Web 2.0 thoughts

This has been an interesting class. I became familiar with a number of tools that people talk about. The tools for sharing work are both imprressive and useful. I especially like GoogleDocs and its survey tool as well as Open Office and Zoho, with its survey tool and calendar. YouTube and Flickr are fun and have potential for libraries to post virtual tours and tutorials for resources.

I recently had some direct experience with virtual classes by serving as an online guest instructor in a course on consumer health information at the University of Kentucky library school. The students has interesting questions, but I definitely that something was missing: the connection that comes with face-to-face discussion.

I think that this is true with Web 2.0 in general. It is efficient and helpful in many instances, but there is no real connection with the other participants.

That said, I did enjoy the class and learned something from the exercises and I would take another class if offered.

Thank you for the work that you did in putting it all together.

Cuba

DSCN0136
Originally uploaded by bookw0man2

I went to Cuba last year with a group from my synagogue. We have a sister congregation in Santiago de Cuba. This is a view from El Moro castle. I was sneaking around to take pictures without having to pay the fee for photography, so was everyone else who was there!

Bell Tower

Bell Tower
Originally uploaded by Matt Roth

This is the Capanile at U.C. Berkeley, not far from where I live. The campus is lovely and the libraries are fabulous. The Bancroft Library, the rare book collection, just reopened after a major remodel. It is gorgeous! You should all come and visit. I would be happy to show you around.

Wikis

I just completed the wiki assignment. Wikis are easy to use and very handy for sharing documents and course materials.

RSS

I just set up some RSS feeds. It is very easy and most convenient. Having a central place for the newsletters that I receive is handy. It is also easy to share news with others. I can see that it will be useful for training as well as for staying up to date.

Del.icio.us

I just set up a Del.icio.us account. I can see that it might be useful for sharing information and getting to bookmarks when away from your computer, but I am not sure how much I will use it.

Lifelong learning

After watching the video, I concluded that I am a lifelong learner. I already do the things mentioned there. Making sure that I have time for learning is hard, but I manage.
My grandmother, who defied her family by going to school and graduating from gymnasium (high school and then some), is an inspiration. She lived to be 98 and always told me, "Study and learn. It keeps your mind young. As long as your mind is young, you are young." So here I am learning about the newset ways to learn.