Exercise 23

I did it! Having started a month late and being somewhat technological impaired, I'm amazed I got through. Even if mostly on my own time (and probably over the 10 hours timewise), I am glad I was exposed to so much stuff out there on the WEB, although now the biggest challenge will be to go back and practice and actually use some of the stuff.

I liked most Flickr, image generators, WIKIS, ZOHO, and feeling connected to co-workers through the Library Thing.

Re lifelong learning goals- I know I have a lot of catching up and keeping up to do; it is just so hard when you come home exhausted from giving so much at work. I am inspired to try to take a little more time out - both at work and at home- to keep working on this. I must say, though, that although in general I consider myself a confident and competent person (habit #4), I was often frustrated doing the exercises when they didn't work (not always my fault.) I learn much more by being shown and then doing and practicing. Help wasn't always available at the time I was feeling challenged and/or I kept getting interrupted while trying to concentrate on the program.

There were lots of surprises, just because I was exposed to so much, and as mentioned, the challenge is to keep at it, keep practicing, and keep working through it. I do believe there is so much potential, not just for me personally in terms of communicating with friends and family through some of these tools, but there are so many good library applications for now and for the future. Maybe we could do some practice at service level meetings or branch/unit meetings.

In terms of the program concept, I would like more drop in sessions (someone was out sick the one time I was going to come, and maybe on Thurs, Fri, or Sat first hour or two , so less imnpact on the schedule). Myabe have multiple sites at the same time on the same session. Since I started late due to other work projects, I felt helplessly behind from the beginning. Repeating sessions (like another week 3 session, even if it was week 6 or 7) would be helpful (the reminders that there was still time to start was encouraging, but we never went back to offering a previous session.) Or just being on week 1 for three weeks, then moving to week 2 for three weeks might give more opportunity for people to keep up as it goes along. Or, actually classes covering some of the major topics and then practice time would be helpful for my learning style.

And finally, yes, I would particpate in another learning program because it is important and I want to keep up and continue my lifelong learning.