Reflecting and Evaluating

This has been a fantastic learning experience for me. Every week I have encountered something difficult and have come out knowing more and more about Web 2.0 functions. This experience has been really enjoyable. I have thought about functions I use every day in a new light. These include Facebook, MySpace (for music), Wikipedia and Google maps. For example, I traditionally used Facebook for social networking, I now consider myself more of a librarian and I am constantly sharing little internet gems that I find through this medium. I also came across concepts that I have never really used like podcasting and mash ups. Defining a mash up was my most difficult concept to grasp. I learned how to use sites like Flickr, LibraryThing and Del.icio.us that are new (to me) ways to share and find resources. I have been introduced to issues related to how libraries would need to function in this technological setting. This process has allowed me to think through how I feel about privacy, usefulness and, let's face it, entertainment. The medium of the blog itself has been ideal for this experience.

When I had established my blog I needed to make choices relating to format and style. It was not until I continued to blog that I could see the potential for adding extra information. My blog now has Web 2.0 and library related You Tube clips, an image slide show and a "this day in history" section. This is my way of stepping into the library profession. I have found things that I personally find interesting and I am sharing them in an interactive way. The blogging process has given me a way to communicate with colleagues, who have helped me in many ways and I hope, have been helped by me. It has been a process of discovering and sharing for all of us. As a group, we have all equally participated, interacted and communicated, executed tasks, persisted and reflected. We have discussed professional issues and questioned the value of functions (such as the discussion between Loretta and myself relating to pod casts). Personally, I feel that I have followed the criteria. I know I have participated, executed and persisted. I have enjoyed this adventure and made sure that I learned something new every week and achieved what I set out to achieve (I got a Flickr slide show!). I have reflected in different ways. Sometimes I expressed joy when I finally understood how to do something and other times I questioned the value of functions and how I could use them. Interaction and communication was essential for this assignment.

I would recommend that this process of individual work supported by the help and ideas of classmates should continue in Document Management. This is the section of the Document Management course that I have learnt the most in. The reason for this is that we are encouraged to discover in a medium where we are allowed to learn from our mistakes. I have made many errors such as posting YouTube clips that I had in my Facebook account and posting that URL straight to the site so that people not logged on Facebook could not read it. This mistake taught me that when a link is posted on a site, the URL actually changes. This is only one example of the many things I have learned.

I feel that because this is a "have a go" situation, I would not say that I have struggled because I knew that if I asked, someone would help. I have used Web 2.0 functions that I feel are relevant to my own learning since the weeks that they were introduced (from whichever week). For example, I have continued to post useful (and perhaps not so useful) YouTube clips. I used the YouTube clips to help me with mash ups. I personally enjoyed this process. I certainly think that there does not need to be anymore work for this particular task. I am now so confident with Web 2.0 because of this blogging assignment. As stated, this process has allowed me to feel more like an information professional. I am sharing resources, using the recommendations of my colleagues and am thinking more about contemporary issues related to privacy, authority and usefulness. I know that I will continue to use Web 2.0 functions and will continue to learn from them.