Discovery!

This is a fun module and I wish I could have spent more time stumbling and exploring search tools. Created a searchroll called Local Government NZ on Rollyo using url's from my Favourites and made it available publicly. So this will be useful to search within for specific Insite topic requests. I'm very impressed with how easy it was to build my Searchbot- called Marvel. Real novelty value but think there's problems with the site- kept getting 'error on page' message and different search chips did not produce relevant results. Also on WebQuest the Antarctica quest link (South Learning Centre) is broken. But I did some searching at WebQuest.org and can see how educators would value this site. This module has given me a much greater awareness of different ways of exploring the Internet and how easy it is to personalise topic interests by creating your own search tools.

I am enjoying exploring

CCL Learn progress

I am enjoying exploring the In the Cloud module and have found Google docs a very easy-to-use web-based word processing system.  Really like some of the features not available in Word, e.g. being able to download documents in different formats such as PDFs. A major feature is the ability to share documents, inviting people to view or edit. Editing is tracked by the recording of new versions in the revision history. Very useful function if more than one person is involved in document production. Google Calendar is pretty smart too and can run in conjuction with Microsoft Outlook Calendar. Time to take a look at LibraryThing- sounds intriguing!

Productivity 1

our public computers

I've just completed this module and it seemed pretty time-consuming, but maybe that's just my imagination. Anyway, it's based around what we offer to our customers on the public computers. Lucky customers! I think we are providing an excellent selection of popular applications. I do feel more confident about answering queries when I work on rostered weekends. But having said that I've had very few questions since the free service began. Perhaps Cantabrians have become a computer-savvy lot with little need of assistance or are they not using all this great software? It would be interesting to see some usage statistics .

Pass-it-on

Helen was my Pass-it-on recipient guinea pig this morning and the topic was Delicious- social bookmarking.

There is only 10 minutes allocated for the actual training exercise so you really need to be focussed on the key issues and not get sidetracked! I did follow my learning plan and found it very helpful.

It was a useful experiment for us both and Helen now has her Delicious account. We've decided that, because Delicious is not machine dependent, we can use it to set up an Insite account and create a set of useful bookmarks of relevant websites for our research work. We could also use Delicious to create topic/subject bookmarks for individual and team council staff.

So a worthwhile time was had by us both!

Making and monitoring connections

Making and monitoring connections

It seems that I'm the only one of our group doing this module- at the moment anyway. It took me a wee while to come to grips with exactly what I was meant to achieve but I've completed it now.

The most frustrating part of the exercise has been the amount of downtime- waiting, crashing and having to log back in again. Also, had to call the help desk when I got blocked trying to add Delicious to my Explorer toolbar. It hasn't just been LAMS problems, maybe my computer needs more grunt or a good boot!

I did know about some of the stuff in this module, eg making nice URL's, Listservs, RSS feeds but have to admit I hadn't checked out Web site tools on the CCL website. I think this page is good value for our customers. I have enjoyed exploring and joining Delicious. Instead of having your favourites bookmarked on an individual computer this allows you to be machine independent- creating, tagging, sharing, managing and saving url's on the Delicious web site.

I have allocated 1-2 hours per week to "making and monitoring connections" and my major priority is local government issues and trends, national and international- very important for Insite work.