Betty Blogger Summary

Wow. It's seems like we just began the course and now I'm on the last assignment. I've enjoyed being a part of this program. 

I rated myself pretty low at the beginning. I'm no expert yet but I do feel a lot more confident attacking some of the applications we have used. 

The course was successful in meeting my expectations and I gained a lot from the Dropins I attended and from the email advice I received from Library Lady and Shelley.

The challenging parts came when the directions had to change because the programs on the internet had been updated or added to. But I guess that's all part of the learning. The internet is not a static entity but constantly changing and so we have to keep up as well. This self-directed learning model was good in that it forced us to get out and try new programs.

Yes, I would certainly recommend Betty Blogger to a friend.

One suggestion that I would make is that perhaps part of the expectation would be that we would read several of the blogs and offer comments each week. There are too many students for Library Lady to respond to every week. Whenever possible I have tried to read the student blogs and quite enjoyed them. Lots of "good reads" there.

Thanks very much, ladies, for providing an interesting and informative summer course.

Library Thing

Library Thing

Over the last few years I have kept track of books read as well as a little synopsis and an evaluation on a scale of 1 to 5. The Library Thing program adds another dimension to this. You can instantly obtain reviews and see what others are recommending. I'm not sure how much I will make use of this in the future. There are so many good books out there! If only I could read a little faster! I generally rely on recommendations from personal friends who I know read and enjoy similar genres to me. We chat as we hike along the trails. But, having said that, I guess there is always a time to glean from what others who have enjoyed similar books to me. A change of pace is good too.

Google Docs... Let's Try it Again

Welcome back to our Library Lady and congratulations! I hope your wedding was truly all that you had hoped it to be!

My Recipe goes like this...It's not just about the food. It's the special memories.

Google Reader

I really like the concept of the Google Reader RSS feeds. There are certain sites that I visit often and it can be a real time waster to separate "what's new" from "what's old news". I chose to subscribe to Margaret Wente's column in the Globe and Mail, The CBC Top News Stories and the CBC site called "This I Believe". It was easy to set up these subscriptions.

I notice that this program also allows me to see what my friends are sharing and what's popular etc. My thoughts are that once you get into those aspects you're probably defeating the purpose of the program... lots of time looking at a computer screen and accomplishing little. If my friends have something of interest to share, better they just email me the article directly. 

Having said that, I am looking forward to testing the program out at the basic level over the next few days to see where it takes me.

Wiki and the Pot Luck Picnic

Our Picnic is LOOKING Good! My contribution to the Pot Luck Picnic will be a spinach, strawberry, and feta cheese salad with special Raspberry Dressing imported all the way from Muskoka.

The Wiki was very easy to use although LL had it all set up for us. I'm not sure about using it myself. It would have a usage perhaps to plan a hiking event or for hiking schedules for example, but I'm not sure if everyone has to have a Wiki Account in order to participate. If so, then it's probably just as easy to use email.

Google Docs

Taking a Tour of the Google docs was very interesting. I can't believe the thousands of templates posted there. They seem to be organized to cut down on searching time. It's probably a site I may come back to. However, these ol' security concerns keep popping up. For example, I notice there are lots of templates for planning a family budget. Sounds like a great idea. And yet, I'm wondering what happens once I download the template and begin inputting my personal finance info etc into the format. Where is that information stored and even though I have used my very private password that I'm never to share with anyone, WHO REALLY HAS ACCESS TO THIS INFO??

<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1muzun2hD9AnPHZMt07TvgwOi1PztSFzv9Pmem-0Jqrw&amp;embedded=true"></iframe>

<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1muzun2hD9AnPHZMt07TvgwOi1PztSFzv9Pmem-0Jqrw&amp;embedded=true"></iframe>

As you can see, when I tried to embed my foodie story, it didn't work...Error 404 comes up. I checked it out on Google which has listed all kinds of solutions but the solutions weren't really speakin' my language. Hence I have emailed LL for help.

Picasa

Well, this week I am off to discover what Picasa has to offer. After getting logged in and establishing my Picasa account I searched under "Bruce Trail Ontario". Lots of interesting photos, some showing waterfalls and sections of the trail I could readily recognize and others that tempted me to put on my hiking boots and head off to see the sights. 

I selected a photo to send to Library Lady that I think she will enjoy (unless she's afraid of heights). The photo was taken from the Grotto section of the Bruce Trail up on the Peninsula and involved looking down onto Georgian Bay from a steep rocky ledge. The tags were: Bruce, Trail, grotto, rocks, view. 

Yes, I think I'll continue with my Picasa account. I uploaded some photos I received from a good friend of mine, the "Deer Whisperer of Hamilton". You can have a look-see if you choose. They are in Picasa under Hikin Gram.

Twitter Part 2

Well, I did manage to find the BPL tweets. I found I had to go to the BPL website and login with my Twitter account. I must admit I didn't find too much of interest there at this time...perhaps in the fall there might be more happening. Next I continued on Twitter and typed in the subject "HIKING". There were tweets there from hikers all over the US but nothing of particular interest. I proceeded to type in "Bruce Trail" and learned after spending about 20 minutes that someone had to take Benadryl for a bug bite. Hmmm??? Well, hopefully the next assignment on Picasa will be more useful.

