Reflecting

• What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?   The music downloading and the Google earth.  I knew they were available but after playing with them, I’m more comfortable demonstrating how they work. 
• How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?   Wow–I’ve already helped several people download music.  Now I don’t feel quite so ignorant when I read about the latest games/social networking options/etc.
• Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?  I learned a lot so there were no surprises.  Except–i was surprised at how many ads there are on the web sites.  Guess it must generate income but the ads can be distracting to novices.
• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?  Some people (myself included) had trouble figuring out how to log correctly with a permalink and didn’t realize it for quite a while.   Maybe have an “expert” in each building to help people coach learners.

Gaming

I did my first cross word puzzle in years using one of the five minute games and aced a Hollywood movie trivia game.  Then, I tried an arcade, puzzle and word game listed in the other Yahoo free game sections.  I did best with the word games but it was still stressful to see the clock ticking!  I can understand people spending hours with the games.  Wish my hand/eye coordination was as fast as my brain.

Google earth

This is one of my favorite exercises!  I was able to find lots of houses and places to visit.  Occasionally, the zooming in made me a little carsick but that happens in real life too.

Avatars

I don’t belong to Second Life–have a hard enough time managing my first life!  It would be intriguing to re-create myself although i couldn’t quite get the fashion down when desiging my avatar.  I’ll try posting it later.

Online applications

Easy to use.  I had no idea there are so many free programs out there.

Search Engines

I tried the same three searches in each Search Engine and the results were pretty consistent.  Couldn’t say if I prefer one over the other but it’s nice to have a choice beyond Google.  Loved the UC Berkeley info–marked that as a favorite for future reference.  I didn’t realize there was such an art to searching the web.

Podcasts

I linked to a friend’s podcast from her library in Mt Kisco New York.  The podcast featured a “lonely vegetarian”–I can identify!  I also listened to a synopsis of Pride and Prejudice from Learn out Loud.  It took almost half an hour and was fairly true to the novel.  The reader had a British accent which helped.