Geocaching and wrap up

Phew... I remembered my password after the Christmas break. 

This is not really the final wrap up as I know I haven't done everything exactly so for the assessments exactly right, so I'm going to have to review it all too.

Geo caching

I couldn't participate in this as I didn't have access to any of the required technology.  I didn't even know what some of it is :)

However the library geo caching thingies seem quite fun.  I wonder however how the kids in the story time area can manage with all the technology if I don't even know what it is.  Somehow a simpler Easter egg hunt could be better...  I know my troglodyte tendencies are showing again...

I have been looking at my assessment requirements and realised I have to do 100 words on each topic, not each blog, so am now editing this ! 

When I went to the Geo caching website it was interesting to note that there were a number of caches in my area, even one in my specific suburb.  It was also interesting to note that there were subjects of interest eg there was a star treck cache.  I also like the way that it was organised by date, so that you could see what caches were most recent.  However it did look like most of them had been found - even the very recent ones.  I was a bit confused about the little symbols and what they all meant.  Some of them were obvious, but others were unclear to me.  I guess that's one of the things that you learn as you go along if doing this sort of thing.

Wrap up.

What have I got out of this course and what will I use?  Having done something similar before I already got a lot out of that IE learning what the heck all these words mean and what people are doing on computers.  This time I got more detail.  There are some things I will use personally (no really) eg RSS feeds.  I did actually send one to my work e mail and will do a little more of that.  The social stuff actually freaks me, so although Delicious would be a great idea for me at work I will continue to create favourite lists on lots of different computers just so that I don't have to share with anyone else.     However weirdly I might keep my face book and g mail,  accounts.   the g mail account because my personal e mail is very bouncy and unreliable at the moment.   I have friends on face book (real ones that I know in person) who are overseas and it might be a way of keeping up with what they are doing, but I wouldn't use my account to post my information.  I'd still send my friends personal and specific and "old hat" e mails.    I guess doing this this time has clarified what I like and dislike about the web 2.0 stuff and as I have said earlier I am a reader, not a writer. (I LOVE you tube).  I am also now more comfortable showing people HOW to do things - as I said in my first post I think showing someone how they can set up an e mail account so that they can start applying for jobs is one of the most important things I can do in the library.  I know this is easy for some but not so for me and also for some of the people we get in libraries.  It always surprises me when I find that I am a bit more computer literate than someone else.  I also have a real big bee in my bonnet about processes that require people to have computer skills which may not  be an essential part of their jobs as I think that  actually discriminates against groups of people who have less access to this sort of technology - such as older people, women, people without the funds etc.  I also see this as one of the main reasons to have computers in libraries, so that people can have access to the technology.  I also like to see when people have access to training and support in using the technology.  I love it that we run computer courses for seniors in one of our libraries and I see myself as one of the supports (despite my limited knowledge).  I have worked in academic libraries where students are just expected to have the computer skills and had students on the phone in tears because they couldn't work the library systems to request books sent to them as external students in the country.  I have been able to talk the students thought the processes so that they could get their books, so that they knew how to do it the next time and so that they didn't feel so damn stupid after all.  They were not stupid, they were unaware of some procedural steps.  I also get really angry that we make processes so traumatic for people. Again I see this as discriminatory.  However I am always happy when I am able to bridge the gap a little.  It's funny showing my Mum how to do stuff on the computer and find she is asking the same sort of questions that I asked not so long ago - so what is the difference between a web address and a web browser anyway and why can't I put this (address) in google?  and what does "internet" mean anyway - what IS it?  These questions seem smart when my mum asks them.  I felt dumb when I asked them.  Stepping down off my soap box....

We can use a lot of this technology in libraries.  Face book, twitter and pod casts and yes, Geo aching can all be used to promote library services and events along with web pages and good old fashioned fliers (some of which I create in publisher).  I don't see that this will be my role as there is always going to be someone in libraries with better computer skills than me (or we are all in deep trouble,) but it is always good to have a bit of an idea about how such clever people do what they do.  I actually went on a web page creation workshop at one stage, not so that I would ever be a web master (is that the term?), but so that I would have an understanding of what they do and how and also of the strengths and limitations of web pages - what can they do.

To me I see this course a bit like that - it gives me more of an idea of what  and this time a bit more of how  this technology can be used in libraries and I will be better able to follow the conversation of staff who make these sorts of suggestions instead of glazing over. 

XXX Harry