Cringe. Where else will I find open minded web 2.0 people?
This class is liable to be point of contention for any of the more traditional employeers I might choose, or it could very well be the best selling point I have. Over this semester, I've discovered some interesting new tools and some creative uses for them in a library setting. In the course of this class, I've woven some Web 2.0 elements into my work for better or worse. I say for better because del.icio.us makes it easy to work on several computers while sharing nifty things with friends. I say for worse because now that's one more thing I regularly have to check on.
Before I started this course, I thought social software was just a passing fancy that teens will soon tire of. Now, I know it's being used by adults for personal and professional purposes. It's expanding our horizons. Social software for librarians is a great thing because we enjoying sharing and everyone loves free stuff. My fondness for MySpace and Facebook has dimmed since taking this class, but I know that it's the most prominent Web 2.0 tool for the moment. I've been learning that blogs can be applied to different situations with varying results, and maybe I should using them more to track information.
I knew there was a lot of resistence to these new things I've learned in class like wikis and podcasts, but I never realized that there's at least a few people out there armed with these tools trying to get people to see more than chatting teenagers consuming all of your Internet resources commenting on pictures. I was surprised and frankly thrilled to find that I'm not alone jumping up and down over horribly used software that could be substituted by something easier or more conducive.
I enjoyed using Drupal better than Blackboard since it doesn't turn off when I want to pull up some reference at three in the morning, but at the same time, I lost so many blog entries just by clicking off the page. If you added a save draft feature in Drupal, I wouldn't have any qualms about not using Blackboard ever. It's got the same elements of Blackboard only made less buggy which I certainly appreciated!
I'm not sure I should have taken this class. I mean, I had all sorts of fun and it was definitely interesting, but the trade off of this knowledge is that I cringe everytime someone thinks they're an authority about MySpace because they have one. Or the horrors of people proudly prattling on about how they “blog” when the last entry was months ago. As a parting gift, does anyone care to give me a polite way to excuse myself from future social networking discussions where people can barely understand the difference between a username and an email? Barring the cringes, I really did enjoy myself. I'm having so much fun with del.ic.ious because it's easier for me to pull up my summer reading program web resources instead of trying to figure out which computer I bookmarked what on. I'm going to really enjoy screencasts, but probably not professionally. I think I might do a couple just for kicks and see where that might lead me.
So class is finally over and I'm just getting started with the whole Web 2.0 stuff. I imagine that someday soon the stuff from this class will be “so last week” but it has gotten me into the practice of trying new stuff and trying to use it for other purposes. It's been a great class and it's been a wonderful semester working with people that will at least give technology a chance! Thank you all!
