QR, AR!

I did this week's thing on my work ipad as my phone was having trouble connecting to wireless, I also like a bigger screen to look on and see everything

I took the scenic route and looked at Google Glass.  It was fascinating and fun, and reminded me a little of the sci -fi movies in the 70's where people were dreaming up these ideas that we now actually have.
I also looked at Augmented reality (AR)  and looked at the IKEA app which I  loved.  I found this week's thing  informative and entertaining and that is a great way to learn for me.

 If you're after quick information on the go you can use all these things and I think it is wonderful that dreams are becoming reality.

Thing 20 - Online learning, where is it going?

This week we looked at online learning or MOOC's.

Online learning is a great way to retrain or start a new career for yourself and it is very flexible for people who have certain time constraints

I have done some online training related to work including 23 things but learning for me is easier face to face.  I think online learning would require a great deal of discipline and time management skills and  it is something I want to do in the future when I have developed those skills and have completed more online learning as I need to retrain my way of learning.

I know people who have studied education fully online and are now enjoying teaching as a career.  Family committments were the main reason they chose online learning and they completed it in the timeframe they had intially personally committed to.

I can see  online learning growing even more in the future, it opens up more avenues for people who may never have thought to study or who may not have had the opportunity when they younger.  There are so many interesting courses being offered not just univerity degrees but diplomas and certificates that can be benificial to people who want to retrain and do it at their own pace.

Thing 19 – Tweet, tweet – Twitter

Twitter Twitter Twitter disturbs me - whilst after reading all the good things twitter can be used for unfortunately all you do read and hear about is celebrity slanging matches and quite frankly it puts me right off.

I have never used it but I  know people who do and they have showed me many tweets and the type of people they are following and I am disappointed as I have never been shown anything along the lines of  people following people as a tool for building professional contacts and for staying up to date in their area of study or career.  I don't have anything positive to say unfortunately.

Thing 18 - Reflection week

What a whirlind this has been.  I got worried when semester 1 started up that I wouldn't be able to keep up but it is all about time management.

23 things is worthwhile for me as I can get stuck in what I am comfortable with and also I assume anything technology wise has to be difficult, by doing 23 things I now believe this is simply not true

While I may not use everything I have discovered on this journey I will be using some of it for work and personally and who knows study down the track.

I have really enjoyed completing each week as I get a sense of achievment and accomplishment.

Thank you Kate for all your hard work on keeping us motivated and reading all our blogs!

Thing 17 - Create content and content curation

I had no idea these tools were out there....I am behind the times

Scoop.it  - creating collections of the best resources on topics that you are passionate about  and sharing them is a noble thing to do, educating others on your interests and topics make information accessible to everyone and  I can see how it would work well in the academic world.  I read some things about Scoop it where people were saying it broadened their presence on the web more so than twitter or facebook.  I could see this as a valuable tool for work in lending services

I also had a look at Storybird - it is quite cute!  It is great for kids and adults alike to creat online stories and share them.  My only concern with internet tools like this is not everyone will get to experience it first hand, some children simply won't be able to access it.  I still love the old fashioned book you can hold in your hand, but I also love my kindle.........I am half half I suppose

Thing 16 Youtube

This weeks youtube thing was fun, for me it is a great timewaster and I often use it for personal things.

I have noticed that ACU has quite a presence on youtube and it is a good way to reach students and anyone really thinking of studying here.  It can be a good provider of information in a contemporary way.  In my job I could see how youtube could work for promotion for lending services and what we offer but you would need a lot of creative input to make it stand out.


I came across this on my youtube journey this week, it is focuses on a public library,  take a look at Zombarians - halfzombi half librarian.  What will they think of next?

 http://www.youtube.com/embed/2OGWrHkzpXc

Thing 15 SlideShare and Prezi

 I enjoyed looking at Slideshare and Prezi. 

To be able to  download and use presentations already created is a time saver.


I took a look at "beautiful libraries in the World" on Slideshare, and it was beautiful!

I noticed Prezi content can be quite detailed and I enjoyed looking at Sarah's  ‘92 Things and Counting’. 


