Summary

Wow!! What an experience. I was very apprehensive when I started this program as I do not have the internet at home and I really only know what is required for my work here in the library. It is amazing how much that I have learnt from this program - thank you for the opportunity to experience all that is out there in computer world. Although I found it quite difficult at times, I am glad that I stuck with each task as I now feel a lot more confident with the computer. I really don't know how many of these resources I will use but at least I have a handle on them for when I do.

I would really recommend this program to others.

The Model T now feels quite confident to cruise around the internet and learn even more. Brooom, brooom.

Social Networking

I explored "Twitter" and set up an account.

I looked at My Space and Facebook and tried to set up a Facebook account. As I did not want my personal details on the web, I used a false identity and Facebook would not recognise the name so I didn't bother continuing to try to set up an account that I didn't want. Facebook may have it's advantages but I think that it is quite anti-social. If I want to talk to my friends or show them photos, I actually go and visit them. If I can't visit them, I use email for the same purpose.

Podcasts, Video and Downloadable audio

I had a look at Yahoo videos, Google videos and then YouTube. I don't use any of these other than watching the odd popular video that my friends email to me. I searched for Model T Ford and came across a video called "Ford Model T Centennial Event - Car and Driver". It can be found at http://youtu.be/eVHlsKLX5_E I think that some videos could be educational for the library but I also think that you could waste a lot of time on them.
Of the 3 Podcast Directories that I looked at, only one worked for me. That was Podcastalley.com where I found an interesting site titled "Ask the Professor", an American radio program, that I added to my Bloglines account as an RSS feed. I am actually quite proud that I managed to do this, as nothing seemed to be working for me and it took quite a while to find an interesteng Podcast.
The Model T has just gone into top gear!!!!

Google World

This week, I have looked at Google products. I found Google Maps was quite out of date - by at least 2 years - which didn't really impress me. Finding directions from one location to another was excellent. I have actually used this before and it is very helpful. I am pleased to announce that Google Docs worked for me the first time - yay!!! I logged into iGoogle and customised my page along with adding Google Map Search gadget, Google Book Search gadget, Facebook gadget and Google Docs and Spreadsheet gadget. I also added the Countdown gadget and have it set to count down to Christmas - yay again!!! This week's task was a lot easier, so, hopefully I am beginning to get the knack of all this. I'll just keep rollin' along in my old Model T.

Wikis

I found this task the easiest so far, probably because I understand it from using Wikis in my everyday work. I found the different Wikis that I looked at quite interesting. I found some valuable information to help me with my work and also some interesting titles in the examples of library wikis. The concept of sharing and storing information in Wiki format is just great - I really like this part of information technology. Editing the LibNet Wiki was fairly straightforward - I just had trouble thinking of a quote to add.

Tagging, Folksonomies & Technorati

I have had a look at del.icio.us and followed a trail from a Model T Car bookmark. This led me to a technology site where I watched a video of a car that is being built for blind drivers - not just an electronic car that has pre-set controls, but a car that the blind person can actually drive.....veeerry interesting. I know that I could become addicted to this site quite easily. A different matter when I had a look at Technorati. I found this site more than a little confusing and really don't know what I would ever use it for - maybe I just don't understand the concept. Unfortunately, when I tried to look at Technorati's Popular Section, the message said that it is currently unavailable. My search for "Learning 2.0" in Blog Posts found everything with the word "learning" and also with "2.0" in the blog; same search in the Blog Directory found 0 results; and a click on tags brought up an alphabetical listing of popular tags in the last month and I couldn't even find where to search the tags section for a particular tag such as "Learning 2.0". I clicked on a couple of tags about "Social networking" and found the information quite interesting. Will the old Model T ever catch up with all this new technology? Hmmmmm