IN SUMMARY

The most important thing I learned in the Betty Blogger summer school is that it's a mistake to dismiss things out of hand. I was in too much of a hurry to see Web 2.0 as "social" silliness ... several of the tools that we were introduced to could be very useful. In particular, the productivity tools, wikis, rss feeds and cataloguing tools will be of immediate use to me.

The most challenging part of Betty Blogger was keeping track of my user name, real name, display name, e-mail addresses and passwords. The registration organization chart that was supplied was a big help but I still had some trouble.

The "self-directed" learning model worked well for me. It was helpful to have the freedom of choosing which day in the week to do the assignments while still having a deadline that forced me to get down to it.

The Betty Blogger summer school did fulfill my expectations. I'd been wanting to have a better understanding of the various tools available but I didn't know where to start and I didn't have the time to figure out what I was missing. This "guided tour" has made it easy to learn the basics, a little at a time, while also giving me a glimpse of what else might be possible with further investigation.

As well, Betty Blogger's slightly silly and very supportive approach served to keep it all fun and light - as opposed to high tech and slightly scary.

If you were to run this program again I would be happy to recommend it to a friend.

Thank you very much

Hurdler 1

LibraryThing

The link to my "LibraryThing" account is

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Hurdler1

Library thing is not at all what I expected. I had the impression that it was another very "social" site. In fact it does a terrific job of being both functional and social. I will very likely use this tool to keep track of my reading. The links to authors' sites etc. are very helpful. I'm looking forward to seeing what "like-minded" readers recommend!

RSS FEEDS

I've subscribed to the following RSS feeds:

Choosing a new puppy

List of perennial flowers

Slow cooker recipes at Epicurious.com, and

Macleans.ca News.

I found Google reader to be extremely user-friendly. I will continue to use it. This is an excellent way to create a "personal" news service.

I'M TAKING BOOKS!

I'm taking books to the picnic. Books and magazines and catalogues. For quiet time. After eating ALL of those terrific sounding things we're going to need a rest and, therefore, something to read.

My PBWiki experience was terrific. It's very easy to use.

A wiki would be the perfect thing to use for planning our "mothers and children" guide camp trip.

Peter's Very Own Recipe ...

Chicken with Garlic and Herbs de Provence ...

Heat the pan

add olive oil

add crushed garlic - cook through

add 1 chicken breast, (first pound flat with a tenderizing mallet and season with Herbs de Provence)

cook (Herbs side down) for 3 minutes - during that 3 minutes, season top side with Herbs de Provence

turn and cook for another 3 minutes

add some white wine (optional) and cook until liquid evaporates. That's it!

Serve.

(Good with pasta, with olive oil and romano)

PICASA

The tags that were attached to the picture I sent you were "cute", "labradoodle" and "Milo".

I think Picasa is incredible.

The huge number of photographs and the even greater number of tags make it a bit difficult to work with. Hunting for a particular type of photograph is also a little labour intensive. However, the ability to share albums with friends and family could be a terrific help, given circumstances such as far-off relatives.

I will probably not continue to use this application. I recently bought a Mac and I'm excited at the prospect of starting to use Apple's photo organizing feature - I'm told that it is really terrific. Apart from that, I have some of the same concerns about Picasa that I had about Facebook - namely the "lifestyle" or "advertising" side of it.

On the other hand, I was pleased to see that it's possible to have access to your photographs limited to a particular set of people. I'm beginning to think that this might be an excellent way to share my "brownie" pictures with my daughter's brownie leader.