Ruthnewt's Blog

New skills

ruthnewt — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 08:31:33 +0000

At last, I think I’ve cracked it! Taken several attempts but now there should be 2 pictures on my page. These were taken last week in the Lake District, my first attempt at abseiling. I was so pleased with myself for having done it, but I couldn’t chicken out after my 9 year old had sailed down without hesitation. Just shows, if you set yourself new challenges you can surprise yourself with what you accomplish. Whether it’s active challenges or computing skills!

Abseiling at Cathedral Cavern

Wikis

ruthnewt — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:45:07 +0000

Followed the activities suggested for wikis and found editing was really easy. This is one aspect of the course I was really hoping to learn from as I think the Admin Team could benefit from using this to organise the varied information currently stored on various drives and databases.

Would like to see more on the jokes pages. I think we could all do with a laugh right now!

Week whatever!!

ruthnewt — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:31:32 +0000

OK, I’m losing count.

Am I alone in thinking there’s something weird about social networking? I spend enough time at work on a computer, plus time at home checking road maps, helping 12 year old with homework, online shopping etc. When it comes to socialising I want to do it face-to-face.

Had a quick look at Facebook and it immediatly offered me 4 “friends” All people I do know, 3 live locally, 1 an old school friend who I am in touch with by letter and email. Why should I need Facebook as well? Coincidentally, I met with my school friend last Feb and found out she had recently had a trip to the States, leaving her kids behind (with relatives, not a home alone case) and used Facebook to keep in touch. Another odd tale, I was recently in a coffee shop with 3 friends and listening to them discussing the online game of Scrabble they were currently engaged in. Why don’t they just sit down together and play? OK, I appreciate they are all mothers of young children and times like this, with us all together, was rare. But all 3 of them have jobs which require interaction with people, not computers.

So I decided not to join Facebook. If you can come up with any good reason why I might benefit from joining I’ll reconsider.

I’m finding these activities taking longer than an hour a week. Could be I’m a slow learner, or it’s just difficult to find the time when I’m only working 3 days a week. It is interesting, and hopefully the experience will be useful

Week 3

ruthnewt — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:00:28 +0000

Have now managed to revert home computer back to normal Google page, thanks Debbie, for the advice. 12 year old is now appeased!

Spent yesterday setting up my social bookmarking. Managed to get all my bookmarks on and was amazed how many there were. Obviously the family have been busier than I thought. The Hannah Montanah, Led Zepplin, and maths websites were not my choice! Very comforting to read of tags and taxonomies, as an ex-cataloguer this is all familiar jargon and, at last, something I know about.

Week 2

ruthnewt — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:39:53 +0000

Didn’t achieve much last week due to spending most of my working time attending courses (and, yes, I did complete an evaluation form and email it to myself!) So am trying to catch up now at home.

Have managed to set up Google Reader and made an igoogle homepage, much to the annoyance of my 12 year old who likes the “traditional” Google. May have to find some way of converting back.

Have set up RSS feeds to BBC News and Dr Who, plus of course the Learning 2.0 site. Will see how useful this is. Need to dash now to get youngest to Brownies!

Can see myself needing the catch-up weeks but am determined to persevere.

Hello world!

ruthnewt — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:09:22 +0000

Despite problems with logging in (great help from Jenny!), have actually made some progress today. Difficult not to when you’re starting from nowhere. Just hope I don’t forget all this before I next log in.

Instant messaging was fun but can’t see the advantagae of this over email.

Also can’t see how the blog can be applied to a work setting but maybe ideas will come over the training period.