Reflections ...

At the beginning of 23 Things I felt like I was standing on the shore of the lake in this picture, courtesy of "Stuck in Customs" staring out into the wilderness, not even seeing the beauty of the reflection. I was embarrassed at not having kept up with recent technological developments and emerging tools. That has changed and I am glad of this opportunity to reflect.

Thanks to the clear instructions of the Cam23 team I now feel more confident about trying out new things and don't panic quite so much about what might go wrong! The programme moves quite quickly though and to a certain extent I feel like I am still dipping my toe in the water on a lot of the things. Still I've learned to see the programme very much as a brief introduction to the 23 Things which, now I am aware of, I can go back and look at in more detail when the programme has ended. Some things, for example, are also not that relevant to my current job but I can see the value of them and may well utilise them in the future.

I like the fact I can do the course in my own time, when it suits me yet have the backup of other bloggers or failing that the Cam23 team if I have further questions or indeed problems trying to achieve something. It would be nice if this support continued, perhaps in the form of a list, after the course finished. I also like the fact it is so hands-on and not in a pressurised environment. Self-discipline may become a bit of an issue as the programme continues though knowing I am learning new things and that others are doing the course alongside me is motivation enough and keeps me going.

So far I've loved Flickr - it opened up a whole new world of images which can add aesthetic vlaue to future creations, including my blog. I'd recommend this and iGoogle. Since creating my iGoogle page it's the one thing I've gone back to several times. This is perhaps more for personal than library use though. I'd recommend Slideshare for research in preparing presentations though fail to be won over by Twitter which I didn't find that easy to use.