Eden at Mac
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Week 12 & 13 – Discovery!
Well, this teaching session has been a real eye opener. Who Knew!!! There are so many things “out there” that I wasn’t aware of . I haven’t spent the time researching or playing around as much as I’d have liked to with the activities. I will later on when things slow down. Once I become more familar and get the hang of the “user tools” I think I’ll find them very useful. I would definately participate again, it’s been great. I think it would be great to explore the downloads we’ve chosen so that we can learn more about them. There is so much information and it would be nice to become familiar with them.
So far I found del.icio.us very useful, because it’s so accessible.
Facebook, well there is another new world that has opened up. I found friends and family in Halifax, Calgary, University of Victoria, BC and many others just here on campus. I look forward to being able to search for others. This has been very entertaining, time-consuming <g> but lots of fun!!
2nd Life is fascinating and there are so many places to go, and so many ways to get there. Mind you walking and flying are still a challenge and I haven’t teleported anywhere yet but I’m anxious to try. Oh, and then there’s the other stuff like getting NEW HAIR, clothes, you know, the works ~~ I’m girl, what did you expect! >;~) …
Many thanks to you all of you, Amanda and Debbie most of all, but lots of you helped me put this all together and I really appreciated your help.
Week 11 – Browser Tools
I downloaded Firefox but I still have lots to investigate. I downloaded an international weather add-on so I can find out what the weather is like when I’m travelling. I’ll spend some time researching the add-ons, just to get a better feel of them. I am using del.icio.us and it’s very handy. I like that I can access my bookmarks from anywhere.
Week 10 – Gaming & Virtual Environments
Okay, so I downloaded the “trial” version of Mystery Solitare but it eventually bumped me off and let me know that the free trial is over. It wasn’t as “interesting” as I’d hope but as you are all well aware there are LOTS more to choose from. I’ve played a couple of card games and they are always fun.
I’m in 2nd Life, my screen name is Gayle Etzel. This is wild, and it’ll take some time to get the hang of it. I need to get off the island. I met some people, and made a friend. I don’t think any of those I met were from the Library, and a couple didn’t speak english. It seems to take up quite a bit of time learning everything. Right now I don’t have a lot of time but if one had their own computer it would allow for more time to find these things out. There is much to learn but it’s lots of fun.
As for Libraries communicating thorugh Virtual Worlds, well, that is where they’ll probably find most of the Library Users. Those worlds are are their world(s). They are able to communicate with any of their friends from any place to anywhere their friends/colleagues are. How simple is that?!
Week 9 – Online Social Networks
Well, telling me about Facebook may have been a mistake. This is very addicting. I’ve already found lots of people, besides the Learning 2.0 Mac group , on the east and west coast of Canada. Hooking up with old friends is pretty neat. I’m getting the hang of it now. I had a look at at Myspace.com and found Krista. I can’t believe what’s out there!
Week 8 : Online Applications & Tools
I tried out Snipshot and I think that will come in real handy. Quite often I like to send pics to others but they’re so big that it’s a real hassle downsizing them. This makes it very easy. I also tried out the LastFM but I’ll need to play around with that some more. Right now I don’t find it very user friendly but I’m sure the “user” just isn’t up to par and can’t figure it out :-} …
Week 6 & 7: Discovery!
I decided to change my Tag names, the one I called Vacation I changed to Eden’s Tags. Since I have other things besides Travel there it made more sense to rename it.
Week 6 & 7 : Discovery!
I read some of the resource articles and my favorite is Community 2.0, Ellyssa Kroski. Her article is brief and descriptive. She also has all her points marked out with a heading so if you are looking for something quickly it’s easy to find. I found some of the articles are very long. In today’s world where everyone is in a hurry I was surprised that their articles are as long as they are. Who do they think has time to read that much?!
Week 5: Tagging, Social Bookmarking & Folksonomies
I really like this option b/c bookmarks can be accessed from any computer you use and having a button on my links makes for easy access. The other nice feature is that when you do a search, specific sites relating to that topic pop up, not just anything with that word in it. I find that very useful. I set an account up at http://del.icio.us/mcleane and have 2 Tags, one for McMaster and one for Vacation. I find it very useful having the option to catagorize my bookmarks b/c I have so many, it just makes more sense.
Flickr is pretty neat. I searched for photos in PEI and the one I liked the most is of a beach in PEI called Basin Head. It’ has a beautiful white sandy beach and the locals cal them the Singing Sands. When you walk on the sand in your bare feet you have hear a musical sound. It’s been turned into a tourist attraction now and the $$ are used to help maintain the beach. Severe damage has been caused from some of their winter storms. Here are some of my favorite photos of Basin Head:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/willmatheson/221633163/
Samana, DR
At the last minute we decided to take a trip to the Dominican. We called our travel agent www.caribbeanvacations.ca and like always they found us a great deal at a super resort, $706/pp including taxes for 7 days/nights. The resort we went to is called Gran Bahia Principe Samana. We’ve never been to this part of the Dominican before b/c they’ve just built an airport that’s close to the resorts. Before this it would have been a 4-6 hour car ride from Punta Cana or Puerto Plata. It was beautiful there and we were so close to the ocean that if you opened the french doors to your balcony you could hear the waves crashing against the rocks. The room came complete with housecoats, slippers, iron and ironing board, satelite tv, coffeemaker, coffee, mini-fridge with water, pop and beer and everything replenished every day. It offered 24 hour room service, a generous buffet and 2 a la carte restaurants that included lobster on the menu! The staff were great, very accommodating and the group of people there were fantastic! It’s a small resort, private and if you’re looking for a quiet get-away then this is where you want to be. There aren’t any vendors bothering you but has a little store where you can purchase some souvenir’s. There aren’t any other resorts around although you can get a ride or walk (20 minutes) down to the local harbor where they have a free shuttle over to their sister resort that’s located on an island called Gran Bahia Principe El Portillo. It has a nice white sandy beach and cruise ships stop there so if you’re looking for a vendor you can usually find one there. We took a tour to see the humpback whales. They swim to Samana from the maritmes every year to have their calves. It’s a tour operated by Kim Beddall, orginally from Toronto but has lived in the Dominican for 23 years. Unfortunately we missed the whales by one day but she gave everyone a raincheck that is good for 5-6 years. We also took a tour and rappelled down a 200 foot waterfall. That was a very cool experience since I’ve never done anything like that before. All in all a great little get-away!
