Betty Blogger summer school

I've advanced to about 6 or 7 on the web 2.guru scale. I think I have a pretty good understanding of the programs: it just takes me a long time to work my way through the menus. Like any new skill: practice makes perfect.

I particularly like Picasa for sharing pictures.

The Betty Blogger summer school sessions did meet my expectations. It's always a challenge working your way through written instructions to carry out an assignment. Advancing through the instructions can be painstakingly slow during the first few attempts to use a new program. However, this is also one of the advantages of the self-directed learning model. Proceeding slowly and carefully through the menu is an exercise in logic and learning to think like the computer.

I have already recommended the program to friends.

Creating my listings in Library Thing

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

I don't find Library Thing as interesting as other programs we have learned about this summer. Using the menu is much less intuitive than the other social media programs. Safari closed unexpectedly at one point as I was entering information.

I may use Library Thing again, but it's well down on the priority list of social media programs I'm likely to use regularly.

creating my listings in Library Thing

I like the idea of Library Thing, but found the procedure for compiling listings to be much less intuitive than other programs we have worked with in Web 2.0 this summer.

I will likely use Library Thing again, but it isn't as attractive to me as Picasa is for picture sharing

Getting full on RSS feeds

I've just subscribed to three sites on RSS: Burlington Teen Tour Band, growing crepe myrtle trees and Drum Corps Associates.,

Google Reader is very easy to use. I'll be browsing my list of bookmarks to determine which sites I'll access through Google Reader instead of visiting individual sites.

family picnic contribution

My contribution to the family meal will be black bean brownies. In fact, just writing about them has sparked my appetite, so I'm going to make a batch this afternoon to eat at this evening's meal.

Using PB Wiki has been one of the easier tasks on this summer course (or maybe I'm just becoming more familiar with social media programs and a little more confident using them.)

Don't think I have any need for my own wiki at this point.

black bean brownies

The picture of the barred owl on Picasa, dark mysterious eyes staring directly at the viewer, wings a blur of motion, enhances the reputation of owls as intriquing creatures of the night.

The tags assigned to the picture are:

Wow. Well done

You have got some nice shots of the owl

Picasa offers a great alternative to attaching photos to an email message and dealing with the file size limits which often limit transmission to just one or two pictures at a time.

Yes, I will continue to use Picasa

twitter: more and more saying less and less

Twitter gives it hordes of users the opportunity to circulate their views and statements, although there's no guarantee every tweeter will attract hordes of readers. Just because a statement has been published it isn't necessarily interesting to all readers.

If McLuhan is right, then the significance of Twitter isn't the staggering number of messages, trivial and otherwise, in circulation, it's the impact that social networking is making on interpersonal relations.

Let's hope it doesn't completely replace face to face communication and relationships.

Still, I like it and will continue to use it because my views and expressions are, of course, highly interesting, non trivial and make compelling reading. LOL

Bookmarking in Diigo

I bookmarked the Drum Corps Planet site (tag: news, expert columns, opinions) and the Cornell University Ornithology Lab site(facts, theories about birds) to reflect two long time hobbies: marching music and bird watching.
I already make extensive use of the bookmarking function in Safari, but will likely continue to use Diigo because of the extra info that can be added and the ease of accessibility from any computer.

I had to fumble my way through the bookmarking process somewhat using Safari because the drop boxes and instructions vary from the summer course outline.  But, here I am at the end of week 3!

yellow cat

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baby steps in Web 2

My level of knowledge of Web 2.0 and its applications is a mere baby step above level 1 (Web 2.huh?).  I know that social media dominate communication activities around the world but have never before ventured beyond email in exploring these vast new regions of electronic communications.

I guess this means it's no longer necessary to go to a Tim Hortons shop to get up to date on neighborhood gossip.