Twitter

I've established a Twitter account and attempted to find the Burlington Public Library tweets without success. I'll probably be asking for Library Lady's help at one of the next Dropins to see where I went wrong.

Next I tried reading Margaret Atwood's tweets. She's been in the news lately for her outspoken tweeting in support of the Toronto Library system.I spent quite a bit of time but really didn't find much of interest that wasn't already reported in the Globe.

I really can't see myself spending much time on Twitter. It seems like a good way to Tweet the summer away at a computer when I'd rather be outside.

Feeding the Hungry Around the World

Another use of social networking is to make us aware on a very personal level, of what is happening in other countries. The Globe and Mail's headliners over that last few days concerning the devastating drought and famine in southern Somalia is extremely upsetting. It is unfathomable that militants are refusing to let international aid organizations help.

In discussing this with friends at the gym yesterday morning I learned of a group called Ontario Christian Gleaners who have been assisting countries around the work since 2008. I checked their website and their youtube video once I got home to learn more. Within ten minutes I was "up to speed" on an organization that had been helping countries around the world for three years.

OCG is a non-denominational church organization. Through volunteers and donations they take vegetables and other foods that are not suitable for our "pristine" market places, cut out the spots and other "blips" in the vegetables, chop them up, put them through a drying process and package it all. Viola! You've now got a dried healthy soup to ship to starving people around the world.

Next Tuesday I plan to attend a tour of their location to learn more. There is probably not much I can personally do to replace the militant forces in Somalia with a humane government. However, volunteering one morning a week to chop veggies for starving people who can be reached by aid organizations seems to be the least I could do.

Watch the video for more information. 

Ontario Christian Gleaners

Bruce Trail or Bust

Rickard Louv and others have given us insights into how important it is to be out in nature for both our mental and physical health. The exercise, the improvement in brain function from using all our senses to ensure we don't go tumbling over cliffs (my words, not his) and the therapeutic values are so vital.

But there are many more reasons to step outside...

A good friend of mine has recently been interviewed by the local newspaper. As you read the article you will realize why I feel so honoured to be considered one of her friends.

Bruce Trail or Bust 

This is the kind of person you may be fortunate to meet along the Bruce Trail.

Task #3
After attending the Drop In session and getting lots of help from LL I was able to access the Diigo program both in the lab and surprisingly!!! it worked from my home computer as well. I have bookmarked the site above as well as an interesting article in the Globe and Mail by Margaret Wente.

As far as tags go, it was interesting to see how the oh-so-clever computer suggested very appropriate tags itself. I added some more personal ones myself. I used the highlighter pen to test it out with my friend's article in the Burlington Post. When I inserted it onto this post, the highlighting disappeared so I went back to the Home Page Diigo site to find out why. Under the SEND option, I was told to choose ANNOTATED TEXT and when I did it seemed to work. For now anyway.

I think this is a good program especially for people working in two or more different environments and with more than one computer. I plan to suggest it to my kids and to my granddaughter in high school. As for me, since I'm generally on only one computer the flexibility that this program offers is not all that relevant although I do like the highlighting and capturing options.

My understanding is that Diigo stores your bookmarks and special effects (highlighting, tagging etc) on their server, thus making it possible for the user to move to different computers and Ipads etc. While this means great flexiblity (gosh, you can even bookmark an article, save it and then read it later on your IPAD while you're waiting in line at the supermarket!! Yikes!). However, for a website that contained information that was really important for me, I'd still prefer to cut and past it into a Word document and save it on my home computer. I guess this is like keeping your money in a sock under the bed, but at least I always know where my computer is... should the Diigo site suddenly disappear somewhere in cyberspace.

WOW!

Social Media Revolution

At our introductory get together for this course LL presented this most interesting video to get us all started. It's such an eye opener that I thought I'd post it here as well. I think the message runs the whole gamut from exciting to scary! .

Keeping Our Perspective

Last Child in the Woods

This new technology is fascinating. I'm glad to be a part of this group and learning along the way. As with anything new it's so important to keep perspective. I chose this You Tube video (see Last Child in the Woods above) because it emphasizes that we need to make sure the things that we value aren't lost. Being outdoors in nature is good not only for our physical health in terms of exercise but equally important (as research is showing i.e. Attention Deficit Disorder) for our mental health and brain power.

Using You Tube is an interesting experience. It's incredible how many videos are out there and you can certainly spend a lot of time finding what you are looking for. With the combination of sound and video it is much more effective to watch than reading text so I can see why it has become so popular. I will continue to make cautionary use of it.

Thank you

Hats off to the Burlington Library for once again providing the community with another exceptional program. Great introduction to the Betty Blogger program! And our Library Lady bakes delicious chocolate cake. 

Social networking has become such a big factor in our lives. Up until now I've been limited to emailing friends and family so I guess that puts me in the web2.huh? category, closer to the 1 than the 10 on the knowledge scale. It will be great to gain more insight into some of the pros and cons of all this new technology and learning along with others. 

Looking forward to the weeks ahead. 
hikingram