Thursday 25 August 2011

Thing 11 - Reflections

A lake in sunny Lincs.
I'm a little late with my first bout of reflecting, which I should have been doing in week 6. But actually, I think my reflections are the better for being so far behind that which they reflect upon, as I've had more time to mull over/absorb/digest/reject etc.

I've had a really busy summer at work, continuing with my regular duties as well as some extra projects, which has been great, but has left me little time for exploring Things. I certainly don't regret signing up to the programme, as it's been a great way of giving me the push I needed to explore the topics/technologies covered, many of which I'd heard of but just never gotten around to investigating before, and some of which I was just plain prejudiced against (Twitter, for instance!). Not only am I learning about these new Things, but I'm also much more professionally aware and engaged generally, which is excellent news for my career.

I've tried to organise my reflective thoughts about the Things in this table. Where my opinion is still reflected accurately by my original blog post about it I've created a hyperlink to that post; otherwise, I've tried to give a brief summary of my thoughts about each Thing upon reflection.


Things I like  J
Upon reflection…

Thing 2:     Blogging

I've too much to say to fit in this box, so I've saved it for another post!


Thing 3:     RSS feeds

I’m not great at checking Google Reader regularly, but am always glad of it when I do. It’s a great way of keeping track of information and news without having to remember/find time to check the source sites. This way I know I won’t miss anything because the reader is storing it all up for when I do have time.


Thing 4:     Twitter

Great for current awareness, both at a local level, by following other Cambridge libraries and librarians, and nationally/internationally, by following various organisations and other useful tweeters. I’ve picked up on a lot of news, helpful links and tips already. I just wish I had more to say myself! I can’t imagine myself using it socially, but for keeping in the loop as a librarian it’s great, and employed as a tool to ‘market’ a library/collection I think it has real potential.

Thing 5:     Screenshots
Thing 6:     Screencasting
Thing 7:     Doodle
Thing 9:     Google Docs
Hmm. I was initially reasonably enthusiastic about this, but wonder how much I will use it. There are issues regarding formatting of text that make me still more inclined to reach for the memory stick or email attachment than make a Google doc…
Thing 10b: Evernote
Things I don’t like   L

Thing 8:     Google calendar
Thing 10a: Pushnote
Other Things   K


Thing 1:     iGoogle

Just over a month ago my computer hardware was upgraded, and I got the new Windows 7 operating system. The upgrade left me signed out of everything, and iGoogle is one of the things I just haven’t been bothered to sign back into. The iGoogle page took a frustratingly long time to load, and all the things I had on the tabs can just as easily be reached from my web browser favourites list.

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