Wrap-up/Reflections

I THINK I have done each unit, and hope I didn't skip something. I am finishing this evening because of some "quality time" since no one came to the class I was supposed to teach, which is good, because this learning does take some time.
Definitely the favorite parts were finding photos, videos, newsfeeds, and ways to share books and reading. I even enjoy the blogging part, although reading others' blogs will continue to be reserved for experts in the subject or news areas.
As mentioned in various blog posts, I can see uses for many of these tools in some of the work I hope to continue doing in my life, both professionally and as an amateur writer. I hope to not stop learning, and that includes learning about new technology. That is one of the reasons I enjoy working at the library. What I don't like are things that are just too "cute" and too amateur. I feel real connection with Jon Stewart's take on "friending." Some of the "friending" we were supposed to do with our blog and meebo just didn't work. That was just one of the technical difficulties. Several of the instructional videos could not be heard, no matter how I turned up the volume. Some activities were just not easy to figure out, and although in theory it would be nice to work with others on some of this, and on occasion I did, the fact is most of this was done while I was alone right here in my basement corner. No one to just ask for help. No one around. Room mostly empty. Friends?
I would say the number one problem with this self-study is that there was no time dedicated for all who wanted to participate to actually have time to dig into it. I consider myself lucky to have this evening and a real block of time. I raced through everything earlier just to finish. Just to finish by a March deadline and vacation leave. Most units were done in small minute increments over some days. I would forget what I had started and learned. Luckily I WROTE down some of the login sites, as I changed my password every so often. I TOOK NOTES so I could prepare a semi-sensible blog. Writing reminders on a post-it or scratch paper--I am so high tech.
It would have been great fun to work with other people on some of these. I have talked to some others, they have had some of the same problems.
I will end by saying I am glad for the exposure to the many forms of "citizen media" that are now available. I can understand how some people can become so involved with all the possibilities. I am not sure the content is worthwhile in most cases, but I hope I can continue to pull together the really fabulous and worthy media to enjoy myself and to share, just as I have done with good books for a long time.