Week 13: REFLECT -- End of the Information Programs Journey

Image: http://thankfulnessproject.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/The-Journey-Ends.jpg


I enjoyed doing the activities offered in this subject. When it came down to it, the blog posts were fun. Motivation for me was an issue this semester and as a result, I was behind for much of the time. Still, I enjoyed the forays into the Facebook group discussions, the occasional tweet when I replied to a fellow classmate, and of course reading the blog posts.

One post that garnered much attention was my Kevin Rudd mashup image, and I believe it symbolizes the topics I’m best at: the idea of the information professional with social networking connections, my limited yet well thought out art abilities, and my knowledge of politics. In a subject like this, largely reliant on improvisation and getting a feel for programs and tools used in the industry, it allows for experimentation.
My blog posts I’m proud of. I think that in the rambling I spluttered the occasional epiphany, and provided plenty of links to great content. Which post did I like best? My favourite is definitely when I’m writing about video games, and I believe the post combining video games with the educative qualities that libraries could utilise was the most fun. I loved exploring games of my childhood that introduced me to the famous historical legends that school and kids books could only dream of conceiving.
The most informative post of mine was the final piece I wrote on open data. I based my arguments on the Pirate Party’s copyright reform that they kept available on their website, despite the political party not being elected to parliament in the last election. I thought that open data was a necessity in our present times, and especially so as a way for libraries to keep further relevance in the information age. Collections and availability of sources would be much better served if copyright restrictions were not as archaic as they are now.

Personal Learning Networks was the overall topic for this subject. While I’d established mine from semester one of this course, and my networks on Facebook and Twitter have been running for a while now, I found new peers and the friendships and learnings they gave I have been grateful for.

My biggest fear of this subject wasn’t the deadlines, nor was it any of the actual writing; instead, the fear for me was the week when I had to record a screencast. I’m always anxious of my voice and never used a screen recording program.  Thankfully, I used Screencast-O-Matic, and while I’m still a little nervous about how it turned out, at least I got it done. I listen to a lot of political and video game commentators on YouTube who do voice-over Let’s Plays or political montages while they discuss the topic. A pet want for me has always been to do something like that at some point in the future, and that particular activity gave me a little taste of it.

This has been a relaxing, fun journey and I’ve learnt more about myself and those I’m doing this course with, as well as insights into Personal Learning Networks, the information age, and the role of libraries.


The weeks I blogged on were:





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