My learning outcomes: A reflection

Looking back on my blogs, I have to say was quite a learning accomplishment. I felt that my goals were achieved.

"My learning goals for this blogging exercise is to achieve a comfortable relationship with this form of information sharing. I guess I struggle with the concept of having to write about or share information that is visible to everyone and that it is so exposed to criticism and open for comment (not always a bad thing, but what if you got something wrong?). I am also hoping to learn how to effectively use all the web functions available, like HTML, to make my blogging space an attractive and inviting space for my MIM blogging buddies too."

These goals were also quite personal but it felt great to build on them to learn new things.

1. Developing a comfortable relationship with this form of knowledge sharing

• Develop a comfortable relationship with social media platforms
• Sharing my knowledge and findings

Twitter

An insightful process, I got back onto the Twitter bandwagon and started using it to follow posts and other Information Organisations during class and television. I took part in an active conversation during a Q and A episode on the ABC which did involve some bantering but the conversation also raised some important points relating to the topics discussed.

I learnt how to re-tweet, direct message and tag people to include into conversations, I also installed the apps onto my iPhone and iPad.

                                                                                           

Blogger

I have never blogged before. This is the only platform I have been exposed to apart from Blackboard. I didn't think I would enjoy this but I did and the joys of discovering and adding different functions to my blog every week such as RSS gadgets, a search bar and a wiki bar.

Yammer

I didn't quite get to this one but I joined and downloaded the apps. I already have an account through work that I used to upload profession development opportunities for VET staff.

Reflecting Web 2.0

I was initially frightened of this term, I had never heard of this term before but soon relaxed upon discovering that I seem to use some form of it everyday. Being a gen Y it may as well be practically built into my DNA right?

In John's lecture this afternoon about the 100/10/1 rule (where 100% of people are consumers, 10% will actually participate and only 1% will create content), it became evident that it is easier to be the the consumer, that's what sites aim and get paid for. It is simple to read and obtain information for private use than it is to share or create it.

In my second blog, I did emphasise that it was probably lack of privacy settings and being terms of service wary did deter me from initially engaging into social media. I still feel that this aspect is quite important but the 100/10/1 rule also should come into this as it is time consuming to read about every privacy statement and agree to it, which is why not all of us do so. The effort involved in participating and creating should also be considered (sometimes more so as a deterrent) to engaging and developing the relationship with social media and knowledge sharing. I felt at times that some blogs took longer to write and create (HTML) but persisted and learnt from it.

On RSS/ DOCS and Clouds...

I thought I got some rest time with this blog as I believe that I am quite proficient at RSS, Google docs and Cloud storage (Dropbox). I took this time to discover more of those platforms like Google Drive and Hotmail/outlook Sky which I have also used. My findings for this blog is simply that they are all quite intuitive and user friendly, there wasn't much more here that I did not already know before. So I added an RSS subscription gadget to my blog and to my Google chrome toolbar.

    2.       Effectively use web functions available.

• Learn basic HTML
• Use web functions to make my blogging space attractive and impressive

Wikipedia

Doing a Wiki edit was something I thought was impressive and also a new discovery. I only added 3 links but I did feel that I got to leave a footprint on Wikipedia. The only downside is knowing that one of the 77,000 Wikipedia editors may remove them (lucky it was only 3).

This task did take a little while and I appreciate the time that people can spend creating sites and editing them. The discovery of Wikipedia's projects like Wikidata and Wikiversity were also very fascinating and I have decided to continue to explore what they have got going there.

Doing a blog completely in HTML

I can appreciate the 1% of people that do actually create. It can take a long time to write HTML as I discovered and again and I barely scraped the basics. Learning the basics in HTML was very important to me as I do web publishing as part of my work but I was never taught it. It was concerning that some web publishers are simply told to find a page within their organisation's website, download the page, keep  and copy the HTML code and delete the content and replace it with whatever information you wish to publish. 

In this blog I was able to hopefully make an impression by creating a table and embedding a live Google calendar. Google is impressive with what they have to offer and I have also made the point to continue to discover their offerings.

Social bookmarking

I nearly lost it when signing up to Delicious and Diigo, the idea of creating another username and password to remember really irked me, but after further exploration and the possible benefits they could offer, I had to learn to embrace it. The discovery that as a person managing information, Delicious and Diigo provide a great platform in which you can learn how to do so just by sorting through and applying tags to your web bookmarks. I guess I saw it as a way to apply basic cataloguing skills to my bookmarked pages.

Thank you for accompanying me on my journey, and thanks to Bev, Ellen, Emily and Kathrine for letting me embark and contribute to their learning experiences as they so supportively did with me.

Cheers

Liz