Week 9 Thing 23 My Thoughts

Wow! When I started School Library Learning 2.0 I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew time was going to be a challenge as I was finishing up CLAD courses, too. Once I finished the CLAD courses, I was able to devote more time to learning Library 2.0. I quite enjoyed learning all the "Things." So here are my responses to the prompts:

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? My favorite discoveries were Library Thing and fd's Flickr Toys. I love being able to keep my book list on Library Thing and having the random books displayed on my blog. It adds so much color to the page. As for fd's Flickr Toys, I know it is something I can use to promote my library to my patrons.
2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? This program assisted me in learning about new available free technologies that I can use as a librarian or use personally. With some of these I feel I have just scratched the surface and will come back to learn more. Awhile back I started a book review blog for my students and staff on edublogs. I would post a book after I read it. It is a very simple blog. After using Blogger, I will probably spend some time this month switching Book Trail over to Blogger because Blogger offers some more features and is pretty easy to use know that I have been blogging regularly. I stated in an earlier posting that I used dabble in photography and now have a desire to learn more in depth about digital photography. This sparked a conversation with a colleague of mine who is a photographer. He mentioned that the local community college offers evening courses in digital photography should I want to learn more. So I am going to look into a spring course to see if it will fit into my schedule. Participating in this course also gave me the courage to try something I have been putting off. This month I hired a personal trainer and "re-joined" my gym after ten years of minimal physical activity. I have committed to spending several hours a week to some fitness training and I am going to attempt to learn yoga. While fitness training, I may even learn some Spanish from the available free podcasts I found. I've always been pretty good at working on my professional side but this class has also given me the desire to apply some lifelong learning to my personal life.
3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? Library Thing was definitely a pleasant surprise. I found many take-a-ways. Free podcasts and eBooks were a great discovery. Zoho, fd's Flickr Toys, You Tube, Teacher Tube, and Rollyo are "things" that I will definitely share with others and use again throughout the year.
4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program's format or concept? I liked the self-paced learning aspect of the program and I felt the amount of what we had to learn for the summer was doable and allowed for flexibility. For some reason I completely missed the place where you could e-mail someone on the team if you needed tech support within the program. (Reading carefully over the About page, I see that offer listed under #9). In my eagerness to get started, I missed this. My only suggestions would be to put some troubleshooting steps linked to each activity (similar to the Weekly Tips) on the page with the activity and to locate the Weekly Tips in two places. One where the tips are currently located and on the activity page itself so learners can put the tip into action as they work on the activity.
5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? I would participate in future. I liked the flexibility of the program and the self-pacing. I appreciated that the technology was free.
6. How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote CSLA learning activities? I wasn't aware that there was so many free technology applications readily available that I could use to support my library, staff and students.