LIS 9763

Aww, our last week.  Here are my attempts at answering the questions posed for this week:

   1. Has your view of social software changed since starting this course? If so, how?

I think that before this course, I felt that social software tools probably WERE useful, but I can't say that I knew how exactly to use them all, or really, how best to use them in a library.  I think they also seemed informal, or not really professional before this course, but now I feel that they can be used in a professional way, and for some great purposes.

   2. Of all the social tools we've reviewed this term, what are your "favourite" tools for libraries and why? What would you consider to be the low-hanging fruit, i.e. the tools that could be implemented easily and with the greatest impact?

I would say my favourite tools for libraries would be the blog, and tagging.  I want to say gaming/online worlds because they are dear to me personally, but I still don't feel terribly comfortable with those in the library.  Blogging and tagging are things that I feel can be used by just about anyone, and have some incredible benefits.  You can suddenly have opinions, discussion and community interaction via the blog.  With tagging, you can have people create their own comprehensive descriptions for items, and make things more user-friendly (in theory!). Further, it seems possible to do both without requiring a lot (or any) funding/resources taken away from other library projects (excepting a small amount of staff time perhaps).

   3. What social software tools (if any) do you consider to have the least potential for library service and why?

As I mentioned for the last answer, I feel sketchy on gaming and online worlds in regards to library service.  I know the idea is that they can supplement education and that online worlds are intended for community building and so on.  Yet, I just don't see those being terribly useful in reality (haha!), in a library context.  I'm just not sold on either.

   4. Tell us about your personal experiences with the social software tools we’ve used & looked at this term. Which tools have worked for you, which haven’t?

Blogging has leaked into other facets of my life. I did it before this course, but I hadn't done so in a very long time.  I was able to take my blogging experience from 9763 and put it to use for a student group, a very real situation! For other courses, I was required to work with wikis, but I felt like a bit of an expert having had some experience in this course helping to create a wiki with my group.  As a result, I would say that with blogging and wiki-creation I feel much more comfortable, and with a renewed interest.  I still hate flickr, and I dislike Twitter as well, they just don't appeal to me for some reason.  Learning to use delicious has been kind of awesome, and it's also cropped up in other facets of my life.
To sum up that:
blogs, wikis, delicious - good;
twitter, flickr - bad.

   5. How has the distance ed. experience been for you?

It's been fantastic.  As I'm doing full time regular course work, this course has been like a breath of fresh air.  I feel more able to take time with work because I can work on my own schedule.  Unfortunately I was never able to take part in the weekly chats because I am quite literally, incapable, regardless of any effort I take, of remembering them.  I even set reminders on my laptop, and it still didn't take.  Apparently I got so used to this course working around my own schedule, that any actual scheduled content went flying out the door.

   6. Do you have any suggestions for improving the learning experience of this course? (e.g. readings, weekly activities, assignments, etc.) (be honest, I can take it!)

Not at the moment, but I promise to think on it.

   7. How would you sum up your experience over the past 13 weeks?

Overall I must say the experience was slightly humbling.  I came into this whole topic thinking I was the queen of the internet (well not really), or at the very least quite adept at this whole business.  I had a lot to learn about, and that was surprising but incredibly useful.  Imagine, I even understand folksonomies.  I feel that although I had some experience with some of the tools we looked at throughout the term, that I am now much more comfortable with them in general, and able to apply them directly to a library setting.  Also, learning that I am incapable of remembering chat times was slightly depressing, but I will find a way to get over my sadness - maybe Easter candy?!