I'm no genious with the computer. I can get around, try to follow my intuition to see where the trail takes me. However, I have to admit that there was lots of very interesting tools on line that were simple to use; tools that I had never heard of before. I'm just a beginner, but at least there are new places for me to visit and use.
The Betty Blogger course provided a taste of the tools; some were obviously useful while others not so much. It is was nice skim through to see what felt right personally.
Thank you Library Lady for helping me out of a couple of jams. That was all that was needed. An ear (or eye) as needed and some redirection. No hand holding was necessary. The Blogspot was primarily what guided me through.
The challenging part was visiting such a variety of places/tools with the brief visit and then on to the next one. It was tempting to stay with one piece and I had to keep moving myself forward to try other places and move to the next lesson.
The self directed learning module was straightforward and easy to use and written in a fun, conversational way.
I have already recommended this to other women and moms my age (and even several that were younger than me). My husband too is keen on doing the course in the future.
Thank you Library Lady for your help and support. Hope to see you in the on line world in the future.
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Library Thing: What a thing!
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Cutie-Pie
Are you like me...you've run out of books to read and you are anxious to read a good book. What a pain to have no idea what that book was that was so enjoyable or the author that you couldn't wait to read another one of the series?
What is great about library thing is, as you find books that you enjoy, you have a place on line to keep track of those authors and book series that you enjoyed. It would then be so much easier to track down like books, books of the same series, or books by the same author at a future time.
It is easy to see the usefulness of this tool. And, it is so easy to use.
I did not try the social connectedness of this as I often shy away from that, however, if I did, I bet my mom and I would have very similar lists! :-)
Are you like me...you've run out of books to read and you are anxious to read a good book. What a pain to have no idea what that book was that was so enjoyable or the author that you couldn't wait to read another one of the series?
What is great about library thing is, as you find books that you enjoy, you have a place on line to keep track of those authors and book series that you enjoyed. It would then be so much easier to track down like books, books of the same series, or books by the same author at a future time.
It is easy to see the usefulness of this tool. And, it is so easy to use.
I did not try the social connectedness of this as I often shy away from that, however, if I did, I bet my mom and I would have very similar lists! :-)
Saturday, 20 August 2011
Google Reader: Picking the Cream off the Top
You have probably already guessed it. I would much sooner be reading a paper or a book, then reading a computer screen. It can take so much time to update myself on the various interests that surround me on the computer, that it is always a last resort to gather information unless the specifics are defined.
Google reader appears to be an excellent application that simplified being updated on significant websites of interest without extra search steps.
In my exploration of google reader and RSS feeds, I have subscribed to Michigan's Infant Mental Health project feeds, Zero to Three resources, Canadian Consumer Product Safety Information, Canadian Living updates and California's Infant Mental Health Project.
It was very easy to complete the subscription process as well as to review the relevant information connected to the various feeds.
I believe that google reader will be a helpful tool that has the potential to steamline many an online quest for resources and updated information on a variety of topics. The challenge will be in keeping the feeds to a finite key number so as not to be overwhelmed with the volume of updates that will be provided.
Google reader appears to be an excellent application that simplified being updated on significant websites of interest without extra search steps.
In my exploration of google reader and RSS feeds, I have subscribed to Michigan's Infant Mental Health project feeds, Zero to Three resources, Canadian Consumer Product Safety Information, Canadian Living updates and California's Infant Mental Health Project.
It was very easy to complete the subscription process as well as to review the relevant information connected to the various feeds.
I believe that google reader will be a helpful tool that has the potential to steamline many an online quest for resources and updated information on a variety of topics. The challenge will be in keeping the feeds to a finite key number so as not to be overwhelmed with the volume of updates that will be provided.
Sunday, 14 August 2011
Wikis...now that wasn't hard!
I've heard of wiki in terms of leaks, but never had I seen one in action.
What a great way to gather all kinds of bits of information from lots of people and have it altogether in one place where any contributors can see the total of all of the contributions. It was very easy to create and use the wiki account. While at this time, I cannot see an immediate needs for such a thing, for many family occasions with my email crazy family, I can see the benefits of such a tool. No more cluttered email when finding out what each other wants for Christmas, or what potluck items to bring to help grandma get dinner for the whole bunch!
To our family picnic (the subject of the wiki), I will bring my own special shortcake with tons of berries to die for and some real whipped cream!! My salivary glands are already working overtime in preparation!
What a great way to gather all kinds of bits of information from lots of people and have it altogether in one place where any contributors can see the total of all of the contributions. It was very easy to create and use the wiki account. While at this time, I cannot see an immediate needs for such a thing, for many family occasions with my email crazy family, I can see the benefits of such a tool. No more cluttered email when finding out what each other wants for Christmas, or what potluck items to bring to help grandma get dinner for the whole bunch!
To our family picnic (the subject of the wiki), I will bring my own special shortcake with tons of berries to die for and some real whipped cream!! My salivary glands are already working overtime in preparation!
Trying Out Google Docs
For the first time, I visited Google Docs. This was a terrific website for creating presentations, spreadsheets and documents unencumbered by software. Below is the link as well as the embed code for the document that I created on Google Docs. This is a site that will be on my "keeper" list from the Betty Blogger course.
