#23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning ...

It seemed a brilliant idea at the time (Helen Blowers's presentation at SLV all those months ago).
I've suprised myself in that I was already aware of, and in some cases enthusiastically using, many the 'things'. I'm more savvy than I thought. I'm ashamed that one of the 'things' I most enjoyed was creating time-wasting and mildly amusing images like this one (I really did have no idea there were such things out there. Are they really important to know about? I don't know. Do they add to the sum of human happiness? Well, they added to the sum of mine. Briefly.)

For people who haven't been exposed to all this 'stuff', I think it has been quite liberating to find out that it is all actually very easy to use.

It has been great to do this as part of a large community, and to look at other people's blogs and see what they've been up to, and what they think of the whole experience. I think learning through play - mucking around with stuff - is vitally important for library staff. Particularly for online applications, such as our Gulliver databases. But while I think it is great in theory, in practice it is very hard to arrange. I would bet large sums that most of us participating in Learning 2.0 have done the bulk of it at home. I've spent half an hour on this at work this morning, and it seems like half an hour too long, there are many other things I really 'should' be doing. It is very, very hard to validate this kind of activity. The programme has been more time-consuming than I expected, and I feel as if I have skated over the surface rather than explored in-depth. I'd suggest that it might be improved by running for much longer - maybe six months or more - with just one 'thing' to explore each session. Maybe short bursts of playing could then become a habit.

Technological restrictions at work have been frustrating, no audio and no YouTube. I understand that IS know a lot more about all this than I do, and they have good reasons for what they do and no spare bandwith, but it has still been frustrating.

I wonder what other participants have to say about lifelong learning. I seem to be learning something new all the time when I think about it, working in a public library full of books is good like that. Borrowing a book to work out how to use a Mac. Learning how to blog and flickr because you need an easy way to show interstate & overseas relatives pictures of your kids. Using Youtube to find out how to graft sock toes. Or learning some new library database, management system, or phone system. Going to yoga classes. Lifelong learning seems to be a state of being for me, without me actually seeking things out consciously as learning activities, and I'd imagine (hope?) many of my colleagues would feel the same.

So: now we (Victorian library staff) go away with something to think about. Even if, as at our library service, some of us are currently restricted in what we can do, at least there are some ideas and some awareness of what is possible, swimming around in our tired addled brains.

Thanks Leslie and Lynette for all your hard work organising this project.