# 23 The End/ The Beginning

So I've come to the end. Or is this the beginning. This program has opened my eyes to the many tools available on the Internet. First of all I will mention my favourite things:

1. Creating my blog was exciting. It was scary also because I was afraid of putting anything personal or being known by others (funny since my blog has my name in it!) but I saw too many Oprah shows exploring the abuse that can happen on the net. I didn't realise it could be fun too. I wanted to do this program because I knew things were changing constantly and that I needed to keep up. I also wanted to show my teenage nieces and nephews that I knew things too. Also if I wanted to continue working in the library industry I needed to learn the new stuff out there.

2. I of course loved putting pictures and funny stuff on my blog. It was fun seeing how I could play around with this stuff.

3. The best one was the web applications and tools (widgets!). This was the easiest and there were more options. Funny how I just love the fun stuff but I was also learning.

4. Just learning what was out there on offer and for free such as the web applications, library stuff(Library Thing), rollyo (very convenient for someone doing many searches). Knowing the many options available to the public has opened my eyes to the many possibilities for the future. This is why I know I will need to continue to keep my eyes open and my brain ready for more stuff to come.

Another thing this program has pushed me to do is buy a new computer so I could stay updated. I did have an old one and I thougtht this would do me but since I wanted to do this course I realised I needed to upgrade not just for this but for future needs. No more staying in the dark ages for me. Next I may even get broadband. Right now shock, horror I am using pre-paid dial up. I thought I could control my usage this way but its not working. I am spending more than if I were to use Broadband. Oh well we live, we learn.

Because of this program I have actually started reading computer books. I never thought I would see myself doing this, They're not exactly riveting reading! I can't ever recall doing this before unless I had to for whatever course I was doing. Now I am interested in learning more. I do not want to be someone that just accepts that it is beyond me or past my time. This program has shown me that I can learn these things, it might just take a little longer to get my brain around things, but I do eventually grasp these concepts and anyone else can too.

This program has reminded me to aways look for new learning experiences whether work related or otherwise.

An improvement on this progeam might be to add more instructions on the more difficult parts such as Flickr and Rss feeds, though I suppose helping each other was also part of the training. Actually because my co-workers needed my help sometimes it did make me go over the stuff I had already completed and made me think more about it. The rest was great.

Lastly I would like to thank the learning 2.0 people (especially Lynette)for offering me this opportunity. I can't imagine any other place that could show us all these different tools in one place. The large workload must feel overwhelming to these poor ladies having to check all this stuff. I hope you know this has been an invaluable experience for me. And it was FREE! It can't get better than that.

Three Cheers to Life Long Learning!

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