Zoho Writer

OOps!!!! Must have missed finishing this 18th Thing
I do like Zoho!! I think it is great that people can produce documents, spreadsheets etc. without necessarily installing microsoft programs (many do not need to install Excel for limited usage). Great too that different software versions between users won't matter. There would be times when it might be useful to share docs. from anywhere and even maybe work on the same doc. at the same time. The templates for everything from letters to tickets, ID cards are really impressive - modern and very professional looking. Good to see that Zoho Writer is dynamic and constantly refining its tools in response to users' needs

LAST THING AT LAST!

Despite many frustrations due to my slow-tech brain, I am glad I participated in this program. I did find it challenging and very time consuming (15 minutes a day barely got me focussed), but it did force me to confront and conquer many new facets of technology I had put in the "too hard" basket. I still find a lot of blogging, podcats and Youtube clips self indulgent and pointless rubbish, and wonder where it will all end..
I still don't feel truly confident, but I am on the way. At least I now understand a lot of the jargon and terminology, and learnt things I can apply to my life and my library job. As libraries continue to evolve, Iam sure I will need to deal with more such technology and now feel better equiped to explore and embrace it.
I look forward to a time in my life when I have the time and enthusiasm to really play around with this stuff at a personal level. Travel was the overall theme of my blog and has I have significant travel plans for the future, I think I will enjoy exploring all of these wonderful tools by which to plan and communicate my adventures.
As I say this I know that by this time next year some of these tools will be already be obsolete. Iwonder if I will be able to keep up? I also wonder if we will still remember to converse, learn, challenge, question, listen, thank, remember, play, rejoice, celebrate and love each other face to face rather than face to computer.......

PODCASTS

From Yahoo Podcasts I chose a travel site called Italy Travel Notes and added the RSS feed to my Bloglines account. I found finding a good podcast quite difficult and doubt I will use podcasts a great deal. I still prefer to read and digest new information I think

Audiobooks

EBOOKS!

Enjoyed Beatrix Potter's Tale of Peter Rabbit. (Just saw movie Miss Potter again)

Still love the comfort and feel of a good book in my hand......However after dealing with the large range of user groups who borrow "talking books" on tape and CD at our library I can see great potential for ebooks. Talking books and I guess real books can be so bulky, even cumbersome, especially when travelling - how great would it be to produce your mp3 player on route to London and listen to a novel?

YOUTUBE

Can't say I'm a great fan of Youtube.

Although I have been sent some funny clips in email and have found some instructional pieces helpful, I find most of it rather self indulgent crap. Looking for a clip I would consider adding to my blog confirmed this; I wasted a lot of time really. Nothing really stood out although I must admit Johnny Depp as sexy Captain Jack was fun. I can see some useful applications in a Library setting. Low cost,user friendly effective training sessions for staff and patrons in technology use perhaps.

Where were we going again?????

Back to my travel theme.... I really liked the RealTravel blog site. Many people (including me) use our library to borrow Lonely Planet guides when planning an overseas travel itinerary. Great as they are, by the time we get there everyone else is doing similar things, looking for the same hotels etc. I like the idea of fresher more tailored planning, and the option of planning by either Destination or Things to do.
The Free Trip Planner would be a great tool, enabling to to rough out, organize reorganize itinerary as you go, taking into account insights from other travellers and linking to other travel guides. The Female Solo Travel would be very useful to many women (wish I had had access to such when I travelled solo around the world.

Wiki Wiki Wiki...

Now I get it. As a slow-tech learner, I found the Youtube video by Commoncraft videos, demonstrating wikis especially helpful in explaining the basics and potential uses of Wikis, for both personal, community and Library use.
I still have my doubts about wikipedia, but I thought a local version similar to the Library Success - A Best practices Wiki has a lot of potential ( I think the email confirmation is a good idea)