Well, that's that (NOT!)

Mission accomplished! I've come to end of what seems to me like the both the longest and shortest on-the-job course I could take. I thoroughly enjoyed Learning 2.0 through the Ottawa Public Library's opl23things, and kudos (has there ever been a single kudo?) to Matt Abbott and Caitlin Fralick for designing a course that was very easy to follow. Thanks to them, I have taken my first steps into a bigger virtual world that I was reluctant to dive into. Well, I did warn you on the first post that the content may be trite.

The course and exercises not only gave me an added skill set (or skill sets) but gave me a lot to think about. I spent a couple of hours at the most on each exercise (I already had a Google mail and a Delicious account, so those were fast) but I spent several hours more contemplating the implications of the various online tools we learned. Facebook and Lifelong learning made my 'brain juice' flow the most, the first for the privacy issues, the second for thinking about all the forms of learning that I do. When you read about people being fired or at least in severe hot water from their jobs because of a random post on their blog, you appreciate the potential (for good or bad) of this new media to reach a large audience. For example, file Canadian Citizenship Minister Warren Kinsella's quip about eating BBQ cat with rice at a local Chinese restaurant under 'W' for "What was he thinking?"

On the other hand, I also saw a potential to extend the abilities of library staff in delivering services to the public and learning from one another. Library personnel have a limited amount of time to communicate with one another about new things (because they're busy communicating with the public, their managers and supervisors (their staff if they are the managers and supervisors), technical support people and maintenance, AND themselves aloud if they're not careful) so the various skills learned from Learning 2.0 are a big plus in keeping up on those small but helpful bits of information when you have a moment. The trick is spending the time to get the hang of it, but that's par for the course in the information industry.

Specifically, parts of the Learning 2.0 course I liked:
1) Blogging. 'Didn't know what to say at first, can't shut up now. Sort of like real life.
2) Google Reader. It cut my blog-reading time to a fraction of what it was.
3) Flikr. Big learning curve, but the coined term "info-toy" comes to mind.
4) Delicious. Again a great time saver. Once I get everything organized.
5) The use of Commoncraft videos to illustrate the concepts being taught. Definitely an "Ohhh, I get it now" experience.

...and the parts I wasn't so keen on:
1) Lifelong learning. Useful review, but sort of like being taught how to drive when you're already driving.
2) Facebook. A useful social networking tool. Also a very controversial one.

Personally, it's difficult to suggest what could be done to improve the course. As far as I can tell the description and visual aids are well-suited to the audience. Maybe if "Lifelong learning" was dropped from the exercise list or put it in the introduction.

All in all, one of the best learning experiences I've had in a while.

And yet there's so much more out there. Such as one of my favourites, online maps and aerial images. Case in point: a 'Birds-eye view' of home sweet home (Manotick Branch Library) from Microsoft's Virtual Earth (Link).

-- Greg @ the library