Relevance of Learning?

We all knew it would happen. Someone was bound to ask, "What does this learning thing you guys are doing have to do with your work at DEQ?" Well, it happened to me yesterday. I offered a very thin response of it helps us all become more familiar with technology in general, and you never know how you may be able to use a technology once you've learned it. I gave the Flickr example - which was batted down with "DEQ has its own photo gallery." Maybe so, but that really isn't the point. Learning in a supportive, collaborative environment is, to me, ALWAYS a positive thing. And so, I resolve to not only work harder on the lessons we undertake together, but to also think about how they relate to my world (in all my environments, play on DEQ tag line intended!). Because I really do believe that there are many areas where what we discover - planned and unplanned has value to my work life.

1. Blogs - Learning more about what Blogs are and how they are used is valuable in itself. What better way to do that than to create your own? And, just last week we discussed the value of including blogs in our search strategies when looking for certain types of information. We tested out using Google to specifically search Blogs.
2. Flickr - I've just started to investigate this, but I've seen it used as an example of faceted classification in records management articles. The fact that photos are "tagged" is worth spending time learning about. This is the specific angle that I plan to investigate as I interact with the site. In fact, knowing about other technologies helps bring continuous improvements to our own (such as the DEQ gallery... i.e. what is our tagging schema?)

So, y'all - I'd love to hear your thoughts as we move forward in this learning experience. I know that we are only at the beginning and there are many more new technologies to experience. I am looking forward to expanding my mind and having a bit of fun while we learn. And heck, if we come up with ideas to improve processes at work isn't that lagniappe?

Photo Success

Well I got a photo on the page, but I really don't remember how I got to the page where that became an option! I really need a cup of coffee!!

43things.com

http://www.43things.com/about/view/faq

I just realized that we can't actually "do" the 4th item on the list. Unless of course you plan to do the alternate activity and sign up on 43 things. I'm sort of a list maker already so I may do it, but then again, I can only handle just so many accounts and passwords without going insane!

OH my goodness

I think I actually learned something today! I was successful at sending a blog via the Google toolbar button. How cool is that? See below...

Google Toolbar Button Gallery

I just learned about this today. You can add cool buttons to your Google toolbar. I added "Weather" and "Send to... my blog"

Google Toolbar Button Gallery

My 1st entry

Wow! This has been a chore. Just getting to this page took determination. I had to use FireFox (an alternate to Internet Explorer) to get Blogger.com to let me create an account. So yes, I was the 1st one to have to call Keith for help. But I'm not going to be embarrassed. I made it! I have a blog. So there technology. I have caught up to my 10 year old daughter.

I may ask Miranda and Melissa for help later tonight!