Task 23: Summarise your thoughts - Feedback

Overall time
Some tasks took me a lot longer than I thought and others were quicker. It would be difficult in a work place to just put aside a set time for the tasks. I would have found it difficult to stop a task if I was having trouble getting my head around the instructions (or lack thereof) if I had to stop and then start again the next day. So what I did was to look at a task and then finish it. If it was a short one I would try a 2nd task but if it took me a while I would just do 1 at a time.

Relevance of the tools
In relation to the Library and students, I thought Podcasts, RSS feeds, Wiki, Blogs would be useful. On a personal note, I liked Lifelong learning (even though the southern accent was annoying), Flickr, LibriVox, GoogleMAPS, iGoogle, and YouTube (for fun). Like Rockchicklibrarian I ended up in FaceBook and spent some time there and will return.

Specific Difficulties
Some of the tasks had confusing instructions - or perhaps that's not fair because it was the web site for the task that was confusing.

Overall view
I thought the whole process was very worthwhile. I might not return to some areas covered in the tasks but at least I now know about them.

Task 22: More to life with Second Life

I have been to a session describing the use of SL by Rick Strelan and Helen Farley who won a $30 000 Strategic Teaching and Learning Grant to develop a presence for UQ Studies in Religion in the virtual world of Second Life.
They purchased an island to construct a variety of religious spaces. This would allow students to explore and understand other religions. Helen has a blog http://www.ruperturiza.blogspot.com/

It all looked interesting in the session and I could see that it would be useful for such a subject. However, I do agree with pollyblogger that it doesn't take much to visit some of these in the real world and actually speak to someone. And yes, I know that a real visit to some is not possible - hence the usefullness of the island.

My biggest complaint - I couldn't think a of first name to even create a login - how sad is that. Anything I thought of wasn't useful.

Personally I don't think I would really use SL without a compelling reason to be there.

Task 21 - Twittering

I have just started to investigate twittering and have found a nice short introduction on YouTube

Twitter in Plain English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

.commoncraft.com A quick and plain English intro the micro ...2 min 25 sec -
I have just posted something on my Twitter account. Now all I have to do is find some friends.

Task 20: Podcasts, Smodcasts

I now understand why podcasts, smodcasts is such an appropriate title for this task. I have found so many podcasts - and I am starting to wonder, do I care? I would definitely find podcasts and view them if I was interested. But I think I would be very selective in my feeds. I did a search for Jamie Oliver podcasts and went to this site http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/ - but no mention of podcasts. I have been watching Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food and apparently he has a podcast. However, when I went to the site I became very confused because it wasn't very clear. Maybe I am missing something :)

On the other hand, I am aware that I have to finish very soon and this is making me less willing to float around. I need to find out now not in a few hours time. Please tell me if I am missing something vital.

Task 19: You too can YouTube

Went to YouTube - found some funny videos.
Now I can add some. Have a look at The Jury Room - UQ Law Revue 2008
and one that I had seen before Please Ring For Assistance - UQ Law Revue 2005
and UQLS Suggestion Box - Law Revue 2008

In fact there are a lot of great videos from the Law students. Maybe acting is a requirement for the courtroom.

However, I don't think I would just be a random visitor of YouTube.

I have also visited Yahoo Videos and Google Videos. The whole thing reminds me of the home video shows on TV - and I am not a fan.

On another note, I have noticed that some TV shows are now announcing that you can visit the channel website and watch the show again - not a bad idea.

Task 18 - Create an iGoogle page

I had a lot of fun with this one - adding gadgets as requested and some for fun. They I was sidetracked to Facebook because I added that gadget. I then found out how much time could be used up by just finding friends etc.
I experimented with different themes but went back to the first one I chose.

Task 17: Play with Google around the world

I have used Google Maps quite a lot. When it first came out I found my house and looked at my neighbourhood. Just recently I was interested in a house that I saw advertised. I went to Google Maps to check out the house and just as importantly checked out the neighbouring houses and streets.

I have also used Google Maps to plan a journey many times.

I hadn't used Google Docs before. I like it very much.

Google just gets better and better.