Beyond Method #12

• What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? Methods 7,8, and 9 were the ones I had the least experience with, and I spent the most time on those. I'd heard discussions about these technologies but never had reason/opportunity to explore them and now I have and I can now speak intelligently about them.
  
• How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? Definitely has assisted by making me aware of more technologies and becoming more practiced at the ones I already knew!
  
• Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? Not really, I expected to learn a few new cool things and I did.
  
• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? Hmm, maybe make it a requirement that we comment on another participant's blog at least once. I checked a few others' blogs from time to time but maybe if we had the assignment to comment on others' blogs that would make it a little more interactive with each other and therefore, a little more fun.
  
• If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate? I would definitely do so. Thanks for this opportunity and I can't wait to see what's up next.
  

Beyond Method #11

I have used online survey tools as a respondent many times, mostly SurveyMonkey. I was pleased to go though this method #11 though b/c I assumed all free survey sites were limited to 10 questions; I now see there are others that offer up to 20 free questions, which is good to know!

My library has surveyed our users, but I'm not sure which survey they used.

I tried Zoomerang (one of the free 20-questioners) and created a quick 3-question survey. So gimme them bonus points!

Whew! Sick Leave This Week

Dang, I just got knocked off my feet by the nastiest upper respiratory infection (URI) that I've had since I was a kid, probably. I was fighting off a cold (mostly unsuccessfully) since Fri. the 27th, and last Fri. night at my gig I started coughing, which worsened throughout the day on Sat. Chills/fever forced me home on Sat. evening and on Sun. morning my boyfriend forced me to the grocery-store clinic where they gave me antibiotics and sent me home to bed, where I stayed from Sun-Tues. Finally yesterday I felt well enough to move from the bedroom to the couch downstairs, and got back to work today. I still have a lingering cough but each day is better and better. I've only got a couple more lessons to finish for this 2-steppin' thing, and hope to get to it in a (business) day or 2.

Beyond Method #10

We use Adobe Connect for our webcasts from the local NNLM office and it is a fine and easy product for our uses. I've become accustomed to it and have attended probably a dozen or more Adobe Connect webcasts over the past couple of years. I've also watched some archived webcasts, such as the most recent MLA2011's offerings that were just put up.

My library does not yet have the capability to produce webcasts (I just asked IT about this a few weeks ago) but I know it's an idea we've been kicking around. I'm guessing the Education Librarian is or will be working on incorporating webcasting at some point.

Beyond Method #9

I did a very basic scrapbook at Mixbook. I would have preferred to do a narrated slideshow but as we know from the previous method, I am computer-microphone-challenged.

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

My impression is that these tools are simply going to have to take some time to get used to, as with any other online application/program. But yes there is definitely a learning curve and one that easily takes hours/days.

Another reason I'd prefer to do a narrated slideshow is I could put it to music and also this online scrapbooking, while definitely a cool thing, has its creative limitations, specifically (at least on Mixbook) that the template offerings are BORING and cliche and too girly and quotidian for me. Still, it was fun to play with, I just had to delete a bunch of the cutie graphics and icons.

Beyond Method #8

So this was a fun method to get into, as I have zero experience w/screencasting. However because my computer has "no audio" device installed I was unable to totally complete the screencast. I used Screenr which was mostly easy to use (signed in with my LinkedIn account) and I just grabbed a quick shot so I could have something to "turn in" for this assignment. My screencast is called "My favorite Podcasts" and if I had audio I'd be describing why I like these Podcasts the most.



I wish I knew how to get an audio device but the TechSoup article was not up and the ScreenJelly link btw did not work. Screenr doesn't seem to have a FAQ anywhere that will help you out. None of the other articles described how to get an audio device. Do I have to go buy a USB microphone or something? Sometimes the most obvious things are not that obvious to others, people!

Beyond Method #7

I already know PowerPoint of course, and I've used Slideshare to share speakers' presentations with others so for this method I chose SlideRocket as my choice of online presentation tool to try out and created a brief slideshow (thought it sure didn't take a brief amount of time to create, chuckle!).

I like SlideRocket ok, although I didn't know it timed out and that was a little annoying. I don't do many presentations since my training that I conduct is always done live online, as part of my job is training on NLM health resource websites. I've seen a Prezi presentation and thought it was a nice change of pace from the usual PPT's, but I can see where it's a little dangerous to use if you don't do it JUST RIGHT!

I like the idea of online presentation tools, though as I was just finishing up my SlideRocket presentation my computer was hanging up and just taking awhile to do anything, so I will still definitely always consider and recommend having a backup presentation on thumb drive.