#13 Facebook and #14My Space

I have had a facebook page for over a year now, and really love it. My children are grown up and don't live at home, in fact my oldest daughter lived in Ireland for a year last year.
Facebook is my way of keeping in touch with their lives and their friends, even though my youngest does screen some things I see! I have also convinced a couple of my girlfriends to join too who don't live near me, so it's a great way for us to keep in touch and see what is happening in our lives.
I really love it, but don't overuse it, just one visit a day, it can become addictive! I also don't participate in any of the online games like scrabble, I dont have the time. I am not as keen on My Space, I think it's just a personal preference. I did have a Twitter account but have let that slide as it was too hard to do everything.
I seriously wonder about the time all of this takes!
On another note, I am off on holidays this weekend to New Zealand for a month. I will be taking my laptop so will try and keep up with the online projects. I have set up a blog page for our holiday for family and friends to follow us. It is at http://kimandjohninnz.blogspot.com/ if you want to check it out!

#11 Library Thing and #12 Flikr

Wow, what fun I have been having looking through these and loading books and photos. It's all so time consuming but, keeping in touch and putting yourself out there!
I can see the potential for LibraryThing and the ability to place comments and reviews on books, I honestly havent had the time to contribute much, I have a large book collection. I would like to do more with it but.
Flikr is good too, not sure whether it is better than just emailing photos of my choice to friends and family, it did seem to take a while to load the photos. I found a really interesting group though while searching through Flikr and have made contact with the people who run a kayaking trip that sounds amazing. My husband and I are so impressed we have started saving to do this trip, I am following the blog and added the contact to Facebook! We even chatted online last night. I would never have found it if not for this course! Wow, thanks heaps Fiona!!

#9 and #10 Virtual worlds and Image Generators

This exploration caused me a bit of concern. I had heard of Second Life but not really looked into it before. I have never been into any gaming so none of the World of Warcraft interested me at all, I suppose if you were into that type of thing the 3D versions would be great.

I can see some benefits in creating a virtual world to test out new products, trading and other educational activities but I think there is something unnatural about wanting to create an avatar and lead a whole other life online! Maybe I really am a digital immigrant and am showing my age! Preferably I like getting out there and enjoying the real world and seeing it for myself rather than just a computer experience. I realise it does open up the lines of communication a bit more, but I still have reservations about being involved myself.

I thought the Image generators were a lot of fun and enjoyed creating an avatar of myself with doppelme and liked the say-it.com site too. Not too sure about the makemebabies! Will have to try it with some photos of my hubby and myself to see if our children are like the ones we should have!

#8 iGoogle

Well I have created an iGoogle homepage, and while I am pretty happy with the add on features I've included I will probably add more, although I don't like too much clutter on my page,

I can't believe how cool it would be to work at Google. It certainly looks like a place where great minds can get together and work on whatever they want. No wonder google is such a successful tool. I thought the days of companies providing lunch for it's employees was long gone! I suppose it is to encourage them to stay working and not leave, certainly looks like you could work very long hours there!

#7 Google Books

I have found my new favourite tool! Google books is fantastic and as a Teacher Librarian I know I will use it again and again.
I even found some books on it that I have been looking for about kayaking for my husband, he was thrilled.
I really like the advanced search facility too.
Definitely the best yet!

#5 and #6

Well, have looked at Google Docs, haven't had the opportunity to use it yet, still not sure how to do it, but I have bookmarked the help page!

I love Google Maps, and so do the kids at school, they are fascinated by looking up their addresses. I have used Google maps many times, particularly to check out places I am going on holidays too! I must admit it's a bit scary seeing your own house there and wondering what your were doing when the photo was taken!

#4 Web 2.0

Have read a lot about Web 2.0, at first I wondered what it was all about and thought it was some new development, a bit like the arrival of Vista or Windows 7.
I saw a YouTube clip a while ago that put it in perspective for me, the clip interviewed a variety of high school or uni students who were in a library and asked them what they thought of Library 2.0 tools, and Web 2.0. They were all dumbfounded and didn't know what it was until someone asked them if they used Twitter and Facebook and blogs and then they realised that they did know about it.
To me, the Web 2.0 movement is just a phrase for the development of a series of tools that can be used to make the way we communicate and access information faster, more inclusive and has opened up more opportunities to have feedback with people all around the world at our fingertips. It's exciting and kind of scary at the same time, and I wonder how I am ever going to keep on top of these developments!