Relax and Reflect

There are so many things that I learned. Some of the training subjects I knew of but never tried. I was glad that I did! (Social networks,Blogging, Gaming, ect.) I don't think on a personal level I would do alot of these again. But it is good to know how so that I if a patron comes up an asks me about Facebook or Delicious I would be able to give them some information instead of a blank stare. There are other online resources that I would mention to the partons, such as, Overdrive and Google docs, that would really be use to them I think. I would definitely like to do another program like this. It wasn't as hard as I imagined. There were some trainings that I struggled with but in the end I got it. What really suprised me the most, was how much stuff you can do online, that doesn't cost a thing. All in all it was a training that I am glad I had!

Gaming

I was never good at games! The free games in yahoo were easy to find. It was easier than I thought. I tried a game that I was really bad at. But it was fun! I did feel a little guilty playing while at work. It is good to know some places that I can show parents for their children to play games in besides Disney.

Maps and Geotagging

Boy! That was fun. I first went to Walt Disney World and then hung around Paris for a while. Then I went to Vegas and the Grand Canyon and Scotland. I like the purple information dots and the cameras that show pictures of the spot. I found everything I was looking for with ease. what suprised me is when I got directions for a place in Canada, it was more than driving directions there is also a video. Everything is visual. This is a nice place for any kind of mapping, directions or if you just want to look around at a city or place.

Avatars and Second Life

I had fun creating my avatar. My virtual self looks a little more hip than my real self. Okay, a lot more hip! I don't live in Second Life. I don't think I would like to. It could get to be time consuming, I think, or more like addicting. But I think I can see why some people would like to live in the virtual world.

Online Applications & Tools

These are very important tools, that I think would help patrons. So many of them work on reports and they run out of time. To have a document, that is saved and can be edited by people of their choosing, all without using a floppy, disc, or flashdrive is wonderful!! Both sites seem to be very user friendly.

Search Engines

I enjoyed looking the other search engines. I am one of those people that gets stuck in a rut. I find something that works and I stick with it. I found that in each search engine I found something I liked. In Mamma, I liked that on the right side it gave me a choice to refine my search. In Rollyo, I liked that on the left side it has the sites the searches came from. For instance it will say: Entire Web or it will list specific sites. In Dogpile, it has Are you looking for? and Recent Searches to help you browse the search engine. They all seem very organized. In Mamma and Dogpile if you misspell a word they ask you if you were searching for the "correctly spelled word" but I found that in Rollyo when I misspelled a word, it automatically found what I was looking for regardless of the spelling. It might not have been the first link on the page but it still found a link with the correctly spelled word. I think that maybe I would have to be careful with that.

Podcasting

Once I got the hang of puting feeds on my reader, it was very simple and fun. I would like to spend more time with this. I listened to the National Library of Medicine and the Lunar & Planetary Institute. I think this could be useful source of information that patrons could use on their own time. I think topics that are educational or have to do with travel (especially in the summer months) would be excellent. I haven't had much experience with podcasting, listening or doing the whole podcast thing!