Exercise 23: Yippeee!!!!

My favorite discovery was Zoho. I believe 50% of this summer 2.0 discovery exercises were new to me. I enjoyed all the exercises, although some were more exciting than others. I would chose to participate in this program again but I would do it when I have more time to devote to really discovering the tools/new technologies.

Thanks Bethany for exposing us to this wonderful experience.

Exercise 22: E-books & Audiobooks

I like the idea of e-books and audiobooks because sometimes something outside the traditional sense of learning makes a difference in how much we learn. I have had experience with e-books and personally prefer e-books over the traditional hard copy text book. In the near future, I would love to have the opportunity to use audiobooks in an academic setting.

It was difficult to find recently published books of interest however the sites iTunes and audible.com was very easy to navigate.

Exercise 21: Podcasting

Podcasting is something I was already familiar with, however I still explored podcast.net, procastalley.com and yahoo podcasts. It was very had to single out one podcast which interest me. There were a few library podcasts which seemed interesting based on the “title”, but because of the lengths of the podcast, I didn’t get a chance to listen to everything.

I also visited the links which explained how to create your own podcasts. Although I did not create a podcast of my own, it is always good information to know or to know how to find.

Exercise 20: YouTube

I have always been a fan of youtube.

Please enjoy the music from one of Dominica's most talented musicians.

Exercise 19: Discovering web 2.0 tools

PEERtrainer is my best site from the web 2.0 winners list. It falls under the category of health. The site is well designed; very bright and colorful pictures which tend to encourage you to continue exploring the site. There were many good things about this site, for example, the success stories and the diet and fitness area. I really like the nutrition 101. One of the cons I realized about this site is that there are several links which lead to the same information, but I guess for some this could have its advantages.

Could you see any applications for its use in a library setting?

Huh, well, I’m sure the library staff wants to live a healthy life, and encourage students and faculty to do the same…lol… :)

Exercise 18: Web based applications

ZOHO is an excellent tool with great features. You can do documents over the web which is great for sharing documents with friends or classmates. ZOHO also has a forum, mail (collaboration suite), etc. I hadn’t heard much about this tool until now, and I think it’s great. I will definitely use it in the future.

I also did a test document as recommended, it was very easy to create, save, and make modifications to. It was very much the same as any word processing software.

Excercise 17: Playing around with PBWiki

Other than a little password issue, this PBWiki was really fun and easy. I was also very happy to share with you guys a clip of my favorite movie.

Exercise 16: What's in a wiki?

I have always known that wikipedia was an open source and that anybody could edit their information, but I really had never heard about wiki. I guess we really do learn something new every day. Wiki like anything in life has its pros and cons, and unfortunately might not be for me because I would rather be organized and have control. However I could see this tool used in our academic setting, where faculty and students could have their website developed with wiki (without knowing anything about html), where faculty or students could make input to the site, based on a particular topic. This is a very vague example, but I think if this tool was exposed to our students and faulty that they would find a creative way to make use of it.

Exercise 15: Web 2.0 & Library 2.0

This discovery exercise was very informative. It was interesting to find out the background of web 2.0 and library 2.0, and how technology really evolved over time. It is amazing to see how the web is used to share information between users in today’s world, and I can only imagine it developing even more over the next couple years. Will we be able to catch up? How will this affect our society?

Exercise 14: Technorati

My Technorati discovery was fair enough. When doing a keyword search for “Web 2.0” in posts, blogs, and quick view tabs, my results were different. I preferred my search results in posts, because it was interesting to read posts that had the word “web”, or “web 2.0”, I did not read all the posts :) but the few that I glanced at were interesting. Technorati is fun because it is like a central location to find blogs that you may be interested in.

Exercise 13:

My “Del.icio.us” exploration was very interesting. I think we should definitely expose our students to this tool. It would assist the students with their research and it would also be something great for them to explore/learn. I am sure they would not consider it a waste of their time once they have properly learned about all its features.

I also found the tutorial very useful especially the mind relaxing jazz at the end (*smile*).

Exercise 12:

I wasn’t too funned of my Rollyo exploration, so I am going to 'pass' on the account creation.

Exercise 11:

LibraryThing was great, and although I have not read any of the books that I have listed, I do plan to do so some time in the far future (*smile*). All the books listed are from Oprah’s Book Club, so feel free to join www2.oprah.com, as she and viewers read “Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides. It’s been said to be a great read for this summer, I’ll join in soon…

Exercise 10

You can make your own by going to this link:
http://www.fodey.com/generators/animated/ninjatext.asp

Exercise 9

For this discovery exercise I played around with the different search tools. I didn’t find any of the search tools to be difficult. My favorite search tools were topix.net and bloglines.com. I did a search for Caribbean and I found a few useful feeds which spoke about Caribbean culture, Caribbean foods, and lots more. It was indeed an amazing travel! J

Exercise 8: RSS & Newsreaders

This exercise was very interesting, RSS really saves time. I spent only a few minutes adding the URLs of the feeds and blogs I loved. Once I was done I was able to check out each item added in a very timely manner, this is way easier than the way I generally surf the net.

Exercise 7:

What is a Decision Support System?

• It is an interactive computerized system that gathers and presents data from a wide range of sources, typically for business purposes.

• DSS applications are systems and subsystems that help people make decisions based on data that is pulled from a wide range of sources.

Characteristics of Decision Support Systems

1. They tend to be aimed at the less well structured, underspecified problems that upper-level managers typically face

2. They attempt to combine the use on models or analytic techniques with traditional data access and retrieval functions

3. They specifically focus on features that make them easy to use by non-computer people in an interactive mode

4. They emphasize flexibility and adaptability to accommodate changes in the environment and decision-making approach of the user.


What is Decision Support Systems used for?

1. Assist managers in their decision processes in semi structural tasks

2. Support, rather than replace, managerial judgment

3. Improve the effectiveness of decision making rather than its efficiency

Exercise 6: Flickr Mashups

I am so amazed by the Flickr Color Pcikr (http://www.krazydad.com/colrpickr/), I spent over 10 minutes just clicking the different colors and staring at the images. This is so beautiful, I think this is a great design and an excellent mashups.

Exercise 5: Natural Arch

Natural Arch
Originally uploaded by giorgiopix

Nature at its best, reminds me of my home land Dominica.

Exercise 4: Discovery Exercise

After reviewing the 7.5 habits, I beleive I am weakeast in habit 7 (teach and mentor others) and my strongest habit is habit 7.5 (PLAY!). Lol :) ....

Exercise 3: Josina's Lifelong Journey

In May 28th, 2007 I took part in this great program(Future Global Leaders) in which I had to create a leadership Prospectus, this prospectus highlights a few of my plans for my lifelong learning journey

Here is a little excerpt:

Implementation Time Table

May, 2007 Obtain a BS in Computer Science
May, 2007 Participate in the Future Global Leaders Institute
November, 2007 Obtain my A+ Certification
June, 2008 Obtain Microsoft Certification (MCP)
December, 2010 Obtain Project Management Professional Certificate from PMI
December, 2012 Obtain Masters in Computer Information Systems from Devry(Atlanta)
January, 2017 Become the Chief Information Officer for top fortune 500 company
June, 2028 Retirement: Open my Own Computer School in Dominica as well as help
run family hospitality business in Dominica 