Summing Up!

I was actually in complete ignorance as to what I was letting myself in for when I signed up to 23 Things in January and I have got to say, I have had my highs and lows with it.However,having said that, I am glad I did it and it has certainly raised my awareness and confidence when it comes to dealing with 21st century technology. I certainly feel less of a technophobe now and struggle less is how I would put it. In terms of my job I think it has helped as I am now at least just slightly more familiar with what our students are using as aids to their learning and research, but now back to the  23 Things programme! I liked the way we were given set tasks to do each week but some weeks I felt I was under pressure with other demands and therefore found it difficult to deal with  the pressures of  23 Things on top of that as it just became an added pressure- plus learning new things- one always  feel that way anyway. Some times I found the written instructions clear and precise, other times not so and I'm still trying to work out why that was as it could have been my own inadequacies I was dealing with. One thing I do feel  and that is- doing 23 Things here at WSA was slightly more problematic as we had less people around who we could ask for help, though as colleagues we did share our struggles and helped each other out when we could. On top of all that it was an unprecedented term in terms of busyness, but hey ho, we are now at the end of it all, and  funny,  because it is abit quieter around here. I suppose there is never a good time to launch a programme like  23 Things. Thanks to all the  Programme team leaders- I can only imagine it was an even more busy time for you - so  many many thanks. Onwards we go now with our new found knowledge!

 Thing  21 - Feeling under pressure to get to the finishing line as it were, I approached Thing 21 in a cautionary, tired, but equally, fairly determined way. Having said that, I knew pretty much straight away that Google Drive was not going to be a tool I would be using, and thats because it doesn't serve my personal needs at the moment.... there's always the future though so to conclude,I am glad I have learnt of its existence and  feel  it is  an extremely good tool  and thats because of its great benefits in terms of sharing and time saving .I managed to navigate through the  instructions on how to use it without too much of a problem, though didn't complete every task suggested to me.... thanks for making the instructions clear and precise.

Getting Started With SlideShare from Shivani Ramnath

Slideshare seems a good tool for sharing library related information/ideas to the outside world and indeed the voting results demonstrate its popularity.For me, going into the presentations was an interesting exercise with Phil Bradley's being the  best..... look at-'Why Libraries must see.....'  It is really interesting to see what is being 'put out there'. I did  brouse under the category of books but it came to nothing..... perhaps I did something wrong (can you tell me?) ......  nothing materialised . As for using Slideshare again,well I suppose I might  because it does seem a good tool.

Thing 19 -Wordle  was as much fun as Tagxedo  I thought. I had to get my head around what 'snipping tools' was all about and where and how to use it. For me, alot of what I personally am dealing with here with 23 Things is learning the language -  it feels like learning  the basics of a a new one and then having done that, navigate round how to use the tools, once I know what they are! I am desperate to go see a new play showing in the West End called Peter and Alice with Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw - been reading the reviews- since I am somewhat obsessed about this at the moment I have copied some of the text from one of the reviews - thats what the above is all about! I definitely feel I will be using Wordle again in the future... so thanks  team....for the 'intro'!

Thing 19

Thing 19 has been such fun to play around with..... a much more creative task than some of the previous ones. It was straight forward navigating through the instructions and it came (for me) at a good time in the term (think it paid for me to get alittle behind) however, I must move swiftly on to the next Thing (umm, maybe, as its coffee time, alittlle break first!) I am  feeling  the end is near regarding 23 Things and thats good and bad but thanks 'team' for this one.

Thing 18

QR Codes- I created one but don't ask me to do it again, at least not with a  Android Tablet- very problematic and I don't think I'm the only who will be saying that. It was very difficult to turn the tablet round and place in front of the sample QR code. I made my own personal one using the QR code generator found on the internet using http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ and then linked it to my blog URL. In respect of using QR codes in the library I can say that with some thought many ideas might be possible. The one and only idea I have  come up with thinking about this myself is that users could look at new periodical and  or book acquisitions that the library has subscribed to or purchased if a QR code was generated for this purpose.

Thing 17

I have to admit I was lazy with Thing 17(something to do with  having a bad day, but you don't want to know about that) I did quite enjoy having my world opened up to all things to do with posting/sharing images,looking at licenses- there clearly is another world out there and I now feel it's becoming mine, for a short while at least. Feel I've learnt something here which is all for the good.I haven't found it particularly easy to do this task, and I refer specifically here to copying in the HTML/BBCode and then moving on ..... I  did get there in the end however, to which I feel proud.Not a huge task I know but in my eyes...... PROGRESS!

Image0100

Image0100, a photo by judiwoodi on Flickr.

