The Final Post

Hi Again Everyone! 

So, this is my last post, therefore, I will be looking back at what I have learned throughout the past six weeks and reflecting on my experiences with the different tools, etc. that I have been exploring.

I have discovered many different tools, some of which I had not heard of before or had not been willing to explore before now, including; Twitter, Flickr, Wikipedia, Google Maps, Google Docs, Feedly, Diigo, Mendeley, Yammer, etc. There have also been some tools which I have discovered myself including; MapMyNearest, StumbleUpon, anobii, among others. So I have learned about and become familiar with a number of different tools and have learned a lot during the last six weeks.

The goals that I set myself at the start of the semester were:

• To become more familiar with a range of social media and web 2.0 tools. 
• Increase my knowledge on the tools that are available.
• Challenging and pushing myself to use technologies that I usually would not use or feel comfortable using (Take myself out of my comfort zone). 

I have definitely become familiar with a range of different tools as mentioned above and have learned a lot about their different functions as well as some of the advantages and disadvantages of each of the tools. I have also found out which tools I enjoy using more than others, I think some of the tools I have enjoyed the most would include; Google Maps, Flickr, anobii and surprisingly using Twitter in the lectures. I think that it was interesting and added another level to the lecture through having the interaction with the other students. I have pushed and challenged myself to complete as many tasks and try as many tools as possible. For example, I had to take myself out of my comfort zone when I created a Twitter account in week 2 and had to begin tweeting during the lectures, however, by the next week I was becoming more confident and even started to enjoy tweeting throughout the lectures.

Some new goals I could set myself following my experience with the different tools include:

• .       Continue to use some of the tools that I found useful.
•     Continue to increase my knowledge of different web 2.0 tools. 
•     Continue to develop my technical skills further.
•     Use the tools that I have learnt about to communicate with fellow students.

The activities have helped me develop my skills and knowledge of web technologies because I have discovered and learnt about many different tools that I have not heard of before, including; mashups (e.g. MapMyNearest) and social bookmarking (e.g. Diigo and Mendeley). The tools that I have learnt about, Twitter, Flickr, Wikipedia, Google Maps, Google Docs, Feedly, Diigo, Mendeley, Yammer, etc. are relevant to my future career as an information professional as it helps me understand the different ways in which information can be shared. Also, it will be useful to have an understanding of the different tools that exist.

I think that this experience has been good, I have learnt a lot and even though there has been a few challenges I have overcome them and feel more comfortable using the technologies. There was quite a lot to cover over the last six weeks so it has been a bit of a blur with a lot of content to cover in such a short time, therefore, I was not able to get a complete understanding of some of the tools. However, after this assignment I will continue to learn and use some of the tools that I found interesting. I think there was a manageable amount of work to do as long as you complete the activities that are set for the week during that week.

Overall, I thought that the blog experience was beneficial in order to get an understanding of the different tools and technologies available and learn how to use them and some of their functionality.

Lisette