The terminator

Wow, already at the time for the final exams!

I guess the most important thing I learned in the Betty Blogger course was that many of the Web 2.0 features are quite simple to grasp and you can quickly see their utility. In other words, I should not be shy about leaping in and using the new tools. Frankly I had been a bit hesitant, expecting that the learning curve would be steeper than it has proven to be (maybe because Betty has greased the slope). I also had feared that you would need to invest much time and effort up-front before you could begin to apply the tools to everyday life.

The challenging part of the Betty Blogger course is not the course content itself, which I thought was well presented, but rather figuring out how to effectively use the new tools to which I have been introduced. I guess the best example of this is wiki -- I need to explore this application more deeply to see how I can best use it. I know that some community groups have decided to move from a traditional website to a wiki-driven web service. To understand this concept I plan to explore further online. I also have put in requests with my local library for some of the recommended supplementary reading materials from Betty.

I had no problem with the "self-directed" learning approach. In fact I think this is the only effective way to be introduced to new web concepts. You have to get in there and muck about. Maybe that's why the cooking metaphor works well in the instructional material. It is not enough to read about boiling, braising, broiling and baking -- you have to put on your apron and start chopping , stuffing, kneading or whatever.

Back at the beginning of the course I indicated that I wanted to know more about social media. This is completely relevant to Facebook and Wiki. I had anticipated that those aspects of the course would be useful. I had not realized the potential offered by Google Docs or Library Thing. Had I not taken the course I would probably have never learned about those very useful tools. Just as an initial indication, using Library Thing, I have found other users with similar interests who have found books which look very interesting. Thanks to Betty I will be in a position to track down lots of good reading. I would say that Betty has exceeded my expectations.

Please do run the program again. I have already recommended it to friends. If possible, please retain my contact information so that I can alert them to register when (or if) you run the program again.

I think this a great initiative by Burlington Public Library, and, as one of the "interlopers" who does not live in Burlington (and thus supports another library system with my taxes) I want to thank the people of Burlington for letting me in on this.

I intend to inform my own public library in Ottawa about my participation in the Betty Blogger course. Maybe there is some way in which other library systems could collaborate with Library Lady in bringing this course to a wider audience across the province.