This is not the end because that would be too sad

I did not make too many brand new discoveries on this journey. There was not enough time to learn about how to use the new things I was not familiar with. The wiki sandbox was probably the most useful one tool I tried. I want to make a communication wiki if others in my department will like that idea. I also enjoyed doing the things that I was already somewhat familiar with. Oh yes and morphing into a panther was pretty cool :-)

There is so much to learn and I will continue to spend time on my own to learn more about these many tools that I was introduced to during this journey. If there is a similar program in the future, I would certainly volunteer to participate. I like programs that push me to learn new things.

I would definitely recommend more time for novices to web 2.0 and perhaps a buddy mentor system to help those who feel overwhelmed.

Overall, I enjoyed the program. I would like to continue my blog in case I find interesting things to share.

Overdrive

As I began teaching about learning styles to my own students, it became clear to me that I was never really an "auditory learner". I have always loved writing and prefer that as a way of communicating because I can see it. I am definitely more visual (which is one of the reasons I use different color fonts to see the different posts I have written more clearly). Hence, reading an actual book has always been appealing rather than checking out an audio book. Although when one of the libraries that I worked for discarded their collection of the most notable philosphers of American political heritage, I did snatch those up and listened to them in my car while driving to and from work.

I did go and explore Overdrive as requested. When it first came out, I went to through the tour and looked around in order to help customers reach these resources. Now for the first time I listened to a few excerpts. Although I had somewhat difficulty with not seeing anything related to the audio I was hearing, I was able to concentrate and "get interested" in the books I selected. I noticed that having the excerpt is a wonderful way to "hook" a potential customer into checking out the book. Although I love historical fiction, fantasy and different kinds of stories. I actually spend much more time reading and browsing non-fiction. I therefore looked at the titles from the genre section and chose "Self-Help" section. I believe that the most imortant thing about our life as humans is to figure out how we can improve ourselves in order to become better people to be around. I am very intersted in different topics in psychology and read about ways to cope with every day stress of parenting, marriage and life in general.

I did not download the programs on my computer at home but I might. Audiobooks are something that I will keep in mind and perhaps utilize in the future. However, currently I am concentrating on preparing a proposal for my online class, so further explorations in Overdrive will have to wait.

Podcasts

It is slightly cumbersome to explore Podcasts at work on computers where we do not have speakers. However, I did listen to a few children's stories from a library's website and thought it was a clever idea. I will have to let my little dude listen to a Podcast on a Peter Rabbit story and see if he can pay attention. Personally I found the NPR site helpful. Here is the link again http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php

I also added a feed from BookExpo America. It might be a useful one to follow about new and upcoming titles for collection development for the branch.

YouTube Experience

Well, after some trial and error and asking Dan, I finally got my video on the blog. The reason I chose the advertisement for the Summer Reading Program is because 1) I'm on it (STAR!!) 2) The Programming Committee came up with it and I'm on the Committee :-) 3) As member of the Programming Committee it is my job to promote the FUN SUMMER READING PROGRAM! 4) It is the best Youtube video in the history of Youtube videos!

I have explored YouTube before mostly to watch all the funny Cat videos available. However, it can be annoying because all kinds of videos that could have inappropriate content pop up. One time I saw a really weird video of a prank that was played to a delivery guy. A lady pretended that a human being was their cat and then the cat / person asked the delivery guy for help to get out of there. It was borderline disturbing although I'm sure it was meant to be funny.

Programming Committee Stars on YouTube