Wrapping up the course!

I am so happy to be finishing up this Web 2.0 Course.
I have to admit, I was a bit reluctant at first because I felt like I had a good general understanding of the technologies already and I'd never blogged before, so initially, I had to really motivate myself to do the posts each week.

I found myself starting to enjoy it a lot more as time went on. I discovered a lot more about each of the technologies (specifically Del.icio.us, RSS and Geocaching!)

This course has really got me thinking, and i plan to set up a Del.icio.us account to manage all my bookmarks, have been actively using Google Reader to monitor all the blogs i follow in one spot and will continue to use Facebook, Youtube and possibly have a shot at Geocaching in future.

Just wanted to say a quick thank you to City of Swan libraries for setting up this course and offering it to other WA libraries. We have learnt a lot from this course and really do appreciate your hard work setting it up.

I am tempted to keep this blog and post my own thoughts from time to time. :)

That's a wrap! (or gift wrap..for some reason that's what it made me think of)

Discovering Geocaching..

Almost everything else that we've done in this Web 2.0 course..I'd either learned about during my University course or personally..with the exception of Geocaching!
I have heard of the term, but I had no idea what it actually was.
Discovering it was like an easter egg hunt was fascinating! I had no idea they did activities like this. People set up caches in different locations all over the world, post the co-ordinates and details on a Geocaching website, and other people use these clues (and a GPS device) to go to the area and find the cache (which can be filled with various different items you can take and replace with an item of your own).

I think this could be a great family activity..a way to get children outdoors and participate in a treasure hunt! It reminds me of 'The Amazing Race' show to an extent. I would definitely go exploring some of the caches in my area sometime.

Looking at some of the uses for Geocaching..I found the one set up by the University of Notre Dame to help new students find and learn about the libraries very clever.
In our library, I can see it being used as a school holiday activity, we couldtake the children out on a hunt! Or to help people discover all libraries in the area, we could create a cache filled with bookmarks and other tidbits to promote reading.
There are lots of possibilities..