evaluation

I'm not sure if waiting so long to do my last blog post had more to do with the insane amount of work I've had to do this week, or the fact that I knew this would be my last post... Hard to say... sniff, I'll have to think on it. That being said I have really enjoyed the course and want to thank Amanda and all of you for your excellent comments all semester, I found myself looking forward to checking my replies every week.

I decided to keep the the Week 13 element of evaluation for this week, since my thoughts on the evaluation of this course, Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and my own use of social software all connected together rather conveniently.

This course has provided a great overview of social software in all its forms and especially on how it can benefit libraries and help them to build their online presence in the community.  Social software is free and easy to use and there's a lot of potential out there for libraries as they gradually develop more advanced social software based services. While I had used social software such as blogs, RSS, and YouTube before starting the course, now I have a much better idea of the potential uses and pitfalls.

There were many different technologies that we examined in this thirteen week course. Today I will be evaluating what we have looked at. I believe that the library, if many haven't, should be implementing if not all of these technologies some, in order to have a present in an increasingly online world. Many people today would rather be able to access content online than have to physically walk into a building to gain access to material. 

So we've really reached the end this week!

Last week I focused on best practices in general, and I personally concluded that any of the things we studied could be conceived as "best" depending on how well it's used and maintained and how well it's promoted.  As many others have noted in their blogs, it's about justifying the need to implement social software and not doing it simply for the sake of being hip and cool.

This week, I want to focus on my personal evaluation of social software in my life.

I really can't believe that it has been a whole term; it's really flown by!  This week I'll discuss best practices, and next week I'll focus on personal experiences.

Best Practices:

Wow !

What a fast semester ! Time seemed to fly by... well most of the time it did anyways, not so much the times where I had a million assignments to do, or the days when it was 50 degrees out with the humidity, or even the days it was really rainy... those days were kind of slow. The other days though, they went quite quickly.

Welcome to Week 13!