Item #22: Wrap up

• What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

I really appreciate having a much better understanding of many of the tools and applications explored through this training adventure. I will continue to use some more than others, but at least I have a base understanding so when someone mentions an 'rss feed', I'll know to what they refer. I will definitely be using the goodreads.com for reader's advisory type purposes and hope to pull more of my yaab teens into the fold.

• How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals

Well, as mentioned above, I'm no longer in the dark about much of the technology which I've been happily avoiding until now. I'm also more prepared to utilize these application in my work habits, as we migrate to more and more of them; wikis, feeds, videos etc...

• Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I find it very interesting from a sociological point of view that people are reaching out more and more to each other electronically. We expect more immediate gratification and instant recognition for our presence in the world, through blogging, microblogging, IM, etc. Why do my friends in other parts of the country or world need to know that I'm late today? Why do they need to know that I'm doing my laundry or whatever... It's all becoming more "Look at Me, I matter, Look at me!!!!" And sometimes people are looking that you'd rather not.

Also, it's very quickly apparent that as our society becomes more electronic, the people without access to technology will be at a severe disadvantage. Will my daughters be required to watch podcasts, access sites, or participate in online discussions as part of their homework for high school? For college? Both girls at the same time? probably. How will I be able to financially afford all the upgrades and other devices needed to compete? Will they each need a computer/phone/ipod etc... in order to keep up with their educators? How am I going to be able to afford any of this? I pay $35/year (yes, a year) for my slow dial-up connection, and we're lucky to have it at all. If it ever goes up, it will be gone, as I can't afford more. Low-income people will continue to fall more and more behind as technology soars unless we can level the playing field somehow. It doesn't matter how hard they study, if I can't afford to buy the powerpoint program for our computer needed to submit their projects. How will the public school system respond to this? How will society? Technology can bring people together, but it also divides a large group of people out.

• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

I think that it was an interesting idea for a training program. However there were parts that I found to be quite frustrating, and were it not for a co-worker helping through parts of it, I wouldn't have been able to figure out certain things at all. As an auditory learner, I knew that reading all the tutorials/articles would be almost as bad as reading a manual, and much of it was. The videos were frustrating to watch as they were so dis-jointed and slow, but the information from them was useful. I think that requiring people to play with everything is very important, but some of it could possibly have been done in classroom setting in addition to the independent part.

Thank you for designing the program. I know that quite a lot of time and effort went in to deciding the applications to highlight, and I appreciate the opportunity to know more about them all.

Miss Holly is signing out.