No. 23 - The End

I think my favorite discovery was Del.icio.us. I was somewhat cynical about this, but then Ellen Ward pointed out that you can open it at any public computer and have your favorites with you. I can't say that I've tried this, but I really like the idea of it. Probably the most fun thing for me was creating my avatar. In the past, I have made myself into an M&M, but it had less options for customization.

While I had heard about a lot of these things, it was nice to use them and have a hands-on training. I read about these programs a lot so it's nice to have a more concrete idea of their capabilities.

I was surprised by the willingness of staff to help one another get through the program. Once or twice I got stuck and people were very eager to work with me and encourage me to keep going. I think the Randallstown staff was very good at recognizing people who completed the program and applauding their hard work, especially the ones who were not so techno-saavy in the beginning. I think staff are more confident in their abilities and deserve a big round of applause.

In the future I would like the program to begin at different times for different staff members. It was hard having so many people working on it at once. There were scheduling conflicts and then limited computer availability. It was also better when MySpace was blocked on the public computers. Several of the applications were a lot faster afterwards. I would also like to see a more basic curriculum. While it was nice to have people blog, I think more people could benefit from the information just by visiting the sites and becoming familar with the offerings.

I am not sure if I would participate again. I just found it difficult to make time to blog. I would recommend offering the program at a different time. Perhaps after the summer, the purges, and the replacement lists. There was a lot going on that seemed more important.

I am glad to have completed the program. I learned new things and had a good time doing it.