I would not use prezi in my current role but who knows in the future.......

Thing 14 - Collaboration tools

I tried Wallwisher  where you can build your own walls-  one feature was an online noticeboard maker which is used for making announcements, keeping notes and things you can do with Post-it-notes and I loved it. I like it's simplicity.  You create the wall and the posts and have followers subscribe via RSS feeds that are automatically sent to them.

The other features were also simple yet smart from a teaching wall where students can  post questions and receive answers and feedback from their teacher to a wall where you can  share and watch your photos and videos on the one page.

I also looked at Anymeeting where you can host a meeting, webinar, web conference. You could invite your colleagues /friends to join you in an online meeting space where you can share your computer screen, present powerpoint slides or have a 6 way video conference  There are options for up to 200 people to attend the meeting by being invited to a personal url just for that meetnig and there is an option for  a free membership with ads, or low cost without ads.  It does mention that this tool is small business focused however not for a large institution.  

Thing 13 Facebook

I do have a facebook account however I deactivated it a couple of years ago only after a few months of use.  It does concern me that I can't delete it totally but it was a very basic account when I created it so I had very generic information on there. I can't say I enjoyed it using it, I find the whole idea of using facebook  for social interaction foreign but that is because I enjoy socialising face to face!


The library's facebook account is quite bustling with activity which is good, it is a good way to "reach" students and I enjoyed reading some of the student's feedback.  I can see how facebook is a great tool for libraries, universities and other institutions.

Thing 11 - Productivity tools

I looked at Doodle which is used for scheduling/creating polls/organising events .  It looks like a good tool to use for social/family events, and it seems fairly straight forward to use for those purposes and would save on time with phone calls, txts etc trying to organise events and track who is able to attend.  In my present role at work it I wouldn't wouldn't really need to use it, I find meeting requests and emails is the most efficient way for me to work when scheduling the team together.


I also looked at Remember the Milk and while I can see it would be helpful to some, to me it seemed to complicate matters as I find using my outlook calender for reminders of what I need to do during my work day really helps me. I am assuming it would depend on the type of work you do and how many people you are supervising/liaising and working within each others scheduling priorities. I had a look at all of the tools and while they are all helpful I found that a couple of the tools were a little like reinventing the wheel. 

Thing 10 Social bookmarking

To be honest I was a little disappointed with social bookmarking

It seems similar to me to a lot of other web tools that are in use, it doesn't have a wow factor for me.
 Maybe I am getting too spoilt with choice?

It also seems very similar to facebook to me.

Having said all that I can see how this tool can be put to good use. I  like the idea of being able to save websites and access them offline. I  have only ever saved my favourite websites on my own computer. I don't have a need to share them however I can see how people working on a group project for study or even a hobby would make very good use of it.

Thing 9 Images – Flickr, Instagram and Pinterest

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wowowjr/8297679054/   From Flickr 

From Flickr  - George Lucas’s library at Skywalker Ranch, a company retreat in Marin County, California

• I had only ever used google images for personal use and for work for quick easy images but have never used   photo sharing sites except picasso when people wanted to share an album for me.   
• I would never share photos in this way as I don't take a lot of photos and the ones I do I like to keep for me and not with the entire world, I am obviously not a modern gal.
• I do use images at times for work, but not very often with my role. 
• I love love love this photo of this library, this is my dream library, quiet and with hardly anyone using it!! I was happily surprised that George Lucas has my taste! 

Thing 7 & 8 RSS feeds

It took me a little while to get the hang of it and for some reason I didn't enjoy this "thing" too much......however I did persist and subscribe to 5 feeds.

I can see how people can use RSS feeds for their work but for the position I hold I wouldn't need to.  I did subscribe to news sites and  television shows and subjects I  find intersesting but I am not sure anyone else would! 

In higher education RSS feeds could be used to automatically update subscribers on things such as scholarly publishers, databases, electronic journals and books. Library related uses may include RSS feeds of new book titles, news alerts from different subject areas and announcing library related events.