Summary

I thoroughly enjoyed Betty Blogger summer school.

I would upgrade my knowledge of web 2.0 and its applications to a 6 or 6.5 out of 10 from a 2 out of 10 at the start. There are still some applications that I am unfamiliar with such as Twitter. Also I  need to do some more exploring of the ones covered in the summer school to become a more proficient user.  But I certainly learned a tremendous amount during these past six weeks.

Betty Blogger summer school did exceed my expectations with its wide variety of tasks and how well it was run.

The Library Lady also exceeded my expectations. She was very approachable, helpful and enthusiastic  and always provided timely and encouraging feedback as tasks were completed.

The most challenging part of Betty Blogger was probably when the instructions given to us in Task #6: Productivity Tools - Google Docs did not work since Google had made a new version. This was just a minor blip though as the Library Lady helped us to work around it.

I found the self-directed learning model very successful.  I could work at my own pace which I appreciated given other commitments during the summer.  I really enjoyed exploring things that interested me in each application so that I could more fully understand the application, its pros and cons and whether it would be useful to me in the future.  Also it was so much fun to view other participants' blog posts from how they set up their blogs (background used, blog names, photos, gadgets, etc) to their experiences with each application and of course some wonderful recipes.  I also liked  the comments which made the summer school quite interactive.

Yes, I most definitely would recommend the Better Blogger summer school to a friend. Two thumbs up!!!

Task #9: Cataloguing

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/BarbsPicks

It took me a while to get this hyperlink to work but I finally did with Library Lady's help. 

I really enjoyed LibraryThing. It is easy to use. It is a great way to keep track of lists of books you have read, books you want to read or put on hold, recommendations for book clubs, etc. This is a tool that I will definitely use again.

Task #8: Feeds

I subscribed to the following RSS feeds on Google Reader:

CBC Top News Stories
The Globe and Mail - Books RSS Feed

I found Google Reader quite easy to use. I am not sure of the benefit to subscribing to CBC Top New Stories over just googling it directly. I will have to explore it further to see if I will continue to use Google Reader.

Task #7: Wikis

I will be bringing homemade peach pie with vanilla ice-cream to the family picnic. What a great way to use those baskets of peaches from the farmers' market.

I found PBWiki  very easy to use. It is a great tool to use for family gatherings, group projects, etc and I will definitely use it in the future.

Task #6: Productivity Tools

Task #5: Photo Sharing

The tag assigned to the picture I selected from Picasa Web Albums and sent to the Library Lady is backyard birds.  I enjoyed viewing the many photos on Picasa.   I will probably continue to use this application from time to time to explore  topics of interest to me but  I don't think that I will use it to publish my own photos for other people to see.   I usually just send a couple of photos to relatives or friends at Christmas or show photos to friends during visits and then put them in photo albums.  I can see how this application would be very useful to someone who wants to share their photos with a large group of people or family members who live far away and who can then view the photos at their leisure.

Task #4: Social Networks

Initially upon starting this assignment I did sign up for a Facebook account under a pseudonym however I have since deactivated my account and applied to delete it (it takes 14 days).  I do not feel comfortable with a Facebook account because even though I can use a pseudonym I still have to use my e-mail address which contains my name.  I feel that this may compromise my privacy.  Also with my e-mail available to Facebook who may sell it to third parties, I may receive more junk mail which I then have to delete.

My concerns about social networking are:
1)Lack of privacy.  Even though there are numerous privacy settings it is more difficult to control the information you put on Facebook than if you don't sign up in the first place. 
2)Online social networking where a record is left of everything can create more problems than offline social interactions where nothing is recorded. Too often one hears that Facebook users regret their Facebook interactions  later when applying for a job since employers have access to their information.
3)Social networking can promote the indiscrete use of information as opposed to traditional face-to-face social interactions that use intuition, physical cues and good old-fashioned judgement in a more open atmosphere.
4)Too much time spent on the computer instead of being an active member of your community.