Last discussion, our Wiki assignment, and my Website

I'm glad we're finally having some warmer weather. :)

Our last discussion was on using Social Networking and Second Life in the library. I think using something like LibraryThing is a great idea. Like I said in the discussion, it's a better tool to use with students than Facebook or Myspace. It looks more professional, and the focus stays on books. It's a wonderful way to share books with students too, since they like to be on the Internet so much anyway. I'd love to use this tool when I become a librarian. I'm not sure if I'd use Second Life though. Second Life is still awkward to use, and besides students under the age of 18 can't use it anyway.

We just recently completed a Wiki together as a class. I remember trying to make a Wiki with a couple of people in a different class but we struggled with it and ended up doing something else instead. This assignment went so smoothly though. It was easy to edit and everything. It's like a website, except all of us have access to it (to edit and change). I enjoyed working with everyone on it. Maybe this experience will help me with making Wikis in the future (or at least help me figure out what wasn't working in the past).

For my website, I think I'm going to have to change some things after all. I'm going to have to change one of the tutorials to something else (although I think I have an idea already). And for the Microsoft Office section, I won't be able to create a tutorial for each version because I currently don't have access to each one. But at least it's something I can add to down the road. (In other words, I'll be able to create a tutorial for Word, PowerPoint and Excel, but I won't have three tutorials for each). However, I think I might be able to create sections on the site for my Podcast and Webquest , so I'm glad about that.

That's all for now.

CMS Assignment Reflections

I'll admit I was really nervous about creating the CMS because I've never done it before. I was worried I would have trouble getting things organized and arranged where I wanted them to be. Of course after I started playing with it I realized it's fairly easy, and started actually having fun with it. :) I really like Moodle. The drop box options made it so easy to pick and choose which functions I needed. I experienced a lot of trial and error at first, but luckily it's easy to edit. One thing I struggled with was creating a quiz/test. I couldn't figure out how to get it to work. I'm probably making it harder than what it is. Also with creating surveys, I wonder if there's a way to create your own. I had written my own survey questions only to find out that I had to select a premade survey.

Still currently brainstorming what to do with my website. I think the lesson parts will be somewhat linear, but I don't know if I want to create so many step-by-step webpages (page after page after page after page...) I just think it would be a pain to keep track of all those webpages (that and I don't know if it would take up a lot of space. Could my ftp hold all of that?) Creating powerpoint slides instead might be a better idea. Whatever I choose to do, I should probably try to keep it as simple as possible (especially for navigation's sake).

Need to think of a tool for the wiki assignment. That's all for now.