My journey though INN333 this semester has been interesting, engaging and entertaining all at the same time. The five reflections I completed contributed to these emotions and allowed me to experience INN333. The reflections I completed were –
Week 2 – Drawing a Line
Week 4 – VOIP
Week 6 – SNS
Week 8 – Web Blogging
Week 10 – Gamification
I also completed 8 play activities including –
Week 2 – Channel You
Week 3 – Twitter
Week 4 – VOIP
Week 5 – Curation
Week 6 – Facebook
Week 7 – Flickr
Week 9 – QR
Week 10 Gamification & this too.
By completing all these tasks weekly I have been able to develop my skills regarding information programs and learn some key skills. The key skills I learnt were eCommunication and developing my oral and written skills by participating in the PLN, completing the play activities and by writing reflective blogs that critically discuss what I had learnt.
Reflective Blogs
The five reflections allowed me to keep on track with my studies and this increased my knowledge and skills of information programs. In particular I was able to view a lot more of the relevant literature and information from a variety of formats such as blogs and videos. I had not used these formats for research or learning before and found them an engaging and easy to understand with lots of relevant and reliable information incorporated into them. By utilising these new formats it also allowed me to see their positives and negatives for sharing information and knowledge in today’s society. This is especially highlighted in my gamification blog. I can use this as an information professional to help better serve any clients that I may have and to aide in research.
One of my main weaknesses is usually over extending my word limit. This unit’s reflective blogs have really helped me develop my writing skills so that I am better able at producing concise and critical discussions. I believe that sticking to the word limit is a strength that I have developed and applied in this unit. A weakness I identified was that I am not very knowledgeable with computer programming. This made creating complex blogs difficult as I was not able to use the programs to their full capacity. In the future I will need to invest more time into programs that I am using directly in order to fully understand them and use them effectively. Another weakness I found was that I had not written a blog before so I did not have a distinct style. By completing this unit I found my blogs improving and growing as I grew and learnt as an information professional.
Overall the reflective blogs have allowed me to develop my skills and knowledge of eCommunication and written communication.
Play Activities
The play activities have been fun and have let me explore a variety of new techniques and programs that I would not have usually tried. It forced me to go out of my comfort zone and try technologies that I had never heard of before, such as curation tools like Blundr. By completing these activities I have come to see that these new technologies aren’t scary but actually very engaging and make information processing fun. I particularly enjoyed learning to use flickr and the gamification week. Both activities were fun and also highlighted their importance in the information profession. Both are new ways to engage users visually and help share information to those who would not be interested in reading or listening. One of my strengths in doing the play activities is that I was always ready to have a go and jump right in. This allowed me to make the most out of the experiences and develop my skills surrounding new technologies. However, my weakness is time management and I did not always have enough time to learn as much about the technologies as I would like. An example of this is video blogging where I did not have enough time to learn about creating video blogs as a teaching tool. I feel this would be a useful skill to have and will need to invest more time into it in the future. Overall, the play activities in INN333 have been very beneficial to me and have given me confidence to use and experiment with the new technologies that are being formed.
Personal Learning Network & Unit Site
The personal learning network and the course site was an experience. There were positives and negatives about it. One negative that can’t be helped is that initially the site and network is very overwhelming, especially to those not used to using much technology. As I mentioned earlier I am not that computer savvy and initially this website caused me to struggle. However, as the unit progressed I became more comfortable with the site and the PLN and easily navigated around it. In saying this, I still found one of my main weaknesses was getting the motivation to become involved within the PLN as there were so many aspects such as the RSS feeds, twitter, comments and blogs. I did like meeting fellow students and finding out more about them through their blogs and comments and I feel I engaged with them well and this was my strength regarding the PLN and the site. A key thing I learnt from this aspect of the unit was to develop my skills regarding engaging in others and exchanging professional opinions. Overall, the course site and personal learning network produced mixed responses.
If I had to do it again…
If I had to do this course all over again I would do a few things different. From the start I would prefer to do this unit not on a full time work & study schedule. That way I can give it my full attention more often so I could engage more in the PLN, complete more activities and go even further with the extra readings. This course is very interesting and its applications for the real world are undeniable. By allowing practical application of what we are learning we also can more closely see how it relates to the bigger picture. For example, learning about VOIP services, we could use it ourselves (with skype) and by assessing our use of it and the researching its application in an information organisation, such as a library, we could see this programs merits, such as appealing to long distance studies, and its downfalls, such as students not using it.
One step further…
The unit promotes forward thinking by asking questions about taking it one step further. Some things to take my lessons from this unit one step further would be – what is the future for information programs? So many things have changed in the last few years, what will be left of our current knowledge in 5 years? Once information organisations like libraries embrace these new technologies can they maintain them and stay up to date? Is this even feasible financially or worthwhile for the staff and the users? This unit has shown me to open my mind and not just think about the here and now but to think about what the future will bring.
In conclusion
Overall, INN333 has taught me many things. It has allowed me to develop skills & knowledge regarding new technologies and programs that are highly relevant to the information profession that will aid me in any future endeavours I have in libraries and other information venues. By developing my eCommunication and writing skills I am more comfortable and confident with approaching new and exciting technologies available to the information profession. It has also taught me to be more forward thinking in my opinion’s, it is not always about what is happening now. In conclusion INN333 has been a great experience that has taught me a great many things that I can carry on into my professional life.