CAB's Blog

Whew -- I thought I would zip through these "trainings" every week and be on schedule. Uffda - I got off schedule a few weeks and have had a challenge catching up and of course, missed the Oct 15 deadline. But, my personal deadline was Annual Conference and I made that although Conference starts tomorrow in Duluth!

Thanks for the chance to be exposed to a lot of tools. Communications is really important in our world but there are so many ways to communicate today and it's hard to keep up-to-date with all the techy stuff. Because of this training, I feel I had a chance to experience some of it but don't think I can talk the language yet! Also, I can't remember all the things I did!

Although there is a LOT of stuff I learned and was exposed to, I can't experience it all but at least I know there are some other people in the organization I can turn to for suggestions and tips. I hope this information will be kept someplace so I can refer back to it. Or, should I be printing off info from each week?

To be honest, one of the things I'm not sure is useful for me is the blogging. I don't think anyone else is reading my blog 'cause I don't think anyone knows my blog address!!!! I suppose I could clean up my blog and share the address with others -- my responsibility! I suppose that is one of the downsides of blogs - how do you know anyone reads it or cares???

One of the things I want to try in the next 6-9 months is web conferencing. Yes, it was the last "class" I participated in and the one I remember the best but it's something I have thought about doing for many months and feel more comfortable with it with my very limited hands-on experience during the "class". I am sure I will need help but I also am sure there will be other staff who are willing to help as I get into it.

Thanks again for all your hard work putting these classes together -- Amy: "we are justly proud of you"!

Posted by burtn002 at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My practice meeting seemed so easy. Is it really this easy in "real life"?

I sat through a training this winter and everything seemed overwhelming at that time but this short practice seemed easy. I have a feeling when it comes to setting up a real meeting with invitations, it may get tough.

I am sooooo interested in doing this and want to do a mini-training with volunteers. How does this technology work for non-Extension folks? Do people need to have high-speed internet to make it work or is it too jumpy?

Also, I do not have a web camera but a couple co-workers have them in our regional office. Do you think it is a good idea to have a web cam focused on the speaker or does it work okay to have only audio with powerpoints?

Posted by burtn002 at 3:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is interesting 'cause earlier this year, I tried "chatting" with other co-workers but no one else was ready. I forgot about it until I read this week's session. Now, I need to track down some buddies to chat with!

On the downside of IM: In that past couple months, a couple young people from our area were killed in auto accidents that were attributed to "texting" or IM and they lost control of their auto. It's a scary thought to think that we're so into communication methods but lose control of other areas of our life. I realize this week's session was not closely aligned with "texting" used often by young people but it made me think about this and there can be down-sides to any tool if it's not used appropriately (whatever that means).

Posted by burtn002 at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I believe communication is very important to our success as educators and it's a no-brainer that there are soooooo many ways and tools to use for communication in our world today. If there are a lot of tools for communication, how come I feel disconnected from other Extension Educators/staff and don't know what others are doing? This is so strange!

I would like to see more opportunities for social networking among Extension Educators/staff but what is the best consistent tool to use with all the options "out there"?

Thanks for putting together these bits of info and exposing me to so many options. It's a little overwhelming but I need to remember that I can't do it all and experience it all at one time!

Thanks again for helping me strrrrrretch!

Posted by burtn002 at 10:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By the way, a couple people in our Regional Office are working with Netfiles (Eleanor Burkett and support staff, Sue Crotty). They are willing to share their thoughts and frustrations with the rest of our Regional Office staff! It's great to have a couple people who are trying a couple of these tools within physical space so I can learn from them! I'm also anxious to try Netfiles for sharing the BIG files!

Posted by burtn002 at 1:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wow, there are other tools out there to help me organize my life? I've looked at Google Docs and think that is the way to go to share documents back-and-forth. Some of us tried to do this by setting up a blog but it was cumbersome to check it in and check it out! AND, we weren't using it everyday so we needed refreshers everytime we wanted to use it and ended up sending the filese back and forth through e-mail (back to the old fashioned method)!

I'm thinking the todolist might be useful in my personal life AND professional world to keep track of my never-ending to-do list that I keep adding items to. I looked at the tadalist and am thinking it might work for the check-off lists I make for the different workshops I do. I've created a list of "things" to throw into the boxes before I leave the office so I arrive at a workshop with everything in-hand!

Doodle sounds interesting for "voting". I would like to try this in the future!

Do all of these internet-based/on-line tools work easily for people who are still working with the slower dial-up supported internet?

Posted by burtn002 at 1:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)