Discovery Module

This module was my last one and I would be a liar if I didn't say I was very relieved to have made it through. We focused on Search and Discovery, Search referring to a specific question and a specific outcome being sought whereas Discovery is more serendipitous and more open to exploration and lateral diversion.Personal Search Agents such as Searchbots ( bots=robots)sounded very Star Trek and somewhat uncontrollable. I enjoyed StumbleUpo which uses social networking principles and had a giggle with the various websites and Utube viewing it picked out for me after I put forward various topics I was interested in. It was good to end my CCL Learn experience on a high note and I look forward to discussing and sharing all I learnt with my colleagues at South and of course my Customers. I personally feel that some of the topics and reading material covered was a little wordy and technical for me and the kind of queries I get at work but none the less I have had my eyes opened wide being exposed to all that is out there and available to us if we have access to a computer and the internet. I don't know how much of it i will retain but will always have my blog and those of my fellow participants to refer to if needs be.

SKYPE TIME

Glen took us through the Skype procedure as Cushie was getting married.
We had problems with headsets not working and then had to leave the training room as some testing was taking place. The concept was pretty straightforward and is very beneficial to those with friends and family members living overseas. you can see and speak to each other as if you were in the same room as opposed to thousands of miles away as long as you have the tools and resources at your disposal. when I did the free internet training several months back Andrew Adamson took us for a Sykpe session and it was very easy when everything worked and there were no probs with the headsets.

NZ 2.0

There is a lot more information accessible for everyone with these kind of resources and I imagine it must be a great place for information for university students and for people to feel they can have their say without too much effort required. New Zealand Government Resources Lunch Box is an E-learning research network in conjunction with New Zealand Govt and the Ministry of Education. Public Engagement I like Create Readers which is blog about youth literature and literacy and has contributors from schools run by school services staff from around New Zealand The Couch is also a cool govt initiative set up by the families commission. It's a online panel for family issues and also has some interesting statistics. Business Community Education Iniatives I found The University of Canterbury Library on Facebook. Etsy an online business site for really cool vintage, handmade products I have found via some of the blogs I follow, as well as being a really funky site that also have a blog. Final Thoughts Well I am glad this module is over, Web 2.0 makes the same information accesssible to lots of people. It is good to ponder over the sharing of information especially when working in an information context. I have learnt from this module but am regretting not choosing Wikis module I have struggled to stay focused during this module. I can breathe a sigh of relief but I'm sure this will come in very handy. I copied the above from Cushla's blog. She says everything I think and feel about this module and I couldn't put it better myself! I really had to focus and concentrate hard during this module and found it very hardgoing. I hope I retain this information but if not I will always have our blogs to refer to!

Head in the Clouds

Productivity in the Cloud

Chances are that by now you are already using cloud based productivity tools. If you use Gmail or Hotmail or Yahoo Mail, you certainly do. I suggest that your blog or use of a cloud based corporate wiki is also a productivity tool. However, we are going to focus in this section on applications that most people might think belong firmly with your own computer.

The availability and use of online productivity web-based applications (think word processing, spreadsheets and presentations) has exploded over the past few years and for good reasons! These powerful applications provide users with the ability to create and share documents over the internet without the need of installed desktop applications. Some experts speculate that this emerging trend may mean the death to Microsoft Office and other software-based productivity tools, while others think web-based applications have their place, but not in the office. But no matter which side of the office suite platform you side with, on this both sides seem to agree; web-based apps have their place.

One large benefit to web-based applications it that they eliminate the need to worry about different software versions or file types as you email documents or move from PC to PC. Another bonus is that they easy accommodate collaboration by allowing multiple users to edit the same file (with versioning) and provide users the ability to easily save and convert documents as multiple file types (including HTML and pdf). And, you can even use many of these tools, such as Zoho Writer and Google Docs to author and publish posts to your blog. It’s this type of integration with other web 2.0 tools that also makes web-based apps so appealing.

I created the above document in Google Docs and copied and pasted it into my blog. I am used to Microsoft Word for creating my documents and I find this very similar. I continue to be astonished at the amount of applications and tools available for our use on the internet, all with very user friendly help features to make our use of them easy and straightforward. I am very hopeful that some of these discoveries stay with me so I can share them with colleagues and customers alike.

Some of the reading material can be very wordy and disjointed on CCL Learn and I do find it hard to stay focused at times yet feel proud that I have perservered. Upon speaking to colleagues that have completed CCL Learn I don't appear to be the only one that has found it challenging. I have also heard that the powers that be are going to tweak the programme to make it flow more organically and be less disjointed. This will be great for those yet to experience the world that is CCL Learn.

Help Me!!

I am some what behind in the CCL Learn stakes.
I have just returned after 11 days off work and prior to that I was sick so missed out on a few hours of CCL Learning.
I am trying not to stress out and just continue at my own pace.
The course is challenging and I have to admit I have a lot of trouble just logging into Lams and getting responses in a timely manner. I seem to get a lot of the following response: the next task is loading please wait...
So I wait and wait and then refresh and then log out and log on and curse and mutter under my breath and by the time I finally get into the correct module I have to do my yoga breathing to get back to my happy place and start my learning in a calm and considered state of mind!
I am very hopeful that some of what I learn will stick in my brain and I will be able to impart my new found knowledge to my library customers and maybe impress my 22year old daughter with my whiz bang internet skills!!