The Finish Line

Hah! Finished before the deadline, though barely.

Thank you librarians for this great course. I learned a lot and look forward to the next 8 Things!

Thing 8: References

This is a "thing" that I wish I had had a long time ago. I would have saved lots of trees and lots of time keeping things filed.
I set up a RefWorks account several weeks ago, when the librarians first talked about it in their blog. I really like it. Most journals have an button and it works very well. I wouldn't say that it is easy to learn, but once you have the basics, it is good. The down side, is that if the online journal doesn't have a RefWorks button, it is more of a hassle to enter. The other downside, is that it is a paid subscription and I don't want to think about what it might cost me if the library ceases to pay for it.

For this thing, I also set up a Zotero account. This might rival Refworks for keeping track of varied information. It is easy to save websites, and other types of references, such as newpaper and magazine articles that are not in the usual medical reference format. It is nice to have a button in the URL to 'click and save". It is also free. And their April 1 post says that they are going to support other browsers soon.

I'm going to have to make a decision soon. But I do like using these to keep track of papers. I am going to work on massively decreasing the files that I keep.

Time Spent: 3 hours.

Thing 7: Collaboration Tools

I knew about Google Docs, but never really used it much, or explored the alternatives. These are great. I'm not sure that we will need software on our computers for this stuff much longer! Zoho and Google both do everything that I routinely use MSOffice for. And, since I use a number of different computers through the week, and both PC's :( and Macs :) this might be better.

I will have to see if they manage the PowerPoint translation. That is, can I build it on powerpoint for Mac and show it on powerpoint for PC. If it does this well, I'm completely sold!


Zoho Slide Show of the Phoenix Botanical Garden

Time spent: 2 hours

Thing 6: Wikis

Of all the "things" so far, I think that wikis might be the most versatile tool yet. These started as pretty straight forward tools for collaboration. But it seems that you can build a fairly complete/complex website with these.
I am intrigued by the possibilities for using them for training and as a knowledge repository. Image an Epic Wiki that we could all use to add what we have learned as useful tricks and ask questions where the community could answer. This would be so much better than email chains. In fact, thinking specifically about how to use wikis to decrease internal email would be a useful project on it's own.

I built a wiki on wikispaces for a group project several months ago. The results have been mixed. Initially, I was the only one who posted info. (People would hand it to me at the meeting or send documents on email) It took weeks for all to get signed up as authors (one team member didn't do it until at a meeting, we logged on and walked her through it).
Now, there are team members who use many of the features when they post, others who write comments and edit and others who read, but no edits.
Has it been helpful? Well, there are no minutes to keep track of and that is great. All the info is available from anywhere, anytime you are connected to the internet. We get work done and reviewed between meetings.
We have added other interested people, who are not on the workgroup, as users on the wiki, though only 2 have posted. Others have been given the link, but it is hard to track if they are looking at it.
I will certainly use wikis again for projects. In fact, I have another one planned...
This time, I will add one of the tutorials on youtube, for people to use a place to start.
I will use the group to set up the initial wiki organization (so it makes sense to all, not just me).
And I will try another wiki host, maybe one that focuses on business collaboration.
And I'm going to keep cruising for examples on the web.

Or, better yet, just set up a workgroup of 8Thing graduates!

Time spent: 3 hours

Thing 5 continued: Podcasts

I can't separate podcasts from my iphone. (In fact, I can't separate from my iphone at all.)
There are many educational podcasts that I (virtuously) download with all the best intentions.
But when do I really listen to podcasts? While walking the treadmill at the communty center.
And what to I really listen to? Wait, wait, don't tell me-from NPR. Peter Sagal and crew really help the time to pass quickly and the entire show is just the right length.
My husband listens to the medical podcasts-and I can usually get him to tell me the highlights of this week's NEJM. Best of both worlds!

The big challenge with listening to humor on your iphone while exercising, is to not laugh outloud. You can get strange looks from the person on the stairmaster next to you;).

Time spent: 1 hour

Thing 5: Space the Final Frontier

The last shuttle mission to the Hubble Telescope is scheduled for May 12th. And I have a ticket to see it! Growing up in the space age, I have always been excited by man's adventures into space. I watched every launch on TV and still have the NASA widget on my computer to see what is going on in real time. (Where were you when man walked on the moon?)

The pictures that the Hubble has sent back are beautiful and inspiring and somehow make me feel that I am blessed to have a place in this universe.







Enjoy a more images, set to music from the Hubble Telescope.




Time spent: 1:30 (I think YouTube has everything.)