Reflection

Reflection and summary of my goals in exploring the information management tools.

In revisiting my Learning Goals page written at the beginning of this course, I realise I just didn't know quite what I would be dealing with.

One of my goals was to utilise Google apps. I am now far more comfortable with exploring the Google Suite and working out how to utilise the apps. On both a professional and personal level I will continue to create projects, documents and utilise communications using the Google Suite. I intend to make maps, to create some Google Sites to document project/ideas I have, including embedding gadgets. (For example, what sound files can I include as a part of a Google site). I plan to utilise social, organisational and communication tools also. I know where to go to explore these options. Goal met.

Looking at Mendeley and Diigo was a great exercise for me. I felt quite inspired. This and engaging in a focussed Twitter account has been a fantastic eye opener. Learning to manage my own content and how I access my interests via online information has been a very valuable lesson. Also finding out what kind of content is accessible. Engaging in Trove was interesting and made me think a lot about the human nature aspect of it, plus the sense of community that I felt by engaging in the site, albeit briefly. Feedly led me to query my time management in regard to designing my interest feeds. What do I like? What do I really like? Am I putting enough energy into following up on things that I really like, or am I just listening to ColdPlay because they're popular and palatable?

I do believe I have grasped what it means to "extend my knowledge to the professional realm". As it was what I asked in my goals. I also have grappled somewhat with the technical aspects of the tutorials, and although I have several pages of penned notes and have had sleepless nights feeling inspired by many aspects of the learning, I think due to time constraints, I haven't documented nearly enough of my reflections and tiny epiphanies had during the study.

I have found it interesting and I don't think my experience with a blog and basic workings with a website helped initially. I spend no time on the site structure and navigation and relied on the template. Only after I'd set up a seperate Blog and tried to embed it into my site as a gadget did I realise you could have an announcements page that functioned somewhat like a blog. It took me some time to work out page hierarchy, but once I worked through I really enjoyed it. The wrangling of content I found tricky. Lesson learned, and I KNOW this, design your structure thoroughly at the beginning. I suspect I will still have problems wrangling content and designing the structure and navigation.

New goals would be: Learning how to set up a Wikipedia page, utilise the social bookmarking tools more (already using Diigo frequently), utilise tagging and metadata, investigate Creative Commons again (what it means to me, and a general overview of who uses what [variations] and why.) Actually try some mash-ups. Design various projects to utilise all of these tools, both personal and private level. Eg maps for family adventure documentation. Can these be accessed in the future the same way we might look at old Photo albums from when we are little?

I have an array of content, largely images and animation, online and these could be managed better - metadata in particular. I'm a really private person despite this, so I feel challenged by many aspects of web technologies. The course so far has piqued my interest in web 2.0. I really didn't think directly about it - though have been aware of the evolving function of technology (in particular online).

I've found the course incredibly engaging and I am constantly thinking through lecture and tutorial topics and questions. My skills in understanding of web technologies have really developed. I sense I have a long way to go, however I feel I have the beginnings of a foundation to work from.

My main problem came to be time. I'd make a plan to go back to tutorials and lectures to review content and activities. I am happy with what I have achieved though, for example, I researched and read all about Diigo and Mendeley, made comparisons and so on and so forth, though needed to spend time using the apps more to make a proper analysis and comparison of them. That said I believe I would have struggled without all of that research first. Now I am ready to explore/use the apps more thoroughly.

The work explored over the 6 weeks has been quite pertinent to my path towards an information management career. The skills I have already in creative digital media (animation, imaging) and teaching, are complemented by what I have learned from the activities. Managing thousands of image files for a 2 minute animation is one thing, accessing a live world of information management tools, organisations, and people is another. Libraries and museums have a richness to their online presence and content. These organisations are documenting and archiving and managing for all to access. The digital environment seems overwhelmingly unmanageable - and yet here are so many organisations working together and with technology to manage it, and sometimes utilising the digital population to participate in doing so. (For the right reasons.) I'm really excited to be learning new skills and to be working towards specialising in information management.