Wandering round Bosham, near Chichester the other weekend I found this cute little place and noticed the door. I guess the owners go round the back .... mostly!!!! .

Delicious  is useful for saving websites all of a similar theme or topic.Can't see myself using it myself but see it's usefullness and  it is also useful  if you want to follow other people's accounts and what they are following. I absolutely see the value of creating a  personal database idea which Mendeley is and this is particularly relevant  if you are final year undergraduate or postgraduate. I decided to only look at Mendeley because of time factors and because it's free and therefore the system are students will sign up to. The video tutorial was good. Thats as far as I got but with that ,plus a colleague talking me through how it works,well I felt that was enough for me in terms of awareness as to what the students will be doing  with it. Endnote I didn't look at but picked up from others that they were struggling abit. Maybe in a quieter period I will go back and revisit this particular Thing.  Having said all that I've said,I am glad to be made aware of these tools that our students are using so thank you the Sot 23 Things team!

Reflection Week has given me a chance to catch up as I was getting very behind with 23Things. This was due to heavy work load, but also perhaps, a loss of motivation and confidence. I was very quickly boyed up by my colleagues/mentors and managed to get myself back on track alittle bit. I am writing this two weeks on from Reflection Week so you can  see I still have some way to go even now but the difference is this time I do not feel deterred.... more determined ,yes determined, to get to the end of 23Things!.When I do take time to reflect and take stock I can see that I have come some considerable way with my knowledge and understanding of  all these 21st century tools and this is also helping me crack my technophobia.... so all things posive really. Better sign off ..... and crack on with all things, including 23Things!!!

Thing 12- looked at this a week or two back-  have got behind with all things/23Things(!) so now got to remember what conclusions I came to on this....umm, I'm struggling to remember, and sorry , but its partly my age (I know... useful excuse)! I already had a Linkedin account because a friend had alerted me to Linkedin a year or so back and  I had to set up the account for myself simply to read  the thing she had written. I have not used it since (well, once) and  apart from having a little bit of a play around this time, have decided it is not something I will be using though I can see its usefulness ie. proffessional networking.

I have mixed feelings about Facebook even though I can see its advantages for posting/commenting on newsworthy events. It gives one the ability to circulate news to a wide audience and for a library this is an excellent way of promoting its self and the things that are happening.There is a possibility that people could post negative comments  in respect to their experiences or events attended and this is then there obviously  for all the world to see, read, and equally respond to.

Setting up Firefox and Chrome straight forward, thankfully. Had a play around and particularly like Firefox for searching - think I might end up using this quite often.Useing tabs will be useful when searching/keeping things together. I have been bookmarking with IE for some time now so will do the same on  Firefox ,and then at some future stage,will decide which site to use the most as  am undecided  at the moment.

Adding a website(Doodle) to my Netvibes page

Instructions page looked straight forward enough when I first looked at it but then when I started using it I failed to find the 'link module' as  this was on page 2 and I hadn't realised there were further pages to go in to until it was pionted out.Just another learning curve is how I should look at it I suppose!

Doodling

 I find  the experience of  using Doodle an annoyance as it is distracting  because of  the advertising . I don't think I will be using this quite frankly as I don't have a need for setting up meetings with multiple options. Outlook serves my purposes perfectly well. On the social side,I prefer  to text my friends to arrange 'get togethers'.

RSS Feeds

Instructions were straightforward and  I felt reasonably intuitive when it came to setting up the feed. Thinking about it, and  as its  now gone on my Netvibes page,I can't see I will use much .....  See previous blog regarding Netvibes!

Netvibes

Found instructions clear but also made discovery regarding my learning style, which is - I learn by visual stimulas and also by talking to people.Once talked over with Sot23 Things participants I felt much more able to engage with this tool. Having said that, I find that I prefer to go into individual sites and so can't see myself using Netvibes much. Appreciate being made aware of it however.

Challenging in Latvian!

 Just thought I'd post up something regarding my last choir practice- which was actually a workshop conducted by a incredibly gifted and enthusiastic teacher who taught the choir a lovely Lativian folksong.It was challenging getting to grips with the pronunciation, but a beautiful end result in three part harmony!

First things first...

Today was  my first day at firstly, setting up a blog and now secondly, writing on my blog post. It, I have got to say, has not been quite as scarey an experience as I imagined it to be, and was actually quite fun. The calling it a name bit was fun as I thought I'd choose something that gave something away about who I am. I am hoping you will see by the title that I like singing, and even singing in the rain! I sing in the rain because I don't like rain and by singing, it stops me feeling fed up! I sing mostly in a choir but also, as I say, in the rain ....and  also in the bath.