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=18slfYNoHGHHd9dp_293soP-OGnvKxDWxhenNa4ZCqlE%20%20
<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=18slfYNoHGHHd9dp_293soP-OGnvKxDWxhenNa4ZCqlE&embedded=true"></iframe>
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=18slfYNoHGHHd9dp_293soP-OGnvKxDWxhenNa4ZCqlE%20%20
<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=18slfYNoHGHHd9dp_293soP-OGnvKxDWxhenNa4ZCqlE&embedded=true"></iframe>
Sunday, 7 August 2011
Photo Sharing Online: Lots of potential
Picasa Web Albums provides a good way to share photos with a finite list of friends or family. It was a simple site to use. It was easy to upload a couple of pictures and send them to family members (and myself) as a test of the site. A maximum of a little over 1000 MB were allowed, which would amount to between 1 and 2 thousand photos depending on their size (2 photos that I uploaded were 1 MB).
In the search feature, there seemed to be an endless possible numbers of features to search. In my search, the word "adoption" netted me lots of photos that ranged from kittens to puppies to birds and children of various ages.
A lovely picture of a dog had the tags of "purebread", "chocolate", "labrador", "retriever", "male", "dog", "adopt" and "adoption". Photos of children tended to have no tags attached, or have simply "children" or "adoption". It was surprising how many photos of children were available, with family names underneath. From a safety perspective this seemd to me to be a little risky when young children were highlighted in the photos.
While it seems that this site could be useful, the quantity of MB available for storage seems relatively small. My daughter already has over 2000 photos on her ipod. However, this does provide a way to organize and maintain photos that can be viewed by many others. I think there is good potential here that I may use in future.
In the search feature, there seemed to be an endless possible numbers of features to search. In my search, the word "adoption" netted me lots of photos that ranged from kittens to puppies to birds and children of various ages.
A lovely picture of a dog had the tags of "purebread", "chocolate", "labrador", "retriever", "male", "dog", "adopt" and "adoption". Photos of children tended to have no tags attached, or have simply "children" or "adoption". It was surprising how many photos of children were available, with family names underneath. From a safety perspective this seemd to me to be a little risky when young children were highlighted in the photos.
While it seems that this site could be useful, the quantity of MB available for storage seems relatively small. My daughter already has over 2000 photos on her ipod. However, this does provide a way to organize and maintain photos that can be viewed by many others. I think there is good potential here that I may use in future.
Thursday, 4 August 2011
Diigo: A Simple Way to Organize
This was my first visit to Diigo. It is now a tool bar on my computer. It was very easy to use and provides a very nice listing of websites that meet personal criteria. Of course, I only have 3 right now, but the list will surely grow as time to explore grows. The potential of the site is exceptional, personally and for learning.
Right now, I only have 3 bookmarks: 2 related to food because of the creativity needed with a growing family that loves to eat, and one health related.
1. Canadian Living Recipe Directory
2. Foodland Ontario
3. Health Canada
For the Canadian Living Recipe Directory, the tags of Canadian Living, diabetic (because it has some excellent recipes for this audience), directory and recipe are identified.
For Foodland Ontario, the tags of recipes, food and Ontario are listed.
Lastly, for Health Canada, the tabs of illness, prevention, consumer products and Government are listed.
Because I can see lots of potential for this site, I do expect to use it in the future both personally and work related. It should be a helpful tool for others in my family too. No longer will I visit a website and then wish I knew which in my favourites it was!
Thank you Betty Blogger!!
Right now, I only have 3 bookmarks: 2 related to food because of the creativity needed with a growing family that loves to eat, and one health related.
1. Canadian Living Recipe Directory
2. Foodland Ontario
3. Health Canada
For the Canadian Living Recipe Directory, the tags of Canadian Living, diabetic (because it has some excellent recipes for this audience), directory and recipe are identified.
For Foodland Ontario, the tags of recipes, food and Ontario are listed.
Lastly, for Health Canada, the tabs of illness, prevention, consumer products and Government are listed.
Because I can see lots of potential for this site, I do expect to use it in the future both personally and work related. It should be a helpful tool for others in my family too. No longer will I visit a website and then wish I knew which in my favourites it was!
Thank you Betty Blogger!!
Twitter: Just Getting There
It must be my age, surely, or maybe it is my challenging eyesight....It feels like it takes a great deal of effort to find the folks on twitter that you wish to follow. They also have names that are different than you would think of intuitively. It took me 45 minutes to find 5 or 6 twitter accounts that I wanted to follow. Then once into those accounts, it takes awhile to scroll through the list of tweets to find the relevant information.
I believe this would work for those who can spend the daily time on the computer. However, it is fairly cumbersome to get it started and then to stay in tune with it daily.
Social networking isn't really the thing for me. I am uncomfortable with creating accounts that can potentially be viewed by many others. I do not have the confidence in the privacy settings to be assured that how I've set the privacy levels are in reality, how they play out.
That said, we do use social media at work. It has become one of the common ways for workplaces to get information out to those who are very interested in it. Sure, if there is work time to create the list, the tweets, and follow those of interest, it would be fascinating to dig deeper into what tweeters are saying. But for me, at least for now, tweeting is not for me!
I believe this would work for those who can spend the daily time on the computer. However, it is fairly cumbersome to get it started and then to stay in tune with it daily.
Social networking isn't really the thing for me. I am uncomfortable with creating accounts that can potentially be viewed by many others. I do not have the confidence in the privacy settings to be assured that how I've set the privacy levels are in reality, how they play out.
That said, we do use social media at work. It has become one of the common ways for workplaces to get information out to those who are very interested in it. Sure, if there is work time to create the list, the tweets, and follow those of interest, it would be fascinating to dig deeper into what tweeters are saying. But for me, at least for now, tweeting is not for me!
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