Evernote

Hey, this is brilliant! Took me a wee while to get the account set up, then the click on the icon bit caught me out as I thought I had already done it by clicking on the toolbar button, but once I had gotten my dozy self past that one it looks really easy. Will definitely look at using it.

Incidently, has anyone worked out a good way to remember all these passwords which are mounting up at a seriously scary rate of knots? I have then coded on a word document at present, but there has to be an easier way....

Google Calendar

Talking about leapfrogging, I have been using Google Calendar for a long time now and rely on it totally. It is picked up by my mobile and reminds me when I have forgotten something, sending me an email a selected period beforehand. It also nags me by sending beeps regularly (though to be fair this could be the phone and not GC) until I work out how to tell it to shut up! I had it linked to my work (outlook) calendar for a while, but then decided I didn't actually want to mix work with personal so deleted this part, though it could be very useful. And on top of this it reminds me of the birthdays of people I hardly (or don't) know but am Facebook 'Friends' with so that I can remember to not send them a birthday message (removed my own birthday from Facebook when I realised it was doing this as I don't want a random selection of people to know I have reached another milestone which I, as a wrinkly, would prefer to forget...

Anyhow, this sounds a bit negative when it shouldn't. I really like Google Calendar, really prefer it to Outlook, and would recommend it.

I have also added it (in addition to my Google Mail account) as a gadget to my iGoogle page and share it with my uvver 'aff.

Face-to-face Networks and Professional Organisations

Loads of interesting information here thanks - will put it on the back burner for now thought and look at it properly at a later date.

Now that's a real cop-out! Just leap-frogged over Thing 7.

warty swamp frog (Litoria raniformis), a photo by dcysurfer / Dave Young on Flickr.

Thanks to Dave Young for the use of this image under Creative Commons licence

Oops!

Aargh, have just realised I have been supposed to use the labels given at the bottom for the blog posts, and I have been making my own up........

They Sowshal Netwurk Thingymajiggies again

Ok, continuing where I left off -

Regarding Facebook privacy issues, feel the need to share this warning which is going around today:

NEW PRIVACY ISSUE WITH FACEBOOK. As of tomorrow, Facebook will creep into your bathroom when you're in the shower, smack your bottom, and then steal your clothes and towel. To change this option, go to Privacy Settings > Personal Settings > Bathroom Settings > Smacking and Stealing Settings, and uncheck the Shenanigans box. Facebook understandably kept this one quiet. Please Copy and Paste on your status to alert the unaware.

Well, made me chuckle anyhow...

LISNPN looks a really good online network and it seems to encourage wrinklies like me too!! Have joined it anyhow, under the really imaginative username of 'Lindsay Green' - good choice I think!

Similarly Librarians as Teachers looks an incredibly useful way of sharing ideas and experiences so I have put me name down for that one too! Wow, I'm going to feel popular when all these emails keep coming through - when I am going to have the time to read them, never mind answer and contribute, is a mystery. Roll on the cold dark wet evenings when I can't work in the garden - oh, silly me, this is August in the UK and the evenings are cold, dark and wet already!

Anyhow, onwards and upwards I go - the dizzy heights of Thing 7 next!

Online Networks

Spending a little time on this this evening. Have now taken some action on the Thing 3, Personal Brand, thingie, and have looked at my profile and tried to improve it - see, I am listening after all. I now have a profile photo which is being used everywhere one is required for professional purposes and have added more professional details to these sites. One problem with photo - 'im outdoors says he took it so it belongs to him and I am in breach of copyright as his verbal permission for me to use it does not count. He is therefore threatening to sue me, though I think this is unlikely as he would end up paying himself as he earns considerably more than I do.....

Anyway, onto the next thing.

Thing 6, Online Networks

Have a fair amount of experience with Twitter and Facebook, and am on LinkedIn though not using it a lot. I can certainly see the point in these for sharing information and getting to know people working in similar areas to yourself.

Twitter I use a lot for these purposes, and am now getting into the way of using LinkedIn too, gradually putting a lot more into it. Have just joined a couple of groups in LinkedIn, including the cpd23 one, and will monitor how these are going.

I have a work-email linked Facebook account (and a personal one separately) though have not really linked in the professional one to many people other than those I am working with already, which I don't think is really the purpose. The way I am using the personal one for linking to people with similar interests I can see I should carry over to the professional one. i common with a great many people I have serious concerns on privacy issues with Facebook, and have put my privacy levels so high it is quite difficult for people to find me, which sort of defeats the purpose...... Also I find amending your chosen privacy levels not intuitive in Facebook so it is easy to have information much more visible than you wish it to be.

to be continued....

Reflective Practice

University of Warwick Lakeside Residences

Lakeside, University of Warwick. Photo L Green

Well, time for reflecting on what has been done so far. I am aware that with life being so busy I have a tendency, at the completion of a difficult task, to heave a sigh of relief and put it both physically and mentally in the back of the cupboard. I am however probably better than most at writing notes on what I have been doing for future use, mainly because I have a memory like the proverbial sieve. Sadly I am guilty of not reviewing regularly and must learn to take time out more often to do so. Lots of interesting links to look at when I have some spare time..... I find winter much better for this - right now the garden weeds beckon!

The value of reflection in blogging was something I became much more aware of while doing the UoW23 things programme, the very informative sharing with others of our findings on what we had discovered or used.